CO - Jessica Ridgeway, 10, Westminster, 5 Oct 2012 - #7

[Geralyn]

Obviously, we aren't privy to the information we want to have about the time discrepancy, which is fitting. I'm willing to bet that police have all the information they need about the situation with J and J's dad that morning. What they don't know is what happened to Jessica between her front door and the park.

Or if the kidnapping even happened between her front door and the park. I'm still not clear if she was headed to the park or to the friends house?

 

[Yellow]

I don't feel that J's father is necessarily guilty of anything other than shocking stupidity. As I previously said, if anyone was to assign "blame" in terms of the search being delayed 8 hours, I do believe it lies squarely at this man's feet. Jessica's mom, at least you can sympathize that she was just in a comfort zone and was careless not having her phone by her. We understand that working night shift is tough, sleeping during the day is challenging and not planning enough for an emergency happens. But knowing that a little 10 year old girl phoned you to confirm you were walking because it's snowing out, she doesn't show, and you, as a father, just shrug and drive your son to school, going about the rest of your day?
is.

I agree. Though, On the other hand you can understand how it could happen. Someone may be late for work, etc and just not have their head in the right place to call and check it out. you have to feel for this guy too bc if, as we assume, it was just negligence not to follow up, this man probably feels horrible at what happened.

As we saw in Jaycee dugard oftentimes even if the alert were sounded earlier the result often is not much different. The perp probably got her between her house and the park.

Further maybe the father did call but the mother did not hear the phone. Or perhaps he alerted the school. No one knows the facts.

Wider lesson is that in general parents can learn from this and not be lulled into a false sense of security. Children should not be walking alone or even in small groups or children without adult supervision.

Because of the small distance to the schools, it seems like it may have been the case that the parents would have willingly drove but perhaps the kids wanted to assert some independence and walk. It is around that age when kids don't want to be seen with their parents and that is probably why the kids were walking in the first place.

I get that parents want to give kids some independence but there are far too many cases where this happens. I am struck too how many times this happens when it is the "first time" the kid walks alone too. For instance, the Ian patz case in New York and there was also another case last year in NYC when a child walked home for the first time from camp and got killed. A child is no match for one of these perps.

 

[Etilema]

I agree. First I find it totally plausible that there was a mix up of days from the boy. If they walk together every day (or most days) one day can run to another. Second, I am CERTAIN the police have spoken to him at length to make sure he and his son's story makes sense. If they waited 20 minutes for her and then went on, it is likely the same thing any of us would do. I'm sure in retrospect he has second-guessed and feels guilt, without others blaming him. It isn't his fault. It is the abductors fault. It's unfair to accuse him of any wrong doing when he is most likely just a neighbor walking his son to school.

I agree that if he is not involved in her disappearance, he is not at fault and shouldn't feel guilty. I agree that we should not abuse him or accuse him. (Although it is a cautionary tale for others to be more careful in following up on the whereabouts of kids--not because it would have kept her from being abducted, necessarily, but so they would have found out sooner.)

However, there have been plenty of cases in the past in which someone gives a story with weird holes in it and it does ultimately come out that they are involved in the crime. Examining the details of the cases, based on the information available and our own speculation, is what we do here.

It certainly does not mean that this guy is guilty of anything at all. It just means we are interested in the fact that parts of the story aren't fitting together right at this point.

JMO

 

[sleuther317]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but in the version I read, J was not the only one who said JR went to school. There were a couple of girls who also saw her before school, but not during school. How could several have their days mixed up? Just another confusing thing. jmo

IIRC there was also a teacher who said she saw her in the morning on the campus but not in class. I could be wrong...

 

[andalso]

Any volunteers to create a timeline for this case? Or, is there one somewhere that I am missing? I would do it, but the problem is that I am confused as to the timeline for everything, so I am probably not the one who should make one.

 

[sfbaynancydrew]

Agree. If we're going to blame him for not following up, by the same token can't we blame Mon for not waking Jessica the the blocks to the park?

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk 2

I was not blaming him for her going missing, just for the delay in reporting since he was the first adult in her life to know that she was expected at a certain point and never showed. That was the extent when I said, "blame", perhaps I should have chosen better words.

 

[callyn]

let me point out that if WE noticed the discrepancy I am certain LE did too and if there was any reason to suspect J's dad, that the police would be watching him so closely, he'd probably not have time to go to a park and dump body parts without being noticed.

Unless the body parts were dumped before the police were called that day. I don't think this man, the friend's father, had anything at all to do with it, but there was quite a length of time passed before he would have been under surveillance.

 

[carbuff]

Now I am even more confused...
Posed to look like a crime scene? But.... it is a crime scene!
Guess I'll have to move on, 'cause this is hurting my brain.

I'm sorry I'm not explaining it well. I'm trying not to be graphic.

A certain type of killer will arrange the victim's body a certain way (posed) and/or place symbolic objects near it, or things like that. For instance, there's a case in Atlantic City NJ where several missing women were found murdered; each was buried in a shallow grave facing east.

 

[JodyMT]

I wonder how many times the mother has thought about the possibility that Jessica was already dead while she was still sleeping that day?

It breaks my heart to think of the torment she has to be going through.

 

[wowitsdark]

Only the perp is to blame for the crime, I would *never* assign blame for that without any facts. And reporting her missing ASAP possibly may have been fruitless anyhow knowing how fast these perps are.

But even if she was flaky, the fact is--she called to confirm that morning. Heck, maybe she called because BOTH of them are flaky, I don't know, but imo, knowing she was on her way *that morning* and then knowing she never showed, not even making a token phone call to check in, and then just going about one's day? Sorry, he was the first one to know she didn't show somewhere and made zero effort (as has been reported) to express concern about it. I'm sorry, it really bothers me.

Do we know that she clearly communicated to J's dad that she was going to meet him to ride with them?

Or did she possibly leave him with the impression that *if* she was there, she would ride with them?

She may have given him the impression that her mom might take her (secretly hoping she could talk her mom into it), but in case her mom couldn't or wouldn't, ... would J be at the park, or was he going to be getting a ride?

 

[Geralyn]

The reports I have read indicated that SR called the police (and possibly J's dad) once she heard the voicemail from the school at 4:30ish.

Did she also call the school? That's probably the first place I would call, to see if she did show up after the phone call was made. Then if the school said no, I'd call J's dad, and then the next call would be to the police.

In the family interview video..mom says she actually went to the park...the school..and "friends" house. Doesn't name friend. She actually states she went to friends twice. Doesn't indicated singular friend or plural..and she went twice. Can't distinguish from her account whether she went to same friends house twice..or two different friends, multiple. But the inference I personally took was the same friends house the 2nd time, after going to school.
**at approx the 09:00 mark**
http://kwgn.com/2012/10/09/full-video-family-of-jessica-ridgeway-makes-first-public-statement/

 

[TxLady2]

We have a "walking school bus". I walk and pick up kids every morning, and the school organizes kids walking to school on the other side neighborhood. Is is fantastic.

And yes, I agree. Kids don't walk to school without an adult. Period.

That is a good idea!
I was driving into town the other day and saw a school bus stopping. Ther was a group of kids who had just gotten off the bus, and a grown man waiting on the corner right where they were dropped off, preparing to walk them across the street. There are a couple of side streets that go down a few blocks where kids live, I think. They were mostly small kids. Our town is very small, and AFAIK, we have NEVER had a kidnapping here, but apparently a lot of parents are sitting up and taking notice.
That very same day, I saw a mom and a small child waiting at the edge of a yard and I thought she was probably waiting for the school bus to drop off an older child, and possibly lived across the road. It's a pretty busy street that is also a main highway out of town.
These two things made an impression on me. It's been a long time since I had small children, and things were so different back then. My older boys used to sometimes walk 6 or 8 blocks home and had to cross a railroad track. Now that would not be safe at all!

 

[Jules71]

can someone link the map of the walk from house A to house B again. can't find it.

I think it was removed since it had J's house. Here is one without his house. The red dots are my guess of how she would walk thru the park and then cut thru greenbelt/field to school.

 

[BethInAK]

But realize that from 8:30am - 4:23pm, it was unknown that she was missing. Because the backpack was only found Sunday morning does not have to mean it was dropped that day. I've said again and again that if there was anything interesting in it (food?), an animal could have easily dragged it to the neighborhood from the field off of McCaslin. The body and all evidence could have been discarded on Friday. It is a gutsy move in daylight, but not completely out there.

the folks who saw the back pack said it was not there Saturday evening (i think they said 6:45 pm), but was there very early AM (i believe they said 1 am) Sunday.

Its possible they are incorrect, but if they are correct, it appears to have been dropped late Saturday night or very early AM Sunday.

 

[Mama-cita]

Sorry I'm late but do we know when or if there will be a press conference?

 

[Geralyn]

Does this mean they have obtained DNA of the perp from the body? For comparison?

It could mean that they've got DNA from the backpack...the body part...or from the hope that they will find DNA on future findings (body).

 

[andalso]

Any volunteers to create a timeline for this case? Or, is there one somewhere that I am missing? I would do it, but the problem is that I am confused as to the timeline for everything, so I am probably not the one who should make one.

Quoting self to say I found this...but not a lot of detail on the day/morning in question.
http://kdvr.com/2012/10/11/timeline-jessica-ridgeway-disappearance-and-investigation/

Friday, October 5 –
8:30 AM - Last seen by mom. Never arrived at school
10:00 AM School calls to report absence
Mom misses call from school
4:30 PM – Gets message
9:15 PM – Amber Alert Issued
Overnight search begins

 

[absentia]

yah. I found that strange. it was said she went to the friend's house, there was no answer. she went there again, still no response or something to that effect. she stammered when saying that, as if they were there and she just either couldn't reach them or get a response from them.

In the family interview video..mom says she actually went to the park...the school..and "friends" house. Doesn't name friend. She actually states she went to friends twice. Doesn't indicated singular friend or plural..and she went twice. Can't distinguish from her account whether she went to same friends house twice..or two different friends, multiple. But the inference I personally took was the same friends house the 2nd time, after going to school.
**at approx the 09:00 mark**
http://kwgn.com/2012/10/09/full-video-family-of-jessica-ridgeway-makes-first-public-statement/

 

[BethInAK]

In the family interview video..mom says she actually went to the park...the school..and "friends" house. Doesn't name friend. She actually states she went to friends twice. Doesn't indicated singular friend or plural..and she went twice. Can't distinguish from her account whether she went to same friends house twice..or two different friends, multiple. But the inference I personally took was the same friends house the 2nd time, after going to school.
**at approx the 09:00 mark**
http://kwgn.com/2012/10/09/full-video-family-of-jessica-ridgeway-makes-first-public-statement/

Forgive me, but I think that Mom doesn't know - she knows that Jessica called someone to confirm they were walking with her ( I suspect she made Jessica do that!) but because Jess was a very independent kid, when Jess said "Yes, I'm going to meet So and So" she didn't ask for details. Jess walked to school every day and she probably just trusted that it was ok.

 

[Amster]

I don't believe anyone thinks Jessica walking to school is too far.....just, that she was walking alone. Maybe a wake up call that perhaps 10 yr. olds still need parent involvement in such important decisions. Like making sure she actually meets up with someone to walk with.