I don't know anyone involved.

But, I've got to ask:

Is there anyone on this board, that, if our child were to turn up missing from a 6 block walk from the neighbors, would be sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee having a casual converation with the press and speculating about this or that? I'm not sure I'd be able to utter a coherent sentence in a similar situation and I sure as hell would not be uttering it to the tv camera or newsprint reporters.

I'm just sayin....

I would be a wreck. Certainly wouldn't be talking to anybody with a camera. Speculating? Probably. Press? Can't answer. Might talk to radio/newspaper reporters.

Yeah, I was out and about Friday night, too. Stayed light 'til after 10 p.m., maybe 10:30 p.m. Sounded legit to me.

And re: my interview with the mom. It wasn't a casual conversation. We were talking for a half hour or so. I only snapped the photo after television cameras showed up since mom didn't seem to mind. She's a very honest-sounding woman. Sometimes she can talk and sometimes she simply can't. I was very fortunate (as a reporter) to get her at a time when she could talk.

And then I saw there were times when she wouldn't talk and the video cameras still shoved in on her face and forced her to do so. That just ticked me off.

I feel better (nothing is "better" about this whole situation) knowing she had moments of discomfort. At the same time, of course I wish she didn't.

Forgetting about this potentially tragic incident, it always amazes me when the mom or dad can stand in front of the house and have a converstion. I'm tough enough, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to. I'm damn sure I wouldn't want to.

TV news can make me sick. I realized how much so after the murders in Graham. It seems like they try to get parents/victims to pose a certain way to convey the emotion that gets people to watch. And when they show video of the shoes, well, I just about lose it.

There was one TV reporter who had cornered a law enforcement official and the TV guy kept using the word "desperate" as if to get the officer to say what the reporter wanted him to say.

"Don't you think you guys have gotten a bit desperate at this stage?"

"Doesn't the word desperate sound like it comes into play here?"

"How desperate are you?"

"Desperation has got to be driving this town mad."

etc. for a couple of minutes.

I've pondered this issue, Stash, and I can only tell you that the most tragic times of my life (when my first husband died in a boating accident and a few incidents when my wild child was a teen), I was incredibly calm until the aftermath.

When you're in the midst of it, a combination of shock, things being surreal/not seeming real, and knowing that there are things that must be done in order to, hopefully, have a happy ending, keep you going. At least that's what happened to me.

Then, afterwards, whether the result was tragic or good (providing relief), that is when the emotions start getting released.

In other words, I am always my calmest in the midst of the crisis and fall apart after.

Knowing that the more publicity you can get and the more likely someone who was a witness to something that can help solve the case will hear about it and come forward, would definitely keep my talking to any and all press I could get to listen, I think. And is what Adam Walsh's parents did, IIRC.

Obviously, we all react differently but I wouldn't be too quick to judge.

Fair enough.

Didn't intend to sound too judgemental. I intended to share that I didn't think I could do it and I was pretty sure I wouldn't want to.

I find it more "normal" (whatever that would be in a situation like this) when a neighbor or older Uncle or someone is the spokesperson for the family. Each morning or afternoon they come before the cameras and issue a statement for the press. But, you are correct in that everyone handles things differently.

funkycamper, I am just like you-I can handle the storm but, fall apart afterward. If I were in this unthinkable situation, I'd want to get as much information out to the public as often as I could. When the media stops knocking on the door asking for comments is when....well, not a good sign.

Yup, you want to keep mass attention on it.

In the last decade or so there have been a couple of girls taken and then returned to parents after a year or more of being missing because their faces were kept enough in the media for someone to recognize them. Right? Or am I thinking of some old "movie of the week"? Seems right.

Anyway, I know that's what I'd try to do but, by this point, I would have fallen apart. The shock and disbelief would only last so long.

I felt so bad for the parents on her birthday.