I'm not going to quote any of several posts above that address the topic of facts remembered, but I will share a personal experience that I've recalled while reading here.
When I was in 10th grade (1966), I stopped at the public library on my way home from school one afternoon to get some books for an assignment. While I was there, I saw a female classmate of my brother's who lived a couple of blocks from us. We left the library together and were approached by two rather threatening looking girls as we walked home. They grabbed our purses, took any money that they could find, dropped the purses, then ran. This happened so quickly that neither of us realized what had happened!
Still stunned, we walked the rest of the way to the corner of my street where I turned right, and she went left to her home on another street. I had regained my composure from the unfortunate incident that had "cost" me only a few dollars that I had in my small changepurse and wasn't going to say anything to my mom or dad about what had happened. Within an hour or so, the other girl's parents called my home, and I was forced to admit what had happened. Since the other girl's parents had already contacted the police, they called me to get details about the incident.
A detective came to our home, and I reiterated my perception of the incident. During the course of the evening, there were subsequent phone calls from other LE, and I asked my dad why they kept making me tell them the same thing over and over and over again. Dad said, "They are making sure that you have your facts in order and that your recollection of the incident and description of the (perpetrators) isn't changing." In his own way, Dad let me know that "the truth remains constant." jmo
