TAYLOR WHITE - Found after 7 years!!! Hopeful Story

NEBRASKA -- This morning "Joan" started her Sunday with a quick glance through coupons.
"Started looking through the ads and actually this was on top."
It was an advertisement flier with a small picture at the top.
It's an ad for missing and exploited children with the question
"Have you seen me?" When Joan looked closer unbelievably her answer was
yes.

"I was just in awe. It's almost surreal that this is somebody that
I've worked with and - it's like a movie. This doesn't happen in normal
life. It happens in movies."
Joan has asked us not to identify her because she's now at the center of a startling story.
It was seven years ago this very day seven-year-old Taylor White disappeared from Los Angeles.
Authorities say her Mother, Joyce Thomas kidnapped her after she lost a custody battle.
The two disappeared and Joyce Thomas has been a fugitive since.
Joan doesn't believe it.
"It's just surreal. Like I said - it doesn't happen to real people this happens in movies."
Joan has worked with Joyce Thomas for over three years at this TJ Maxx.
Even though she's known Thomas as a fellow employee and friend,
she still picked up her phone and called police.
"Friend or otherwise this was something absolutely major, and there's where you have to draw the line."
Once they received the tip from this flier Papillion Police came
directly to Joyce Thomas' place of employment at the TJ Maxx where she
worked.
Through a check of her employment records, police were able to verify this was the Joyce Thomas they were looking for."
Now because of one Omaha woman's phone call, a father in Los Angeles will soon be reunited with his little girl.
A girl he has not seen in seven years.
Joan's glad to have helped.
"To know that I could make an impact on a child that's been missing for seven years is kind of amazing."
All because of a tiny ad, and a woman half way across the country, who acted in a huge way.

A California girl who vanished seven years ago has turned up in Omaha and her mother has been arrested.
Omaha police said they got a tip from someone who had seen a photo of
the then 7-year-old girl in a flier about missing children. The tipster
recognized the girl as the now 14-year-old daughter of a friend,
58-year-old Joyce Thomas. Officer Jacob Bettin said Monday that
a California warrant had been issued for Thomas in 2003. The pair
disappeared from the Los Angeles area after Thomas lost a custody fight
over the girl. Nebraska authorities have taken custody of the girl until her guardianship can be established. Bettin said Thomas remains in jail, pending extradition to California.

OMG this is so awesome....I can't find a pic of the girl now to see how much she resembles the drawing. Shawn Hornbeck, now her...after all these years...shows you we HAVE to keep looking for these missing kids...

TomT thanks for such wonderful news...gives us hope... :hug:

The 14-year-old California
girl abducted by her mother seven years ago and found last week living
in Bellevue will stay in foster care in Nebraska for the time being.
The decision was reached during a Sarpy County Juvenile Court hearing
Monday morning.
Taylor White was taken by her mother, Joyce Thomas, in a custody dispute.
Taylor, her mother and two sisters were present at the hearing. Thomas
did not speak at the hearing. Her attorney restated Thomas' fears over
domestic violence.

Her father, Clifford White, was present via telephone from Los Angeles with his attorney.
The state of Nebraska asked the judge to keep Taylor in foster care on a
temporary basis. The state says Taylor, an aunt and a brother have
raised concerns about domestic violence as well as medical and
educational neglect if the girl is returned to her father.
In a telephone interview Sunday with Channel 6 News, Clifford White denied abuse allegations.
For the short-term, the state is recommending that Taylor have a meeting
with her father, but that a therapist be present for the entire
session. The state has also recommended that Taylor be allowed to speak
to her mother by telephone before her mother is returned to California.

A girl abducted by her mother
seven years ago and brought to Nebraska will be in court Monday. A
hearing will determine if Taylor White will be reunited with her father
who still lives in Los Angeles.
The girl's father says the thought of seeing his daughter again after seven
years brings tears to his eyes. "I have a picture of God right by my
door and I pray to God every day to find my daughter and make sure
she's safe, to bring her back home," Clifford White said by phone from
Los Angeles.

The father of the now-14-year-old Taylor will speak by phone at the court
hearing in Sarpy County. Clifford tells Channel 6 News he has a
certified court order that allows him to regain custody of his daughter.
He told Channel 6 News about a car ride last Monday he says he'll never
forget. "I heard it on the radio when I was on the freeway coming
home." He heard the news that his daughter had been found in Nebraska.

A woman looking through ads in last Sunday’s newspaper saw a flier for
Missing and Exploited Children and recognized the girl's mother, Joyce
Thomas, and called authorities. Thomas was arrested for child abduction
and the girl was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Taylor was never enrolled in school and the two had been living in a Bellevue
home where neighbors said the blinds were always shut. "I didn't know
Joyce was keeping my child out of school, living in a dark house,” says
Clifford. “That's like living in prison in your own house."
Clifford says the last time he saw his daughter was on July 12, 2002 when he
came home from work and she was gone. "After about a week-and-a-half,
went to the police department and reported a missing child. That's when
they started looking for her.”
The petition that will be heard in court on what to do with Taylor alleges
that Clifford was abusive. He says that's not true. "That's totally not
true. Joyce knows I never touched her. I never touched my kid."
The court will decide when and if father and daughter are reunited. A
reunion is something Clifford has planned in his head for seven years.
"I'm nervous, but I'm happy and every time I think about it, it almost
brings water to my eyes."