I've lived here most of my life and can't remember a stranger abduction case in Cumberland County. The only one I've heard of happened n the late 70s when I was a toddler. My young parents were haunted by it and referenced it often.
We have more than our share of crime, but what people don't understand is that even though we're in New Jersey and Bridgeton is a "city" ... things are very much behind the times down here. We are poor. We have the least educated, poorest population in NJ. Among the highest drop out rates and unemployment, some of the poorest schools, etc. BUT - we're very rural. It's more like Alabama here than Philly.
Our local LE and officials are good people who do good work, but they certainly lack experience in cases that would get nationwide attention. The only national/controversial stories I can recall are controversial police-involved shootings in Bridgeton/Vineland/Millville that make national news. There are drive by shootings pretty frequently ... they barely make Philly news.
I think what your seeing is a lot of second-guessing and butt-covering going on locally due to inexperience and lack of information. Unfortunately, I don't think they are withholding anything from us and editing information to help the investigation. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks to me that they have no leads. That's just my own opinion.
