MO - Elizabeth Olten, 9, St Martin's, 21 Oct 2009 #8

[human]

It may be true that there isn't things for teens to do in your town of Missouri, but AB had horses, pool, it looks like a nice recreation room in her basement with at least a pool table. Oh, I guess she may not have had a place for herself to hang out with friends and have sex and do drugs.

 

[MDATCA]

It may be true that there isn't things for teens to do in your town of Missouri, but AB had horses, pool, it looks like a nice recreation room in her basement with at least a pool table. Oh, I guess she may not have had a place for herself to hang out with friends and have sex and do drugs.

I thouht that too. I know I provided "fun space" for my kids when they were teens. We drove them skating, to friends houses, school functions, boys and girls club functions as well as carnivals and amusement parks all the time so when I would hear there is nothing to do I wanted to knock them upside the head. They had/have video game systems, tv, dvr's, mp2 players, cell phones, a pool, fire pit, computers and multitudes of other things. IMO these things are pretty standard for most teens today. Of course we nor most other parents allow drugs, drinking and sex because we are mean and trying to keep them from having fun.

 

[Bibliophile]

In the most heinous crimes, drug usage is often used, at worst, as an excuse or at best an explanation for the behavior. I think part of us longs for a reason like drugs because it helps to make us feel safer. It separates "us from them." We also simply don't want to believe that seemingly normal human beings would do such a thing. Remember the Manson family?

As bad as that crap is, I've known of lots of meth-heads that wouldn't dream of planning and executing the killing of a nine year old little girl.

Like many others before her, AB had that potential regardless of what substance she consumed.

 

[PeriodicalCuriosity]

AB had that potential regardless of what substance she consumed.

agreed

 

[SondraK]

agreed

AGREED

And drugs and alcohol are voluntary, so no excuse

 

[Bibliophile]

It may be true that there isn't things for teens to do in your town of Missouri, ...

If we want to look at things honestly, this kind of stuff has been going on for ions. Here are some good examples that illustrate (& if you're not a movie buff, you can look them up) --- think of Grease, Blackboard Jungle, The Delinquents,West Side Story, Rebel Without A Cause, Summer of '42, The Lords of Flatbush, American Graffiti --- the list goes on. Time goes on but teens are doing the same thing.

Teens in rural and urban areas pretty much do the same thing - they just do it in different ways. I have stories and pictures of my grandfather breaking the law, drinking "home-brew" during prohibition with his friends - and his father was the county sheriff.

The biggest changes of the last 50 to 100 years IMO, is the addictiveness of the available substances and greater reliance and bonding to peer groups and less reliance/bonding to family.

 

[Flashforward]

Last update about our hostage situation:

JEFFERSON CITY -- UPDATE: 2:12 p.m.

Jefferson City Police are preparing to reopen downtown streets after finishing a search of the Governor Office Building.

That search revealed no hostage situation.

KRCG News has exclusive details of the situation that led to police being called to the building.

Dan Joyce, administrative director of the Public Service Commission, tells KRCG that a PSC employee on the 5th floor thought she heard an announcement stating that there was a hostage situation.

A supervisor was notified who called Sonitrol, the building's alarm/surveillance company, to find out if they made the announcement over the PA system.

Joyce says the supervisor was simply inquiring of Sonitrol if they knew of any such situation and that it was Sonitrol who decided to call Jefferson City Police.

Joyce says the employee did not see any hostage situation, only that she overheard some sort of an announcement.

 

[Jayjay]

I think it's entirely possible AB did use drugs, but with my experience I find it hard to believe she was 'high' or using at the time of the murder.

Given how well concealed EO was and the level of apparent premeditation, it seems to suggest a more rational thought process. Having said that, past use of drugs can cause limitless damage, especially to someone already presenting with psychological problems.

Having known someone who committed a serious crime, I once asked them why. This person had long suffered with depression from being early teens, and was 20 when the crime was committed. The answer I got was that they just wanted to FEEL something.

 

[bigflaw]

Just something I found. Sorry if it's a duplicate.

This is a webpage for someone who posted to AB's SingSnap site after the incident.

http://www.depressiontribe.com/apples199***

If you go and find the SingSnap comments, you will see the full username. As far as I could tell, they were friends. There is nothing really on the site, but "Profile" confirms Missouri.

There seems to be a lot of depression going around her crew.

 

[danni]

The charge is possession of an illegal substance except for up to 35g of mj. Less mj than that is a lesser charge. From what I remember seeing, the former was the charge.

Yes, but that doesn't mean it was absolutely pot. It's just the code they use. The arresting agency was water patrol, she must have been at The Lake.

BMM

This is the EXACT charge!

ST V MLB
Description: Possession Of Up To 35 Grams Marijuana { Misdemeanor A RSMo: 195.202 } Date: 07/31/2009
She plead quilty and recieved two years unsupervised probation.

 

[human]

AB had a nice place to have interactions with her peers. They could be together to do lots of fun stuff at her house, I feel. Kids have always done stuff they aren't supposed to, but if they are not dysfunctional, doing the inappropriate things aren't their total focus in life. I think teens that are wrapped pretty tight have a good time doing things that are acceptable with a little experimentation on the side.

My kids, who are all grown ,are great adults. My middle child, who I thought was perfect, told me, "Mother, you are so naive. All kids experiment."

And that's what I think is true, considering how my one daughter really was so perfect and apparently did experiment.

I just think that these teens who are friends with AB are in a very strange place in their psyches.

 

[Gray]

Bumping this up for Elizabeth.

 

[calamityjane]

I followed the Chris Coleman case very closely. One thing I have noticed to be very different here. All of the social networking sites involving the accused and the victim in that case were disabled pretty darn quick. And I don't mean just set to private. I am talking disabled-gone.

No Myspace, no Facebook. I wonder why AB's family or attorney has not done that same thing? I realize it has been good for us for sleuthing purposes, but I would think someone would be trying to advocate for AB more than they have.

Anyone else find this odd?

I agree that it is quite odd.

 

[ynotdivein]

@lajr: I agree, and I think it's because there are lawyers on both sides of the CC case who have experience (whatever one may feel about those legal experiences) in cases of this magnitude. AB apparently has a PD and no financial/other assistance to retain someone who's done hi-pro cases, or at least not cases involving significant amounts of internet traffic to control/quash. AB's legal team may just not have the reach to get to these folks and ask/require/help them to pull their pages? I wonder how this will affect the trial phase, if we get there, and if any posters of these sites are called as witnesses. Would imagine FB, MS, Xanga, et al will eventually be getting a raft of subpoenas. But if AB or others are not cooperating the legal team may not even know all the sites to subpoena.

Just my :twocents: (now worth .85 Canadian cents I hear).

 

[CementPond]

Has anyone seen the latest rumor over on IS?

 

[Gray]

Just read it. Even though it's plausible, I would be REALLY surprised if that was the case.

 

[Kimster]

If it were true, why aren't there more arrests in this case?

 

[CementPond]

Yeah. I think we would have heard more on it by now if it were true. I guess soon enough we shall find out.

Just read it. Even though it's plausible, I would be REALLY surprised if that was the case.

 

[CementPond]

Exactly.

If it were true, why aren't there more arrests in this case?

 

[bigflaw]

Exactly.

I'm going to totally show my ignorance... what is IS?