Polly Klaas

Klaas played the clarinet and participated in community and school plays. Her dream was to follow in the footsteps of Winona Ryder.

Polly had invited two of her friends over and around 22:30 Klaas opened her bedroom door, to fetch sleeping bags, and there was a man with a knife. He tied the girls up, told Klaas' friends to count to 1,000, and then kidnapped her. Over the two months ~4,000 people helped search for her. Television shows such as 20/20[?] and America's Most Wanted[?] covered the kidnapping. Winona Ryder offered a $200,000 reward for her safe return.

In the course of the search, police officers encountered Davis in a nearby rural area. His car was stuck in the mud. Since the original sketch issued by the staff police artist bore no resemblance to Davis, they helped him out of the mud, and sent him on his way. It was discovered, later, that Klaas was buried alive at this time, and the meeting with the police may have prompted Davis to kill her.

On November 30, police arrested Davis, as his palm print had been found in Klaas' bedroom. Four days later, he led police to her strangled body.

Related Organizations

The Polly Klaas Foundation was formed on October 23 to search for the girl. Following the discovery of her murder, the Foundation devoted itself to preventing crimes against children, assisting in the recovery of missing children[?], and lobbying for legislative assistance. The organization sometimes describes Klaas as "America's Child".

The KlaasKids Foundation was founded in 1994 in order to help prevent crimes against children.

Related Literature

• Polly Klaas: The Murder of America's Child[?] by Barry Bortnick[?] (1997)

External Links

• Polly Klaas Foundation (http://www.pollyklaas.org/) (official)
• KlaasKids Foundation (http://www.klaaskids.org/) (official)

See also:

Megan Kanka