LisaB
Well-Known Member
I am NOT picking on you or any other poster, yours is just the post I am using for reference, because I have seen this comment a few times now. I have had an idea in the back of my mind and haven't said anything about it until now.It doesnt suprise me. I have always thought if they weren't an Hispanic family the drug cartel speculation wouldnt have entered the equation.
IMO
I hear a LOT about the inequality in handling missing children's cases and the suggestion that it is racial bias. I work in Baltimore, and Phylicia Barnes disappeared here within days of Hailey Dunn vanishing n Texas. Both were pretty, popular girls with good grades and bright futures. Hailey was 13, where Phylicia was a few years older 16/17). The whole WORLD was talking about Hailey. Billboards were donated, Nancy Grace hosted her mother several times, and I saw ONE billboard for Phylicia. Hailey was white. Phylicia was black.
I think one of the reasons PB did not get the same coverage as HD was that HD's family was a regular 3 ring circus, and because PB was a little older, and more possibly a runaway. But another factor was that PB was visiting Baltimore when she vanished. Her friends and family at home were not close enough to where she vanished to have vigils and searches for her. News coverage in NC was unlikely to yield clues in MD, and the general public in MD did not have a vested interest in finding her, as she was a stranger. In Phylicia's case, despite a lack of publicity, her body was recovered last spring and her killer was recently charged.
Anyway, people keep mentioning the possibility that Isabel was kidnapped by family for profit (Hoax Theory), and that they did not expect this much publicity. I wonder if there could be some truth to that. It IS usually the pretty, white, middle class cheerleader that gets all the publicity. IF there was a plan to conceal Isabel, collect money for a ransom, and quietly pocket the money and "recover" Isa, they might have just assumed a missing Hispanic girl would not get national coverage, and might not even get a lot of local coverage. :moo: