A podcast full of mistakes, "Thinking Sideways", made July 12, has come to my attention. This was an offensive broadcast and I have sent the following letter to one of the presenters of the show. I would really appreciate your support in this, and I recommend that you do not patronize the sponsors of this sensationalized version of Anna's story.
Note to Devin of “Thinking Sideways” Podcast
I have just listened to your July 12, 2018 podcast about my daughter (“The Disappearance of Little Anna Waters”) and I am perplexed about how much misinformation could be broadcast about a case where a great deal is actually known and easy to come by with the most casual research. Furthermore, I think it is unethical for you to get advertising revenue from your sponsors, Talkspace, HBO Sharp Objects, SimpliSafe, and Stitcher Premium, by fabricating a story about my family.
You cite as references The Charlie Page, a deleted Wiki page, and a Websleuths discussion, but no mention was made of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department, or my own very comprehensive book, Searching for Anna.
You laughed and joked about great deal of gossip and trivia (such as whether I was married to my sons’ father) and neglected to mention some vitally important facts of this case: Anna’s is an open case in the county, and both the county and the NCMEC call her disappearance a “probable non-family abduction.” George Waters did not burn all his papers as you say, and a note in his handwriting (“The Plan”) written long before 1973 mentions life insurance and the actual date Anna disappeared.
Dr. Waters did not accuse me of “unfaithfulness” with Brody. The speculation that Anna might be Brody’s daughter or that Brody himself a schizophrenic’s hallucination—these are sickening thoughts, really too strange for comment.
The surveillance you attribute to Doug French was actually done by Anna’s stepfather Joe Ford, though not quite in the manner you have speculated. Doug was a teenager when Anna disappeared and only became involved in the case many years later. He never met George Waters or George Brody and did not conduct surveillance at their hotel.
Anna’s name amendment is a matter of public record, despite your speculation. Under pressure, I consented to add the name Eifee to her given name, Anna Christian. She did not attend Pre-K as you said at some length, but rather attended regular kindergarten. She did not attend the same school as her brothers, as you state. They were at three different schools because of their ages. The bus did not take an hour to get from the school to our house.
You used an age-advanced picture from 2003 when actually several newer ones including a 2018 version are available from the NCMEC. You did not credit the NCMEC for the photograph you used. George and I did not meet in college. Where he and Brody met is described in my book (you make it sound as if nobody knows this.) Brody’s death certificate was not left blank. What happened to Brody’s body is known to the primary parties in the case, despite your opinion that this was unknown. Family DNA has been entered into the national database and has been compared whenever possible to all unidentifieds, something you failed to mention in your discussion of the Does.
These are only a few of the garbled and erroneous things I heard in your podcast. You have not done our family any favors by presenting such a poorly-researched piece, and your judgments about marriage, mental illness, memory recollection and “other weird stuff,” to use your own words, are irrelevant and often unkind. Incidentally, my name is pronounced MY-KUL, not Mi-kay-la, and I am not charmed by having perfect strangers use it. I do not appreciate your pretension of familiarity with my family members, and I dislike all your passive-voice statements (“It is reported”) that have no cited source and are usually contrary to known fact. I have always been willing to answer questions forwarded to me by the Sheriff’s Department, and I wish you had taken the time to do this, or at least to consult reliable sources, rather than fabricate a story in order to attract listeners and make money for your sponsors.