especially those from the hispanic community, because you play such a critical role in supporting the economic prosperity that has lifted so many up into the middle class and beyond. >> the obama campaign made sure it sent its own representative to appeal to the hundreds of influential hispanics gathered in washington for the ushcc legislative conference. >> the son of an immigrant, barack obama has a perspective of the american experience that really isn't too different from that of our own. in many ways, he embodies our experiences of succeeding despite daunting challenges. he has worked with and in the latino community since his earliest days as a community organizer, and that's why i think he has enjoyed strong support among latinos in his home state of illinois. >> and not to be left out are the republicans. this year, president george w. bush made his third appearance before the ushcc and took the

opportunity to unveil his prosal for a free trade agreement with colombia and panama. >> if you are worried about america's image in the world, it makes no sense to disappoint the nations that are counting on us most. if you care about lifting developing nations out of poverty, you cannot deny them access to the world's greatest engine of economic growth. if you are truly optimistic about our country's future, there is no reason to wall our nation off from the opportunities of the world. >> and as always, when speaking before the ushcc, the president relished the opportunity to practice his spanish. >> gracias. [applause] thank you. sienta se. [laughter] gracias, mi amigo david. thank you for having me back yet again to speak. this is an opportunity de practicar mi español.

of course, a lot of people say i ought to be spending more time practicing my english. >> president bush has publicly endorsed john mccain to be his successor in the white house. in election 2004, george w. bush won 40% of the latino vote. >> the hispanic vote has become so significant that baltimore's prestigious johns hopkins university has launched an advanced studies program called the hispanic voter project. when we return, we will have a preview of some of the stories our producers are working to bring you in future weeks. "hispanics today" will be right back.

>> welcome back. here are some of the things you can expect to see in upcoming shows. with so much attention on venezuela's president hugo chavez, much of that country's rich culture has been overshadowed by politics. we'll meet an incredible artist from venezuela who is helping refocus attention on her home country. it is called abrazos and books, an international effort aimed at helping children around the world victimized by natural disasters. we'll introduce you to the legendary bay area newscaster who pulled it all together. a profile of rigo chacon. and our hispanics today nutritionist silvia melendez klinger will return with another installment of her ongoing "recipe makeover" series. "hispanics today" will be right back.

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>> before we leave, we want to remind you of our web site, hispanicstoday.com. from there, you can view past stories and keep up with current events. you can also share your feedback. if you have ideas or suggestions, we'd love to hear from you. either go to the website and click on the contact button or e-mail us at ideas@hispanicstoday.com. we'll see you again soon for another editn of "hispanics today." hasta la proxima vez.

child support. >> donna and the kids moved in with a friend in garden grove, california. dick visited his children on weekends but by 1969 donna had found a new boyfriend. the presence of a new man in donna's life did not bother him just as long as dick could see his kids. he clearly remembers one of his visits. >> rich went outside playing, michelle and i were in the

living room, watching tv. i was vitting mostl with her. she was a good kid. she wasn't fussy. she was a typical, real happy child. >> at the time rich jr. was 6 and michelle was 3. dick asked ability their well being and donna assured him everything was fine. she said her new boyfriend was good with children. the new boyfriend was michael kent who had a son of his own named jamie. kent, donna and their children lived together as a new family. one day in the summer of 1969 dick made an unannounced visit, but no one answered the door. so he left and came back a few hours later, but still no answer. what at that point did you think had happened. >> i just figured they were gone for the day. nobody was there. knocking on the doors and looking over the fence and stuff, there was just nobody at the house. >> it had been a while since

dick had visited his children so he wasn't sure what to think. he decided to contact one of donna's friends who told him something strange. donna, her boyfriend and the kids had apparently moved away, without telling dick. >> she said, oh, they moved. i said what do you mean they moved. she said, well, they left the state. >> have they left any forwarding address? >> uh-uh. >> any phone contacts, anything like that. >> >> nothing. they just up and disappeared from that house. >> even though donna had full custody of the kids dick never imagined they would take the kids and vanish without his permission. he immediately complained to local authorities. >> i went to the social services, told them, they can't do that. that's illegal. they said, well, yeah, she can. she's got full custody. she can do what she wants. >> without any notification? >> anything. >> he was helpless and heart sick. where were they?

it would be months and he would receive another blow. news that his wife and son were accounted for, but his daughter, michelle, was not. somehow, michelle was gone. coming up -- as a father continues his search, a glimmer of hope. is help finally on the way. >> this one grainy picture you get an image of what she could have been growing up. you were driven. >> she said, oh, they moved. i said, what do you mean they moved? well, they left the state. >> had they left any forward read ssd pan, neycontact? >> nothing. they up and disappeared from that house. >> when "the girl in the little blue dress" continues. ben fell in love with the scent of gain laundry detergent...

in 1972. ♪ more than thirty years later, not much has changed. ♪ gain. to smell it is to love it. what are you waiting for? it had been nearly a year since donna pulcifer left california, vanishing in the summer of 1969. then suddenly she returned. her ex-husband, dick pulcifer learned about it from mutual friends. >> during all this time she hadn't called you?

>> never heard a word. >> donna had been living in illinois with mike kent, her boyfriend who she would soon marry. now nearly a year aft she first left california she was unexpectedly back. but she had only one of dick's children with her, his son, rich jr. >> saw her, talked to her, where's michelle. she's with friends. i said, no, no, no. where is she at? i want to talk to her, see her. i want to know where she's at. that's none of your business. >> none of your business? >> that is what she said. >> donna allowed dick to take his young son for a ride. during this ride rich jr. said some alarming things, he, too, had no idea where his little sister was. hadn't seen her in months, since the day mike kent and donna packed them all up and left california and little michelle was not with them. >> he said when we left,

michelle was not there. i said, what do you mean she wasn't there? he said when we packed up, i don't know where she was. she just wasn't with us. >> angry and frustrated dick confronted donna about michelle's whereabouts. >> i figures, you know what? this can happen to my son. i got him right now. i said i'm taking him. she said, no, you're not. i'll call the police on you. we got into a yelling contest. i said this is over. this is done. i'm not doing this. i went to the police department again to file a missing person this time. >> according to dick police referred michelle's disappearance to the orange county district attorney's office, once again h was asked who had legal custody of michelle and was told as long as donna had custody and said she knew where the child was, there was nothing police or dick could do about it. >> she's missing. >> and they would not do

anything. i was so beside myself i could have ripped the counter off. i knew there was something wrong. i didn't think anything violent or, you know, anything physical happened. >> there was good reason for dick pulcifer to have such fears just days after his confrontation with his ex-wife, donna left california and disappeared once again, this time taking rich jr. and the secret of where michelle might be with her. with no one to turn to, dick kept searching for thiz children on his own until sadly the days turned into years. dick went on with his life but not one day went by without him thinking about where his children might be. and then in 1980, 11 years after donna first left california there was a break. dick pulcifer was served with court papers, a new request for child support.

donna requested child support for only one child, rich jr., not for michelle. she divorced mike kent and was living in wisconsin. her address was listed on these documents so dick immediately got her number and called. he talked to his son rich jr. who is now 17 years old and oke to donna who unbelievably refused to tell him where michelle was living. >> what is life like when you have to wonder and look at every little girl you see? >> you're always seeing that child somewhere, walking through a crowd. wow, that could have been here. >> this isn't like once a year? >> no. it's all the time. >> after dick called donna's home he and rich jr. reconnected as father and son. within a year rich jr. decided to move to california to live with his fare. as a kid, whenever he asked his mother about michelle she would change the subject. over the years, rich jr. was

hauntded by something he remembered hearing late one night back when he lived with his mom. >> i think it was my junior year. i don't recall exactly. but i woke up to her crying, her bedroom door was closed and i heard michelle's name and i also heard dead also but i was not quite coherent and just barely awake. >> about a year after rich jr. moved to california, dick took him to a hypnotist to see if he could remember a clue, mbe a distant memory that would lead them to michelle but the session proved useless. rich jr. was forced to hold on to his fading memory of the last time he saw his sister alive. he was 6 years old. it was in the wee hours of the morning when 3-year-old michelle woke him up. >> she came strolling in the room and crawled up on my bed and asked me to hide her. she said hide me.

>> please? >> yeah. hide me. >> did she seem terrified? >> no. just minutes, probably not even a minute after that, mom came in and, you know, took her out of the room. >> and what did she say? >> she didn't say anything. she just picked her up and walked her out of the room. >> did you ever see her again? >> that was the last time. >> within a day or two his mother and mike suddenly decided to move away saying they were leaving michelle with relatives. during their 11-year separation rich jr. had no idea how badly dick wanted to find his children. now after living under his dad's roof, his father's obsession to find michelle also became his quest n. 1987 or '88, nearly 20 years after his little sister disappeared, rish jr. called his mother demanding to know wh really happened to michelle. >> she just flat out said i'm not going to tell you. i said i'm her brother.

don't you think i have the right to know. >> sure. >> she said, rich, things happen. we didn't have a lot of money and we couldn't keep all three of you. and be grateful that i chose you. i asked her, is she still alive. and she said yes. and i asked her well, is she still under the last name of pulsifer a she said yes. i said, what is it going to take for you to tell me? she said rich, i'm not here to make a deal with you. that was pretty much it. >> had michelle been sold or given up for adoption or fallen ill and taken somewhere. and why would donna be so secretive? had michelle been harmed? dick had long since remarried but he never stopped looking for his michelle. he scanned the internet searching names and speaking once with a michelle kelly

pulsifer, but sadly, it wasn't his michelle. in 2001, 32 years after michelle's disappearance, dick's relatives had a family reunion at a park in san diego. it was there a former sister-in-law was reminded about michelle's disappearance and dick's desperate attempts to find her. she offered financial help to hire a private investigator who might finally find michelle. >> when we were first hired to find michelle pulsifer, i assumed it would be quite easy and is would take matter of several weeks if not a month. >> paul chamberlain worked as an fbi agent for many years, handling hundreds of kidnapping and extortion cases before forming his own security and consulting firm in los angeles. >> the facts as given to me sounded like a domestic problem and that, therefore, the child

was probably out there somewhere and not that difficult to find. >> but after searching for documents, school records and interviewing dozens of people, not only had chamberlain not found michelle but after she was about 3 years old he could find nothing to suggest michelle pulsifer existed. >> i had a feeling something terrible happened when we realized standard investigative techniques were not finding her. >> he had never seen anything like it. he reported to dick, there was no paper trail, no one who had seen her, no leads whatsoever. nothing. when a father has searched so long, how much does nothing weigh? almost enough to crush him. >> when he said there's no reco

record. from 196 -- there was no record of michelle from 1969 on. >> that's when chamberlain took his files to the orange county district attorney's office, the same office where 30 years earlier authorities told dick since he didn't have legal custody they could do nothing finding the missing girl. this time they saw something in the case and this small photograph from 1969. larry yellin, orange county deputy district attorney. i got the feeling early on seeing this grainy picture, all we had at the time of this little blonde girl and you get an image of what she could have been maybe, growing up, what her life could have been like, things she was depried so you are driven to find out what

happened. >> an investigator from the district attorney's office spoke to donna who was married for a third time. she was living in wisconsin. her new name, donna prentice. for the first time since leaving california, she tells her story. coming up -- can michelle's mother help find her? is it possible after all this time that michelle is still alive? >> we started this investigation thinking she's dead, but wouldn't it be great if we were wrong. >> he told me the day he was in custody in the county jail, he called me and said, jamie, i swear i would never hurt that litt girl. >> who do you think did it? >> my dad swore he didn't hurt that little girl. i think donna did it. >> why wouldn't he walk out the door and go to authorities. >> he was in love. he was protecting donna, i believe.

in september 2003 donna told an investigator what happened to little michelle. the last time she saw her daughter was before she and mike kent packed up the family to leave huntington beach, california. mike had taken michelle to stay temporarily with his mother who lived nearby. donna agreed to this arrangement. the next day donna, rich jr., mike and his son jamie traveled to illinois. once they were settled they would send for michelle. that was the plan, donna told the investigator. but investigators later learned that donna never sent for

michelle. years passed and no one reported seeing her again. the more they looked into donna's story about mike giving michelle to mike's mother, jane lambert, the more donna's story appeared to unravel. when michelle was allegedly left with mike's morrelltives say lambert was an alcoholic suffer from breast cancer and in no condition to care for a 3-year-old girl. not the type of person donna would choose to watch her daughter let alone raise her. relatives said all those years lambert supposedly had michelle no one ever saw her with the lile girl. three years after donna and mike left california, lambert died. it was 1972. she was buried at all saints cemetery, in des plaines, illinois, less than an hour's drive from where donna and mike were living. michelle would have been 6 years

old yet donna didn't attend the funeral. she never asked to see her daughter. she never made a phone call. if michelle wasn't with jane lambert, where was e? had she been sold or adopted as dick had feared? after more than 30 years of hope and heartbreak, dick pulsifer was no closer to finding out what really happened to michelle. at what point do you give up that hope? >> when they tell me what happened. why isn't she here? >> orange county investigators continued searching and soon new information surfaced about mike kent. the boyfriend turned husband and now ex-husband had a criminal record with convictions for battery and violating restraining orders and a history of alcohol and drug abuse. >> we concluded michelle never left that home in huntington beach arks live.

>> mike kent and donna prentiss were arrested for murder. mike reached out for jamie kent. he was only 2 the day they left california. >> he told me the day he was in custody, he called me, he said jamie, i swear, i never hurt that little girl. >> who do you think did it? >> my dad swore to me he didn't hurt that little girl. i think donna did it. >> why would he not walk out the door and go to authorities. >> he was in love. he was protecting donna. >> mike kent and donna prentice pleaded not guilty. as it turned out, mike would never have his day in court. he was in poor health when he was arrested and died just six months later. with kent dead, donna prentice

was about to stand trial for murdering her daughter despite the case's challenges. >> you don't have a body? >> right. >> you don't have a murder weapon? >> right. >> do you have a motive? >> i couldn't comment. >> he said his team of investigators exhausted all leads, talks to friends, relatives and former roommates in an effort to find michelle or at least to find out what happened to her. >> we started this investigation thinking she was dead but wouldn't it be great if we were wrong and we could reunite this now adult girl with her long lost father. >> maybe she did go to another family or ran away or grew up with somebody. how do you prove that is not the case? >> because all the avenues we went to, all the hints or clues we could have had led us to the sad conclusion and that is she was dead and never left that

ho house in hutington beach alive. >> was there an accident, was she deliberately killed the prosecutor said it was time somebody besides her father stood up for little miller so he would in court. >> what is it about that 30-year-old grainy picture of that little girl? >> she is anybody. which means she is everybody. we should not let her be lost and forgotten. >> now jurors were going to hear not only from donna himself and mike kent in his own voice from beyond the grave. would the mystery of what happened to the girl in the little blueress final i will be solved? coming up -- a mother's story and a surprising admission. >> do you cares i she is alive or who she is with? >> i don't know. can unlock nature's power?

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♪ this old heart ♪ gonna take them away [ quacks ] since the girl in the little blue dress seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.

now her mother, donna paren tisz, was about to stand trial. dick pulsifer, her father, was going to be at every hearing. each time he drove 270 miles wh his wife cathy from their home in las vegas to orange county, a trip that would sometimes take four or five hours each way. he wanted to see donna in court hoping to finally hear the truth he felt she kept from him so long. >> this whole thing from '69 on has been a lie. she lied to me the whole time. michelle is alive. she knows who i am. she is going to graduate when she is 18. if she wants you to be in your life, she'll call you. >> a little girl lost is how prosecutor larry yellin described michelle to the jury in his opening statement. on the first day of trial rich jr. testified about the night he

was 6 when michelle asked to be hidden, the last time he had seen her alive. after an array of other witnesses, yellin let the jury hear donna's side of the story in her own words. he wanted to give her enough rope to hang herself. they listened to an audio cassette of her interview with the district attorney's office. donna stuck to her story about how they took michelle to mike's mother's home while the rest of the family relocated. she tried to explain away rich jr.'s claim that he overheard her using michelle and dead in the same sentence. he at one time said that he had overheard me saying that she was dead. >> that he overheard you say that? >> yes. that he heard me say this. and i said, well, i disagreed with him. >> okay. as far as i was concerned

because of the length of time she was dead. because i'm not -- i was not going to go through anything to find her. i was not going to -- >> why would you think she was dead. >> no. no. i didn't say that. i said she was debt to me because i was not bringing her into my life. >> donna defended her seeming indifference to what had happened to her own daughter. >> it is hard to believe that you never, ever, i mean, after all these years without your daughter, i mean, aren't you curious where she is? if she is alive or who she is with? i know. i know. i know. no. >> okay. so you just kind of erased her from your mi? >> mm-hmm. >> in the interview he asked donna seven times about michelle's whereabouts and each time she told him she thought her daughter might have been

taken to canada by mike's daughter. ter all, there was a girl named michelle about her daughter's age among mike's relatives there. the detective poked a giant hole in donna's theory. there's a sister that has a daughter, michelle, in canada that is their daughter. they just happen to have a daughter that's michelle. >> okay. >> i know it's a lot of years gone by. i got a feeling this has probably been eating at you for all these years. it has to be. >> that was about the last -- >> okay. it was the last thing i could have hoped for. >> was donna crying because she finally realized her daughter was dead or was there something else? >> she could be crying for herself because he just blew up her albie. >> what kind of mother could so callously, so matter of fatly

describe putting her little girl out of her life for so many years prosecutors argued only one guilty of killing her. the state had no body, no eyewitnesss to a crime, no physical evidence that a murder occurred. the defense was about to present an alternate killer. her attorneys would put mike kent on trial. jurors would hear new details about the marriage and a haunting tape with kent's claim of exactly what happened to little michelle in the summer of 1969. >> coming up -- dead men do telltales. will the mystery final i will be solved? >> she came back out and i remember she said, she was gone. >> why at one point during the many years that followed when she did get free of mike kent, why doesn't she make a simple

telephone call? >> is because she is still at large, he still knows where she is.

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her daughter michelle nearly 40 years ago, her attorney ron brower built his case around her ex-husband's character, criminal record and history of abuse. >> i knew while we attacked the character and credibility of michael kent that we also necessarily dirtied my client up a little bit because she was in association with such a person. >> perhaps the most surprising thing the attorney did was play the jury the audio taped interview an investigator had done with mike kent before he died. >> i played michael kent's tape because it was exonerating to donna. >> mike talked about a summer day in 1969 when he said donna went to michelle's room to wake her and discovered something was terribly wrong.

mike said the look on donna's face prompted him to walk into michelle's room to see what was wrong. he said the 3-year-old toddler was curled up in a fetal position and she was motionless.

mike said he turned to donna and told her, michelle's gone. then donna said something that troubled him. >> she said, what are we going to do now? mike said he reacted as if they were in deep trouble and decided to do something about it immediately.

>> after his arrest, mike took investigators to a canyon where he said he buried michelle's body. but her remains were never recovered. brower told the jury mike kent's word was no good that donna never knew that michelle had died or mike had buried her. that she was, he said, a good mother. >> every single person associated with this case says donna prentice is a loving, caring excellent mother. not one blemish. >> and mike, the exact opposite, a violent monster, he told the jury. he called witnesses who swore mike assaulted them in a bar in illinois. a business partner was beaten, a customer was shot, a girlfriend was battered. that girlfriend dated mike after donna was out of the picture. donna, he told the jury, believed michelle was alive and

always wanted to reunite with her but couldn't because she was a battered woman, terrorized by mike. >> he went through what i would call a ritual of terror. he made her go up into the bedroom, he took a loaded firearm, he fired several rounds at her head while she sat on the bed to persuade her that if she contacted the mother or tried to get the child back at this time that she was going to die. >> brower said donna was so afraid, so terrified she dare not tell a soul about michelle for the next 35 years. not even after she divorced mike kent and moved to a different state. why at one point during the many years that followed when she did get free of michael kent, why doesn't she make a simple telephone call? >> the reason she doesn't make a simple telephone call is because he is still at large. he still knows where she is.

>> the defenseants the jury to believe kent actually secretly killed the little girl and buried her and convinced donna her daughter was at his mom's and then terrorized donna into asking no questions about it for four decades. but if jurors did actually believe mike's story, the defense wanted them to focus on one thing. the stunned reaction mike claimed she had when she discovered her daughter dead in her room. >> brower said donna's reaction, if it ever happened, was proof she was no killer. >> that was not the description of a person anticipated finding a dead body. so had donna prentice found her daughter dead and conspired with her husband to cover it up for decades had she done worse? or was she an innocent battered woman, too scared to find out

the truth about her own daughter. in the end, after four days of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. 10-2 in favor of conviction. the judge declared a mistrial. but prosecutor larry yellin vowed to try the case again. >> i want to get back to this trial as soon as possible. a lot of our witnesses when you have a case that is 35 years old are getting old and we've lost a few people from the time we began the investigation to the time the trial started, including mike kent. >> there would, in fact, be a new trial. with an outcome no one expected. coming up -- she had the strength to come back and be independent at certain times but never pursued the whereabouts of her daughter and i think that was a critical piece for most of us. >> the act that she committed for me was that she had a duty to her daughter, she failed to protect her daughter.

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little blue dress. >> michelle was last seen alive in 1969. >> prosecutor larry yellin essentially presented the same case he had before saying the evidence proved donna was guilty of murder though he acknowledged some questions might linger. >> some of those questions will never be answered. some of those questions, the answers are buried with michelle, with mike kent, and under a mountain of lies that you will learn of from the evidence in this case that the defendant has told over the next almost 40 years. >> donna's new attorney ken norelli took the focus off donna shifting it to mike kent suggesting it was more obvious who was the killer. >> it is simple and straight forward, a loving, caring, nurturing mother who never hurt anybody and went out of her way to care for people and a violent

and dangerous man with an exceptionally short fuse who was abusive to everyone who was in his family. donna, he argued. and called an expert who testified that michelle's mother was, in fact, a battered woman who feared for her life while living with mike kent. >> take the case you heard in this case and apply common sense. she didn't harm that child, ladies and gentlemen. ladies and gentlemen, this woman is innocent in this case. i ask you to deliver a verdict of not guilty. >> prosecutor shifted the focus one more time away from donna and mike kent and back to a little girl lost. >> it's still and should always be about that little girl and holding the people, now person responsible who murdered her. >> the jury got the case and deliberated for eight days.

we sat down with four of the jurors. >> when we were looking at the evidence, i think one of the reasons it took us so long in deliberation is we dissected every piece of everything that was given to us to the nth degree. >> the jurors believed donna did suffer abuse at the hands of mike kent but they seemed troubled by her behavior over the last 40 years. >> she had the strength to come back and be independent at certain timesut still never pursued the whereabouts of hr daughter. i think that was a critical piece for most of us. >> the act that she committed for me was she had a duty to her daughter, she failed to protect her daughter. she abandoned her daughter. >> and yet had the prosecution convinced this jury that donna's behavior amounted to murder? in the end, as in the first trial, jurors deadlocked. but this time, in favor of

acquitting donna of second degree murder. >> i couldn't beyond a reasonable doubt say she was in a frame of mind to hurt that little girl. and if reasonable doubt you have to go not guilty. that is why i voted not guilty. >> all of them agreed they tried to fnd justice for michelle and they took one last look at the girl in the little blue dress. >> a beautiful child and a tragedy that happened. i wish we could have done more. >> it is so sad it came to this, you know. we were actually the responsible people in making a decision here on her behalf. and i believe we did all we could do. >> but there was one more surprising act to play out. just days after declaring a mistrial, the judge admonished donna prentice for covering up what had happened to her daughter for 40 years. but then he dismissed the

charges against her, citing insufficient evidence. he said she could never again be charged with michelle's murder. so after four years in prison, donna prentice was released. it's time for closure, said the judge. but can closure come for this father? he's been asking himself the same question for four decades. where has his little girl gone? >> i have no clue what happened to michelle. that's the question and that's the answer i'll probably never get. i don't know what a 3-year-old could possibly do to make this happen.

>>. >> that's all for now.