Discussion for article #236157
Ethan’s case is a tragedy and the poignancy of the details was heartbreaking to parents all over the country. But the time to solve it was in the days and weeks after he disappeared. There was no evidence in this trial, other than incriminating comments from a mentally ill man; another, more likely suspect was never charged. Even a conviction would not have provided closure, since the defendant’s account was so obviously unreliable.
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That whole missing children on milk cartons has always been a pile of hrsesht designed to make grieving families think someone is doing something and the news media a chance for breathless coverage until a new ball of tinfoil comes along. Look closely at the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and you’ll see kids kidnapped by non-custodial parents, kids who’ve run away for whatever reason. Put that money toward something useful and quit puffing up the idea that dangerous strangers are coming for your children.
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If Etan disappeared 36 years ago, how old is this man in the picture? Wouldn’t he have been a child himself back then?
Yeah, I remember the frenzy about stranger abductions in the early 80’s. Some enterprising reporter, doing what all of his compatriots should have been doing, called the CMEC and asked how many cases they had on file in which they had reason to believe that the missing child had been snatched by some evil stranger. The answer was, “none.”
It’s not that stranger abductions don’t ever happen. It’s that they’re incredibly rare.
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