Question about an abduction in Memphis during the 80's?

Question

My mother told me a story about a female high school student that was abducted in or around the 80's. She thinks the last name was Gettis, or something similar. Her family owned jewelry stores, and the ended up finding her in a church. She had been hidden in the attic. I did searches for her, but came up with squat. I was hoping someone would have remembered hearing this story. Apparently it was big news during the time and in all the papers, but I have found nothing....

-Thanks Y'all!

Answer 1

I suspect this is the case you may be thinking of.  On February 1, 1986, a young woman, Donna Givens, was leaving a Savannah nightclub in the early hours of the morning. As she exited, three men accosted her, forced her into a car, and drove her into an unknown neighborhood. Two of the men brought her into a house and raped her. Later, while they were arguing, Givens managed to escape and called the police. When asked to show police the location of her rape, Givens brought police to the house of Samuel Scott, where he and Echols were inside. She identified Echols as the man who held her down during the rape. Scott fled the scene because he had cocaine on him. Echols gave a false name. Even though Echols and Scott claimed mistaken identity and had two people testify to their whereabouts at the time of the incident, the court convicted them both based on Givens’ eyewitness identification and identification of the house. In the trial, Echols refused to testify against Scott. On March 26, 1987, Scott received life plus 20 years. Echols received concurrent sentences of 15 years for rape, 15 years for kidnapping, and 1 year for false statement.  Douglas Echols is a man who was wrongfully convicted in a 1986 rape case. In 2002, his charges were finally cleared through DNA testing after he served over five years in prison. In 2005, he was awarded $1.6 million as compensation but has still received no formal apology from the state.  

In 2000, Echols was arrested again. This time in Memphis for being outside of his parole. Although he had been allowed to move to Mississippi to set up a home remodelling business, he did not report to his parole officer for two years and an arrest warrant was issued. Echols claims that he thought his parole had ended. He served 2 more years in prison.

Finally, in 2002, Echols was cleared of the charges which had ruined the last sixteen years of his life. However, despite being cleared, he had received no compensation or apology yet from the state. On February 23, 2005, Georgia ordered the Department of Corrections to award $1.6 million to Douglas Echols as compensation for wrongful conviction.