A slight clerical error

I just got an email from a woman who claims she is listed on my website. She has been listed as missing under suspicious circumstances since 1982. She was only fifteen at the time. Assuming this is not a joke, it look like the MP report was closed long ago but somehow it accidentally found its way onto a missing persons database, where I grabbed it. I suggested the woman get in touch with the listed law enforcement contact.

She must feel kind of embarrassed. She’s married now, so hopefully acquaintances and future employers etc. will not be able to find out about this by Googling her name.

Elizabeth Smart goes public

Elizabeth Smart, who was abducted by Brian Mitchell and held for nine months back in 2002, has testified at a hearing to determine Mitchell’s competency and has detailed the horrors of her captivity for the first time. Elizabeth is now 21 and a music major at Brigham Young University. She’s grown into a beautiful young woman. The details she gives don’t surprise me a bit: rape several times a day, forced to take drugs and alcohol, constantly threatened with death, etc. Elizabeth seems shockingly well-adjusted for having gone through all that — evidence for my theory that human beings are amazingly resilient and have the potential to bounce back from anything.

Elizabeth also says that Mitchell seemed perfectly rational all the time while he held her and only started going on about religion and being a prophet when he wanted something. She thinks his insanity thing is an act. I have no opinion on that, it’s not for me to decide, but frankly I don’t think this guy is ever going to be tried. It’s been six years since his arrest and they haven’t even decided whether he’s competent or not, never mind set a trial date. It doesn’t really matter, I think, as long as he’s locked up forever.

You can read some of the testimony here.

As for Wanda Barzee, Mitchell’s wife and accomplice, the press has got hold of some letters she wrote to her mom where she speaks of wanting to repent of her sins. But she doesn’t really talk about Elizabeth, only says that both she and Elizabeth were “victims” of Mitchell. She hasn’t been declared competent yet either, but she seems to be on the way there now that they’ve forced her to take antipsychotic drugs.

Additional articles:
The New York Daily News
The Associated Press
The London Daily Telegraph
The Salt Lake Tribune

Jaycee Dugard to appear on Oprah

I found this article saying Jaycee is scheduled to be interviewed on the Oprah Winfrey Show in December. Maybe I could somehow find a way to watch it. I would have to borrow someone else’s TV. Anyway, it says she’s getting paid a million dollars for this.

I don’t think I would do it, if I were her — it seems like such a big famous TV appearance would mess up her life even more. But I’m not her.

You know you’re famous when…

… you make the news in Ethiopia. Jaycee Dugard has.

Jaycee Dugard’s abduction is horrible but really rare

I found this very sensible editorial pointing out just how uncommon cases like Jaycee’s are, and saying we need to focus more attention on the victims of parental abduction, who tend to suffer a great deal of psychological trauma even if they’re not physically harmed. (Case in point: poor Richard Chekevdia was held in a tiny room for two years and never let outside after his mom abducted him.) Of course instances like the Dugard case are much more shocking and titillating to the public. But if the public knew the truth about parental abduction and the harm it causes, they would probably be shocked.

Jaycee’s hometown threw a parade to celebrate her rescue. 2,000 people showed up. She wasn’t around to see it, though. She’s hiding out with her mom and kids, presumably getting reconnected. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if she went on to lead a more or less normal life. Most of the survivors of concentration camps did okay afterwards, marrying again, getting jobs, having more kids, etc.

So it’s true

Jaycee Dugard really HAS been found — albeit living in horrific circumstances. Her abductor, a convicted rapist named Phillip Garrido, along with his wife, Nancy, kept Jaycee locked up in a shed in the backyard. She gave birth to two daughters during her time in captivity. They are now 11 and 15 years old and were also raised in the shed. It’s like something out of a bad movie — or the Elizabeth Scott novel Living Dead Girl, which is about a teenage girl who was kidnapped by a man when she was a child and has been forced to be his live-in rape victim ever since. Jaycee and the children are in good physical health apparently, but mentally it’s got to be another story altogether. That poor woman. Those poor kids.

I hope there will be an outpouring from the community like there was with Shasta Groene, and Jaycee and her kids will get the therapy they need and be able to set up a new life for themselves. The kids have never been to school. It wouldn’t surprise me if they too were sexually violated by Garrido.

On the bright side…Jaycee is ALIVE! Who would have thought? I certainly never believed this was a possibility. I believe the longest known time a child was held captive in a stranger abduction case is nine years. Well, Jaycee has DOUBLED that record, and it gives new hope for all the other children out there who have been missing for decades.

She and the kids are young yet. I only hope they can salvage their lives.

I’m sure everyone and their podiatrist knows this, but…

…just in case, it looks like Jaycee Dugard may have been found alive and well. A woman walked into a police station claiming to be her, anyway, and the police say they have two suspects in custody and will disclose more at a press conference today. If this is true, then Jaycee, who was abducted in 1991, sets a new record for the longest time a stranger abducted child lived in captivity.

I refer you to the Google news search for more.

A roundup of resolves

It sometimes happens that I get several resolved cases dumped on me all at once. Today is one of those days. We’ve got:

Alice Louise Donovan, 44, who was kidnapped from Conway, South Carolina on November 14, 2002. Her abductors were too thoroughly frightening young punks, Brenden Basham and Chadwick Fulks, who’d broken out of jail and gone on a multi-state crime spree of robbery, car theft, burglary, kidnapping and murder. The suspects were arrested two days later. They were later convicted of carjacking resulting in death in Alice’s case. Bone fragments found in Horry County, South Carolina in January have just been identified as Alice’s. Basham and Fulks are both on death row now. Another of their victims, a West Virginia college student named Samantha Burns, is still among the missing.

Michael Ray Larsen, 49, a transient who disappeared from Fort Bragg, California in August 2003. His skeletal remains were found near a homeless encampment in Fort Bragg last week, and were identified this week. There was no indication of foul play. It looks like he might have fallen off a cliff.

Tiairra Jo Garcia, 19, disappeared from Pasco, Washington on June 22, 2008. Her dirtbag boyfriend and three of his associates were charged in connection with her disappearance. The police believe Tiairra’s boyfriend accidentally shot her and then let her die without trying to get help for her. Tiairra’s remains turned up in Mount Rainier National Park. The boyfriend was sentenced to eight years in prison and one of his friends got one year for their roles in her death. It hardly seems to be enough.

Brody Shaun Shelton, 3, and his sister Logan Willow Shelton, 1, were kidnapped by their mother from Las Vegas, Nevada on March 19, 2004. The children have been found safe, according to the NCMEC; I have no other details.

Daniel Hauser and his mom return on their own

I didn’t write about this before, but I’m sure quite a few of you have heard of Daniel Hauser. He’s 13 years old and has cancer. The doctors think that with chemotherapy he stands a very good chance of surviving. He went through one course of chemo, but then refused any more and the tumors have grown since then. Daniel and his parents said they thought chemo would kill him and they were going to try Native American holistic healing practices instead. (Snort.) He and his mom, Colleen, fled when child protective services got involved to force them to abide by the doctors’ orders.

Anyway, Daniel and his mom have returned voluntarily from Mexico to face the music. It looks like they just didn’t want to hide anymore. At any rate, Colleen promised she’ll do what the court advises for Daniel from now on. I hope she holds to that. I would be a lot more sympathetic if the chemo only stood a small chance of working, or if the doctors said it would only prolong his life but Daniel would die of the cancer in the end. But I expect if that was the case, the family court would not be getting involved. For the Hausers to refuse a treatment that is predicted to be 90% effective, in exchange for doing…well, nothing, is lunacy.

Being an atheist, of course I don’t believe in “faith healing,” nor do I believe in New Age-type treatments. Acupuncture and herbal remedies is about as far as I’m willing to go. I do believe in the right of parents to decide what’s best, medically, for their child (even if their decisions seem dumb to me), and the right of children to have input in their medical decisions once they reach their teens. But I don’t believe those rights should be without qualification. Their freedom ends when the medical condition becomes life-threatening. The protection of life is paramount.

A lot of people, perhaps even the majority, can be awfully stupid when it comes to medical decisions. Like, for example, people with high cholesterol who refuse to take, or stop taking, medications that could prolong their life. And who goes through their full course of antibiotics even after the symptoms disappear, every time? Also people who smoke, when they know perfectly well what the dangers are — I’ve never understood that at all. When Daniel Hauser turns 18, he’s allowed to be as much of a moron as he wants about this. Until then, he should do what the doctors say, because if he doesn’t, he’ll probably never reach 18 at all.

Article about the Uphoff/Rains-Kracman recovery

I found an article about them finding Jackie Rains-Kracman and Melvin Uphoff. They’re still together. They live in another state. They want privacy, so there’s no more info.

Uphoff’s daughter, who was only three when her dad walked out on the family, “says she doesn’t know what’s worse, finding out her dad was dead or that he abandoned his family and has been living a new life.” Amen to that.

This disgusts me. I hope both of them get slammed with back child support.