Fugitive's capture brings relief and fear

Michaelle Dierich never stopped believing Paul Jackson would be brought to justice.

Doing her best to ensure the case never grew cold, the Coeur d’Alene woman continued telling the painful story of her 1988 abduction and rape. Dierich, who lived in Portland, Ore., at the time, was held captive in a basement and sexually tortured for a week.

One of two men accused of the crimes, Paul Jackson, was captured Monday in Mexico. On the run since 1991, Jackson was arrested by Mexican immigration authorities at a hotel in Guadalajara.

Dierich’s husband told her the news at 5 a.m. Tuesday, when he picked her up at the end of her overnight shift working at a local manufacturing plant.

“I was crying. I was sobbing,” Dierich said. “I was crying for relief that he couldn’t hurt anybody again.”

Jackson, with his half-brother Vance Roberts, is accused of kidnapping at least one other woman in Portland. Jackson and Roberts were arrested in 1990, and when police entered the house where Dierich and the other woman were held, they found photos of other women, potential victims who have never been identified.

Police also found barred windows, chains and what is described in reports as a “makeshift torture chamber.”

Roberts and Jackson jumped bail in 1991 and were both on the run until 2006 when Roberts turned himself in. He was convicted in 2007 and is serving a 108-year prison sentence.

Dierich said Jackson’s capture also caused her to feel some concerns for her own safety.

“How big was this ring, this reign of terror?” Dierich said. “Was it really just Vance Roberts and Paul Jackson?”

Through the years, Dierich and her story appeared on various talk shows and shows like “America’s Most Wanted,” that track wanted fugitives.

Dierich traveled back to Portland in July for a special news report about the crimes. She returned to the house where she was held and tortured. CNN then aired the segment on “The Hunt” with John Walsh.

“That’s what led to his arrest. Somebody called into the tip line and gave the info and that led to his capture,” Dierich said.

At the time of her abduction, Dierich was a drug-addicted prostitute. She spoke to The Press in 2007 when Roberts was convicted, and again two years later.

“I was living the wrong lifestyle. I was selling my body for my addiction,” she said, in 2009. “The wrong person picked me up.”

She’s turned her life around and wants to help others do the same. She began reaching out to survivors a few years ago, and plans to continue the effort with monthly trips to Spokane.

She said she will work at the street level, passing out condoms and food to prostitutes.

“Whoever is in that situation, for whatever the reason, needs to be loved and supported until they find the love and strength within themselves to change their own lives,” Dierich said Wednesday. “If I can be a small part of that, then none of this was in vain.”