Honestly, I haven't paid much attention to the areas that have been searched since several of the searchers approached Billie and basically told her that Brad didn't know what he was talking about, and they were going to search where they thought was important. I about lost it. I know that not all of the searchers, or even (hopefully) the majority felt this way.... but for anyone to have the gall to dismiss everything that Brad worked so hard to set up just made me sick. Your best bet on finding out the covered areas would be to get ahold of redcat. If she doesn't know offhand, she can find out.
You got me to thinking also. I haven't thought of this place in years - I think we called it the 'hot spot'. When I was in high school, it was a very popular place to swim, or just go to drink. I can't remember exactly where it is, but I know that it is a posted, fenced area. The water there was very warm and full of currents... because of the power plant's intake vents (or whatever you would call them). And dangerous because supposedly the suction is strong enough to pull you under. I have no idea if the plant is still set up that way, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to check it out.
Personally, I have to believe that Hailey is still alive. And until I know for a fact otherwise, that is what I will believe. At the same time, I realize that areas need to be searched, if for no other reason than to clear them. That is why I am furious that TES has not been allowed to come in. Yes, there is a vast amount of land that you really cannot narrow down to any certain place to look, but the lakes, ponds, fishing holes, and the Colorado River (in the few places water might be) could dang sure be searched and ruled out. Our city manager has mentioned how vast Lake Colorado City is, and lamented how expensive it would be to search it, but TES doesn't charge for their services, do they? That is what I have been led to believe anyway.
I see no reason at all that TES is not allowed to come in and clear at least the Colorado City and Champion lakes.... unless there is something down there (totally unrelated to Hailey) that someone doesn't want to be found. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but WTH? I am beginning to believe that something mighty interesting would be found.
When I first contacted TES, I was told in no uncertain terms that they did not have to be either invited or welcomed by LE. Only that a parent had to ask them to come and then inform LE. I immediately called Billie, and she called and asked them to come, called LE to tell them that TES was coming, and then called TES back to let them know LE had been informed. TES told her they would be coming either that day or the next morning (they are 8 to 10 hours away from us, and it has been so long that I don't remember which day they said they were coming... it was late morning getting close to noon after all the phone calls were made). Keep in mind that it was very easy to get someone to talk to us, and they never made us wait very long on hold.
As soon as I heard that it had been reported that they were on standby (and I heard it here first), I called Billie and asked her what had happened. She had no idea that they were not coming after all. So I called TES back. Several times. And besides being forwarded to this person and that person, and spending a lot of time on hold. And no one was able to talk to me - oh, I talked to lots of different people, but no one that was 'authorized' to give me any information. Finally, I got the voicemail of the woman I had originally talked to that morning. And left two or three messages.
When it was nearly 5pm, I called again, in a last ditch effort to get anyone to tell me anything. And I finally found someone to help me out a little bit, bless her heart. She gave me the cell number of the woman I talked to that morning. So I called her, of course getting voicemail. I am not ashamed to admit that I begged her to call me. And she did call me back.
She was very apologetic, but could not explain the standby status to me. I asked her if I had misunderstood her earlier explaination of not needing LE's permission to come as long as a parent requested them and informed LE that they would be coming. I don't blame her, and in fact I think she felt very bad. She told me that I had understood her correctly, but that LE had put them on standby. I kept on, and finally she told me (paraphrasing) "I'm sorry, but LE called us and told us not to come. They have us on standby. As soon as they allow us to come, we will. We have our mobile home packed, and we also have access to a plane and a pilot. I promise, as soon as LE allows us to come, we will leave immediately, and can be there in a matter of hours."
And this was how many days/weeks ago? It really makes me sick. I realize that they are (or were) in Florida on another case now, and of course they cant drop everything and come here. But they were ready to come, and were not allowed to. WTH could have been said to them to make them throw out their standard protocol regarding getting involved?
Sorry for the ramble, but I just cannot get over this.
