From: charlie
Date: 7/17/01
Time: 11:55:15 AM
The Chandra Levy case has brought to the forefront the problem of missing adults NOT being considered a crime--not matter what--until a body is found.
We saw from Jasper's experience that getting the cops to help in a TIMELY way is next to impossible even when Children are involved.
The reenactments that we see on tv where children have been "saved" before the kidnapper gets out of town happen 100% of the time in a small communinity or city where the cops and neighbors, etc. get "on the stick" at the first 'whiff" that a child is missing. If they "followed' the law and have 24 hrs pass before "doing" something the perps --and the child--would be long gone. And the child would probably have found dead at some later point--if ever found at all.
Of course, teenagers and adult do in fact go off on their own (run away from home) but to automatically assume that is the case til a body is found is just ridiculous. It is also dangerous and not what I'd like to think this country is all about.
I know of a case (years ago) where a young woman came up missing and there was nothing the parents could say to the cops to make them look for her. She was labelled a "party girl" or a "wild girl" and nobody looked. Even with the parents saying that no matter WHAT the girl would not have missed Thanksgiving dinner and then later Christmas with the family caused the cops to make a move.
This young woman was the daughter of a City Council member and the brother of a pro baseball player (majors) but nobody could get them to look
This young woman has NEVER been found. No body. No nothing. Years later, her purse was found in the river.
Of course, they didn't want to look. She was dating an undercover cop involved in drugs. (the man was always considered a "suspect" in her disappearance) He is in jail now on unrelated charges. His girlfriend was an "informant" to him.
This is going to Have to stop. As I posted on Iago, it is the reason that serial killers can keep a victim hostage for weeks and torture them before killing them --they know that nobody is going to even LOOK for the person for a good long while.
charlie