Page 29 - Pepper Smith News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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, even if that mother figure was shirley. >> i never wanted to do anything wrong. i felt like if i ...

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 -- >> what's it like to live in a car? >> it's horrible. it's embarrassing. >> she was confused, of course, and terribly frightened at first. she begged, take me home. shirley ignored her. she agined running ay. >> i had nowhere to go. i was too scared. >> then as the weeks and months and then years went ...

The dutiful daughter, 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 she'd make a death bed 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, ...

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 i'm 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 i'd 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 th...

To know each other, and then sat down again with pepper a renee. so there it is. you have your mother, but what now? are you -- will you have a relationship with her? >> well, we're going to move her in with me. her if >> well, we're going to move her in with me. >> move into your house? >> if -- once she gets all her affairs in order, we're going to move her in. >> why? >> because i want her. my husband wants her, too there. i want to have a relationship with my mom. like i was telling you earlier, i want to go shopping, i want to have lunch. i want to go buy stuff. i want to have christmas, ...