Jessica Click-Hill, Found after 14 Years, Says She Is Still Hiding From Dad

Exclusive: Jessica Click-Hill, Found after 14 Years, Says She Is Still Hiding From Dad
Jessica Click-Hill Denies She Was Brainwashed By Mom, Accuses Dad of Molesting Her

By MARY KATHRYN BURKE
March 26, 2010

The 22-year-old woman who refuses to see her father after hiding from him since the age of 8 says she is still in hiding, afraid that her father "is going to find me and show up on my doorstep."

Jessica Click-Hill was found last month and her mother Wendy Hill was arrested after 14 years of moving frequently and living under aliases.

She and her mother went on the lam after Jessica's father, Dean Click, won a court battle to share custody of the then little girl.

Since her discovery early this month, Jessica has refused to meet her father, prompting him to claim that Jessica has been brainwashed by her mother.

Jessica, who has changed her name to elude any attempt by her father to find her, talked exclusively to ABC News denying her father's claims.

"I have woken up screaming a couple times," Jessica stated. "I've not been brainwashed. I was there for everything that happened. I could go into vivid detail. They were nauseating and horrific acts.

"I am truly scared of him. I don't want him in my life. I don't want his letters. I am scared he is going to find me and show up on my doorstep," she told ABC News in an email statement following several conversations.

Jessica admitted that the constant moves to stay underground were difficult on a young girl, but said she felt the justice system was not doing enough to keep her father away from her.

"My childhood was happy, despite moving quite a bit," Jessica said. "I attended one high school. I'm now 22 and was married last year. I would describe myself as a geek, because I love video games. I would love to go to an art institute to study video-game art and design."

"I tried to tell people. No one other than my family would listen to me that this was going on," she said.

Jessica Click-Hill claims her father began molesting her at the age of 2.

Jessica is hoping to tell her version of what happened to her. "I've spent all these years hoping that my story could be told. Now that I'm an adult, I can stop feeling like a child no one cared to listen to," she said.

Jessica said she will continue to stand by her mother. "It saddens me that my mother… is being portrayed as a kidnapper. She had nothing else in mind than to keep me from the monster that is my father," she said.

Pam Davis, Dean Click's lawyer, told ABC News that he is "saddened" not to see his daughter. Davis added that at the time of the allegations, there was never enough evidence to charge Click. She said that he took a voluntary polygraph indicating he was not guilty of any abuse.

"His only concern is not about himself but about the possibility of meeting his daughter someday," Davis said. "He really loves his daughter."

Enormously Complicated

Ernie Allen, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, declined to speak specifically about Jessica's case. He said, however, the group often encounters situations where a young person has been lied to by a parent.

"It is enormously complicated," Allen said. "A lot of these reunification scenarios are not 'happily ever after' and a lot of the time the child wants nothing to do with the other parent for a host of reasons."

"It's been referred to as 'Parental Alienation Syndrome,'" Allen added. "The premise from the abducting parent is 'I am doing this for you – to save you – to protect you.' The children in these scenarios are very young and you have to believe in the rule of law. We pursued the search for Jessica for all these years because there was a felony warrant out for her mother's arrest."

Allen said that although Jessica does not want to see her father, the NCMEC succeeded in that it gave her father the information he had been seeking, the knowledge that Jessica was alive and well.

"Her father now knows she is ok and where she is," Allen said. "Reunification in parental abduction cases is a very difficult challenge. In 80 percent of these cases the motivation for the abduction is anger or revenge for the other spouse. That doesn't mean that in some cases the abduction parent doesn't have real concern or sometimes feel they have no other choice. But judges every day in cases like this one are asked to play Solomon. Obviously, the judge in this case did not find any proof of the allegation. Our focus is on finding the child."

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/woman-found-14-year-father-abused/story?id=10200029

wow - not sure what to say about this one....

Me either, tish. It's so hard to know if the molestation really took place, or if a bitter ex-wife brainwashed their child.....

Either way, it's sad for Jessica.

Wow is right. I don't know what to think either but I hope everything works out for these folks.