Another update:
According to JoAnn, Ali's mother, the local Fox TV station 26 has just interviewed she and John and that interview will air on local stations tonight at 5:00 pm.
Also, the thought struck me the other night that one might be able to "profile" at least the general type of person who could have engineered Ali's disappearance in order to have a place to start looking for suspects.
So, I combed through the crime statistics related to serious crimes and thought it might be helpful to post some of what I found here. My own opinion is that the statistics serve to reinforce suspicions some have had that law enforcement should go back to Ali's place of employment and the people involved with it and scrutinize them with more care.
In a thorough logic, fact and statistically-based investigation of a missing person or murder victim, the first thing one should consider is the circumstances during the time period of the victim's last known whereabouts.
In this case, Ali was on her way to her place of employment to pick up her pay check. Exact location: Somewhere in the half-mile or so between her home and the Burger Barn.
So, the first, most basic fact that is known and verifiable about this probable crime is also the last known place where Ali was.
This fact alone turns the focus of the investigation generally toward the Burger Barn. In order to try and find an unknown perpetrator, the question then becomes: What person or persons might it be logical to assume might have occasion to be at that location or near it?
The answer, of course, is: Burger Barn employers/owners, suppliers, employees and customers.
Because of the inherent difficulty in identifying random customers of the Burger Barn more than a year after the fact, we are forced to examine those persons who we might have more luck in identifying and that leaves only: Burger Barn suppliers, employees and owners.
Now we can turn to statistics to see if there is any validity in what we've concluded thus far.
Homicide statistics from 1976-2005 tell us what the relationship between victim and perpetrator is most likely to be:
During that time period, perpetrators who were "strangers" made up only 13.9% of of that total. Of "non-strangers", 7% were spouses, 8% were "other family" (brothers, sisters, parents, etc.) and 3.8% were the boy/girl friend of the victim with 32.1% listed as "other acquaintances" (coworkers, friends, employees, etc.).
Additionally, in 32.5% of the cases, a decision was made that the victim and the perpetrator probably had some kind of relationship to each other but it was "unknown" as to exactly what that relationship was.
These numbers show us that the second most likely perpetrator of any given homicide (32.1%) will be "acquaintance" -- the same category that includes co-workers and employers -- of the victim other than their spouse, girl/boy friend or family member which would tend to back-up many people's assumption that the person most likely to be responsible for Ali's disappearance is either a fellow co-worker at the Burger Barn or one of its managers/owners.
Let us turn now more specifically to the statistics of "homicide abductions". Statistics show that the majority of victims involved in this type of crime are teenaged girls and that, most of the time (2/3 of the time) the motive is sexual.
In "homicide abductions" 53% were found to be "strangers" and 39% were acquaintances. Virtually all of the perpetrators were male and the majority were under 30, with 85% unmarried or divorced.
Further, in 58% of the cases, the perpetrator made contact with the victim within 1/4 mile of the victim's home and the homicide occurred within 1/4 mile of the site of the initial contact (Hanfland, Keppel & Weis 1997).
So far, the statistics show the greatest probability that the perpetrator of Ali's disappearance was:
An "acquaintance" (which includes co-workers and employers), male, under 30 years old, unmarried or divorced who had sexual feelings towards his victim.
Further, workplace homicide is the leading cause of workplace death for women (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1994) accounting for 40% of fatal occupational injuries to women and such homicides have tripled in the last decade to the point where it is now the fastest growing category of murder in the U.S. which has caused the U.S. Dept. of Justice to proclaim that the workplace is the most dangerous place to be in the U.S. (Anfuso, 1994).
Additionally, 1 out of every 6 violent crimes of U.S. residents 12 or older happen at work and, in 30% of the cases of violent victimizations, the victim faced an armed offender (Bachman, 1994).
Northwestern National Life Insurance Company did a survey in 1993 that broke down violent workplace attacks thusly:
44% from customers or clients
24% from strangers
20% from co-workers
7% from bosses
3% from former employees
3% from someone else
If one adds up the percentages for co-workers, bosses and former employees, however, the number jumps to 30% and thus comprises the second-most likely category of perpetrators.
And, when taking into account only these statistics as they relate especially to women victims, women are more likely to be attacked by someone they know rather than a "stranger".
However, when one adds numbers for "harassment" to the number of "attacks" at work, co-workers and bosses account for 86% of all harassment, 1/3 of all threats and 1/4 of all workplace attacks.
Nearly half of all workplace homicides were in retail trade -- primarily food stores which includes convenience stores, RESTAURANTS, drinking establishments and service stations.
Just offhand, I'd say cold, hard numbers back up the logic of examining the Burger Barn, its employees, former employees and owners/bosses 100%.