[I was meticulous about transcribing Marks every word...Tricia's, I paraphrased, because we will not be dissecting her every nuanced syllable...] it took me hOURS just to get his first few monologues done, because he is so hard to follow.
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T:I do want to ask Mark some questions as well…Mark, we had a long conversation the other night...
and I am not taking sides..only taking Dylans side…I want to give u a platform to clear up misconceptions…what do you want to clear up…OK...
MR: well, umm..ya know obviously, being Dylan's father ….and he was here at my house , when he went missing…ya know I…in the very beginning of this I only did what I was instructed to do by Law enforcement…That meaning that you know, in the first few days of the search efforts that were going on with Dylan , I was to stay here at the home in case he was to return, or to call home, or whatever the case may be, and as much as I wanted to be out there, doing, being involved in the searches, I obviously was told that it was in my best interest, or Dylan's best interest, for me not be out there but I needed to be here at the house in case he showed up. ..for whatever reason..
T: so you're telling us that LE told you not to search…is that what you're saying?
MR: In the first few days yes…I … I , I desperately wanted to be involved in every aspect of that but ya know, again, LE told me that the best thing I could do was to stay here at the house and make myself available in the case that Dylan either tried to call or that he stopped by.
T:Ok
MR: Which is exactly what I did …
T:And what about searching later...
MR: Well, I've , you know, I've made many , I've made many efforts…the difference between I think that me and my ex wife is that I don't search because I am looking for recognition I search because it is the right thing to do and it's what I want to be a part of, in bringing Dylan home, so you know, just because I don't go out and and and and …ya know follow the cameras around and things like that doesn't mean I am not out searching…now theres been many things that I ..
T:So you ARE out there searching..
Oh absolutely…now you know, I mean, at this point, here we are past the 6 month mark , ya know, I'll I'll be honest with ya, I don't believe D is in the lake…I don't believe he's near my home and he's certainly I don't think that he is in La Platte County…Does that mean I know where to go to[ lurk] look?
T; Why do you think that…
MR ; Well because…I don't think that , I don't think that Dylan is anywhere in this area and he hasn't been from the very beginning of this..I mean obviously in the first few days nobody knew anything and so we were trying to sort all the pieces of this together and trying to figure out and understand, ya know, the direction that we needed to be going ..so that we had a clear understanding of they areas that we needed to go to to be able to find Dylan…ya know In the very few first days I didn't think about him being abducted…ya know it came to my attention that the dog handlers that had initially come up here ya know indicated that they picked up his scent up to 50 feet from my house and past that there was no scent of him, so even the dogs were having a hard time, with that
that being said, that kinda indicates to me that he could very well have possibly gotten into a vehicle and known who he was with or he set out on his own and never made it to his destination..I don't know but nobody wants their first thought to be that their child is being abducted thats what we have all these people involved for, so we can try to better understand what we're truly up against.
T: well now I have to point something out to u, and if I can point this out and for mediation, this is important…about the public perception, when u say things like..[ explains to him about his backhanded slams] and Marc Klaas would tell you to get in front of the cameras...
MR: well , I… I …I understand that and I'm certainly not trying to argue that point , I mean part of the person that I am is the way that I come across to some people…and you know , it's not that I'm avoiding the cameras or Im not willing to get in front of a camera, the fact is ya know, in particular days that I have been out searching I ve been doing these things on my own, I have spent countless days driving around the lake, looking for any evidence of ya know a fishing pole a backpack anything of that type of nature. ..ya know …….and when I say that I guess what Im trying to say is when I go out and do these things Im not trying to call in somebody to be there.. and Im certainly not ..its not my intention to criticize Dylans mother, by any means,
T: thats what it sounds like…that was a hard jab..
MR: And that's the way…and I understand that and I think thats part of the way that I tend to come across which makes it hard for me to come out and speak like I am now because I don't intend to come out , across that way its just part of who I am I guess… I mean I don't know how to explain it any better than that, I am not trying to hurt anyones mother …Im not..never been my intention..my only focus
and this is what I want everyone to understand, my only focus is what we need to be doing to bring our son home..ihats all i'm interested in… think there is plenty of time for all of this sideline stuff thats going on…that can be done after the fact that we bring dylan home…thats the only thing that matters to me…
