On March 16, a fifteen year old girl was walking to her morning bus stop just barely a block from her home.  She sent her last text just minutes before she should have boarded the bus.

But she never got on the bus.  In the early evening, a call from the school notified her mother that she had been absent, and suddenly the family realized she had disappeared.

Within hours the rest of the Bay area was on alert.

I remember gazing at the girl's photo.  She was beautiful with a precocious smile.  Her brown eyes were soft, framed by her dark hair.

Shortly, the community poured out their support and spent hours searching--even the famous came quietly.

Then the news came on last night.  An arrest was made...for murder.  Her body has not been found yet.

A wave of nausea rolled over my body.  A stranger abduction and a Taser.

As I lay in bed, I could not close my eyes.  I could only see the sorrow in the faces of her family as they cling to hope that there has been a mistake and she is still alive...somewhere.

A living nightmare.

In the first days of her disappearance, I remember wondering how something could have happened in the two minutes before she got on her bus and sent her last text.  I remember my husband quietly commenting anything could have happened because she wasn't watching her surroundings as she tapped out her final message.  I hadn't considered that and immediately realized that I am all too often distracted myself, as are my daughters. I don't know if the teen had been watching instead of texting if it would have changed anything...probably not, but I have to admit it is a good reminder that when we are distracted we are targets for crime.

My mind spun late into the night with my heart heavy with sorrow for Sierra and her family.  I wanted to somehow rewrite this haunting story...