Seven-year-old Bonnie Lohman had an unusual upbringing. She moved about a lot as a kid,

spending most of her time in Hawaii and the small island of Saipan, where she lived mostly in

shacks and rarely spent much time outdoors. Eventually, sometime in the early 1980s, her family,

consisting only of herself, her mother, and her stepfather, settled down in Colorado, where she

slowly gained a little

more freedom. Life was simple enough until one day when little Bonnie accompanied her stepfather

on the weekly grocery run, unaware that she was about to make the discovery of a lifetime.

You're listening. You're listening. You're listening. Be amazed.

While innocently wandering the dairy aisle, Bonnie noticed something out of the ordinary,

sitting among the other cartons of milk in the chiller, something strange caught her eye.

Printed on one of the familiar containers

was a face staring right back at her. When she looked a little closer, she realized it wasn't just

any face. It was her own. As she hadn't been formally educated in school, Bonnie crucially couldn't

make out the words printed above her picture in bold letters, missing child.

Feeling excited by her apparent local fame, as any other little girl might be,

Bonnie asked her stepfather if she could buy the carton.

In a moment of remarkable hubris, he purchased the milk and cut out the picture for Bonnie

to keep under one strict condition, that she never mentioned it to anyone else.

If there's one thing little kids aren't known for, it's keeping secrets. Although she tried her best to stick to her

word, Bonnie wasn't awfully careful with the cutout she carried around with her. During a play date at her

neighbor's house one day, Bonnie left the photograph in a bag of toys, and it was this simple

mistake that would turn her life upside down.

...