Oct. 26, 2007 | 06:00 AM EDT

Drawing Strength from Sorrow: The Surviving Parents Coalition

United in heartbreak – and friendship – these parents are banding together to battle child predators

Jessica Lunsford celebrates the Christmas season in 2004. Photo by: Lunford Family Photo / AP
Drawing Strength from Sorrow: The Surviving Parents Coalition| Kidnapping, Good Deeds
Truck driver Mark Lunsford's life was turned upside down in February 2005. His 9-year-old daughter Jessica was kidnapped from the Homosassa, Fla., trailer he shared with his parents, raped, then buried alive by John Couey, a registered sex offender whom a jury in March recommended be sentenced to death. Lunsford says he would not have gotten through the two years leading up to Couey's trial without Runnion and Klaas.

Lunsford: They're my family. They knew exactly how I felt. I'd be driving my truck for work and just bawling and telling Marc how my day was going and how I was feeling.

Runnion: I guess the bond between us all is that once your child has been taken, you relive that horror every time another story hits the news. When Molly [Bish] was found, I remember talking with Magi and trying to be of some comfort as I tried to muffle the sound of my own sobbing.