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You are so right. Especially when you point out: "maybe the reason Elizabeth's disappearance made all the headlines is that this type of thing is not the norm for Utah."

But it can surely happen anywhere, even in the safest of communities. As long as people remember that, perhaps they can take the proper precautions. I live in a community that has an average of less than one murder per year, yet I wouldn't think of leaving the doors unlocked at night, or when everyone is gone.

Especially for a New Yorker to preach to people in almost any other place, about being rife with crime, is the height of hypocrisy. I suppose we could fill up cyberspace with examples of atrocious crimes, accidents, child neglect, that happened in every state of the union.

And if Ricci made a habit of walking around in the rooms of young women at night, there are some parts of the country where he'd have been very, very dead long before he actually did die--and I don't mean New York, since they are so overly strict about citizens owning guns. (Isn't that the place that prosecuted the subway guy, Goetz, for a firearms violation--after he'd been repeatedly victimized?)

Also, people on here go on and on about The Big Bad Mormon Church. Whatever power the Mormon church might have, it could never begin to compare with the Mob--which is certainly a huge force in New York and New Jersey. Talk about getting away with murder!

I think Mr. Rollins is not facing the fact that no parent can protect his or her child all the time, from everything. No matter how vigilant a parent is, outside forces can intervene.

The degree of necessary vigilance frequently depends on the type a community in which a person lives. There have been no murders or kidnappings in my town for decades, if ever. Naturally, we are not as vigilant as someone who lives in an inner city environment needs to be.

Of course a major crime could happen here. We take normal precautions. Trouble is, those precautions won't stop a determined criminal. I cannot live as though I were in prison, while the criminals outside run amok. (Although I'd have to if I lived in an area which is saturated with criminal activity.)