After Returning To Family, Hoke County Teen Ready To Put Life Back Together

Investigators say the girl, who vanished nearly four years ago and turned up this month in Mexico, told authorities she left home with an adult neighbor after she became pregnant by him.

Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin says Dana Pevia was then kept as a virtual captive.

Dana was 11 when she was last seen walking to a school bus stop in 1999. She resurfaced last week when she reported herself asa missing person to U.S. officials in Mexico.

She is now 15 and has two children. She was reunited with her mother and family last night at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Warrants have been issued charging 22-year-old Hector Majarro Frausto with kidnapping and statutory rape. They believe he is inthe United States, and police say he is the father of Dana's 3-year-old daughter.

Pevia just wants to put her life back together.

She didn't expect the crushing attention of the media

when she arrived at RDU

from Mexico Wednesday night. But her story is getting national attention.

"It was a nightmare," said Rita McNeill, Pevia's aunt. "It took four years for the nightmare to end, and it finally did for the family."

"She was assaulted and beaten when she was carrying the child," said Peterkin. "Whenever she would leave, (her abductor) would find her, bring her back at gunpoint and make her stay there."

Investigators said Frausto threatened Pevia and held her against her will.

Authorities said they are looking for Frausto and may charge others in the case. They think a friend of Frausto's actually took Dana from the bus stop.

"What he did to her was wrong," McNeill said. "What he did to her family was wrong. She has scars that will never be healed."

With the help of friends, Pevia got to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico, which helped bring her home.

"Dana seems to be holding up well considering the ordeal she has gone through," said Wanda Robertson, Pevia's cousin. "She's phenomenal."

Pevia is staying out of the limelight while she sorts through this ordeal, though she has scheduled a TV interview for Friday morning. Her family is more than willing to give her a very loving and very public welcome home.