"1. The best people for investigations of very old cases of this sort are cold case units or retired detectives willing to work for a fixed fee...
"2. Focus on what could have drawn Anna out of the house or the yard. Despite the dog handler's reservations, (the prosecutor) says that the tracking dogs are usually extremely reliable, even several rainy days later, and the path they traced probably more significant than anybody thinks. Could somebody Anna knew have been waving at her down by the creek, enticing her out of the yard?
"3. Focus on school, community--the creek and the crazy father might have been too much of a distraction. (The prosecutor) says school bus drivers, teachers and acquaintances frequently figure in these cases. Anna was beautiful, charismatic and gregarious, and had recently figured in an amateur theatrical that attracted a lot of attention. Did anyone suddenly leave the school, either an employee or a student's family around that time?"
The above is a direct quote from my friend, whom I am calling "Polly" in this post. She and the lawyer had other suggestions which we have tried to no avail (such as having DNA extracted from Anna's possessions. I gave up three little pairs of shoes with some reluctance, but the labs were not able to get anything from them.)
One thing I have become aware of recently is the personal impact Anna's case has made on my friends and their families. Many of them have for years been very fearful for their own children because we have not been able to find answers to Anna's disappearance. This is, of course, something they would not want to tell me about directly, but I am now beginning to see this secondary shock wave very clearly.
I am deeply appreciative to "Polly" and her expert for her observations and suggestions.
Since finishing the searching for Anna book, several questions and things have come back to mind, at least for me and some possible unanswered questions that I may have missed. I've spent some time reading some old posts too, to refresh my memory on what has been done.
Based on the prosecutors suggestions, a few things have come to me. I've always wondered why someone would choose a rainy Tuesday to abduct Anna. Then I thought maybe it was someone who knew you, or of you and just enough of your daily routine they would have known you were with Anna at school on Mondays and were unsure if Joe Ford would have worked a full day or not with the weather. The white van got me thinking about contractors/construction workers. Many are typically in a white van. It was a rainy day, trades people were off work who were working in the immediate area. Did Mickles have work going on around the farm in the days or weeks just prior to Anna going missing? Did any of the neighbors or anyone in the immediate area? Perhaps individual names may not be recalled from that long ago, but maybe a name or company name could. Maybe someone who walked off the job before the project was finished? Perhaps searching for a news article with the company name or person with some old criminal history might be worth investigating. I'm not sure if anyone had considered that angle. Might be worth contacting or writing Mickles...... he was overseeing any construction at that time.
The two horsemen who helped with the search. Are you still in contact with them Annasmom? I wonder if they might recall some contact people or names, associations with members of the horse club and possibly the motorcycle club. Anyone disappear unexplained about that time?
Along the same lines as a possible contractor/construction worker angle, anything unusual happen to any family, friends or acquantainces of anyone in your immediate circle or Anna's peers. Maybe someone she had a play date with in the days or weeks prior to going missing? An acquaintance, friend, family member of anyone she was in contact with? any one with "troubles" that maybe they felt uncomfortable with or uneasy about but dismissed as being related to Anna? Maybe something a little hush hush but gossiped among locals?
I also can't get it out of my mind that Anna was so close to the front gate and guest parking when she was last seen. How was Anna with guests? Where these visitors friends that she saw regularly and knew as family friends? Was the activity with the number of visitors that day somewhat usual? Something is telling me perhaps just after the last visitor arrived, someone else pulled near the guest parking or an area not seen from the house and Anna mistakingly greeted them as another visitor. Which would lead her out of the yard and possibly explain the short time between her last being seen and missing.
A BFH guestion..... was there any car rental receipts? Anything to indicate the two G's would have rented a van near that time? Not that I have any idea what we would do with that, other than a tie to the two G's. Was it ever verified in any way other than the medical paperwork found in the BFH GW was really at work that afternoon? would it be possible to find out from whereever he was working at the time this many years later?
This next one is difficult for me to ask. Feel free not to answer if you like.
Lastly, GW's animosity towards you, and the venom you have said he spewed at times verbally. I'm wondering if it was planned numerically or an odd coincidence that Anna went missing on the same date of the month that you and Joe had married just a few months later. Something is not sitting with me right about either of the G's thoughts on another man raising GW's daughter. The comments in the book about GW's feelings of guilt for taking her brothers away from their father got me thinking along this line. It doesn't seem to me there was much time between GW being aware of your remarriage and Anna going missing. I'm not sure how that will help.... but it has been bothering me.
Just thinking outloud..... for more possibilities and ideas.
ETA: Sorry for the lengthy post.
