Replies

In 1994, our neighbors' daughter was murdered in her bedroom by a prison escapee, then had her body wrapped in a sheet and stuffed in a garbage can. Apparently, he had awakened her while leaving the house via her bedroom window after he crept through their house to rob her mother's purse of a few bucks and the car keys for their minivan. Her parents didn't realize she was missing until the next morning. The cops were not all that enthusiastic about even coming out, until they & their nextdoor neighbor insisted. During the search, her father found her. Her mother heard her husband's screams, grabbed the kindergartener's body...and her hands had to be pried off of the body by an EMT. I've never seen hardened detectives cry until the EMT, who was crying himself, testified to this at the perp's trial. It's something etched in my mind forever.

No matter how safe you think you are or your children are, you cannot protect your children 24/7. No one expected Polly Klaas to be taken from her bedroom, either.

No matter who was in the house, the father left Casey for *a few moments* while he went to the bathroom. The creep had to have grabbed her, covered her mouth, and ran, in those few seconds.

One of my kids once left his bike at the door while he got the key to the basement from me to lock it up. A minute at the most. But the bike was gone, stolen, when he got back out. My anger wasn't at my son, but the thief who was just waiting, who was just there with nothing more to do but swoop down and steal.

We can blame the parents in hindsight all we like. I can say truthfully I'm more careful, more paranoid, than these parents were. But he went to take a pee. He didn't neglectfully leave her. He left for a moment, and no one could *expect* anything to happen in a moment. He didn't do anything wrong in that moment. Maybe in other things he did. But not in that moment.

We don't expect evil to move so swiftly as to swoop down as we're going to get the key to prevent the evil, or while we run to the bathroom, or let a kid play in front of the house. Now we know it can happen.

But the parents didn't *DO* it, and it is not the parents' *fault* that an evil ghoul was there just waiting to pounce! They know now, and so do we, that evil is always ready to prey on us. They doesn't make it *our* fault.

*IT IS NOT THE PARENTS' FAULT THAT A SLIMEY GHOUL SNATCHED AND KILLED THEIR DAUGHTER,* no matter what the character of the parents!!!! It is ENTIRELY the ghoul's doing!