Oh! And there was one other point I wished to make that I forgot to in my last post:
Jo Ann didn't really go to the Burger Barn at about 9:00 that evening just to routinely "pick Ali up from her shift". I think Jo Ann has said that, when Ali wasn't home when she arrived there after work, Jo Ann just assumed (not having, at that point, had any communication with the boyfriend nor any knowledge of "plans" Ali discussed with him about him coming over to the house that day) that Ali probably had been successful in getting an "extra shift" and it had happened that evening.
It was only after not being able to get in touch with Ali on her cell phone all evening that Jo Ann decided to go to the Burger Barn and find out why Ali hadn't answered her calls up to that point or called her back.
Arriving to find the place empty and dark had to hit Jo Ann "like a ton of bricks". Up to that point, she would have assumed everything was fine -- albeit except for Ali not answering her calls for the previous few hours. That behavior was unlike Ali and I know that Jo Ann had to be on pins and needles for that period of time... You raise these kids and, when they get to be teenagers, you KNOW they HAVE to start getting ready to make their way in the world without you, and, yet, you also know they don't have the experience in life yet to be able to do that completely. The only way they can become independent adults is if you gradually give them a little more and a little more authority over their own lives but it's so HARD to walk that fine line between "guiding" them and "hovering" over them.
I know if it were me (and I raised a couple of teenagers), I'd be miffed about having my calls ignored that evening and, thinking this behavior might be the beginnings of a "teenage rebellion thing", I'd show up about the time I thought my kid would be walking out the door of the place to make sure she had to deal with me before she had a chance to wander off with a friend somewhere or something and "ignore" me some more. I'd be all set to give the "I can't keep giving you more and more freedom if you continue being irresponsible by not letting me know what's happening" speech.
I can't even begin to IMAGINE the horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that Jo Ann got when she drove up to the Burger Barn that evening. It makes me cry just thinking about it...
Then, later, when the night stretched out into hours and hours of not being able to raise Ali on her phone and Jo Ann and John had contacted all of Ali's friends looking for her, when the boy who was the last person to communicate with Ali told them Ali had casually invited him over to the house that evening... Well, THAT would've been the moment I think I would've started to scream uncontrollably... I dunno if I'd be able to stop -- ever.