On August 22, 1983 in Sheridan, Colorado, 3-year-old Lori Poland was playing in her front yard with her 5-year-old brother. Her father, Richard Poland, had taken the day off to paint the outside of their house.

It was a hot, sunny day. Around noon, the children asked their father if they could have a popsicle. Since there were many neighbours around, their father left them outside playing. While inside, he could still see his children through the window. He took his eyes off them briefly to grab the popsicles from the freezer.

When he returned outside, Richard Poland looked at the curb, then looked at his son, and looked at the curb again. He saw Lori's pants on the sidewalk. Panic and confusion set in. He immediately searched his property. Not finding Lori, he sought help from his neighbours. Some reported a car stopping briefly in front of their house, which left just as quickly as it had appeared. Lori's father called the police.

The community came together quickly, looking for Lori. The police organized a search party in the nearby woods and canvassed the neighbourhood. Lori's mother, Diane Poland, appeared on television, pleading with the kidnapper to return her daughter safely.

Lori's abductor had no plans to return the little girl to her family. Instead, he left her for dead in an abandoned outhouse, in a remote wooded area. Miraculously she survived and returned home. But how? And how was she abducted in the middle of the day on residential street with adults and children in and outside of their homes? According to Lori, this is how it happened.

The kidnapper quickly parked in front of her house and opened the passenger door. He asked Lori if she liked candy, and like any three-year-old, she says yes. The man forced her to take her pants off, grabbed her, and was gone. He drove erratically and well over the speed limit, trying to put as much distance between him and the police.

The man took Lori to the mountains in Colorado, about 20 miles west of Denver, and then to Chief Hosa exit up by the I-70. His final destination was an abandoned outhouse set back deep into the woods, located about 25 miles away from where Lori was abducted.

Loris says the man severely abused her and did some pretty horrific things to her and then…he dropped her into the outhouse’s 10-foot-deep toilet, into the latrine pit. She could not see anything, but could feel that her foot was injured from the drop. The liquid surrounding her was filthy and extremely cold. The terrified three-year-old had been left to die where no one would likely ever find her.

In 1983 there was no social media, no smartphones, not even Amber Alerts. Amber Alerts did not exist until 1996. So, Lori’s parents turned to the mainstream media. On Day 1, they both took to the news to tell their story and ask for anyone with any information to come forward. Many of their neighbours spoke with police.

An eyewitness named Paul Weaver, was able to provide the police with crucial details about the car involved in Lori’s abduction. In his statement Paul said, “I saw an orange Datsun Sedan with black letters and strips at the bottom. It was double parked in front of my house and about 2 minutes later I came out of my house and the children were coming down the street saying that Lori was in that car. As it left off, I noticed that the first part of the license plate number was ADV followed by 3 numbers.”

Another man, Michael R. Fisher told police, “My kids came up a week before and said a man had followed them home from school. He was trying to give them candies if they agreed to take their pants off. So, I drove over to their school and I saw a man with shoulder-length hair and a beard. I got out of the car and said, ‘Hey, you!’ and he took off running toward Bear Creek. I tried to follow him but lost him after a while. He was about 5’8”, 155 pounds, and his hair was dirty, like dishwater brown.”

Despite having so many details, the police still did not have enough information to locate Lori.

Alone in the latrine of the abandoned outhouse, Lori did not understand what the disgusting sludge was that she was standing in, but she knew she wanted to get out of it. There was a mound of rubble and wood that she was able to flatten into almost a kind of seat. Lori says once she was sitting on it that she realized she had to use the bathroom. She had just turned three and had just been potty trained and was so worried she was going to let her mom down by not using the toilet as she was taught.

Above Lori, years of untreated methane gas and hydrogen sulfide had accumulated in the upper layer of the pit she was in. If she were to stand up, even for a minute, she would probably pass out, fall off of the mound, and drown in the water. She was also at high risk for infection if her open wounds were exposed to the sludge. But the makeshift chair Lori had made for herself was not that big and sometimes Lori let her feet hang down, with her toes in the water.

On August 23, the FBI joined the police to help identify Lori’s abductor in hopes of locating Lori. They went all over Denver seeking information and in that search, they found found Wuanita Zappa, who lived in an adjacent town. During her statement to police she said, “I saw the TV report and I recognized the car. I saw it parked in front of my daughter’s house on Spotswood Street in Denver. The driver was bothering my granddaughter while she was playing outside, in broad daylight. My son-in-law jotted down the license plate number and I reported it to the Littleton police a month ago. And just in case, I’ve written down the plate number here ADV 627.”

Police ran that plate and it came back to Robert Paul Thiret, a local golf club groundskeeper, with no criminal record. Robert was not home when police went to his house so they contacted his mother.

In her statement to police Robert's mother says, “My son is a good man now, but when he was a teenager he had some issues. The police looked into an accusation of him inappropriately touching a young boy, but nothing was proven. I also found women’s underwear in his room a few years ago and he said it was a joke. I think this kind of behaviour is common for teens and it doesn’t connect him to the Poland girl in any way.”

In response, the police laid out the facts for his mother. Robert and his car had been identified now in three separate incidents. In all of them, he offered children candies to take their pants off, including Lori Poland.

Faced with this damning information, his mother continued, “I never saw any signs of this kind of behaviour from him, but maybe he has, like, a mental problem? I’m trying to think of something I did wrong in raising him that could have caused this. Something happened when he was very young, but I can barely remember. Maybe I failed him in some way, but I can’t recall.”

Meanwhile, Lori is struggling to stay alive. She did not know this at the time of course but the chemicals that were in the toilet made it up into her pelvis. Her legs were completely black, up to her upper thigh. Still, somehow Lori managed to hang on and survive four days straight without food or water.

Cynthia and Steven Gaulin were heading out to the mountain for a hike, but had to take a detour to find a bathroom. They headed towards the Beaver Hook trail head. When Cynthia got out of the car she heard a child crying. Following her cries, Cynthia found Lori in the bottom of the privy hole and when she asked Lori what she was doing there, Lori told her that she lived there. As an adult Lori explained that for her three-year-old mind, that became her new normal, that she lived in the bottom of a toilet.

Volunteer firefighter, Steven Baker, was the first to reach Lori in the latrine and assess her health. Her legs were in very bad condition. He lifted Lori off of the mound and secured her to his harness. Once out of the latrine, Lori was rushed to hospital. She was stuck in a dissociative state and suffered from insomnia induced waking nightmares. Physically, her heart, lungs, and brain were failing. Her fingers, feet, and toes were turning black as the infection spread through her body. Amputation was increasingly becoming the only option to save Lori’s life, but somehow Lori's health improved to the point where it was not necessary.

Once police arrested her attacker, young Lori was asked to give police details about her abduction and assault that her mind had already begun to repress, traumatizing her over again. They even asked Lori to identify her attacker from a row of people. Despite her young age, Lori’s identification was rock solid.

Lori's abductor was charged with second-degree kidnapping and attempted first-degree murder. But before the trial could begin, Robert’s wife provided him with an alibi, to help him avoid a lengthy prison sentence. Robert pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The prosecution feared they may not be able to convict him as charged so he was offered a plea deal. and was sentenced to only 10 years in prison, serving only 6 years after being released early for good behaviour.

He abducted three-year-old Lori in broad daylight, physically and sexually assaulted her, and then dropped her into the latrine of an abandoned outhouse in a remote wooded area to die terrified and alone. The public was outraged at the reduced sentence. When asked if she thought justice was served, Lori, as an adult, says that for her it is not really about justice. For her, it is about being impactful. Everyday she tries to be impactful and be good in the world, and prevent people from growing up and causing harm.

A mother of three children, Lori began her working life operating her own therapy practice, working alongside the pediatrician who cared for her after her abduction, Dr. Richard Krugman, who is also the co-founder of the association known as ENDCAN (The National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect). Lori Poland is now the CEO of ENDCAN. Lori says that her work has shown her that the abuse she suffered is often part of a cycle of violence, as most sex offenders have a history of being abused in their own childhood. Lori’s abductor suffered from abuse that started at age three - the same age she was when he abducted her.

Lori says she has sat in a room with over 250 sex offenders who shared with her, for the first time, their own lived experiences of being harmed as a child, that then created this anger inside of them, amplifying them to cause harm. Lori says this is not to excuse or justify their actions, but to understand it. Lori recognizes that victims of abuse need support and care to heal and move forward.

Lori Poland, who at age 3, was abducted, assaulted, and left to die alone, wants us all to imagine a world in which every person felt like they mattered. I think that is the least we can do for her.