Rachel Ziselman - Missing Person

There was a little girl whom I knew growing up in our hometown of "Pacific Palisades, California." She was a beautiful girl! An exceptional, bright, warm hearted girl," and one I shall never, ever forget! Her name was Rachel Ziselman. You see, her sister, my sister and I would play all together with Rachel. I was 7 years old, my sister 11 and Rachel 11. We were as active and carefree as kids could be. We played a lot the summer Rachel dissapeared.

                  The day she went missing is somewhat of a blur in my memory bank. I get this gripping, terrifying feeling even till this very day...and something deep inside me shuts down while this choking anxiety takes it's place.

                Our kitchen telephone rang. It was Rachel's mother on the other line. My sister Liz and I could hear the sounds of a desperate mother screaming out for her little girl, echoing through our house as my mother picked up the phone. The memory goes into slow motion as I recall each and every moment which transpired in between the ringing phone and my mother walking back into the hallway in which she'd left us moments earlier to get it.

              She proceeded to ask my sister and I if we'd seen Rachel that day? To the best of my recollection, we turned to look one another in the eyes as if searching the other for answers.. alas, turning to my mother only to blurt out,"not since earlier this afternoon when we wen't swimming or could it have been the sprinklers?" I was only 7 years of age. Rachel played, for the most part with my older sister Elizabeth. We all played together that day, with her sister I believe? It had been hours since we had last seen Rachel and the two of us had no answers to give her mother, sad as it was.

                That day has replayed itself each and every day since it passed 31 years ago. That day helped shape the mother and person I inevitably became. Still haunted by Rachel's dissapearance all these years past....not one day goes by that I don't ask God to return her to her family and make her show up alive right now!

              I want Rachel's family to know how much I care for her and for them. And how much her life made me the person I am today. We need to join together to find missing children!

There is so much technology since Rachel's dissapearance. Why don't we try to join together and form another grand scale search for her? I believe she's out there somewhere...and somebody, somewhere must know something.

Also, there was a man I recall living in the guest house of that ranch house below my street on Haverford. I lived on Via De La Paz. There was a man who tried pulling me into his guest house one summer afternoon sometime around the time Rachel went missing. It took me all of these years to recall that memory and link it somehow. I remember having to pedal away from him standing up on my bike...because he scared me so much. He was young (25 or so), unassuming, with boyish looks.

 He walked outside as I approached the front of the home he lived in. He asked me if I'd like to come in for a while and when I turned him down...he became enraged and tried to grab me right off of my bike! I rode away standing upright on my bike as fast as my little legs could pedal. I hid out for the remainder of that day. My mother was usually gone and I was left alone...so, the thought of returning to my home didn't exactly make me feel safe from danger. He was literally within a block of my house.  

                         God bless Rachel & her family! NEVER, EVER GIVE UP! SHE COULD BE OUT THERE!

                      Love,

                       Pietra Thornton

               (surname-Patricia Cherniak)