Molly's father, John Bish, said he is determined to make sure other children are protected, and thanked the investigators and searchers combing the Palmer woods.

''I feel a lot of gratitude, but I'm angry,'' he said. ''I'm angry that a little girl who goes to work as a lifeguard is taken from her job and now, we're learning, faced peril.

''Closure for me will be, I suppose, when they close the lid on my casket,'' he said. Boston Globe