News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 986-1337 44 pages

_ Friends & family want
teen hooker. back home

THE “TELEPHONE hasn't stopped ringing since the night a
North Vancouver RCMP officer kicked in the:back door, of
Kathleen Bell-Yourg ger's 400-block East, th Sireet home.

-The 38-year-old. North Van.’

couver woman faces possible
charges for strapping her 18-year-
old daughters Francesca Acosta to a
bed for almost two days after ab-
, ducting her from -a’, Vancouver
‘street corner where she had been
working as a prostitute,

Bell-Younger has beea fielding
hundreds of calls from. parents

whose children have also turned to
prostitution, calls from: former
‘prostitutes who wish they hadn't
turned ,to the streets, calls from
people who want to buy the movie

. vights’ to. her, story, and media
_ questions, from throughout North
’ America. '

Earlier. this week she had the
ympathetic ear of Premier Bill
Vander Zalm, who’ suggested’ a
‘Special “committee of municipal
and police representatives look in-
to the issue of teen prostitution,’

A group. of Acosta’s friends,
who * graduated with her: from
Sutherland Secondary last, yeur,
“held a press conference Friday to
get the message out to Acosta that
she has friends who care for her.

By MICHAEL BE
| News Reporter

family had no warning signs fo tip
them off that her granddaughter

was turning.o. the streets until just
before she ran away from home
three weeks go. |

“That sweet, innocent face was
gone, All of a sudden her person.
ality changed: We, got a $400 taxi
bill. She took her mather's car —~
threatened cher mother, We got
suspicious when she was slecping
all-day and got a pager, She said
she needed it to be: a model,"
Sparrow said.

Bell-Younger has a B.C. Tel bill
for $64.74 her daughter ran up us:
ing the pager.’ But she also has a
deep apprehension about the con-

‘tinued weil being of her daughter,

-The family was told Acosta, two
other prostitutes: and: their pimp
Tony, a former male prostitute,
took a bus to Edmonton Monday

night. Bell-Younger | believes her.

daughter will end up hooking: in
the United States using false iden-

‘PHOTO OF MOTHER AND DAUGHTER: SEE PAGE 3

Alan | Brewer, 19, had been
Acosta’s boyfriend for three mon-
ths until September 1987, ‘This

' was the last. thing that I’ had
, thought she would do. I heard a

“rumor about it. I-couldn’t believe:

.it, -but.a friend saw her on the
street. about two months’ ago,”’
Brewer said,'*‘I’d like'to say to her .
that we all care very much for her
and that we’re here if she :needs
help:. We hope she comes back.’’
Said Bell-Younger: ‘‘Francesca’s
. story is the’story of thousands of
kids across. the country. Vve* had
> women call. who've -been on the
street and’ are spending up to 10°
years to recover. They've been tell-
ing .me_ they .wish ‘they, had: a’
_ mother who stopped them by any
“force necessary before they entered
: that long, dark tunnel to:hell.””
_ \Bell-Younger’s 71-year-old
“-mother, Kitty Sparrow; said the.

fication.

“Tony the pimp has an uncle |

who’s pimping in Huntingdon
Beach, California,’' Bell- Younger
said.

‘Remembering the family’s. des- *

perate bid to “deprogram”. her
daughter brings tears to Bell-
Younger's tired eyes. ‘It broke my
heart right through. There 1 was
tying my baby down. It was the
most’ gut-wrenching thing. That's
the price I had to pay,’’ she said.
But Bell-Younger is uncomfort-

‘able with the public role she’s been

thrust into as the family’s story has
been told: and: retold across. the

continent.:“If I’had my own per- .

sonal wish, it would all’go away.
But there area lot of people who

-want to see this go beyond just
. getting,. Francesca. . home. Pm

hoping somebody else will come
along. and. keep. the . ball role.

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