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