In catching up on these cases, I stumbled on something that might be important. I was reading an article:
http://www.idahostatejournal.com/me...cle_0140dcc6-c67e-11e3-9baa-001a4bcf887a.html
This article was primarily about the Cindy Bringhurst case. Apparently the woman Cindy was babysitting for, who was working at the Oasis Bar, had her purse stolen that evening and there was a Prime Suspect in the purse theft who also became the Prime Suspect in the abduction and was never charged with either crime.
The article implies that detectives did not believe Cindy's case was related to Linda Smith's case. It goes on to say that the Prime Suspect in Linda Smith's case was interviewed but it suggests that he was not considered a serious suspect in Cindy's case. (The article says that the Prime Suspect in Linda's case was in prison when he was interviewed but it does not make clear if he was actually incarcerated when Cindy was abducted)Either way, reading the article, one gets the clear impression that the two Prime Suspects are two different men.
The trouble is, as serious Websleuths know, the Prime Suspect isn't alway guilty.
Linda, like Cindy, was alone with her brother in the early morning hours when someone entered the home through an unlocked door and abducted Linda. Her 9 year old brother saw the whole thing and provided a description of the perpetrator and his vehicle(a van with flames painted on the side). Because Linda has a history of running away and possibly because the family was low income, it was assumed the bother was telling a story to cover for Linda.
Linda Smith's case is problematic because it was't really investigated until 11 months after the fact when the body turned up. Before that, it was written off as a runaway situation. Once it became a homicide investigation, it was discovered that an acquaintance of the family had written some threatening letters to them. At some point Linda's brother id'ed the letter writer. It is unclear why he was never charged.
Except for having different Prime Suspects, both cases were very similar. Both involved someone entering a home, in the middle of the night, where there was a young girl but no adults. Linda's mother was recently divorced and out with friends that night. Cindy employer was also a single mother who was working in a bar that night. Obviously, who ever did each of these cases knew the mother was out and a young girl would be home alone.
This a very rare crime and for it to happen twice in a 2 year period in such a small town. For the crimes to be unrelated would be improbable ( but, of course, not impossible).
It would seem the best approach would have been to consider both mothers' circle of acquaintances to see if there was someone in both circles who would know that a young girl would be home alone babysitting when the mother was out.
The purse stealing suspect would be an obvious place to start. While Linda's home was unlocked, where Cindy was was locked and the crime scene had no evidence of forced entry. Whoever stole the mother's purse would have her address and he keys and Cindy was reported to have come by the bar earlier that evening so some customers might have become aware of who would be minding her kids that night. Actually many of the mother's acquaintances might have been aware of the fact that Cindy babysat while she worked. Did the Prime Suspect of the Purse theft happen to be part of Linda's mother's circle of acquaintances?
It is possibles that the Prime Suspect didn't do it and someone else stole the purse. Less likely, the purse theft was unrelated to the abduction. I would be particularly interested in a one in Linda' s mother's circle of acquaintances who was in the Oasis the night Cindy, was abducted or otherwise have access to Cindy' employer's purse.
Apparently there is yet a third Prime Suspect in the Campbell-Anderson abductions. The crimes are definitely different but we cannot assume they are unrelated. Was he consider for possible ties to Cindy and Linda's case?
These cases are very old, I believe all of the mother's are dead and memories have certainly faded. It is getting to be unlikely that any evidence not already in one of the case files will now turn up.