The State from Columbia, South Carolina • A7

SUNDAY DECEMBER 17 2017 7ANewsTHESTATE.COM When Jessica disappeared, Ronald Reagan was president, the Oprah Winfrey Show was about to debut and the first laptop computer had just been released by IBM. Whitney Hous- Love of was No. 1 on the charts and the movie had just been released. The office last re- viewed the case in 2008 and declined to prosecute, according to a letter sent from office to the S.C. Attorney Gen- Office.

Guiterrez, a long- time critic of Metts and Myers, asked that the office not be involved in a 2015 review of the cold case, the letter states. office spent a lot of time working with investigators in this case, from both SLED and Lexington County, and came to the conclusion that we would not be able to prove a case beyond a reasonable Robert Kittle, a spokes- man for Attorney General Alan Wilson, said Wednesday. made the determination is that there just enough evi- dence. We got asked to look at it a long time after her disappear- ance, so memories had faded or, in some cases, witnesses have died during that Gutierrez ready to stop. She is seeking other options to have the case reviewed.

ball was she said of the investigation. seen cases tried on less evidence than what they have with my WAS June 5, 1986, was an unevent- ful spring day for the Gutierrez family. After working in the yard, the family ate bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for dinner. was Gu- tierrez said. painted nails that night.

She asked to sleep with Jessie had slept with her mother the night before, and her older brother had an ear in- fection at the time, so Gutierrez said she let her son sleep in her bed. Jessie went to sleep around midnight in the double bed she shared with her then-6-year-old sister, Becky. IS YOUR The next morning, Gutierrez said she awoke to Becky calling out and asking if they could have cereal for breakfast. A chaotic scene greeted Gu- tierrez as she walked into her bedroom. The floor was littered with what appeared to be school papers.

The front door was open. The dog was in the house and the cur- tains had been ripped off one of the windows. is your Gu- tierrez asked Becky. Becky respond- ed. man with the magic hat and the beard took her last Gutierrez said she pulled the covers off the bed, looked under the bed and then in the closet.

No Jessie. Growing more frantic, she went outside to look around and under the mobile home. calling for her and screaming for she said. Back inside the home, she grabbed Becky, shook her and screamed at her to tell her where Jessie was, Gutierrez said. But Becky kept saying she only saw man with the magic hat and the take her little sister during the night.

Gutierrez recalled screaming at her daughter: you realize how crazy that is? telling me some man picked her up and just took her away, and you did what? Why you call for me? Why you Becky later told her mother she was too afraid to say any- thing, and that she re- member falling asleep after that. INVOLVED. I JUST CANNOT PROVE Sleep never came for Gutier- rez the night after she reported her daughter missing. The next day, she said, she was grilled at the de- partment by Metts and investi- gators over whereabouts. Just days before the child disappeared, Gutierrez kicked her boyfriend out of the house for what she said was possessive behavior and alcohol use.

After her interview at the department, Gutierrez said she called the ex-boyfriend and accused him of taking Jes- sie. know where she she recalled him saying. do you mean is she missing or this day, in my gut of guts and my heart of hearts, I know she said. just cannot prove That man was questioned repeatedly by Lexington County investigators but never charged, according to accounts in The State newspaper. father, who was sep- arated from Gutierrez, also was a suspect at one point, according to news reports.

However, he was living in California at the time, and when federal authori- ties located him on the West Coast, he was able to prove he was there when Jessie disap- peared. A FINGERPRINT, A COWBOY HAT AND A CONFESSION A fingerprint lifted from the window through which the in- truder is believed to have en- tered was key for investigators, Gutierrez said. The print was sent to the FBI but be matched, she said. But several weeks after Jessie disappeared, a West Columbia man who was a family acquain- tance stole a van in Lexington County and drove to North Car- olina, where he raped a woman, she said. He was charged and later convicted and sent to pri- son.

While in prison, the convict told a cellmate about how he kidnapped a girl in Lexington County, and that he was wearing a tall cowboy hat when he did it, Gutierrez said. The cellmate relayed the confession to author- ities and mailed a letter to Gu- tierrez explaining what the fam- ily acquaintance had told him. The cellmate also told police that the other inmate claimed to have buried the girl in a landfill in Lexington County. That prompted a weekslong search of a landfill near home that turned up nothing. Gutierrez told The State news- paper then, and again this month, that investigators ques- tioned the suspect about her abduction.

He off- ered to tell all in exchange for immunity, but his offer was denied, investigators told her. Officials never confirmed details of story. But Kittle said the Attorney Gener- Office was aware of what she told reporters. thoroughly reviewed and investigated everything we could with the Lexington County Sher- he said when asked if the alleged confession was investigated and what re- sulted. after an exhaustive review of all of the evidence, there was insufficient evidence to move forward with a This family acquaintance, and the ex-boyfriend Gutierrez kicked out days before disappearance, denied knowing each other, she said.

However, she recalled them meeting and talking at a group get-together at a Waffle House several months before Jessie disappeared. WAS NO An artificial Christmas tree sits by the front door in Gutier- home, a sight that was absent for many years after Jessie disappeared. quit having Christmas for my she said. was no Christmas after Jessie was gone. not gonna celebrate Gutierrez retired in 2010 from her job at the U.S.

Postal Serv- ice. She sold the trailer from which Jessie was kidnapped shortly after the disappear- ance. They moved away from Lexington County for a few months but later returned, and her oldest daughter, Kim, now lives with her about 4 miles from where Jessie was taken. kept thinking, may come she said. one may bring her Over the years, the investiga- tion went into hopeful directions that inevitably led to one dead end after another.

disap- pearance was featured on the TV shows Most and Mys- In 1991, Jessie was the first missing S.C. child whose photo was age-progressed using computer technology that was new at the time, according to news reports. Gutierrez even flew to Kansas in January 1987 to look at a young girl who matched Jessi- description, including scars and dental records. was she said. heard her voice before I even got to the (two-way mirror) to look at her, and I said, not DEVIL THAT WHISPERS IN MY Gutierrez said that two weeks after she reported Jessie missing, a detective told her that accord- ing to statistics on such cases, her daughter was dead.

Today, she does not think Jessie is still alive. But she holds on to hope. And despite her disdain for Lexington authori- ties, she has remained in the county in the event that some- one needs to find her with in- formation about her case. have to fight this little booger that sits on my shoulder, the devil that whispers in my Gutierrez said. he tells me every day of my life that my daughter is dead, that I will no longer see my daughter.

But, I have managed to tell the devil: Get behind me, Time and the lack of absolu- tion have taken their toll on Gutierrez and her family. For a while, she was addicted to pre- scription medication, and said tried on more than one occasion to end her life. talk as a family about Jessie, because each one has been damaged and each one has their she said. took me a year and a half to forgive my daughter (Becky) for not yelling that morning. I hate her; I just under- stand why she As daylight faded outside Edmund home on a December evening, just days after what would be her missing 36th birthday, she nodded toward the TV.

An epi- sode of was airing and it reminded her of another episode about a missing child. got a kid lost in the dark, not gonna stop searching for my kid until I find my she recalled the host saying. lost somewhere in the Gutierrez said, her voice crack- ing. not gonna stop until I find MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN Missing and Exploited Children Jessica Gutierrez was taken from her home in 1986. After more than 30 years of investigating, prosecutors still say there is not enough evidence to file charges and get a conviction.

FROM PAGE 1A JESSICA SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. The deadly wildfire that has ravaged Southern California for nearly two weeks gained fury over- night and now threatens swaths of coastal Santa Barbara County, authori- ties said Saturday. Heavy winds, dry brush and low humidity keep fueling the so-called Tho- mas Fire, said Jude Olivas, a public information offi- cer and Newport Beach firefighter who was mon- itoring the destruction. Smoke clouded the sky, forcing water-dumping helicopters to land and stay grounded through the afternoon. very, very poor visibility in those Olivas said of Montecito and Summerland, where emergency vehicles were parked at the ready out- side of churches and pub- lic schools.

got over 400 firetrucks out Aerial photos showed the blaze was about 40 percent contained Sat- urday, he said. But the risk remains high for people living near the foothills of Montecito home to a number of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. Joe Rosa, another fire- fighter in the area, said erratic winds kicked up the flames and pushed crews to temporarily re- treat. a safe Rosa said of the frontlines. pulled them out.

Our No. 1 goal is life safe- The mandatory evac- uation zone Saturday afternoon stretched 17 miles long and about 5 miles wide, running from the mountains northwest of Los Angeles to the Pa- cific Ocean. Rain expected to quench the area for another 10 days. Winds in the foothills reached 30 mph, with gusts hitting twice that speed. By 2 p.m., firefighters said they know if flames had charred any homes in the area, as- serting inspect neighborhoods once the blaze had cleared.

Melissa Baffa, 43, wor- ried about her workplace, which sits near the evac- uation perimeter. The inferno missed her house last week in the Ojai Val- ley, just east of Santa Bar- bara though it covered her lawn with ash and she hoped the Santa Bar- bara Museum of Natural History would survive, too. Inside are thousands of artifacts and bones, in- cluding an ancient mam- moth skull. like a war zone here, with all the fire- trucks and first respon- said Baffa, one of the grant writ- ers. has now moved from where I live to where I The fire has scorched roughly 259,000 acres and 700 homes in South- ern California since it started Dec.

4. The cost of battling the blaze has exceeded $104 million, officials said, as more than 8,000 firefighters work to suppress it. One firefighter died Thursday. Cory Iverson, 32, had worked with Cal Fire for eight years, serv- ing as an engineer for the San Diego unit. He was also the father of a 2-year- old daughter, and his wife, Ashley, is pregnant, ac- cording to the California office.

Across the city of Santa Barbara on Saturday, resi- dents began preparing for the worst. got the alert when I woke up this said Camron Kazerounian, 26. smoke looks crazy right now. You can see the dark plumes right over the Like many locals, Kaze- rounian is fleeing the city for safer ground he said he was heading back to his home in the Bay Area. have any respi- ratory issues normally, but you can start to feel the slight burn in the back of your he said.

been a week and half now that been smoky. You can smell the smoke and feel Shane Kleinebecker, who had just returned to the city after a short evac- uation to Bakersfield, said he had no choice but to pack up again. street under mandatory evacuation is visible from our front the 33-year-old said. State Street, normally a bustling center of life and commerce in downtown Santa Barbara, was eerily quiet Saturday as the Tho- mas Fire raged closer. Many shops and restau- rants were closed, and the street was nearly empty of pedestrians.

long a pop- ular hangout in Santa Barbara, also shuttered early. year will be our 90th said Deborah Bahre, 58, the assistant manager. consider ourselves an institution, so for us to close is a big Patrons have been leav- ing extra money to cover the meals, she said. day long had she said, and not one has paid a bill since the fire started. Deadly California wildfire threatens Montecito as more evacuations are ordered MIKE ELIASON Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP Fire engines provide structure protection at the historic San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, Saturday.

Santa Barbara County has issued new evacuation orders as a huge wildfire bears down on Montecito and other communities. BY MAX UFBERG AND DANIELLE PAQUETTE Washington Post.