Originally Published Friday, April 21, 2000

Galt

Missing trio still sought

GALT -- Purple, yellow, pink and violet balloons floated into the clear blue sky, carrying a plea for help.

"We're doing this in the hope that maybe one of these balloons will land somewhere and somebody will call," said Jeanne Peterson of Dixon, choking back tears.

On Thursday, Peterson and others continued the drive to keep in the public eye their search for her daughter, Annie Marie Hernandez, 34, and her children, 2-year-old Jesika Hernandez and 5-year-old Korra Meyers. No sign or word from the three, who lived in Galt, has come in almost six months.

At the Galt Sports Complex, about 30 people -- including missing-persons advocates Kim Wrage-Vanderheiden and Marc Klaas -- attended the launching of balloons with ribbons carrying a small note.

The note has pictures of the missing trio and asks anyone with information to call 1-877-4-U-ANNIE.

The event coincided with the birthday of Annie Marie Hernandez' son, who is not missing.

"Daniel is turning 2 today, and he doesn't have his mommy. This is the hardest thing for a family to have to deal with," said Wrage-Vanderheiden, who intimately knows of such an ordeal. Her sister, Cyndi Vanderheiden of Clements, has been missing since 1998 and is believed murdered.

Galt Police Detective Steve Denier said officers are still following up "all angles" on the Hernandez case.

But the disappearance is a mystery.

On Nov. 2, the woman took her two daughters and son, Daniel, to meet with relatives in Sacramento, police said. There she dropped her son off with one of the relatives before leaving with the girls.

The three were in a gray 1993 Dodge Caravan minivan with maroon pin striping, tinted windows, a dented door and a cracked windshield.

Police said the woman had talked about traveling and visiting relatives out of state, but there was no indication she was ready to go.

Not knowing the three's whereabouts "is very frustrating," said a friend, Lee Williams of Stockton. "Somebody had to have seen something. People just don't disappear without someone knowing something."

Klaas -- whose daughter Polly was kidnapped and killed in 1993 -- said everyday that passes without word of missing loved ones can be seen as getting "further from the truth."

He said the way the Galt family vanished is "very mysterious. People just don't disappear off the face of the earth. The thing is, nothing ever makes sense until they come home one way or another."