New free book!

The author/researcher Silvia Pettem has kindly sent me a free advance copy of Someone’s Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe, which isn’t being released to the general public until October. The book is about the quest to identify a young woman found murdered in Colorado in 1954. I promised to review it on this blog. I will start the book as soon as I’m finished with The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania. As that book is like 650 pages long, it may take a few days.

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.