200 pray for happy ending
By Dawn Bryant
The Sun News
WHITEVILLE, N.C. — A week after a 4-year-old Conway girl disappeared,
searches in two states, questions posed to her parents and the distribution
of hundreds of fliers haven't brought her home.

But the community hasn't given up on finding Kynande Bennett, gathering
Sunday night for a candlelight vigil meant to mark the end of the
exhausting week and show hope that the ordeal will have a happy ending.

After seven days of searching, relatives, friends and volunteers renewed
their efforts Sunday with song, prayer and candles that cast a glow along
Virgil Street in Whiteville, where Vartasha McCollough reported her
daughter missing from a Kmart on Sept. 29. Nearly 200 people, including
busloads of relatives and friends from Georgetown, asked God to help heal
the hurt.

"Whatever it is, God's got it," said the Rev. James Smith.
"God is going to bring this thing to the light. God will bring this to a close."

Relatives begged the crowd to give any information to help find Kynande as
volunteers announced plans for another service in the coming days.
Volunteers in Georgetown, where McCollough and Kynande lived before
moving to Conway this summer, planned to start tying yellow ribbons on
trees around town today.

"We will not stop hoping and praying until she is found," said Thomasina
Herman, McCollough's second cousin.

"We always hold out hope that they are out there," said Monica Caison,
director of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, a
Wilmington-based group that has searched for Kynande for the past week.

Law enforcement officials didn't share any new information on their efforts
during the weekend.

Officers have searched areas near the store, McCollough's home and
nearby property. They've questioned the parents, Kevin Bennett of Loris
and McCollough of Conway.

Although the search began in Whiteville, police said last week they have no
evidence Kynande was in North Carolina. The focus of the investigation
shifted to South Carolina.

"We are still working," said Capt. Larry Schilling of the Conway Police
Department. "We want to find the child, and we are working as hard as we
can."

Conway police have been getting tips since the investigation started, but
Schilling declined to say how many or whether they have been credible
leads.

Calls to CUE's missing persons line have been light, with volunteers taking
about 15 tips last week, Caison said. A typical missing child case generates
between 30 and 50 calls daily, she said.

Caison blames the discrepancy in Kynande's case on the lack of national
media attention, which she says is crucial because Kynande could be
outside the Carolinas.

"It's just been very frustrating because we just don't know anything,"
Caison said.

Contact DAWN BRYANT at 626-0296 or dbryant

@thesunnews.com.

email this |
print this