AmyStrange.org and the UNeXpLaiNed ©Copyrighted by Dave Ayotte & Caty Bergman

The flaw in the blood test arguement is that a license from another state that doesn't have that legal requirement is still recognized in states that have those laws about venereal disease

A marriage license can also give you another right that, in Dave's opinion, is way more important that the need for procreation, and what really defines what marriage is to him, and he's not talking about property rights, but the right to make decisions for the other person when they aren't able to.

When you get a marriage license, you have to ask yourself, do you trust this person enough to allow them to make life or death decisions for you when you aren't able?

Because, once you get that license and the ceremony is performed, your partner immediately becomes more than an immediate member of the family, in most cases, they legally become more important than your partners parents or siblings. A marriage license does that for legally married couples everywhere in the United States, and in most countries around the world.

Civil Unions were tried, which were an attempt to give same-sex couples the same legal rights as marriage except without the license, or without having to call it marriage, but they weren't always valid in other states.

In some states, one way to get the legal rights of marriage without the license was through common-law marriage, but in order to access the legal rights of a marriage, you usually had to go to court to prove your marriage meets the common-law requirements of that state, and even then, they weren't always legal in other states, especially same-sex common-law marriage.

A marriage license is the only thing that shortcuts around most, if not all, of that legal bullshit.

The obvious question then becomes, why is that so important, in other words, why should I or anyone care about that? It's a good question, and Dave explains it this way. Let's say you or your partner are in a car accident, outside your home state, and someone has to make life or death decisions for them. Without a marriage license, that falls to the parents, or the closest living relative, usually a sibling. In some states, unless you have a marriage license, your opinion mean\s diddly.

With a marriage license, you become the one who makes those decisions, especially now that the Supreme Court has declared same-sex marriage legal in all fifty states.

This is Dave's major arguement for why marriage should be defined as the joining of two consenting adults together as one for as long as is legally required, rather than just between a man and a woman for procreation purposes only.

It's a good arguement, but even so, I still wonder about the religious arguement a little bit, if not a lot, and that will be what Dave takes on next.

THE RELIGIOUS ARGUEMENT
Somehow, the anti-same-sex marriage arguement always comes back to the religious arguement. God is suppose to be the supreme being after all and his opinion should count for something.

The biggest problem with the religious arguement, Dave says, is that it infers that their interpretation of what God meant is the right one.

Dave believes, to put it kindly again, that many supposed "religious" people don't like gays to begin with, for reasons that have nothing to do with the Bible, and they then use the Bible to justify their actions toward gays.

In other words, many religious fanaticist don't hate gays because their religion says so, but because they just hate gays and are using the Bible to support their hate. It's as simple as that, Dave says.

Which brings us to what exactly does God say about all this? The major arguing point can be found in Matthew and Mark. Both say almost the exact same thing word for word, so here is Matthew's version:

Matthew 19:3-6, ^[3]"The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"

^[4]And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female.'

^[5]"and said, 'For this reason ^{[AND ONLY THIS REASON]} a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?'

^[6]"So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate."

That's what their whole arguement boils down to, Dave says.

He also added that there was one part that was missing that he added above, in red, because that would than give their arguement more validity, because only than would it mean what they think it means, except for that one little thing which he kindly added for them.

Because than it would really mean that the only reason a man could leave his parents was to join up with a woman, but even then, same-sexes joining up is not specifically disallowed. Of course, Dave assumes that joining up means marriage, but he isn't absolutely sure about that.

Just like everything else in the Bible, this whole passage is open to interpretation and thus subject to biases and perceptions, but that doesn't mean anyone's interpretation is the right one, or the wrong one, including Dave's.

Theoretically, according to those who believe in it, the Bible is suppose to be the word of God, with one caviat. It is actually an interpetation of the word of God, and not what he said word by word. Even if it was, how could you possibly prove that it was the actual words of God? That's where the faith part comes in. You just have to have faith that the Bible is the word of God. But, does that mean you can then use that faith to stop others from doing what your "faith" tells you is wrong, even though you can't prove that your faith is right?

"And don't forget," Dave adds, "if you're reading the Bible in English (or any language for that matter, except in the original Hebrew, I think), it means it has been translated (or interpreted) once again on top of the original interpretation, and add on to that your own interpretation, and who the fuck knows what God really said or meant."

Which brings up the apostle. If the anti-crowd's interpretaion of the Bible, because it seems most of the most vocal anti-crowders, Christians seem to far out number all the other religions combined, if their interpretation is correct than shouldn't joining up with a woman be the only reason a man can leave his parents. What then about the apostles? Didn't they leave their parents, not to join up with a woman, but to follow (join up?) with a man to spread the word of God?

But, I do think he's right that no where in the Bible does it specifically say that two sexes can't join as one also. Sure, it's called an abomination, because, if I remember correctly, sex is not to be used for pleasure alone, but for procreation purposes only, which is why same-sex, sex is such an abomination, because it's obvious that it's only being used for pleasure and not for procreation, although who knows what the future holds in that area. I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere wasn't working on that right now. It's not unnatural really, some animals and plants can do that already, fertilize themselves when the opposite sex isn't available, and it's not really that big a leap from that to same sex species fertilizing each other in the same way, not in Dave's opinion anyway.

But just because it's an abomination, doesn't mean that joining up by two people of the same sex isn't allowed. Murder is pretty much an abomination also, instead of creating life, you are destroying it, but murderers are allowed to join up in most religions and in the legal system. Some murderers even keep murdering after they get married. Does that mean they aren't really married either? It doesn't say in the Bible either that murderers can't get married, maybe because murder can be forgiven, but to continuously butt-fuck or stimulate your partner into orgasm is not forgivable, except maybe on your death bed? And further more, although it's true that same sex marriage, to know someone else, is frowned upon, as a matter of fact, it's called an abomination, but again, no where does it say that it is a reason two people can't be joined as one.

The funniest part about not allowing same-sex marriage is that Dave thinks most gay partners are already having sex, before they are even getting married, so according to the Bible (or as many interpretations of the Bible also say), that they are going to burn for all eternity in hell anyway, how could getting married makes things any worse for them?

Maybe there's a special, special place in hell for them. With a "Having same-sex, sex while married" section, with it's own special tortures and fires that never end division? We don't know. Even Dante Alighieri, writer of the "Divina Commedia" (Divine Comedy), of the infamous phrase "Dante's Inferno" ("Inferno" being the first of three parts of an amazing and enormous body of work), which was all one long poem with a very rigid structure and is remembered mostly for it's depiction of different parts of hell depending on your sin, but I don't remember he even wrote anything about a same sex, sex while married section? That would certainly fix them. And what about a section for those that allowed it to happen, even if you didn't know for sure it was really going on, or those that knew but didn't say anything or even cared. I wonder though who will be left to get into heaven? They won't have to rent a big hall for their Christmas Parties, that's for sure. The Holy Trinity would be the only ones allowed to go.

But, what if, as recent research has found that homosexulaity might be genetic after all? What then? What's God gonna say then? That it was all a joke, and isn't it funny as hell and everyone would laugh and slap their knees right along with him, all except for the gays. Oh excuse me, Dave adds, what are God's representatives gonna say then?

They'll probably just deny it's true. That's science for ya, always making stuff up to make our God look bad, and makes them look bad too.

Maybe it's not the getting married part that the "against" crowd are really against, but against being forced to validate a practice that God will send the participants to hell for, maybe their worried that if they help validate these unions, they themselves are doomed to follow them into hell also? It's an interesting thought.

If it weren't for their biased misinterpretation of the Bible, that might actually make a good arguement, but it doesn't specifically say in the Bible that two people of the same sex can't be joined. What they should say is, "I don't believe my God would allow me to be any part of this act of sin." Their God being their interpretation of what God is trying to say in the Bible, or inspire others to write in his name. Of course, most of the time, weirdly enough, it's right in line with what they already believed to be true anyway. That's a hell of a coincidence, even in my opinion.

"And what the hell does God mean by 'joined' anyway?" Dave then ask. Is he talking about marriage or sex, or both? Or maybe, as Dave says is possible, that the original text says some things differently than what our English version says today. Maybe in the original version, God is talking about sex and only sex, but he still doesn't say specifically say that same sex partners can't also join. The worse that could happen was to burn in hell forever, which was gonna happen anyway, whether they were married or not.

Interestingly enough, the Bible only mentions the joining of a man and woman, and leaves out the "knowing" part, maybe because it's implied in the "joining" part, that there will be some "knowing" going on, but for procreation purposes only. "Knowing," of course, meaning sex.

The arguements for both sides come down to what does "joined" mean? Is it marriage or sex, or both? According to those against marriage for same-sex couple, "joined" means marriage, between a man and a woman only, which bring up the most obvious question of all, what does sex mean?

Does sex mean what goes on between a man and a woman, or does it mean the actual act itself, whether implied or otherwise, with the results being orgasm?

But God doesn't say that specifically as Dave has explained upstream a bit. So, who's right?

That brings us back to here, which goes to prove that both arguements are also both circular.

Dave is having a hard time getting past the idea that God doesn't specifically say that God said that gays couldn't get married, and that's important to him, while the "against" crowd believes in their heart of hearts that gays can't get married according to God.

I wonder about that though, about their heart of hearts. This applies to Dave also.

Is it just a coincidence that many religious people chose a faith to follow that believes a lot of the things that they already believe to be true in their heart of hearts, or is it something else, something called "perception bias"?

Where you only perceive or acknowledge things that prove your biases right.

To his credit, Dave believes I'm right in my perceptions here. He's the first to admit when he's wrong though, but sometimes it takes days of debate before he'll do it.

Which is why Dave asked me to write this, a disinterested party.

I could care less about stopping gay marriage. I think both sides should be concerned with more important problems, like missing persons, serial killers, violent crime, terrorism, homelessness and other things like that.

But, that's me.

Then after all that, a couple news articles about a missing Mom and daughter that were a result of our original search that caught our attention:

FROM: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/19/mom-and-daughter-14-vanish-after-trip-to-nyc-times-square/

Mom and daughter, 14, vanish after trip to NYC's Times Square - NY  USA
Published April 19, 2015 FoxNews.com

"A mother and daughter trip last month to New York City's Times Square has turned into a missing persons mystery after the pair vanished without a trace.

"Police said Sunday they are continuing to investigate the disappearance of Long Island widow Iona Costello, 51, and her 14-year-old daughter Emily, but the investigation has generated few leads... "

We don't know what to think about this one. It could be either an abduction or a runaway. It's interesting though the stories the national media here in the US decides to run with when it comes to missing person cases, and we'll probably write more about that later also.

There was also a story about a missing nine-year-old girl who everyone fears has drowned in the nearby lake, hundreds missing as a migrant boat sinks in Mediterranean (north of Libya), a body found in a lake maybe a missing canoeist, and every once in a while some good news like a thirteen year old girl was found safe and unharmed, but sadly for the most part, most of the "missing person" news is depressing as hell.

THE NEXT KEYWORD we searched for was "missing person". This is where things started getting a little more interesting, if not a whole lot more depressing also than when we just searched the word "missing", all alone.

The Wikipedia "Missing Person" link was right at the top. It then list local links for missing person departments in the Seattle Police Department and the Washington State Patrol, and after that a link to NamUS:

FROM: http://www.namus.gov/

"The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a national centralized repository and resource center for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. NamUs is a free online system that can be searched by medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials and the general public from all over the country in hopes of resolving these cases... "

But, the thing that caught both our attentions was on the "About NamUs" page:

FROM: http://www.namus.gov/about.htm

"How Big Is the Problem?"

"It has been estimated that there are approximately 40,000 unidentified human remains in the offices of the Nation's medical examiners and coroners or were buried or cremated before being identified (see Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains: The Nation's Silent Mass Disaster). In June 2007, OJP's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), confirmed that, in a typical year, medical examiners and coroners handle approximately 4,400 unidentified human decedent cases, 1,000 of which remain unidentified after one year. (See the Medical Examiners and Coroners' Offices, 2004 for the full report.)

"BJS further identified the need to improve record-retention policies. As of 2004, more than half (51 percent) of the Nation's medical examiners' offices had no policy for retaining records—such as x-rays, DNA, or fingerprints—on unidentified human decedents. BJS also noted, however, that more than 90 percent of offices servicing large jurisdictions did have such a policy.

"To further investigate the extent of the problem - and viable solutions - NIJ assembled an expert panel of medical examiners and coroners. The expert panel found that the primary - and overwhelming - need was for a central reporting system for unidentified human remains.

"As NIJ investigated the challenges of missing persons and unidentified decedent cases, another problem was more fully revealed: the reporting of missing persons cases. Cases of missing persons 18 years old and younger must be reported, but reporting adult missing persons cases is voluntary. Only a handful of States have laws that require law enforcement agencies to prepare missing person reports on adults. Overall, there is a low rate of reporting these cases through NCIC. One of the major goals of NamUs is to meet this challenge. For example, NamUs will work with State clearinghouses and the public to ensure that data is included in NamUs and other national-level databases.

The number, 40,000, of human remains that still await identification, was mind boggling to us, because as we wrote earlier that we thought it was around 2,500, but 40,000 is even worse, way worse. That's an average of 800 unidentified bodies for each state that are still waiting for a name.

Although unidentified remains are definitely part of the missing person problem, they are just a sub group of the whole problem. That problem is so vast that we find it hard to grasp that more people aren't worried about it, at least to the level that we think it should worry people. We have to admit that the problem is relatively rare. At least to the extent where everyone has a family member, loved one or just a friend that has gone missing. This maybe why, if not at least one of the reasons why, missing persons aren't considered a bigger problem than we think it should be. But, that's a cop-out in our opinion.

Using the US as a baseline, let's look at some real numbers, or estimates, so that we can showyou that it's not just some small little problems that's extrememly rare, but first let's look at the reality of the problem. First, most of the persons that go missing are found or return within 30 days. For arguements sake, let's say that number is 99%. That leaves 1% of those that go missing are either found or return after 90 days or are never seen again. We'll get to that 1% number (or estimate) in a minute.

But first, let's discuss why that number is an estimate and not a real hard number. Let's start with what is a hard number, and why is it different from an estimate? A hard number is a number that is virtually undisputable, while an estimate can be disputed. One of the major reasons why missing person numbers are estimates and not hard numbers is because of the following that we quoted from the NamUs site above:

"...Cases of missing persons 18 years old and younger must be reported, but reporting adult missing persons cases is voluntary. Only a handful of States have laws that require law enforcement agencies to prepare missing person reports on adults... "

Some people, such as those who work the sex trade, move around a lot and it's difficult to really keep track of them, and unless they actually keep in regular touch with family or friends outside of their trade who would report them missing, they are very rarely reported missing. Plus, because of it's very nature (being illegal almost everywhere in the US), sex trade workers very rarely contact the police about fellow workers going missing.

Also worth mentioning here is that one of the most popular victims of serial killers are those in the sex trade and others on the fringes of society, and one of the first symptoms that they're being targeted are missing person reports, which just happens to be where a good database of missing persons is lacking for the reasons we just mentioned. Those on the fringes of society are mostly there because they are involved in some kind of illegal activity that they like to keep a low profile about, and reporting anything to the police just goes against that whole idea, which is also the reason they are easy targets for serial killers, and also one of the many reasons why a serial killer aren't always suspected until many bodies start showing up, usually of people who either were reported missing or should have been, but weren't.

These are some of the many reasons why there are no really hard numbers for that 1% we mentioned above, and why there are only estimates.

Here are some numbers from the FBI website:

FROM: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ncic/ncic-missing-person-and-unidentified-person-statistics-for-2013

"During 2013, 627,911 missing person records were entered into NCIC, a decrease of 5.1% from the 661,593 records entered in 2012. Missing Person records cleared or canceled during the same period totaled 630,990.

"Reasons for these removals include: a law enforcement agency located the subject, the individual returned home, or the record had to be removed by the entering agency due to a determination that the record is invalid... "

The NCIC (National Crime Information Center) is an FBI clearinghouse of crime data which is available electronically 24/7, and is where the police can file missing person reports, and also research for missing person information. Most of it is available to the public. It's a good start, but what it really needs is to make filling reports mandatory and not voluntary like many states and jurisdictions allow.

But the important numbers to take note of from the NCIC are 661,593 (missing person records entered) and 630,990 (records cleared or cancelled) from 2012. Those numbers translate into, of the 661,593 that were originally reported missing in 2012, 30,603 are still missing.

Even though the number 30,603 is not 1% of 630,990 (it's actually 4.55%, when rounded up), it's still just an estimate, though, of the real numbers of the still-missing persons out there, and as scary as over 30,000 people still-missing is, remember that is every single freakin' year. That's worth repeating, according to the FBI datatbase (NCIC), over 30,000 people go missing every single year, that are still missing, every single year.

Every single freakin' year.

Of course, 30,000 is way less than the number we quoted (40,000) at the beginning of our piece, 30,000 missing persons, per year is still a pretty alarming number to us. To put that into perspective, that's 600 missing persons from each state, per year, or over 1 person going missing from each state every day, that are still-missing.

But since I'm a skeptic, and Dave sometimes is, we had to wonder about those numbers a little. Dave wondered a little, but I wondered a lot. That meant I had to do two things. The first was to go into the FBI site and find the actual stats, and second, was to verify these estimates with other group numbers, like the NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) and other groups like it.

OK, we went back to the FBI site we mentioned above, and below are the actual stats for 2013, and we were wrong. I thought 30,000 was too big a number. It seems that Dave made an assumption and subtracted the wrong numbers. It seems from this table, that there were a lot more missing person cases removed (630,990) than there were originally entered for that year (627,911).

FROM: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ncic/ncic-missing-person-and-unidentified-person-statistics-for-2013

  Missing Person
  -----------------------------------------------------
  Active Entries as of 01/01/2014                84,136
  Total File Transactions                     1,810,409
  -----------------------------------------------------
  Entries                                       627,911
  Removed                                       630,990
  -----------------------------------------------------

Our bad. This proves that you should always check your work and our work too, because it never hurts to double check. What's that old woodcutter's phrase? "Measure twice, and cut once." That is so true.

Anyway, you can see the rest of the numbers at the link above, but the number that intrigues us is the "Active Entries" number, "84,136," so we went back to do a little more reading. According to the FBI, NCIC page,

"The National Crime Information Center's (NCIC) Missing Person File was implemented in 1975. Records in the Missing Person File are retained indefinitely, until the individual is located, or the record is canceled by the entering agency. The Missing Person File contains records for individuals reported missing who:

[1]"have a proven physical or mental disability (Disability – EMD),
[2]"are missing under circumstances indicating that they may be in physical danger (Endangered – EME),
[3]"are missing after a catastrophe (Catastrophe Victim – EMV),
[4]"are missing under circumstances indicating their disappearance may not have been voluntary (Involuntary – EMI),
[5]"are under the age of 21 and do not meet the above criteria (Juvenile – EMJ), or
[6]"are 21 and older and do not meet any of the above criteria but for whom there is a reasonable concern for their safety (Other – EMO).

"As of December 31, 2013, NCIC contained 84,136 active missing person records. Juveniles under the age of 18 account for 33,849 (40.2%) of the records and 9,706 (11.5%) were for juveniles between the ages of 18 and 20... "

All important information, but the two passages we're interested in right now is the year 1975 (the year the (NCIC) Missing Person File was implemented in), and if you that year (1975) from this year (2015), and divide that number (40) into 84,136, you have an average of over 2,000 (2,103.4) persons go missing every year (according to the NCIC records), and (as of December 31, 2013) have never been seen again, and a little over half of those numbers (1,088.875) are under the age of 21, on average over a 40 year period. The real estimates are probably different.

Although that number (2,103.4) is still an estimate, it's still a much more reasonable number to work with than 30,000, but that doesn't make it any less scary. When you do the math, that comes out to an average of 40 persons per state, per year, that go missing and are never seen again every year, or a little over an average of 3 persons per month per year, in each state.

You may not think that's scary, but every single missing person (each with their own family, friends and loved ones left to wonder what happened) is scary to us, and when you multiply that by 84,136, it's just too large a number for us to really comprehend. It jumps scary to a whole new level for us.

And then, when you consider that 84,136 is merely an estimate, it's not unreasonable (to us anyway) to add another 10% to that number, or even 20% to end up with a number over 100,000 persons have gone missing, and have not been seen again, since 1975. Of course, this number doesn't include persons that have gone missing and were later found dead, and that's where the tragedy lies.

At least the families of those found have some kind of closure, albeit sometimes a sad one, but what about those who never know closure.

Maybe those who went missing got lucky and somehow never got on anybodies radar, have completely forgotten their families, maybe that part was easy, and are happy out there somewhere, never caring about the people they left behind, but we think it's not an easy thing to do. It's not impossible, but a very improbable thing to do, although the younger someone is when they disappear, the easier it is to do it, in our opinion.

BUT, WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE THAT GO UNWILLINGLY?

Before we get into that, let's see if we can verify this 2,103.4 number first, or at least the 1,088.875 number (those under the age of 21 that have gone missing, on average per year, in the last 40 years).

We went to the The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website and found that their numbers mostly come from our source at the FBI, the NCIC database, so they're probably not going to be much different than ours, but one thing that did stand out for us:

FROM: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

"The first three hours are the most critical when trying to locate a missing child. The murder of an abducted child is rare, and an estimated 100 cases in which an abducted child is murdered occur in the U.S. each year. A 2006 study indicated that 76.2 percent of abducted children who are killed are dead within three hours of the abduction."*

  *FROM: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/pr/201316.pdf

Keep in mind though, that this number (100), is not part of the 2,103.4 (1,088.875 under the age of 21) number (that go missing every year and still have not been found), because those 100 have been found. We still don't know what happened to all those other missing persons.

There was a lot more information we gathered from the NCJRS pdf file, and should be read by anyone interested in the subject, but we found this part important enough to include here:

FROM: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/pr/201316.pdf

"The murder of a child who is abducted by a stranger is a rare event. There are estimated to be about 100 such incidents in the United States each year, less than one-half of one percent of the murders committed. There is approximately one child abduction murder for every 10,000 reports of a missing child... "

When you do the math, that comes out to 1 million missing children are reported missing every year, with 1 in 10,000 ending up in a person under 18 being found dead, but like we wrote earlier, that doesn't give us a number for those never found.

We haven't found that number yet at either the NCMEC site or in the NCJRS pdf file, so we decided to take this show on the road and visit some other sites (most are listed in "OUR SOURCES" section below), but we couldn't seem to find any numbers anywhere that are different then the FBI numbers, as a matter of fact, all of them quote from those same statistics. If anyone reading this can find a source that provides different numbers feel free to contact us at any time with this information, and thank you in advance.

Considering that all the missing person sites quote the FBI numbers in some form or another, we think it's reasonable to assume that they are the best estimates to date, and we'll move on from there.

Assuming the number 2,103.4 is correct, and also assuming more than half of those were lucky enough to not only go missing willingly, but have also been lucky enough to never been found, but we also believe it's reasonable to also assume that at least 25% of those still missing, went missing unwillingly. That's at least 500 persons go missing every year unwillingly, on average over 40 years, that are never seen again. That's almost ONE MISSING PERSON per state, per month of every year in the last 40 years, that go missing and are never seen again. We have no proof that this number is correct, but neither does anyone have any proof that it isn't.

Now, you may think we are inflating the numbers of the unsolved missing person case, but there is some proof that we maybe on the right track. Remember back up towards the beginning of this blogpost when we mentioned the estimated 40,000 bodies found throughout the US that have still not been identified?

Well, that number is actually half as many as the total number of persons still considered missing according to the FBI statistics (84,136), but twice as many as our 25% estimate of 500 missing persons per year (20,000 after the math is done).

The question then becomes two fold. How many of those unidentified persons went missing unwillingly? We're not sure, nor is anyone else for that matter, but we feel and believe 20,000 (500 a year since 1975) go missing unwillingly is not an impossible number, nor is it improbable. We even think (especially Dave) the number is more than twice that.

Assuming 500 persons go missing unwillingly every year, the question then becomes, how many of those missing are dead and how did they die? Which brings up a follow up question, what happened to the unwilling missing that didn't die?

We will leave the follow up question for later and try and answer the first question first. One way to answer this is by studying the unidentified bodies found. How did they die, and if they were killed, who killed them?

Sometimes the answers to those question are hard to determine. If a body isn't found right away, and has had time to decompose, it becomes more difficult to determine absolutely how someone died.

For example, if someone is manually strangled by someone else, the three most important bits of evidence to prove this can disappear if the body has had enough time to decompose, especially if it's found in an area where animals can get a hold of it. These three key bits of evidence, are burst blood vessels in the eyes, bruising about the neck, and a broken hyoid bone.

This is just one example of the problems associated with investigating unidentified bodies. Another is that without an identity, you have major problems even knowing where to begin. Why is that you may ask, and a good question it is.

Assuming it's a homicide, let's answer that question with how homicidesare investigated. Missing persons, and other unidentified bodies, are kind of investigated in the same way, except in homicide and abduction cases where you definitely know that you are looking for a suspect or suspects.

The first thing investigators do is secure the crime scene, which is usually where the body is found. Next is to secure evidence from the scene including performing an autopsy on the body.

The next thing investigators or their agents do is try to find and interview witnesses, which also includes getting together a timeline of the unidentified person's movements the last time she was seen alive which is usually someone who knew the person. But, if the unidentified person was not from the area where their body was found and no witnesses can be found either who saw the unidentified person before, who do you get this information from then, and how would you proceed if you didn't have that information?

One way is from the unidentified person themselves. Their fingerprints, tatooes, DNA, or dental records, will many times help solve that problem, and when that doesn't work the media can sometimes help solve the problem by publicizing or posting photos (or reconstructed photos), on the internet, tv, posters, or even newsprint. Many times, that works also.

But unfortunately, without an identity, and if the victim wasn't from the area where the body was found, there is simply no way to go much further with an investigation. Where do you go to search for the killer? Maybe an investigation will get lucky and something like a similarity with other murders will lead them to solving the crime in that way, and maybe learn the unidentified persons identity in that way.

It has happened, and you can verify everything we just wrote by either reading any encyclopedia about serial killers or going online and visiting some of the sites about serial killers or by just watching those true crime shows that seem to be everywhere on cable nowadays.

The one thing they don't talk about much are budgets and how that budget is structured and why, but we'll write more about that later.

Right now we'd like to discuss dental records. One part of the body that is usually left intact when an unidentified person is found, are the teeth. If there were a true national database on missing person that included a requirement for each state to obtain and file the dental records, when possible, of each missing person missing for more than 30 days, but unfortunately there are many states that don't require it. We know Washington does have something on the books about that, but we're not sure about how many other states do, but we do know that not all of them do. We believe that if every state was require to do it, many of the unidentified would be identified, and many of the missing found. It won't solve all the problems with the missing, but we believe it would put a big dent in finding closure for the family and friends of the missing.

When all is said and done, we believe that 25% of the 40,000 estimated unidentified persons were homicides. We'll probably do another blogpost about this very soon, but that's really only part of the story.

NOT ALL OF THE UNWILLING MISSING ARE HOMICIDES

Sadly, like we just wrote, homicides are only part of the missing person story. What that means is out of the over half million children and adults that go missing every year (on average), only at least 2,000 (on average) are never seen again. That's only one out of every 300 persons, that are reported missing, are never seen again. Most of the other 299 return home in the first 30 days. This is a good thing, but it's also the reason why we believe that, unless it's an obvious abduction, missing persons aren't taken as seriously as we believe they should. We can understand the reluctance to take every single report seriously, not only because of budget issues, but also because most of them return home soon after they leave.

We can understand the reluctance, but we don't agree with it. Law Enforcement (LE) budgetary and manpower (and womanpower) problems are a poor excuse for not aggresively investigating every single missing person case, at least more than they do now.

Gladly though, and although older children are taken less seriously, missing children cases, overall, are taken more seriously when compared to missing adult cases, but that is mostly because of the adult's right to privacy. Unless the missing adult is involved in some kind of fraud (like insurance fraud) or wanted for some other kind of crime (like robbery or murder); if an adult wants to disappear, there is very little LE can do about it.

Missing children are a different story though. Up to a certain age, usually around 16 or older, they do not have the legal right to disappear and can be aggressively investigated by LE and returned to their parents or guardians. As the age of the child gets closer to 18 though, a little bug in the system begins to appear. This little bug is used as yet another excuse to not aggresively investigate some missing children cases. We call it the "suspected runaway" bug.

If there are no obvious signs of foul play, and if the child has a history of running away (even if it's only once, and it doesn't matter at what age or how long they were gone), many in LE will use this as an excuse to classify the missing person a "suspected runaway" and not pursue it as aggresively as they would, say, a three-year-old missing child.

This is not to say that children don't runaway and adults don't just disappear for personal reasons, because according to the FBI statistics, this happens in more than 99% (on average) of all the missing person cases, so we can understand the reluctance to spend money to aggressively pursue each case. Like we said, we understand it, but we just don't agree with it, and that's not only because we do worry about that less than 1% that go unwillingly, but also because we think the money and manpower (and womanpower) excuses are an illusion.

Unless you're a small town police force with a total staff of under 25, you have more than enough manpower (and womanpower) to investigate missing person cases, even other cases in the state outside your jurisdiction. We're not saying it would solve all the crime problems, but more people working on a problem is always better than less people, and we can certainly understand LE's need to keep a high visual profile, which does help to control crime to some degree (or so we've heard), but is every patrol officer always needed to actually do patrol work? We don't believe so, and there goes the arguement that there isn't enough manpower (and womanpower) to investigate missing person cases. And most times, budgetary problems go hand in hand with manpower (and womanpower) problems. In other words, LE's money problems are based on their inability (lack of money) to hire more investigators to investigate, which is an illusion like we said, because they already have enough people, they'd rather just use most of them for patrol work.

Why is that? The simple reason we believe is because patrol officers spend most of their productive time (when they're not patrolling) writing traffic tickets. Traffic tickets bring in money. It seems to us that money is obviously more important than people's lives to many within LE. We don't believe it's the patrol officer's fault, but those higher up who look at the bottom line as more important than really serving and protecting the people. Thankfully, not all of LE is like this, enough of them are that it makes the problem harder to solve.

Would it really break any of them to take a dozen patrol officers (or even just one) off patrol each month and having them work some missing person investigations? Even if it's not a missing person case, but some other kind of cases that involve violence? It's hard to believe that many in law enforcement believe writing traffic tickets is more important than working on the problem of solving violence. Sorry, but we just don't get it.

Anyway, besides homicides and willful disappearances, there is one other major reason why persons go missing is human trafficking, which brings us to our photo of Jessie Foster up at the top of this blogpost. She is suspected, by her mother whom we have exchanged e-mails with and others, of being a victim of human trafficking, and if you click on her picture, it will take you to a group called "Mothers Against Trafficking Humans" (MATH), which was founded by Jessie's mother, and where you can go to read more about Jessie's case:

FROM: http://www.mothersagainsttraffickinghumans.com/

"Heartbreaking and true account of Jessie Foster, a young Canadian woman trafficked in to the United States in 2006 and never seen again. Glendene Grant (Jessie's mother) gives a detailed and emotional account of the days leading up to Jessie's March 29, 2006 disappearance as well as the details of the rigorous and nonstop search for her daughter."

If you think human trafficking only happens in the movies, think again. It actually happens here in the US, and although Jessie Foster is from Canada, our focus will still remain on missing person's in the US. Her story is just one example of a more widespread problem that we here in the US are almost totally unaware of.

When most people think of human trafficking, their frame of reference are sometimes movies like "Taken" or the popular horror flick, "Hostel". We don't have any reason to believe these things don't happen, we just have no real proof they do, mostly just rumours and that's it, but it's worth keeping in mind nonetheless, because there really are some pretty evil people out there that could do things like this, and we can't honestly say that it can never happen, because in all honestly, something similar to this has happened in the distant past and in even more recent times. All you have to do is read any newspaper article about any terrorist group to see just how possible it really is.

But big operations like that are rare, or at least we hope they are anyway, because the alternative is even scarier than any scary movie could do justice to, but nontheless, it's still worth keeping in the back of your mind whenever you think about missing persons, children or adults, just in case, and we'll leave it at that.

One of the myths about human trafficking is that it's all about sex, but if you look at it from a worldwide perspective, you'll learn that more people sign up for it willingly, at first anyway. From a worldwide perspective, most of the trafficking of humans was so they could be used for labor, and only labor. Sexual trafficking is still a huge problem, but the bigger problem is labor trafficking.

And one of the major destinations of this labor is the US.

And it seems, according to some stats, that a higher percentage are trafficked in for sexual reasons. And if you are wondering how this is possible, even within the US, besides having their passport and other documents taken away, please take the time to read and think about the following, and maybe you'll understand how, a little better:

FROM: http://www.nnc-research.com/NewsDetail.aspx?itemid=408

" ...Human traffickers and pimps use all kinds of physical violence against victims, including beating, torturing, starvation, force-feeding with drugs and rape. However, physical violence is not the only tool used to exert pressure on the victims. Criminals use the most extreme forms of violence to gain control over the victims, including threatening to harm their families and relatives, Threatening to kill or disfigure the victim, Preventing victims from communicating with others and etc.

[...]

"The U.S. government and human trafficking

"There was no serious attempt by the U.S. government to combat human trafficking or the modern day slavery, despite it is the second biggest crime in the U.S. In all eras, the U.S. government behave as if this crime only happens in other countries. As a matter of fact, Americans are unaware of its occurrence inside their own country and they cannot even imagine a U.S. citizen would be trafficked inside the country's border. Most people in the U.S. still believe this is something that happens to foreign women, men and children-not something that happens to their own. It is a widespread problem in the U.S. and no one is safe from the harm of it. To prove this, we express true story of 'Theresa Flores'.

"Ms. Theresa Flores, with over 20 years experience in the Social Work field, has experienced the bitterness of this painful crime on her own. She received her Master's in Counseling Education from University of Dayton and a Bachelor's of Social Work from Ball State University. Ms. Flores was appointed to the Ohio Attorney General's Commission on the Study of Human Trafficking in 2009. She has also published two books, 'The Sacred Bath' and 'The Slave Across the Street'.

"The incredible point about her story is her family; Her grandfather was a judge and he served as the president of the democratic society. She believe her grandfather could never imagine his precious grandchild would become a sex slave to a group of men for two long years. She says 'Nothing made me exempt from being targeted, nothing protected me from being raped repeatedly and men paying to do so and nothing was available to me later to give me justice and try to put back the pieces of my life.'

"Theresa Flores

"Her Story:

"'I grew up in the upper middle class of the mid-west. I was a good, Irish Catholic girl. My dad was a big executive. He got regular promotions and we were transferred every two years. Bigger houses, nicer cars. My sophomore year of high school, we moved from a small country town to an affluent suburb of Detroit.

"'Shortly after I moved there, I developed a crush on a boy. Since I wasn’t allowed to date until I was 16, he spent a lot of time just talking to me. Just being nice. And then one day he offered me a ride home from school. By then I had a crush on him, I was 15, thought this was great. But he ended up driving to HIS house first. Red flags went off in my head. I had been well taught. But I ignored the red flags and because I knew him and thought everything would be ok. He invited me to come inside and again I ignored the red flags I believed everyone was a good person.

"'But that afternoon, all the red flags were right and I was drugged and then raped. I was a virgin, Catholic and from a good family. It was devastating. I didn’t tell my parents because I thought they would be mad at me for disobeying and I would just deal with it on my own. But it got worse.

"'Unknowingly, two of his male relatives that were involved in a large underground criminal ring had taken pictures. They had a Plan. And it was that I would be forced to earn them back by working for them. If I didn’t do what they said, they threatened to show the pictures to my father. It would have been shameful if he thought differently of me. They threatened to show them to my dad’s boss. In those days, he would have lost his job, which was the most important thing to him. They threatened to post the pictures around school and my reputation, with trying to make new friends was very important to me. And they said they would show them to my priest.

"'These men watched my every move. They were everywhere, placed in my school, in a class with me, went to same church, and would come by my part time fast food job. They always knew when my dad was out of town. Driving by slowly, parking on the street near the house, they knew when I was babysitting and were able to track me down everywhere I went. Occasionally cars would follow me home. A man in this group, with a knife on his lap would force me to get in and I would be taken and driven away. Not knowing where I would end up, know how long I would be gone, with no way of escaping until they were finished with me. Time and time again. And I was just a kid.

"'These men threatened to hurt my family if I told. Tortured me psychologically and physically daily for almost two years. And I was only 15. I became a middle class teenage sex slave to them to earn back the photos. I was taken places didn’t know where I was and forced to have sex with hundreds of men while it assisted their business. They made big deals, and lots of money off my pain. I was told 'I own you' and occasionally dead animals would appear in my mailbox as a reminder of what would happen to me if I told anyone.

"'One night, my junior in high school, I was kidnapped by men in this group and taken to an inner city Detroit nasty, dirty motel. It was announced, as I was dragged into the small motel room, with 2 dozen men waiting for my arrival, that 'here was a reward, a payment for job well done'. I had become an incentive for men to continue their hard work and this is what they could receive. I was 'a payment for a job well done', and that night, I was sold to the highest bidder. That night I was drugged, beaten and sexually molested to point of unconsciousness. When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was and had no way home. I had no id, no money, and no shoes. No idea what to do!

"'No one helped me. No one saved me. There was no law against this back then. And no services to help me even if I had been rescued.

"'Every child is vulnerable in some way, no matter if you live in the inner city of Toledo, Cleveland, Cincinnati or Columbus or if you are raised with the best of everything. While many of the victims are runaways, girls in the foster care system sold by their own family members, there also are a lot of other Theresa’s out there too. I know, I get their emails pleading for help. My grandfather was a prominent judge and had the incredible honor of being selected as a juror at the Nuremburg Trials. My father was an executive with General Electric and it was not unusual to eat Sunday dinners with Monsignors and congressmen.

"'Yet I was vulnerable.

"'The night I was abducted and taken to an inner city motel, I went through more hell in those several hours than most people endure in their entire lives. These traffickers are good at what they do. They are smart, the demand is huge and they have found ways to make a great deal of money off innocent people.

"'It will take me a lifetime to recover from the psychological, physical and mental abuse that I endured for nearly two years as a child. The people that did this to me were never prosecuted. There was no law back then to protect me. And I ask you, are we so naïve to believe that this is a huge problem in other countries, but not here? Are we so naïve to believe that it can’t and doesn’t happen in our own state?'"

Edited by Mr. Tim King
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february122013/human-trafficking.php
source:NNC

Theresa's story is not really a missing person story, at least not one of the still-missing stories, but it does make us wonder if maybe some (if not many) of the other still-missing persons (or even just those who went missing for a short while) also have similar stories to tell. How many missing persons go through this kind of thing, without ever getting the chance to get out of it, ever, or if they do, are too afraid or too humiliated to talk or tell anyone about it?

If you know the answer to this, and can prove it, or know where we can go to find the answer ourselves, or are a victim yourself, we would be very interested in hearing from you. Please contact us HERE with any information you may have, so that we can update this blogpost appropriately, or if you just need someone to talk to.

ALL CONTACT with us under the subject of "missing persons" and "human trafficking" will be kept under the strictest of confidence, and will not be revealed or published for any reason or in any way or form, including vocal, unless you first give us written permission to do otherwise.

THAT TROUBLESOME (LESS THAN) ONE PERCENT

Since less than 1% of those who are reported missing to the FBI are still-missing, it creates the illusion that missing persons are not that big a problem, but that less than one percent averages out to more than 3 persons going missing (and are still-missing) in every month in every state in every year since 1975.

Those numbers are an average over 40 years (from 1975) of over 84,000 missing persons filed with the FBI that are still-missing. When you add to that, the more than 40,000 (estimated by the FBI) unidentified bodies still needing identities in the US, we have to wonder; how can anyone not be concerned about this?

We think the reason is because of the illusive nature and aura that surrounds them all together. If within 30 days more than 99% of the reported missing persons return home or are found, that means (unless there is obvious signs of foul play, or that missing person is not considered a runaway) most missing person investigations are stalled for at least that long (30 days) while everyone waits and hopes for them to return.

By then, 30 days later when the still-missing don't return, most people have either forgotten or have other other things going on that help them not to remember, except for the families, friends and loved ones, and also hopefully LE.

Unfortunately by then, unless something new comes up, LE has pretty much exhausted all possible leads, and every new day, makes the case that much colder, as memories and recollections fade, it makes even those leads harder to follow, but sometimes they do help, but that's rare, and sometimes the missing person's body is found, but what if it's never identified as that missing person? What happens is it becomes one of the over 40,000 unidentified bodies (estimated by the FBI) waiting for identies all over the US. There are many reasons why a still-missing person case becomes stalled, and that's one them.

Many of the others involves the way missing persons are investigated. If an Amber Alert is deemed necessary, they do that, but then and while they're doing that, they are also trying piece together the missing person's movements in the last hours before they disappeared. Nowadays, security cameras have helped alot in this area, but while they're doing that, they are also talking to family, friends and other acquaitances.

All this produces leads (questions that need answers) that are followed up, which either produce the missing person, or more leads, or to dead ends. As more and more leads are followed up, and unless the missing person has been found; over time, they tend to decrease to the point that there are no more leads to follow up and the case then becomes stalled. Sometimes LE (to their credit) will go on TV and ask the public for their help. Sometimes this produces more leads and sometimes the missing person is found, but over time, leads will diminish to no leads at all to follow up and the case becomes stalled, and this is what has happened in almost every single still-missing person case on record with the FBI.

At this point, and although LE will disagree (saying they're still working on all these cases, which mostly means they're waiting for new leads to follow up on), it's left up to the family and their friends to keep looking.

And that's the way it stands today with most of the over 84,000 still-missing persons, and unless some kind of media outlet, whether over the air, internet, or on paper, chooses to feature one of these still-missing person cases, most of these still-missing person cases will still remain active.

And that's when some friends and family move on, but to some people, those missing persons become their lives. It's all they talk about, and sadly that drives people away from them, who just want them to move on, and go back to being the person they were before their family member or friend disappeared.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy, and even though neither of us has gone through the experience of having someone we know go missing, we can feel the anguish in those families and friends in the news stories and videos and personal accounts, that we have to stop. Those people can't stop. The family and friends of the still-missing are stuck in that unimaginable world of missing persons.

What's scary to us about this world is that since still-missing persons aren't really high on anybodies radar, it makes it easier for persons to go missing unwillingly and unnoticed. This could happen to someone you know and love, or it could even happen to you.

We saw a video on an over-the-air newscast, here in Seatytle, of some woman being grabbed and dragged kicking by some unknown person to their car. It was a security camera video. But, as far as we know to today, this woman has never been seen again.

We know for a fact that Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka did that very thing when they abducted Kristen French before they eventually killed her, so we believe something like that happening is quite possible. Our problem is that even though we know most missing persons return, we think that the kind of thing Bernardo and Homolka did is happening to every single person that goes missing. The odds are against us, but we still can't shake that feeling of horror that the missing person is going through at the hands of someone like Bernardo and Homolka, and that's on top of the anguish of the family and loved ones who are missing this person.

It's not something most people talk or write about when they discuss missing persons, especially to the family and friends of the missing. It's an understandable sentiment, and even though we agree with it, and even though our research into missing persons is what initiated our research into serial killers, serial killers are what now haunt our research into the missing. It's what scares the hell out of us every time we read a missing person story.

SERIAL KILLERS AND THE MISSING

Dave started out researching missing persons while researching the unexplained. Researching the unexplained led to the mysterious disappearances of Judge Crater and Jimmy Hoffa. Most people don't remember the Judge Crater case, but they do remember Jimmy Hoffa. It even pops up in the news every now and again, most recently a couple years ago (2013):

FROM: http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/11945/ex-detroit_mob_boss_tony_zerilli_who_triggered_fbi_dig_for_hoffa_is_dead_at_87#.VU5X5vlViko

Ex-Detroit Mob Boss Tony Zerilli, Who Triggered FBI Dig for Hoffa, Is Dead at 87 - MI USA
April 3rd, 2015, 2:03 PM
Allan Lengel " ...After being out of the spotlight for quite a long time, Zerilli surfaced as a very public figure in January 2013 when he told NBC 4 New York reporter Marc Santia, formerly of WDIV that Hoffa was buried in northern Oakland County, but he had nothing to do with the 1975 disappearance. At the time of the Hoffa disappearance, that property belonged to another top-ranking mobster... "

While doing preliminary research for this case and other unexplained phenomena like ghost, and also while belonging to a Yahoogroup about ghost, he met this other member of the group who's friend had disappeared, and they began exchanging e-mails about the different aspects of the missing person world.

Finally this other member had found a volunteer group (they also had a yahoogroup) that helped to match up unidentified bodies with missing persons, using the internet as one of their tools for accomplishing this.

It's where he also met Todd Matthews, who Dave thinks was also one of the co-founding members of the group, or at least helped make it what it is today. The name of this group is "The Doe Network", and we'll tell you a little more about Todd after we tell you a little more about the group itself:

FROM: http://www.doenetwork.org/

"Doe Network Mission Statement

"The Doe Network is a 100% volunteer organization devoted to assisting investigating agencies in bringing closure to national and international cold cases concerning Missing & Unidentified Persons. It is our mission to give the nameless back their names and return the missing to their families.

"We hope to accomplish this mission in three ways:
- By providing exposure to these cases on our web site
- By providing credible potential matches between missing and unidentified persons to investigating agencies
- By striving to get much needed and deserved media exposure to these cases

"We receive and accept tips regarding cases featured on our site. All relevant information will be forwarded to the proper investigating agencies. While Doe Network values your privacy, we will respond to court orders and/or requests made by investigating agencies in a timely manner regarding visitor information. We are not private detectives.

"Members within our organization work together to help in any way possible, utilizing individual skillsets. All of our volunteers, and users of our site, are very important to us."

This is where Dave started learning the real story behind missing and unidentified persons, which inevitably led to serial killers.

Now we'll tell you little bit about Mr. Matthews, but first a little background.

On May 17, 1968 [], near Georgetown, Kentucky...

FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Ann_Hackmann_Taylor

" ...Wilbur Riddle, who had been scavenging for glass insulators alongside U.S. Route 25, discovered the decomposing body wrapped in a heavy green canvas tarpaulin, such as might be used to wrap up a tent. A police investigation failed to identify the deceased woman, or name any suspects in her apparent murder.

[...]

"In 1998, the Tent Girl was positively identified as Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor as a result of the ongoing efforts of Todd Matthews. Matthews, the son-in-law of Wilbur Riddle, had maintained a longstanding interest in the case. He had collected information on the Tent Girl and combed through many missing persons reports on the Internet.

"Matthews discovered a report from the family of a young woman who went missing in Lexington, Kentucky in late 1967. He forwarded information on the Tent Girl to the Hackmann family. The family believed that this was likely their missing relative, which led to the exhumation of the body and DNA testing, which confirmed her identity... "

It helped prove that the internet wasn't a totally evil wasteland. That it could also be used for good. As a matter of fact, according to Dave, that's what many of the volunteers do is search the internet for clues. One of them, Dave's friend, has even spent time on porn sites, not only searching for her friend, but also trying to match up any of the other unidentified bodies.

The following is more about Mr Matthews, whom Dave has communicated with on numerous time in personal e-mails when he was with the group:

FROM: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Tent-Girl-and-the-start-of-the-Doe-Network-1184519.php

" ...Solving the mystery inspired Matthews to join the nascent Doe Network, a cyber bulletin board of missing-person cases, and help build it into a national database linked with law enforcement sources. The Doe Network, founded in 1999, now includes more than 1,000 unidentified listings and more than 3,000 missing-person cases.

"Matthews also helped start EDAN -- Everyone Deserves a Name -- an organization of volunteer artists who provide pro bono forensic sketches and clay reconstructions of faces to aid with identifications... "

Mr. Matthews, according to Dave, is a respected non-LE member of the missing person community. He is respected by both professionals and non-professionals alike. He has an easy way about him, that inspires confidence and you find yourself telling him things you wouldn't tell even close friends. An all around nice guy that is not only very knowledgeable about missing persons and the problems associated with it, but also deserving of every bit of recognition he gets.

According to Dave. I personally don't know the guy, at least not as well as Dave does anyway, but he does sound like a nice guy.

From Dave's friend, he was always receiving private e-mails about her search for her friend which eventually lead to a multiple murderer.

Dave's not a hundred percent sure how that all turned out, because when he left the group for personal reasons, he lost contact with her, and because of many hard-drive meltdowns; he doesn't have her e-addy or any other contact information in order to find out.

But that's not important. What is important is that this and other post by other members of "The Doe Network" yahoogroup were making links between serial killers and missing and unidentified persons, and that got Dave started looking at, and then researching serial killers, and almost all the text about serial killers had numerous stories about missing persons in them. Missing persons are sometimes the second thing to come to investigators attention when they begin to suspect a serial killer is at work. The first thing are the bodies that start to pile up. Even then, they still tend to shy away from announcing a serial killer is claiming victims. They need proof-positive evidence linking the cases, before they will announce something like that.

Serial killers are scary, because they could be anyone, or just someone walking by you in a huge mall parking-lot. No one around and you're gone. Never to be seen again, but before you die, you will come face-to-face with all kinds of unimaginable horrors. Serial killers feed off that horror like a vampire feeds off the blood of its victims. They love it, and are always on the hunt for their next victim.

Always.

IN CONCLUSION

There is no conclusion for at least 84,000 family and friends of those still missing in the US.

Please, if you're one of those still missing who went willingly, please take a moment to contact someone so that you can let them know you are OK. Even if you have to travel to another city, state or country to keep your location a secret.

Please.

OUR SOURCES:

http://www.mothersagainsttraffickinghumans.com/index.php/jessie-s-story.html

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Wikipedia: Missing Person

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/19/mom-and-daughter-14-vanish-after-trip-to-nyc-times-square/

http://www.namus.gov/

http://www.namus.gov/about.htm

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ncic/ncic-missing-person-and-unidentified-person-statistics-for-2013

http://www.missingandunsolved.com/

http://www.missingpersonsofamerica.com/

http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/

http://www.doenetwork.org/

Interpol: Database of Missing Persons and Unidentified Bodies

http://www.seattle.gov/police/

http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2014/08/26/by-the-numbers-how-many-cops-are-there-in-the-usa/

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/human_trafficking

http://www.mothersagainsttraffickinghumans.com/

http://www.nnc-research.com/NewsDetail.aspx?itemid=408

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february122013/human-trafficking.php

http://thecoveringhouse.org/act/resources-2/sex-trafficking-statistics-source-documentation/

http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview

http://www.traffickingresourcecenter.org/

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC): Global Report On Trafficking In Persons

American Thinker: Trafficking Estimates and Statistics

Rolling Stone: 5 Things You Didn't Know About Human Trafficking

http://www.havocscope.com/tag/human-trafficking/

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/06/971401/girls-human-trafficking-and-modern-slavery-in-america/

http://arkofhopeforchildren.org/child-trafficking/child-trafficking-statistics

US State Dept: Trafficking in Persons Report 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bernardo

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/11945/ex-detroit_mob_boss_tony_zerilli_who_triggered_fbi_dig_for_hoffa_is_dead_at_87#.VU5X5vlViko

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Ann_Hackmann_Taylor

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Tent-Girl-and-the-start-of-the-Doe-Network-1184519.php

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1696&dat=19980423&id=9PEaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=20cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6796,2875583&hl=en

Since the article we linked to above is from an Alabama online newspaper, it makes sense that it would use Alabama as an example of all the other problems with the plan, and many of those involve expenses other than tuition, like rent, food, transportation, books, etc., etc.

All those problems would be solved if an existing system (a High School Diploma), that was already in place and paid for, automatically became an Associate's Degree after graduation from high school.

More people might even go get a Bachelors Degree, because that would now only take two years to get instead of four, and thus be cheaper.

One of the first problems, of course, would be that high school teachers would then want to be paid as much as college teachers, and that would mean teacher's unions would get involved, and who knows what'll happen after that gets all finished, but the federal government could help out here by making high school teacher's salaries exempt from income tax for four years, or more, while this was all worked out, and to also help give those same teachers time to upgrade their educational requirements so they can teach college courses.

Which brings us to the next big problem, the biggest granddaddy of them all problems, and that problem is a hurdle that needs to be jumped for Dave's idea to even begin to get off the ground and become reality, and that is the College Accreditation System.

While looking up "college accreditation" in Google, we ran across the following piece from the Wikipedia entry, "regional accreditation":

FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation

"Regionally accredited higher education institutions are predominantly academically oriented, non-profit, or state-owned institutions. Nationally accredited schools are predominantly for-profit and offer vocational, career or technical programs.

"Every college has the right to set standards and refuse to accept transfer credits. However, if a student has gone to a school that is only nationally accredited and not regionally accredited, it may be particularly difficult to transfer credits (or even credit for a degree earned) if he or she then applies to a regionally accredited college. A 2005 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that, in making decisions on credit transfer, about 84 percent of U.S. higher education institutions considered whether the sending institution is accredited, and many had policies stating that they would accept credits only from regionally accredited institutions. About 63 percent of institutions told the GAO that they would accept credit from any regionally accredited institution, but only 14 percent similarly accepted credits from nationally accredited schools. Regional institutions are reluctant to accept credits from nationally accredited institutions due, in part, to national accreditors' less stringent standards for criteria such as faculty qualifications and library resources. Students who are planning to transfer credits from a nationally accredited school to a regionally accredited school are advised to ensure that the regionally accredited school will accept the credits before they enroll.

"In general, the names of U.S. post-secondary institutions and their degree titles do not indicate whether the institution is accredited or the type of accreditation it holds. Rules on this topic vary from state to state. Regulations of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission require that post-secondary institutions in the state of Tennessee must be regionally accredited to use the word 'university' in their names, and that a school lacking regional accreditation may not use the word 'college' in its name without adding a qualifier such as 'career', 'vocational', 'business', 'technical', 'art', 'Bible', or 'Christian'. Tennessee rules also specify that only regionally accredited schools can issue 'liberal arts' degrees or degree titles such as Associate of Arts or Science and Bachelor of Arts or Science... "

In short, what I got from all that was that the important thing about college credit was the transfer. Will one college accept credits (or transfer credits) from another college, that can then be used to get the final credits for a degree at another college, without having to take all those credit courses again, and that's where the major hang-up will be as far as High School Diplomas being used as credit for college courses will be, and that is will colleges accept them as such? That's the big question.

I not only learned that the transferability of credit depends on accreditation, but also that accreditation depends on an institution meeting certain standards by either a regional or national accreditating agency, which brings up two questions. What are these standards and can most high schools, in general, meet these standards?

FROM: http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg2.html

"Accreditation in the U.S.

"The United States has no federal Ministry of Education or other centralized authority exercising single national control over postsecondary educational institutions in this country. The states assume varying degrees of control over education, but, in general, institutions of higher education are permitted to operate with considerable independence and autonomy. As a consequence, American educational institutions can vary widely in the character and quality of their programs.

"In order to insure a basic level of quality, the practice of accreditation arose in the United States as a means of conducting nongovernmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and programs. Private educational associations of regional or national scope have adopted criteria reflecting the qualities of a sound educational program and have developed procedures for evaluating institutions or programs to determine whether or not they are operating at basic levels of quality... "

I still have yet to find what these standards for accreditation are, especially as it applies to the quality and kind of course materials that need to be offered by the prospective accrediting institution.

As of this writing, and even without knowing what the standards are for college accreditation, it's easy for us to see that the probabilities of it being attained by high schools are slim at best, but certainly not impossible. It just needs a few key people to take the idea seriously. Obama's proposal mentioned at the beginning of the post is definitely a good start in the right direction.

The article shows a video of someone trying to kick the robot over, and it does kind of resembled a dog, and it acted like one too, because the robot did almost exactly what a dog would if you tried to kick it over, with the legs kicking around to balance itself. It was really creepy looking, now that I think about it, and one of the creepy things was that the robot didn't try to bite you for kicking it. I half expected it to, even though I knew it didn't have a mouth to bite with.

But, would you kick it? It's really no different than kicking your TV. At least, that's what Dave says, but he admitted he wouldn't kick it, and I have to agree, I wouldn't kick it either.

It would feel too much like I was substituting the robot for my dog, and I would never hurt my dog. Never.

But, it is interesting to watch though, which brings up the next question, what if it looked like a human? Would you feel comfortable kicking it than?

And now it seems that some other people have picked up on this, most notably CNN:

FROM: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/tech/spot-robot-dog-google/

Is it cruel to kick a robot dog?
By Phoebe Parke, for CNN
Updated 8:43 AM ET, Fri February 13, 2015

' ...But more recently, the conversation flared up again, most of it stemming from the video released this week showing Boston Dynamics employees trying to kick Spot over in order to show how robust it is. The video spread around the Internet like wildfire and raised questions about ethics, the future of robotics and Google's intentions... '

Maybe we should be thinking about how we treat our electronics nowadays. You know, just in case the uprising comes sooner than we think it will. Why take chances, if you don't have to.

So the next time you feel like pounding the living shit out of your keyboard or throwing your tablet against the wall, just think about that robot dog that was made to be kicked, if only for a minute, and just maybe that feeling will pass, and you'll be safe again... for now anyway.

Stephen Hawking predicts robot apocalypse coming within 100 years
By TJ Dietsch May. 13, 2015 1:26 pm
http://www.geek.com/news/stephen-hawking-predicts-robopocalypse-in-next-century-1622734/
"If you thought the title villain in Avengers: Age of Ultron was scary: just wait, because one of the biggest brains on the planet thinks a robot takeover is likely in the next century... "

Could your next pet be a robot?
By Rowena Lindsay, Staff Writer
MAY 12, 2015
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0512/Could-your-next-pet-be-a-robot
"The next step in artificial intelligence technology may be robot pets, at least according to one animal welfare researcher at the University of Melbourne... "

Japan's Robot Dogs Get Funerals as Sony Looks Away - Japan
3/8/15 AT 2:34 PM
BY LAUREN WALKER
http://www.newsweek.com/japans-robot-dogs-get-funerals-sony-looks-away-312192
"In 1999, Sony launched a robot dog named Aibo in the U.S. and Japan that not only responded to external stimuli, but was able to learn and express itself. These capabilities, a press release from the time explained, 'allow each unit to develop a unique personality including behavior shaped by the praise and scolding of its owner.' And Aibo, short for 'Artificially Intelligent Robot,' quickly became a hit--especially in Japan... "

OUR COMPUTER CRASHED (December 7, 2014)

     Finally bought new one (January 29, 2015)

          2014 <<<<    2015    >>>> 2016