I don't believe that the older girls would have taken a nine-year-old with them if they planed to run away.
And today, or as an adult, I would agree with you 100%. Back then, in the seventies, at the age of 14/15..probably not so much. This was 1974. The very end of Vietnam, hippies, peace, love, protesting, hitch hiking on the interstates, drive in movies...even with a war there was an innocence about being a teenager back then. Teens ran away all the time, even 9 year olds if the home life was bad enough. And again....we were only 14 and seeing not only a very different world than the one we have now, but seeing it with the eyes of 14/15 yr olds, not as adults.
I don't think a 9 year-old would agree to run away. And if she did, I think she would have come back home after a few days.
Also, the timing of the disappearance doesn't support the runaway theory. It was right before Christmas. Don't you think they would have wanted their Christmas gifts before running away? IMO, these girls were kidnapped either by a temporary security guard, by someone pretending to be a security guard/police officer, or in the parking lot by two or more people in a van.
Ok, I'm going to try to say this one more time.
37 YEARS AGO, as a group of 14/15 year old high school KIDS, the gossip and general belief WAS that the girls ran away. We had reason to think that way. That is also the stance the cops took at first. It was only persistance from the families that had them looking at abduction later on.
37 YEARS LATER as an adult, I believe those girls were killed within the first day or two. Age, knowledge, maturity, life experience, can change a persons view on things.
This is the last I'll post on this thread. I thought I had an interesting view point having gone to HS with Lisa Renee but apparently it's one that some just want to discuss the validity of high school gossip from 37 YEARS AGO on a 9 year old running away.
I'm just curious what has happened to this thread? It has just stopped. All of the interest and comments have totally ceased by the regulars. What's up?