Page 23 - Geri Smith News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Raymond leonard smith jr. is what geri called him before he, too, was snatched away. abducted by the baby-sitter, shirley. where was he now? geri gave us a copy of his birth certificate. he'd be just about 40 now. and our chances of finding him seemed, frankly, slim. we called 40-year-old ray smiths all over the country. there was ray smith in colorado, ray smith in maryland, in new jersey, in kansas, but did he go by the name ray smith? and then a callback. it was the ray smith from colorado. he had the right name, the right age, and place of birth and grown up without knowing any blood relat...

Give her away? shirley told pepper that renee was her sister. the two girls listened wide-eyed 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 didn't know. not for money, certainly. there were no ransom demands. and without pepper's birth certificate, shirley couldn't use her to score public assistance. though she did use renee that way. frightened, compliant renee, eager for a mother's love, ev...

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. we'd do something wrong, and she would say, well, you stop doing that or i'm going to send you off to geri's 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 ca...

>> that's right. >> tell me about that. >> to me, i felt like it was my fault, because i put them in the hands of this monster. >> we're in a hotel room in los angeles. geri is eager, anxious, terrified, visibly shaking. and then they come around the corner. their first meeting in 37 years. >> a lifetime we've missed. >> oh, my god. >> i feel like i'm dreaming still. i can't really get it yet. >> i can't either. >> i want to see this face. can i just stare at you for a minute. >> you can do anything. >> i don't have a memory. >> sad because i was there with you guys. >> you're my mmy. >> yes, ...

Pepper and renee. claiming to be the woman who, according to shirley and barbara, was a child abandoning drug addled prostitute, probably dead. could this woman really be their mother? hardly a claim allred could take on simple faith. >> i asked her to come in and see me the very next day, which she was very anxious and happy to do. i asked her to bring me whatever evidence she had. >> in that meeting, the woman presented her evidence. >> she brought some photos that she had of pepper and renee when they were very little. >> she told allred she had been a waitress when the girls were little. b...