Good God thank you!! Sometimes it seems like it's not victim-friendly, child protecting Websleuths anymore on here. Thank you so much for giving some local, legal and sane perspective.
Agreed. And so sad.
In this case I totally believe that she told her sister to look for her if she wasn't home by 6. 100% believe it. At her age and with her mindset due to her childhood experiences, I feel she was pulled into something she didn't understand, didn't appreciate the reality of and didn't truly want.
It reminds me of being 12 and trying to convince a bunch of my friends in the neighborhood to runaway. We were going to steal horses and run through the forest and hitchhike to beaches. I was stupid enough to actually "plan" and even got up at 5:00 am and went to two girls' window and rapped on it trying to get them to run off (they had agreed the day before).
They chickened out and said they couldn't go or they'd get in trouble. It's hard to totally remember that moment but looking back I think in the cold darkness of early morning as reality set in, it was a relief to me.
I kind of see ET as having a similar mindset. I know she's older but she was both sheltered and abused and I think she's probably closer to that mindset. And kids at 15 can have some of that thinking still themselves.
I truly believe this kid was on the one hand flirting with a fantasy that was a fun escape from her situation but that at the very same time, she was unaware of the reality of the situation as she was being dragged into the "fantasy" by an older predator who manipulated her into meeting him to go off, and, she was also scared and uneasy in her gut about the whole thing.
It is possible to feel all those things at once.
Her message to her sibling along with her excitement about her Catholic confirmation that was coming that weekend, which, at the same time she was apparently "planning" with the pervert to take off, she kept calling her brother to make sure her would attend, really indicate she didn't fully understand what was happening and the reality of it.
I think it was hazy in her mind, involved a few hours at a beach or whatever and then coming home to sleep in her bed that night after the "fantasy" played out.
Sadly, the "friend" she went with wasn't a stupid 12 year old rapping at her window in the dark. It was a 50 year old predator.
I'm convinced she is terrified now and desperate to come home.