While I’m not defending (or accusing) the Lunsfords, I’d like to mention a few things. West Virginia is a rural state. The two largest cities are about 50,000 people and Lewis County is a couple of hours from the closest of those two cities (Charleston).
The terrain is not cell phone friendly. There are still large areas of the state where you cannot get cell phone coverage. I live smack dab in the middle between the two largest cities (Huntington and Charleston) and I cannot get cell phone coverage at my house. I’m 5 miles from WV’s largest mall and less than a mile from a major interstate.
Lewis County is in the heart of the mountains. Google Maps has an excellent aerial view of Bendale, WV. I’m not familiar with this area, but it looks extremely rural according to the map. My nearest neighbor is nearly a ¼ mile from my house and this area is far more populated than most of the state.
Now with that said, many of us don’t lock our doors. We leave keys in our cars. I don’t even know where my house keys are. I’m not even sure I have house keys. I raised a kid in this house. And I’ll not brook any nonsense about how I’m a bad parent because I don’t lock things up. If someone wends their way up here, a locked door is not going to deter them. And even if I locked the door, it wouldn’t have kept my son from getting out.
As for four missing teeth (no hillbilly jokes, please), there’s nothing particularly odd about that. Children lose teeth on a variety of timelines. The frowning pictures are a concern, but as the appearance of young children changes radically in short amounts of time, they may have chosen the most recent pictures they had in order to provide a more accurate likeness. And let’s face it – if that child has been abducted, she’s likely to be frowning, so such photos might be very helpful.
So, um, I’m new here. Howdy!
Connie aka Hillbilly Diva
