Mickleham, again, you are a fresh and valuable presence here, thanks!
1. In retrospect, do you recall MF grooming any of the boys, or do you feel you were all groomed to some extent? Or is it more accurate to say that even after everything that's happened you really can't recall anything untoward about his behavior? I don't feel I was groomed in anyway, and I can't recall that anyone else was being groomed either. In retrospect there where a couple of things that where weird but at the time no one thought so.
2. I have reached out to people in trouble with the law before, in part because I feel its our heritage as Americans to stick up for the essential presumption of innocence until proven guilty; and also in part because it's incumbent in my beliefs to defend the weak and offer a hand to those in serious trouble, even if the trouble is their own fault (call that my spiritual side if you like). So, with my self-righteous introduction in place I would like to ask why you re-established contact with MF after he was a known sex offender? Not really relevant to the case, but I don't mind sharing. MF never harmed me in anyway, and although I deplore his act's, I decided that he had held up his end of society's bargain, and did his "time". I was not worried that MF would harm me and all my interactions with him where great. I knew he was a "spiritual" person, and thought (wrongly of course) that maybe he truly was repentant and there would be no further issues. As an aside, when I reacquainted myself with MF I was going to school to be a Police Officer (I finished school and "skills" but life has taken me in a different direction and I have no LE affiliation), that never seemed to make him nervous in any visible way.
I guess I'll say this..........as a society we have to deal with these offenders when they are released whether we like it or not. In my case because I had had a friendship with him, I rekindled it. I won't be doing that in the future.
Fascinating stuff. Really. Thanks again.
Do you see MF's talent-scout-type work as a vehicle to satiate a sexual need or is that going too far? I think it was an opportunity to "scout" future victims. Certainly after the fact I can see how he groomed some of his most recent victims, though again at the time it didn't occur to me.
Did MF have business partners that you noticed? He sold his company to a friend after his latest conviction, but I didn't know any of his business dealings. Regular friends that you knew? I was not friends with any of his friends. I mainly saw him on "set" when doing extra work, the occasional lunch when I would pick up my check. Or anyone who repeatedly seemed to be hanging around? Nope.
I don't know how anyone could hear that MF was on Jacob's very tiny, obscure and hidden street that night and not immediately assume involvement in this case. Let me share a crude analogy a cop-friend of mine once gave me: if there is one dog in the room and some missing dog food in the room, what is the easiest and obvious explanation?
So I agree with your hypothetical as a potential explanation here. We've had this come up recently from someone else on WS that it may have been technically possible to overhear the conversation. I hope we can explore this further. I do to. I would really like to know what his alibi is and when it was checked out. Was it checked out during that first week or only after he was convicted of his first sex crime. Is it 100% or only more than likely true. Could he have a 100% alibi for the actual abduction (as in he was at in the house speaking to the parents of the kid he dropped off in Kiwi Court), but still could of helped in someway (making an auto patch call, or standing as a lookout at tom thumb).
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