by Stacy Finz, San Francisco Chronicle
It has been four days since Emily Sasser’s luggage showed up in Crescent City, but there is still no sign of the petite 17-year-old.
Her father, Mark Sasser, saw her off Saturday at the Greyhound station and watched as she boarded the bus in Sacramento, where Emily spent a week attending a church function and visiting family. Emily was on her way to Crescent City, where she lives with her aunt and uncle.
A bus driver remembers her making her transfer in Oakland, and she was spotted near a deli in Leggett, Mendocino County. But, when the Greyhound arrived several hours later at the teenager’s Del Norte County destination, there was no Emily.
“Based on interviews with family and friends, it would have been uncharacteristic for Emily to have changed her plans without notifying her aunt and uncle,” said Andy Black, special agent and a spokesman for the FBI, which has joined the search for the missing teenager. “That, coupled with the fact that her luggage arrived in Crescent City without her, leads us to believe that her disappearance was involuntary.”
“There is absolutely no way she went off on her own,” said Emily’s aunt, Vicki King. “I know for sure she was taken. As far as we’re concerned, no one is in trouble. Just give us Emily back.”
Investigators from the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Department are questioning passengers on the bus. Some, including the driver, remember the 5- foot 2-inch girl with brown hair and blue eyes, said Sheriff’s Capt. Douglas Plack. But investigators have yet to pinpoint where and when she vanished.
A retired sheriff’s deputy remembers seeing her walk to a McDonald’s when the bus stopped for a dinner break in Willits.
“We’re still in the process of confirming it,” Plack said. “There were 20 stops on that route and we’re trying to cordon off a section of it.”
And, last night after a news broadcast, the owner of a Leggett deli called the family to say he was certain he had seen Emily outside the bus near his deli.
“He described the red mid-rift shirt she was wearing,” her uncle, Mike King said last night.
Vicki King said she and her niece, along with a group of 13 children and six adults, attended a two-day Christian concert and event on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 in Sacramento. After the function, King and her niece visited Emily’s grandmother. King headed back to Crescent City on Feb. 19. But Emily wanted to spend more time with her older sister who had just had a baby and decided to take a Greyhound home later in the week, King said.
“She had to be back this week because she was scheduled to give swimming lessons at the Crescent City public pool, where Emily works as a lifeguard,” King said. “She also had several church events that she would never have missed.”
Emily moved in with King and her husband, Mike, a supervising correctional officer at Pelican Bay State Prison, in July, when she became a born-again Christian. The teenager, according to the Kings, still remains close to her parents, who are divorced and live in Sacramento.
“She’s just a wonderful, bouncy girl,” Vicki King said. “Everyone loves her. "
Investigators ask that anyone with information contact them at the Del Norte Sheriff’s Department at (707) 464-4191, Ext. 238.