Wow, you guys are fast! I first started reading this thread as the news was breaking around 3pm this afternoon, and now the thread is up to 26 pages. All I can say is that you guys are amazing.
Upon hearing the first reports, I felt something wasn't right. Two ominous black men whom the mother couldn't describe spontaneously kidnapping her and her daughter in the middle of the afternoon on a busy street, and throwing them in the trunk no less, with absolutely no witnesses? Uh uh. I doubted that from the beginning.
Now the question is whyshe did what she did. Insanity? Maybe. But none of her family members, friends, in-laws, or co-workers are coming out with any statements supporting past or present mental issues. And then there is the theft of the $300,000. Perhaps she was just sick of her life. She had a new baby in the home, perhaps the stress of a newborn was too much. So over time she stole a bunch of money from her employer and came up with the abduction story, probably hoping her and her daughter would remain "missing" and eventually be presumed murdered or gone forever so she could start a new life. Why did she choose Julia instead of the other kids? Like I said, the newborn would be too much of a hindrance, and the 15-year old would be too old to go along with such a scheme. Children of Julia's age are easier to convince that "something happened" and we "must go start a new life". I believe this fiasco was probably planned at least a couple of months in advance.
I have no idea why she would choose Florida, though. Granted, many parts of it are extremely beautiful, but being from the Northeast, I've found that many people in this area tend to see all of Florida as some kind of Shangri-La, with blue waters and sandy beaches - ultimately as one big theme park (hence the Disney World connection.)
Anyway, like all of you I'm extremely anxious to see how all this plays out. Its hard to believe, that in this day and age, with cameras everywhere, a woman of this age could believe she could hop on a plane with her daughter to Orlando without being seen, by cameras or witnesses. Or maybe we Websleuthers are just more educated on that kind of thing. Who knows?
And of course, all of the above is just my opinion.
