By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
CASSOPOLIS -- Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz on Monday dismissed Lindsey Ryan's criminal charge.
March 25, the day the 14-year-old Jones girl returned home from a cross-country trek with Terry Drake, a 56-year-old convicted killer from Middlebury, Ind., she was charged with receiving and concealing firearms stolen from her parents, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison for an adult conviction.
Climbing out her bedroom window March 1, she and her alleged abductor drove to California, dodging a national manhunt by camping in remote mountains along the border with Nevada.
On March 24 Frito-Lay delivery driver Ian Spencer recognized Drake's 1995 Dodge Dakota at a drive-through from media reports even though the white vehicle had been painted black, just as the girl's blonde hair had been dyed black.
Two California Highway Patrol officers took the two into custody near Susanville, Calif., and Lindsey flew home to Porter Township the next day, but she would not be returned to her family until July 3 after three months of intense counseling.
Drake is to be sentenced Sept. 11 on five felony counts stemming from Lindsey's abduction. He faces 25 years in prison if a federal judge accepts his plea bargain.
Lindsey returned home last month after Cass County Judge Susan Dobrich stipulated that if the girl continued to progress in counseling and did not break any laws, she could have the charge dropped on or about Aug. 6.