GUILTY TX - Alanna Gallagher, 6, Saginaw, 1 July 2013 - #14

[ctkid]

I have progressed in this case. I look at the inside of all toilet paper rolls. I look at the inside of all paper towel rolls (Yes, there is a number in there, just to save you the trouble). I guess garbage bags and Clorox bottles are next. Dangit!

 

[ctkid]

I am not sure I agree with this.

I have so many friends who are oblivious to their kids problems. They are involved moms/dads, loving, caring- it's in no way a lack of love. It's a head in the sand situation. I can honestly say I am not like that so it's sorta hard for me to grasp. I tend to take the bull by the horns... but a dear friend, gosh, her kid... ugh, anyway, I've encouraged her to do what I've done in the past- random drug tests. She firmly believes there is no reason, her son would never do such a thing. (And lawdy at the stuff WE did in high school! ha!) He's overall a good kid, but IMO, drug use needs to be addressed and a parent needs to be aware of it. Thinking back to the way we were in HS, I am surprised she is as clueless as she is... she just sees a halo over her sons head. Me? I see horns until they SHOW me the halo- hubby has told me to trust them just a little...

Yeah. Ignore it and it will go away. I have seen it also. Maybe some people need to micromanage more. I hate the term micromanage....but...in certain situations.....it needs to happen. My oldest girl....now in college....turned out great....I asked her...how did you turn out this good....was it me?
What was it? She said, just as much you as me. This being said. Being a parent is a hard job. Guiding your children is not as easy at it anyone believes. Being a single dad with 2 girls is hard to resolve. People ask...how do you do it? How do you answer that question. You just do.

 

[floridamomma]

Yeah. Ignore it and it will go away. I have seen it also. Maybe some people need to micromanage more. I hate the term micromanage....but...in certain situations.....it needs to happen. My oldest girl....now in college....turned out great....I asked her...how did you turn out this good....was it me?
What was it? She said, just as much you as me. This being said. Being a parent is a hard job. Guiding your children is not as easy at it anyone believes. Being a single dad with 2 girls is hard to resolve. People ask...how do you do it? How do you answer that question. You just do.

*standing ovation*

Exactly, you just do it. I've found that being a parent to a teen, ugh. It's like becoming a parent for the first time. You just have NO IDEA until it happens!

 

[texashello]

I read that he was causing problems in his neighborhood. Maybe his mother was aware. If she wasn't, I would be surprised. I don't think he should have been necessarily arrested for any of those other episodes. It is possible she had him involved in special treatment programs for whatever it is that was the issue with him. On his fb page, he had taken off at least once and people were looking for him.

Do we know yet who started the fire(s) before his arrest? I'm inclined to believe it was him. I agree with the elephant in the room i.e. mental illness. However, sexual violence and deviancy is something I truly don't believe can be controlled or treated. Clearly, he was addicted to smoking pot to the point where he needed to hook up with strangers to acquire his "420" fix. I have to wonder if his mother was spending time elsewhere and leaving him alone in the home?

Mom worked a long way away, very long drive especially in traffic..

 

[matou]

Mom worked a long way away, very long drive especially in traffic..

Interesting. Especially since he used her car to transport and dump Alanna's body.

 

[x_files]

Interesting. Especially since he used her car to transport and dump Alanna's body.

Did her borrow her car after she returned from work?

 

[AngelWings444]

Parents always know. If they don't know, they are not doing their job as a parent!

 

[BeginnersLuck]

Parents always know. If they don't know, they are not doing their job as a parent!

I disagree. My parents didn't know chit. :floorlaugh: I was very discreet though.

My daughter on the other hand, couldn't get away with anything. Poor girl got caught every time..

 

[AngelWings444]

I disagree. My parents didn't know chit. :floorlaugh: I was very discreet though.

My daughter on the other hand, couldn't get away with anything. Poor girl got caught every time..

As long as my children are in my home, I know! They don't get away with anything. TH's Mom had to have a clue! Come on..it's not like he was just sneaking out of the house. He was a nuisance to the neighborhood, had online encounters at the household and I am sure many other "things". Huge difference between being a little discreet and TH's lifestyle. Mom knew something. JMO

 

[human]

I think the fact that he did not attend school should be a clue.

Dropping out of high school nowadays usually does not even get you a job in a fast food place.

His FB activities were over the top.

She was a teen mother and maybe into drugs. Maybe she figured she turned out OK, so he would turn around too.

 

[Philigumbo]

Did her borrow her car after she returned from work?

There were 2 cars. He drove some kind of station-wagon thing, a maroon Magnum, I think, and she drove a Kia Soul, I believe. In the video of him during the investigation, he was walking around the car he drove.

Also, IIRC, the Magnum is the car that never moved all day per the cameras on the street. From what I understand, it is believed he used the other car, the Kia soul to move little Alanna.

 

[Philigumbo]

I disagree. My parents didn't know chit. :floorlaugh: I was very discreet though.

My daughter on the other hand, couldn't get away with anything. Poor girl got caught every time..

My mom is 77 and my brother and I can still shock her with things she never knew!!! :floorlaugh: But, back in the day, if you lit a match in the house at 9am she could smell it at 5pm after work. She thought the worst we could do was smoke cigarettes! She was the "match patrol" for smoking prevention.

However, as mischievous as we were, we were not menacing...:blushing:

 

[Philigumbo]

As long as my children are in my home, I know! They don't get away with anything. TH's Mom had to have a clue! Come on..it's not like he was just sneaking out of the house. He was a nuisance to the neighborhood, had online encounters at the household and I am sure many other "things". Huge difference between being a little discreet and TH's lifestyle. Mom knew something. JMO

Just the number of used condoms laying around should have given her a clue something was wrong (excuse me now...I need to go bleach my brain...just saying). :hand:

 

[Charlie09]

My mom is 77 and my brother and I can still shock her with things she never knew!!! :floorlaugh: But, back in the day, if you lit a match in the house at 9am she could smell it at 5pm after work. She thought the worst we could do was smoke cigarettes! She was the "match patrol" for smoking prevention.

However, as mischievous as we were, we were not menacing...:blushing:

I have to wonder if she was afraid of him...

 

[greenpalm]

I am pretty sure that by acting alone police mean he had no help with anything. If anybody helped him to dispose the body they would be an accomplice after the fact. So appears police has ruled out any accomplices.

Yes, I wanted to simply confirm and agree with this. We had MSM early on in the investigation state clearly that TH's car never left Babbling Brook that day. I could go find links, if anyone questions it, but I'm sure it's there.

Since we now know that he likely acted entirely alone, that makes me wonder if the Kia was caught on any surveillance cameras on the streets where she was dumped. Nothing has ever been said about what might have been found on cameras over there. The only specific surveillance info that has ever been released to MSM was from Babbling Brook, where Alanna and TH lived.

Once again, we see LE has lots of info we don't.

I don't think I want to buy a used car unless I know the person. Picture stepping into that car thinking of little Alanna every time

Yes, they clearly have info they don't tell the media. Plenty of reasons for that.

I agree about the car. My mother died in my dad's car. He was trying to get her to the hospital. He kept that car for years. I could hardly stand to ride in it, and sometimes, when he'd take my kids for the weekend, I had to install their car seats into the backseat where she died and I practically had to hold my breath until I finished the job. It was very difficult for me. If it had been my car, I would have sold it or traded it in almost immediately.

The Gallaghers could also sue the mom. She was aware of his problems but did little to control him or monitor him. He was also a truant.
http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county...ng_to_take_responsibility.html#incart_m-rpt-1

I didn't know about the Autumn Pasquale civil suit. To me that suit sounds like her dad being (understandably) dissatisfied with no trial and plea deals. He's not ready for it to be over, so a civil suit is a way for him to try to continue to cope. I don't know if it's a good idea or not, I don't know what direct evidence they may have for the murderer's parents neglect, maybe they really have something specific.

I think the confusion of him using "Mom's" car is that she owned both vehicles. He did not own his own car, he did not work to have the money to own his on vehicle. I still think that the reason for his haphazard actions was that he was hurrying before his mother returned home.

No, as I stated above, MSM was quote early on saying very specifically that his car, meaning the one he drove, never left Babbling Brook that day. When they say now in the latest articles that they believe he used her car and acted alone, they must mean the Kia, which means he must have done it after she got home from work. I think several of us have posed possible scenarios for how he did so without mom's knowledge. For example: possibly, Alanna's body was already wrapped up and in the garage somewhere. Mom got home from work and was in the shower, or in her room relaxing after work, he made up an excuse to take her car, or took her car without her knowledge, loaded up Alanna inside the garage and hastily dumped her.

He told LE that he went for a job interview that day.
Probably asked his mom if he could use her car to go to the interview.
He could have dumped her body and gone on to the interview.
LE probably checked the location of the interview. If he did in fact go on it.

Sure, exactly, an interview is one possible scenario. I also threw out that maybe he offered to go pick up take-out for dinner. I'm sure they've eliminated other possibilities for accomplices by now, and we KNOW they have the movements of every car in and out of Babbling Brook that day from the cameras on each end of the street, there was no way a vehicle could get around those. So her car (the Kia) must have made a trip out and back that evening other than her going to and from work. They must have it on tape.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to reiterate what others have said about cases going quiet once an arrest is made and until the trial. That's very common. Breanne Rodriguez's murder was very similar to Alanna's (a neighbor on her street was the perp, she was out alone playing when she vanished, she was suffocated with plastic bags, and dumped (although the dump site was quite different; there was a search for her lasting several days, before she was found)) Shawn Morgan is awaiting trial, and there have been gaps months long between news articles. We likely won't hear anything else until there's a trial. (Although writing to local reporters and asking for info does seem to get results! )


I'm glad he acted alone. I hated to think he had an accomplice.

 

[Flossie JMO]

Not sure if the article was updated, but I noticed the word "may" was not included in references to it, bbm: "But the new documents state that police believe he may have used his mother’s car during the crime."

 

[floridamomma]

Parents always know. If they don't know, they are not doing their job as a parent!

That is simply not true. No one person has the brainpower to "always know" what any other person is doing or thinking.

For all we know, his mom was aware that he had problems and was doing everything in her power to deal with these problems.

Or she may have simply had her head in the sand, totally ignoring him.

We simply do not know.

 

[GingerzMomma]

Mom worked a long way away, very long drive especially in traffic..

I'm 20 min NE of Saginaw & work standard hours (9-5) in downtown Dallas. Even w/ rush hours it's often not more than an hour (very bad day an hour and 1/2). I make dinner, spend time w/ hub & kids, etc..... If not being around is why there was limited awareness as to problems w/ TH, it's not because of a work commute, IMO.

 

[Philigumbo]

I have to wonder if she was afraid of him...

BINGO. :moo:

 

[tlcya]

I have to wonder if he was left to his own devices a lot for a number of years in order to develop such fetishes as he seems to have without his mother taking note of his "interests"

ETA In light of his maternal grandfather's statements regarding the perps early childhood.

Jeff Holder said his daughter lived with him and her mother after having the baby.

After the divorce, Jeff Holder and his new wife, Gina, bought Kimberly Holder a mobile home and set it on their property so she could live there with her son, then around 2, he said. A boyfriend of Kimberly’s also lived there.

Gina Holder remembers Tyler Holder as a “wild child,” a little-bitty kid who had to be forced to eat his macaroni and cheese and was on medicine for hyperactivity.

“He had a mind of his own, for sure,” Gina Holder said. “Even when he was young, he was hard to correct. He was hard to corral. … It was his way or no way.”

Gina Holder said her husband asked his daughter to leave after they found the mobile home trashed, with drug paraphernalia inside. She said Kimberly Holder and her son drifted apart from the couple after that.

Jeff Holder said his daughter and son stopped talking to him altogether after a dispute involving his ex-wife at a hospital after his son was injured in a motorcycle wreck.

Jeff Holder said all he had to remember his grandson by is a framed photograph of the boy from 2002, posing in a football uniform, that is hanging in his Boyd home.

“He looked like a sweet little kid,” he said.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/07/24/5026216/saginaw-suspects-grandparents.html

MOO