It happens far too often now. A child — sometimes a baby, often an adolescent — suddenly disappears. It hits the local news. Then goes national. Then Nancy Grace is spouting theories and pointing fingers. Overnight, everyone knows the child’s name. They see the same family-selected photo printed in their newspapers and flashed on their TV screens. Time passes — be it days, weeks or months — and the child is found. Sometimes the news is happy. Usually, it isn’t. And then the names, the photographs, the incident itself fade from memory.
Some of these missing children, though, stay lodged in our collective memories, for one reason or another. We remember their names, if not their pictures. Adam Walsh, for spurring his father’s continuing crusade for justice. Caylee Anthony, for the questions that still surround her death. Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard, for being two rare happy endings.
A select few end up making history. The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby — Charles Jr., although he hasn’t been called that since 1932 — riveted the nation and set the gold standard for media circuses. The case fascinates still today. I should know. I live a mere eight miles from where Charles Jr. was abducted. Until recently, the courthouse where the trial was held did annual reenactments.
And then there’s Etan Patz. (more…)
