A bit of general MP news

I finally finished writing up the resolved cases — well, almost all of them. They can go with the next update.

Two non-profits in Europe have started this thing where 404 Not Found pages become missing children posters. They’ll say “Page not found, neither is ____ _____” with a photo and vitals. I think that is an impressively clever idea and hope it catches on.

Bianca Jones‘s dad has been found guilty of killing her, in spite of the fact that her body hasn’t been found. Barely two years old at the time of her disappearance, she’s been missing less than a year. The authorities believe her father, D’Andre Lane, killed Bianca in anger after she had a potty accident. He says she was kidnapped during a carjacking.

Also in Detroit, they’ve put out an appeal to identify John D108 Doe, who was found wandering around the streets and has been living in a group home since 2008. He may actually have been homeless in Detroit as far back as 2004. John Doe isn’t violent, but he can’t take care of himself and needs constant supervision. He has schizophrenia and is nearly mute. From his picture I’d guess he was in his late thirties or his forties. His state guardian says if his family is identified but can’t or won’t take care of him, she’ll continue to do it.

Okay, not sure how to handle this one

A woman just wrote to me complaining because among other things, I said the police did not charge the suspect in her daughter’s disappearance because of lack of evidence. She says there was enough evidence “in my eyes” which means what I wrote is inaccurate.

It seems to me that in this area it doesn’t matter what she thinks, that when a report says “no charges for lack of evidence” it means the authorities thought they didn’t have enough evidence. I don’t know how to say that delicately though. I have a feeling that no matter what I say I’m going to make her mad at me. Right now I’m trying to work with her and come up with a mutually acceptable wording for the casefile.

Multiple *headdesk*

I keep getting emails from people asking me extremely elementary questions about Charley that would be answered for them if they just read the #%*^ing FAQ. I got another one today: “Exactly what is this Charley Project all about?”

Sometimes I just don’t reply to these emails at all. I can’t keep up with my real correspondence, let alone stuff like this. Sometimes (as in this instance) I politely direct the person to the FAQ. Most of the time I just answer the question.

I’ve thought about putting a little note next to my email address saying “please read the FAQ before you write me” but that probably wouldn’t work. Hiding my email address IN the FAQ wouldn’t work either. I suppose there’s no way to force viewers to read the thing, but I sure wish they would. It’s a waste of my time and theirs when they write me with questions that have already been answered on the site itself.

EDIT: Okay, I feel like a jackass now. The guy’s a reporter who had read my FAQ and just wanted a direct quote from me to put in an article. All the stuff I said above stands, though, when speaking generally.