Family appeals for girl's return

By Amy E. Turnbull
Staff Writer
amy.turnbull@wilmingtonstar.com

WHITEVILLE - As law enforcement
grew quieter here Wednesday, not
revealing the tenor of their investigation,
the family of a missing 4-year-old spoke
publicly for the first time.

With tears streaking down her smooth
cheeks, Vartasha "Tasha" McCullough told
the story of the last time she saw her
daughter, Kynande Bennett.

The pair came to Whiteville with
Kynande's father, Kevin Bennett of Loris,
S.C., to visit his brother. They dropped Mr.
Bennett off at his brother's, then headed to
the Kmart store to get Kynande a snack.

"Do you want some Froot Loops?" Ms.
McCullough asked her daughter as they
crossed the parking lot and entered the
store around 5 p.m. Sunday.

"No, ma'am," she recalled her daughter saying.

Ms. McCullough said she strayed off course for a second to get a shopping
cart, and when she turned to lift Kynande into the seat, she was gone. Ms.
McCullough, 24, of Conway, S.C., said she looked to her left and right, then
went to the parking lot and looked between cars and into her truck, all the while
calling "Kynande!"

Nothing.

Ms. McCullough went back in the store, where personnel called for Kynande
over the intercom system, but again, nothing.

Whiteville Police searched a half-mile radius of the store for Kynande late
Sunday, but the child seemed to have disappeared.

In the days since Sunday, Kynande's parents seemed to disappear, but they
underwent lie-detector tests and intensive interviews from state, local and
federal law enforcement agents.

Mr. Bennett still hadn't emerged by Wednesday afternoon, although he kept in
touch with volunteers from the Community United Effort's Center for Missing
Persons stationed in Whiteville, saying he was going to get there as soon as the
police were finished with him.

Before facing media representatives awaiting her Wednesday afternoon in
Whiteville, Ms. McCullough sat on the sofa in the Hallsboro living room of Bob
and Rosemary Powell, whose son Chase Powell, 19, disappeared earlier this
year and was later discovered dead in a remote field. The Powells have since
supported the CUE Center and have helped with this week's search. Ms.
McCullough rocked on the sofa with her arms folded over her stomach. At
times she cried quietly, covering her face, and at times she stared ahead without
blinking, almost as if she were frozen in a horrible nightmare with her eyes wide
open.

She said she hadn't eaten, slept or drunk since Sunday.

"Your heart is cool," she said, trying to describe her feelings. "Your body is
cool. You can't think. … They tell me 'don't cry,' but you don't know how I
feel," she continued, her sobs growing more intense. "That's my child."

Investigators won't tell what direction they're heading, but Ms. McCullough said
they have accused her of killing her child, of knowing who killed her child and
of covering up something sinister.

Her story of their suspicions seems to be borne out by the fact that investigative
efforts have centered on Conway.

"It's my understanding everybody's in our sister state, which is good," Whiteville
Police Lt. Glenda George said Wednesday. Police in Conway would only say
they were conducting interviews.

By investigating in Conway instead of Whiteville where the child was reported
missing, law enforcement has spoken volumes about what they suspect
happened to Kynande.

"They should be up here looking for my child in Whiteville," Ms. McCullough
said. She insisted she and Mr. Bennett came to Whiteville with their child
Sunday, and she took the child to Kmart, where she was snatched.

Surveillance cameras at the store weren't working that day, and police have
said no witnesses reported seeing Ms. McCullough enter the store with a child.

Ms. McCullough said a man told Mr. Bennett he had seen Kynande in the toy
department of Kmart but that the man hasn't been located.

Kynande had to have been snatched, her mother added, because she wasn't
friendly with strangers, and she was well-mannered. She would have asked her
mother's permission to go, Ms. McCullough said.

She urged whoever has her daughter to drop her off in a safe place.

"I won't press no charges. I want my child home," she said, adding a message
for the police: "My child is out there. I don't know where she at. …I just want
this to end. They don't know how I feel."

Ms. McCullough - a certified nursing assistant who works in an Horry County
nursing home during the day and is in school for an associate's degree in early
childhood development at night – was joined at the Powell residence by Mr.
Bennett's mother, Ophelia Bennett.

Mrs. Bennett repeated her mantra with a bowed head and through tears
Wednesday afternoon: "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."

She said since Sunday she has told her 12 other grandchildren to hold onto their
mothers. Mrs. Bennett described her feelings as "nothing but pain, honey.
Nothing but pain and hurt. Jesus says don't let my heart be troubled – it's so
hard - so I got to go that way."

About an hour later, just as her news conference was wrapping up in
Whiteville, Ms. McCullough broke down, wailing, kicking and screaming for her
daughter. Her face wracked with pain, Ms. McCullough needed say no more.

Wednesday night, she collapsed and was taken to the hospital by CUE
volunteers, according to Monica Caison, founder of the CUE Center.

Law enforcement will continue their investigation today while CUE Center
volunteers search for Kynande.

Amy Turnbull: 343-2389

amy.turnbull@wilmingtonstar.com