Missing Child In NE Florida Somer Thompson Found Dead In Georgia Landfill

AP

[My Favorite Headache]

Just breaking...found in a Georgia landfill..confirmed by Gov. Crist

[darkangel82]

Some people are just beyond help, period.

[Ann Archy]

NOTHING is impossible for God.

[Hepsabeth]

I agree. When a kid is missing, the police really shouldn’t have to waste time interviewing guys who got caught peeing in the bushes after a couple of beers.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I almost hope it IS Somer, because if it isn’t, then it seems nearly certain that the immediate area has had two young children killed within the last 24 hours.

I still think, though, that there’s a real possibility this was an accident — lost and frightened child crawls into a dumpster and falls asleep, and then gets dumped into a truck with the early morning trash pick-up. Or possibly even the same evening, before or shortly after she was reported missing, because I’m having trouble picturing law enforcement allowing any trash trucks to leave the area without a dog-sniffing, once the search was underway. If a little kid who was upset and scared went into a dumpster to hide/cry, even if she was still wide awake, she might be scared into silence by a big truck backing up to the dumpster, and a strange man walking back to hook the dumpster onto the truck — might well not have understood what happens next. Just like kids that age are prone to hiding under their beds or in a closet when their home is on fire.

[Guenevere]

Thank-you...(is this your artwork)

[Guenevere]

I agree....it’s way too far.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Weird detail on the latest Fox News version of this story:
“Her backpack is black with pink and white skulls and crossbones.” http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568982,00.html

Am I just out of touch with American kid culture, or is that a really odd thing for a 7 year old girl to have adorning her pretty pink backpack?

[darkangel82]

No, it’s not just you. Really odd for a 7 year old.

[Hepsabeth]

There are about 100-130 stranger abductions of children in the US per year...

**********

Does that number include abductions after which the child is recovered alive?

If so, do you know how many kids are abducted and murdered by strangers per year?

[happinesswithoutpeace]

: (

[GovernmentShrinker]

More oddness:

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/mostpopular/news-article.aspx?storyid=146988&provider=top

The third of three crossing guards along the route, just 2/10ths of a mile from the school is “sure she didn’t see Somer”. She is not giving her name or being intreviewed on camera (probably prohibited by job rules), so not likely an attention-seeking storyteller. Presumably she wouldn’t say this if she just didn’t happen to remember seeing ANY of the kids in this group. And then, as a commenter on the above-linked article noted, it’s strange that the older sister wouldn’t have mentioned anything to the crossing guard about her missing little sister who’d supposedly run ahead of the group.

I’m starting to get a weird feeling there may be more to this story than meets the eye.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

If so, do you know how many kids are abducted and murdered by strangers per year?

What I can find are statistics that say that about 60% of stranger abduction victims are returned alive. So that puts the total at about 50, tops.

The other side of the coin is that children are becoming obese because they aren't allowed to walk anywhere, or ride their bikes. They are losing independence as they have to be driven everywhere. When I was a 7 years old, I could be sent to the store six blocks away to get a carton of milk. A friend of mine's kid still couldn't do that when he was 13. I just heard another story about a mother who told her child that he had to entertain himself for one hour every day. He couldn't watch TV or play videogames, and he couldn't try to engage her. The kid just about went crazy because he had no sense of how to behave independently.

[darkangel82]

Me too.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Sad details I dug up (the part about the car accident I’ve only seen in a blogger post, so can’t be sure if it’s real). Her parents are separated, father is an Iraq war veteran who lives in NC and was recovering from injuries from a car accident, and unable to go help search for his daughter. Poor guy. Got home from a tough tour of duty in a war zone, marriage fell apart, got in a bad car accident, and then his little girl gets killed — and who knows when he last saw her, between how far away he lives and his injuries.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/mostpopular/news-article.aspx?storyid=146932&provider=top
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2310019/a_missing_florida_girl_somer_thompson.html?cat=9

[darkangel82]

Damn. This is not my area of the state but it seems like the bad things always happen in FL.

[Frogtacos]

I am getting ready to move my kids there to the dfw area next month. Im having a hard time finding rentals (online searches) that DONT have at least one registered sex offender living ‘just around the corner.’ -Alot of these registered offenders are classified as high risk (to repeat) individuals. Now Im going to get all paranoid wondering if any of my potential neighbors are UNregistered offenders. Loaded - at all times.

[LussaO]

40 years ago this would probably not have made the news outside Florida

* * * * * *

Anyone who was a child in Oklahoma in the 60’s could tell you about “Judith Ann Elwell” or “Brenda White,” but those were not national names like they would be today.

And I think it’s an easy shot to blame our coarse culture today. Whoever the child killer was in the Oklahoma cases, that means he grew up in the culture of the 50’s at least, maybe earlier, and those were the days we were supposedly “more moral.”

[Dov in Houston]

I know a wrecker driver that drove into a “sting” where a female officer offered him a Hand J$# for 20.00

He saida Hand J$# for 20.00

Instant conviction in Texas. Sex and an amount in the same sentence and yes he has to register as a sex offender

[Drew68]

Here’s a little hint: any law named after a dead child is about reelection, not protection and should be vetoed by any thinking governor (or president) unless proven otherwise.

Woe to the politician who vetoes such a law. He'd be branded a "friend of pedophiles" and his political career would be finished.

[Drew68]

That’s because they’ve cast the laws defining “sex offender” so wide that you can get a life alterning black mark for...

It seems that in order for sex offender registries to operate, they need to have sex offenders to place on them. If there aren't enough violent predators to place on the registry then it's time to broaden the definition. This way, authorities can justify the expenditures of maintaining a sex offender registry filled with 161 offenders (of whom only 16 are actually considered dangerous).