Due to Francois’ sexual appetites, the Thuets found themselves in a bit of a bind two years ago. Thanks to the services of the Simpson Adoption Agency and sex traffickers, they were able to stay out of prison. Now that Yua/Yancy, their surrogate daughter was getting older they now found themselves in trouble again. She had reached the age when it was mandated by the state that she go to school. In Washington D.C., the actual mandatory age for all children to attend school was five, however, they had cheated some and managed to hold out until she reached her sixth birthday.
The problem was that the Thuets could not truly trust her. She seemed to be falling in their thrall, but there was still some nagging doubts. They just could not trust her for the six or so unsupervised hours that going to public school would require.
The Thuets knew their original plan was not perfect, but at least the kidnapping of Yua/Yancy gave them some breathing room. It was a shame that they had to get rid of her because Lamai was becoming attached to her. If only Francois could keep it in his pants.
When the traffickers picked up Yua/Yancy at their appartment only part of the problem was taken care of. Now they had to make it look like she was actually kidnapped. If they could have trusted her in public, life would have been much easier. They could have had the kidnappers snatch her in public. Now they had to make it look like someone took her from their house, at least that was the original plan.
The first thing they needed to do was to make her room look like a typical girl’s room, which meant first getting rid of that damned shit bucket, table and chair. They needed furniture and some more kid’s clothes, so they went to a local flea market and picked up what they needed and paid cash for them. They had plenty of toys already. The only thing left was decorating the room and the removal of the plywood covering the windows.
The final touches included bathroom supplies for a little girl. It took a couple of days to take care of everything. Lamai had to admit, the finished product looked pretty good while her room wouldn’t pass an intense examination it should be good enough for their purposes. There was also the concern that they would miss some detail in faking the kidnapping from her room, so they decided to follow a much simpler plan.
Instead of a kidnapping from their house, they opted to fake a snatch and grab while they were supposedly walking down an alley. To reduce the risk that someone would witness the fake snatch and grab they decided to schedule it in the evening. The plan they cooked up was far from perfect, but with a little finesse it should work. The biggest problem was that Lamai needed to be knocked out cold to make it believable.
The Thuets finally had it all worked out and the date and time was chosen. Their cover story was Lamai and her daughter Yua/Yancy were going out to see the 7:00 P.M. showing of the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch. Since the days were already getting shorter, it was totally dark at that time. After Francois knocked out Lamai, he would grab her purse and race back home to watch TV. Stayingat home and waching the evening news and a sporting event was his part of the cover story. Once Lamai came to, she would look frantically for her missing daughter and then call the D.C. Metro police and report their daughter being taken.
The plan went off almost without a hitch, however, an unplanned for passerby saw Lamai lying on the sidewalk and called 911. The paramedics and the police responded within five minutes. After the paramedics checked her out, they said she was stable enough to answer questions. They wanted to take her to the closest emergency room but she refused because she was concerned for her missing daughter, so they eventually left for another call. By that time, Detective Charles Gault and FBI special agent James Pierany had shown up to take over the case.
Lamai was questioned thoroughly. The bruise on the back of her head was even examined, photographed and measured by the forensics team. The scene of the crime was roped off and checked for trace evidence. Since the attack took place on a cement side walk, there were no footprints. Because Lamai was hit from the back and knocked out cold she had no way of knowing which way the attacker/kidnapper(s) went. The surrounding area was fruitlessly canvassed for witnesses by the D.C. Metro police. The individual making the 911 call had long since left the area.
When they were finished at the crime scene, Detective Gault and Special Agent Pierany drove Mrs. Lamai back to her apartment so that they could notify her husband Francois of the assault on his wife and kidnapping of his daughter. This was not the usual procedure for the detective and agent, however, her story left some nagging doubts as to its veracity. After listening to Mrs. Lamai’s account they decided to take the victim back to her home as a way to follow-up on the story.
When they reached the Thuet’s apartment, Francois was, of course, quite surprised and measurably concerned about his wife’s condition, though he seemed somewhat less interested in his missing daughter. There was something about the whole situation that troubled Detective Gault even more. He could still not put a finger on it. He asked to use the restroom, and when he was there he looked through the medicine cabinet and found three toothbrushes and a couple of hair brushes and other paraphernalia. After flushing the toilet, he came out and asked if he could take a peak at their daughter’s room. When he went in everything looked in order, there were clothes in the dressers and closet. There were toys in the toybox. There were even photos and other pretty things hanging on the walls. In other words, everything looked perfect. Well, for that matter too perfect. It looked like a showroom display, not like an actual child’s room. One other thing he noticed and that was there were no photos of their daughter anywhere in the apartment. Maybe they didn’t own a camera, but it was still very strange. He knew he was being picky maybe they were just very neat. Besides the crime took place on the street, not in their apartment.
After satisfying himself, he and Pierany said that they would keep the Thuets posted on any leads that they discovered. They were thanked and let out.
As they walked towards the elevator, Gault said to Pierany, “did you notice anything funny about that couple?”
Yes, I did. She wasn’t even crying and he didn’t seem to be overly concerned about his missing daughter. If it had been my child that was kidnapped, I would be an absolute basket case.”
With little to no leads, the kidnapping quickly grew cold. What was disconcerting to the detective and the special agent, the Thuets never called up for any updates nor did they get upset when they were told that their daughter’s kidnapping had been made a cold case.