Chicago, Oct 22 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Opal Horton was kidnapped 24 years ago along with her friend Melissa Ackerman by Brian Dugan. Unfortunately Melissa could not escape and she was found dead after some days. Opal Horton did manage to escape but not without losing her innocence and her trust in a lot of things. She says that, “I did not escape unscathed”

This tragic incident happened on 2nd June 1985, when a sweet innocent 8 year old Opal Horton was riding her bike with her good friend Melissa Ackerman on a gravel road in Somonauk when Brian Dugan stepped from a blue AMC Gremlin, asked the girls for directions uptown and grabbed Opal.

Brian pushed Opal in the front seat of his car and then started chasing Melissa, and grabbed her under his arm. While all this was happening, brave little girl Opal tried to open the car door to safety but found that they were disabled. She then jumped out from a window on the gravel road and to safety. However Melissa was still trapped in her kidnapper’s clutches and couldn’t escape from them.

A fortnight later,a LaSalle County deputy sheriff found her body in a ditch east of Mendota. Brian Dugan was apprehended and he pleaded guilty too.

Opal might have escaped, but she carries guilt within her too, that her friend perished while she herself ran to freedom. She is afraid too of the dark and rarely goes out alone, without company and hates getting into her car after it’s been parked outside overnight.

Opal Horton is married and is now a 32-year-old working mother of two teenage boys.