Changed for Good : A Year After Cara Vanni’s Parents Had Her Abducted to Be Treated for Behavior Problems, the San Clemente Family Says It Is at Peace

Today marks a special anniversary for Cara Vanni. She wishes it were as routine as a birthday, but what happened a year ago tonight was a shock that Cara, 16, plans to never relive.

Three people, at the invitation of Cara’s parents, abducted her from her San Clemente home last year for a 10-hour drive to a residential treatment facility in Utah. The plan was to get her to change her behavior, which had included running away from home, fighting with family members and spending a lot of time with older students and dropouts. Previous meetings with a local therapist had failed, said her parents, Mike and Nancy Vanni.

She stayed six months at Cross Creek Manor, the minimum stay recommended by officials there, and returned home a few days before Thanksgiving.

Although the long-term results of the $17,000 treatment are unknown, the family is happy to say that since Cara’s return in November, they’ve been at peace. Cara says “mutual respect” between her and her parents has helped maintain harmony in the household.

“A year ago I wasn’t making decisions within the right guidelines. I didn’t think of consequences,” Cara said. “Now I control my own actions. I look at things as a whole and ask myself, ‘Is it going to be worth it in the end?’ I’ve been very open with (my parents). I now have nothing to hide.”

Her parents said the difference in Cara compared with a year ago is profound. “We made the right decision” in sending her away, Nancy said. “She’s following guidelines, doesn’t break curfews and is getting A’s and Bs at school.”

Cara’s best friend and neighbor, Andrea Trotter, 16, also agrees that Cara’s attitude has improved. “She’s not afraid now to live up to her values and standards,” Andrea said. “She doesn’t let people walk all over her. She doesn’t fall for guys’ lines.”

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A story in The Times last year chronicled Cara’s abduction and her first few months in Utah, including her emotional reunion with her family after 90 days at the facility. The program of behavior modification included rewards and punishments, locked doors, therapy sessions and, at the beginning, basement quarters and minimal contact with the outside world.

The Vanni family’s situation and their agonized decision to send Cara to Cross Creek generated an unusually strong reaction among readers. In letters sent both to The Times and to the Vannis, many suggested that sending Cara away was cruel and served as an indication that parental neglect was at the root of Cara’s problems.

Other readers shared their experiences with similar programs that had helped turn around teen-agers’ lives. One adolescent therapist warned, however, that use of such facilities can make parents rely on outside agencies to discipline their children.

The drama of Cara’s predicament was not lost on producers of made-for-TV movies, either. More than half a dozen contacted the Vannis to discuss turning their story into a melodrama, while still others visited Cross Creek to wine and dine the staff. No agreement for any type of production was reached.

Although Cara was the focus of this storm of attention, she says the letters, phone calls, newspaper article and movie proposals did not faze her. A TV movie, she said, won’t work because hers was “just another everyday problem. I wasn’t a drug dealer, and it wasn’t like a big scandal. Everyday problems don’t sell.”

But she was reminded of the newspaper story, she said, each time a new girl whose parents had read it arrived at Cross Creek Manor. More than a dozen times, she said, the girls “would find me and say: ‘I got sent here because of you. ‘ I told them: ‘No, you got sent here because of yourself, thank you.’ ”

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While at Cross Creek, Cara shed her initial anger after two days and began to sail through the program. She quickly earned the privilege of moving out of her basement room and began to attend the local high school. Cara ultimately graduated to quarters next door to the main facility, where she gained extra privileges such as to phone friends and to leave the premises regularly.

Although Brent Facer, Cross Creek director, said in a phone interview that “Cara did well on all fronts,” he and his staff had recommended to the Vannis that their daughter remain for a couple of months rather than go home in November. Mike and Nancy, however, were convinced that they had given the program enough time.

“Cara had all kinds of potential and self-worth locked up in this outer shell,” Facer said. “What we were able to accomplish (was to) break down the outer shell and bring the real kid out. The only thing we were concerned with was (that Cara) go through all of the education and group processing we had designed in the treatment plan. Her position coming out of the program would have been more solid, a little more glue there to hold it all together.”

Cara has narrowed her circle of friends to exclude the bad influences she met while at San Clemente High School. She attends Capistrano Valley Christian School, a small, private school in San Juan Capistrano, and works as a restaurant hostess a couple of nights a week. She is also researching colleges.

Only once since her return, the Vannis say, has Cara challenged their authority. During a rainy, trouble-plagued trip to the East Coast in April--”the vacation from hell,” Nancy says--Cara demanded to be allowed to fly home by herself and became frustrated when her parents refused.

Cross Creek officials, as a matter of policy, offer no guarantees once the girls leave their supervision.

“You never know how much of what we do is going to hold up under the circumstances, after (a girl) goes home to her home turf,” Facer said. “You never know how well or how long the treatment objectives are going to hold. But with Cara, it sounds like she’s been able to grasp what she’s learned and apply it to her life. We’re tickled pink for her and her family.”

For Cara, the memory of her nighttime abduction will stay with her a while. She remembers the song that was playing on the radio when the strangers entered her bedroom, and she is reminded of that night each time she hears the song.

Her six months in Utah were a detour, but a critical one, she says, in her young life.

“It was definitely a learning experience,” she said. “I know that if (my behavior) got to a point, they’d send me back, but it’s not going to get to that point. I’m glad I ended up in Utah. I could have thrown away my whole life.”