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Maryann Acker

Maryann Acker was adopted by a devout Mormon family and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona until she was 14, when her family moved to Yuma, Arizona. When she graduated high school in 1977, she moved back to Phoenix to be with friends. . . .

Roena Lee Ashing

Roena Ashing was born in Granite City, Illinois. In a household of five children, Roena says she was one of her father's favorites, which, she claims, made her mother behave abusively towards her. She dreamed of going into the military but in 1973, she gave birth to her daughter Loretta, and her military ambitions were thwarted.

Bernice Ahrens

Bernice Miller Ahrens was born on November 28th 1943 in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York into a Jewish family. She was the eldest of two children and had a younger brother who she says was the favorite child.

Celeste Fox

Celeste Fox was born in 1971, the eldest of six brothers and sisters, and grew up in St. Augustine Florida. When Celeste was in the eighth grade she says her mother made her drop out of school so that she could help care for her siblings.

Celeste Johnson

Celeste Johnson was one of four children to be adopted by Edwin and Nancy Johnson. She grew up in Southern California and was sent to private schools until she reached high school and her parents divorced.

Chanel Boyd

Chanel Boyd was born in 1961 to a mother who struggled with drug addiction. Her grandparents raised her and her siblings in inner city Chicago and as a young teen, Chanel liked to go to parties and hang out with friends, smoking marijuana and drinking.

Cindy Countess

Cindy Countess, the fourth of five children, was born to Edna Dooley in 1954. As a young woman she was very active and talented, winning trophies for skating. Her older sister Naomi describes Cindy as a bright and vivacious young woman with a zeal for life.

Connie Keel

Connie Keel grew up in Santa Monica, California. When her parents divorced in 1965, she went to live with her mother who was on welfare. When she was 15 years old, she began dating Ricky Keel, also 15.

Deana Fairchild

Deana Fairchild was born at Lackland Air Force base in Texas in 1955 where her father worked as a mechanic. When her father left the air force, he moved the family to Wisconsin and became a truck driver. But according to family members, Deana was a troubled child...

Deborah Pieringer

Deborah Lynn Pieringer was the only child born to Loyd and Agnes Courtney on June 4, 1953 in a middle-class neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas. Loyd Courtney worked for over 50 years with the Fort Worth Police Department as a fingerprint expert. Agnes Courtney dedicated much of her life to community service. Although she was a shy girl, Deborah sang in the Texas Girls Choir and was an avid swimmer . . .

Jennifer Lynn Blake

Jennifer Lynn Blake was born in Puerto Rico in 1975. Four years later, her mother, Kathy Kraynick, gave birth to Jennifer's brother, Michael. Jennifer's father was in the Navy and the family moved from state to state as he was assigned to different bases.

Leslie Demeniuk

Leslie Demeniuk was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. When Leslie was twelve years old, her parents divorced and she went to live with her father in Baltimore, but kept in touch with her mother. At age 25, she began dating Tommy Demeniuk and became pregnant, right before Tommy was deployed to the Persian Gulf with the Navy.

Rita Nitz

Rita Jo Nitz was born in 1959 in the Midwest. Her father made a living as a truck driver and only saw his children a few days a week. Rita became pregnant at 16 and married her 21-year-old boyfriend Michael Hayward.

Susan D'Aquila

Susan D'Aquila grew up the second youngest in a family with seven children on Chicago's south side. She was just eight years old when her father died in 1963. As she got older, Susan just knew she was gay, but one brief relationship with a boy at age 15 left Susan pregnant with a daughter.

Peggy Hilt

Peggy Hilt was born in Ogdensburg, New York in 1972 and grew up in a large family with five brothers and sisters. She says her father suffered from alcoholism causing him to be verbally abusive at times. Despite her father's disease her family life was as she describes "relatively normal".

Stacey Lannert

Stacey Lannert was born in 1972 in St. Louis Missouri. At first, she had a seemingly normal childhood, but according to Stacey, when she was eight years old, her father began to molest her in the basement of their home.

Diane Metzger

Diane Hamill was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania in 1948. She was a young girl who struggled with self-esteem problems, did not consider herself attractive, was overweight, but was extremely bright.

Carmen Ortiz

Carmen was born and raised in the North side of Chicago in a diverse area known as Logan Square. She was the oldest of six brothers and had a special bond with her siblings. But Carmen struggled in adolescence.

Delpha Spunaugle

Delpha grew up in Southeastern Oklahoma as the youngest of four sisters. As the baby of the family, and by her own admission, she was spoiled by her parents and sisters. By all accounts, she had a normal childhood.

Virginia Twenter

Virginia was born in Oceanside, California in 1961, the eldest of three children. Her father had been a military man and Virginia claims he could be domineering and abusive.

Charaty White

Charaty White grew up in a depressed neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri where the streets were filled with violence and illegal activity. Because of the surroundings she lived in, Charaty grew up fast and left home at the age of 15.

Rose Ann Parker

Rose Ann Parker grew up in Ontario, California, the daughter of a preacher. As a young woman she wanted to bring people closer to God through her talents in the entertainment field. She would line up at the doors of a very popular 70?s dance show to appear in the background as a dancer.

Rebecca Bivens

Rebecca Bivens was raised in the small community of Streator, Illinois. Her father worked for a glass manufacturer and her mother was active in the Baptist Church. From a young age, she had frequent mood swings in which she cried a lot and felt hopeless.

Patricia Joellen Johnson

Patricia Joellen Johnson, known as Joellen, grew up in Mattoon, Illinois with her parents and her older brother. When she was six, her father walked out on the family.

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