GUILTY TX - Alanna Gallagher, 6, Saginaw, 1 July 2013 - #2

[carbuff]

Summer break.

According to the timeline I linked earlier, it was closer to 3 hours than 5. Last seen at 5:00, reported at 9-ish, but we know dad started looking for her around 8:00-8:30. Three hours is still a long time for a little one to be out of sight, though. I agree.

They might have been looking in the immediate area before that, too. 8-ish is when he started going door to door.

The time our youngest went missing briefly around suppertime, we waited first figuring he was just late, and then we called the best friend's house, because he and friend were in and out of each other's houses all the time and it was quite likely he was having supper over there and forgot/didn't bother to call. Not only wasn't he there, friend wasn't there either. So friend's mother got on the phone, too.

We were just starting the drive-around-the-neighborhood/walk-through-back-yards bit and talking about whether to call the cops when they came dragging up from the heavily treed area behind our development. (They were muddy, hungry, thirsty, and slightly bloody from blackberry canes -- they had decided to explore )

I'd say it was a solid two hours, perhaps three, before we even talked about police, and then it was just whether they could do any searching we weren't already doing. It never crossed anybody's mind that they could have been kidnapped.

So I don't find the behavior or the delay unusual, and it doesn't necessarily mean lack of supervision either. Kids are slippery and they don't always do what they're told.

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

BBM: You know, Alanna was going in and out all afternoon. Then she stops. Doesn't come back. For HOURS. Say 5 hours. KG gets home around 8 pm, and he starts looking for her. Turns out she has been murdered and is laying in the street a mile away. It seems very odd to me. I don't know.

Maybe I missed this, was Alanna in school on Monday? I assume she was not, because it is said here that she was in and out all day.

Why wasn't she in school?

JMO

According to one report... The adults and two,other children were in the house the afternoon AG went missing... So I assume KG wasn't at work...

and... Locals can correct me if I am wrong... But school has been out for summer break for weeks...

JMO

 

[SapphireSteel]

It depends on what sort of neighbourhood you have.

My neighbours were all happy to let their kids roam. Literally. One boy in particular would disappear in the morning and not turn up until night time and his mother never seemed to worry, indeed no harm ever came to any of them, they were always just hanging out at each others places.

Not my style but probably 95% of kids in the world are brought up the same way.

Whoever had her pretty much had to have her in a house :moo: because they couldn't have wrapped her in a tarp in a truck without a lot of hassle...so that eliminates the "murdered in the truck then pushed out" theory for me.

Definitely in a house or other dwelling, someone home alone, someone nearby. Did it, wrapped her, attempted to dump her.

:cow:

 

[kkdj]

Would she be in school in July?

You know, it keeps being mentioned that she roamed the neighborhood freely. I have known parents that allowed this. I have personally rescued several children from harm and then went looking for their parents with them to explain the danger they were subjected to. So many parents just let their darlings out the next day to roam free again.
now, Im not blaming her parents for her death by any means. But evil intended people do prey upon the trusting and naivity of others. Jmo

 

[Linda7NJ]

It depends on what sort of neighbourhood you have.

My neighbours were all happy to let their kids roam. Literally. One boy in particular would disappear in the morning and not turn up until night time and his mother never seemed to worry, indeed no harm ever came to any of them, they were always just hanging out at each others places.

Not my style but probably 95% of kids in the world are brought up the same way.

Whoever had her pretty much had to have her in a house :moo: because they couldn't have wrapped her in a tarp in a truck without a lot of hassle...so that eliminates the "murdered in the truck then pushed out" theory for me.

Definitely in a house or other dwelling, someone home alone, someone nearby. Did it, wrapped her, attempted to dump her.

:cow:

I had to be home for lunch, dinner and street lights. Truth be told, most of the time everyone was in my house or pool anyway. Although .... We did spend considerable time in the woods building forts, fishing, eating wild blueberries and swimming in the lake in the woods.. Which ....I was forbidden to do, but did anyway.

No one ever died. did have a pervert exposé himself to us once back there. We started pelting him with rocks.

 

[bessie]

I have tried PMing you bessie regarding my post above, but it won't let me I just want some clarification on what I found regarding the "rumor"

I answered your pm earlier, dandan, but I'll respond here, too, because I know others are asking the same questions.

Sleuthing a victim's family members -- especially the parents of a murdered child -- is a TOS violation. Rather, I should say, it's against the rules to post personal information about a family member gleaned from googling names, and snooping around social media pages. (Don't take that the wrong way. I've actually done it myself once or twice. :angel So that's number one.

Number two, social media is considerd rumor, and the rules don't allow us to post rumors. We never want to risk bringing harm to an innocent person (not charged with a crime), or to interfere with a criminal investigation.

Therefore, if info is reported in MSM, you can mention it and provide a link. Otherwise, it can't be posted. Not only that, you can't even allude to it and remain within TOS. Remember, no link, no post.

Rules Etiquette & Information - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

 

[carbuff]

It depends on what sort of neighbourhood you have.

My neighbours were all happy to let their kids roam. Literally. One boy in particular would disappear in the morning and not turn up until night time and his mother never seemed to worry, indeed no harm ever came to any of them, they were always just hanging out at each others places.

Not my style but probably 95% of kids in the world are brought up the same way.

Whoever had her pretty much had to have her in a house :moo: because they couldn't have wrapped her in a tarp in a truck without a lot of hassle...so that eliminates the "murdered in the truck then pushed out" theory for me.

Definitely in a house or other dwelling, someone home alone, someone nearby. Did it, wrapped her, attempted to dump her.

:cow:

House, garage, outbuilding, or possibly a van or box truck?

There are people in the neighborhood who probably say my kids were allowed to roam unsupervised, but they were, as you say, circulating from house to house hanging out with each other. They weren't supposed to go anywhere else, and if they did, they were grounded for a few days, but a snarky neighbor wouldn't necessarily know that.

 

[BeginnersLuck]

IMO, we don't even know how long she was gone or if she checked in, or if she was suppose to be at a neighbors house, etc...etc...etc...because the reporting has been awful.

It really upsets me that the direction is going away from the perp here. There were three adults in the house. The one that reported her missing at a certain time may have said when he last saw her. It doesn't mean that others had not seen her since. We don't have all these details yet.

 

[KMouse]

Is there a police helicopter for this area?

If so were they I the sky looking for the red truck??

 

[Dr. Know?]

It depends on what sort of neighbourhood you have.

My neighbours were all happy to let their kids roam. Literally. One boy in particular would disappear in the morning and not turn up until night time and his mother never seemed to worry, indeed no harm ever came to any of them, they were always just hanging out at each others places.

Not my style but probably 95% of kids in the world are brought up the same way.

Whoever had her pretty much had to have her in a house :moo: because they couldn't have wrapped her in a tarp in a truck without a lot of hassle...so that eliminates the "murdered in the truck then pushed out" theory for me.

Definitely in a house or other dwelling, someone home alone, someone nearby. Did it, wrapped her, attempted to dump her.

:cow:

I think murdered in a vehicle is possible but not that probable, a house etc is more likely. Pushed out of a vehicle right before or at an intersection is very possible or carried and placed. The ME's COD & MOD has me on edge.

:seeya: SS

 

[sreshowtime]

21 swimming pools/hot tubs/garden ponds
23 trampolines
more swingsets and sheds than I cared to count
in looking at the aerial map view, between Bridle Trail, Knowles, Silverbrook & Old Decatur
She was found app.1 mile south from this neighborhood.

Is this a case of an accident gone terribly wrong, that happened in a yard, or did she get run over by someone coming home for the evening? Something happened & turned into sudden panic mode?

Anyone remove any kind of apparatus out of their yard since this happened?

or...Is there someone in that neighborhood harboring a sick dark secret?

or was a stranger lurking...

ETA- is it known how many streets from home she would, ahh, wander?

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I think murdered in a vehicle is possible but not that probable. Pushed out of a vehicle right before or at an intersection is very possible or carried and placed. The ME's COD & MOD has me on edge.

:seeya: SS

If the perp intended to leave Alanna's body where it was found, he must be very brazen or...dumb. What about all the possible evidence left on Alanna's body? Was he hoping that the people who found it would disturb the scene? Is he young, and doesn't know much about how forensics work? Is he confident that he didn't leave any evidence?

ETA: Going back to the possible accident scenario that was covered up...Does the perp want Alanna's body to be found so she could get a proper burial? Was he just not able to dump her body somewhere, knowing it would be subjected to the elements?

 

[SCHMAE]

I think parents in a nice , clean , regular neighborhood have an expectation of safety for their children from this kind of thing. I think it's .. even innocent in a way although that may seem more like naivety to US at WS. I was always extra cautious with my kids because I read horror true crimes all my life so I knew evil existed but in the 18 months or so I've been on WS I am stunned every DAY at how many predators there are. No one can comprehend it until you're reading it here daily ..... As I said before I 'm sure her parents will be second guessing forever so they don't need any extra piling on of guilt. mooo

Our children SHOULD be able to walk a few doors down and LIVE . There's nothing wrong with thinking that !

 

[matou]

According to the facebook link posted earlier (thank you!) several residents drove past the package, thinking it was garbage. Now they are horrified. Everyone is horrified. I hope all those people have called in to police to tell them what time they saw it.

https://www.facebook.com/SaginawTexasNews?fref=ts

 

[cluciano63]

If the perp is not at all known to the family or in the system, then they may not have worried much about DNA.

 

[Wondergirl]

FBI visited the Whiddon family today:

Owen Whiddon was the teenager who found Gallagher’s body under a tarp in the street.

His family was visited by the FBI Thursday morning asking questions about what they saw.

The family didn’t want to elaborate on the FBI visit except to say it was brief.

But Owen Whiddon did tell us with the fear of a child killer on the loose, he doesn’t dare ride his scooter out of his family’s line of sight.

“I only ride down there with my scooter and I stay right here on the sidewalk

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/07/04/child-murder-keeps-saginaw-residents-inside-on-edge/

 

[carbuff]

If she had just been wrapped in the tarp and left in the street, or the side of the road, I could believe an accident, panic, coverup.

But not with the bound hands and feet and the bag over the head. That takes it to a whole different level.

 

[dandan08]

According to the facebook link posted earlier (thank you!) several residents drove past the package, thinking it was garbage. Now they are horrified. Everyone is horrified. I hope all those people have called in to police to tell them what time they saw it.

https://www.facebook.com/SaginawTexasNews?fref=ts

Also 1 resident said the tarp couldn't have been there for very long, he drove past on the way to Walmart and it wasn't there, but was there when he drove back home. He mentioned something about 40 minutes, but I wasn't sure if he meant 40 minutes between him driving from and to. Or 40 minutes later regarding the body being found.

 

[SCHMAE]

Also 1 resident said the tarp couldn't have been there for very long, he drove past on the way to Walmart and it wasn't there, but was there when he drove back home. He mentioned something about 40 minutes, but I wasn't sure if he meant 40 minutes between him driving from and to. Or 40 minutes later regarding the body being found.

If he is sure, then that's narrowing the time quite a bit.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

If she had just been wrapped in the tarp and left in the street, or the side of the road, I could believe an accident, panic, coverup.

But not with the bound hands and feet and the bag over the head. That takes it to a whole different level.

If the perp wanted to make it look like a predator had murdered Alanna, the amount of staging does make sense. However, if Alanna died because she drowned or because she went in a hot car, the COD would show that. So...was the plastic bag because the perp wants it to look like she suffocated? But wouldn't the autopsy show if she did or whether the bag was placed on her head after she died? So if this was an accident staged to look like a predator had killed Alaina, I would think the perp would "kill" Alaina after she was dead, to give her a different COD? Such as how someone strangled JonBenet after she received the head blow.