Red Letter Day for Etan's Family

by Lisa R. Cohen

 On Tuesday I called Stan Patz. "Hi," I said. "Am I the first of the legions of annoying media calling you today to check in?"

Patz is the father of Etan Patz, the famous missing six-year-old who disappeared 31 years ago Tuesday, the day now marked as National Missing Children's Day. He vanished during a two-block walk from his downtown New York home to the school bus stop.

His mother (above, with Etan) kissed him goodbye on the sidewalk in front of their loft apartment, and he set off, taking that walk on his own for the very first time.

Last year, when I wrote the book about this then-30-year case, the only book ever written on it, I called it AFTER ETAN: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive. There was a "Before Etan," and an "After Etan."

Before Etan, parents didn't have the image of that beautiful blond-haired boy, an image of what could be their own child's fate, lurking in their hearts. After Etan, they did, and for many, the world changed forever.

The case has never been officially solved, although the book details the best convincingly detailed argument for what happened that day, and then tells what happened in the twisting, turning years following, as law enforcement struggled to make sense of the mystery, unraveling clues over time. Because it's this incredible, ongoing mystery, every year, on May 25th, the media calls come in, a trickle over the last several, but the day is always marked by someone.

"I think it's going to be a pretty quiet one," Stan replied to me. "I'm not anticipating a lot of attention." Which, to Stan (below left), is good and bad. He hates attention, but on the other hand, he's fought for 31 years to keep people interested in solving this case.

"I was wrong," he wrote to me later that day. "A Wall Street Journal reporter has interviewed me at length, and his photographer was just here to take pictures."

"There is news," he continued, and I could almost hear the excitement in his words on the page. "The new Manhattan District Attorney has announced he's re-opening the case."

I got the call from the reporter himself soon afterwards and filled him in on some of the background of the case. I told him that this break was a testament to the tenacity of Stan and his cohort, the former Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart GraBois, who had stood by Patz, followed the case for more than two decades, and had himself broken it, zeroing in on a most viable prime suspect.

Jose Antonio Ramos (right) has never been charged for Etan's abduction and murder, although in 2004 he was found legally responsible for Etan's death in a civil suit Stan Patz brought against him.

The former Manhattan D.A., Robert Morgenthau, had the case for decades but always insisted he didn't have enough evidence to prosecute. His spokesperson would always follow up with a "can't comment on an ongoing investigation," and no one could know exactly what their case was.

The new D.A., Cyrus Vance Jr, now says he's willing to take a fresh look. It doesn't mean they're about to convene a grand jury, or charge Ramos, or anything that concrete. But it does signal a willingness to go after Ramos for what many close to the case believe is the heinous crime he committed all those years ago. For that, and for the fact that he's not blindly sticking to the status quo, Vance (left) is to be commended.

There is no statute of limitations on murder. It's unclear, based on New York state law, if there's a statute of limitations on the kind of kidnapping charge they might be able to bring against Ramos.

Stan Patz is especially pleased because of a looming deadline. In 2012, Ramos will have served the full term for two other child molestation cases for which he was convicted. He was put in jail by prosecutor GraBois (right), not for the Patz case, but because of it. It was GraBois's gusto that led him to pursue the other cases when he couldn't nail Ramos on the Patz case. Ramos, it turned out, was a serial pedophile, but over the last 25 years, he's successfully been kept away from an entire generation of small victims.

But in two years, Ramos will walk free. Stan Patz and Stu GraBois want to make sure that won't happen. The wheels of justice grind slowly, and two years isn't very long at all by that measure.

Stan was grateful, after all, that Tuesday wasn't such a quiet day. And today, at last, there's a measure of hope.

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Missing Morgan: The Family’s Pain

By Robin Sax

Morgan Harrington was a 20-year-old Virginia Tech education major who wanted to be a teacher.  She spent time working with children and victims of domestic violence. She loved Harry Potter and the Twilight series. Morgan disappeared Saturday October 17, 2009, after being shut out of a Metallica Concert at the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena. Her remains were found in a field Wednesday, January 26, 2010. 

I had the privilege of being on the Dr. Phil show with Morgan’s family about six weeks ago. I was impressed by their strength and fortitude. The circumstances behind her disappearance were still a mystery; Morgan was still a missing person. And so her parents, showing so much grace and strength in the face of such difficulty, still had hope. 

The worst-case scenario -- a hellish reality for any parent -- unfolded that late January day when the Virginia State police said they were “fairly confident” that skeletal remains found in a hayfield on the Anchorage Farm in Albemarle County were those of Morgan Harrington. Dan Harrington, Morgan’s father, posted these words on the family’s missing person site:

Morgan's mother, Gil, and I are overwhelmingly saddened by yesterday's discovery, but we are also relieved because our questions can now be answered and we can give our daughter a proper burial. We know that because of the good life Morgan led and the love she created for everyone around her, she is now in a safer, better place. We appreciate everyone's respect for our privacy at this difficult time and we thank everyone who has helped us through this tragedy and helped us find Morgan.

While searching through the family’s “Find Morgan” site, I came across a post by her mother, Gil, uploaded just two days before her daughter’s body was found:

Despite the length of time Morgan has been gone I remain hopeful. Part of me is waiting to be surprised. Waiting for God to pull the rabbit out of the hat and bring Morgan home. I remember that the light always returns, it cannot help but return. Will the light of my life return soon? I cannot imagine that all the water of Morgan's potential is to run down the drain and be wasted. Can it really play out like that?

As a mother, I cannot begin to imagine coping with the horror the Harrington family now lives with. In cases of murdered children, there will be a range of emotions affecting the family: feelings of helplessness, guilt, grief, listlessness, anger, rage, horror, pain (both physical and emotional), and more. Many marriages break up after the death of a child. Unanswered questions haunt the family until the trial of the murderer (if ever found). And even then, not all the details will ever be known – nor would many families really want to know them. 

In the case of the Harringtons, I believe that Gil and Dan will be able, somehow, to weather the hurricane of grief. From what I have seen of them, this couple has an inner strength that will help them to cope. Still, life will never be the same.

At least when a child is still missing, you can share in the hope that they will be found alive. When you reach the point that remains have been found, there is no longer hope. The only solace is a sort of closure and a chance for healing. As Dan Harrington said, they will now be able to give Morgan a proper burial. 

Sometimes the ones who suffer the most aren't just the parents but the siblings left behind. These children have to live with the absent-parent syndrome (parents who are missing in their own way while dealing with the tremendous anxiety and stress of a missing child and then the trauma of the child's death).

Besides the ghastly circumstances the siblings face – going back into society and trying to be strong and brave – they also shoulder their parents' grief. It can be a huge burden. Dan Harrington said that his son Alex and Morgan were close, and that Alex is having the most difficult time of anyone. Alex has been in New York City during many of the past weeks and compartmentalized the limbo of waiting for news of Morgan. Keeping busy with work was a good distraction. But now that his sister has been found, he will travel back home and face the tragedy (and the new reality of his parents' grief).

I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with many families who endured the various stages and aspects of dealing with such a monstrous loss, an abduction, or other crime committed against their children. In some ways, it's so much easier to connect to a family that is still searching, still clinging to the hope that somehow, somewhere their beloved child is simply missing and will return home. Cases like Jaycee Duggard and Elizabeth Smart -- as tragic as they were -- still are considered “happy endings.

There are examples of survivors who have done incredible things after the homicide of a child. Mark Klaas is such an example. After the murder of his daughter, Polly Hannah Klaas, in 1994, Mark established the Klaas Kids Foundation. Mark has fingerprinted over a quarter of a million children in the last decade, had tremendous success with his public awareness campaigns, and is involved in legislative efforts to strengthen sentences for violent and recidivist offenders -- to name a few of his activities. I'm constantly amazed at what Mark, and many other parents, are able to do following such a tragedy. We can all learn from their strengths.

The Harringtons involved themselves in the legislative process while they were searching for Morgan. They asked lawmakers to reauthorize Kristen’s Act, which creates a national database to search for missing adults. The 2002 federal law was named for Kristen Modafferi, an 18-year-old Charlotte, N.C., woman who vanished in June 1997. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children could not help the search at the time because Modafferi was an adult. The House voted to reauthorize the law in February, and it is pending before the Senate. It is activism like this that helps to reaffirm that Morgan Harrington did not die in vain.

Though I cannot say I fully understand the grief or pain the Harringtons feel -- or any family of missing or murdered children for that matter -- I know it's our obligation as a society to unite and demand that justice prevail. Those responsible for these crimes must be found, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced for the heinous acts they committed.

We cannot make sense of a senseless crime. We can only mourn the loss of such a lovely young woman, whose life tragically ended far too soon. We send our prayers to Morgan’s family. And we pray that something so unthinkable will never happen in our family. 

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New Life Wrapped in Death

by Diane Fanning

The landlord sniffed a “horrifying smell” that convinced her she had to enter 23-year-old Darlene Haynes’(pictured below right) apartment on July 27, 2009. There she found the young woman’s mutilated body, again raising the nightmarish specter of Cesarean abduction in the public consciousness. Media reports cited the case of Lisa Montgomery, the woman sentenced to death for murdering Bobbie Jo Stinnett to steal the baby from her body—the subject of BABY BE MINE, the most difficult book I’ve ever written.

The violent death of a pregnant woman violates all our standards of decency and brings the word "evil" to our lips. The time a woman spends carrying a baby is supposed to be a special time — I know it was for me — and when an expectant mother is killed, she is often not the only one to die. In taking her life, the life of the most innocent of all victims is often forfeited as well.

Most pregnant women who die of homicide are victims of domestic abuse by an intimate partner. Typically, the motivation for these murders are the man's desire to control the woman or to free himself of an unwelcome burden or change of lifestyle.

Law Enforcement is familiar with domestic violence but that experience does not translate to the snatching of a newborn or a Cesarean abduction. These female killers do not know their victims well and have no personal resentment toward them. They target pregnant women at random, based only on their physical condition, in a narcissistic urge to satisfy their own needs without any regard for anyone else.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the abductor in these types of cases is “desperate to bask in the rapture of baby love—to feel adored and needed.” The typical perpetrator “truly believes she is about to give birth and fully expects everyone to accept the reality she has attempted to create.”

“Infant abductors want what they want when they want it. They don’t care who they step on to get there,” said Cathy Nahirney at the Center. “If you are standing in their way, they will run you over without a blink of an eye and leave you to die on the pavement while they pursue their all-consuming goal.”

Making it harder on investigators, these women do not usually have rap sheets. If there is anything on their record, it is for minor, nonviolent crimes like shoplifting or check kiting.

“Infant abductions are usually carried out by women who are not criminally sophisticated,” according to a September 1995 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. “However, the women demonstrate an ability to plan…” the crime “…and convincingly play a role… Most of these women are living a lie—before, during and after the abduction. Many have faked a pregnancy, which eventually forces them into a corner. They feel they have no choice but to produce a child by any means necessary. Indeed, infant abductions are the desperate acts of desperate women. As one infant abductor put it, “I began getting desperate trying to figure out what I was going to do—how I was gonna find someone to give me their baby—now.”

In trying to understand this crime in the context of our normalcy, we often wondered if the woman who kills for a baby is despairing because of an inability to get pregnant or a recent miscarriage. However, this is normally not the case. These women are, more likely than not, sociopaths who don’t love children but who do love the power and attention that feel is connected with motherhood. In other words, these women want a child solely for the attention in brings to them.

On the victim’s side of the equation, this crime evokes extreme emotion, devastating the immediate family, the community where it occurred and more often than that, resulting in the death of the newborn. What can a woman do to protect herself from Cesarean abduction or any form of infant abduction? The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a wealth of resources on line as well as a toll-free number to call with questions. The bottom line, though, is that a pregnant woman or new mother needs to exercise awareness and caution.

Don’t post a photograph of yourself appearing pregnant on a public forum on line. Don’t put up a cute pink or blue sign in your front yard advertising the birth of your child. And pay attention to your intuition—if a situation or a person makes you uncomfortable, trust yourself and don’t let fears of looking foolish stand in the way of your innate common sense.

Darlene Haynes should be alive today, holding a two-month-old baby in her arms. Fortunately, Darlene’s baby survived and the suspected killer, Julie Corey (left), and her alleged accomplice are behind bars. But no matter how severe a sentence is handed down to Corey, it will not bring back Darlene Haynes' life—nor will her innocent baby ever know the warmth of her biological mother's smile.

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Introducing New Woman In Crime Ink - Lisa R. Cohen

by Lisa R. Cohen

The Etan Patz case is one of the best examples I have ever seen of “Justice Interrupted,” the name used by some of the women on this blog to describe their cause, of going after the toughest abuses against the most vulnerable of victims.

Etan was six ½ in 1979 when he disappeared off the streets of Manhattan sometime between 8:00 and 8:30 on a misty morning, somewhere between his home and the school bus stop two short blocks away. He had finally convinced his mother Julie to let him make the short trip alone. She walked him down the stairs, unlocked the door – he was too short to reach the lock himself – and kissed him goodbye on the street before watching him head off.

He never came home. He was missing more than 8 hours by the time Julie realized that he hadn’t ever made it to school that day. She immediately called her husband, then the police, and by nightfall some 300 NYPD were combing the streets.

Etan’s father Stan is a professional photographer. He took hundreds of lovingly shot photos of his son, and Etan’s beautiful face smiled down from missing posters around New York City, and then throughout the country. They were translated into several languages and ultimately sent around the world. Etan became, quite literally, the poster child for missing children. The day he disappeared is now marked every May 25th as National Missing Children’s Day.

Thirty years ago, missing children certainly weren’t unheard of, but Etan Patz was the one case that triggered a sea change. Thirty years ago, children walked to school by themselves (I know I did, in kindergarten). They played outside until it was time to come home for dinner. And when a child went missing, there was no centralized place to cry out for help, no national data banks, no National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Everything changed, after Etan.

Today, the man responsible for Etan's death has never been charged, but he sits in jail after one determined prosecutor got him convicted for something else, in Etan's name. How that happened, and how the prosecutor traveled the world to build his case, is detailed for the first time in AFTER ETAN: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive (Grand Central Publishing, May 09).

After twenty five years, the serial pedophile, Jose Antonio Ramos, will walk free in 2012, unless he can be stopped. But there's new movement to do that, spearheaded by that same (former) prosecutor and Etan's father Stan Patz.

I’ve reported on this story for almost twenty years, as a producer at the network news magazines “PrimeTime Live” and “60 Minutes.” Then I spent five years writing AFTER ETAN, the first book ever on this case in all those thirty years.

It’s the story I could never walk away from, and its twists and turns both confounded and astonished me. Recently, “20/20” spent a full hour reprising some of the reporting from my first piece in 1990, and adding several other significant developments recounted in the book. It’s a tough story, but it’s also filled with real life heroes who faced incredible odds with courage and dedication.

Etan’s legacy can’t make up for the tragedy he and his family have suffered, but it’s an impressive one. Through my book, my ongoing writings here and elsewhere, I want to paint the picture of the before and after, tell some of the incredible tale that spans thirty years of this case, and track both the case and the issue of missing and exploited children onward into the future. In doing so, I hope I’ll be able to pass on some of the valuable lessons I myself have learned.

Thanks for this opportunity.

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