More than 100 pray at missing girl's vigil
By Tonya Root
The Sun News

GEORGETOWN — More than 100 people took home yellow and white bows
Sunday from a candlelight prayer vigil held for missing 4-year-old Kynande
Bennett.

"The yellow symbolizes a missing person and the white the hope of a safe
return," said Jean Brown, Georgetown County school board member.

The group gathered at St. Stephen AME Church in Georgetown, which is
where Kynande and her mother, Vartasha McCollough, attended services
before moving to Conway this summer. The crowd sang several songs and
prayed for the child's safe return.

"We live in a nation where children are not often protected," said the Rev.
Phil Thrailkill of Duncan United Methodist Church in Georgetown. "Lord,
would you reveal what has happened to this little girl; we pray to find her
alive and well."

McCollough reported her daughter missing Sept. 29 from a Whiteville, N.C.,
Kmart.

Conway police searched McCollough's home at 2004 E. Neely Drive on
Sept. 30 for blood and other physical evidence and later named her, as well
as Kynande's father, Kevin Bennett, as suspects.

Bennett and McCollough sat together in the front row at the vigil, but they
declined to be interviewed after the service.

Both parents have said they
had no part in the child's disappearance.

No charges have been filed in the case and police said Friday they expect a
long-term investigation.

The last time anyone saw the girl was two days before she was reported
missing, when a Conway convenience store recorded the girl and her
mother on a surveillance camera, Conway police said.

Investigators are awaiting forensic evidence test results from the State Law
Enforcement Division in Columbia.

The investigation is currently being led by Conway police. Police in
Whiteville said they found no evidence the child was in their town. Conway
police have asked for help from anyone who saw Kynande before she was
reported missing.

"We are begging, please bring her back," Thomasena Herman, a family
spokeswoman, said Sunday. "We will not stop hoping and praying until she
is found."

Contact TONYA ROOT at 626-0306, 1-800-568-1800, Ext. 306, or
troot@thesunnews.com.