Father of Missing Girl: She "Thinks She's in Love"
Originally published by The Associated Press, May 8, 2001
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (AP) — An 11-year-old girl allegedly abducted by a former Baptist school principal "thinks she's in love," her father said after receiving a letter from the girl saying she's all right.
The former principal also wrote his parents and said his actions had been "misunderstood."
The letters arrived Monday from Oklahoma City, the FBI said. They were postmarked on Friday, a day after the pair was spotted in Knoxville, Tenn.
"They completely changed direction," said Charles S. Porucznik, supervisory senior resident agent with the FBI's Merrillville branch office.
William A. Beith, 28, was charged Thursday with coercing and enticing a minor into sexual acts and transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes in connection with the disappearance of the girl.
The sixth-grader from Gary was reported missing May 1 after an argument with her parents at a discount store. An employee told police she was crying and seen running in the store parking lot. Her parents believe she may have telephoned Beith.
Porucznik said the girl's letter was short and upbeat, "just letting her mom and dad know she's OK."
Her father, Joseph Marshall, said the upbeat tone was encouraging. "She says she's all right, that she has new clothes, and is sorry that she's putting us through this," he said. "She said that she loves us and put kisses on the bottom of the letter. I am encouraged to know she's all right.
"She thinks this is OK. She thinks she's in love. I'm not even sure she understands what's wrong."
Beith told his parents how remorseful he was, asked his parents to apologize to everyone at the Liberty Baptist Academy in Lake Station and said his actions had been "misunderstood," but didn't elaborate.
"He wrote about how he had to run very fast," Porucznik said.
Both letters indicated the two would write again soon, Marshall said. Beith was arrested in 1990, while still a teen-ager, and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor for exposing himself to a 15-year old girl.
He became Liberty Baptist's principal in 1998 after his father resigned after being arrested for soliciting a male undercover police officer for oral sex.
Charges against both men were dismissed after they received counseling under a deferred prosecution program, authorities said.
The Baptist school recently sent a letter to parents saying that the younger Beith is no longer is employed at the school.
