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'Ordinary' day turns crazy for woman

Apparently seized in Polk, she wakes up in a daze in a St. Petersburg alley.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published November 18, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Gretchen Morales says she was in the middle of another ordinary week. The Polk County resident put her kids to bed Wednesday night, got up early the next morning and was about to get in her car to drive to work.

Then something bizarre happened.

Someone put a cloth over her face and put her in a van, Morales said. When she woke up Thursday night, she was in an alley near a CVS store in the 300 block of Third Avenue S in St. Petersburg.

"I don't know what happened, what's going on," Morales said after store employees dialed 911 and gave her the phone around 10 p.m., according to the 911 tape.

She spoke slowly, slurring some of her words.

"Please help," Morales said. "I need to get home to my family."

A great deal about her disappearance remained cloaked in mystery Friday.

Morales was 86 miles from her Davenport home, and says she still doesn't remember anything about her abduction. She was not injured, and returned home Friday after a brief stay in Bayfront Medical Center.

"I never thought that something like this could happen to me," said Morales, 31, the mother of two young children, ages 6 and 2. "I was just doing what I usually do."

Polk County sheriff's deputies were examining a stolen van, but said they wanted to give Morales time to recover before interviewing her further. Authorities said she had no other family in the area.

It is unclear who abducted Morales or why.

Her disappearance sparked a search. A babysitter who came to her house Thursday morning found Morales' children and all her belongings, but no sign of Morales, who works as a photographer in Orlando.

She says she was disoriented after waking up in the alley. After phoning emergency personnel, she collapsed and woke up again in a Bayfront bed.

"I'm just going through a lot right now," Morales said.

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan and staff writer Sheela Raman contributed to this report.

[Last modified November 18, 2006, 00:17:34]