The case of the two girls missing in Iowa sounds like it's getting desperate if investigators are resorting to draining an entire lake to rule out that their bodies aren't in there. Investigations of anything including missing children must be done in logical steps, crossing out one possibility before you move on to the next. That's good and makes sense, but something about this is still unnerving from a parent's point of view.
Screaming through the minds of the parents of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook-Morrissey, 10, right now, through my mind, and the minds of all the other parents of the word is this: THEY ARE ALIVE AND SOME PEDOPHILE TOOK THEM. PLEASE DON'T WAIT, GET HIM NOW, PLEASE, GOD, PLEASE.
Because then the thought that immediately blares out is IF A MISSING CHILD IS NOT FOUND IN THE FIRST 48 HOURS, THE CHANCES OF HIM OR HER BEING FOUND ALIVE IS SLIM TO NONE.
We are way past that deadline now. The time for issuing an Amber Alert was immediately after the girls went missing. It's going to take another three days to drain that lake. Police say they have been looking into registered sex offenders in the area. Why does it feel like it's all not happening fast enough?
Because it never is. That is always the complaints of parents whose kids disappear without a trace. There are so many things to suspect before a stranger abduction (which statistically IS rare even though it's the first thought that always comes to mind). The parents, first off. An accident. Maybe they wandered off on their own and are playing video games at a friend's house?
These things do happen that way. Many times parents are involved (Casey Anthony) or a child does get lost (and sometimes found safely) but more times than not the story ends badly, or not at all. Like with Maddie McCann or Jacob Wetterling. We still do not know what happened to those missing children.
The fact that these girl cousins were on bikes makes this feel eerily reminiscent of the Wetterling case of more than 20 years ago, in particular.
Jacob, 11, and two friends were riding their bikes to a convenience store in rural Minnesota passed a field when a gunman emerged from a car and ordered the boys off their bikes and into a ditch. He told them to all lie face down and give their ages. Two of the boys were sent running and told not to look back or they would be shot, but not before they caught a glimpse of the man taking Jacob away, leaving his bike behind. He was never seen again. He'd be 34 years old today.
Something made those girls leave drop their bikes. What?
We don't know yet. And we don't know how this most recent story will end, or if it ever will, but I pray it does. Happily. Those abandoned bikes need their little girls back.
Is this case making you incredibly anxious about the fate of these two girls? What do you think happened to them?
Image via grahamc99/Flickr
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Comments 9
I don't understand how two young girls missing doesn't fit the criteria for an amber alert. I do understand the amber alert but honestly wouldn't it be better to issue it after the girls were discovered as missing and then to retract it when signs point to it not being an amber alert??? From what i've been reading they have no clues either way of what happened to these girls.
So many people are pouring their hearts into this investigation, and the authorities are using every proper resource available. To continue insisting they use an improper one is counterproductive, and pretty insulting.
To those demanding an Amber Alert, how should we go about describing their 'abductors'? This story is already all over the news, across the nation- their pictures are everywhere. So the only thing an Amber Alert could do at this point is to help identify and apprehend a suspect, and rescue the girls in the process. So please. Tell the authorities how we should describe the suspect, so that you can get your way concerning an Amber Alert-