Excellent post, Jillian.. This is called the shattered Vase Analogy/Metaphor:
http://waterburyobserver.org/node/402
When serious leads aren't followed up by law enforcement, Bill and Jan Smolinski scour the woods for the remains of their missing son Billy, who was murdered in August 2004.
Story and Photographs By John Murray
Picture the murder of Billy Smolinski as a crystal vase. Hold it in your hands. Spin it around. Now drop it on the kitchen floor and watch it shatter into a thousand pieces. Each shard of glass represents a clue into who killed Billy on August 24th, 2004. When patched together the vase reveals the gruesome truth of who murdered Billy, and why. The vase points to the spot Billy is buried in the Naugatuck Valley.
In the best of circumstances it would take a master craftsman to cobble that broken vase back together, but what if the glass is left on the floor for weeks, for months, for seven years? Glass gets kicked around into the living room, the dining room and gets jammed into the rubber soles of your shoes and is transported into the yard, into town, and across state borders. You send investigators into each room to collect glass, but shockingly they refuse to share what they gather with the other investigators. With ego and selfishness erupting all around you, what are the chances of ever getting that vase glued back together?
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