Local D-FW: Suspect held in Opal Jennings' abduction
Cliff or Linda Griffith
Sex offender held in Opal kidnapping
By Bill Teeter and Laura Vozzella
Star-Telegram Staff Writers
SAGINAW -- A convicted child molester was jailed
yesterday after
admitting that he took 6-year-old Opal Jo Jennings
for a snack and
had sexual contact with her the day she was
abducted from outside
her grandparents' home five months ago, two law
enforcement
sources said.
But Richard "Ricky" Franks, 30, who most recently
worked as a
motorcycle mechanic, maintains that he released
the girl and has no
knowledge of her whereabouts, the sources said.
Franks could face a charge of aggravated
kidnapping.
More than two dozen investigators searched Willow
Creek Park in
Saginaw and a brushy area and culvert on the Fort
Worth-Saginaw
border yesterday afternoon looking for evidence
"as part of the Opal
Jennings investigation," said Bob Garrity Jr., FBI
assistant special
agent in charge. "The investigation has taken us
to this point."
Garrity declined to say what the investigators had
hoped to find
before they called off the search about 7 p.m.
FBI agents also searched a Decatur storage
warehouse, removing
boxes, clothes, a crib, a teddy bear and a
mattress. But they
replaced the items and left with nothing.
Mike Adair, an investigator for the Tarrant County
district attorney's
office, said Franks had been under surveillance
and was picked up
Tuesday night on a traffic warrant unrelated to
the Jennings case.
He was arrested in connection with Opal's
abduction after
questioning and was in the Tarrant County Jail
last night with bail
set at $1.5 million.
"The arrest was based on investigation and
follow-up. We haven't
found Opal. It doesn't take us to that point. A
lot of investigation
work must still be done," Saginaw police spokesman
Karl Johnson
said.
Opal's grandmother, Audrey Sanderford, said she
was clinging to her
belief that Opal is alive.
"I have the utmost faith in Saginaw police and the
FBI and trust
that they will get to the bottom of this. We have
not found Opal.
We are still looking for her," Sanderford said.
She said she will not give up hope unless she has
proof that Opal is
not alive.
"When they show me some DNA, and they are going to
have to be
positive because they are going to have to run the
tests five times
before I'll believe it. Until then, I'm not giving
up hope."
Opal was snatched about 5:30 p.m. March 26 while
playing with a
4-year-old neighborhood friend and a 2-year-old
cousin in a vacant
lot next door to her grandparents' modest
clapboard home on
Hampshire Street in Saginaw.
Witnesses told police that a tall white man with a
ponytail stopped
his dark-colored sedan, grabbed the 60-pound girl,
smacked her in
the chest and shoved her into the car.
Adair said Franks was driving a dark-colored
vehicle when he was
arrested.
Opal was last seen wearing a purple and white
striped T- shirt,
purple shorts and scuffed- up pink "Barbie" tennis
shoes.
The disappearance touched off an extensive
manhunt, generated
more than 2,500 tips and prompted numerous rallies
to keep her
name and face in the public eye.
A few days after Opal's abduction, Wise County
authorities in
Decatur called Fort Worth police with information
about Franks,
saying he fit the description of Opal's abductor,
had ties to Saginaw
and was a convicted child molester, Wise County
sheriff's Sgt.
Harlon Wright said.
Fort Worth police passed the information to the
FBI.
But it wasn't until several weeks ago, when 16
area law-
enforcement agencies volunteered officers to help
with the tip
backlog, that investigators went to Wise County to
seek information
on Franks, Wright said.
They returned two or three weeks ago, and Franks
became a "hot
and heavy" suspect, he said.
The two law enforcement sources familiar with the
case said Franks
was among numerous sex offenders investigated.
The sources said Franks acknowledged being in the
girl's
neighborhood the day she disappeared but
maintained that she got
into his car voluntarily.
They quoted him as saying that he took her to a
store for a treat
and that he had sexual contact with her before
releasing her.
"He maintains that he has not killed her," one
source said. "He's still
maintaining that she was unharmed."
Wise County court records show that Franks was
charged with two
counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in
1991 and that he
pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of indecency
with a child as part
of a plea bargain. He was placed on probation for
seven years but
violated terms in 1994 and 1995 and was jailed for
a total of 41
days.
Franks' probation had been scheduled to end in
April 1998. But it
was extended by a year and expired April 2 this
year so he could
pay court-ordered fees and complete his
sex-offender program.
He successfully completed the probation, officials
said.
As part of the sexual assault case in Wise County,
his attorney,
Ross Simpson, filed a court motion requesting a
complete mental
evaluation for Franks.
Simpson's motion says that Franks "appears to be
insane and to
have a mental disease or defect" and that he had
"a long history of
behavioral instability" that previously required
treatment at a mental
health center.
The report from the court- ordered psychological
examination
concludes with a diagnosis that Franks was a
pedophile with mild
mental retardation, according to court documents.
"Richard reported that he constantly wants to have
sex with little
girls. Richard reported a history of oral and anal
sex starting at age
10. Richard also stated he had sex with little
girls on other
occasions," psychologist Darrell Horton wrote in
his report.
Sometimes Franks fantasizes about his sexual
impulses instead of
acting them out, the report states.
"He described himself as being sad most every day.
... He said that
some day his goal is to have his own bicycle
repair shop."
Horton concluded that "emotionally, Richard is a
sad and impulsive
young man."
Wise County Sheriff Phil Ryan said he hopes that
Franks' arrest
leads to Opal's recovery "so we can get her family
to start the rest
of their lives."
"Lord knows how many man-hours and tears have gone
into this
case," Ryan said. "It's one of those cases that
won't let them
[investigators] get a good rest at night until
there's a conclusion."
Staff writers Deanna Boyd, Yvette Craig and Kathy
Sanders
contributed to this report.
ba...@ticnet.com
Ricky Franks has been arrested in the abduction and disapperance of
Opal Jennings. The girl hasn't been seen since she was abducted. A
child molester has been arrested and is reported to have admitted
taking her in his vehicle and molesting her that day, but claims to
have released her unharmed. Nobody ever saw her again. Reports
indicate that this crime is similar to the Amber Hagerman abduction
and murder which remains unsolved.
Basil
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:HOMEPAGE3/1:HOMEPAGE3081999.html
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:FRONT42/1:FRONT42081999.html
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:PUBDATE/1:PUBDATE081999.html
kkramer
SAGINAW, Texas (AP) - A convicted sex offender arrested during a traffic
stop was charged with snatching a 6-year-old girl from her grandparents'
front yard nearly five months ago.
Richard Lee Franks, 30, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of kidnapping and
child molestation, and formal charges were pending. Franks is being held on
$1.5 million bail.
The girl, Opal Jo Jennings, remains missing.
She was playing with friends March 26 when she was kidnapped. Her friends
said a man with a ponytail threw Opal into his car and drove away.
Franks was arrested Tuesday night on an unrelated traffic warrant, Saginaw
police spokesman Karl Johnson said.
``The police told me ... he confessed to kidnapping Opal, and he said he
turned her loose after he bought her a Coke,'' said the girl's grandmother
and legal guardian, Audrey Sanderford.
But she said she has her doubts about his claim he released her unharmed
within a mile of where he grabbed her.
``I'm not sure where Opal is. I know chances are she's probably dead,'' Ms.
Sanderford said. ``She's got to be somewhere. She didn't just disappear off
the face of the earth.''
Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Greg Miller would neither confirm
nor deny that Franks had confessed to anything but said it was reasonable to
conclude that the information used to obtain the kidnapping warrant came
after Franks' arrest.
Authorities from neighboring Wise County suggested Franks as a possible
suspect in Jennings' kidnapping April 1, just days after the child
disappeared, Sheriff Phil Ryan said today. Officials checked their log of
sex offenders, and recognized similarities between Franks' record and the
Jennings disappearance, Ryan said.
But a backlog of thousands of leads kept police from investigating Franks
until a few weeks ago, he said.
In Arlington, east of Fort Worth, officials said Franks' arrest caused them
to review evidence in another girl's abduction and slaying three years ago.
About 20 searchers, mostly from the FBI, spread out through a brushy area
near Saginaw Airfield north of Fort Worth on Wednesday. FBI special agent
Bob Garrity said they searched the area on a tip, but he didn't specify the
source of the tip.
Police and federal investigators have received more than 2,300 tips in the
investigation. Mrs. Sanderford said she understood Franks had a relative who
used to live on her street.
Franks had been on probation until April 13 in connection with a guilty plea
stemming from a 1991 count of indecency with a child.
Relatives of Franks made tearful apologies Wednesday to the missing girl's
family.
``If my brother done this, I wanted to come and be with this family,'' a
sobbing Rodney Franks said during a visit to Mrs. Sanderford's home.
kkramer
him in a lie and linking her to him. Otherwise, UNSOLVED.
Kramer <I have a very thick unsolved file and SundPelosso is included>
ba...@ticnet.com wrote in message ...
ba...@ticnet.com
her, sexually abused her, then turned her loose and she simply
disapperared off the face of the earth. Perhaps she fell in a
drainage ditch and was lost. She was at least five years old wasn't
she. I seem to recall that witnesses state he punched her in the
chest when he abducted her. What will a Tarrant County Jury do? I am
here to tell you that the good folks in Tarrant County, based upon
what the cops CAN prove will accept his statement that he kidnapped
and sexually abused this kid and will not buy the story that he turned
her loose. They might give him life instead of death (based on some
doubt as to his guilt!!!), but they will convict him and put him away
for the rest of his life. You are correct to the extent that it might
be more difficult to obtain a death penalty in this matter.
On Thu, 19 Aug 1999 15:39:11 GMT, "kkramer" <kkr...@2xtreme.net>
wrote:
ba...@ticnet.com
It seems that the individual in custody and suspected of the
kidnapping and presumed murder of the six year old girl claims that
the six year old girl sexually assaulted him and that he released her
alive and well at her grandmother's house where she lived. Of course,
nobody at the grandmother's house ever saw her alive again after the
child(ren) who saw her abducted saw her being punched in the chest and
thrown into the car at the beginnign of the kidnapping.
kkramer
ba...@ticnet.com wrote