Many years, and so many turns in her story i was like, whoa. There are still more stunning twists to be revealed. Thats amazing. Its the best gift ever. A young girl was abducted at the age of 4 and raised by her kidnapper. For the next four decades, she searched for her family, her name and herself. Her story has an extraordinary ending and, as it turns out, that ending was just the beginning. Here is keith morrison. Our story begins with this mother of a teenage daughter. A woman who would spend most of her life trying to figure out who she was. What was her name . Where did she come from . Well tell you about her long search, her discovery finally of what felt like truth. But as youll soon see, real truth can be elusive. It can hide. Lets begin at the beginning. But at the beginning, all she had was a memory. A twin canopy bed with pink ruffles around it. Kind of waved over the top of it. It was dreamlike really. And for years it was all that felt real in her upside down life. And it was all pink and white. It was everything matched. The closet full of dresses. The dolls, the teddy bears. I actually there was a little oldfashioned where you put the baby in the wagon. And the reason for those tormenting memories . Its a lot of hurt, sadness. Sadness for the little girl that didnt have a life. For most of her life, the part after that little girls bedroom, she has been pepper, and the baffling, terrifying story of what happened to her, kidnapped, held captive for years, is the reason she gripped that life preserver of a memory. Shocking where that memory will lead by the end of this hour. She was certain of this, an only child and spoiled, most likely. Showered with attention and toys and dresses by the parents whose faces she cannot quite pull into focus. Theyre in their little apartment. Was it san diego perhaps . It looks like a very happy childhood. Like love was there. She knows there were two parents. Blond beehive on her mother, but her mothers name lost now. She goes by the nickname bobbie, and in the early years she was always, always there. Her father on the other hand was absent mostly, long stretches away punctuated by glorious reunions. When shed be bundle up like a china doll and bustled off to the harbor where the navy ships come in. Wed go see him because he was coming in from the navy. So it was an exciting moment, and she would get us all dressed up, and it was the anticipation of going to the shipyard and having a lot of attention, i think, as a child. The memories of how she survived it all, all the Trouble Holding my moms hand. Having fun with my mom. Being in the moment of joy. I dont have bad memories. Oh, yes, those. The bad memories. Like the day everything good went away. It was 1973. Though she and her happy little childhood bubble have no idea what year it was. She knows she was not yet 5, it was not yet autumn, that someone came to the door with a plan. I remember a woman coming over and knocking on the door. Her name was shirley. A friend of her mothers. The little girl she brought with her was renee and renee was 6. A little older then. Didnt matter. They dashed off to her bedroom to play. This is renee now. That room is stuck in her memory, too. Her room was gorgeous. A nice sized room for a little kid. She had a canopy bed. Tons of dresses. Toys galore. And you had none of that. No. And i was like, wow, this is nice. An alien world to renee. The most wonderful thing shed ever seen. And while the little girls played in the bedroom, shirley was with bobbie in the living room talking. And then she called renee. So when it was time to leave, i didnt want to go. Can we stay longer . No, but your new friend is coming with us, said shirley. Oh, okay. So she came, and then thats how everything started. So it did. It was to be an overnight, the girls were told. A little fun. Theyd stay with shirley in her Los Angeles Motel room, return the next morning. That was the plan, said shirley. But shirley lied. We got in the car, and we never went back. And my life completely changed from that point on. Completely. This woman took you away. Yes, and this was you werent to be taken home again . Never went back again. Do you remember that feeling . Yes, i wanted to go home. She had been kidnapped. Must have been. There was no little girls overnight in shirleys motel room. They stopped there only to pack some belongings, hit the road and a blissful childhood entered the fog of history. The memory of the beautiful bedroom. All she had to confront the nightmare just beginning. Coming up a 4yearold on i knew that everything that was happening to us was completely wrong at a very, very young age. When lost and found continues. With this one little nexgard chew comes the confidence, youre doing whats right, to protect your dog from fleas and ticks for a full month. Its the 1 vet recommended protection. And its safe for puppies. Nexgard. What one little chew can do. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun . Not this. Oh, what am i into . Mostly progressives name your price tool. Helps people find Coverage Options based on their budget. Flo has it, i want it, its a whole thing, and shes right there. Yeah, shes my ride. This dates lame. He has pics of you on his phone. Theyre very tasteful. It began in a down market motel whose l. A. Neighborhood was most decidedly not child friendly. It was to be a one night sleepover with new friend renee. Instead the adult who brought her here, a woman named shirley, simply didnt take her home again. Instead she packed some belongings, put the girls in the car and hit the road. Where did they go . The little girl had no idea. But she did know that from now on, she had a new name. They called her pepper. Pepper smith. She was not yet 5 years old. We lived in cars and motels and going from state to state staying at salvation armies to get a meal here and there. Just whats it like to live in a car . Its horrible. Its embarrassing. She was confused, of course, and terribly frightened at first. She begged, take me home. Shirley ignored her. She imagined running away. I had nowhere to go. I was too scared. Then as the weeks and months and then years went by, as her powers of reasoning grew, the question grew, too. Did her mother bobbie actually give her away . Shirley told pepper that renee was her sister. The two girls listened wideeyed as shirley explained to strangers that she was their grandmother. That their parents had been killed in a car accident. I knew that everything that was happening to us was completely wrong at a very, very young age. Why had she been taken . She didnt know. Not for money, certainly. There were no ransom demands. And without peppers birth certificate, shirley couldnt use her to score public assistance. Though she did use renee that way. Frightened, compliant renee, eager for a mothers love, even if that mother figure was shirley. I never wanted to do anything wrong. I felt like if i did something wrong or whatever, she wouldnt love me. She would give me away. Wouldnt love me . Shirley told her, says renee, she was born to a prostitute drug addict named geri. That shirley saved baby renee, raised her as a daughter. But kept renee in line by threatening to abandon her. Did she ever threaten to do that . Yeah, many times. Wed do something wrong, and she would say, well, you stop doing that or im going to send you off to geris house. And so they lived a life of packing up and fleeing state to state, one flop house to the next, searching for the cheapest place to stay and then skip out of. Hunger constant. Medical care, nonexistent. When money ran out, as it often did, shirley drove to the nearest truck stop. The girls would bed down in the car and watch shirley sneak off to do well, they didnt know. And alone and frightened, they held on to each other and watched the shadows of strange men pass by their car until the night when, terrified and unable to sleep, renee followed shirley. Shes taking a long time and im getting scared because im thinking she left or shes died or something. So i go into where they work on the cars, and shes like on the side over here, and hes on top of her. And i didnt know what was i got scared and then she see me and she yelled at me and said get out of here. Go. At least then they had a bit of money but always pepper was afraid. Afraid to ask for help. Afraid to ask why shed been taken. Afraid of shirleys threats. She would scare us to believe that we were in a better place because she was doing something good for us. Did you ever understand why she wouldnt take you back home . Her personality was very up and down. Like very angry and so if we if i asked questions, she would say stuff like, if you want to find your mom, shes on the streets shooting heroin and a prostitute. Tirades were frequent, neglect part of life. Physical and verbal abuse a regular occurrence. She would whip us with the belt, slap us, verbally cuss at us. Verbally abuse us. And threaten to send you away . Right. I just took the belt because if you take it, this is hard to explain, but if you just take it, it she gets out of the rage faster, so to speak. They went to school when they could. Made very few friends and lost the ones they did make. Struggled to be ordinary kids and then normal teenagers. All i wanted to be is loved. Thats it. And i never got any kind of love that i wanted. Instead, they were trapped. Truck stop nomads in the care of a woman who it seemed clear had kidnapped at least one if not both of them. And they drifted one dump to another across any number of state lines for years. And then some time in the early 80s they settled down, here. Shirley pulled up to this motel in Los Angeles County and took a job at the motels cleaning woman in exchange for a free room. And if it wasnt much, at least it gave them some measure of stability. And they signed up at a local school, junior high for pepper, high school for renee. Much to shirleys disapproval. Shirley would tell us, girls dont go to school. They get married. Why do you want to go to school . I didnt like being late to school. I didnt like being absent all the time. So they got themselves up every morning and went to school and kept going. And then, pepper was 12. Eight of those years with shirley when she saw her chance to escape and seized it. She made herself useful as a babysitter for the couple next door in room 109. And when the family moved out of the motel, pepper went with them. But it didnt last long. Peppers new household caught in its own spiral of alcoholism and dysfunction was as troubled and messy as her own life was. She swallowed her pride and moved back to room 110 colonial motel, even though, by then, shirley didnt seem to care much what she did. I remember when i was trying to socall run away, plot my escape, before it went into action, i was in my mind going, she im going to show her. Shell care. Like i remember thinking that. But she didnt care. She didnt come to get me. Still, having tasted freedom once, pepper was determined to get away from her kidnapper for good. The second time she took a chance, moved out with the family and a second time had to return. And then finally by the time she turned 16, pepper left for good. But that meant she left renee behind, too. Renee who so needed pepper and was alone now with shirley. She was my best friend growing up. That was my best friend. We did everything together. We fight like sisters. We did everything together. Renee was feeling abandoned. I was telling her, dont go. Stay here. I need you. Youre my sister. So she went. She did her thing. And i was upset and sad. By 1986 and on her own now, pepper had all but given up hope that shed ever find her real parents. Now she began to encounter a more immediate problem. The inevitable trouble that comes with having no real name, no birth certificate, no i. D. Though she was enrolled in school under the name rhonda smith at shirleys urging, she had no way to prove this was her legal name, and without some cooperation from shirley, her search for such documents seemed hopeless. And then how did you find out that she was sick . She turned completely yellow when they diagnosed her with pancreatic cancer and she literally died quickly after that. With shirley on her death bed, pepper tried to act like the dutiful daughter, went to see her regularly, tried to make her comfortable. But there was another terribly important reason to see her then. Maybe the most important. One last opportunity to find out who she was. As she was dying, did you try to find, do you know, maybe shed make a deathbed confession and say, i did take you and here are what your parents names are and how to find them. Any of that happen . Did you ask . Oh, yeah. And shirley had a response for the girl she renamed pepper. The question was, what could see do with that answer . Coming up if jaycee duggard could be found after 18 years, certainly there must be hope for pepper. It triggered a lot of my own personal memories, you know, and how come i didnt get found. And i felt still missing. But would she be missing much longer when lost and found continues. Your best all summer long . Start with supporting your gut health. Only activia has billions of our live and active probiotics. So, lets make this the summer of loving your gut. Activia. Love for your gut. Childrens claritin feallergy relief. Of nondrowsy the 1 pediatrician recommended nondrowsy brand. Because to a kid a grassy hill is irresistible. Childrens claritin. Feel the clarity and live claritin clear. The girl they called pepper smith sat at the deathbed of the woman who had stolen her with questions burning in her brain. She had to know, who was she . Where does of did she come from . Who were her parents . What was her true identity . And at the very least, where could she find the documents that could give her a real life . She took a roundabout route. She asked the question indirectly. I took drivers ed, like any 16yearold wants to get their i want to be free. I want to go work and be free from all of this. I have a plan. And i asked her for i need my birth certificate. I need this. She told me, they changed the laws. You cant get your drivers license until youre 18 years old. Yeah. And im supposed to believe this. As i sit in a classroom where ive got friends who are getting permits. She took the lies with her. She was not going to tell. What about the birth certificate . Never gave me a concrete answer, nothing. Couldnt get anything out of her. The lies stayed with her. Shirley knew the answers, of course. Knew the whole bizarre story, but she looked pepper in the eye through her obvious pain and told her nothing. She left the lies behind and took the truth to her grave. On july 29th, 1986, at the age of 63. She was buried here, this cemetery, in an unmarked grave. Renee, now 19, got on with life, moved in with her boyfriend. Soon pepper showed up at their apartment, homeless and nowhere else to turn to. And everywhere pepper went from then on, shirleys poison gift followed. Because of that woman and what she did, pepper was officially, at least, a nonperson. So it took a little while for determination to come back. She was in her mid20s, a single mother by then. If only she could find her birth certificate. That could lead her to her parents. Anyway, she needed documents to live. She needed a passport. So she contacted state offices. Their departments of vital records with perhaps predictable results. Tell me what it feels like when you know you have to go to an official and ask for something that you really, really, really need and you kind of know, you think how its going to go. I get emotional usually. I usually cry. It was really i would it just brings me to a sad place. Youd be sitting across the desk from somebody crying. Oh, absolutely. And they wouldnt do anything for you . No. They could say i cant do anything for you probably. You need this document. This is what you need to provide. Sorry. I have no way to get this document because i dont know my parents name. I dont know my real name. Pepper. And once again, pepper felt, perhaps understandably, like giving up. But by then she was living with her daughter in South Lake Tahoe working as a waitress and, what do you know. Hometown girl jaycee dugard, kidnapped years and years earlier, was found. The community was just buzzing all over the place with joy. And i was happy for jaycee lee. But it triggered a lot of my own personal memories. You know, and how come i didnt get found. And i felt still missing. So once again, charged up with determination, she launched a fresh attempt. Theres such a thing as adult adoption. Find someone to adopt her and even if she couldnt find her parents, at least she could get an official identity and a birth certificate and a passport. A friend offered to adopt her so pepper and friend applied and waited. And something quite amazing happened. Someone in that great california bureaucracy did some research. A lot, apparently. Asked to pepper, asked her questions, hauled out records not readily available online. All pepper could offer were the names bob and bobbie and the date of her birth. And somehow, buried among all those files in all their hundreds of millions, a match. And there it was, came in the mail, after all these years, a copy of her actual birth certificate. The key to unlock her past, though she had no idea then, looking at that birth certificate, that the appropriate question should have been this was this her real past . Coming up a journey ending . This is it. Whoa. Or was it just beginning . When lost and found continues. Sfx upbeat music a lot of clothes you normally take to the cleaners arent dirty dirty. They just need a quick refresh. Try new febreze clothing quick dry mist. It eliminates odors and refreshes lightlyworn clothing. Breathe happy febreze. La la la la la. Welcome back to dateline extra. Im craig melvin. The woman known as pepper finally has a piece of paper in her hand. The paper shes waited for most of her life to find. Her birth certificate. But where would that piece of paper lead . Here again is keith morrison. For 37 years, shed been searching for her parents, her life, her name. Now just as shed given up ever finding the answer, here it was. A copy of her birth certificate. With her real name in black and white. Rhonda Patricia Christie. And there were the names of her parents, too. Robert and barbara christie. This is it. I was like, whoa. They were my parents. Bobbie and bob. They were my parents. With their names and Social Security numbers, rhonda and her friends tracked down a phone number in ohio. She dialed the number. A man answered. It was june 5th, 2010. I said are you robert dean christie, he said, yes. I said are you married to a barbara blackwelder, or were you . He said yes. I said i think im Rhonda Christie or do you know rhonda Patricia Christie and then there was a long pause. This is who she was talking to. His name is bob christie. I almost dropped the phone. She knew id hesitated and she said this is your daughter rhonda. And it was something that clicked in my mind that i reck the voice rang a bell. And he called to my mom, barbara, to pick up the phone. Rhonda is on the phone. She picked up the phone and the first thing out of her mouth was shirley stoled yo