Found Safe: Brianna & Becca Collins -- TX -- 05/14/2007

[Kelly]

Project Jason Profile:

Missing Person: Brianna Paige Collins


 
Date of Birth: 06/21/1995
Missing Since: 05/14/2007
Missing City: Crockett
Missing State: Texas
Age at time of disappearance: 11
Gender: Female
Race: White
Height: 4ft 10 in
Weight: 70 lbs
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Complexion: Fair

Characteristics: Bri has surgical scars on her lower back, on both ankles and has spina bifida.

Clothing: unknown

Jewelry: Has pierced ears

Circumstances: Brianna and her sister, Becca, were last seen in Crockett, TX in May of 2007. They were with their non-custodial mother. They may be in a maroon Chevy Uplander with TX tags 236LXY which expired in June of 2008.

Medical Conditions:Spina Bifida


BECCA COLLINS

DOB:  Sep 18, 1998
Missing:  May 14, 2007
Age at time of disappearance: 8
Sex:  Female
Race:  White
Hair:  Lt. Brown
Eyes:  Blue
Height:  4'9" (145 cm)
Weight:  60 lbs (27 kg)
Missing From:
CROCKETT
TX
United States

Becca has a small thumbprint shaped birthmark on her lower right leg.

Abductor:

Name: Barbara Lynn Collins
Case Number: A0806002
Case Type: Involuntary - Family Abduction
Last Seen in: Crockett (Houston County)
Last Seen on: 4/17/2007
Height: 5' 1 "  
Weight: 180 lbs.  
Date of Birth: 3/24/1959
Eye Color: Hazel
Hair Color: Brown
Race: White
Sex: Female
Circumstances: May be traveling to Colorado Springs, CO.

Agency Name: Webster LA Parish Sheriff's Office
Agency Phone: 318-377-1515
Case Number: G00299-07

Print a Poster: http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=1094878&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

Print a Poster: http://www.projectjason.org/aan/AAN_BriannaBeccaCollins.pdf

[bdcollins1025]

These are our two daughters.  It's very difficult to see their pictures posted on as missing on websites even though we know it will eventually help bring them home. 

These two girls are very loving children who have no choice in the lifestyle their non-custodial mother has chosen for them.  The last word we had on their location was that they were living in shelters in the Littleton/Colorado Springs, CO area.  They attended school until February of 2008 in Parker, CO. 

Brianna went to Sierra Middle School and Becca went to Mammoth Heights Elementary.  When we got the information that the girls had gone to school there, we immediately pulled up the school websites in hope of finding a picture of them.  While there were no pictures of our daughters, my husband and I were moved to tears just to see a building that we knew they had been in.  Until that moment, we really did not know if we would ever see them again. 

While we still don't know for a fact that we will see them again, we got very close that one time and the opportunity of being that close one more time is what keeps our hopes alive. 

We have two years' worth of Christmas presents and birthday presents wrapped and waiting for them.  We have never moved their clothing or toys out of their rooms at our home.  Everything is there, waiting for them, just as we are there, waiting for them to come home and working everyday to make that happen. 

We will not give up and abandon the search. 

Please, if anyone has seen our girls, contact the Webster Parish Sheriff's Dept., Capt Don Smith, at 318-377-1515.

[Kelly]

Ben Roseland and Brianna and Becca Collins are Project Jason's featured missing persons for August 2008. The image you see below, with links to their news and information threads, is on the main page of the Project Jason website. This is one means of awareness for their cases, and with an average of 700 hits to the site daily, we'll reach many with their stories.

If your missing loved one is not registered with us for services, please click here: http://www.projectjason.org/report.html

[Kelly]

Brianna and Becca have been placed on Project Jason's 18 Wheel Angels campaign. A special poster has been made for them and can be downloaded and printed for placement. More information about the program, and the link for the poster can be found here:

http://projectjason.org/18wheel.shtml

In addition to the campaign, Brianna and Becca are also featured in a national trucking publication, Independent Contractor. This free magazine is distributed in truck stops nationwide and has a circulation of about 150,000.

Through the Gears and Independent Contractor are two of Target Media Partner's many publications. In partnership with Project Jason, they each feature two missing persons each per month. You can pick up your free copies at a local truck stop, but if it's far from you, you may want to call and ask if they carry that magazine. These are NOT with the regular for purchase magazines.

We hope this helps in the search for the children. Please consider printing and placing a poster in businesses in your community.



Thank you.

Kelly, Project Jason

[Kelly]

This story was written by Brianna and Becca's parents exclusively for the 18 Wheel Angels campaign:

About Brianna and Becca:

Our daughters have been missing since Mid-May of 2007.  I call them “our” daughters because even though I am a step mother to them, I have become fully involved in the search for them and have held my husband’s hand through long court battles and the seemingly even longer search for his two daughters, Brianna and Becca Collins.  As we sat in court in Texas on April 17, 2007 and listened to the judge order their mother to allow the girls to visit us for ½ of the upcoming summer, we were elated.  It, at first, seemed the perfect end to what had been a long and unpleasant court battle involving their son who had decided to live with us and the two girls who were to remain with their mother.  The son had made his decision in June of 2006 and we had not had the girls for visitation in our home since June of 2006.  It seemed that, finally, we were going to be able to begin seeing them again.  Then, the judge left the court to interview the children in her chambers.  The girls’ mother immediately turned to her attorney and announced that she was not going to allow the visitation.  Even though we heard her say this, we thought that with the judge’s warning that she could lose custody of Brianna and Becca if she continued to deny visitation, that surely she would comply with the judge’s order.

Unfortunately, we underestimated her.  When we arrived at the exchange point in late May of 2007 to pick up Brianna and Becca to begin their summer visitation, they were not there.  We drove on to their house in Crockett, Texas only to find it abandoned and items being sorted for auction by a stranger.   My husband, his son, and I entered the residence and surveyed what remained in the house.  Most of Bri’s and Becca’s personal belongings, including clothing, toys, school mementoes and photos were still in the home.  Pictures of Brianna taken moments after her birth were left at the house.   We knew then that something bad had happened.  We immediately contacted our attorney who informed us that there was nothing we could do.  It was not against the law for her to take them from the state for what could very well have been just a vacation.  We had to wait a few weeks for it to become clear that she had taken Brianna and Becca and left Texas and had no intention of returning. 

Local law enforcement began investigating and no one knew where they had gone.  She was eventually traced to Colorado Springs through child support checks she was still receiving in late June of 2007.  We had received temporary orders granting my husband sole custody and a writ of attachment.  We filed a missing persons report in Minden, LA where we live and the detective called the Colorado Springs Police Department to send an officer to check the address we had gotten to see if the girls were there.  Colorado Springs PD confirmed the girls were there.  Originally, we were told they would honor the order and the writ of attachment from Texas and pick up the girls.  Bill and I immediately began to make plans to pick up our girls in Colorado.  We received a phone call two hours later informing us that Colorado Springs PD could not pick up the children because our orders were temporary and furthermore, from Texas.  For the orders to be honored, according to Colorado Springs PD, they needed to be issued by a Colorado judge.  We have since found out that this was not the case, just uninformed police officers making a legal decision without having the legal background to do so. 

After that, we had no word on the girls’ location again until May of 2008.  We had been emailing all the school districts in Colorado in an attempt to locate the children.  It became somewhat easier to get information after we were awarded sole custody in November of 2007.  Douglas County School District in Colorado called the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Department and reported that Brianna had been enrolled in Sierra Middle School and Becca in Mammoth Heights Elementary School in Parker, CO until February of 2008.  When their mother pulled them out of school, she told school officials that they had been living in a shelter in Littleton, CO and they were being transferred to a shelter in Colorado Springs, CO.  This news was a nightmare come true for my husband.  He had not been sleeping well since his girls disappeared.  He had recurring nightmares of Brianna and Becca sleeping on pallets on the floors in crowded, dirty dormitory like rooms and crying for him.  It appeared that this could very well be the case if they were indeed being forced to live in shelters.

Please help us find these two beautiful girls.  Brianna Paige Collins has spina bifida and may be confined to a wheelchair.  She is very petite for her age (13), about 4’9”.  She has long blonde hair and blue eyes.  She is a precious, loving child who is a joy to be around.  We are very concerned that in an effort to remain in hiding, the mother may not be getting Brianna the medical care she requires.  We still carry private health insurance on Brianna and Becca and have received no evidence that either girl has seen a physician since being taken from Crockett, TX in May of 2007.  Brianna is currently active on Medicaid in Colorado and Medicaid has our insurance information as primary insurance.  Brianna walks with a very noticeable gait – a kind of rolling, side-to-side motion due to the spina bifida.  When she was born, the doctors said she would never walk.  It is only through her strength of will and determination that she is able to do so.  Brianna’s birthday is June 21, 1995.  She has celebrated two birthdays since we last enjoyed her presence in our home.

Her sister, Becca Leighann Collins, is 9 years old.  She also has blonde hair and blue eyes.  She is vivacious and cheerful and loves to dance.  She is about 4’10”.  She has a very active imagination and loves to make up stories about fairies and magic.  The last Christmas Wish list she had for us included “magical reindeer dust” so she could fly like Santa’s reindeer.  As all little girls do, she loves kittens and puppies and horses.  She loves to help “cook” in the kitchen.  Becca’s birthday is September 18, 1998.  She two has had two birthdays since we last had her in our home.

They have a brother, Lance, (15) who misses them very much.  It breaks our hearts to hear him talk about the last time he saw his sisters.  He remembers the exact date, the time, and what his little sisters were wearing.  He talks about going to buy goldfish with them.  He speaks of them often and wants us to keep him updated on our efforts to locate his sisters.  He has not heard from his mother since Mother’s Day, 2007 when he went to Crockett to see her.  He does not speak of his mother at all anymore.  I have started the official adoption process for him to become my son not only in word but in law as well.

It is our dream that we can reunite Lance with Brianna and Becca.  It is our hope that living an “on-the-run” lifestyle will not have caused these two beautiful girls any heartache or distress.  They, afterall, have no choice in where their mother has taken them or the lifestyle she has forced upon them.  Please help in any way you can to return our children to us. 

Bill and Mary Collins, Parents

[Kelly]

AAN Annual Poster Notify Sent to AAN Subscribers   Code 60

Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member and receive notifications about missing persons via email.

Click here to become a part of the solution: http://www.projectjason.org/awareness.html

[Kelly]

Bill and Mary have given us the happy news that Becca and Brianna have been found safe!  They are bringing the girls back home. Thank you.

[bdcollins1025]

We never would have found our girls if it had not been for organizations such as yours and NCMEC.  The anonymous caller used your websites to verify the information and get further information on how to contact us.  If he had not been able to verify the information as accurate and correctly identify the girls, he would never have called us.  

What drew him in and made him get involved was the personal story that we submitted about the girls on your website.  He said he read it repeatedly and the more he read it, the more he realized he had to do something.  It's not just posting pictures, it has to be made personal for people to really get involved.  

People need to connect and to understand these are real children with real parents suffering very real pain.  NCMEC does a wonderful job of posting pictures, but yours is the only organization that allows the left-behind parent an opportunity to truly reach out and connect with the people who have a chance of recognizing and reporting a missing child. 

To those of you who still have missing children, please don't give up hope.  Somewhere, someone will see your child and help bring your loved one home.

[LoriDavis]

As a moderator for Project Jason, your post brings tears to my eyes.  It shows how all the updates to the site do make a difference, more than we can realize.

Stories such as yours provide hope in situation where it is so desperately needed.

Many blessings to your family.

Lori

[Kelly]

A Special Message From Project Jason:

Thank you Bill and Mary, for sharing your story.

We're so very happy for all of you. It's been a long journey, but you never gave up, and now you have your family intact. In your story, you shared that an anonymous tipster hesitated to report a credible sighting of the girls, but was drawn back to this site over and over again to read the story we asked you to write for our 18 Wheel Angels program. (You can read the original post from September 2008 above) This was the impetus that brought about the miracle of the girls' recovery.

Project Jason has held the philosophy from its beginning that our missing loved ones are more than a hair and eye color. They are so much more than a case number and a height and a weight. These are real people, with hopes and dreams, real people who have a family who love and miss them, real people for whom we must be the voice, the voice for the missing.

This is reflected in our many awareness programs. In Second Life, wherein the theme is "Every Face Tells a Story", the family writes a short story about the missing person. In Come Home, the family tells the missing person (assumed homeless) why they love them and miss them and want them to come home. In our 18 Wheel Angels program, in which Becca and Brianna were featured, the family is asked to write their personal story.

These stories are not just about the details of the disappearance, but include a slice of the life of the missing loved one, and the heartbreak faced by those left behind. It's not always easy for the families to write these stories, but in doing so, they can feel a closeness to the missing person and also engage the reader. It must become real to them and touch them at the core to prompt them to take action. Without that extra element of the personal story, we're only preaching to the choir and not extending our reach, which is so neccesary to be successful in the search for those whom we love and miss.

To the person who submitted the tip that led to Brianna and Becca's recovery, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You brought a family together and gave these girls a new lease on life.

To our supporters who keep us going in so many ways, thank you for your part in this recovery. If it wasn't for you, we would not be here. I would also like to thank the Project Jason Board and forum volunteers who keep things running behind the scenes so we could have a place to share our stories. I would like to give a special thanks to Kathylene Stolzenburg, Board Member and Webmaster, for her tireless work in keeping the forum and main site running so smoothly.

As Bill and Mary expressed, and you often hear me say: "Never give up. There is always hope."

And last but not least, thank you, Jason, wherever you may be, for inspiring me to never give up, and for showing us the meaning of generosity of spirit.

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org

All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.

[delilah]

It's so wonderful to read a missing person's story with a happy ending. 

Kelly, your efforts to make the missing into much more than a poster is so helpful in many ways, as this story proves.

I hope we read many more like this in the future!  Thanks for all you and Project Jason have done!