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Xiana and Midsi Stories:

Possible Xiana kidnap tie -- I'll never forget the Sunday morning that I discovered a connection between Midsi Sanchez's abduction and the disappearance of Xiana Fairchild eight months earlier. Two girls, about the same age, both dark skinned with long dark hair, both allegedly abducted while traveling between their home and school. The possibility of a single abductor had been floated -- and dismissed as "highly unlikely" only days before. Only missing child advocate Kim Swartz believed otherwise.

     But a single happenstance clue that Sunday morning changed my life -- and shook Bay Area media when this story hit the streets.

Xiana charges may be matter of timing -- Curtis Dean Anderson’s sentencing for the abduction and sexual molestation of 9-year-old Midsi Sanchez was 30 days away. While awaiting his fate, he proudly claimed to all who would listen that he’d also grabbed Xiana Fairchild from a Vallejo street 9-months earlier.

            Given the professed pedophile’s proven ties to Fairchild’s parents – he had worked with the young girl’s mother and by all accounts actually met Xiana – his claims were credible. After breaking that story, my phone and e-mail had carried angry demands from readers asking why the police had not charged Anderson with the earlier disappearance.

Police responded with the standard “the case is still under investigation” response. I decided to take what I did know about the case, collect some independent outside opinions and produce a story analyzing possible police options concerning Anderson.

Note the remarkable statements made by the attorney charged with defending Anderson. 

Did accused abductor really take Xiana too? -- Thirteen months after 8-year-old Xiana Fairchild vanished from Vallejo, a tiny skull was discovered on a barren Los Gatos hillside. DNA testing determined it belonged to Xiana.

     The grizzly find shocked the girl's family, who had been subjected to months of jailhouse confessions by convicted child abductor Curtis Dean Anderson. While claiming responsibility for Xiana's kidnapping, he tortured family members with subtle hints the young girl was still alive and being held by strangers. 

     This story profiles the effects of these events on a young girl's homicide investigation -- and the grieving relatives.

Police chief draws connection between Xiana search and increased prostitution -- I wrote this story as the one-year anniversary of missing Xiana Fairchild's abduction approached. The Vallejo Police Department's investigation was stumbling after months of interviews and payroll overtime costs without a suspect..

      I decided to sit down with Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini and ask him to look back on the previous 12-months. He blamed local increases in prostitution and street narcotics on the missing child investigation.

     A story was made!