Mother's plea to her missing daughter: 'Come home'

The man suspected of helping kidnap a Bonney Lake teenager is in custody. But the search for Lily Christopherson has yielded leads, but so far, little else.

Her disappearance is taking a toll on her desperate mother.

Her mother was asked when she last saw her daughter.

"Tuesday the eighth (of May) at 11 o'clock," said Lena Winters. "She gave me a hug and said 'Good night, I love you.' "

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The tears come easily as Winters remembers the last time she saw her 15-year-old daughter.

"And I got up the next morning and she was gone," Winter said.

That was May 9.

Winters told the authorities that Lily was likely with Alex, an 18-year-old friend.

So Bonney Lake police put out an alert.

But Winters found Alex and he was alone.

"The next day I took him to talk to the detective," she said. "And he told him."

He told detectives a horrifying story. He said he and Lily were at the Federal Way Transit Center when they were approached by a woman and a man later identified as Christopher Fitzpatrick, a 39-year-old convicted child molester.

The couple convinced the teens to go with them.

Her father related what happened next.

"And proceeded to tell my daughter that she was beautiful," said A.J. Christopherson. "And that she could pose nude for photos.

These people are predators and they're preying on my daughter."

Then, Saturday night came a big break. An anonymous tip led investigators to a Lakewood address where they found and arrested Fitzpatrick.

But there was no sign of the missing teen.

"I was devastated," Winters said.

Not knowing what to do, they decided to hold a candlelight vigil near the Federal Way Transit Center to plead with Lily and anyone who sees her to come back home.

"She is only 15 years old," her aunt, Charlotte Spain, told the crowd of family, friends and strangers. "She is just a baby to us. So if somebody has her, let her go and let her come home to her mom and dad.”

Winters pleaded directly with her daughter.

"Go in a big grocery store, find a family," she implored. "They'll let you use their phone. They'll help you."

A mother's anguished plea to a child, so precious.

"She's my only child," she said, her eyes filling with tears, "and my world."

Now Winters and police are asking the public to be on the lookout for Lily Christopherson. 
Anyone who is certain they have seen her is asked to call 911.

Cox Media Group