I don't want to get into a back and forth but this story is not so much about a specific type of young woman who goes missing or ends up murdered. This is UVA the crown jewel of Virginia and ranked up there with prestigious Ivy League Schools. This is a case that mirrors very closely the situation and set of events and circumstances that surrounded the MH case.
UVA, Virginia and college campuses across this country have a very big problem. There must be a mandatory lecture that includes news stories about missing, abducted and murdered college students and explain that if young people go out alone and add alcohol or drugs into their activities that they are more likely to be a victim of a predator. Teach these young people to have a pre-planned routine for how they attend parties...always with someone pledging to be the sober friend of the night. Have money for a cab, call the school's escort service and wait for a volunteer to escort you home or take the school's shuttle bus...at VCU the kids call it the "drunk bus."
But having said that, UVA and all Universities must enforce strict policies about students who host these drinking parties, students who are drunk in public, etc. The University has a responsibility to watch out for these young people. I hear arguments that Hannah lived off campus. That shouldn't even matter. She went to some party which may have been hosted by students and may have been served alcohol. Those people, if students should be disciplined possibly even expelled. It is time to get serious. VA Tech and other schools have alcohol related student deaths every year. It is not uncommon to hear of a VCU, VA Tech, UVA or JMU student either falling off or down something or even rolling out of the window, from their bed, and dying.
For all we know, Hannah didn't drink anything alcoholic but that some predator drugged whatever she was drinking. These young people must be taught to be ever vigilant. They must be taught that they are literally targeted by predators because they are young, inexperienced and likely to take risks. It is very sad but somehow they have to be taught that these stories are not urban legend they are all about "Real" people. Universities need to find a way to get this message across very sternly and very strongly. There has to be a way to reach the mindset of young adults...that group of people that by nature will always be apt to take risks. Find a way to allow them to explore their limits and boundaries wisely.
This is not only about privileged white college kids. This story is about why this keeps happening at some of our most prestigious schools and about young women being prepared if they find themselves in a bad situation. It is about the University and the college town police departments responsibility to provide lifelines to and generally look out for kids that may be disoriented and/or drunk or showing risky behaviors. And, to prosecute those who provide alcohol and or drugs to underage students and visiting guests. Think about this: if MH had been arrested for drunk in public or disturbing the peace, she would have never wondered off, disoriented, into that ball field and she would still be alive today. Same with Hannah, she would be fine right now if she had been detained for drunk in public.
) but the suspect in MH's case and the 2005 rape is.NOT inany database. 