Why do we do this?

[future criminologist]

I think I do it because it's sad and bothersome to me to think that

(a) we can disappear and never be found

and

(b) we die alone and unclaimed.


I'd like to work to resolve one of these two circumstances, because it is my absolute worst nightmare.

 

[chaddylex]

I believe the reason I do this is because a girl the same age as me was abducted from a town about an hour from where I live and I would see it on the news (I was 9 years old) - from then on I was always reading crime and mystery novels and then when I got the internet and found Doe Network I tried to compare UID's to people on missing person's websites....My husband and family think I am crazy.... Even here at work I show my co workers possible matches to get their opinions......

Needless to say the girl, that I think got me started in this facination is still missing. Her name is Cherie Mahan http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/mahan_cherrie.html We have a thread on here toohttp://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48095&highlight=Cherie+Mahan

I just wish one day she would be found!!

 

[future criminologist]

the cases that got me started were Maura Murray, and going back further, Molly Bish. Maura was around the same age as me, and from my state, and has never been found. Molly Bish was a lifeguard at the same time that I was lifeguarding at a similar type place, during the summer, during her lifeguard shift. also in my state (Massachusetts). her bones were found years later, and her killer has never been found.

www.mauramurraymissing.com

http://www.mollybish.org/

I've also been influenced by Jennifer Kesse's case, who I received an email about from someone I knew, who apparently knew her, on myspace when she first went missing.


My sister was followed and a guy attempted to lure her into his car when she was 12 and out walking the neighbor's dog. She still remembers everything about this guy, to this day.

and she still remembers Sarah Pryor's disappearance in 1985. A fragment of her skull was not found until 1998:

http://www.gardenofpeacememorial.org/personal/story.php?id=13

 

[future criminologist]

The other case that always really bothered me was that of Michael Curley, a little boy who was abducted, raped and murdered in Mass. It was one of the most horrific, disturbing crimes that has ever happened in this state. It's stuck with me for years.

and what's disturbing to me is that all those UIDs on that list who were homicide victims? their killer will probably never be held accountable for that crime. you just think, there are people out there right this second who have committed horrific, horrible acts against others, and are walking free among us. That UID right there is their crime and they are not in jail!

 

[StealthTheory]

I want to try to match bodies with the missing , but have to admit I fear what my family will think. I already know my boyfriend doesn't like my morbid fascination.
I have this interest because of things that happened to me as a child. When I was in middle school I was very troubled and skipping school. An old man saw me drawing at a dunkin donuts and tried to convince me to come with him to go to an art museum. I didn't but thinking about it now chills my blood. We also had an incident in my town of someone pretending to be a cop to try to abduct women.
I was in Philly during the Center City Rapist scare. A man tried to pull me into his SUV when I was 19. I ran to a cop, but the cop didn't care at all. I tried to give him a description, but he wouldn't write anything down. It hurt so much to see a police officer not take me seriously. Even though I no longer live in the Philly area I find myself looking at missing persons from that area to see if I know anything or recognize anyone. We became so desensitized to men attempting to hurt us back then, or men exposing themselves to us. So much must go unreported.

 

[Snufamonbobball]

I think i am compelled to do this because i was a kid off the grid. I ran away to texas (about 900 miles from home) when i was 15 (gone for 9 months on and off the street) - and i could easily be one of the people we look for.

:smile:Stealth- you aren't alone in having people who are close to you think you weird. Almost everyone i know thinks that i'm strange, and maybe i am, but i don't really care- i know searching makes a difference, so don't give up!!

 

[OkieGranny]

LOL, my husband has no idea I'm doing this. He would FREAK.

I have no near-abduction story. I'm a life-long puzzle solver -- crosswords, sudoku, jigsaw puzzles, logic problems, etc -- but solving that kind of puzzle is really an empty exercise, of no benefit whatsoever other than keeping myself amused. Complete waste of time, really. On the other hand, solving missing persons/UID puzzles can be of real benefit -- to a family living in limbo, to society, to help get killers off the streets.

It's funny, but I've been asked several times over the years what superpower I wish I had, and my answer has always been the ability to find missing people. Not in the vague psychic sense of "I see water, near a pine tree and a big rock," but to be able to give exact GPS coordinates and say, "Go to this spot and you will find the bones." Before stumbling across WS, it had never occurred to me that helping to find these people is something I might actually be able do, and not just wishful thinking.

I do have to shut out the emotional aspects of these cases; there's just too much horror and sadness to absorb it all and stay sane.

 

[EmmaliLucia]

I've always had a strange fascination with serial killers.

When I was 15 I was a really troubled kid, my boyfriend was an abusive heroin addict and I wasn't much better, I was drinking and smoking my problems away, my friend would often sell her body on Craigslist for alcohol and marijuana (She was also 15 at the time) and she became good friends with one of her Johns.

We all hung out one night and I really didn't have very much to drink but for some reason the next thing I remember was I was on the floor and couldn't move to save my life. I woke up the next morning tied to the bed, I knew what happened but pretended that I didn't and took a shower and even stole his pack of cigarettes as a kind of "Screw you" gesture.

He then offered to drive me home and to Taco Bell, the Taco Bell was closed so for some reason he just kept driving, and driving, and driving, and driving.
His apartment was in the SW Suburban area of Portland, and somehow we ended up on East 82nd Ave (For those who follow Dayton LeeRoy Rogers, that's where he would pick up his victims, it's really not that far away from a lot of forested areas).

After we passed 82nd I started worrying and started talking him down, he was starting to say pretty scary stuff by that time and I somehow convinced him to drive me home.
The way back he started joking and I would pretend that what he was saying was the funniest thing I've ever heard.

Probably the scariest hour of my entire life.

Even now, the police have my statement, and his mug-shot, but every time I hear of a girl who's gone missing in Portland, I wonder if it was possibly him. I know my mom would've reported me as a runaway and figured I'd just left on my own accord. I'm worried about the "Runaways" out there for that very reason, just because you have a history of leaving, doesn't mean that you're where you are voluntarily.