I held off on watching the Dr. Phil episode until reading through here. I was curious about the reactions of such a diverse group of people. Then I watched the show so I could draw my own conclusions.
Unfortunately I was simply reminded of why I do not watch TV shows like Dr. Phil. I had been hoping the show would bring attention to Summer and her actual CASE but- no.
IMO, the disrespect conveyed towards the Wells was palpable to me on the part of Dr. Phil, and when the 'human lie detectors' went down the route of how Dr. Phil would react if his son were taken and what should be done to those people, and persisted in implying that CW reacted oddly and inappropriately to that question (because of course she should have said something awful and violent and react like any NORMAL parent of a missing child would react, was that the jist??) I turned it off. I'm sorry...I didn't realize there was a 'normal' reaction for this? Because if there is, I'm not having it any more than CW was.
Why has not a one of these supposedly caring, helpful professionals whose only alleged desire is to find Summer and find out what has happened to her, not acknowledge that CW is an exhausted, intensely stressed, and possibly very unwell mother who has currently lost all four of her children? That Summer was lost on her watch and she is living with that loss every second of every day ?? Whether they were typical parenting decisions, poor parenting decisions, abysmal parenting decisions, or criminal parenting decisions that have cost the Wells' their children matters tremendously- for the children' safety, for locating Summer, and for the Wells' family as a whole moving forward. That's a job for CPS and LE to sift through.
But in the meantime, there is a presumption of innocence and no persons of interest named by LE in the disappearance of Summer... where is the behavioral analysis of a mother destroyed by guilt?? And I don't mean guilty of a crime, necessarily. As easy as it would be to say guilt=guilty of a crime, that is hugely over-simplified and IMO might have these 'experts' barking up the wrong tree just for the sake of sensationalism.
Several years back, a toddler in our community was accidentally killed by their parent in their own driveway. They backed over the child in their vehicle, a pretty classic accident unfortunately, one parent thought the other was watching the child, the child slipped out and was killed almost instantly. A few neighbors saw it happen and while everyone knew it was a tragic accident, there was much whispering about the parent being on their phone (they weren't) being drunk or high (they weren't) being distracted by an argument they had just had with spouse (they weren't) etc. There were no charges because there was no crime and privacy was strongly requested for the family.
Neither parent ended up being able to move past blaming the other, or themselves, and some time later, finally in the midst of a divorce, one parent committed suicide. The other children in the home were sent to live with relatives and the remaining parent entered rehab. It was a complete and utter breakdown of a family...and that family had previously been totally 'normal.' Normal, right?
I have no idea what happened to Summer. I have my own thoughts, and most of them are not good or happy or have a healthy, happy Summer returning to a healthy, happy family- nor have they been from the beginning. But how does compassion ever hurt in the search for a missing child?
Point of this rant? I won't be watching Dr. Phil again. I'd rather hear what K9 trailed Summer to the end of the driveway, how certain that handler was that it was a solid trail, and what SAR techniques were next employed as soon as they realized they had lost Summer's scent when they hit pavement. That's what I want to know. Not why CW didn't say the 'right' thing about what should happen to the person who 'took Summer.'
