My sincere apologies if this case has been touched on here in the forums and I missed it. Family is now discussing it with local TV.
Admins feel free to rechannel this elsewhere if it's already being discussed.
Missing in Mexico: 10 years looking for Jessicahttp://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12072507Posted: Mar 02, 2010 6:27 PM EST
You've recently seen all over national news, David Goldman and his son Sean reunited in New Jersey, years after the boy's mother abducted him to Brazil.
Well in Las Vegas there is a strikingly similar case, but without the happy ending as of yet.
Mark Harrison has been looking for his daughter, Jessica for a decade. Her location, Mark believes to be across US borders.
With still no results, the Harrison family recently turned to Action News to investigate.
Most of Jessica's belongings remain untouched for 10 years, except by a layer of dust. That's because Jessica Harrison is no longer a toddler, but that's how her family remembers her because that was the last time they saw her.
"I'm consumed by it. I can't seem to let go," Jessica's grandmother, Lydia Harrison, tells Action News.
"I miss my daughter," Jessica's father, Mark Harrison, tells us through tears.
Despite the lingering pain of losing a child, Mark and Lydia believe they will see Jessica again.
"We will never give up looking for Jessica," Mark says emphatically.
Jessica Harrison is a missing child. But she wasn't abducted by a stranger, authorities say her mother took her.
It all began in may of 2000. Mark Harrison and his former wife Martha Ruiz Harrison were granted joint custody of Jessica under a unique ruling. She would spend two months with Mark in Las Vegas, then 2 months with her mother in Puebla, Mexico.
When Jessica left the US with Martha, she never returned.
"I knew that it would be the last time that I saw my daughter," Mark says.
So Mark went to court and his ex-wife was an obvious no-show. Mark was then granted sole custody.
The Attorney General's office issued a warrant for Martha Ruiz Harrison's arrest, enlisting the help of the FBI. But still there was no sign of Jessica.
"We've exhausted just about every channel short of doing something illegal and I don't want to do that," Mark tells us.
Mark says he even went to Mexico to this home of his ex-wife's family. He says while there he was surrounded by Mexican agents with machine guns and escorted away. A missionary with the Nevada Center for Missing Loved Ones also went to the house, taking this picture of a girl in a red jacket he says could be Jessica.
Mark and his mother are convinced the picture is of Jessica and that she is at that address, but the Attorney General's office says they're not so sure.
"The assumption is that it wasn't a viable lead because we would have Jessica home," Michelle Chase, an investigator with the Missing Children's Unit of the Attorney General's Office says.
She says they get hundreds of leads a day on missing children's cases, but few actually pan out.
"When you hear nothing in these cases, it's usually because that lead is no good," Chase says.
Chase also says because this is an international case, all they can do is pass their leads on to federal agencies and that has been frustrating for the Harrison family.
"What is the hold up in bringing Jessica back? What's the bottom line here?" Action News anchor Nina Radetich asks. "I can't tell you that because once it becomes international it's really the FBI and Interpol and the state department that really have the legs in Mexico," Chase says.
Mark still holds on to the memories of his daughter.
"I love rhythm and I love drums so we would just, Jessica and and I would dance. Daddy and this little girl," he recalls.
"She'd play my drums," Mark remembers peacefully.
He's doing his best to move on, but Grandma Harrison can't.
"I will write every congressman every single week if I have to over and over and over and over again," Lydia insists.
Together, they keep the faith that one day Jessica will come home.
"Do you have a lot of hope that she's going to come back?" Action News anchor Nina Radetich asks Lydia.
"I will never, never let that diminish," Lydia says, "Because then, I'm empty."
The Harrison's also filed the paperwork ...to invoke the Hague Convention.
That's an international agreement amongst 76 countries to work together to return children abducted across borders.
Even though Mexico is part of the Hague, Jessica has still not been returned. The FBI says they couldn't comment on the case since it's still open, but said they continue to follow any leads on Jessica's whereabouts.
Lydia has heard back words of sympathy and encouragement from some politicians, but no action.
The state department in Washington, DC did tell her in a letter last month they went down to meet with the Mexican cartel army to talk about quote, "numerous" outstanding cases like the Harrison's.
