MA MA - Caleigh Harrison, 2, Rockport, 19 April 2012

[KaylynnCouture]

Mine too. I can't say I think she did something to the little girl at this point, but I kind of believe she may have been really really negligent in some way that led to a tragedy.

This is probably crappy of me, but I am kind of judging her by the number of facebook friends I can see that she has (over 730 at the moment... was high 600s a day or two after the girl went missing). I may very well be reading too much into it, but that lets my mind wander to a person spending too much time on their iPhone and too little time watching what's going on with the kids.

PS I don't post often, and I will try to reread the rules here, but if I am saying anything out of place, don't hesitate to give me the smackdown.

My first thought was that maybe she is adding a lot of friends, and spending time on Facebook to spread awareness about Caleigh being missing. However.....after hearing that the mother appears to NOT want to spread awareness (especially via Facebook) now I don't really know what to think.

 

[TGIRecovered]

When my girls were 2 and 4, the older one made it her business to watch and report on every move the younger one made! The four year old reported everything to Daddy the moment he got home from work...yak yak yak, all she did was chatter about our day!

I don't believe that this little girl's sister was there when this happened and remembers nothing! Big red flag . MOO!

 

[TxLady2]

When my girls were 2 and 4, the older one made it her business to watch and report on every move the younger one made! The four year old reported everything to Daddy the moment he got home from work...yak yak yak, all she did was chatter about our day!

I don't believe that this little girl's sister was there when this happened and remembers nothing! Big red flag . MOO!

Not necessarily disagreeing with you but I know there are some 4 yr. olds with a short attention span who couldn't be relied on to keep their eyes on a younger sibling for 20 seconds, much less 2 minutes. Their attention would wander. As far as remembering anything helpful, who knows? It's possible that she just did not see the baby walking into the water, which is what I think happened.

OTOH, 4 yrs. old is pretty young. While some kids at that age could remember every detail, there are others who can't. And there's always the possibility that she is simply very frightened and too scared to say what she saw, for fear of her mom's wrath. You just never know.

 

[boston_baby]

My first thought was that maybe she is adding a lot of friends, and spending time on Facebook to spread awareness about Caleigh being missing. However.....after hearing that the mother appears to NOT want to spread awareness (especially via Facebook) now I don't really know what to think.

Yeah, the few postrs on her wall that are public aren't really awareness oriented.

The last one is from Friday at 8AM, and it says:
"I love you my baby. forever in my heart ♥" (with a picture of mom and child)

Not trying to be overly critical here because everyone operates differently under stress, but that post has an awfully "final" sound to it for scarcely 18 hours after your child goes missing.

 

[April02]

I wonder, like LadyL posted earlier, if the FB site run by non-family was getting a lot of negative comments about the mom, the inconsistent stories the MSM is putting out about the ball over the wall, in the water, etc. That could be why the mom wanted to shut it down.

I don't do Facebook, but I gather the mom's FB is not a site being used to locate the child if she were abducted. Are there FB sites set up like that for this child?

 

[com n sense]

ok this is bizarre. My friend Karen runs a lot of missing kids fb pages. She talked to a cousin yesterday on facebook and they gave her some pictures to make a missing child facebook page.
By today all other friends and family were on there saying mom was furious about the page and she trying to have the cops arrest my friend for making it. Things got so ugly with comments of hatred for the page creator, my friend gave up trying to share news stories, and deleted the page.
This is the first time I have ever heard of an innocent family being angry about some one's attempt to spread awareness.

I guess you didn't keep up with the Anthony case. This is reminding me so much of Caylee's fairy tale kidnapping.

 

[Shelby2]

The undertow there is so strong, she could have easily gotten knocked down by a wave and dragged under.
I live in MA, been to all of the beaches between Maine and The Cape, the water is so cold now it's painful. I remember as a kid lifeguards keeping us out of the water because the undertow was so strong. Even when we were allowed in, as the waves receded you could feel the sand under your feet being sucked back into the ocean.
I think that is what happened here, if I was the mom I would be feeling horrible.
As far as the 911 call, if you try to call 911 from your cell you get the Mass. State Police who then try to get your call to the right place. It can be frustrating, I can see giving up and calling someone to call for me. You'd have to know the non-emergency number to call local police from your cell, I think.

 

[KivaSupporter]

http://beta.local.yahoo.com/news-search-continues-toddler-disappeared-beach.html?woeid=2367105&lat=42.358631&lon=-71.056702&statecode=MA&cityname=Boston

 

[Soulmagent]

Yeah, the few postrs on her wall that are public aren't really awareness oriented.

The last one is from Friday at 8AM, and it says:
"I love you my baby. forever in my heart ♥" (with a picture of mom and child)

Not trying to be overly critical here because everyone operates differently under stress, but that post has an awfully "final" sound to it for scarcely 18 hours after your child goes missing.

I would not be able to stop staring at the ocean ,waiting.

I thought about this while on the beach myself. I thought about the ripcurrent and watched for it thinking about how I would feel if it happened ,the ocean is huge and I could only imagine the hopeless feelings I would have but 18 hours later , I would still be staring at that ocean waiting. Then denial might hit and I would be looking for a kidnapper.

All my thoughts were before I head about this case . I researched ripcurrent before I even let him play on the beach ,on this sight.You can read other peoples stories about getting caught in the currents and learn how to spot the spotable ones. They even have beach alerts.

http://ripcurrents.noaa.gov/

 

[helpful]

I was on the beach in Salisbury, MA once when a mom lost sight of her son, who was definitely older than Caleigh. I will NEVER forget listening to her screaming. I have never heard anything like it. She was absolutely inconsolable, begging the lifeguards to "do something" even though there just wasn't much they were able to do considering the strength of the current. She was standing waist deep in the water calling for him and crying while the lifeguards tried to get her to calm down enough to help them; it was awful to see.

This mom's reaction just doesn't seem the same to me. Something seems a little off, though I hate to say that because who am I to judge her reaction?

(Happy ending: he reappeared after about half an hour with an enormous ice cream cone. Guess he got hungry and wandered away, and was totally oblivious to the fact that this might cause concern. Obviously Caleigh isn't old enough to do something like this, which is worrisome to me.)

 

[Shelby2]

I don't even know what the mother's reaction was?

 

[helpful]

I don't even know what the mother's reaction was?

Upthread, someone mentions that the mom was upset that a FB page had been made for Caleigh. Mom has also confirmed a bunch of friend requests since Caleigh disappeared.

 

[mahoolin]

Upthread, someone mentions that the mom was upset that a FB page had been made for Caleigh. Mom has also confirmed a bunch of friend requests since Caleigh disappeared.

BBM - I don't have a face book page, is it easy to accept a new friend on a smartphone? Does it require lots of clicks etc, or is it something easy? I know I get email requests to be friends and I have to go to the website or something to accept??

Just wondering if that was something you could do almost unthinkingly if you were on your phone, while waiting for a call. Or is it harder on a phone than on a computer? I have a fairly simple cell phone...:blushing:

Meaning, why would you be sitting at your computer playing on face book while your child is missing, or could it be a nervous thing people do almost like playing games on their phones to pass the time?

No opinions formed, just trying to understand face book a bit more. And wow, the whole world can see how many new friends you have within a certain time? :waitasec:

Regardless, praying they find that baby soon!

 

[Jan]

I would be terrified to take 2 small children and a dog near water by myself. I even put life vests on my dogs when they are near water. Where was the dog during all this? How big is the dog? Could the dog have knocked the child down into the water? Did the dog follow the child or try to find the child? My German shepherd tries to "round up" our family and herd the people together and she barks if one person is missing and she can't find him/her. She would also bark if a stranger approached a member of the family if I wasn't right there. Many dogs would try to literally pull a child out of the water if the child fell in or would stand and bark for help. Was the dog all wet when the mother came back, as if the dog had gone into the water following the child? It appears that they believe the mom that the child was with her at the beach and disappeared there. Not much is told about the family. So many times in other cases it has ended up that a family member did something to the child and the parent made up a story to cover up for it. Not saying I think that happened here. Where is the dad to this girl? Do he and the mother live together? I hope the baby is found somewhere alive and well but it doesn't look likely.

 

[Shelby2]

BBM - I don't have a face book page, is it easy to accept a new friend on a smartphone? Does it require lots of clicks etc, or is it something easy? I know I get email requests to be friends and I have to go to the website or something to accept??

Just wondering if that was something you could do almost unthinkingly if you were on your phone, while waiting for a call. Or is it harder on a phone than on a computer? I have a fairly simple cell phone...:blushing:

Meaning, why would you be sitting at your computer playing on face book while your child is missing, or could it be a nervous thing people do almost like playing games on their phones to pass the time?

No opinions formed, just trying to understand face book a bit more. And wow, the whole world can see how many new friends you have within a certain time? :waitasec:

Regardless, praying they find that baby soon!

If your Facebook is private, not sure if there would be anything to see. Mine is private to the point that you would not find me there.

 

[maedlamsmom]

Where is the dad? We have heard from the dad's family, but not him. He hasn't been mentioned in any msm reports as far as I can see. Are they married? The children and mom have different last names, so they may have never been married, although it's possible she just kept her maiden name. I don't know that it is important to the search for Caleigh, but I am curious about him.

 

[amysmom]

I can also confirm the ocean water in MA is freaking freezing (except for the bay side of Cape Cod) even in the middle of summer..Funny thing is sometimes on the cooler days the water is warm enough to go in but on the brutal hot days it tends to be even colder..So cold you can't make it past your ankles..It hurts so bad you can't stand it..The water temps also depend on which way the wind's blowing..But it's still only mid-April..Enough said!

IIRC, that area is known to sometimes have strong riptides..They'll pull even the best swimmers out in a flash..It was also a very windy day making the air temps feel even colder..For these reasons I don't believe this mom planned on any of them going in the water & I can't see them even playing any where near it.

It looks to me like there's no way a ball could've made it over the wall either..It's pretty high & probably even more so then it looks like in the pix..If it did go in the water (why the discrepancy?) I don't believe the mom would've gone after it..No way!

Not sure what to make of the sister not being able to "recall" anything about what happened..Maybe she turned her back on her little sister just like her mom did?

I've never heard of a child being 'abducted' at a beach in MA before..I'm not saying it hasn't happened or can't happen but I can't see it on this particular day..The beach wasn't crowded=nobody noticing someone walking away with some else's child..If others were there that day (that's debatable?) they would've been noticed..I don't believe anyone's come forward to say there was a male there alone have they?

The bottom line is if the mom had known about the weather/water conditions would she still have brought her little ones there? If she didn't know she should have made an effort to find out before deciding to take them there to play. imho

 

[PlainJaneDoe]

I wonder, like LadyL posted earlier, if the FB site run by non-family was getting a lot of negative comments about the mom, the inconsistent stories the MSM is putting out about the ball over the wall, in the water, etc. That could be why the mom wanted to shut it down.

I don't do Facebook, but I gather the mom's FB is not a site being used to locate the child if she were abducted. Are there FB sites set up like that for this child?

I thought that was the kind of site SweetSavi's friend had set up?

 

[Lovejac]

ok this is bizarre. My friend Karen runs a lot of missing kids fb pages. She talked to a cousin yesterday on facebook and they gave her some pictures to make a missing child facebook page.
By today all other friends and family were on there saying mom was furious about the page and she trying to have the cops arrest my friend for making it. Things got so ugly with comments of hatred for the page creator, my friend gave up trying to share news stories, and deleted the page.
This is the first time I have ever heard of an innocent family being angry about some one's attempt to spread awareness.

Wow.....that is bizarre :waitasec:

Do you know if maybe someone else (like a friend of the moms) made a missing facebook page for Caleigh and that is why she was mad?

Just trying to stop this feeling in my gut that I have regarding this "story" about how Caleigh went missing.

I hate to even type that.

 

[LadyL]

Where is the dad? We have heard from the dad's family, but not him. He hasn't been mentioned in any msm reports as far as I can see. Are they married? The children and mom have different last names, so they may have never been married, although it's possible she just kept her maiden name. I don't know that it is important to the search for Caleigh, but I am curious about him.

[bbm]

he's mentioned here:

http://www.necn.com/04/19/12/2-year...g-Bea/landing.html?blockID=692874&feedID=4753

Family friend Dan Rapp says he received a frantic call from Caleigh’s dad.

His name is David Harrison.