After nearly a week since their daughter went missing, the parents of the 10-year-old who disappeared on the way to school are speaking out. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
A heartbreaking flashlight vigil was held at the spot where a 10-year-old girl simply vanished.
"It could happen to anyone, it could hapen to me," said a tearful young girl who attended the vigil.
Little Jessica Ridgeway vanished on her way to school outside Denver six days ago. Now her parents are speaking out for the first time.
"You don't want any parent to ever experience in their whole entire life that you know your child has just been taken," said Jessica's very emotional mother, Sarah Ridgeway.
Tears streamed down her father's face as he spoke about Jessica, "We'll never stop looking. We love her."
But there are troubling questions about Ridgeway's disappearance. Her mother says she watched Ridgeway leave home to walk to school. Ridgeway was supposed to meet up with school friends at a park just 200 yards away. She was apparently abducted on that short walk.
"I watched her walk out the door, and I shut the door. And that's the last time I saw her and I want her to come walking back through that door," said Sarah.
The school called Ridgeway's mom that morning to say she had not arrived, but Sarah says she was asleep, because she works nights and didn't get the voice mail message for several hours.
When she did hear it, she says she conducted her own search for Ridgeway before calling police, eight hours after the child went missing.
"I know I didn't do anything. Everybody that is here knows I didn't do anything," said Sarah.
Her parents are not married and are fighting for custody. As they held a tearful press conference, FBI agents were thoroughly searching the Ridgeway's home.
INSIDE EDITION's Diane McInerney spoke with noted criminal profiler, Pat Brown.
"Will authorities be focusing on the mother?" McInerney asked.
"Authorities always focus on the parents first, simply because they're the ones often who harm their own children. They're going to be looking at the mother, because she was in the home with the child. They're going to want to know what her alibi is," said Brown.
Ridgeway's backpack and water bottle were found six miles from her home.
"The chances aren't good, but hopefully she'll still be alive out there," said Brown.
