I think the big difference in the MT case vs DV case is resources. In the MT case the Sheriff and family immediately called in the Iowa Bureau and then the FBI showed up.
In this case there was a missing person on Tuesday and the 'in law family' didn't file a report until Friday by all accounts. So, most likely nothing was done at the earliest until Monday by LE (just a guess) when the file hit the desk of someone in LE. In this case it didn't get bumped to Homicide for awhile and most likely nothing was done to gather up CCTV along the route in the interim. Not all systems archive tape so who knows what was available to LE by the time the case settled with a detective and they started doing something. Assuming they had to get warrants that would mean they were trying to track down CCTV nearly 2 weeks after the disappearance.
No wonder the Chief seemed out of leads and low energy IMO as the poor detective that got the file had next to nothing to go on other than Shell station footage. When the Chief spoke at the PC he seemed out of leads and out of ideas and was asking the public to help but didn't supply any new information as to direction and other cars in the party train group. The PC with the Chief seemed to be a sham as it had none of the detail that we are so used to with a real missing persons case and there was zero sense of urgency.
So, maybe this isn't a 'real' missing persons case? If not, what is it? Car jack? Drug Buy gone Bad and Violent? Abduction? Watch the PC to get a sense of what seemed to be going on at the time in LE and IMO it wasn't much. This could have been a ruse by LE but for what reason?
Was there a BOLO on the car? We don't know. Was there a BOLO for DV? Again we don't know. Did DV meet the criteria for Amber Alert? Maybe, but we don't know. Did LE find and interview all the people on the party train ride that night? We don't know. On FB 'MIL' stated that the person that turned out of the Shell station in front of DV in order to go back to Dublin's to look for the phone had been interviewed by police but wasn't a suspect or some similar language. Did DV really lose her phone or was it stolen from her? We don't know. I believe it would be unlikely for LE to share information about anyone at such an early stage of the investigation so I really wonder why the 'MIL' said what she did about the person on FB. I wonder if the 'family' is afraid of any of the people on the party train ride and so are complicit in keeping their names and faces out of the spotlight. Most 'family' would be shining a light on the people who were the last to see their loved one hoping for some bit of information that might find their loved one. Not in this case. The party train people have vaporized and LE let it happen because they knew who they were. Why? Are any of these people affiliated with LE or the military? We don't know.
So far, MSM hasn't tracked down or interviewed or NAMED any of the people on the party train ride who were the last people to see DV alive. Is this suspicious? Absolutely. The press decison to pull the Shell station footage is also questionable as we are all sitting here so many days later with no info, no arrest and no way for the public to help find DV. Why won't the station that pulled the tape put the tape back up and let the public help? As far as I am concerned that station is now just as responsible as LE for NOT FINDING DV as they withheld key evidence that perhaps would allow someone from the public to provide critical information to locate DV! This would make an interesting lawsuit IMO! Pro Bono atty's are you out there to take case this on? The station took the tape off the internet most likely believing an arrest or some action was imminent. So far there has been nothing from LE. What is the argument to continue to withhold the tape? Why isn't the family out arguing publicly with the station that pulled the tape to put it back on the air and internet? This is just another mystery.
LE has released no names of POI or Suspects? No update on whether DV car was ever found and why GPS wasn't working. Why wasn't FBI engaged to reactivate GPS and find car and DV? We don't know. No update on which direction DV was heading as she left the Shell station. What is the LE theory as to what happened so that maybe the public can assist in this case? We don't know. Why did the local station agree to pull the Shell station CCTV when that information could possibly have allowed the public to have enough information to find DV? We don't know.
This case is odd because everyone seems to just be going through the motions. Its as if the people involved know what happend but aren't sharing it and are just waiting for DV to show up alive or in a body bag. From the beginning its felt like as sleuthers we were in the twilight zone with nothing to grasp on to and nobody in the immediate family/friends circle that appears credible or believable. TT and Mom have been absent from the process and a 'MIL' who appears to have custody of DV child (although we have zero information on the legality of the custody arrangement) is leading the charge to locate DV because in her words, "...she doesn't want her granddaughter to have to look for her mother years from now...". DV allegedly wasn't being searched for because she was loved and missed by these 'in law people' but rather only because of her daughter. DV by all accounts is estranged from most of her birth family and doesn't appear close to the 'in law' family in Mobile. The custody situation must have been difficult for all involved. I can't say with any of the MSM reporting that any of us know much if anything about DV other than she worked hard and long hours in two restaurants to afford to buy her car? Did she go to school? Did she ever go to school? What happened along her life journey that might have derailed her and left her in Mobile surrounded by people that don't seem to have her best interests at heart? We sadly don't know much about who DV is/was? I am surprised that the press or the 'family' has done zero to humanize DV and make her a real and relatable human being?
Mobile being a port city has an interesting and diverse crime profile and has significant violent crime for a city its size which has been trending upward in recent years. But I'm not sure whatever resources the local LE had to work with were deployed to find DV and this makes me angry. Sadly my guess is that DV is no longer with us as so much time has passed since her disappearance. But what makes me sadder is that her poor young daughter who doesn't even have the ability at age 4 to completely process what has happened will never know what happened to her mom due to inaction and ineptitude by the Mobile PD. JMO BTW!
