Somer Thompson POI Pre-Trial Discussion

[ChickenPants]

I think that laws on sex offenders vary from state to state. That is a huge problem. There should be one law.

Where I live, Registered Sex Offenders are what are called "Level Three-most likely to re offend". Level One and Level Two are not in a data base here of sex offenders.

They would be in a data base of criminals, but not in a search for sex offenders. The Jacob Wetterling Foundation has info on this type of thing, I believe.

If not, there is a website somewhere, that I read ,of states that have very lax laws regarding sex offenders.

Where I live, there is community notification of Level three sex offenders moving into a neighborhood. There are neighborhood meetings, and it is reported in the newspaper for all to see.

The city that I live by has made a new law defining where sex offenders can live.

Some people, whose neighborhoods were the target areas because they are low income neighborhoods, complained to their city councilor. He promptly got the law changed within a couple of weeks of the citizens asking him.

There were objections to it stating the fact that with no place to live, these offenders would be more likely to re offend. Also, an artificial safe zone does not mean that they can't get victims outside of the zone.

But because the city has a low rent area,, other places were sending their offenders here. We only have 9 in the whole city-Level Three, that is.

Someone in the city suggested a group home place to live under supervision which might be a good idea

We can keep locking them up, but it doesn't change the fact that they have made victims out there, some of whom never recover or they kill their victims.

I would rather see a ton of money and resources put into finding out what makws these weirdos and then stop whatever it is.

It seems like there is an epidemic out there. But I suppose that there is no vaccine out there, so there is no monetary reason for people to jump on the cause.

I am incredulous reading your first paragraph..."Level I and Level II are not put into a data base"?????????? Oh My God. What determines the levels? Touching vs. molesting vs. raping...you are saying in essence that it's like the three strikes law - first two don't really count. Even though little human beings have been harmed.

I don't think all the money in the world can stop these weirdos no matter why it is determined they do it. It is a disease. It can be stopped by medicine. But criminals can assert their rights to deny medicine, can't they?

The only way to stop them is to keep ALL OF THEM AWAY FROM KIDS. Once a person has offended, no matter WHAT LEVEL, IT ENDS RIGHT THERE.

Maybe it takes grassroots parental involvement to police their own neighborhoods, point out the pervs, insist LE take action, go to the legislature, the supreme court, whatever. Apparently the system does not get involved seriously until someone is scarred for life, even maimed. Or murdered, like Somer. Too late then.

 

[Kimberlyd125]

I think he would have taken any pretty little girl that he had a chance to grab that day. Somer was by herself and he grabbed her.
He could not have planned on her being by herself because she was with a group and ran ahead. He would not have known that was gonna happen.

JMO

 

[Kimberlyd125]

That being said, it could still be found that it wad premeditated. Premeditation can be formed in a matter of seconds.

He could have planned to take a little girl and grabbed Somer. Still premeditated.

 

[ChickenPants]

BBM
They made a special visit to most houses in that neighborhood. I think it was in the media they even searched the school's superintendant's home.

You're missing my point on the term sex offender. It is used to describe a person who is just that, a sex offender. But, once they are caught and convicted, they must register and then they become a RSO.
You can be a SO and nobody ever knows it.
We use the term SO here all the time. JH is a SO, but he is not a convicted SO or a RSO. Once he is convicted, he will be a convicted SO or RSO.
It does not mean people know a SO is a SO and nobody bothered to catch him.
I could go to the store right now and take something without paying for it. I would be a thief. But, I wasn't caught so nobody would know I was a thief. Same thing.

Well that is a very good explanation. It would be a shame, too, if people suspected or knew you were a thief and did nothing about it. Or waited until you not only robbed someone but killed them before saying, "Oh, right, I forgot that I suspected all along she was a thief". LOL

 

[Kimberlyd125]

But JH has never been convicted of anything Chickenpants. Her family and LE could very well have kept her away from every known SO in the world. JH was not a known SO at the time of Somers murder.

 

[ChickenPants]

That being said, it could still be found that it wad premeditated. Premeditation can be formed in a matter of seconds.

He could have planned to take a little girl and grabbed Somer. Still premeditated.

I had never thought of the possibility that JH may have been looking at or planning to take another (or any) little girl besides Somer. I guess only he knows this for sure. But that is why I started this thread, to open up new ways of looking at things. So thank you for your input.

 

[Kimberlyd125]

IMO most SOs are not all that picky. They are cowards and prey on the weak. In this case it was a big beast against a tiny innocent child that happened to be by herself.

 

[ChickenPants]

But JH has never been convicted of anything Chickenpants. Her family and LE could very well have kept her away from every known SO in the world. JH was not a known SO at the time of Somers murder.

Not meaning to be picky here...he was a known child *advertiser censored* addict, right? Various people who lived with him testified to that. We learned after the fact he had been doing things other than downloading *advertiser censored*.

But downloading child *advertiser censored* - that did not qualify him to be a "SO"? Because he had not been arrested, I surmise.

If you have a specific agency within LE that deals with child *advertiser censored* and must be affiliated with crimes against children - does not stand alone (for what purpose would that serve) - isn't it common sense to look to them for possible child abduction/molestation/murder suspects?

I am LE and it is November and I have combed the neighborhood and come up with nothing. Like the guy who had the hunch about that garbage truck...was there nobody who had a hunch to check on those computers and see if any of them were registered to anyone who lived in the vicinity? I accept your explanations - I am just giving my opinion. It bothers me, that's all.

Hopefully, all LE agencies would be interconnected because a lot of crimes are interconnected...robberies to rapes to manslaughters and etc., etc., and there must be a thread of continuity between crimes against children. While it may be statistically sound that a low number of child *advertiser censored* addicts ever commit murder, we now learn that JH was possibly one of them. Why take a chance, is my question? Check the most obvious places first. People who are sick enough to download child *advertiser censored* probably have other quirks as well.

LOL I am a big one for statistics, as many know. But damn the statistics when innocent little ones are targets for sick people.

 

[ChickenPants]

Kinberly, I would like to know your opinion and explanation of Somer and that dog. Does that not appear to be some kind of premeditation to you based on the fact that if she stopped frequently to pet that dog, he would have had more time to think about her and possibly lure her into trusting him?

 

[Chili Fries]

Chili:

Somewhere in one of the last general threads for this case, the child *advertiser censored* on JH's computer taking so long to investigate was picked over like a fine toothed comb.
I understand the frustratoin, but I think we learned that it can take months to investigate child *advertiser censored* charges due to having to prove JH was the one who downloaded them. There is also a money trail to follow if he paid for them.
You have to remember, his computer was brought to LE by someone else. Someone who had beef with JH. So, LE would first have to rule those people out. Then prove JH downloaded them. That takes a while.

The photos/video of the 3 year old was not found until search warrants were issued on JH's mother's home.

I'm not trying to defend CCSO, but I do understand how long this takes.

I understand all that. However you never know what would be unearthed in discovery (such as internal CCSO communications) and I think if it were my child that's something I would wonder about and at least talk to a lawyer about pursuing.

 

[ChickenPants]

I understand all that. However you never know what would be unearthed in discovery (such as internal CCSO communications) and I think if it were my child that's something I would wonder about and at least talk to a lawyer about pursuing.

I am not her parent and I am wondering. What I would have done in any case is probably not what they would do. If people sue for wrongful death in the case of a defective automobile, think about it being a child murder...

I understand and agree with you. The computer was turned in August and she was murdered in October. Plenty of time for them to be following up on the child *advertiser censored* pedophiles that they had on hand, doing what they needed to do to put a stop to those activities by those people, and possibly have prevented Somer's murder? If JH had been even questioned during the initial investigation (if there was any) into his computer - it may have scared him off pursuing little ones for whatever reason at least for a while. Maybe he might have even moved to where he thought he would not be detected to continue his bizarre obsessions. What do they do with those computers, anyway? Under what circumstances do they actually pursue those people? For a while after he was arrested, there was a rash - almost a dragnet of child *advertiser censored* activity. They were throwing them in the slammer right and left.

In any event, once this child had been abducted and killed - and an autopsy indicated sexual battery, the first thing would be to check every possibility concerning every person connected to any crime against a child. Wouldn't it? You wouldn't investigate the robbery division, for example. What am I getting wrong here? Help me. You have a situation where a person was outed to LE as the owner of child *advertiser censored* and he lived on the street where she walked home from school. IIRC, Buchanan contacted them a couple of times. What happened? What took them so long to follow up? He (Buchanan) pushed and pushed and spilled it out on the internet, from what I saw. Things rolled after that. Was that a coincidence? Well, whatever it took to get it going is o-k with me; I am just sorry it took so long. What other computers do they have with images downloaded from other pervs in and around school neighborhoods and what will it take to haul these people in? I am ignorant, admittedly about the laws of search and seizure in these cases. But if they already have it there, what is stopping them from nailing those perps?

As it was he (JH) either being extremely stupid, or extremely smart and arrogant, apparently thought he had nothing to worry about. Does anybody know if he was aware that his computer had been turned over? That puts an interesting face on his activities. If he knew that, and waited, and nothing happened, he bravely went forward with whatever thinking there would be no consequences. He apparently abducted and murdered this child in the middle of an afternoon in broad daylight, no small feat. Then had the audacity to get through an interview with LE and REMAIN IN THE AREA for a long time, and escape out of their reach.

This is all speculation on my part. But a man knowing he is tracked or a man in jail is less likely to commit a crime, I would think. Thus if he had been properly investigated including his computer activities, by the corroborating agencies, she might have lived. IMO.

 

[Sunshine77]

So do you think JH just saw her and grabbed her that day on a sexual impulse - that he had never watched her before or perhaps been attracted to her...I am thinking now about information regarding her and his dog...she gave it a name, which indicates that she was probably around there more than once. It says she wasn't a child who just walked on by. He knew of her, how did this affect what happened, in your opinion. Why HER instead of another little girl, is my question. Was it attraction? Something he had felt for a while...perhaps he wanted to photograph her? They say that one way pedophiles "groom" possible victims is using pets. If this is true, if it can be proven that he singled her out ahead of time, and just waited for his opportunity, it would IMO be premeditated.

When anything tragic happens, most people question why and I think it's a natural response. However, we may never know why. The why part of it will probably never make sense.

You say he knew of her. I would disagree and say we don't know that yet. Per the article on the white dog: "Dawn Nuss, 39, whose 8-year-old daughter Christina used to walk home with Somer, said her daughter told her that Somer used to stop at the house and pet a white dog. No one would ever come out of the house."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/12/national/main6200498.shtml

Yes, there were some neighbors that claim he would stand outside and watch the children, but there also seem to be others who say there was no one outside the house. And a great deal of the neighbors have said nothing to the media (but probably to LE) so we don't know yet. Per Diena, the other kids said they had never seen JH before.

I appreciate the questions you are bringing up here, but at this point we don't know many of answers. Just because alot of information has not been released, I don't think it means LE doesn't know the answers. Yes, it frustrates me too, and I wait for more to be released.

 

[Sunshine77]

In any event, once this child had been abducted and killed - and an autopsy indicated sexual battery, the first thing would be to check every possibility concerning every person connected to any crime against a child. Wouldn't it? You wouldn't investigate the robbery division, for example. What am I getting wrong here? Help me.

How do you know that they didn't? Just because they haven't put every move of their investigation into the media, doesn't mean they weren't looking at various suspects.

As for JH, they talked to him within a few days of the murder. They searched his house. I'm assuming here this "search" was probably not very detailed, more a walk through type thing and nothing stood out as being off. He gave an alibi and they checked with his mother who gave the same story. They apparently moved onto suspects that looked more viable....and came back to JH when those didn't pan out.

 

[ChickenPants]

In any event, once this child had been abducted and killed - and an autopsy indicated sexual battery, the first thing would be to check every possibility concerning every person connected to any crime against a child. Wouldn't it? You wouldn't investigate the robbery division, for example. What am I getting wrong here? Help me.

How do you know that they didn't? Just because they haven't put every move of their investigation into the media, doesn't mean they weren't looking at various suspects.

As for JH, they talked to him within a few days of the murder. They searched his house. I'm assuming here this "search" was probably not very detailed, more a walk through type thing and nothing stood out as being off. He gave an alibi and they checked with his mother who gave the same story. They apparently moved onto suspects that looked more viable....and came back to JH when those didn't pan out.

If they did (check the links to computer *advertiser censored*, etc.) I wonder why JH never showed up on the radar. Maybe he did and they just sat on it and as I have heard, "watched him"...but in hindsight, he was free for 2 months before Somer was killed when they already had something to grab him on. I think Human mentioned that we at WS could put JH or Annis into Google and find out that they weren't normal in seconds. He seems to have been a pretty big red flag, especially considering that the investigation was stalling because there just were no other viable persons of interest. Something slipped up somewhere, or he would never have gotten out of town. As you say, we may never know.

If JH is brought to trial, it seems logical that these issues will be brought up, as several similar ones were on the 20/20 broadcast.

I would also like to add (and I know a lot of people will disagree) that if LE had been more forthcoming after the autopsy that Somer had been sexually molested, it would have narrowed down the suspect pool significantly for those people who perhaps would not have until then had second thoughts about persons or activities they had seen related to her. I don't see how releasing that information could have jeopardized the case, as her mother and a lot of people indicated they believed it to have happened. But someone may have remembered JH a lot sooner and come forward. It wasn't until Rod Buchanan pressed on that he was really investigated at all, apparently.

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Kinberly, I would like to know your opinion and explanation of Somer and that dog. Does that not appear to be some kind of premeditation to you based on the fact that if she stopped frequently to pet that dog, he would have had more time to think about her and possibly lure her into trusting him?

Well, we learned most times when she would stop and pet the dog, she was with one of her friends.
So, that being said, what if it were the friend that day that was along, don't you think he would've taken the friend?

Or, any other child that was alone that day?

I do not think Somer was targeted or stalked. She was by herself and he took her.

JMO

 

[Kimberlyd125]

I'm not being rude here, but all of this has been discussed over and over and hashed out and rehashed in 40 something threads.
I'm not real sure what this thread is for.

I was under the impression that when Somer got a sub forum, that we could open a thread on a specific topic and discuss that topic.

So far on this thread we have discussed at least 10 topics. Maybe we need to open a thread for each topic?

I thought that was how it worked. So everything would be more organized.

 

[human]

I guess if this topic is of no interest to some readers, then perhaps it should not be read.

JH knew that LE had his computer.

LE looked at Grandpa Watson's computer RIGHT AWAY!

I am mystified by many things LE did. Most of all why they did not release that she was sexually abused. Why not? I agree with Chicken Pants that if that had been released, people might have been looking harder .

If it wasn't for Rod B, I don't think this case would have been solved.

 

[human]

There are different kinds of child sex offenders. Some only like children of a certain age. Some only like boys or girls. Some stay within their family. Some are opportunistic.

I thi8nk there were other issues with
Somer because the locations of where she was last seen. Some had her going up Debarry, which was past the JH house.

 

[ChickenPants]

I'm not being rude here, but all of this has been discussed over and over and hashed out and rehashed in 40 something threads.
I'm not real sure what this thread is for.

I was under the impression that when Somer got a sub forum, that we could open a thread on a specific topic and discuss that topic.

So far on this thread we have discussed at least 10 topics. Maybe we need to open a thread for each topic?

I thought that was how it worked. So everything would be more organized.

I put this up for "general discussion" about investigation so that would prob. be why there were 10 topics discussed? I'm not clear on what you are suggesting about each topic. Have I misunderstood the whole forum?

I have been basically focusing on the investigation. most recently as pertains to JH's liklihood as a POI much earlier on...how much he knew Somer is debatable as per the different opinions stated. How does this impact a future trial and its outcome, etc.

Again, I had not thought of the possibility that she was with someone else when she petted the dog. So I learned that. So that is something gained from the discussion. There aren't too many people even on here talking, so you are possibly right, perhaps they don't want to discuss these aspects. I am interested in any information or perpectives about any element of the investigation that could make it more clear. If and when a trial emerges, I suspect that some or all of the investigation and issues debated in the past will come up again.

Maybe a moderator can weigh in here and enlighten me as to the appropriateness of the thread.

TIA

 

[ChickenPants]

There are different kinds of child sex offenders. Some only like children of a certain age. Some only like boys or girls. Some stay within their family. Some are opportunistic.

I thi8nk there were other issues with
Somer because the locations of where she was last seen. Some had her going up Debarry, which was past the JH house.

According to various sources (neighbors, friends) she went different places at different times on different days, depending on who was doing the talking. IIRC, people said she flitted around, twirling, hugging, running off, petting animals, being loving, "didn't know a stranger" - just being a little cypher.

I can see how on this day, people may have confused it with other days. They didn't get up that morning and decide to look at Somer and her activities. I am trying to put myself in the place of the general scene, and it had to be chaotic with all of those kids and parents walking along those routes every day. The only person watching, apparently, was JH.