Comments on Missouri Boys Hidden In Plain Sight? One for Over 4 Years?

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Ditto
ladychardonnay I agree with you.  We never know what's going on in someone else's home.  I noticed that the last time the family were on television daddy had a new suit & haircut & mommy had on make up & a new outfit too.  I'm not blaming them but we never know.  I also want to know what people tell their own children?  I remember being like 6 and my parents rehearsing dialing the phone with me.  I knew my home phone number and I knew how to call it.  I will say this that boy was 11 years old.  Lord only knows what hell he was put through and as other Blogit folks have said children believe what they've been told.  It is hard to believe that the child was only 1 hr away from home had a cell phone, bicycle, and had driven a car yet he somehow couldn't make his way home.  Interesting, indeed.

posted by Taffy000 on January 21, 2007 at 9:43 AM | link to this | reply

Stockholm Syndrome
I agree with Scoop; when I first read this, I immediately thought of Stockholm Syndrome.  Perhaps the boy was kept locked up at first, but then he began identifying with and became loyal to his captor, so the man felt as if the boy could be given some freedom.  I don't really understand it either; I guess it's one of those psychological responses that no one can understand until they've actually experienced it.

posted by Jadelynn on January 14, 2007 at 10:37 AM | link to this | reply

lots of questions, and this will prove most interesting as time unravels
it all...

posted by Rumor on January 14, 2007 at 10:32 AM | link to this | reply

Corbin the only thing that came to my mind was the Stockholm Syndrome

posted by scoop on January 14, 2007 at 10:26 AM | link to this | reply

When my niece was taken
she was told her daddy had been killed.  Mind you she was only 6 at the time  and her abductor was her mother but kids believe what grown up's tell them.

posted by bel_1965 on January 14, 2007 at 8:39 AM | link to this | reply

I read this story yesterday...I couldn't really understand
how that guy was able to detain 2 teenage boys for that long. Why didn't they try to escape? So many questions.

posted by Passionflower on January 14, 2007 at 8:36 AM | link to this | reply

my question is
why didn't the boy who was there for 4 years try to escape?  i would be crawling out the window - maybe home wasn't so homey???  we had a case here in Pittsburgh where a janitor held a student captive for years and one day she just went home. 

posted by ladychardonnay on January 14, 2007 at 8:11 AM | link to this | reply

This is no
Text book case that's for sure...I hope they give us more information as the investigation goes forward so we can try to understand this...Right now...it makes zero sense to me~

posted by Offy on January 14, 2007 at 8:02 AM | link to this | reply

I read this part of the story........

The case recalls the improbable survival of Elizabeth Smart, the Salt Lake City teen taken for nine months by a religious zealot. After her return, many questioned why she didn't flee her captors, despite many apparent chances at freedom.

Stephen Golding, a forensic psychologist who examined the suspect in the Smart case, said captors often establish control over their victims through fear.

"People are led to believe, through someone taking advantage of their vulnerabilities, that leaving is not an option, that things will get worse for them or will get worse for others," Golding said.

But I still don't get it......I would have been to a phone and called the police immediately....

posted by Corbin_Dallas on January 14, 2007 at 6:13 AM | link to this | reply

Corbin
I have tried to think myself into that boy's situation as an 11-year old - and I know that I would have had to be kept in chains...I simply cannot comprehend this case, it baffles me...

posted by Nautikos on January 14, 2007 at 6:00 AM | link to this | reply

Ariala....
First I thought maybe he threatened to harm the boy's parents....

posted by Corbin_Dallas on January 14, 2007 at 5:55 AM | link to this | reply

Wow...I can see the police were doing their job.

posted by shelly_b on January 14, 2007 at 5:50 AM | link to this | reply

Corbin, good question...maybe the abductor fed him lies about his parents
and family that the kid ended up believing?  I dunno...this is crazy.

posted by Ariala on January 14, 2007 at 5:27 AM | link to this | reply