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News

Missing women found in Ohio

150 replies

CogitoErgoSometimes · 07/05/2013 06:29

article

When the story of Natasha Kampusch broke in 2006 it seemed like a bizarre one-off. Since then we've heard about Jaycee Dugard and one or two others. Now three more missing women (possibly more) have been found at a place in Ohio seemingly having been held captive for many years. Good conclusion to a tragic story and makes you wonder if there's anyone in the UK, written off as missing, but being similarly held against their will. Thinking about the case of Claudia Lawrence, for example.

OP posts:

Report

Snazzynewyear · 08/05/2013 21:56

Just thinking. Heat seeking equipment was used in the search for the Boston Marathon bombers when they were on the run in the city, right? Why isn't such equipment used when searching for missing people like this? Surely a house-to-house search - or at least of anywhere dodgy looking - within say a 10 mile radius, with heat seeking equipment, would have found Amanda Berry early on?

girliefriend · 08/05/2013 22:14

It is terrifying to think that this can happen in a residential area and no body realise that something was seriously wrong.

What is wrong with these men

Booyhoo · 08/05/2013 22:15

would heat seeking equipment have helped in this case though? it might have detected her body heat (and michelle knight's if she was in that house at the time) it cant tell whether the body heat is male or femal or whether it's the people who live there or not. lots of the houses will have had peope in them on that street so heat detection wouldn't have shown anything that wasn't happening in every house along that road. teh only way they could have known if the people in teh house were being held captive was with a police warrant and they need someone to have given them reason to suspect amanda was in there in order to get that.

Merguez · 08/05/2013 22:25

Heat seeking equipment wouldn't have helped as she was being held in a house with other people.

With Boston Marathon suspect he was hiding in a boat in a garden where you would not expect to find someone.

Snazzynewyear · 08/05/2013 22:29

I was just thinking they could check under floors with it. So if there's a report of a face at a window, someone in a back garden etc, as we've heard, then part of the police response could be to visit the house and (as well as not just going away if there's no answer at the door...) check where a cellar would be to see if there's an indication of body heat there. Plus the rest of the house. I don't know whether you'd need a search warrant to do that. Wouldn't a report that someone might be in the house who didn't seem to be a known resident be sufficient for a search warrant?

Booyhoo · 08/05/2013 22:32

i doubt it tbh. people have visitors over all the time, friends with dcs, grandchildren. even people who go years without having a soul in their house can suddenly be reunited with estranged family and have them over.

also, heat seeking equiment is very expensive. they wouldn't go to that just to check one house they'd had suspicions about. tehy'd get a warrant first.

Snazzynewyear · 08/05/2013 22:34

And another thing. Ariel Castro apparently kept a boy with SEN from leaving the school bus one day and drove around with him on the bus for several hours before letting him go (read this in Guardian today but don't have the link right now). For this he was suspended from his job for 60 days by the school board but then seems to have returned to work. Now if that were my son, the school board would have had no peace until that bus driver was removed from his job permanently. Granted, there isn't an obvious correlation between 'this man acts inappropriately towards children', and 'this man may have imprisoned women in his house to abuse them' but it is certainly an indicator that I would say warrants more of a response than a 60 day suspension. How many other signs of Castro's dubious character have gone unnoticed and not been followed up?

Booyhoo · 08/05/2013 22:37

heat seeking equipment looks for people in outbuildings, woodlands etc. places people dont normally 'live' but would go to hide or be hidden.

Booyhoo · 08/05/2013 22:46

yes snazzy- that annoyed me too. apparently the police came to his house over that incident but didn't get any answer so they just left it! surely a call at his work wasn't beyond their abilities!

niceguy2 · 08/05/2013 23:05

A door to door search with heat seeking equipment within a 10 mile radius in a built up urban area?

That would take so much manpower that it would be impossible. You'd have to seal off completely the 10 mile perimeter to stop the kidnapper from moving people to another location as the police progressed.

And what about the privacy of all the people who have done nothing? Having police 'search' your house albeit with good intentions? It's illegal.

Most importantly though it simply isn't practical or effective.

Snazzynewyear · 08/05/2013 23:26

So what is practical when looking for people - most often women - who have gone missing? I know there will be quite a number who are just never found and probably are dead, as was suspected of Amanda Berry and her fellow prisoners. But it is really, really disturbing to think that it is seemingly a fairly easy option for kidnappers to grab someone, lock them up in the cellar of a house which is actually very close to the abductee's own neighbourhood, and rely on them simply not being found or even searched for properly. Surely a new strategy for this is needed?

Snazzynewyear · 08/05/2013 23:27

Boo yes, the report I read said that since no crime had been committed it was just left alone Presumably the word of the young boy who had been kept on the bus against his will for hours meant nothing.

Snazzynewyear · 08/05/2013 23:44

Castro has now been charged with 4 counts of kidnapping and 3 counts of rape, by the way. Don't know what kind of sentences convictions on those charges would typically carry.

CheerfulYank · 09/05/2013 00:15

Well the man who kidnapped and raped Elizabeth Smart got life; I'd bet Castro will
too.

Booyhoo · 09/05/2013 01:04

only 3 counts of rape? i'm guessing the fourth kidnapping charge was for the little girl?

i saw earlier his brothers were not charged. were they not involved at all?

CheerfulYank · 09/05/2013 02:12

If more comes up about the other children who were allegedly born there I'd imagine
there will be further charges.

Also I read that the first woman said there was another girl at some point, so if that's true who knows where she is. She could be dead or trafficked, which would bring additional charges.

MarthasHarbour · 09/05/2013 09:20

boo i read that they arrested the two brothers as a kind of 'panic reaction' to the girls escape, i guess it was a case of - arrest anyone who 'could' have been involved. Allegedly they had nothing to do with it.

The more details that are emerging are just so the girls didnt even know who else was in the house as they were segregated into different locked rooms. I had some sort of weird comfort that at least they were together and could support eachother but that didnt seem to be the case.

Also the baby must have been in the cellar when she was newborn, as the neighbours would have heard her crying, as newborns do.

Also - i think it was Gina DeJesus' aunty lives on the same street. Can you imagine looking for your niece for 9 years and finding she has been held captive on the same road..

Its all just awful, and (as was said earlier in the thread) makes you wonder how many other missing people are being held in this way, in the UK too

Sorry for the long post, i am just overthinking this

Booyhoo · 09/05/2013 09:44

"I had some sort of weird comfort that at least they were together and could support eachother but that didnt seem to be the case."

oh god! yes!! i had thought they were together and thought at least they had each other but that no. i wonder did amanda berry have to give birth completely alone? i know neither of the others were experienced midwives but at least if she could have had one or both of them with her it might have made it a bit less terrifying.

Booyhoo · 09/05/2013 09:48

and yes the neighbours seem to have taken an interest in and reported stuff about that house before however i see that the chief of police has said these are false claims. one woman interviewed said she spoke to an officer about what her grand-daughter saw and she was told to get a detective who would either take the case or not so she got dicouraged by that and didn't take it any further. shouldn't a police officer be the one getting a detective after hearing a report like that? i dont know how the police work in the US but here i wouldn't have a clue how to 'get a detective' other than to go directly to teh police station.

CheerfulYank · 09/05/2013 10:12

I think they were together sometimes. A report said that they were together at the hospital and obviously "had a bond."

CheerfulYank · 09/05/2013 10:28

A news report out now says that Michelle Knight delivered the baby.

Snazzynewyear · 09/05/2013 10:37

Could you post links to these reports, please?

MarthasHarbour · 09/05/2013 10:52

snazzy they are all from the BBC and the Guardian am sneaking on here at work so cant do links now but will try to later

MarthasHarbour · 09/05/2013 10:53

god yes i also thought about Amanda Berry being on her own during the birth, it is a small comfort that Michelle Knight was with her

Booyhoo · 09/05/2013 10:57

that bastard was a supposed 'friend' of the DeJesus family and handed out flyers, attended vigils and performed at fundraisers for her!

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