I understand why current ' hot ' unsolved cases LE wants to keep things close and quiet and not give off too much more information than the public needs to be safe or be looking out for a perp of this description. But I do not see why in a case like this , LE wouldn't be happy to share info if it might help solve it.
Has anyone attempted to contact the department in charge and just see what they may say to sharing info or answering the questions you have? I don't know how it could hurt. I do fear if they had the guy in their grasp but never had enough evidence to prosecute him that they may not share , just in case they can get him later. But if it's truly no suspect, no clue, no new leads, then why not share the info. It's worth a try .................dime detective
BBM.
I'm all for contacting LE once we're prepared with solid lists of tips we want to pass on and questions we want to ask. I'm working on going through the thread and compiling items of interest for these lists. Once I have these lists together I'll post them here and anyone interested in adding, subtracting, clarifying, discussing, etc. can do so and I'll just revise and update as we go. I want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to contribute/offer their two cents/ask their questions.
And then once we have two good succinct lists that cover everything that we feel is relevant, I'll call it in, pass on the tips and ask our questions. This will be better than calling multiple times (though of course if we should come up with further tips in the future, we'll certainly want to communicate those to LE). I say this in reference to Kimster's advice on contacting LE:
"As long as you are not 'bugging' them and have a viable tip, it is fine to call them! And you can tell them you are posting on Websleuths. You just need to make positively sure they realize you are not representing WS in any way."
I contacted Kimster (Mod) and she'd told me that DimeDetective can answer these questions.
As far as contacting family members of the victims, here's what Kimster advised:
"This is a touchy situation and I'll tell you it's because the owners don't EVER want to hear they were bothered by members on Websleuths. Our stance is that they are going through hell already and don't need more.
We can't dictate what our members do so if you feel the need to contact [family members], make sure you don't appear to represent WS. You do not want the owners to get an email about harassment."
In my humble opinion, it will be best if we take contacting family on a case-by-case basis. In the case of the cousin I would say it's fine to e-mail her since she has openly requested contact by e-mail.
Otherwise, IMHO, as long as we use our best judgement, are sensitive and respectful, and don't make any further attempts at contact if we try once and don't receive a response, we'll be okay.
What does everyone else think about this?
The problem with this case for me is that because there's such little information regarding the social lives of our victims leading up to the murders its hard to make a judgement as to what exactly we're dealing with. Is it a local known to them with a grudge where maybe jealousy or revenge played a factor, a local sexual offender type unknown to them that took advantage of an opportunity or a transient mobile type offender they happened to cross paths with.
For instance it would be good to know if they had been going out regularly over that summer, what was their normal routine on the weekends, who were their associates, were there any new acquaintances that either girl might have had. Any drama occurring over the summer and even back as far as the previous school year that might have played into the events of that night. There's no question LE would have looked into all of this early on and it would have allowed them have a better understanding of the case. Ultimately they could either further pursue the possibility of it being someone in the girls social circle, on the periphery or rule that theory out to some degree.
From what I've seen reported and some of the comments that came from LE I think their best guess early on was that it was a local or at least someone local enough to be familiar with the area where the car was left and that there was more than one person involved. I've also seen speculation that because of the matter of factness of the murders that this points to it not being his/their first murder. To me those three lines of thought do not mesh well because if they did the potential offender pool would be somewhat limited. Surely after 14 years they would have found something, whether it be from thorough investigation or sheer luck and someone would have been in prison by now preferably the Holman facility awaiting his day. I'd like to know what their best guess is as of today, if they think the perp is a local or friend/family of a local that was in the area at the time or was it a killer that just happened to be passing through. Its hard for me to form an opinion and pursue a certain angle when so many cards are still in play.
BBM.
As with contacting LE, it is a goal to communicate with the girls' families but, as this is a very sensitive situation and it would be completely up to those family members, we may or may not get that chance. ITA, it will help immensely if we can get to know more about the girls, what their social circles and day-to-day lives were like, etc., and I do hope we'll have that opportunity at some point.
I think we're off to a good start if we can communicate with the cousin who solicited contact by e-mail. Let's try that and go from there.
