Again, sorry for the late answer. I was lost without my computer. We lived on a 640-acre ranch which had three private residences. Nos. 1, 2, and 2 were never in our house, but were questioned by police. Our friends with the baby were a married couple who came for a brief visit. The other person was our neighbor and someone who came looking for her when he didn't find her in his own house. This person, the last person to see Anna that we know of, has been questioned extensively and forum members have even spoken to him by telephone.I was a bit startled when I read the outline of what happened at your family home on the day that Anna disappeared.
Could you tell me if you lived on some type of communal property?
These are the people you have noted as being on your premises who are NOT family members on the day Anna disappeared:
1) Horsewoman #1- attacked by rooster
2) Horseperson #2
3) Horseman #3- killed your rooster and threw him in the creek ( hmmm)
4) Friend #1 ( with baby from SF)
5) Friend #2 ( arrived with #4 and baby).
6) Person described as " Ranch Resident", apparently not a family member
7) Carpenter friend of your husband Joe's- said he stopped to look at the view and saw an old van with 2 men in it near your residence.
Annasmom, we have SEVEN non-family adults in your home on the day that Anna disappeared. Was this amount of activity normal for your home?
If so, have you made mental notes of every person in and out of your residence for perhaps a 4-6 month time before Anna disappeared?
If this amount of activity is or is not normal for your home, how likely is it that someone would be casing your house and snatch a verbal 6 year old with all of these people in and out all day long? Was Anna friendly with GeorgeW or not at this point?
Have you checked out the people who were in your house that day? The resident? The horsepeople?
I know that George is the focus, and I know why, of course. But.. I had no idea that you had this amount of activity going on where Anna was exposed to many people, if this was a usual type of day for you.
I know it was a different time in our history, and I know you lived on a farm which may have been a working farm with items sold or land parceled out, but 7 non- related people in one day alone makes me wonder who else might have seen Anna from the age of 5-6... maybe a couple who couldn't have children, and saw her briefly, and took her.
It SEEMS obvious that she probably went with someone she knew, because you never heard her scream or protest.
However, she could have been gagged or drugged with something like a Chloroform soaked cloth over her nose and mouth. I believe Chloroform was easy to obtain back then. Also, GeorgeW had a friend at one point who was an anestheiologist. The friend would have had access to fast acting inhalant anesthetics especially for children's anesthesia.
Again, sorry for the late answer. I was lost without my computer. We lived on a 640-acre ranch which had three private residences. Nos. 1, 2, and 2 were never in our house, but were questioned by police. Our friends with the baby were a married couple who came for a brief visit. The other person was our neighbor and someone who came looking for her when he didn't find her in his own house. This person, the last person to see Anna that we know of, has been questioned extensively and forum members have even spoken to him by telephone.
In answer to your question, our house did not usually have so many visitors, but the farm itself was used by horse boarders, hunters and a motorcycle club, so there was lots of traffic from Purisima Creek Road down the private road of the farm (I have a drawing posted some time in the past couple of weeks which shows how things were laid out.)
...One thing I thought about and don't mean any disrespect in bringing this up, knowing that there probably is no definitive answer except that no remains were found in or near the creek: About the rooster which was killed earlier in the day and thrown into the creek. Is there any chance that Anna would have seen the dead rooster caught on brush or debris and gone into the creek after it?...
The body of the rooster was found later farther downstream than the area of the stream that Anna had access to. It is conceivable that the bird's body hung up near the farm, but later broke loose and got hung up farther downstream for a second time.
But the fact that a 5-10 pound rooster's body was not able to be washed out to sea or to be lost in a raging stream is rather convincing evidence that Anna's 40 pound body would have also not disappeared into the creek not to be found for 35 years. The vegetation on the creek may be more plentiful today than in 1973, but my visit to the area a couple of years ago showed too many natural "snags " of trees for Anna to have been washed to sea.
While much has been done to tame Purissima Creek since then, it is worth mentioning this occurence that took place circa 1860, described by June Morrell in her excellent book, "Half Moon Bay Memories".
"In 1862, on the banks of Purissima Creek, the Village of Purissima rivalled Spanishtown (Half Moon Bay). That year a series of heavy storms caused the Purissima to overflow, flooding the valley, and two to three acres of land slid into the creek. Trapped in their recently completed home, the Lane family barely escaped with their lives before the rushing water claimed the house, sweeping it away.
When all was quiet again, only a piano lay undisturbed, high atop a huge redwood log. The flood washed out roads and bridges. In the aftermath, the debris of dwellings, orchards, fences, redwood trees and logs were violently hurled 70 feet over Purissima Falls and into the Pacific Ocean."
You are right, of course. The comparison may be an unfair exaggeration. I use it only to illustrate the terrifying and almost unimaginable power of rushing water and its capacity for destruction and upheaval.June Morrall in her blog Half Moon Bay Memories has been strongly supportive of the search for Anna the past two years and has a number of links to Lulu for ordering the book Searching for Anna. I think it is probably important to point out to those who have not seen the Purisima setting in person that the terrible-sounding storm of 1862 was not the situation in January of 1973, when no houses were swept away and the pianos remained safely in their places.
Raf, perhaps we were naive, but we paid very little attention to the constant traffic around the farm. It was possible and even probable that any number of people could have been watching either the kindergarten or the farm or both. Unfortunately, we have not been able to single out an individual which this might have been. We did establish early on, in the company of a sheriff's department employee, that it would have been possible to watch the farm from a vantage point on Higgins Canyon Road where one would not have been seen, and to time the schedule of the school bus from that point to our house.I wish to ask -since it seems that the Anna's abduction has not been an extemporaneous fact, but a precise plan- if in the days or months, before of abduction, Annasmom and Joe had the sensation that someone spied the house.....or the kindergarten....
thanks,
raf
This might be a good time to point out that it is not my opinion that Anna fell into the creek and drowned. I am in complete agreement with Annasmom and the rest of you dedicated sleuthers that it is imperative the search be pursued on all fronts.
The perplexing mist surrounding Anna's vanishing has become less dense through all of your relentless researching efforts.
I think that I tend to overreact to what I sometimes feel are dismissive comments or speculations regards the creek as a viable possibility to Anna's disappearance. It is my fear that, if construed as such, no future effort will ever be expended in that direction.
I must admit that I harbor, maybe foolishly, a scenario in which someone with the wherewithal and resources, overwhelmed with compassion, steps forward to say "By Golly, I can help you there. I just happen to have a team of divers, dogs, trackers and volunteers that would just love to give the creek a go!" Maybe not likely...but not impossible.
However, please do not interpret my wishes to keep this path of exploration open as, in any way, discordant with the concurrent investigations. Our goal is to find Anna...in that we are resolute.
Once again, I am deeply indebted and grateful to all of you sleuthers and well-wishers.
Thank you.
Joe
Thank you for the honest post Joe, I understand your point completely. I too do not believe Anna went into the creek, but given the opportunity...
I have a question, and a comment. First, how much of the creek is on private property since the owner will most likely not agree to access? It was 4 miles from the farm to the ocean correct? Second, my thoughts on any volunteer who might be able to search with current technology would be Tim Miller with TES. If he and his organization were conducting a search in the area, I would by all means contact him and determine if he has equipment which might benefit an additional search of the area and was available to help. Technology has come a long way in 35+ years and his organization just recently helped locate a missing woman for which divers were unable to find her previously. (more at thread here:
http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72616)
Hot damn, Cubby !!! Yours is just the kind of dust-stirring, boots-on-the-ground response that I have been hoping to hear. Bless you. Until now I had never even heard of Tim Miller or TES. I have just come from their website http://www.texasequusearch.org/ and am simply overwhelmed and impressed with their mission statement, technical capabilities, and recent successes in the field.Thank you for the honest post Joe, I understand your point completely. I too do not believe Anna went into the creek, but given the opportunity...
I have a question, and a comment. First, how much of the creek is on private property since the owner will most likely not agree to access? It was 4 miles from the farm to the ocean correct? Second, my thoughts on any volunteer who might be able to search with current technology would be Tim Miller with TES. If he and his organization were conducting a search in the area, I would by all means contact him and determine if he has equipment which might benefit an additional search of the area and was available to help. Technology has come a long way in 35+ years and his organization just recently helped locate a missing woman for which divers were unable to find her previously. (more at thread here:
http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72616)
This might be a good time to point out that it is not my opinion that Anna fell into the creek and drowned. I am in complete agreement with Annasmom and the rest of you dedicated sleuthers that it is imperative the search be pursued on all fronts.
The perplexing mist surrounding Anna's vanishing has become less dense through all of your relentless researching efforts.
I think that I tend to overreact to what I sometimes feel are dismissive comments or speculations regards the creek as a viable possibility to Anna's disappearance. It is my fear that, if construed as such, no future effort will ever be expended in that direction.
I must admit that I harbor, maybe foolishly, a scenario in which someone with the wherewithal and resources, overwhelmed with compassion, steps forward to say "By Golly, I can help you there. I just happen to have a team of divers, dogs, trackers and volunteers that would just love to give the creek a go!" Maybe not likely...but not impossible.
However, please do not interpret my wishes to keep this path of exploration open as, in any way, discordant with the concurrent investigations. Our goal is to find Anna...in that we are resolute.
Once again, I am deeply indebted and grateful to all of you sleuthers and well-wishers.
Thank you.
Joe