WINFREY: Before the end of this show, you, our viewers, we hope, will learn something you've never heard from children who were preyed upon by child predators, something that may just save your own kids. Let me tell you a story that may sound familiar to many of you moms out there. Danielle's 14-year-old daughter, Kristen, is a track star, gets good grades. Danielle pretty much knows where Kristen is every minute -- a self-described overprotective mom. Kristen is in eighth grade and wants a computer. So Danielle agrees, "But only," she says, "of you stick to these rules. No social-networking sites or chats with strangers. Okay?" Danielle thinks she's covered all the bases. Here is Danielle a few days ago talking about her daughter to our cameras. DANIELLE: We went to church, and we came home approximately 2:00 that day and my husband said, "Is Kristen out in the back yard?" I looked and I said, "No, she's not here." Then I just heard him screaming to call 911. He screamed in this voice that I've never heard before. I've never heard before. And I grabbed the phone, I dialed 911, and I ran down the hallway. And I had them on the phone and I was answering their questions, and my husband was cutting my daughter down from the rafters. WINFREY: So Kristen was 14 years old when she was seduced by an internet predator, and here is how it happened. DANIELLE: This used to be a motel, and it's recently burned down, and I'm glad it's burned down. This is where he took my baby, my baby girl. And it makes me sick to my stomach, absolutely sick to my stomach. Kristen was a very healthy, healthy, happy, well-adjusted 14-year-old. She excelled in school. She was on the track team. She got along well with her brother. She called me an overprotective mother, because I always wanted to know what she was doing, where she was going, drove her everywhere she was going. She was such a pleasure to have around the home that there's just an absolute void now, an absolute emotional void. And that empty seat at the table. WINFREY: It was eighth grade when Kristen, a good student, got her computer. DANIELLE: Kristen was not allowed to have a profile on any social-networking sites. My son did discover that Kristen had her profile up on a social- networking site, and that day we took her computer away for five and a half months. WINFREY: What Danielle didn't know was that her 14-year-old daughter, Kristen, was already involved online with 27-year-old Kiley Ryan Bowers. DANIELLE: The day before Kristen's birthday in 2006, it was June 4th, I heard her wailing and crying in her room, very, very deep sobs. I went in and asked her, "Honey, honey, what is wrong? What is wrong? I'm so worried about you." And she goes, "Mom, I need to talk to you. He used me." I said, "Who used you?" And she proceeded to tell me about a 27-year-old man from Texas that had told her he loved her, told her she was beautiful. WINFREY: Danielle was stunned, and then came the bombshell. Bowers had already lured her daughter to a motel room. DANIELLE: She went with him in the night at 1:00 in the morning after we had gone to bed, and went to a motel with him, where he sexually attacked her. She was crying. She told me that she felt like he raped her. Everything in a mother wants to protect and rescue their child. That's how we're made. And when something so awful happens you just think, "I didn't protect my child." WINFREY: Wow. And all of this had been happening, and neither you nor your husband nor your son or anybody in the house knew. DANIELLE: No. WINFREY: So how many times had she met him? DANIELLE: Only once. Only once, but he lured her for eight months prior to that, eight months. And she said, "Mom, I didn't know I could get so emotionally involved." And actually he was so expert at saying, "You're beautiful, you're smart, you're attractive. I just think you're the most amazing person," and at age 14, 15, our emotions are so heightened and our hormones. I was trying to grasp an understanding of this at the time, because it was so shocking. But as I thought about it, basically, the Internet opens the door and offers the opportunity for a predator to court a child and lure them emotionally. WINFREY: Why do you think she then killed herself? Because she had confessed to you, and you were understanding about it. What did you say? DANIELLE: Oh. Well, I immediately said we need to call the police, and she was very cooperative. That was that day. It was June 4, 2006. I said, "We need to call the police," and she goes, "Mom, I will fully cooperate. I realize now he used me, and he raped me, and he threw me away." And she became clinically depressed eight weeks before her death, to answer your question, the clinical depression that was brought upon her by him and his assault of her and then his cruelty afterward. After he got what he wanted, in his flight to Texas, then he became cruel on the Internet. WINFREY: To her. DANIELLE: To her. And then she overnight became clinically depressed, could not get out of bed. And clinical depression is a fatal, lethal place to be, and I believe that's why she took her life, as well as with the pending court, because the FBI was now onto him, and she was going to see him in court. And I'm sure that that aided in the depression -- that I believe he took her life, because he caused the depression that took her life. WINFREY: Well, today, 30-year-old Kiley Ryan Bowers is serving a nine-year prison sentence for traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor and transporting child pornography. And so when you all came in that Sunday, she was in that state of depression at the time that she took her life. DANIELLE: Oh, well, she was on anti-depressants, okay, so her mood lifted with the medicine. I have to say, the day that she took her life -- I go back to the day before. She was distraught in midday, but that night we watched a movie. She gave me a long hug goodnight. The following morning we were going to church. And she jumped on my bed, and goes, "Hi, mom. How are you?" And I was rushing around, looking for my purse, saying, "I'm always late. Dad's going to be upset with me. I'll go ahead and just be home in a few hours. I'll talk to you when I get home." And I feel very bad that I didn't just stay home and talk to her at that point, but she seemed fine. She seemed absolutely fine. And I am told that when a person is so depressed, clinically depressed that they are planning to take their own life, that there is a euphoria that sometimes ... WINFREY: That comes once they decided they're going to do it. DANIELLE: Once they've decided. WINFREY: So the fact that he gets nine years for crossing state lines and having sex with a minor -- do you think that's justice for what has happened here? DANIELLE: I would like him to be in prison for life. I believe he killed my child, but I thank god that he was found, because my daughter cooperated fully the five weeks before her death. From the time that she told me about him to the time that she passed away was only five weeks, and the FBI got on the case and they arrested him the night before her memorial service. WINFREY: Wow. DANIELLE: And ... WINFREY: So I know that you're here not just to open yourself up and go through this pain again, that you actually have lessons that you've learned that you wanted to share with our viewers. DANIELLE: Yes. Absolutely. WINFREY: Yeah. So that your daughter's life would not have been in vain. DANIELLE: Absolutely. This is a very painful -- well, life is painful every day. But what helps with my pain is to help another mother, another father, another child not endure what our family has endured. WINFREY: Yeah, and I thought as I was preparing for this show -- I think that what you have to share is so important. Number one is, and I think every parent thinks this, "My daughter's getting good grades, my son's getting good grades. They're not on drugs. They're not a problem. We get along. We have open communication." But I think that what you're saying here, especially for people of my generation, your generation, we don't even understand this animal of the Internet. DANIELLE: Right. WINFREY: Yeah. We really don't even get it. So number one is don't assume that because your kids are good kids... DANIELLE: Right. WINFREY: ...yeah, that your child can't be harmed. DANIELLE: Absolutely. WINFREY: Yeah. DANIELLE: Kristen was a joy to have in the home. She did chores without me having to ask her. WINFREY: Yeah. DANIELLE: I called her my little domestic helper. WINFREY: And this is what I think parents need to know, is that people who are predators are really good at seducing children. This is their job. This is what they do. And if you do it well, you are seduced before you know it. You don't know that it's seduction. That's the whole point. Yeah. DANIELLE: A grown man knows what he's doing. WINFREY: Yes. Absolutely. DANIELLE: And a young girl, all she believes in is love. WINFREY: Right. DANIELLE: There's an enormous difference there, and a grown man who's a predator knows exactly what to do and say to entice a precious young female that's emotionally vulnerable. WINFREY: Is there something that you now think you could've done, like some kind of protective software of something? DANIELLE: Well, I would say to parents, definitely do not put the computer in the bedroom. Have it in the main part of the house. I hear that there is new upgraded software that is really helpful. But in the past, I was told by the FBI that Kristen could delete files from the computer like an FBI agent, because they examined her computer. So I'd just say, parents, beware. Talk to your children. Tell them about what happened to me and my child. That's powerful. WINFREY: Parents, I would say even show them this tape. DANIELLE: Yes. WINFREY: Yeah. Show them this tape. Because everybody believes "it can't happen to me," but when they see the face of your beautiful daughter -- great grades in school, doing really well, happy family -- in this situation ... DANIELLE: Yes. She was every mother's dream for a daughter. She was every mother's dream for a daughter. And not a day goes by that my husband and I aren't just devastated. WINFREY: Well, I hope that by sharing your story you'll bring some light to some other parents out there and that the light of your daughter's life will touch them. So thank you for sharing your story, Danielle. Thank you. -Thank you.
