The brief recreational FB sleuthing I did around NC showed me a lot of random teenagers who didn't seem to know Abby personality or weren't in her grade but were offering brief condolences to each other. It's overall hard for me to imagine image-conscious high school kids discussing what they believe happened even when just their other friends or family can see, but my FB-since-2004 cohort exercises a lot of discretion when discussing the deceased or other family tragedies. "RIP" groups or posts won't have anyone publicly asking for details on the COD. There might also be an element of not wanting to appear like they're bandwagoning or pretending to be worried for the attention.
So, as someone hypothesized above, people might speculate to each other offline, but starting a theory discussion on a missing poster would be seen as tacky, IMO. There's always that risk of implicating someone who the next commenter will point out is her father/brother/best friend growing up. And then you look like a butt. :notgood: (Could just be the southern upbringing showing, which like NE apparently, can make gossip weird. Lots of feigned ignorance. Lots of porch sitting hushed-voice "here comes so-and-so whose son just up and so-and-so, bless her heart, he was from such a good family.." followed by sighs and sad "mm-hmm"s before immediately turning the smiles back on and asking said so-and-so how her mama is.)
Also, I feel like it would raise our hinky meters to discover active speculation elsewhere. Remember very early on when a certain someone (not RH) posted on the missing page in active support of the runaway theory? I would also hazard that the grand majority of locals anywhere aren't hobbyist sleuths, so the statistics that are immediately apparent to you guys about the rarity of stranger abductions and what that implies may not be so intuitive to them. If no one saw anything and the kidnapper is assumed to be a random disheveled drifter, your typical stranger danger boogeyman, there's not much to go on. Which, save for the drifter bit, is kind of the same deal over here.
So do you think there might be a hush-hush element along the lines of "don't talk about it/point fingers or you'll be next", especially since (if?) no one knows WHY Abby? I'm also curious what you guys are contrasting the NC buzz with. Jessica Heeringa's missing page circus? It seems even with cases seemingly (and frustratingly) cut and dry, like Hailey Dunne, every third comment on the page is like "have they caught them yet" or someone saying they heard there was a rise in satantic rituals recently and has anyone explored that venue? On Jessica's page a three paragraph indictment of initials-only strangers would be sandwiched between two locals asking if they've checked DMV records for silver vans or if the gas station surveillance was checked. Followed by a "no offense but" reminder that people do make themselves disappear voluntarily. Etc. Good sleuthing is hard to come by, and the most vocal people are the ones least likely to have done their homework. :moo:
Maybe I'm just rationalizing away my frustration with the radio silence. I agree more chatter would mean more things were being done to bring Abby home. And I have no idea how far away we are from that. :banghead:
