Whew- thanks, mods, for cleaning up this thread. Ya'll are the best.
I have something of an issue with this aspect of the article that quotes John Walsh:
<Walsh said this week that parents have the right to get an attorney, but should do everything they can to find their missing baby including running the search effort from their home. He has thrown veiled criticism toward Irwin and Bradley for not doing more to find their missing child.>
I know that Mr. Walsh and his family suffered a devastating and irreplaceable loss; and have yet still managed to turn that loss into something positive- but I don't know that this is the kind of advice that is a 'one-size-fits-all' sort of advice.
Perhaps Lisa's family is not of this mindset- and perhaps they feel a bit betrayed by LE, which is why it has been reported that they are not cooperating?
If I were innocent of a crime I was being accused of, I can see myself reacting in a very defensive and upset manner- and becoming completely distrustful of LE if they were beating what I considered to be a dead horse (and that's despite the fact that I tend to be a huge supporter of LE.)
And I can't ever imagine telling a victims family that they should run a search effort from their home- especially one with other children residing in it. But maybe that's just me? Idk.
At any rate, imvho I think that Lisa's family was pushed too hard by LE- and instead of obtaining the results LE wanted (finding Lisa) they isolated and alienated their best witnesses...and not a great surprise that the relationship between the two is now fractured.
Moo, of course- and in no way reflective of what I think actually happened here.
A simple thanks was not enough!
But for a few details, Walsh could easily have been the number one suspect in Adam's case.
1. Adam was kidnapped from a public place and there were witnesses that he was there - and no time for John or Reve to have done anything.
2. The FBI BAU unit was in it's infancy at that point. Statistics about crime and criminals was just beginning to be analyzed. The idea that "the parents did it" was not universal.
3. The internet barely existed. I had a Tandy TRS-80 with Compuserve dial-up, that I paid for by the hour. While ListServs about Adam did exist, there were maybe 150-200 people on them. I followed his case, but it was just to get information about the case from people in the general area since it was not widely reported. No one really discussed opinions, so the witch-hunt mentality didn't really exist. It was too expensive to talk much.
I admire John, but I do think that he has become a bit sanctimonious. If you read his books, you can get a sense of it. The service he provided made his arrogance tolerable, but just like former detectives - his input carries no more weight than anyone else's unless he has access to FACTS from LE. He does not have a magic crystal ball that lets him know from the way a person "acts" whether they are guilty or innocent. And not even a NCAVC "profiler" would ever presume to go there. They only use that kind of information to help "understand" a criminal - not to determine guilt or innocence.
I have read a LOT of true crime. It has been my hobby since I read Helter Skelter when I was ten years old. I have followed or read in-depth about hundreds (if not thousands) of crimes over the last 30 years. And the one thing I can say for sure is that the reality of a crime it's not always what my gut feels. There are so many coincidences in real life that it is scary.
I have read dozens of cases where (for example) some poor schlub with a record drove the same kind of car reported at a crime scene, and who couldn't account for their time was followed, questioned and investigated - only to find out that they were not involved at all. It seems impossible, but it really isn't. For all of those guys who were later exonerated, we have no idea how many weren't. And, there is always the opposite. The Ted Bundy's who has the right name and drove the right car, were the right age and description, but were passed over because they didn't fit whatever subliminal profile LE had in their mind.
It has taught me that while I may have a gut reaction, it is NOT the same as evidence, and even evidence is not always what it seems. This is why our very wise forefathers set up the judicial system so that "beyond a reasonable doubt" was the standard, rather than just a "does it make sense?" standard.