Reels,
I was amazed by your descriptions in the "What do you remember" thread. Yes, I would hope Anna would have memories of her early life. The little girl I was baby-sitting lived far away; I don't think she ever even knew Anna, and she wasn't around when Anna disappeared. Her remark was very strange, considering this (I don't remember her exact words, but it was something like "the lady made the little girl hurry so much, she dropped her doll.")
The man who killed the rooster was the blacksmith the bird made the mistake of attacking. He was questioned very extensively at the time by the police. In fact, I think they made the poor man very miserable. But they were satisfied that he had nothing to do with Anna's disappearance.
I don't remember anything about Texas Equusearch, but neither do I have anything in my files about this (or at least I can't find it), so I doubt we had an answer. There was no crawl space under the house and I can't quite figure out how they might have crossed the creek unless they used the bridge. The dogs ran along the near side of the creek and then headed upstream before they stopped. The neighbor out on horseback on the road above the house said that she heard rustling in the trees along the creek and thought that somebody was stealing something...another remark which was impossible to ignore. She was questioned and did not actually SEE anything; she only heard the rustling and then heard the siren when the sheriff's people arrived.
I agree with you about GB and socialism, and also about the unlikely connection with a cult or group. Thank you so much for your insights.
Ok, so that makes it particularly strange, since the little girl was far away. hm.
Ok, so the man that killed the rooster was probably more of a distraction then. Though I'm glad they questioned him because it seems like a pretty big reaction. I was thinking about it last night, and the rooster's body actually ended up helping when you searched the river, because you could see how far he travelled, and know that if something that relatively small would get snared on something, surely a little girl would.
I keep picturing the river/creek near my house that was randomly deep and shallow, but I have to stop doing that. It is very interesting that the lady heard rustling in the bushes, and I was thinking about it while I was sleeping, and I woke up thinking this:
So this person who kidnapped Anna must have either been closer to 6' tall than 5', and/or had long legs, and/or was in very good shape. I think long legs, because I am 5'8" and I can take some pretty big steps when I am in a rush to arrive somewhere, and I leave my husband, who is 5'6" in the dust. Even though he's in better shape than I am, he has to take twice as many steps as I do, and twice as fast as I do, if he wants to keep up, and it always leaves him out of breath. He can't keep it up for long. If you add our little boy who's not yet 20 pounds and it's basically a futile effort. So even though technically someone shorter could have kidnapped Anna, they would have had to put forth a LOT more effort to get to the creek before anyone noticed her missing, and they would have had to keep their pace upcreek in foliage carrying a 5 year old, which could not have been easy. If there are enough bushes/trees/vines to interfere with the flow of the creek, there are bound to be tree roots and other things on the banks, no? I might be picturing it wrong. A shorter person would encounter more of the low-to-the-ground growth, a taller person would encounter it, but not have as much difficulty stepping over it. At least in my head it would work that way.
Ok I am more than convinced that GW and GB had something to do with this. The two men in the vehicle going west on the road, after being seen going east? There was something there that indicated they had to have turned around somewhere to go west on the road. I think they must have met whoever took Anna, or else the older man dropped the younger one off a bit away from the farm, he approached on foot, and the older man drove up the road to meet the younger man after he kidnapped Anna. That's just my opinion, but that makes more sense to me than anything else, especially with the creek being too deep to cross on foot.
I have to read the BFH threads yet, but I saw reference to a plan.
If you want, I could email Texas Equusearch. I saw that someone contacted them a year or two ago, but I never saw any follow-up to that. Maybe they need a reminder. After Haleigh Cummings went missing (also in Florida), I think a lot of things might have gotten pushed back.