Missing people, dead kids. Ugh. Society is so wrong.

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I watch these news shows Prime News, JVM, and Nancy Grace. They show all the crime and missing people etc. It is absurd.

There are two people relatively close to me...three really. But two that have happened in the last month.

One is a little 5 year old girl that went missing from Fayetteville NC just a week and a half ago. Her mom reported her missing one morning. Ha! They found her dead yesterday. Turns out that her mom sold her into sex slavery for drugs apparently. They have video of her sisters ex-boyfriend carrying the little girl into a motel. What is so sad is that the little girls dad had custody of the child but had allowed the girl to stay with the mom for a couple of weeks because the mom had convinced him that she was getting her life together and now had a job and an appartment of her own. A complete lie. Poor father was working in Portland OR at the time and wanted to give mom a chance. Something that will haunt him forever. Mom had to report child missing that morning because dad was due to come home that fateful morning.

Second case is a college girl named Morgan Harrington. Please look her up online to see her picture in case you see her anywhere. She is still missing. There is a website www.morganharrington.com I believe.

She was a student at VA Tech. She had plans to see Metallica for months. She bought her tickets over six months in advance and was absolutely over the moon to see one of her favorite bands. She went with a group of friends to see them at the University of Va in Charlottesville. Afterwards they were supposed to go stay with some other friends at James Madison University. All these colleges are fairly close together in location. She was a good girl and student. No evidence of drug use or bad behavior.

She got into the auditorium about 8 pm with her friends. Sometime around 8:30 pm she told her friends she needed to use the bathroom and went by herself. Shortly after that she called her friends and told them that she was outside the auditorium and couldnt get back in because she didnt have her ticket. Metallica had not even started to play yet. She told her friends that she would find her own way home. She didnt ask them to come try to help her get in. Odd to me. Then survelience cameras see her outside the place up to 9:30 wandering around. Her purse and cell phone are found in the parking lot untouched. She just disappears. No sign of her after that.

She is a thin blond girl who was last seen wearing all black with a black shirt with Pantera in tan letters with black boots. She has long blond hair.

She has been gone a month now. There is a $100,000 reward...it maybe 150,000 because metallica put up 50,000.

I cannot imagine why her friends didnt think it was odd that she just said she would leave when she couldnt get back in. All they had to do was go to the door and bring her ticket to get her back in. She didnt smoke so there was no reason for her to go outside. Every concert I have been to has a smoking area anyway. Also...even Corys friends call me if they cant find him after a few hours. Her friends didnt even call her parents until the next day when she didnt show up at the friends home at James Madison University when everyone says this is so out of character for her. I would have thought they would have alerted everyone under the sun that night. It just doesnt make sense she would have left a concert she paid big bucks for without seeing the main act. Something is fishy.
 

Mattsmom277

Active Member
janet, these stories get my heart strings too. I know each story you outlined, ahve followed them online.

The girl missing from the concert. I think she would not have gotten back in, period. Let's say you and I go to a concert. We get our stubs given to us when we give our tickets. A friend of ours has no ticket. We arrive at the door and tell security she is our friend and forgot her ticket stub in my purse or whatever. Would they admit her? It could be anybodies ticket stub. Meaning no proof she ever paid a ticket. Imagine how easy to get people in free?? That could be a reason she didn't bother her friends to come out to try to help her. We all know how crazy concerts get too, trying to go through crowds etc. If it was me, I would want my friends to enjoy the show and I wouldn't see any way they could help me.

I wonder if she didn't find a ride so easily so decided to wander about, maybe was waiting for a ride, maybe was waiting to try to spot her friends when they come out. Maybe at concerts end she planned to call her friends cell and meet them outside.

regardless, this poor girl does not sound as if she just willingly walked off. I pray for her :(
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
I normally do not follow these stories because they wrench at my heart. I know about them, hear things from others, or read for updates, but I can't watch shows that run minute by minute updates for days on end - it really causes me to become debilitated at times. My heart aches for the families who will never know exactly what happened and it aches for those who last saw the victim and play over and over in their minds what they could or should have done differently and walk through life riddled with guilt. It's just awful. Every day there is another story in the paper or on the news.

Just over this past weekend, some man lit his girlfriend (and the mother of his 3 yr old daughter) on fire. He tried to light his girlfriend's 12 yr old daughter on fire as well, but she woke up as he was dousing her with an accellerent - they think he did it because the 12 yr old told her mom (his girlfriend) that he was touching her inappropriately. He was caught and is now in jail. The charges as of this morning are arson. What about intent to murder? Anyway, I think he's screwed and hope the courts don't lessen any charges that put him back on the streets. The girlfriend is in ICU with burns all over her body, 2nd and 3rd degree. Makes my stomach churn.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
It is so sad. People go missing everyday. I will keep these girls in my prayers, and the father of the child and his family. I will hope that the mother of that girl is tortured by the other inmates long and hard before dying and going to He.

There is little room in my heart for forgiveness of those who abuse and abduct the innocent. I am not consumed with hatred, I simply use my energy to pray for those who have not done horrific things to children and other innocents. Esp a mom who sells her child, or who lets her child go missing for a month before she tells police.

OK has seen more than our share of kidnaps and murderers. I am always aware when I am in public. I work to keep my kids aware also.

I was the victim of an attempted kidnapping as a child. A man drove up to me as I walked home from the library (we lived in OH then and the library shared the parking lot with my school). He knew my name, and my uncle's name. Told me my uncle sent him to come and get me because my dad was in the hospital. Even told me that my uncle and gma couldn't come get me because they were donating blood so my dad would live.

If he hadn't mentioned that specific uncle I might have gotten into the car. That uncle, my dad's little brother, told me from the time I could walk that if anything EVER happened that he, my gma, or one of my aunts or my great aunt would come get me. NEVER a stranger or "friend" from work. It would be someone I knew or no one.

He was a paramedic and fire dept volunteer. Safety was HUGE with him, so he drilled it into us.

I went home, called my gma to see if Dad was OK and then never said anything for years. I was so scared, I remember sitting in my bed shaking and deciding to not tell anyone because they might do something to make my brother get home earlier. We were latchkey kids and my bro was NOT someone I wanted to be home alone with - esp if he had to come home early to be sure I was safe.

I finally told my mom when Wiz was a toddler. I also called my uncle and thanked him. Who knows what would have happened. He vaguely remembers a coworker with the look and car that I described, someone who didn't like him much but that he didn't really work with or know.

Talk to your kids. Choose a safe word that is unusual. If ANYONE but a parent or close relative is to pick up your child make sure that the person says the safe word before your child goes with them.

Go over safety rules for your kids who are off to college. A panic button would be a good gift for anyone who walks anywhere at night (even to a late class or friend's house on a college campus). work with volunteer groups to set up Safe Walk programs, where kids work from a central point and walk people home from libraries and late classes. Safety at night really can be as simple as staying iwth a group. I did this in college. We waited in the lounge at the library and would send 1-2 guys or 2-3 girls to walk a person home at night. It boosted the night time safety record substantially, esp for rapes.

Do whatever it takes to be sure your kids are safe. And that you are too.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Ugh Jo...how awful That reminds me of the teen boy in Florida who was lit on fire because he told on some other kids for stealing his dads bike. The other kids poured alcohol on him and lit him on fire. They were 13 to 15. He is 15. He is burned over 80% of his body I think.

And Jo...what about the Jasper guy at UCONN. OMG. How awful!
 

klmno

Active Member
Janet- it's in our paper today that a dead body was found in Roanoke and might possibly be the girl from Va Tech. I have heard that she was not allowed back into the concert, apparently borrowed someone's cell but they don't know who's, and was seen hitchiking with a little blood on her chin. These are reports but not confirmed, apparently.

I heard about the little girl in NC, too. That one broke my heart. It's horrid that anyone would participate in something like that but I can't imagine any mother selling her child and throwing her into it. I hope they hang her by her toes.

I have caught glimpses of a story about a family full of pervs- apparently a bunch of related men with onee around 70yo, I think, that have been molesting female family members. Has anyone heard about that? Where is that and how did they finally get caught?

ETA: I just checked online and they have updated their story about the VaTech student- they decided now that they don't think it's her.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
The family full of pervs is from MO. Well the grandfather is in FL I think but it is all linked back to a family farm in MO. I think it is up to 6 arrests right now. Grandpa, dad and 4 sons? What a family photo it made! Good Xmas card.

My heart sank when I read about the body in Roanoke. I really do think that if she could call home, she would have by now. However, they have had two other deaths at VT this year too so maybe this is from that case. Gosh...just what we need. More crimes. Its getting so its dangerous to send your kids to college. Safer to send them into the military.
 

Mattsmom277

Active Member
I've been speaking more with easy child about safety stuff. Not that I think crime has worsened, just that once we know we can do better, I feel obligated to be sure we do. So I balance the fine line on helping easy child recognize danger and how to stay safe, vs not wanting her living in fear. So far so good. We have a safe word thing. We talked through the years about stranger danger. But lately we've talked more about how high the odds are it is someone you know, and how it is NOT okay no matter how they try to seduce you to believe you should allow it or keep quiet etc.
I've decided since she is now 10 years old, to open up a small bit that my own dad is a perpetrator. I want her to understand that sometimes it is the people we love and respect and want to love us, and how much that weighs in favor of a predator but doesn't have to, so long as we have open communication and she talks to me openly.
I haven't told her any details at all. Just that he has harmed many women in the family and is a dangerous and very sick person. But that he can walk the streets and be respected etc because sick people don't always look sick or demented. Sometimes they are a the kindly coach, uncle, father, teacher, neighbor etc. I think thats very important nowadays.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Janet

This is why I don't watch the news. I just can't handle all the violence after a while. I lose my Hope that somehow, someway, we human beings can turn this around to being a safer happy world to live in. But the news reminds me that I think we've come too far for that to ever happen........inhales the life right out of me.

The simple fact that children aren't safe anywhere.....including with their own parents and in their own homes.......says alot for the world's condition.

I know I'm just poking my head in the sand.......but it's how I cope. I know what's going on out there in the world.......I just don't need to see it everyday.
 

klmno

Active Member
Well the world is completely different than when I grew up. Just over the past 2-3 weeks I heard these stories in our very conservative state: 1) A kid is accused of trying to poison his teacher, 2) a kid attacked another student with an axe or hatchet, 3) a man set his employer on fire because he was let go

I'll be the first to admit that I did a lot of stupid things as a kid and there were some "bad" people around me- but this stuff wasn't going on.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I don't know that there is an increase in crime percentages so much as there is a huge change in news access. Today the news from NC, MO, FL etc. is equally available. Before this increase in sophisticated communication you only "heard" about out of state crimes in monthly magazines...now it is instantaneous. Obviously it is important to stress safety to the children and practice safety as adults.

Regarding the news shows, I will not watch Nancy Grace because she has in my humble opinion the arrogance of the prosecuting attorneys experience combined with a flair for melodrama. She makes my BiPolar (BP) go up...and I don't have any BiPolar (BP) problems. :( The other shows I do watch and find myself with far too many people to include in my prayers! DDD
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
DDD you are right about the instant access to info. I think we have some increase in crime along with more access to what we know about.

I also agree with you about Nancy Grace...lol. I do watch her though even if she does make me cringe from time to time. I like Prime News the best. Jane Valez Mitchell makes me want to scream half the time because she is constantly calling everything an "addiction" and a War on Women. Everyone is addicted to something...drugs, alcohol, sex, violence, crime, fame, drama, reality shows, food, etc. I want to strangle her sometimes...lol. I cant tell you how many times I have called in and left messages on her answering machine that addiction stems from mental health problems....lol. Get better mental health treatment and addiction problems would go down. So far she hasnt responded to me. I keep trying though.
 

klmno

Active Member
I agree with you two as well. But I think the more "word" gets around about these bad things, the more others get the idea to do more.

Nancy Grace- mouthy. That's all I can say. But I watch her sometimes, too. I just would hate to be a guest on her show because she talks horribly to people. I've even seen her yell at people who are sitting there agreeing with her. LOL!
 
Top