Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Missing Persons - The Band
If you go to YouTube and type in "Missing Persons," you are likely to find material on the 1980's rock band, before you find the videos made by the Missing Persons Network, the Doe Network, Missing Pieces, and such as that.
This song I wish to dedicate to a whole lot of folks.
I hope you know who you are!
Peace and Blessings;
BW
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Silence of the Blogs
The story you are about to read is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely intentional.
In some North Carolina town a person outside the state has probably never heard of, a pretty young sophomore from a university in the next town was found murdered. The local police receive a 911 call from a person on a watercraft. He was jet skiing along the river and found a car and a body. Unfortunately for the local police, the caller was unable to tell them how to get to his location by land. I guess the local police didn't have a boat, or a GPS system to trace the cell phone.
It took them a while to find the place. During the search, police moving along the river found a couple of guys fishing. They told them they were looking for a body, and the two guys told them they were just fishing. The police got their names, addresses, and, who knows?, maybe a DNA sample from them as well, before moving along their way.
After they had finally arrived at the crime scene, and figured out where they were, they were able to call in and report the location of the road the car was on before it came down here.
A mother of a young woman who went missing from that area a month earlier wanted to know if this was her daughter they had found, but it was not. We don't even hear about that case until later. What we do hear is that the victim was a student at the university, which was about 30 miles away, and that this person's name is very well known on the campus, and in another NC town she had come from before attending university.
Very quickly the local police find out this person is very well known and loved. People show up from everywhere to talk about this pretty young sophomore, including her family who want to talk to the police in person. News stations from all around are covering the story, and throughout cyberspace the blogs came rolling in.
The local police figure that they need to solve this murder case, but they don't know how to do it. They never heard of this person before, and it didn't seem to occur to them to ask the hundreds of people who showed up on her behalf. They could have called in the SBI, but perhaps they didn't want to admit they needed help. They tell the press they are making progress, but they can't give any details about it now. It buys them some time.
But the time runs out. Seven months later they still have no clues. The local police are desperate. They need a suspect to arrest. This will make them look like they have made progress. They remember the two guys who were fishing down on the river that day. Why not arrest them?
Now a whole lot of people in that town could have told us that not only are these two guys innocent, but if the local police were to call them and ask them to come on down to the station, they would have willingly complied with the request. But the local police decide they want to be more dramatic than that. They show up at their homes at 4:30 in the morning, with lots of fire power.
At first everyone is excited, thinking this was good news. They are all singing and dancing about how the killers have been caught. But after seeing what these two guys look like, and hearing what they had to say, and what their neighbors had to say. people began to have some doubts about them arresting the right people.
All of the forums and all of the blogs that were involved in discussion of the case were saying the local police had no clue what they were doing. This went on until there was a second hearing, (mistakenly referred to as a trial) and everyone found out a whole lot of details of the investigation that were kept secret until then.
And then, something very mysterious happened. Forums began to close. Websites were no longer accessible. No one was talking about the pretty young sophomore anymore. The news media never mentioned another word about it. The case remains unsolved.
Meanwhile, back in the town she came from, some friends of the pretty young sophomore have some ideas about what happened, but no one listens to them. People figure these kids are too young to know what they're talking about. They are about the same age as the victim. With no one to listen to them, they made their statement by releasing a bunch of balloons.
Anyone out there who can tell the rest of the story, please be my guest.
In some North Carolina town a person outside the state has probably never heard of, a pretty young sophomore from a university in the next town was found murdered. The local police receive a 911 call from a person on a watercraft. He was jet skiing along the river and found a car and a body. Unfortunately for the local police, the caller was unable to tell them how to get to his location by land. I guess the local police didn't have a boat, or a GPS system to trace the cell phone.
It took them a while to find the place. During the search, police moving along the river found a couple of guys fishing. They told them they were looking for a body, and the two guys told them they were just fishing. The police got their names, addresses, and, who knows?, maybe a DNA sample from them as well, before moving along their way.
After they had finally arrived at the crime scene, and figured out where they were, they were able to call in and report the location of the road the car was on before it came down here.
A mother of a young woman who went missing from that area a month earlier wanted to know if this was her daughter they had found, but it was not. We don't even hear about that case until later. What we do hear is that the victim was a student at the university, which was about 30 miles away, and that this person's name is very well known on the campus, and in another NC town she had come from before attending university.
Very quickly the local police find out this person is very well known and loved. People show up from everywhere to talk about this pretty young sophomore, including her family who want to talk to the police in person. News stations from all around are covering the story, and throughout cyberspace the blogs came rolling in.
The local police figure that they need to solve this murder case, but they don't know how to do it. They never heard of this person before, and it didn't seem to occur to them to ask the hundreds of people who showed up on her behalf. They could have called in the SBI, but perhaps they didn't want to admit they needed help. They tell the press they are making progress, but they can't give any details about it now. It buys them some time.
But the time runs out. Seven months later they still have no clues. The local police are desperate. They need a suspect to arrest. This will make them look like they have made progress. They remember the two guys who were fishing down on the river that day. Why not arrest them?
Now a whole lot of people in that town could have told us that not only are these two guys innocent, but if the local police were to call them and ask them to come on down to the station, they would have willingly complied with the request. But the local police decide they want to be more dramatic than that. They show up at their homes at 4:30 in the morning, with lots of fire power.
At first everyone is excited, thinking this was good news. They are all singing and dancing about how the killers have been caught. But after seeing what these two guys look like, and hearing what they had to say, and what their neighbors had to say. people began to have some doubts about them arresting the right people.
All of the forums and all of the blogs that were involved in discussion of the case were saying the local police had no clue what they were doing. This went on until there was a second hearing, (mistakenly referred to as a trial) and everyone found out a whole lot of details of the investigation that were kept secret until then.
And then, something very mysterious happened. Forums began to close. Websites were no longer accessible. No one was talking about the pretty young sophomore anymore. The news media never mentioned another word about it. The case remains unsolved.
Meanwhile, back in the town she came from, some friends of the pretty young sophomore have some ideas about what happened, but no one listens to them. People figure these kids are too young to know what they're talking about. They are about the same age as the victim. With no one to listen to them, they made their statement by releasing a bunch of balloons.
Anyone out there who can tell the rest of the story, please be my guest.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Class of 2009
In my rural Chatham neighborhood, the most popular resident is Alex Ross. Alex is graduating from Northwood High School today.
At the age of 12 Alex had started his own newspaper.
At the age of 13, Alex came over to my house to show me how to use my new (to me) computer. I was embarrassed to have to admit that even though I am more than 3 times older than Alex, I only know less than half as much about computers. But young Alex was easy on me. He didn't make me feel dumb when he had to explain things to me. I will always appreciate that.
As a teenager Alex learned all about video equipment, and has made himself a major contributer to this website. He always knew what to do with pictures, and I got him to film "Storm Front at Carrboro Day," for my musician friends' first YouTube video. Alex also made excellent video for me from when we were on NC Wanted.
If you can find "Local Computer Care" in my Links list, you can find the website of Alex Ross. You can contact him to help with any video or computer projects you may have planned.
Because of his many contributions to my cause, I feel duty bound to bid him congratulations on his graduation.
Here's to you, Alex!
Now just imagine what he'll be doing once he's into UNC!
http://friendsofdebbie.blogspot.com/2008/07/storm-front-live.html
At the age of 12 Alex had started his own newspaper.
At the age of 13, Alex came over to my house to show me how to use my new (to me) computer. I was embarrassed to have to admit that even though I am more than 3 times older than Alex, I only know less than half as much about computers. But young Alex was easy on me. He didn't make me feel dumb when he had to explain things to me. I will always appreciate that.
As a teenager Alex learned all about video equipment, and has made himself a major contributer to this website. He always knew what to do with pictures, and I got him to film "Storm Front at Carrboro Day," for my musician friends' first YouTube video. Alex also made excellent video for me from when we were on NC Wanted.
If you can find "Local Computer Care" in my Links list, you can find the website of Alex Ross. You can contact him to help with any video or computer projects you may have planned.
Because of his many contributions to my cause, I feel duty bound to bid him congratulations on his graduation.
Here's to you, Alex!
Now just imagine what he'll be doing once he's into UNC!
http://friendsofdebbie.blogspot.com/2008/07/storm-front-live.html
Monday, June 01, 2009
Birthday for FDK
June 1st is the birthday of the FDK website.
We are now 2 years old.
Once again I have been contemplating if I should continue or not.
In the beginning I said I would quit the website if no one showed up for the candlelight vigil. Attendance was good, so I kept on going.
Last year was very successful with getting media attention, so I didn't even have to think about it.
This year I asked for feedback from some friends to help me decide.
There's a female friend I am rather fond of, so I tend to listen to her. She reminds me of how, on the first part of the journey, I wanted to write about plants and birds and rocks and things, but ended up writing about crime instead. It was sad to think that everyone I write about is dead.
(Thank you, America)
This person says there are more pleasant things I could be writing about.
And then there was the opposite extreme.
There was this person who suggested that a website about a murdered or missing person should be more "serious," and have less of the "Funny Little Bunnies," and other goofy stuff I like to do.
I've decided that too many of us have a dreadfully negative attitude towards death, and I should try to make a positive example.
For this reason, I have selected this tune by Mike Oldfield to offer in response.
-----------------------------------------------------
RIP - Paul Kemp
May 23 1958 - May 26 2009
Another Friend of Debbie Key
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