2. THE EXTRACTION : A Timeline of Events Leading to Abby Running Away from Home
- Founder
- Oct 29
- 5 min read
According to a friend, they think Abby had been talking online to a specific group for approximately four months, which eventually narrowed down to a man and two other young women.
June 12, 2023 – Abby graduated from High School. It was a very joyful day. I personally felt as if I was graduating. It had been a long road getting her to this point, but one far more gratifying than I could have ever dreamed.
June 15, 2023 – Abby met, in person for the first time, a small group (and the man who led them) that she'd become engaged with online. Her story to her parents was she was taking various road trips with her friend Lisa… and Lisa lied for her
June 17, 2023 – Abby returned home to attend her cousin’s graduation party the next day, but on the 17th she attended one of her best friends’ graduation parties and eventually called to say she was tired and would meet us at her cousin’s party the next day. According to EZ Pass Records, She went to Connecticut that night, where we now know her predator lives.
June 18, 2023 – Abby showed up for the graduation party tired and looking very hungover - but she was a strait laced kid who always drove to parties so she had an excuse to not drink. But that day, she looked like she’d partied. She slept through the graduation party in her aunt’s guest room, and barely spoke to anyone. After encouraging her to stay the night at my sister's house, she told her Aunt she was going home too. But, she texted us later to say she was staying at Lisa’s. We contacted Lisa and she covered for Abby, saying Abby was safe at her place.
JUNE 19 - JUNE 24 … WHERE WAS SHE??
June 24, 2023 – Abby came home after we pleaded with her to do so. When she arrived, we blocked her car in the driveway and questioned her about her odd behavior, her new drinking habit, and how she had been lying to us about everything. None of this was like her. We noticed that her earbuds were in her ears, and there was a man on the phone telling her how to answer us. When she wanted to leave and we would not unblock her car, she took off on foot. She has friends that can locate her phone and they helped us find her in the neighborhood. Dad drove to her location and tried to talk to her... tried to persuade her to come home. She was talking to a man but dad didn’t realize that this was the man she had been communicating with before on the phone. They both ran off in different directions. Then her friends told us she was at the Target in the neighborhood adjacent to ours, a forty minute walk away. Dad drove there and she was with the same man as he saw before.
This man switched her phone plan to a different carrier so that her phone was no longer on our plan. From then on, we were not able to find her location, nor her call history.
Dad approached the man and confronted him and attempted to take his photo but he turned away. He said his name was Tim and he was in their bible study group. We had heard of this group and had been concerned by the increase in hours she was communicating with them. Before graduation, she had been busy with school, soccer, etc. Now, she had more free time and the increase was dramatic.
“Tim” took off. Dad finally convinced Abby to come home at 2:30 am by telling her he had Tim’s fingerprints and photo.
June 25, 2023 – Checked on Abby in the morning and she was talking to the group on the phone at 8:00am, then she proceeded to sleep all day. Late afternoon, she became much calmer, talked to us like she normally would, and started “packing for college”. I hung out with her in her room. Then she moved her bags to her jeep and sat there with her earbuds in, on the phone with the group, and refused to come back inside. I brought her food and she ate it, and she came in to use the bathroom twice. Then she called the police so they would force us to unblock her car. She was very angry with us at this point, but when we left her alone, we saw her laughing with the group as if the whole situation was a joke. Police never showed up. We canceled her car insurance and told her that she wouldn’t be able to legally drive her car. The man helped her buy replacement insurance. She then slept in her car.
June 26, 2023 – Abby was on the phone with the group at 8:00 am and they told her call a locksmith to get the club off the steering wheel that we put on it. She took pictures of the hill at the end of our driveway and the surroundings so they could suggest other ways for her to drive out. We asked her bestie since childnood (not the High School BFF who had been covering for her) and another friend’s mother, (who she often called, "mom #2" and is the cofounder of Flying Monkeys Project) to come talk with her. She got out of the car but they couldn't get through to her, even talking privately, with us out of earshot. Grandmother called her. But, she listened for about 30 seconds and then handed the phone back. Her favorite Aunt had already attempted to talk to her, with the same result.
Abby called the police again and very calmly told them we were holding her against her will and she didn’t feel safe. Three police officers arrived shortly after that. We were frantic. The officers took me and my husband to the back yard, whicle one officer stayed wtih Abby, her dear friend, and "mom #2"
We tried explaining the situation to them, but it seemed like they weren't listening. They treated us like we were being overdramatic and overprotective, and basically off our rockers. But eventually the 3rd officer came over. Then, they told us it was fine to “not move our car, it’s our property”. Abby demanded to know what we had said to make them do that, we didn’t explain. Frankly, we just assumed they realized we were not nuts.
She repacked her things, leaving most of it behind, and got into an Uber to the bus depot, where she took a Peter Pan back to CT (from bank records).
According to the bank statement, she was in CT 6/20, 6/21, 6/23, and from 6/26 …on.
She blew through $1,200 in under 10 days.
She has always been an extremely frugal kid, so this was very unusual.
She was out money.
Phone records to what we think was the man’s number:
6/16 – 9:52 am, 94 minutes
6/16 – 11:27 am 14 minutes
6/16 – 12:07pm 24 minutes
6/16 – 12:32pm 51 minutes
6/17 – 6:53 pm 5 minutes
6/17 7:41pm 8 minutes
6/17 8:37pm 12 minutes
6/17 8:50pm 13 minutes
6/17 9:17pm 3 minutes
6/21 7:29 pm 54 minutes
6/21 8:25 pm 146 minutes
All other communication was done via Instagram audio.