Wait a minute.. hold the phone.
DCFS was involved with Cherish's life too.. right?
And they were involved in his prior victims life too, right?
Both victims are about the same age. 8 and 9.
Both are female
Both involve McDonalds
Did Donald Smith have access in knowing recent or cases that are DCFS? Was he close to someone whos files he had access to? He could scope those files and find his victims.
He does have priors for stealing.
If the answer is yes on any of this .. then I firmly believe he had arranged his meeting with Cherish and knew this family some how.
Sleuthing the perp? Why - what a great idea!
You know. I have wondered this myself - stalking was certainly his MO for several other crimes. And quite thoroughly too - he is patient and cunning...
And I think maybe the 'chase' is part, if not most of the thrill. If the attack was all of it - he maybe wouldn't have killed Cherish quite so quickly. Or spent so much time terrorising his other victims, playing with them, when he could have just snatched the children.
In any case, he does target vulnerable families. In past cases, stalked them for -weeks- at a time. I can't help thinking he's stalked Cherish's family too (maybe several other families in the area, also..kind of fits with his MO ) and already knew perfectly well just how vulnerable Cherish was.
I don't feel comfortable at all with speculation that the Perrywinkles 'sold' Cherish to a pedo or that Smith knew the family personally but no-one's admitting it - until there is some better proof that this was so, it's just rumour mongering.
But since he's 100% for sure stalked before and on more than one occasion acted in a highly predatory manner, I would not be surprised to find he'd been stalking the Perrywinkles, too. And maybe for quite some time as well.
]eta : I did pick up on the Maccas thing too, Astrokitty. Functional, I wonder, or part of his rape script? Good catch!
And yes, his list of priors for theft is a pretty long one..
I'd hate to think he had ANY access to any kind of files.. I hope not. More likely, I think, that he just stakes out a school or playground and watches for kids with careless/old/sick/single guardians and goes from there..
I certainly would NOT be surprised to find that he's abducted and killed other kids. Not one bit surprised. He wouldn't be eager to go back to prison... All missing kids in his preferred age range/known areas ought to be looked at for possible links.
