A child vanishes in broad daylight.

Multiple witnesses watch it happen but can’t stop it.

Three days later, a wrong turn saves a life.

Buried 15 ft underground in a sewage pit.

The rescue made headlines nationwide.

The trial became a national outrage.

And the predator, he walked free after 6 years to strike again.

This is the story of how a three-year-old girl survived the impossible.

identified her attacker with crystal clarity and watched the justice system fail her not once but twice.

42 years later, she’s still fighting not for revenge but for every child who comes after her.

Welcome to Cold Case Desk.

This is the Lorie Poland case.

It’s Monday, August 22nd, 1983.

Sheridan, Colorado.

Temperature 86° Fahrenheit.

The kind of scorching summer afternoon where kids play in sprinklers and parents watch from shaded porches.

The kind of day where nothing bad is supposed to happen.

The Poland family lives on West Bear Creek Drive in the 3200 block, a workingclass neighborhood where everyone knows everyone.

Front doors stay unlocked.

Children ride bikes without supervision.

It’s that kind of place, that kind of time.

Inside the small brick home, 3-year-old Lorie Poland, has just finished lunch with her father, Richard.

Her mother, Diane, 25 years old, is at work.

Lorie’s 5-year-old brother is already outside.

The screen door banging behind him as he runs into the yard.

Lorie has blonde hair, blue eyes.

She’s 37 months old, not quite four.

In photographs from that summer, she’s smiling, gaptothed, innocent.

She has no idea that in less than an hour her childhood will end.

Around 12:45 in the afternoon, Lorie goes outside to play with her brother and other neighborhood children.

The front yard feels safe.

Other adults are present.

Neighboring parents watch from their porches.

Workers from a business across the street sit in vehicles on their lunch breaks, eating sandwiches in the shade.

One of those workers, a painter named Marvin Edler, sits in his pickup truck halfway through a sandwich, watching the neighborhood kids play.

Everything is normal.

Everything is fine.

And then an orange car pulls up to the curb.

It’s an older Datson sedan, 1972 model.

Four doors, faded orange or brown with a black vinyl top, black stripes down the side, letters on the bottom of the doors.

the kind of car you’d notice if you were paying attention.

The driver is 21 years old.

His name is Robert Paul the He’s a golf course maintenance worker, lives in Denver, has a history attempted kidnappings, similar vehicle descriptions, a pattern investigators will later recognize.

He is a complete stranger to the Poland family, no connection whatsoever, and he’s hunting.

Tret coaxes Lorie over to the car.

The tactic is as old as predators themselves.

Do you like candy? Lorie Poland would later recall with devastating simplicity.

Like any sugar-loving three-year-old, I said yes.

What happens next unfolds in seconds.

Multiple witnesses, children, and adults are present, but can’t intervene fast enough.

Thyroid persuades the toddler to remove her pants.

They’re later found lying on the curb.

Lorie gets into the car voluntarily, believing she’s simply getting candy.

The orange Datson drives off immediately.

Three children who had been playing with Lorie runs screaming into the house.

Call the police.

Neighbor Paul Weaver witnesses the entire event.

Marvin Edler sees the driver talking to children sitting on the curb before a small blond-haired child enters the vehicle.

Richard Poland, who had stepped inside briefly, maybe 2 minutes, maybe less, just long enough to get popsicles for the children, emerges to find his daughter gone.

The tricycle she’d been riding lies on its side.

One wheel still spinning slowly in the hot afternoon sun.

Within minutes, the witnesses provide Richard Poland with critical details.

Vehicle description 1972 Dodson 5 to 10 sedan four-door faded orange or brown with black vinyl top black stripe down the side with letters on the bottom of the door and most importantly a partial license plate ADV-2 Sergeant Louis Flores of the Sheridan Police Department responds immediately to the scene.

This is 1983.

There’s no Amber Alert system that won’t exist in Colorado until 2002.

There’s no social media, no mass text alerts, no protocols that would become standard in the decades ahead.

But Sheridan police make a critical decision.

After seeking approval from the city administrator and mayor, they contact local media for help.

Within hours, the story hits the news.

By evening, Diane and Richard Poland are on television making tearful pleas to the cameras.

She’s my baby, Diane Poland cries.

The image of grieving parents begging for their child’s return plays on every local station.

Meanwhile, the investigation moves with remarkable speed.

The partial license plate ADV-2 provided by witnesses gets run through motor vehicle records.

It matches a vehicle with plate ADV-627 registered to Robert Paul Thyret, a 21-year-old golf course maintenance worker from Denver.

Even more damning, the partial license plate matches another reported attempted kidnapping with similar details.

Two individuals come forward with accounts of fored abductions involving the same vehicle description.

By August 23rd, the day after the abduction, police have identified their suspect.

On August 23rd, at approximately noon, FBI agents and Sheridan police arrive at Tyret’s Denver residence.

In the driveway sits an orange brown Dodson with license plate ADV-627, an exact match to witness descriptions.

The comes to the door when officers knock.

During questioning, he repeatedly denies any involvement.

He claims he was home at the time of the abduction.

He agrees to take a polygraph examination at the district attorney’s office.

That night, he’s released.

The holds a sports coat over his head to avoid waiting news photographers as he rushes to a car.

He maintains his innocence.

He has an alibi, but police are not deterred.

They begin 24-hour surveillance of Thyate.

They arrange for his Datson to be towed to a storage bay at Bob’s Towing at 4300 South Federal Boulevard.

With thyroid’s written consent, crime lab personnel from the Arapjo County Sheriff’s Office search the vehicle.

While investigators focus on the a massive search operation spreads across the Denver area.

Hundreds of volunteers comb through neighborhoods, parks, wilderness areas.

Police make casts of tire tracks around the crime scene.

By the third day, hope is fading.

By the fourth day, everyone fears they’re searching for a body.

And then on the morning of August 25th, a couple from Pittsburgh makes a wrong turn that will save Lorie Poland’s life.

Thursday morning, August 25th, 1983, 3 and 1/2 days after Lorie Poland disappeared.

Steven and Cynthia Gan are bird watching in Jese Park near the Chief Hosa exit of I7 approximately 15 to 20 m west of Lorie’s Sheridan home.

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania couple have been wandering through the remote park for 2 hours when they approach an outhouse at a campground.

Steven initially drives past the facility.

Absolutely not.

We’re going to keep driving,” he tells his wife.

About a mile up the road, Cynthia insists they turn around.

She needs to use the bathroom.

Steven Golan later says, “It was the wrong turn that saved a life.

I live here.” While using the outhouse, Cynthia Golan hears something weird, crying from below.

Then she hears words that will haunt her forever.

Mommy, I want some Kool-Aid.

Steven Gan shines his flashlight down the hole into the pit toilet 12 to 15 ft deep and sees a small figure below.

When he asks what she’s doing there, three-year-old Lorie Poland responds with devastating simplicity.

I live here.

The Gollins summon the Highland Rescue Squad from a phone booth at Chief Hosa Campground.

Volunteer firefighter Steve Ber and Joanne Greenberg from Genese Fire Rescue respond.

The small entry point makes rescue extremely difficult.

Bcker goes down into the pit on a harness.

What he finds will stay with him for the rest of his life.

Lorie is wearing only her underwear.

She’s shivering, disoriented, standing in sewage.

Her legs are severely infected with discoloration.

Her feet are swollen from standing in liquid waste.

She’s been exposed to untreated methane gas and hydrogen sulfide in the cold, dirty pit for 3 days and three nights.

She was just looking for something warm to hold on to.

Bucker later recalls, “As soon as I touched her, she grabbed me and held on until I pulled her out.” Lori later remembers that moment clearly, the word hold on and not wanting to let go.

Rescuers state there was no way for her to get out on her own.

Whoever placed her there did not intend for her to survive.

Lorie is rushed by ambulance to Street Anony’s Central Hospital.

Doctors initially fear they might need to amputate her legs due to circulation problems caused by the severe infections and prolonged exposure.

The infection stems from injuries sustained during the fall, worsened by the chemicals and substances in the pit, combined with hypothermia from three nights of exposure.

But Lorie Poland proves as resilient physically as she had mentally.

Her condition is upgraded from fair to good by Friday, August 26th.

She makes what doctors call a miraculous rapid recovery from the physical injuries and is released from the hospital within days.

The hospital announces it will not charge the family for expenses.

The reunion between Lorie and her parents is captured by TV crews with cameras present in the hospital room broadcast to a nation that has been gripped by the case.

The scene of overjoyed parents embracing their traumatized daughter plays out on national television.

The public response is overwhelming.

21 to 24 huge stuffed animals are delivered to the hospital.

Frontier Airlines and First Financial Securities Corp.

announce an all expense paid trip to Disneyland for Lorie, her parents, and her 5-year-old brother.

By Friday, Lorie is smiling, laughing, singing songs, including Jingle Bells, her favorite, but the trauma is evident.

On Thursday night, mother Diane Poland is with Lorie when she has a nightmare, screaming, “Get me out of here.

Get me out of here.” Child psychologist Dr.

Richard Kugman from the Kempe Center for Treatment and Prevention of Child Abuse begins working with Lorie and her parents.

He will become a lifelong friend and decades later co-found a national organization with Lorie to combat child abuse.

The nation celebrates a miracle rescue.

Parents across America hold their children a little tighter.

The story dominates headlines, but investigators know their work has only just begun.

They have a suspect.

They have evidence.

Now they need a three-year-old witness to do something extraordinary.

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Two days after her rescue, while still hospitalized, Sheridan Police Chief Joe Stephenson and a detective meet with Lorie and her parents for a recorded interview.

They bring photographs not just of the suspect, but of other men, too.

A fellow investigator, a reserve officer, a janitor, even Chief Stevenson himself.

Mixed among them is a photo of Robert Paul Thyret.

Standard police procedure.

The witness must pick the suspect out of a lineup, without prompting, without hints, without any indication from investigators which photo matters.

But this isn’t a standard witness.

This is a 3-year-old child.

Many in law enforcement questioned whether a child that young could provide reliable identification.

Could she understand what she was being asked? Could she remember clearly? Could her testimony hold up under scrutiny? What happens next becomes the cornerstone of the case against thyate.

When I handed her the photo of Robert Thyate, Chief Stevenson later writes in his report, “Her entire face changed.” 3-year-old Lorie says, “Oh, there he is.

That one.

He did it.

He put me in the hole.” Stevenson writes, “It is this officer’s opinion without doubt that Lorie Poland identified the suspect of Robert Thyret as the man who kidnapped her.

Dr.

Richard Krugman reviews the video recording of the interview later.

His assessment is unequivocal.

She was rock solid in her identification.

Her body language, she said, “Mommy, that’s him.” And she sort of reeled back and she was a little scared.

She was just crystal clear at the age of three as to what had happened to her and who had done it.

In a subsequent 45-minute interview, Lorie plays out everything that happened to her.

She identifies Thyret in both the photo lineup and a police video lineup.

Despite her age, her testimony is unwavering.

But prosecutors know they need more than the word of a three-year-old.

They need physical evidence.

And the search of Thyret’s vehicle provides exactly that.

Hair samples found in Thyret’s car match Lorie Poland’s hair.

This forensic evidence becomes the key to filing formal charges.

Combined with the tire track casts made at the outhouse location, a photograph, and two rolls of film seized during the August 23rd search of Tyret’s home, the vehicle itself, perfectly matching multiple witness descriptions, and the license plate match the evidence against Tyret appears overwhelming.

On September 5th, 1983, 2 weeks after Lor’s rescue, Thy surrenders himself to police and is arrested.

He’s taken to Arapjo County Jail.

bond is set at $250,000 on September 12th, 1983.

Formal charges are filed in Arapjo County District Court.

Attempted first-degree murder, two counts of secondderee kidnapping, one child abuse, sexual assault on a child, crime of violence, maximum possible sentence, 48 years in prison.

The evidence is strong.

The victim’s identification is clear.

The forensic science is solid.

The witnesses are credible.

This should be an open andsh shut case.

But the American justice system doesn’t always work the way it should.

And Robert Paul Thyret is about to get very, very lucky.

Thyret’s public defenders, Craig Truman and Pat Vance, file more than 30 motions before trial.

8 days of suppression hearings are held.

The defense challenges everything.

The legality of searches of tyrret home and vehicle.

The admissibility of Lor’s identification in lineups.

Whether audio visual tapes of Lor’s interviews should be admitted.

Eller whether thyate was properly advised of Miranda rights.

Then two recently passed laws preventing cross-examination of kidnapping victims.

One as venue arguing media coverage made a fair trial impossible.

Judge Charles Freriedman, presiding over the case in Littleton District Court, makes crucial rulings that will weaken the prosecution’s case.

After the suppression hearings, he rules that some evidence from the searches of Thyret’s home and car will be inadmissible.

Most significantly, Judge Freriedman rules that Lori will not be placed on the witness stand during trial.

Appeals to the Colorado Supreme Court delays.

The trial is originally set for March 1984, then moved to October 1984.

The Colorado Supreme Court eventually rules that prosecutors can use some evidence previously ruled out by Judge Freriedman, but the damage has been done.

Meanwhile, Theret, who has consistently proclaimed his innocence and claimed he was home during the kidnapping, marries his girlfriend shortly before trial.

She provides an alibi supporting his account.

By September 1984, with jury selection set for October 23rd, prosecutors face a troubling reality.

Despite overwhelming physical evidence and a victim’s clear identification, they fear they cannot win a conviction.

The suppression of evidence and the inability to call the victim to testify has gutted their case.

District Attorney Robert Gallagher Jr.

later states, “The case was weak as some of the evidence had been ruled inadmissible by the judge.

I didn’t feel we had an excellent chance of winning.” Think about that for a moment.

A 3-year-old girl was thrown into a sewage pit to die.

She survived.

She identified her attacker.

The evidence was overwhelming, and the prosecution didn’t feel they had an excellent chance of winning.

What happens next will outrage the state of Colorado.

On September 27th, 1984, in a special evening hearing, Robert Paul Thyret changes his plea.

He agrees to plead guilty to two charges: sexual assault on a child, attempted first-degree murder.

In exchange, the following charges are dismissed.

Two counts of kidnapping about child abuse, crime of violence.

A written confession is prepared by tyrant and admitted into court.

Public defender Craig Truman states that Tyrant is a guilty man who is settling up.

Judge Charles Freriedman accepts the plea bargain with a great deal of reluctance.

He states, “If I accept the plea bargain, some might consider it a slap on the wrist.” The judge also expresses concern about media coverage.

If I reject the plea bargain, Mr.

Tyret might not possibly obtain a fair trial in Colorado because the media talked about his admitted guilt.

Freriedman sentences Tyret to 10 years imprisonment plus one-year parole on attempted murder charge.

4 years imprisonment plus one-year parole on sexual assault charge.

Sentences to run concurrently at the same time.

Effective sentence, 10 years in prison, approximately 20% of the maximum possible 48 years.

During the sentencing hearing, Thyret stares ahead and shows no emotion, while Lorie’s parents hold hands and weep throughout the 1-hour proceedings.

The Poland family’s attorney, John Litson, states, “I think Lor’s family is very disappointed that someone could snatch a three-year-old in front of her house and do what he wants for his own gratification and then throw her in a pit to die.” Richard Poland calls the plea deal better than nothing at all, adding that it at least spares the family from reliving the trauma in a courtroom trial.

District Attorney Gallagher acknowledges the public anger.

People are mad.

They don’t understand it, but he defends the decision.

10 years is better than nothing.

The case’s legal costs exceed $350,000, plus thousands more in Sheridan taxpayer money for police overtime and forensic work.

The public is outraged.

Editorial pages across Colorado erupt with condemnation, but the deal is done.

Robert Paul Fred is transferred to the state prison at Canon City, Colorado to serve his sentence.

And then the second failure begins.

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under Colorado’s mandatory parole provisions in effect at the time for crimes committed after July 1st, 1979.

But before July 1st, 1985, inmates could accumulate good time and earned time credits toward early release.

By 1989, after serving just 6 years, 60% of his 10-year sentence, Tyret becomes eligible for parole.

Let that sink in.

A man who kidnapped a three-year-old child, sexually assaulted her, and threw her into a sewage pit to die, becomes eligible for parole after 6 years.

The Colorado Parole Board initially grants parole effective February 23rd, 1989.

But intense public pressure leads the board to reverse its decision in January 1989, denying parole.

During this incarceration, another troubling fact emerges.

Thyroid has made minimal progress in therapy.

Psychologists report he shows little improvement.

Authorities state they still consider him a menace.

But the isn’t finished fighting.

He files a habius corpus petition in Fremont County District Court, arguing that the delay in his release violates his rights under the statute.

On May 29th, 1990, the Colorado Supreme Court rules in Threat versus Kowsky that due to the delay in releasing Thyate when he first became eligible in 1989, he must be released immediately.

His attempted murder conviction, the longer sentence governs parole eligibility.

He has accumulated sufficient good time credits under the mandatory parole provisions.

State law requires unconditional release, not discretionary paroleman.

In June 1990, Thyid is transferred from state prison to Jefferson County Jail to serve a six-month sentence for an unrelated telephone harassment charge.

Then comes December 7th, 1990.

On December 7th, 1990, Robert Paul Thyid is released from Jefferson County Jail.

He walks out with no parole, no probation, and no restrictions whatsoever.

Colorado law requires his unconditional release with no supervision.

Governor Roy Ror tries in vain to block the release.

Steven Becker, the rescue volunteer, who had pulled 3-year-old Lorie from the sewage pit 7 years earlier, expresses his anguish.

I just don’t believe anybody who could do something like that to a little girl is going to change just by being in jail.

She was disoriented.

She was just looking for something warm to hold on to.

As soon as I touched her, she grabbed me and held on until I pulled her out.

Tyret does not speak as he and his attorney emerge from the facility and get into a van.

He served 6 years for attempted murder and sexual assault of a three-year-old child.

And he’s about to prove every fear justified.

After his release, Thyret relocates to California.

There, he does exactly what authorities warned he would do.

He sexually abuses another child.

Thyret is convicted in California of molesting a child.

The details of that case remain limited in public records, but the fact itself is indisputable.

A man who threw a three-year-old into a sewage pit to die, who served only 6 years, who was released with no supervision, had created another victim.

When Lorie Poland learns of the California conviction years later, her perspective shifts.

That’s another child that was that their lives were changed because of one person and a failure of our system to protect us.

she says, becoming emotional.

Think about that victim.

That child in California who never should have been hurt, who only became a victim because the Colorado justice system released a predator without supervision, who only suffered because the system failed.

How do you calculate that kind of justice? How do you measure that kind of failure? And where is Robert Paul Thy now? As of 2023, Robert Paul Thyret, now approximately 63 years old, remains on California’s sex offender registry.

Most troubling, he is listed as a transient.

His current whereabouts unknown.

Earlier records showed addresses in San Pedro and Long Beach, California, but his current location is not definitively known.

Various sources have listed him at 716 Flint Avenue, number 41, California 90744.

But the transient designation suggests he may not have stable housing.

He remains classified as a sex offender.

But without stable address verification, monitoring becomes nearly impossible.

A predator who should have served 48 years served six, created at least one more victim, and now his location is unknown.

This is what failure looks like.

Within months of Thyret’s December 1990 release, the Colorado State Legislature takes action.

They pass a law requiring convicted sex offenders to register with authorities.

The Colorado Sex Offender Registration Act establishes registry requirements for those convicted or released after July 1st, 1991.

Lorie Poland’s case is cited as contributing to the creation of the US National Sex Offender Registry.

At the time of Tyrret’s release, there was no legal requirement for authorities to track his whereabouts after he left Colorado.

That changed because a 3-year-old girl survived an unservivable ordeal, and her community refused to let the systems failures be in vain.

The case also occurred before the Amber Alert system, created in 1996 after Amber Heggerman’s death and was noted as one of the first child abductions to make national headlines due to the tender age of the victim, the violent nature of the crime.

Laws changed because Lorie Poland survived, because she identified her attacker, because the system failed her so spectacularly that the state had no choice but to reform.

But what about Lorie herself? What happens to a 3-year-old who survives the unservivable, identifies her attacker with crystal clarity, and then watches him walk free after 6 years? What kind of life can you build from that? We’re about to find out.

Lorie Poland’s physical recovery was miraculous.

Her psychological recovery would take a lifetime and remain forever incomplete.

The family tried to create a normal childhood.

They didn’t move.

They didn’t run.

They tried to continue with normal life.

But as Lorie would later reflect, no one recognized that the family needed professional help beyond what family members could provide for each other.

I believe I am the reason why so many people in my life are still to this day suffering and hurting.

Lorie states decades later, articulating the survivor’s guilt that has haunted her since childhood.

Her parents discussed their own experience of trauma but struggled to address hers from her perspective.

They talked a lot about their experience of it and how traumatizing it was and they could only see it from their lens.

Lorie explains, “The family had the belief that, you know, you lean on your family for those things, but it’s hard when you’re leaning on somebody who’s broken to fix you.

You know, we were all broken together.” Lorie’s trauma manifests in physical and emotional ways that persist four decades later.

She gets very triggered by the smell of feces and urine, triggered by being in dark places, or when I’m alone or have the sensation I’m not protected or abandoned.

She battles fear of abandonment, anxiety, and depression.

August is especially difficult.

Every July and August, I struggle emotionally, and she carries guilt.

I know I was a baby, and I know that it’s not really my fault.

But I still said yes.

I still got in that car, and the weight of carrying the consequences of that word has been a heavy burden.

She developed patterns of taking care of others to feel worthy.

I learned at a very young age that if I took care of other people and made them happy that I was doing my part in not causing more harm.

Becoming a mother at age 24 triggered fears about being unable to protect her children.

She struggled in first intimate relationships, believing intimacy meant permanent love.

This is what trauma looks like.

Not the dramatic flashbacks you see in movies, but the daily grinding work of managing triggers, of navigating a world that doesn’t understand why certain smells or sounds or situations send you spiraling.

Lorie has been doing public speaking about her experience since 1995, 30 years of advocacy as of 2025.

But the decision to use her abuser’s name publicly came later after a phone call in 2001.

Thyret’s brother calls Lorie, asking her to refrain from using the family name in public.

Initially, Lorie feels empathy.

She learns that Thyret himself had been abused as a child at 3 years old, the same age as Lorie, though no intervention occurred.

She understands the cycle of abuse.

She feels compassion.

Then she learns about the California conviction that Turret had abused another child.

Her perspective changes where once she felt empathy, she now feels anger.

I will use his name because he counts on me being silent.

Lorie declares he counts on his victims being silent and Robert Thyret is not somebody that we need to be silent about.

The man has caused harm.

So I am not going to not say his name.

I’m not going to do him that justice.

This is courage.

Not the absence of fear, but the decision to speak despite it.

Lori pursues higher education.

She earns a master’s degree, becomes a licensed professional counselor, a registered respiratory therapist.

She works as a therapist for children and families, at the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse, at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, at Griffith Centers for Children, at the Eating Disorder Foundation.

She maintains a small private practice in Lakewood, Colorado, supporting people in attachment, relationships, and personal growth.

She specializes in attachment, trauma, family counseling, child and adolescent therapy, and infant mental health.

The three-year-old who was thrown into a pit becomes the therapist who pulls others out.

In 2022, Lorie publishes her memoir, I Live Here.

The words she spoke to the bird watcher who found her in the pit.

Now the title of her life story.

Writing it proves therapeutic but excruciating.

I always knew I wanted to tell my full story.

When I was ready, she explains, “What I didn’t expect was that it would be blended with both fear and excitement.

A fear of being vulnerable, but an excitement in showing the world that none of us are alone.” The writing process was very painful and very lonely.

And so it was almost like being alone again in an outhouse and having to face it and as an adult having to get out of that hole.

But Lor’s most significant work comes in 2018 when she reunites with someone from her past.

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In 2018, Lorie Poland and Dr.

Richard Krugman, the pediatrician who had treated her at age three and reviewed her identification testimony, co-found, the National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect.

The partnership represents a full circle moment.

the three-year-old victim and the doctor who had witnessed her rocksolid identification now working together to prevent other children from experiencing similar trauma and CAN launches with a kickoff event at the Colorado State Capital and an announcement on the Megan Kelly today show in September 2018 the organization’s mission to end child abuse and neglect in our lifetime’s unique approach reframes child abuse from solely a social and legal problem to a health, mental health, and public health problem that can be treated.

This paradigm shift emphasizes prevention, research, and treatment rather than only reactive intervention.

The organization focuses on four pillars.

One, research, funding, innovative studies and disruption papers, challenging conventional approaches.

Two, education plus training.

Teaching professionals to recognize and address abuse.

Three, prevention.

Implementing strategies to stop abuse before it occurs.

Four, advocacy, changing laws, policies, and public consciousness.

ENA’s first research grant cycle in 2019 receives over 50 applications.

The organization accepts 22 disruption papers and awards grants in clinical, prevention, and research categories.

They host their first national summit in Denver in March 2019.

Community programs expand from 2019 to 2023.

Research grants to child abuse pediatric trainees and junior faculty.

Community grants to organizations like Believe Survivors Incorporated, the Center for Family Safety and Healing, and Foster Source, walks in Denver, Columbus, and Milwaukee.

A Louder than Silence podcast featuring survivor stories and expert interviews, social media campaigns encouraging survivors to share their stories.

In February 2024, ENCAN makes a significant announcement.

The organization has reduced its size and scope and no longer has a full-time staff.

However, the board of directors clarifies that ENCAN remains financially sound and continues to award research grants, fund small community grants, seek partners to continue walk programs, and advocate for health, mental health, and public health approaches to reducing the impact of childhood abuse.

Lorie continues as a board member while maintaining her private therapy practice and speaking engagements.

I am working on my healing all day every day and I have forever.

Lorie states matterof factly.

It’s a truth that challenges the narrative arc we prefer for trauma survivors.

The idea that healing has an end point, that recovery means getting over it.

Lorie refuses that false narrative.

Life has never been easy.

I get triggered often.

I do my work constantly and I choose to be the change I wish to see in the world.

As of 2025, Lorie Poland, approximately 45 years old, is married with three children.

Her oldest daughter is now 13 older than Lorie was when she began speaking publicly about her trauma.

In November 2024, she spoke at the Kindred Kids Child Advocacy Cent’s Denim and Diamonds banquet.

In February 2025, she joined the board of the Colorado Healing Fund, which assists victims of mass tragedies in Colorado.

She maintains her private practice at 7475 West 5th Avenue in Lakewood, Colorado, and continues traveling nationally as a motivational speaker on topics of possibilities after trauma, becoming a transcender ripple effects of trauma on children and families.

Lori describes herself as a thought leader by nature, guiding and leading innovation and conversation about taboo topics using authenticity, humor, and humility.

Her messages have remained consistent over 30 years of advocacy on breaking the silence.

It’s fixable when we can talk about it.

She challenges the cultural tendency to suppress painful topics.

As a culture, it’s what we try to do.

When you have pain, it will come out sideways if not addressed.

On healing as lifelong work, recovery is not linear or complete.

It’s ongoing.

You can’t go through something like that and just get over it.

on reframing child abuse.

Not just a legal or social problem, but a public health crisis requiring prevention, research, and treatment can be ended in our lifetime.

With the right approach on impact beyond the victim, the damage that one person caused is lifelong.

Abuse affects entire families, communities, and generations on purpose over vengeance.

For me, it’s not really about justice.

It’s about being impactful.

So, every day, I just try and wake up and be impactful and try and be good in the world and prevent people from growing up and causing harm.

Terry Soul, the 911 operator who dispatched first responders in 1983, states, “Nearly 40 years after her kidnapping, strangers still hear her name and remember, I know.

I personally think about that day often.

By her telling her story now, we can make sure that she and many other survivors are never forgotten.

If people lived in Colorado during August 1983, the common response to Lor’s name is tears or sadness or their own phenomena of the time and experience.

What happened to Lorie Poland on August 22nd, 1983 completely stopped the entire community of Colorado.

The case remains seared in the memories of anyone who was living here then.

Steven Becker, the rescue volunteer who pulled Lorie from the pit, still questions the systems failures decades later.

The image of a 3-year-old wearing only her underwear, shivering in the outhouse pit, has never left him.

The trauma extended throughout Lorie’s family in ways that never fully healed.

Lorie now has little contact with her brother.

Extended family members were affected by the ripple effects.

Parents dealt with their own trauma but struggled to address Lorie’s from her perspective.

We were all broken together.

Lorie explains the case demonstrates a truth often overlooked in crime coverage.

One act of violence creates countless victims across generations.

42 years after that August afternoon, the Lorie Poland case continues to raise uncomfortable questions.

Can healing ever be complete? Lorie’s honest answer that she works on healing all day, every day, and I have forever challenges the redemptive arc we prefer for trauma survivors.

Does justice exist when systems fail? Thyret served 6 years for attempted murder and sexual assault of a three-year-old.

He created at least one more victim after release.

The legal system followed its procedures yet failed its fundamental purpose.

What do we owe survivors? Lori has dedicated her life to preventing others from experiencing her trauma.

She founded organizations, published her story, speaks publicly despite triggers, uses her abuser’s name despite the cost.

What does society owe her in return? How many victims does one crime create? Lori, her parents, her brother, extended family, the rescuers who still think about that day, the California victim, that victim’s family, the community that lost its sense of safety.

The ripples continue spreading.

Where is Robert Paul Thyret? Listed as a transient sex offender in California.

His current whereabouts unknown.

He is approximately 63 years old.

The system that released him without supervision four decades ago cannot now account for his location.

Lorie Poland was thrown into a sewage pit to die.

She survived.

The man who tried to kill her served minimal time and created another victim.

She survived that too, not physically, but the betrayal of a system that failed to protect the next child.

She survived a childhood marked by trauma and adolescence shadowed by guilt.

a young adulthood learning to manage triggers that will never fully disappear.

She survived the painful process of writing her memoir, of facing that pit again as an adult, and she has done more than survive.

She has transformed her trauma into a lifetime mission to protect other children.

She co-founded a national organization.

She trained as a therapist to help others navigate trauma.

She speaks publicly despite the cost.

She uses her abuser’s name despite his brother’s plea because he counts on me being silent.

42 years after August 22nd, 1983, Lorie Poland refuses to be silent.

That refusal is her victory.

I choose to be the change I wish to see in the world.

She states, not because healing is complete, it never will be.

Not because justice was served, it demonstrabably was not.

but because every day she makes the choice to turn unspeakable trauma into meaningful impact.

Robert Paul Thyret threw a three-year-old into a pit intending her death.

Instead, he created one of the most powerful advocates for child protection in America.

If he sought to destroy Lorie Poland, he failed utterly.

When rescuer Steven Gan asked what she was doing in that pit, 3-year-old Lorie responded, “I live here.” It was the answer of a child trying to make sense of the incomprehensible.

Four decades later, it became the title of her memoir and a metaphor for her life’s work, acknowledging that trauma is a place survivors live, but refusing to let it be the only place they exist.

Lorie Poland lives in that pit still in the sense that she carries its effects everyday.

But she also lives in Lakewood, Colorado with her husband and three children.

She lives in her therapy practice, helping other trauma survivors.

She lives in Encan’s mission to end child abuse.

She lives in every speech she gives, every survivor she empowers, every law she influences.

She lives here in a world she is actively making safer for children despite the fact that no one could keep her safe at age three.

That is the triumph.

That is her story.

This has been the Lorie Poland case.

a three-year-old girl’s impossible survival, a justice system spectacular failure, and one woman’s lifelong mission to ensure no other child suffers what she endured.

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Remember, Lorie Poland survived because a couple from Pittsburgh made a wrong turn because a volunteer firefighter went down into a pit because a three-year-old refused to give up hope.

And she’s still fighting not for revenge, but for every child who comes after her.

From all of us at Cold Case Desk, thank you for watching.

Stay safe, stay vigilant, and never stop seeking the truth.