How Mitt Romney shut down his firm to search for

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Posted On: 10/25/2012 10:53:23 PM

Posted By: Paul

How Mitt Romney shut down his firm to search for friend's missing daughter

In the summer of 1996, Mitt Romney received a frantic report from one of his fellow executives at Bain Capital.

Robert Gay's 14-year-old daughter, Melissa, had gone missing after taking a train into New York City, Gay told Romney. Gay said he and his wife, Lynette, had contacted the police and were desperately trying to track down Melissa.

She might have become lost in an underworld rave party scene after attending a party on Randall's Island on the city's East River. Rave parties were typically all-night affairs punctuated by the use of the drug Ecstasy, which can induce euphoria or hallucinations. The Gays feared their daughter might be unable to contact home.

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Romney stepped in and committed Bain's resources to help with the search.

'I said let's close the firm, let's close the company - we were in Boston - and let's all of us fly down to New York and try to find her,' Romney recalled recently when asked about the incident at a rally in Ohio this month. 'So we closed the business, we went home and packed our things.'

The search ultimately led to a home in New Jersey where Melissa was found safe. Soon she was back with her family.

As Romney, now a Republican presidential candidate, explained it, his decision at Bain was what anyone would have done.