Polly Klaas

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American homicide victim. While hosting a slumber party for girlfriends at her home in Petaluma, CA on 10/01/1993 at 10:35 PM , a stranger entered Polly's window and kidnapped her at knifepoint. A search began almost immediately, with over 1,000 volunteers working 12 hour shifts at storefront headquarters of the Polly Klaas Foundation turning out T-shirts, tapes and sending out over 8 million photos of Polly all over the world. Actress Winona Ryder began a reward fund that exceeded over $200,000. Her body was found on 12/04/1993 in a wooded area 35 miles north of Petaluma. The daughter of Eve and Marc Klaas, Polly was two and a half when her parents divorced. When her mother remarried architect Alan McNichol, the family relocated frequently due to McNichol's uneven success in his career. Polly spent her formative years living all over northern California when her mother and step-father separated in 1992. While living in Petaluma with her mother, life became stable and productive. Mom was employed full-time as a manager in a clothing store and Polly was looking forward to spending a second year in the same school where she flourished. After taking up the clarinet, Polly was accepted into the advanced band in junior high school and was pursuing her talents by acting in local community theater and singing in a children's choir in nearby Santa Rosa. When news came of a possible reconciliation between her mother and step-father, the family would be uprooted again and move to Idaho. Mom, now eager to reunite with her husband, relied heavily on Polly to help care for her baby half-sister Annie, a job which Polly dutifully undertook. "Polly was just trying to help, to hold things together. That's what she did. I mean the last words anyone ever heard Polly say were what she said to Richard Allen Davis as he was kidnapping her, leading her out of the house. "Please don't wake up my mother." Polly's kidnapper was later identified as twice-convicted kidnapper Richard Allen Davis, born on 6/02/1954, San Francisco, CA. Link to Wikipedia biography