Woman Sold for Drugs as Baby Reunites with Sisters
Tiera Rice, a 22-year-old Atlanta native, was recently reunited with the two sisters she never knew. As an infant, Rice was taken from her home by her mother and sold to a couple in exchange for drugs. At 15 years old, Rice painfully discovered the harsh reality of her past and began the search for her two long lost sisters.
Crystal Smith and Teesha Jenkins, the two sisters, vaguely remember Rice as an infant since the time was short-lived. Their mother told the two sisters, 12 and 6 years old at the time, that baby Rice was going to live with an aunt. Smith, the 12-year-old often inquired where her baby sister went, but her aunt and grandmother never divulged any information. “I saw her maybe three times, then I went back another time and she was gone. And I said, ‘Where’s the baby?’ and they just said, ‘We don’t know.’ They just wouldn’t tell me. And nothing was ever said about it. Every time you would mention it they would just get mad,” Smith said.
Though only 6 years old at the time, Jenkins still remembers Rice’s presence in the home. “I remember feeding her and then it was just kinda, it was just hush,” Jenkins said.
Wanda Gee, the girls’ mother, struggled as a drug addict for most of her life. Smith remembers the conversations vividly and recalls her mother’s deadly habits. “You’d say, ‘Mom, where are you going?’’ and she’d say, ‘I’m going to get a fix,’” Smith said.
Gee, now passed away, died in a Georgia prison serving time for murder. When Smith and Jenkins would visit, Gee reminded her daughters about their sister and urged them to never stop searching for her.
Just before she died, in her will Gee wrote, “I wish for my two children, Crystal Garrsion and Teesha Jenkins, to continue to search for my youngest baby daughter to be found. Her name is Tierra Rice. She was adopted out illegally. I hope anyone with information will help my daughters with this request. I want Tiera to know she has two sisters that love her and that her birth mother loved her as well.”
Tiera Rice, though unaware of her adopted past, grew up only 40 miles away from her sisters and was raised under the name “Candace Flores”. At 12 years old, Rice discovered a baby bracelet with the name “Tiera Rice” and her birth date inscribed on it. Rice was perplexed and wondered to whom it belonged. “It had the same birthday as my birthday, and I thought I might have had a twin that I didn’t know about or something,” Rice said.
Rice questioned her parents, but she never received any answers. When Tiera became 15 years old, her adopted mother died of a drug overdose at which time Tiera’s family decided to inform her of her dark past. “They said they were sorry to tell me that my mom had died and my dad wasn’t my dad, my mother wasn’t my mother, and I’m not Candace Flores,” Rice said.
Her adopted father also chimed in and told Rice that she should not look for her real mother since she was not a good person and sold her for drugs. “They told me that they had heard I had been sold and my mom wasn’t a good person, that I didn’t need to be with her anyway ‘cause they are bad people,” Rice said.
Tiera accepted the news and went on with her life until she became 22 years old. She was determined to discover who she really was so she hired Tim McWhirter, an Atlanta private detective. McWhirter informed Rice of her true identity and that she had two sisters. “They have been looking for me for a lifetime and I never knew that I was lost in the first place,” Rice said.
The sisters reunited with many tears and hugs. Smith had always thought Rice was spared by living separate from her dark household, but she was sad to find out that Rice had a dark life of her own. “I thought that she was so much better off. Then when I found out she wasn’t, it broke my heart,” Smith said.
Rice became pregnant and had a son at age 16 and to support him she worked as an exotic dancer. “I wanted to go school like normal people. I wanted to drive a car like normal people, support my son. And all this forced me into the life I’m now. I’m not too proud of the things that I have done just to make it through, but people aren’t perfect,” Rice said.
The three sisters admitted to forgiving their mother and are thankful to have found each other. The sisters are planning on keeping the reunions alive and gathering together for Thanksgiving.