Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One of two girls who disappeared together three weeks ago surfaced Sunday in the Virginia Beach area.
Crystal Kernen, 16, of Lynchburg called her parents early Sunday, and they picked up her up in Hampton that afternoon. Jamie Wheat, 15, of Bedford is still missing.
"I've been praying for her every night since I've been back home," said Crystal, who says she last saw Jamie on April 8 at a Virginia Beach hotel.
They were at a party, Crystal said, and she told Jamie that she had decided to stay with a friend. She said she gave Jamie a phone number where she could be reached, then left Jamie the keys to her car, in case Jamie needed a place to sleep.
A week went by, Crystal said, and she didn't hear from Jamie. When she went back to where the car had been parked, it was gone. Jamie didn't know how to drive, Crystal said.
"I was scared something happened to Jamie," Crystal said.
Bedford Police Chief Milton Graham said Wednesday that police in other jurisdictions are looking for Jamie, but so far no leads have panned out. Police also have no leads on the missing car, a red Nissan Pulsar, license PSL-411. The car, which belongs to Crystal's parents, has been reported stolen.
Crystal and Jamie were reported missing April 2 after they dropped off a 7-year-old child near Crystal's house in the middle of the night. The child, who was a friend of Crystal's, told the Kernens that Crystal and Jamie were running away.
"We were both really depressed and we didn't want to live here anymore," Crystal said Wednesday. "We thought nobody cared. I didn't realize how many people did [care]. People called me when I got back and said they were praying for me."
Some of Jamie's friends and family doubt Jamie went with Crystal of her own will. They say the two girls were on bad terms because Jamie was scheduled to testify against Crystal at an assault and battery trial in Bedford County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Jamie's family says she witnessed a fight in which Crystal was charged with beating up another girl. Jamie's sister, Melissa, also was charged in the attack. The trial, which was scheduled for a week after the girls disappeared, has been continued until May 11.
Crystal was discharged from a Lynchburg mental treatment center a week before she left with Jamie.
She denies there was any bad blood between her and Jamie. "We were friends," she said. "Right now, we're really good friends."
She also said Jamie couldn't have testified against her in the trial because Jamie didn't see the fight.
At the time of the fight, Crystal said, Jamie was in nearby woods with a friend. Jamie and the friend emerged at the end of the fight and didn't see much of anything, Crystal said.
The friend, who asked not to be identified, disagreed. He said Wednesday that he and Jamie witnessed the entire fight.
Contradicting reports that the girls had been sighted in Roanoke at Valley View Mall, Crystal said she and Jamie drove straight to Virginia Beach and stayed there.
Neither girl had money or extra clothes. They skipped from party to party, staying with people they met, Crystal said. She said she drank a lot of alcohol and ate very little.
It was a hard trip, she said. The night she called her parents, she said, she was held up at gunpoint. Earlier, she said, a man beat her up.
When they last saw each other, Crystal said, Jamie was with three Virginia Beach men. One of them, an 18-year-old who works at a pizza restaurant, said Wednesday that he had seen Jamie last weekend on the beach. He said he didn't see Crystal's car and hasn't seen Jamie since.
"She was pretty cool," he said of Jamie. He said he had been surprised when Crystal left Jamie and the car behind at the hotel.
Crystal has a long history of running away from home. Jamie has a court-imposed curfew because she disobeyed her mother and once stayed out all night.
Jamie often told friends that she wanted to run away, according to the friend who said he witnessed the fight in Bedford.
Still, her father thinks it's pretty unusual. "It's not like her to vanish like this," Jim Wheat said. He says he hasn't heard much from police and still is worried.
"It seems to me there's a whole lot more to this story than's being told," he said.
Jamie Wheat is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. She has medium-length brown hair and has a birthmark on her right thigh.
Anyone with any information on her whereabouts can call the Bedford police at (703) 586-7112, or Jim Wheat at (703) 343-4922.
by CNB