IN - Aliahna Maroney Lemmon, 9, Fort Wayne, 23 Dec 2011 - #1

[melissasmom]

I can't get past why Ana was sleeping in a chair....
why wasn't she in a bedroom? even single wide trailers i've been in have at least 2 bedrooms, usually 3, a master at one end, and then past the kitchen dining and living room area there is a hallway with a bathroom and 1 or 2 bedrooms down there......

When my friends kids spend the night, we put all boys in one room and let the girls take over another bedroom.... and the girls all sleep together sometimes spread out 2 in a bed, 1 on the floor or all 3 in 1 bed together, slumber party style....
Grandpa had just passed away... so i'm going to ASSume that g-pa still had a bed in his bedroom...
I dunno.. her sleeping in the chair bugs me...

I'm not suprised by her sleeping in the chair. A single guy with no kids..he probably just let the girls fall asleep in the living room while watching tv, may not have had a regular bedtime for them. If they did have a bedroom, I doubt he was too concerned about moving them to another room if they did fall asleep in a chair.

I just can't get past these little girls staying with this man for a WEEK while mom had the flu! It doesn't sit well with me at all. But I wont say more than that, her mom is a vicitm, so I don't want to bash her. Still don't like it, though

 

[Donjeta]

It's the part about her sleeping in the chair with her coat on that raises my eyebrows.

The friend told police Lemmon had fallen asleep in a chair in her clothes, not pajamas Thursday night. Police said she was last seen wearing a blue and black plaid coat with fur around the hood, a silver and white sweater dress with white tights and black shoes with bows.

http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/police-looking-for-missing-fw-girl

Did they have any night routines? Evening snack, tooth brushing, washing up? All with a coat on? No, probably not. Unless his house is unheated.
Maybe Aliahna had been out very late and fell asleep practically right on the doorstep? Where was she?

Or does the coat suggest that she was getting ready to leave?

 

[Dr.Fessel]

I don't believe any of the story. The last thing a 40 year old man would want to do is take care of 3 little girls coming from a home with the flu in it.

 

[taagean]

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but does anyone recall why Aliahna's mother called her friend at 10 am? Was it to do with the party? Did she not want to talk to Aliahna?

I would think that when he noticed Aliahna was missing, he would have called Tarah back to confirm she was with her mom. Obviously, this wasn't the case.

With them living so close to each other, why hadn't the mother seen her children since Tuesday - even to look through the window if she's trying to keep the flu bug away from them.

The LE must know a lot more than we are privy too, especially to have stopped the searches. At least I hope so.

This whole scenario just seems very hinky to me.

 

['Ailina]

A little girl might sleep fully dressed in a living room chair if she hadn't intended to go to sleep at all.

To me, the coat and chair seem to suggest she was trying to protect herself.

 

[Chris_Texas]

Because she's special needs, she has a history of sleep walking and if she's in a chair, i'm assuming it's in a living room, which in trailers is by the front door.. not very smart if you're a responsible adult

those are just a couple reasons..
But it's MOO which i'm entitled to

My apologies, I was not criticizing you or your opinion and I am sorry if it came across that way. I was more 'thinking out loud' in my post.

I would be interested to know more detail about her special needs and problems, meaning details of behavior rather than labels. For example, a history of some sleepwalking means what exactly? Once or twice a week, once or twice a year, once or twice in her life?

The same applies to the other laundry list of diagnoses this girl has been saddled with.

 

[Donjeta]

Did they search near the gas station with the cigars?

 

[Angelonline]

As unfortunate as it is, some people live with their head in the clouds and trust just about anyone as long as they seem to be nice. My BIL and to some extent my SIL are like this, very naive. They think if someone is nice to their children then they MUST be a good person. They do not follow the news and hate to listen to anything negative. When I warn my BIL about his two children all the time by showing him stories or even emailing him links to thing that happen to children, he either blows me off by saying those kind of things are so rare or he deletes the links with out reading. He says he does not want to think about stuff like that and he would rather give folks the benefit of the doubt. My SIL has kids that are almost grown now, when I would tell her about dangers she would be astounded like "that really happened". Thank goodness though when her kids were much younger she married a great guy who has much common sense about such things and was also in LE, so he watched out for those kids. My BIL though still does not and his are 7 and 9. I pray every day for those two little ones.
So not defending the mom AT ALL but just saying their appear to be many in this world who think nothing of leaving their kids with someone "nice" because everyone they know is nice and most people are nice or my favorite... 'they look like a nice person to me'.

 

[peeples]

My apologies, I was not criticizing you or your opinion and I am sorry if it came across that way. I was more 'thinking out loud' in my post.

I would be interested to know more detail about her special needs and problems, meaning details of behavior rather than labels. For example, a history of some sleepwalking means what exactly? Once or twice a week, once or twice a year, once or twice in her life?

The same applies to the other laundry list of diagnoses this girl has been saddled with.

My apologies as well... I'm moody over them having stopped searching for her.. it hurts my heart Because of her having the same diagnoses as my son... I feel kind of attached to her I feel like LE has given up on her already and it hasn't even been but a couple days

 

[Jayarre]

Did they search near the gas station with the cigars?

The gas station is about a mile away and the police search was a 5 mile radius and they do have the video of him at the station.

 

[ClaireNC]

Did they search near the gas station with the cigars?

One of the MSM articles mentioned that convenience store video confirmed that MP was there that morning. Sorry I don't have a link just now.

 

[not_my_kids]

I think they already know where she likely is, and I think that despite them saying there are no new searches right now, I believe that there is at least one search going on right now, but they do not want the media to get involved, and possibly slow down that search. Likely a landfill, if the traditions of late hold up, IMHO.

 

[ClaireNC]

MOM -- Tarah Souders, 28
MISSING -- Aliahna Lemmon, 9
FAMILY FRIEND / NEIGHBOR -- Mike Plumadore,

TIMELINE:

Tuesday Dec 20

Afternoon -- the last time Tarah Souders saw her daughter​

Wednesday Dec 21

Thursday Dec 22

Aliahna Lemmon and two younger sisters spend the night at family friend Mike Plumadore’s mobile home​

Friday Dec 23

MP wakes at 6:00am, sees the children sleeping, deadbolts the door and goes to a nearby C-store for a cigar. Video confirms his presence.​

MP returns to find the kids still asleep. He smoked his cigar and went back to bed.​

MP woke again at about 10:00am when Alianhna’s mother called. Sometime after the call MP observed that the deadbolt was unsecured and that Aliahna was gone. He claimed Aliahna’s sisters, both 6 years old, told him that Aliahna had left.​

MP believed them. He relocked the door and went back to sleep until about 1:30 p.m.​

He said that when he woke up, he and the two other girls went about their day until about 8:30 p.m, when he talked to Aliahna’s mom and learned that Aliahna was not with her.​

Authorities were notified.​

Reportedly, Souders agreed with Plumadore’s version of what happened, labeling the mixup a miscommunication.​

Several family members have come forward to vouch for Mr Plumadore.​

Family member statements indicate a belief that she left MP’s home. “They're not quite sure where she went or what was in her mind at the time” (http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/n...ng-for-Missing-9-Year-Old-Girl-136207958.html)​

Saturday Dec 24

FBI, fire departments, city, county, and state police agencies searched a five-mile-radius for the missing girl. No Amber Alert was issued. “Justifiably so, if they put Amber Alerts out for every missing child or possible run away or anything, nobody would pay attention to them. So there's certain criteria that have to be met for an Amber Alert,” Sheriff Fries said. http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/n...ng-for-Missing-9-Year-Old-Girl-136207958.html​

Neighbors reported that police had stopped searching by 5pm​

Sunday Dec 25

No searches conducted​

Monday Dec 26

???

Nice summary Chris_Texas. Might want to add that the grandfather, who was a RSO, died on 12/3/11. He lived in the trailer with Mike Plumadore.

Here is some info on the grandfather: http://www.homefacts.com/offender-detail/IN640670/James-E-Lemmon.html

 

[katydid23]

Before I knew that Grandpa had been a sex offender, it made sense to me that Mom would take the kids to stay in Grandpa's old home. It seemed like a normal place for them to feel comfortable in and be familiar with. But knowing that makes me far less comfortable with the situation.

 

[mrsu]

Remind me to never move to Ft. Wayne where the police say there is nothing more they can do after a 24 hour search. WTF??!! Ugh.

 

[SuziQ]

Angelonline, your post reminded me of something I've been thinking about and it's been bothering me. What kind of mindset does this family have that they would allow their daughters around a convicted sex offender grandfather and then have their sex offender grandfathers roomate become their main caregiver for a week? There are a few other things that bother me. The sex offender grandfather seems to have been beloved to the extent that family say his passing was hard to cope with. They willingly move to an area that is INFESTED with RSO's. And now you have the family defending their friend to the extent it is beyond common sense. So what is the mindset of this family? My mind is going to places that is scaring the bejesus out of me!

 

[not_my_kids]

I'm sorry for not knowing this, but were her physical disabilities (hearing/vision) congenital or were they due to illness or trauma later in life? TIA if anyone knows.

 

[Chris_Texas]

I don't believe any of the story. The last thing a 40 year old man would want to do is take care of 3 little girls coming from a home with the flu in it.

I have the feeling that this guy has been taking care of these kids -- food and a place to live -- for quite a while.

It reminds me (in some ways) of my best friend. He's dead now, and his own kids grown, but over the years I knew him he had a fair number of different kids living at his house. You would never have known it to look at him, he was this big leather wearing biker kind of guy, but inside he was pure marshmallow. He didn't let these kids stay there because he particularly liked kids, he rarely really talked to them at all, he let them stay because they had nowhere else safe to go. They had parents who were abusive, who didn't feed them, in a few cases they didn't even allow them in their house -- they wanted the welfare check that being able to claim a kid allowed them, but the kid? Get out.

All he ever asked from any of them was that they treat him with some respect when they talked to him. Mostly he just ignored them. However, if one of them was in trouble or needed help, he was there for that as well.

Describing him so briefly doesn't really do him justice and it probably comes across all wrong to some who don't understand how things really are for kids from broken families. He was a safety net and the closest thing to a father that some of these kids had ever had. He was always there for them, until he died, always willing to understand, always encouraging them to do better and yet accepting them for who they were despite all their flaws. Like I said, he was my best friend, and the best man I have ever known. At his funeral a good half dozen of these kids came back, as young adults then, to pay their final respects.

Anyway, sorry, that was a bit off topic.

The point is that there are good people in this world. Sometimes you cannot judge them by their rough exterior or the mistakes they have made in their past. And sometimes, maybe as often as not, it is not the official duties of a "parent" -- the nice home, the designer clothes, the hovering concern over trivialities -- that make a difference in a child's life.

If what we have heard reported in this case is accurate, and we have no reason (no evidence) at this point to doubt it, this guy was a good guy. The family (mom and others), so far, have gone out of their way to vouch for him. And if the other two girls were not repeating the story that their older sister walked out the door on her own (and repeating it to both their own parents and the police) then I suspect we would have heard something more about it by now.

Which is a long way of saying that I am keeping an open mind at this point.

 

[Angelonline]

Angelonline, your post reminded me of something I've been thinking about and it's been bothering me. What kind of mindset does this family have that they would allow their daughters around a convicted sex offender grandfather and then have their sex offender grandfathers roomate become their main caregiver for a week? There are a few other things that bother me. The sex offender grandfather seems to have been beloved to the extent that family say his passing was hard to cope with. They willingly move to an area that is INFESTED with RSO's. And now you have the family defending their friend to the extent it is beyond common sense. So what is the mindset of this family? My mind is going to places that is scaring the bejesus out of me!

Just from my own experience with my BIL, he had a girlfriend that had a brother that was a RSO- her whole family thought that her brother was wrongly convicted and that victims family set him up, they also believed that most RSO's are wrongly convicted.. Of course my BIL believed them because her brother was a likeable guy.... So in this case my best guess is that they all believe grandpa was wrongly covicted and maybe also believe that there are many wrongly convicted RSO's so therefore they dont give much weight to the RSO label.

 

[SuziQ]

Just from my own experience with my BIL, he had a girlfriend that had a brother that was a RSO- her whole family thought that her brother was wrongly convicted and that victims family set him up, they also believed that most RSO's are wrongly convicted.. Of course my BIL believed them because her brother was a likeable guy.... So in this case my best guess is that they all believe grandpa was wrongly covicted and maybe also believe that there are many wrongly convicted RSO's so therefore they dont give much weight to the RSO label.

^^^This!^^^

And in the process they put their kids in danger.