[freedox]

"I wouldn't be afraid to look around my neighborhood for a child who had been taken at gun point a couple of hours earlier. I'd figure the gunman was long gone......"

That sort of thinking might be understandable for a layperson, but not for a police officer. Initial police reports stated that there was no evidence of a vehicle, indicating that Elizabeth and her abductor had left on foot. Therefore, there was a possibility that they were still hiding in the area. I seriously question why the police would have allowed people to continue roaming about the neighborhood, looking for Elizabeth and a supposedly armed gunman. Isn't the police motto "To PROTECT and Serve"?

[cookiedough]

First, that there was no evidence of a vehicle, does not mean a vehicle was not used.

Second, why would the gunman be hiding in the neighborhood, with a hostage, a couple of hours later? No reason for him to hang around, and even if he had walked out, he could have been 8 miles away two hours later.

Third, the police may have thought Liz was a runaway when they first arrived at the scene. Teenagers do tend to run away or sneak out at night more often than they get abducted from their bedrooms in the middle of the night.