Baby Lisa: Gone, Baby, Gone

by Pat Brown

Pretty much, that is all we know right now. Ten-month-old baby Lisa Irwin was there and then she wasn't. Two weeks have passed since her disappearance and she hasn't reappeared, dead or alive. Wait, we know one other thing: she didn't climb out of her crib and go for a walkabout. Someone removed her from her home, so we know someone knows something. We just don't know who.

In missing baby cases where proof of abduction is weak, there ends up being two scenarios: the parents did something to the child or someone else slipped in and made off with the child. Unlike an abduction where a child is seen by witnesses being dragged into a vehicle or a case where a child walking from school never arrives home but her parents have solid alibis, a child who goes missing on the parents' watch often causes the parents to become suspects at some point in time. 

The parents of Sabrina Eisenburg became suspects very quickly; the parents of Madeleine McCann became suspects when the police focus when the detective on the case eventually began to think the timeline and parents' behavior didn't add up. Both of these cases remain open and the missing children have never been found. Both cases have a camp that believes the child was abducted and a camp that thinks the parents caused the death of the child and orchestrated a cover-up. If Baby Lisa is never found, the parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, will be added to this club.

Once upon a time we believed parents of missing children: we never doubted that the people standing in front of the camera, crying and begging for their child's return, were playing us. But after we got burnt by the performance of Susan Smith and a number of others, we have become more skeptical. We now replay the video to see if the parent is crying real tears and we watch their body language. We examine every bit of evidence. We don' t want to yet again be duped into expending emotion on a parent who will turn out to be a killer and a fake and we don't want to spend our valuable time searching for a child whose parents already know exactly where she is.

Baby Lisa is missing and many people are not accepting the parents' story at face value and throwing them their unconditional support. They are searching for inconsistencies in their story, for proof that the baby was abducted, for alibis that are supportable, and for behaviors that don't seem right.

And, unfortunately, for Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, they are not faring well in the analysis.

The basic hurdles parents must clear these days to keep the public faith in them include:

• Real tears: Deborah clearly had tears in many interviews; Jeremy, no.
• Strong emotion: Deborah, yes, Jeremy, no.
• Nice house, well kept: yes
• Good looking baby: yes
• Charming photos and video: yes
• Willingness to speak in the media: yes, but then refused to do local media, only national. Made it seem like a desire to be famous might be at play
• Willingness to talk to the police: yes, until they stopped. Then they started again, only now police say they are not answering all the questions
• Pass the polygraph: Deborah says she failed; Jeremy didn't take one.
• Consistent story: Deborah has changed the time frame and now claims she was drunk; Jeremy originally said he checked the kids first and now says he talked to Deborah first
• Crime scene has visible signs of abduction: There is only a slightly opened window and left- unlocked door which does not prove an abduction occurred
• Parents show responsible behavior: Deborah now states it is okay for her to be drunk while caring for the children
• Suspicious strangers have been lurking around: So far there has only been a homeless handyman who is said to have been cleared
• Police not focusing on parents: The police are clearly heavily focusing on the parents
• Not lawyering up: They now have Joran van der Sloot's lawyer which may be smart but makes the them look like they need a strong defense.
• Not having things about the case that make you go "hmmm:" Deborah has stated that her children heard some strange noises but she has never asked them about what they heard and when because she doesn't want to upset them. Another thing that has bugged me is that Deborah has called her child "Baby Lisa" in television interviews; this is a name given by the media to identify the story and not something a mother usually calls her own child. Then, the "drunk/blackout" story came out after the parents got a lawyer and one wonders if this is a defense strategy for court or a way to excuse Deborah from answering any more police questions about what happened that night. Finally, Deborah changing the time she last saw her daughter (put her to bed) seems like a way to take emphasis off the later time, a time that her sons may have heard something and that Mom doesn't want to acknowledge. Oh, and Deborah also said she thought she would be arrested which is very odd unless she is aware there is more evidence implicating her than we know.

If I add up this list, I have to say the parents haven't done so well going over these hurdles. Public suspicion is likely increasing rather than decreasing. Right now, I would say as a criminal profiler, the evidence and behaviors indicate the parents are more likely to have involvement in the disappearance of Baby Lisa than a stranger to have abducted her. But, without proof or solid evidence, this set of inputs could be misinterpreted - an abductor might have managed to sneak in and out without detection; maybe he did turn on the lights and steal phones because he is a major weirdo. 

The parents might have odd behaviors - even personality disorders - which cause them to act in a manner that arouses suspicion but they still didn't do anything to their baby. Mom and Dad could be awful parents and still be innocent of doing anything criminal. But, because they are not passing the "hurdle" test very well, the police are going to be all over them, people are going to stop looking for the baby, and, if no abductor is ever caught (and the parents aren't found guilty), then, like the Eisenburgs and the McCanns, a cloud of suspicion will always hang over their heads.

Where do you stand on the likelihood of Baby Lisa's parents being involved in her disappearance? What would you add to the list of "hurdles?" How does what you have seen of the case and the parents affect your willingness to support the search for Lisa?

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Madeleine: Wherein lies the Truth

by Pat Brown

It is said there is often a lot of nonfiction in fiction and a lot of fiction in in nonfiction. Kate McCann's new autobiography, Madeleine, is a prime example of this axiom. I say 'autobiography' because Kate's book is not so much about what happened to her missing daughter, Madeleine Beth, but about Kate McCann nee Healy - her life, her loves and her losses, her trials and her tribulations. In reality, very little of the book is about the missing little girl who vanished in Praia da Luz, the lovely vacation destination in the Algarve of south Portugal; it is a carefully crafted revisionist history of one of the most puzzling missing children's cases in recent years and a strident defense of the characters and behaviors of Kate and Gerry McCann.

Children go missing every day around the world but few children get the level of publicity that has surrounded the case of Madeleine McCann, who was almost four-years-old the evening she vanished from the McCann's Ocean Club apartment, allegedly snatched from her bed as she slept in a bedroom with her twin two-year-old twin siblings, Sean and Amelie. What set this case apart from so many is the fact that her parents were not at 'home' with their children when this alleged abduction occurred; they were off in the resort complex dining and drinking with their seven friends for the evening. For that matter, all of the infant and toddler children of the Tapas restaurant party were left alone to fend for themselves while their parents enjoyed their last night in town.

Madeleine and her brother, Sean, had spent a good hour of the previous evening crying for their parents and a couple of the other children were fussy or ill, one to the point of vomiting while her parents were off having dinner. Three of the families locked up their apartments while they were gone, but the McCanns, Kate and her husband, Gerry, say they left all the doors open so that someone, apparently anyone, could have easy access to the children. The parents of these children were hardly uneducated boobs. They were medical doctors and surgeons and folks of relatively high status back home in their British communities. The case made the tabloids, but, in fact, it was the McCanns themselves that courted the media relentlessly, making Madeleine the most recognized missing child in the world and, themselves a target of a good deal of criticism and skepticism. They claimed their campaign was to find Madeleine but a fair number of people think it was a smokescreen to cover their own criminal acts.

When Madeleine turned up missing at the end of the evening's revelries, the world was not only shocked that the little girl disappeared but that her parents were neglectful in their duties to provide a safe situation for her. Not only that, but rumors began to fly that the McCann children may have been sedated by their own parents so as to not be problematic again when left unattended and with that additional bit of disturbing information, the McCanns became victims and villains at the same time. Over the course of the next few months, the police came to believe that the only victim in this drama was Madeleine who they surmised died accidentally while left alone and that the McCanns hid little Madeleine's body somewhere in Praia da Luz, staged an abduction, and with the help of their friends covered-up the crime. Four years later, the case remains unsolved and the McCanns remain under suspicion.

Which is why Kate McCann wrote her book, Madeleine. Not, in my opinion, to re-energize the search for her daughter as she claims, but to convince people of her innocence and raise revenue. Considering the fact the book sold 50,000 copies of the very first day and was serialized for half a million dollars and the Amazon reviews are mostly glowing and supportive, I would say Kate has achieved her goals in quite a smashing way.

But, there are still hidden nuggets of gold to be mined from within Kate's version of what happened in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007. The one dangerous thing about telling yet another rendition of events is that there is often truth among the lies or lies among the truth; this is why police investigators always want persons-of-interest to keep talking and defense attorneys keep telling their clients to shut the hell up.

The added information in Kate's book has enabled me to complete a Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann (US) (and UK). I had been reluctant to offer one for a long time because, in spite of the many police reports and statements and television appearances of Kate and Gerry McCann, I wanted to hear the story from one of their mouths, to know their answers to some very pertinent questions. Kate finally did me the favor when she wrote, Madeleine, and although most of the book is a defense of her behaviors and actions, it is through this defense that Kate has given me a much stronger insight into what likely happened the night Madeleine went missing and why certain things happened or did not happen. Even with time to meticulously choose what one wants to say, it is amazing that what actually ends up coming out is something that perhaps would be better left unsaid. However, personal agendas, narcissism, and a lack of objectivity can cloud the judgment and the end results might not be exactly what the person intended. And I thank Kate for that.

Let me tell you two of the biggest revelations in the book: Kate admits no one came through the window of the children's bedroom. Yes, after years of insisting that someone broke into the apartment by tampering with the shutters and forcing the window open, Kate now backs down from that claim, agreeing with the Policia Judiciara that an abductor did not climbed into or out of the room. This is sort of a Bombshell Tonight. What this means is that Kate does not claim the police botched the evidence and while she still claims there was an abductor that opened the window for reasons that make no sense, her admission changes how I view what actually happened that night.

Another fascinating bit in the book is Kate's incredibly generous forgiveness of Jane Tanner for not telling her immediately that she saw a man carrying Madeleine off from the apartment; she is instead thankful that "someone had seen something." In other words, Kate is happy an abduction was seen going down, not that she was notified of it in time to do anything about it. This startling revelation tells me a lot about the mindset of the McCanns and adds greatly to the profile in determining what happened to Madeleine.

I hope Kate McCann does achieve her goal of re-energizing the investigation of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and that the truth of the matter will indeed finally come to light.

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Jaycee Dugard: One Year Later

by Stacy Dittrich

This past Thursday, August 26, 2010, marked the one year anniversary of Jaycee Lee Dugard’s (pictured left) return to her family. As most people know, Jaycee was eleven years old when she was viciously ripped from her family while walking to her bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, California, on June 10, 1991. This occurred as her step-father, Carl Probyn, watched helplessly. For the next 18 years, Dugard’s captors, Philip Craig Garrido, 58, and his wife, Nancy Garrido, 54, held young Jaycee in a wretched, filthy, compound of tents—well hidden behind their Antioch, California, home. For 18 years, Garrido repeatedly raped Jaycee and she eventually bore two of his children.

On August 26, 2009 the nation came to a virtual standstill when the news of Jaycee’s survival spread like wildfire. Garrido, with Jaycee and their two daughters, ages 12 and 15, was eyed suspiciously by the University of Berkeley police officers when he arrived on campus spewing religious rants. After a highly praised interrogation by the officers, Jaycee’s true identity—and her past—was revealed. The detailed information that followed shocked and sickened humanity. Furthermore, people were angry that such an abomination continued for 18 years without detection. California’s parole system came under intense scrutiny for failing to discover Jaycee in Garrido’s hold. Having been on parole for several decades, Garrido routinely played nice with his parole officers and his home was never searched.

In 1992, a report to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department revealed a man claiming he saw a young girl matching Jaycee’s description staring at a missing poster of herself at a nearby gas station. The caller claims the girl left with a man matching Garrido’s description in a large yellow van (the same vehicle that was later towed from Garrido’s property in 2009). The tip was never followed-up on. Along with the numerous missed opportunities by parole agents, another tip was phoned into the sheriff’s department by one of Garrido’s neighbors. The neighbor claimed that Garrido, a known sex offender and psychotic, had young children living in his back yard. The deputy that arrived to investigate the complaint never even searched the back yard (pictured right). Thus, the unconscionable lack of justice for Jaycee Dugard resulted in a $20 million  settlement from the state of California. Well deserved, but considering that Jaycee, and her daughters’, lifelong therapy is estimated to cost $7 million I’d say she deserved a hell of a lot more than that.

Now, a year later, Jaycee and her daughters live in seclusion with her mother, Terry Probyn, in Northern California. Many wonder what the last year has been like for the newly reunited family, and what does the future hold. The last year for Jaycee has been an onslaught of new beginnings; she obtained her driver’s license, maintains a journal, baked Christmas cookies with her mother and sister for the first time, and even recently went camping with friends. They live in an undisclosed small neighborhood where it has been reported that their neighbors are “fiercely” protective of Jaycee and her family. Rumors have been floating around for quite some time that Jaycee will be writing a book of her time spent in hell, and her mother’s account of her own nightmare is due to be published in late 2010. Regardless, evil Garrido and his disgusting robot-of-a-wife, Nancy, (pictured right to left) are still incarcerated awaiting trial. Most likely both will die in prison. Hallelujah.

A year later, in the rare moments where Jaycee (now 30) is shown in photographs, she is smiling. Personally, I find that to be an extremely positive sign. Although she and her children have a long road ahead, they are back where they belong. Good luck, Jaycee; you and your family will continuously be in our thoughts and prayers.

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The mystery of Ali Lowitzer

By Kathryn Casey

It was disturbing, to say the least, finding out that a teenager was missing, 16-year-old Alexandria “Ali” Lowitzer. What hit me particularly hard was that Ali lives in my part of Houston, and she’d been missing for weeks before the case caught my attention.

The truth is that I tend to focus in on this type of news. I’ve spent the last twenty-five years as a crime writer, first for magazines, now books. So I’m sensitive to the issues, and the prospect of any missing person draws my attention. One who lives just miles from my home, well, that’s sure to convince me to research the case and weed through the clues. How could I have missed the news coverage? When I Googled Ali’s name, I realized so little had been reported that I probably wasn’t the only one who hadn’t heard.

In many ways, the case has all the elements of a big news story, the kind that monopolizes headlines across the nation. On Monday April 26, Ali finished classes for the day. At some point, she called her mom and said she planned to take the school bus home and then walk a mile to her cook’s job at the Burger Barn restaurant. Later surveillance video would show the auburn-haired teen, her hazel eyes ringed in smoky eye-liner, departing the bus at three that afternoon, about 30 feet from her front door. It was then that Ali Lowitzer simply vanished.

Ali never made it to work that day, or to the Alice-in-Wonderland birthday party she’d helped organize for a friend that weekend. And she didn’t play catcher for her softball team at the tournament the following week. Yet the first article on her disappearance didn’t appear in the Houston Chronicle until nine days later.

Why hadn’t the case made headlines? The activities the teen was involved in “throw up some red flags,” said Dawn Davis, a case manager for the Laura Recovery Center, a group that organizes searches for missing persons. Perhaps based on that information, law enforcement, at least for the first month, wrote the teen off as a runaway.

It appears that the Harris County Sheriff's office only recently decided that perhaps they were wrong. They've brought in homicide and missing persons to investigate the case. But from all appearances, valuable time was lost. If Ali was abducted, as her parents contend, one can only imagine how much harm this delay has done. In abductions as in homicides, the first forty-eight hours are absolutely crucial.

While Ali may dress Goth, her parents, John and Jo Ann Lowitzer, paint a very different picture of their daughter. They talk of a girl who sings in the school choir, plays the flute, loves to draw, and was so connected to family and friends that she habitually sent 4,000 text messages a month. It frightens them that Ali hasn’t sent a single text since she stepped off that school bus. She hasn’t updated her Facebook or MySpace social-networking pages either. And her friends say they haven’t heard from her. Perhaps most disturbing, Ali’s father says a few months ago, another neighborhood teenager was nearly abducted. In that case, a car pulled up next to a girl and a man lunged at her, grabbing her around the neck. “She bit him," John Lowitzer said, "so the man backed off and tried to get her around the waist, and she was able to get away."

As the weeks and the agony drag on, both of the Lowitzers continue to send their daughter nightly text messages, hoping somehow Ali will be able to access them, although her cell phone charger, along with nearly all her belongings, including her purse and money, were left in her bedroom. 

Although police didn't initially push the case, family, friends, and the Laura Center did the best they could. They started a Facebook campaign, and led volunteers on searches of the miles of forest surrounding the Lowitzer’s neighborhood, undoubtedly hoping yet fearing they’d find traces of the 5-foot-2 teenager with pink banding on her braces. When she disappeared, Ali wore black-and-white checkered pants, a dark hoodie and a checkered backpack. “Ali is a wonderful person,” her father, John Lowitzer, told the press, begging whoever has his daughter to “let her go!”

While I fear Ali’s parents are right, that there’s a good chance the teenager didn’t leave on her own but was abducted, I sincerely hope they’re wrong. If Ali ran away, maybe she’ll hear their tearful pleas, take pity and return to those who love her.

So the question is: What do you think happened to Ali Lowitzer?

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Where is Baby Beth?

by Kathryn Casey

These are the days of social networking, and like many of you, I’m on Facebook and Twitter. Because of what I do, I’ve befriended causes involving victims’ rights, law enforcement, crime, and pages devoted to helping the search for missing persons. Now I knew there were a lot of folks unaccounted for across not just the U.S. but the world, but seeing their names and photos, the desperate pleas of their families, touched me deeply. So much so that I decided to do the little I could to help, by focusing attention on some of these cases through posts in the coming months.

Toward that end, for my first such post, I’d like to familiarize you with the story of a little girl named Beth “Betsy” Gill, who disappeared exactly 45 years ago this Sunday.

June 13, 1965, was a bright, sunny Sunday afternoon. Lyndon Baines Johnson was in the White House, and the headlines were filled with articles about the Vietnam War. Picture yourself on Lorimier Street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as a two-year-old wanders out from a backyard, swinging a sand bucket. Her older siblings don’t notice at first that the toddler has left. This was a kinder, gentler era, or at least many assumed it was, and the Harry Gill family had been a comfortable presence in the area for generations, surrounded by not just neighbors but close friends. But within minutes, the little girl simply vanished.

When Anola Gill, the children’s mother, drove up a short time later, her sister rushed forward and said, “We can’t find Beth.” Anola collapsed on the ground. By then, police swamped the street, but the child, just 22 pounds, with light brown hair, wasn’t to be found. For the next four days, would-be rescuers searched ravines, abandoned cellars, junked cars, and the shores of the nearby Mississippi River. Dogs traced Beth’s path from the family backyard but stopped cold when they reached the street, as if the girl had been picked up and driven away.

In 1965, Beth’s disappearance was front page news not just in Missouri but across the U.S. police explained to reporters what lengths they’d gone to attempting to find the toddler, all to no avail. Where was Beth Gill? “I’m certain the child was kidnapped by someone who just wanted a little girl,” said the police chief, Irvin E. Beard. His conviction was a reflection of the times, when darker possibilities rarely if ever invaded the thoughts of those who searched for Beth.

Before long, the investigation turned cold. Then, five years after Beth vanished, it seemed that the riddle of her disappearance might be solved. In April 1970, a man named Phillip O’Dell Clark came forward, claiming that he’d hit the child with his car. Because he’d been drinking and didn’t have a driver’s license, Clark said he was afraid to take Beth to a hospital. Instead, he said he'd abandoned Beth's small body in a park, later returning to bury it.

Perhaps that would have been the end of the case, but authorities didn’t believe Clark, a convicted killer who by then was serving a life sentence. The inmate was desperate. He had a hit out on him in prison, and police speculated that Clark grabbed onto the Gill case hoping to get at least temporarily out of prison and back to the safer surroundings of the county jail. Adding to the doubts, some parts of Clark's story made no sense, and he later recanted, saying he had nothing to do with the case. “It was a diversion,” says Martha Gill Hamilton, who was fifteen on the day her baby sister disappeared.

 

The result is that for more than four decades, the Gill family has searched, wished, and waited. “It broke both my parents’ hearts,” says Hamilton. “My dad died in 1970. He grieved and grieved.” Her mother, who is now 82, has never stopped yearning for or searching for Beth. “When Beth first disappeared, I thought we’d find her, she’d turn up,” says Hamilton. “I don’t know how my mother has lived with this all these years.”

How did it affect the eight brothers and sisters? “It’s always been there,” says Hamilton, a real estate agent. “It’s always been in the backs of our minds that somewhere, Beth could be out there.”

What does Hamilton believe happened to her sister? In the days before the disappearance, Irish wayfarers, a gypsy-like crew, stayed in a motel behind the Gill house. What piques Martha’s curiosity is that they left town quickly the day after Beth disappeared. “The police weren’t able to catch up with these people,” she says. “The gypsies used multiple license plates and names, which gives the impression that they were involved in something illegal. I believe they either took Beth to raise or to sell.”

Over the years, three women seeking their real names and families have had their DNA tested to see if they might be Beth Gill. None were. If she’s alive, Beth is now 47 years old, and those are her photos above, as a toddler and (above right)in an age-enhanced portrait from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Hoping that someday her youngest child will resurface, Anola (pictured left with six of her children in 1989) has her DNA on file with CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System maintained by the FBI, to be available for future testing.

This Sunday at 8 p.m., to commemorate the anniversary of Beth's disappearance, much of the Gill family along with supporters plan to gather for a candlelight vigil near the old Mississippi bridge in Cape Girardeau. They'll dream of finding a sister long-lost and call attention to the plight of families of the missing.

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20 Years Later: Will There Be Justice for Amy?

by Stacy Dittrich

You may remember her or you may not, but in the age of media-frenzied cases like Caylee Anthony and JonBenet Ramsey, there is one name not to be forgotten—Amy Mihaljevic.

On October 27, 1989, 10-year old Amy Renee Mihaljevic (pictured left) spent a typical day in her fifth-grade class before walking the short distance to her home in Bay Village, Ohio, an upscale Cleveland suburb on Lake Erie. (Bay Village was also the home of Dr. Sam Sheppard, a doctor accused of killing his wife in the 1950’s. His sentence was later overturned—a case that spawned the movie, “The Fugitive,” with Harrison Ford).

Each day, Amy found herself alone for an hour after school; both her parents worked, and her older brother Jason’s school didn’t let out until an hour after hers. At the beginning of that week, Amy received a phone call from a stranger (sketch artist depiction of suspect, right). He claimed he worked with Amy’s mother, Margaret, and that she had just received a big promotion. The man told Amy it would make her mother really happy if he picked her up so the two of them could buy her mother a gift. Of course, the man told Amy it was “their” secret and would be a surprise for Margaret. Amy was excited at the notion of surprising her mother and even broke her promise to the stranger that she wouldn’t tell anyone. Like most 10-year-olds, Amy couldn’t help but confide the plans to friends.

On October 27th, Amy hurried home and dropped off some of her things before joining a group of friends walking to the nearest ice cream shop. Amy had arranged to meet the stranger there.

When Jason Mihaljevic got home and found his sister gone, he immediately called Margaret. Feeling somewhat panicky, Margaret began to gather up her things and start for home when the phone in her office rang. It was Amy. Breathing a sigh of relief, Margaret asked her where she was. Amy claimed she was at choir practice before hanging up. That was the last time she would ever hear her daughter’s voice.

To this day, it has never been determined where Amy made the phone call from.

Margaret, who still felt unsettled by the situation, started for home. By evening, the Mihaljevics contacted the police to report Amy missing, launching an unprecedented search. The abduction of Amy Mihaljevic was one of the first child abductions featured by John Walsh in his first year as host of America’s Most Wanted.

Sadly, on February 8, 1990, a jogger discovered the remains of Amy Mihaljevic in a cornfield in rural Ashland County—less than 50 miles from Bay Village. Based on the autopsy report, Amy died horribly. Her skull was fractured; she'd been stabbed in the neck repeatedly and sexually assaulted. The coroner determined it could have taken as long as 30 minutes for Amy to die. Her killer has never been found.

In 1992, Margaret Mihaljevic made an emotional appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, speaking about the search for her daughter’s murderer. The toll was too much for Margaret. She and her husband divorced shortly after Amy’s body was discovered, and she spent the next several years slowing drinking herself to death. Margaret Mihaljevic died of alcoholism in Las Vegas in 2001.

In 2005, Cleveland reporter James Renner launched a massive investigation into Amy’s murder—turning up many questionable suspects. Renner’s book, “Amy: My Search for Her Killer,” gives an inside view of his findings. He also maintains a fascinating blog on the Amy Mihaljevic case, and updates it almost weekly with new information.

In 2007, the Bay Village police department reopened the case based on newly discovered information. Several other girls in the area had received phone calls similar to Amy’s in the month before her abduction. Authorities hope that in their vast sea of suspects, the one responsible will emerge. Authorities seem confident that the killer is still alive and living in the Bay Village or Ashland area. It is utterly frightening to think that a man capable of murdering an innocent young girl in such a violent and vicious manner is still among society.

Regardless, last month marks the 20-year anniversary of the discovery of Amy Mihaljevic’s body. New billboards (pictured right) are now being erected all over the state of Ohio in hopes they will bring forth new information.

Let’s not forget that even though it was two decades ago, Amy Mihaljevic and her surviving family members deserve some justice.

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Pounding the Pavement

by Kathryn Casey

We spend so much time talking about forensic science these days because it's hard to overemphasize how much it has changed police work. Rarely do I go to a trial where someone doesn't bring up DNA, trace evidence and the like. It's talked about in hushed tones, like the Holy Grail of justice. And it should be. Good forensic science can free the innocent and bring the guilty to punishment.

But we often forget how much of police work remains logic and legwork, covering the bases, putting in the time, thinking the cases through and coming up with ideas. Case in point: Yesterday's sad discovery of the body of seven-year-old Somer Thompson, the Orange Park, FL, girl who disappeared while walking home from school two days earlier. That's Somer pictured above. As many of you may already know, her remains were found in a Georgia landfill, legs sticking out of a mound of garbage. An autopsy is underway, but authorities have already labeled the manner of death as homicide.

Why were the police in that landfill? Did forensic evidence suggest Somer was somehow connected to the landfill? No. In this case, as in so many others, it was a good investigator thinking through the case and making a suggestion that led to a crucial discovery. Sheriff Rick Beseler credits one of his detectives with suggesting that the landfill should be checked. Orange Park's garbage is routinely hauled to this Georgia dump site. Based on that detective's reasoning, that the body might be among the refuse, Breseler told detectives to go through the debris as the trucks brought it in.

"Had we not done that, tons of garbage would have been distributed over the top of the body, and it likely would have never been found," said Beseler.

This isn't an anomaly. Lots of cases come together because of good old-fashioned police work. One comes to mind: the Piper Rountree case, the subject of my 2007 book, Die, My Love. In that case, prosecutors insisted police didn't have a solid case until they produced witnesses who could place Rountree, a Houston attorney, in Richmond, VA, where her ex-husband was ambushed and gunned down in his driveway there. No forensic evidence, no phone leads, nothing suggested how they might find those crucial witnesses. Instead, gumshoeing, walking the streets and asking questions, led investigators to folks who could point at Rountree in a courtroom and say, "That's her. I saw her in Richmond."

Now that little Somer's body has been found, of course, the forensic folks have moved in, combing the landfill for clues leading to her killer. I'm not suggesting that their role is any less important. But they wouldn't be there if not for the good idea of one cop who thought the case through and made a crucial suggestion.

Let's hope the forensic folks and the detectives working the Thompson case get every break they need to find the scumbag responsible for little Somer's death. Anyone who'd murder a child and throw her body in the trash needs to be found quickly and dealt with severely.

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Elizabeth Smart: A Woman To Look Up To

by Cassie Nelson

Everyone has someone they would want to meet given the chance. Usually it's a famous athlete, celebrity, or politician like the president of the United States. But I'd rather meet someone far stronger than athletes who are constantly battered during games; celebrities ducking omnipresent paparazzi, or a president constantly attacked by one side or the other for every decision he makes.

I would want to meet Elizabeth Smart, a woman who has endured more than most will in a lifetime. Six years after her rescue, Elizabeth holds her head high as she reveals details of her capture for the first time. She walks with poise; looking fearless and determined. She's determined not to let the horrors she endured during her captivity destroy her future. She's determined not to let the man responsible for those horrors avoid punishment. She's determined that her survival be an inspiration for women and girls similarly abducted and held, among them Jaycee Dugard.


Three years ago, Elizabeth’s abductor, Brian Mitchell, convinced a judge that he was not competent to stand trial. Last week, Elizabeth Smart testified in detail about Mitchell’s abuse and behavior during her captivity to prove he knew exactly what he was doing then and was manipulating the system now. I can’t imagine the courage it must have taken to publicly describe her experience, especially in front of her parents, who never pushed her for details. Knowing she would be confronting her abductor for the first time since her rescue on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah, she did not hesitate.

Perhaps Elizabeth Smart is able to talk about her ordeal, rather than be consumed by it, because she maintained her inner dignity and belief in a better future through the worst of  her horror. Even when she was being raped as often as four times a day, Elizabeth never lost herself. She kept a diary, writing nice things about her captor in English, while scribbling her true feelings in French underneath. Not only did she refuse to give in to despair; she looked for a way to escape.
Mitchell had told her he would kill her if she tried to escape. She figured her best chance at rescue would be back in Utah and not in California, where he had taken her. Somehow, without making him suspicious, she convinced Mitchell to return to Salt Lake City. The plan worked, and she was spotted on a street outside of Salt Lake City.


Elizabeth was 14 years old when she was abducted. She is 21 now, officially an adult. Like other young  women her age, Elizabeth is preparing to begin an independent life. She plans to move to Paris soon for the 18-month mission served by many young members of the Mormon Church. The commitment to helping others sustained her through the aftermath of her abduction and now propels her forward. As Elizabeth said in an interview recently, “I want people to know that no matter what happens in their lives, there is nothing too difficult to get through.” 

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Some Just Aren’t Wired Right: The Summer of Statistical Anomalies

by Stacy Dittrich

After the horrific case involving the brutal abduction, murder, and sexual assault of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu in which a local Sunday school teacher, Melissa Huckaby, 28 (pictured left), is charged, most of us came out screaming, “That’s a statistical anomaly!" It very rarely happens. To find that a woman who looks like a typical PTA mom is allegedly a rapist and child murderer makes even those of us with steel stomachs shudder. When it came to the Cantu case, I was as guilty as everyone else who assumed the murderer would be a male.

Shockingly, it was my own 13-year-old daughter who set me straight. While watching coverage of the Cantu case back in March, my daughter entered the room and paused. “Did they catch who killed that little girl yet?” she asked, quietly. “No,” I answered, “but they’ll get him soon, no doubt.” My daughter gave me a funny look and said in her young and authoritative voice, “How do you know it’s a him, Mom? It could be a woman who did that!” I simply raised my eyebrow at her and calmly explained, “That’s ridiculous. Of course it’s a man who did it! Women don’t sexually assault little girls, and rarely anyone, for crying out loud.” Getting in her last word, as teenagers like to do, she left the room, muttering under her breath, “I think you’re wrong…”

Imagine the "I told you so's" reverberating through my home when Huckaby’s arrest was announced. It was one of those moments where I paced back and forth, scratching my head and wondering how the hell I missed it while my teenager got it right. Ironically, the case stayed in the back of my mind; I didn't know I would be approached to write the book on Cantu's murder. I couldn’t have imagined, as my daughter and I had our exchange, that I would be flying to San Francisco at the end of September to face the “Statistical Anomaly,” i.e. the aforementioned Melissa Huckaby — to watch her in court and conduct research for the book. Because the case sent such a poignant and stark reminder to parents to be careful of everyone, not just strangers, I agreed to do it.

When Jaycee Lee Dugard walked into a Concord, CA., police department on August 26 accompanied by her two daughters, she also became one of the dreaded “statistical anomalies.” The chances of a child falling victim to a stranger abduction and surviving, then being found 18 years later after bearing her abductors children, are minuscule. Jaycee Dugard shattered the experts' predictions on such cases. God help us if she talks to investigators and leads them to other crimes, perhaps even murders, her captor, Philip Garrido, (pictured right) may have committed over the past 18 years.

Oh, but it’s not over yet. I came across this headline last week: “Michigan Mom Found Long-Lost Son Online, Raped Him.” I figured there had to be more to it so I pulled up the article. There was more to it alright—a nauseating and disturbing account of an attractive Michigan woman, Aimee Louis Sword, 35, (pictured left) of Waterford Township near Detroit who had given her son up for adoption over 10 years ago. For unknown reasons she decided to track him down online. She found him and made arrangements to meet. Prosecutors on the case maintain the meeting consisted of Sword seducing, and raping her teenage son.

I simply don’t know what to say.

Detroit Sinai Grace Hospital Dr. Gerald Shiener had a similar reaction: “I’m at a loss for words because it’s something we consider to be so out of the normal, so prohibited in every culture that it unnerves every man just to think about it…it’s an abomination.”

Abomination? Statistical Anomaly? I have a better term: Evil — plain and simple. For me, these cases solidify the notion I’ve long held about certain people: We can blame upbringing, drugs, alcohol, years of abuse, and mental anguish but the bottom line with those who commit such crimes is that they were simply born bad.

These types of criminals weren't wired right at birth and have no acceptable place in society; they will never change, they will always be evil, and they can’t be re-wired no matter how skilled the mechanic is. Even more frightening is the fact that there are hundreds, if not thousands, out there roaming our streets and threatening our children. So, the questions society needs to answer: What do we do with them then? Where do we put them?

Obviously, I have strong opinions on these matters. What are yours?

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My Take on the Jaycee Dugard Case

by Cassie Nelson

I’m turning 18 in November, and Jaycee Dugard has been held captive for longer than I’ve been alive. I spent my 18 years enjoying a happy childhood and the typical turmoil of teenage years. Jaycee has spent her 18 years as a victim of sexual abuse. At the age of 14, when most girls are looking forward to starting high school, Jaycee became a mother and went on to raise two children sired by her abuser.

The incredible good fortune of Jaycee’s rescue is matched by the horror of her long ordeal. There are so many questions and issues raised by her experience: how could the neighbors and the authorities have failed to see what was going on; could the abuser’s wife be complicit; and most confusing of all, how could Jaycee have made no apparent effort over the years to escape? The neighbors have explained why they were not aware; the authorities have admitted they failed in their responsibility. The wife was apparently just as much a monster as her husband, but what about Jaycee?

Psychiatrists have explained that anyone under the complete control of an abuser will come to feel a connection with their abuser, based on fear but also dependence. Jaycee was only 11 when she was taken and, although the backyard she was hidden in was only 35 miles from her home, it must have seemed like a world away. The experts say that no individual can maintain the level of fear or anger that being abducted and abused would cause for a prolonged time. Eventually hopelessness sets in, followed by a growing sense of identification and bonding with the abductor.

Young children are capable of finding joy even in the most difficult circumstances. Children living in dire poverty can enjoy playing street games while their parents sink into despair. It is this very innocence and resilience that saved Jaycee at the same time it imprisoned her.

Jaycee made the best of a horrifying situation. Although escape may have seemed ridiculously easy to an adult, to a child even crossing the street alone is a frightening experience. In fact, Jaycee was doing just that, on the way to the bus stop, when she was abducted less than 100 yards away from her stepfather.

My parents warn me constantly to be aware of my surroundings and never, ever text while walking through a parking lot. I know that if the unthinkable occurs, if I do the wrong thing and am taken, my parents will not be angry at me and will never give up looking for me. A child does not have the same ability to reason as an older teen or adult. Like Shawn Hornbeck, who was abducted at age 11 and held for four years, Jaycee couldn't believe that there were still people out there looking for her -- an abstract concept -- when her abductor told her she was his forever.

Psychology calls this the pre-operational stage of development. In a recent interview, Shawn described his situation this way: “It’s like you are on autopilot, only someone else is controlling all the switches. They control every little, minute detail in your life. Everything.” Like Shawn, Jaycee deserves our understanding and support, so that perhaps the next 18 years of her life will finally be happy.

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