[lady lawyer]

Re the media. I learned years ago, after reading reports of events in which I participated, that the media seldom gets everything right.

[tracer]

And such often is a result of what the media are fed by the police, who are doing their best to solve a tragic case.

Investigators often use the media as an unwitting (or cooperative) tool in psyching/flushing out suspects and even witnesses, as you no doubt know.

BTW, why would anyone think or even imagine that, with all of their current heartache and fear, that the Smart family would enlist you to sway the opinions of people who frequent the FR??

And why would anyone suspect this visibly shaken family of complicity in this horrible crime?? I can say with certainty that if I were a member of a family that was involved in a cover-up that could lead to the harming of a child, the next Thanksgiving dinner would not be pleasant, if it were held at all (please excuse my hyperbole). Indeed, I likely would be a witness, informant, and or misdemeanor defendant who no longer acknowledged being a member of such a family.

As Mark Twain once said, the only way that a secret can exist between two people is if one of them is dead...

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

Well, we can certainly agree on that! I have NEVER ONCE been involved in something that made the news, even the local paper, and found that the facts were as stated- even the basics of "Who/What/Where/When?" are always wrong in some respects, and don't get me started on "Why?"

I wrote (sports) for my college paper, and I was (and remain) completely unimpressed by the sort of lazy airheads who go into "Journalism". For one thing, I was the only Science major on the paper- but these hippie losers felt no constraints against writing utter crap about scientific subjects. As for mathematics (and especially any understanding of statistics) FORGET IT!!

My problems with this case, though, emanate not so much from the media reports (second or third-hand as they are), but from the passing strange and often unfathomable comments that have been repeatedly made by the father and the uncle. It is like a puzzle that suddenly makes sense if looked at with the ASSUMPTION that the identity of the abductor is known to them. Otherwise, they seem bizarre.

By the way, I am NOT one of the "Mormon-bashers" on these threads. I served with several Mormons in the Army (Special Forces and other fairly demanding assignments) and I admired their faith, and resistance to the temptations incident to miltary life. They tended to be more trusting and much less cynical about people than I am- but almost everyone is!