Posted on 03/25/2005 1:14:41 PM PST by JCRoberts
Police have canceled an Amber Alert after finding a body in rural Johnson County. A positive identification of the body has not been made.
The Alert had been issued after ten-year-old Jetseta Gage disappeared from her Cedar Rapids home on Thursday night.
Police located 37-year-old Roger Paul Bentley in Johnson County this morning. He is in custody but has not been charged.
Jetsetta's mother Trena Gage says the Bently was a family friend who worked on her car occassionally. He was at the home from about noon until eight and Gage says her son saw the 10-year-old get into Bentley's truck. She told TV9, "My son said he saw my daughter in the truck...she has permission because because we've known him so long. I got back at 8:30 and she was gone."
"I'm distraught. I'm just praying," Trena told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. "I just want her home."
Jetseta, who is mentally challenged, is a white 10-year-old, stands 4 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 90 pounds. Again, she was last seen wearing an orange coat and purple pants.
The suspect Roger Bently is listed on the Iowa Sex Offenders Registry for a 1994 Buchanan County conviction involving a white female under age 13.
www.iowasexoffender.com
....these pedophiles and child molesters must be put away.....permanently.
The quote "as long as there's life, there's hope" can just as easily be re-framed as, "as long as child molesters are alive, there's a chance they'll do it again." Anyone willing to take that chance? I'm not.
But if you don't want to go as far as the death sentence for someone who hasn't committed murder, there's the other solution of isolating them in a penal colony as far removed from the general populace as possible (i.e. way up in the arctic somewhere, and let them fend for themselves)
While this is essential, it underestimates the manipulative power of these sexual predators. Whether you allow them near your child has nothing to do with whether they are able to approach your child when you're not with them, unless you're with them 24/7, which is impossible. Also, not everyone has access to nor knows how to use computers. Further, the crime is repugnant and unthinkable enough that some people won't allow themselves to consider this possibility, so they don't explore it; a tragic form of denial resulting in possible harm to their innocent child.
You often don't know someone is a sex offender. But if you do? My position has always been that the parent who allowed the contact with the sex offender should be given the same sentence as the offender who committed the crime.
Scary thought: many sex offenders are charged, tried and then acquitted, meaning they have no record, so you won't find them on any registry. Many do not register. Also, those in charge of tracking their addresses to make sure they comply with the registry DON'T DO IT! So they can be all around you and you don't know it, putting the burden on innocent children for their own safety. Absurd! The registry is a great idea, but a false sense of security!
I couldn't agree more! I suggested this a few years ago, and was told it was an invasion of the perpetrators' privacy! Outraged, I responded, "What about the child's privacy?" If every pedophile (you were able to identify as such) had a big tattoo across his forehead saying "Pedophile" or "CM" for Child Molester, it would certainly help children (and the general public) to avoid them. I wish we could get this passed into law!! I was told I'd never be able to do it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.