Missing children

[Black Sunday9]

Has anyone noticed the growing number of missing children lately in the US that are found murdered a few days later?

I totally don't mean to bring up a sensitive and grim issue but I am wondering what the hell is going on that now weekly a small child is reported missing and then found dead a few days later.

Yesterday 2 children in Chicago were reported missing and they found their bodies today in a park. There was 3 seperate stories like this in FLorida in the past month and there have been others recently....what is going on? What would make an adult kill a small child? why has it been happening more frequently lately?

That guy that killed Jessica Lunsford (sp?) didn't even seem remorseful, he was seen laughing and drinking at a bar AFTER he buried her alive.

I don't know, this whole thing has been really bothering me lately.

[Brenda Starrr]

As a parent, this scares me. I don't know what else to say.

[pixiefae]

These things happened years ago too, it's just that the news wasn't as vigilant then as now.

[Black Sunday9]

As a parent, this scares me. I don't know what else to say.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

when i was in elementary school me, my brother andmy friends basically ran around unsupervised, it wasn't an issue. Everyone let their kids go wherever they want within a certain radius.

If I had kids today in 2005 I would think they would need constant monitoring. It seems there are alot more people looking to do harm to kids now than there was back in the 80's. I can't imagine letting a kid ride his bike to his friends house 6 blocks away. That was normal before.

[Black Sunday9]

These things happened years ago too, it's just that the news wasn't as vigilant then as now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

really? see I thought this was a relatively new thing, at least at this frequency.

[pixiefae]

Nope. You'd hear about it locally, but never made the "news". I used to live out near farms...horses, cows, pigs, etc...and there was a truck stop nearby. There were always tons of flyers around the pseudo-neighborhood about missing kids. (This was like 20 yrs ago.)

[Black Sunday9]

This is so sad, but I'll post anyway for anyone interested in reading what is happening in our country:

The story on the two 2nd graders in Illinois:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/na...lnews-headlines

2 missing children found dead in pond in Georgia, but apparently not murdered

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html...DAD0894DD404482

More on the recent missing kids including Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde

http://www.legendgames.net/showstory.asp?p...s/UN0000131.txt

This is just terrible and I feel weird even bringing this up but like I've said it's been bothering me lately. I almost wish I was a police officer so I could do something about this other than just posting my disdain on the internet.

[pixiefae]

It is horrible. I agree. As a parent, it makes me very careful of what I will allow my son to do and where I will allow him to play. I'm kinda even paranoid when it comes to him playing over his little friends houses because you just never know. It's sad that in this day and age, you have to be so untrusting.

[Black Sunday9]

It is horrible.  I agree.  As a parent, it makes me very careful of what I will allow my son to do and where I will allow him to play.  I'm kinda even paranoid when it comes to him playing over his little friends houses because you just never know.  It's sad that in this day and age, you have to be so untrusting.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am not a parent and I have no idea how to be a parent but I would reccomend that people check those online databases to make sure there are no criminals in their neighborhoods, I certainly would not trust someone with a sexual criminal history anywhere near my kids or any sort of violent felony convictions.

[pixiefae]

I am not a parent and I have no idea how to be a parent but I would reccomend that people check those online databases to make sure there are no criminals in their neighborhoods, I certainly would not trust someone with a sexual criminal history anywhere near my kids or any sort of violent felony convictions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree. Better to be informed than sorry later.

[Black Sunday9]

here is the Michigan sex offender registry

http://www.mipsor.state.mi.us/mipsor/default.htm

[JaneDead]

i checked it when i moved to my neighborhood and again just recently. i hate to have to live like this but it is our reality now.

and i refuse to believe it was always this bad. there is no way that it was.

when my mom was a kid in the 60s they could do anything and not worry about it. nothing ever happened to her or her friends or anyone they ever knew. back then too people had bigger families (more common at least) and it seemed they all sort of could watch out for each other. my mom was friends with her siblings friends- older and younger. people knew each other, and they talked and things were safer. the families in the neighborhoods also got to know each other. to this day her and my aunts/uncles and grandparents still talk about those families and the parents. all the stories are so funny/silly and even the "bad" things they did were just kids being kids.

when i was a kid my friend said there was a "scary" guy in our neighborhood but i also lived in a HORRIBLE neighborhood. so that didn't surprise me much. i still don't really recall anything being such an epidemic though. but i do recall how protective my parents were (more due to my bad neighborhood more than anything else... and back when they were young they didnt even have neighborhoods like what i lived/grew up in)

when i was in highschool i saw on the news that a girl i went to school with had gotten "kidnapped" out of a drive threw by some guys that were "hitting on" her and her friends. that is when i remember things seeming to get really crazy.

[pixiefae]

i checked it when i moved to my neighborhood and again just recently. i hate to have to live like this but it is our reality now.

and i refuse to believe it was always this bad. there is no way that it was.

when my mom was a kid in the 60s they could do anything and not worry about it. nothing ever happened to her or her friends or anyone they ever knew. back then too people had bigger families (more common at least) and it seemed they all sort of could watch out for each other. my mom was friends with her siblings friends- older and younger. people knew each other, and they talked and things were safer. the families in the neighborhoods also got to know each other. to this day her and my aunts/uncles and grandparents still talk about those families and the parents. all the stories are so funny/silly and even the "bad" things they did were just kids being kids.

when i was a kid my friend said there was a "scary" guy in our neighborhood but i also lived in a HORRIBLE neighborhood. so that didn't surprise me much. i still don't really recall anything being such an epidemic though. but i do recall how protective my parents were (more due to my bad neighborhood more than anything else... and back when they were young they didnt even have neighborhoods like what i lived/grew up in)

when i was in highschool i saw on the news that a girl i went to school with had gotten "kidnapped" out of a drive threw by some guys that were "hitting on" her and her friends. that is when i remember things seeming to get really crazy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

About 25 years ago, near Marine City, where I grew up, one of my friends WAS kidnapped and it happened right in front of her home. They never found her body. So Dyno, things DID happen back then, it just wasn't as widely publicized. And of course, there weren't as many protective type laws out there either (in regards to child abuse-but that's another subject all together.)

[JaneDead]

oh no believe me i know it did happen. i just think the world WAS a much safer place back in the day (i mean like back in my mom's childhood days more so) than it is now. i really don't think people worried then like they do now. one reason could be cuz people were just not aware back then? but then again i don't see that things happened back then like they do now.

my mom said people would hitchhike ALL the time. thinking it was "unsafe" never crossed their minds.

in this day and age i would NEVER assume hitchhiking would be "ok".

i would never let my son go to the park alone. or even with some friends. and it is only a block away from me. and i know my mom and her siblings were allowed to do things like that. i think it has to do with how much everything and everyone has changed. not just that there are creeps and weridos out there. i know they always were out there...i think back then though people looked out for one another more. everyone knew their neighbors and what was going on.

now, people just keep to themselves and don't seem to care about who lives right next door to them.

[Onyx]

I think it is true things like this have always happened and wasn't as publicized, but I also think it is happening more.

Much more often.

Not sure why or what would stop it. I know I'd really like to hunt these sickos down and put a bullet in their brain. That's really too good for them though, not enough suffering and too swift an end.

[lullaby1031]

You would be shocked to know how many are in Westland. When I was H.S. a friend of mine lived around the block from one... it really bothered them.

[Black Sunday9]

You would be shocked to know how many are in Westland.  When I was H.S. a friend of mine lived around the block from one... it really bothered them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you are right. I pulled up the city of Hamtramck and there are like 60 living there, the city is 2 square miles. WTF? What is wrong with people?

[Senay]

When I was kid, we had a neighbor who's backyard boardered on ours. We would go swimming in our pool at 3 in the morning - making sure to be very quiet about it - and sure enough, this guy would just happen to have to let the dogs out. And sit in the back yard on his picnic table to do it. For an hour at a time. In full view of the pool. One of our other neighbors used to let her toddler go over to this guy's house to play. (Very naive lady) I shudder to think of what that guy must have done to that baby. Fuckin' bastard. Even as children we knew the guy wasn't right. We'd light off M80's and throw them in his yard with a slingshot. Heeheehee. Would have done worse, but my mind just wasn't that mischevious as a kid.

These kinds of people have been around for a long time. I do think they may be getting bolder though.

[TomCat]

Yeah, as a child (5-10), I had a full run of my neighborhood, and the next few years after that (11-14) I was given ground rules, but basically turned loose on the world...then, a child that I grew up with, who attended my elementary school moved away to another side of town, was abducted, violated, and murdered. Things hit close to home after that, and the bliss that was ignorance was forever lost. The Atlanta murders were the next few years, and I had more restrictions in HS than I did in elementaery school.

I believe that if a product is defective, it should be returned to the manufacturer. I believe that people that kill (outside of recognized war) are defective. They should be summarilly deactivated and sent back to their maker. Although straight to hell works for me too.

[SomeDanGuy]

I think it's just that people are more worried now and these things are emphasized so much more in the news. For example, here are the violent crime statistics from 1973-2003:

This is from the Department of Justice website.

I couldn't find abduction specifically for the U.S. (although australia shows no significant trend from 1993-1997), but I'm guessing it's about like all these others.

I'd wager that there wasn't ever really a "sweet, innocent past"; rather, people just worry too much these days

[paradox]

its news media. the only thing tahts really changed in the last 10-20 years is how sensational news has become. the world has always been a scary. screwed up place. some people are just sick.

the other problem is exactly what we see here, hindsight. people always look back on teh past as a golden era. it used to be the 50s, but now look at how people talk about the 60s. its begining to get glossed over, but 40 years ago people would have told you the world was going to hell in a handbasket. being a history major, i encounter this alot in primary sources. i can show you documents from the 16th century about children who were abducted and murdered in terrible ways. it was largely propaganda against jews, but there were also actual cases (murders, not necessaily, or even likely, by the jews, as the christians then would have it).

people suck.

[Proscrire]

5 little words

If it bleeds, it leads.

(This is why I get my news from NPR)

[Troy Spiral (13)]

When I was kid, we had a  neighbor who's backyard boardered on ours. We would go swimming in our pool at 3 in the morning - making sure to be very quiet about it - and sure enough, this guy would just happen to have to let the dogs out. And sit in the back yard on his picnic table to do it.  For an hour at a time. In full view of the pool. One of our other neighbors used to let her toddler go over to this guy's house to play. (Very naive lady) I shudder to think of what that guy must have done to that baby.

:tear :tear

[Lilith]

I am 28 and when i was in Elm school as i was walking home i was stopped by a white car, w 2 guys in it who tried to take me, well the dumb ass did not know i was two steps from my drive and i have a very over protective Grandma who waited at the window for me, when she saw it all she came running out and the car sped off. I got lucky, And i know it is a reality back then as much as it is now.

As an adult with three kids (5,8,10), i worry but i can not hide them from the world or not let them grow as a normal kid because of other people. I let my 10 yr old go up to 10 blocks away to his friends and he has to check in every hour on the hour. They go and Play at the park 5 blocks away, at the school 3 blocks away and all the kids have check in times. Some days they spend checking in more then playing cause the times just dont match up.

What i am trying to say is it is natural to worry, and as a parent if i did not worry i would think i was weird but to not let the kids run and play (with in reason) is like saying i am not going to drive a car becasue i might get in an accident. I have to let them go so they can grow into a healthy adult who does not turn around and do something wrong.

I think things have allways happened, even befor they had newspapers to print news on, it is just no one talked about it or ever found out and if they did it was talked about as if it was far away and not in your own back yard.

I also think the fact that people did band togehter back when that made it safer, every one did watch for every one else, and if ya saw kid doing something wrong you could say hey i know your mom and she would not be happy if she knew and the kid would be repsectful and knock it off. Now a days if i saw a kid and said some thing i would be told to fuck off and i probally dont know if there parnets would care or not.

We created our own unsafe world, if we want it to change and be "safer" again we need to care IRL not just on the net.

lilith

[lullaby1031]

Yep! and there's 74 of those bastards in Westland alone... if you look at some of those names - a couple of them look like their related- like parent and child on the offence list..... scary.. But what really sucks is you don't really know if it was just a "peeing on the wall" type incident or an actual sexual predator.. so that really bothers me. To generalize an offense like that is like sending the lambs to the wolves to be slaughtered...

I keep telling my mom to watch my sister like a hawk since she's really "talkitive". I heard about that new program thing where parents can take their kids in to get fingerprinted and all that, along with the police asking the kids questions to see if they would stay away from strangers. I informed my mom about it so she took her in to get it done. My sister failed cuz she started talking to the cop - "stranger" and walked into the hallway with her. Thats how trusting she is of adults. That scares me, I know she's really trusting of adults because she was raised around them and no little kids her age has ever really been around for her to play with.. so its scary for us to think about. They gave her two tapes on strangers and situations on what to do/not do. She seems to understand now that you cannot trust everyone... I just hope that proves to be right.