Somer Renee Thompson #1 10/19/09 - 10/29/09

[AZSunny]

Wow, I don't know what to make of this case.  All I can say for sure is this Sean Patton guy has peaked my interest.  And digging with a digging machine?  This child wasn't missing long enough for someone to hide evidence so well that a digging machine would be necessary to uncover it.  Hmmm.  Unless, of course, someone was working at that home with a digging machine.  But I don't think we're dealing with someone very sophisticated here.  This person's days of freedom are numbered.  Hopefully his days among the living are limited too.

Here's what I don't get.  Everything we've read, including the police report, suggests that there were a lot of kids around.  There were at least 3 crossing guards.  In fact, the police report says that others lost sight of Somer when she got lost in a group of other kids.  And then she just vanished?  Or some stranger came out of the shadows and picked her up and took her and no one saw?  To believe that story, you need to believe Sean Patton.  Specifically, you need to believe that Somer never made it home.  And I'm just not there yet.  Assuming as we must that the narrative in the police report is accurate, his comments were, in a word, strange. Telling a 10 year old to go look for Somer?  And when she comes back empty handed, telling her to go back out and look better?  C'mon.  That's down right ludicrous.

Here's another thing.  Listen very closely to Somer's mom during yesterday's presser. She was asked a question something along the lines of "who would do this."  When she starts answering, she says something like, "I don't know.  It could be anyone.  It could be my.  It could  be . . ."  She says "It could be my" then stops.  Hmmmmm.  "My" who?  My friend Sean? 

Just sayin'. . .

I thought she was going to say my neighbor, but then thought better of it.  I personally don't think it is Sean, I don't think he had time. With the other children there he couldn't have done the deed, left and put her in a dumpster and returned.  Just doesn't make sense to me.

[jill]

I feel it's high.

There are 0 reigstered sex offenders within a 2 miles radius of my house.

But then, that was one of the reasons we moved our family 3 years ago.

What makes me wonder (and rarely would I ever criticize LE in a case) but were there drive-bys by the cops while the kids were walking home?

[cece]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/10/23/john-tantillo-somer-thompson-murder-florida-innocence/

John Tantillo 

 - FOXNews.com

 - October 23, 2009
Praying For Somer Thompson and Her Family Is Not Enough

Let’s use our anger and our sadness at this latest tragedy to do something genuinely positive for our nation. Child protection should be a national effort from the top down and the bottom up.


When we heard the news about Somer Thompson's body being found in a Georgia landfill on Thursday, a colleague said that she was going to pray for the child and her family. I responded that I would do the same. But after I said that, I thought there had to be more that all of us could do to protect our children. There’s just been too many of these kinds of horrors in the news and an important innocence –childhood innocence— is at stake.

I believe prayer is helpful for Somer’s family and Somer herself, but I also believe that prayer can give us a necessary “time out” from which to consider what exactly is going on in our world and our communities today. Why the loss of innocence and more important what we can do about it.Bottom line: why can’t kids safely walk to school anymore?

First, we have to ask question, could they ever?

I remember as a kid growing up in Queens in the early 1960s. There was a child killer on the loose. The manhunt captured the city for weeks. After he was caught, life went on for me and my friends, but the first life lesson learned was to be careful who you talk to no matter how nice they appear to be.

So in a way, violent reality threatening children isn’t new. But I think all of us can agree –and the crime statistics back this up— the rate and horrific nature of crimes against children is much worse than when many of us were kids and it’s changing the way childhood is lived for the worse. Even after we heard about that child killer, we were more careful, but our innocence was still intact.

Today we often hear the talking head lawyers speak to the issue of the rights of the accused with little consideration to the rights of the victim(s). As a research trained psychologist, I understand their argument, but also understand that if a killer was a one-time child molester, the probability that they will engage in that behavior again is greater than 68 per cent.

So first we have to agree that the danger is out there and ask what we can do to protect the potential victims.

For starters, a blue-ribbon commission of behavioral scientists and criminologists should be established to study this abhorrent behavior and recommendations made on how best to protect our children from these type of crimes. The science needs to drive this one. If there really can’t be a “cure” to this behavior then we have to face the fact that our criminal justice system must make new provisions to accommodate the psychological reality of these perpetrators.

But more important, child protection should be a national effort from the top down and the bottom up.

Surely in these divided times, we can still come together as a nation to protect our children and build stronger communities. What better way than for communities to organize child-protection efforts and our community-organizer-in-Chief to make an America where kids can safely walk to school again a presidential priority? Let’s use our anger and our sadness at this latest tragedy to do something genuinely positive for our nation.

Even after we’ve made serious inroads against this problem, we’ll still have to face the fact that the world will never be 100% safe. This doesn’t mean that childhood innocence has to be lost. The second step after making things safer is to actively restore some degree of innocence to our children and communities through making innocence a priority.

The news media has a stake in this, since our innocence is also dependent on what we focus on. If the focus is always on the horror then childhood innocence will have a difficult time thriving.
Moreover, with concerted community involvement and this kind of national emphasis, in time kids can be preserved from losing their innocence to soon and have safer communities in which to grow.

But in praying and acting for this end, we also have to be grateful for what we can learn from kids: innocence, optimism and faith are harder to defeat than we adults often think.

John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert and founder of the Marketing Department of America.

[JessStar]

Wow, I don't know what to make of this case.  All I can say for sure is this Sean Patton guy has peaked my interest.  And digging with a digging machine?  This child wasn't missing long enough for someone to hide evidence so well that a digging machine would be necessary to uncover it.  Hmmm.  Unless, of course, someone was working at that home with a digging machine.  But I don't think we're dealing with someone very sophisticated here.  This person's days of freedom are numbered.  Hopefully his days among the living are limited too.

Here's what I don't get.  Everything we've read, including the police report, suggests that there were a lot of kids around.  There were at least 3 crossing guards.  In fact, the police report says that others lost sight of Somer when she got lost in a group of other kids.  And then she just vanished?  Or some stranger came out of the shadows and picked her up and took her and no one saw?  To believe that story, you need to believe Sean Patton.  Specifically, you need to believe that Somer never made it home.  And I'm just not there yet.  Assuming as we must that the narrative in the police report is accurate, his comments were, in a word, strange. Telling a 10 year old to go look for Somer?  And when she comes back empty handed, telling her to go back out and look better?  C'mon.  That's down right ludicrous.

Here's another thing.  Listen very closely to Somer's mom during yesterday's presser. She was asked a question something along the lines of "who would do this."  When she starts answering, she says something like, "I don't know.  It could be anyone.  It could be my.  It could  be . . ."  She says "It could be my" then stops.  Hmmmmm.  "My" who?  My friend Sean? 

Just sayin'. . .

I thought she was going to say my neighbor, but then thought better of it.  I personally don't think it is Sean, I don't think he had time. With the other children there he couldn't have done the deed, left and put her in a dumpster and returned.  Just doesn't make sense to me.

True, AZ, but that assumes he did the deed, left, put her in a dumpster, and returned all within the same time period.  He could have done the deed, hid her, and put her in the dumpster later.  There are just so many possibilities.  That's why I'd like to know where he went after the police left his house.  Did he stay with the family, or did he "go home."  The recent article posted above, clearing all the sex offenders, raises my red flag even higher.

[AZSunny]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/10/23/john-tantillo-somer-thompson-murder-florida-innocence/

John Tantillo 

 - FOXNews.com

 - October 23, 2009
Praying For Somer Thompson and Her Family Is Not Enough

Let’s use our anger and our sadness at this latest tragedy to do something genuinely positive for our nation. Child protection should be a national effort from the top down and the bottom up.


When we heard the news about Somer Thompson's body being found in a Georgia landfill on Thursday, a colleague said that she was going to pray for the child and her family. I responded that I would do the same. But after I said that, I thought there had to be more that all of us could do to protect our children. There’s just been too many of these kinds of horrors in the news and an important innocence –childhood innocence— is at stake.

I believe prayer is helpful for Somer’s family and Somer herself, but I also believe that prayer can give us a necessary “time out” from which to consider what exactly is going on in our world and our communities today. Why the loss of innocence and more important what we can do about it.Bottom line: why can’t kids safely walk to school anymore?

First, we have to ask question, could they ever?

I remember as a kid growing up in Queens in the early 1960s. There was a child killer on the loose. The manhunt captured the city for weeks. After he was caught, life went on for me and my friends, but the first life lesson learned was to be careful who you talk to no matter how nice they appear to be.

So in a way, violent reality threatening children isn’t new. But I think all of us can agree –and the crime statistics back this up— the rate and horrific nature of crimes against children is much worse than when many of us were kids and it’s changing the way childhood is lived for the worse. Even after we heard about that child killer, we were more careful, but our innocence was still intact.

Today we often hear the talking head lawyers speak to the issue of the rights of the accused with little consideration to the rights of the victim(s). As a research trained psychologist, I understand their argument, but also understand that if a killer was a one-time child molester, the probability that they will engage in that behavior again is greater than 68 per cent.

So first we have to agree that the danger is out there and ask what we can do to protect the potential victims.

For starters, a blue-ribbon commission of behavioral scientists and criminologists should be established to study this abhorrent behavior and recommendations made on how best to protect our children from these type of crimes. The science needs to drive this one. If there really can’t be a “cure” to this behavior then we have to face the fact that our criminal justice system must make new provisions to accommodate the psychological reality of these perpetrators.

But more important, child protection should be a national effort from the top down and the bottom up.

Surely in these divided times, we can still come together as a nation to protect our children and build stronger communities. What better way than for communities to organize child-protection efforts and our community-organizer-in-Chief to make an America where kids can safely walk to school again a presidential priority? Let’s use our anger and our sadness at this latest tragedy to do something genuinely positive for our nation.

Even after we’ve made serious inroads against this problem, we’ll still have to face the fact that the world will never be 100% safe. This doesn’t mean that childhood innocence has to be lost. The second step after making things safer is to actively restore some degree of innocence to our children and communities through making innocence a priority.

The news media has a stake in this, since our innocence is also dependent on what we focus on. If the focus is always on the horror then childhood innocence will have a difficult time thriving.
Moreover, with concerted community involvement and this kind of national emphasis, in time kids can be preserved from losing their innocence to soon and have safer communities in which to grow.

But in praying and acting for this end, we also have to be grateful for what we can learn from kids: innocence, optimism and faith are harder to defeat than we adults often think.

John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert and founder of the Marketing Department of America.

Thanks Cece. great article!  I put it on Facebook!

[AZSunny]

Wow, I don't know what to make of this case.  All I can say for sure is this Sean Patton guy has peaked my interest.  And digging with a digging machine?  This child wasn't missing long enough for someone to hide evidence so well that a digging machine would be necessary to uncover it.  Hmmm.  Unless, of course, someone was working at that home with a digging machine.  But I don't think we're dealing with someone very sophisticated here.  This person's days of freedom are numbered.  Hopefully his days among the living are limited too.

Here's what I don't get.  Everything we've read, including the police report, suggests that there were a lot of kids around.  There were at least 3 crossing guards.  In fact, the police report says that others lost sight of Somer when she got lost in a group of other kids.  And then she just vanished?  Or some stranger came out of the shadows and picked her up and took her and no one saw?  To believe that story, you need to believe Sean Patton.  Specifically, you need to believe that Somer never made it home.  And I'm just not there yet.  Assuming as we must that the narrative in the police report is accurate, his comments were, in a word, strange. Telling a 10 year old to go look for Somer?  And when she comes back empty handed, telling her to go back out and look better?  C'mon.  That's down right ludicrous.

Here's another thing.  Listen very closely to Somer's mom during yesterday's presser. She was asked a question something along the lines of "who would do this."  When she starts answering, she says something like, "I don't know.  It could be anyone.  It could be my.  It could  be . . ."  She says "It could be my" then stops.  Hmmmmm.  "My" who?  My friend Sean? 

Just sayin'. . .

I thought she was going to say my neighbor, but then thought better of it.  I personally don't think it is Sean, I don't think he had time. With the other children there he couldn't have done the deed, left and put her in a dumpster and returned.  Just doesn't make sense to me.

True, AZ, but that assumes he did the deed, left, put her in a dumpster, and returned all within the same time period.  He could have done the deed, hid her, and put her in the dumpster later.  There are just so many possibilities.  That's why I'd like to know where he went after the police left his house.  Did he stay with the family, or did he "go home."  The recent article posted above, clearing all the sex offenders, raises my red flag even higher.

I can't imagine his leaving if he was a family friend, and I am sure the LE wanted to talk to him. I just can't involve him in my mind, but I have been wrong before!

[no rose colored glasses]

Clearing the sex offenders raised many red flags for me also. I don't know it would seem that Sean wouldn't have had a lot of time, but......

[ScareyCarrie]

Good morning monkeys.

I am just gonna throw this out there don't think it has a particular role in this story but somethin to think about...

You guys have been talkin about trash and how they should be able to know where she came from or was put in the trash (so sad to say) anyways, we do not throw anything with our name or address or any combination of those in the trash we shred everything.

Not that everyone does just a thought

we shred stuff too,,,but not junk mail with our address on it or magazines with the subscription name on it...probably should...or what about prescription bottles of meds? those labels should be shredded as well but I bet that most people don't do that...

i rip the label off and shred it then bf uses bottles for fishin lures (sp?)  we shred reciepts and everything, dont want a chance of id theft! plus ya never know ppl diggin in trash and such

[Hibiscus]

Sorry for the OT....but is there a folder for the 9 year old Missouri girl who went missing on Wednesday?

http://www.helpfindmychild.net/elizabeth-olten

[no rose colored glasses]

Sorry for the OT....but is there a folder for the 9 year old Missouri girl who went missing on Wednesday?

http://www.helpfindmychild.net/elizabeth-olten

  http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=6338.0

[Hibiscus]

Sorry for the OT....but is there a folder for the 9 year old Missouri girl who went missing on Wednesday?

http://www.helpfindmychild.net/elizabeth-olten

  http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=6338.0

Thanks

[no rose colored glasses]

Sorry for the OT....but is there a folder for the 9 year old Missouri girl who went missing on Wednesday?

http://www.helpfindmychild.net/elizabeth-olten

  http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=6338.0

Thanks

No problem  Elizabeth's case isn't adding up for me, I don't know what, just so odd with the family and such, with crimes. I sure hope she is somewhere safe, but at 9 years old 

[Fanny Mae]

That's the one. I think I am losing my mind. Can you get in a little closer and see what is on the t-shirt on the guy with the beard??? I'm sorry, maybe soon I will learn.

This one??

Yes, that was the one.. So it was an eagle. Thanks. 

[MuffyBee]

Good morning monkeys.

I am just gonna throw this out there don't think it has a particular role in this story but somethin to think about...

You guys have been talkin about trash and how they should be able to know where she came from or was put in the trash (so sad to say) anyways, we do not throw anything with our name or address or any combination of those in the trash we shred everything.

Not that everyone does just a thought

we shred stuff too,,,but not junk mail with our address on it or magazines with the subscription name on it...probably should...or what about prescription bottles of meds? those labels should be shredded as well but I bet that most people don't do that...

I tear out the magazine subscription names & shred them.   I've read there are ways to track, find out info that can go back to orders and possibly account information, and I do the same with catalogs from Land's End and such.    I destroy the labels on meds bottles before recycling them by soaking the bottle and the label pulls up or I scrape it off and destroy them.  I read somewhere not long ago where a person went to renew their prescription, and someone else had already filled and picked it up, and it's believed that came from someone getting hold of an old prescription bottle.  Some meds might not be too interesting, but surely could be if they are sleeping pills, pain pills or such.    Sorry, don't have link.  I've just read in the last day or so most ID thefts seem to be due to breaches in data bases, but I try to do all I can to help thwart thieves...

[cookie]

I take the labels off of the med bottles too...tear them up if not shredded...hubby doesn't but I do! can never be too safe with private info in this day and age...sorry to say

[higherhopes]

I wish we knew more about what is going on at that vacant house, this is really worrying me, seems like more then one crime might have happened there.....

[no rose colored glasses]

I wish we knew more about what is going on at that vacant house, this is really worrying me, seems like more then one crime might have happened there.....

That's what I'm afraid of also 

[twocents]

The SOs were not cleared. They were accounted for. This will  be a different story once DNA becomes available if there was any to match back to someone per Mary J. Also Sean is NOT a suspect in this.

[Brandi]

A letter to TES from Somer's father



To: TES Members – Florida
From: Rich Giles
I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to each of you who were able to participate in the recent search for Somer Thompson in Orange Park. The email requesting your assistance was sent the evening of October 20th for a search the following morning. Not much advanced notice, but you responded without hesitation. I realize that many of you took time away from work and other commitments to be there and that is admirable.
Although the outcome of this case was not what we had all prayed for, be assured that the effort put forth by each of you allowed the Clay County Sheriff’s Office to utilize their available man-power to concentrate on following leads, conducting interviews and other investigative activities.
I had the opportunity to speak with several members of law enforcement, the U.S. Navy, and residents of the Orange Park community and each expressed two things; first a true appreciation for your efforts and second the question of how it is we continue to do this realizing that the outcome may be tragic. My response to this was simple; “we all have our reasons and it’s what we do”.
Grieve the outcome and keep Somer and her family in your prayers, but rest well knowing that your actions continue to have a tremendous positive impact on your character and the professionalism of our Florida membership and the entire TES organization.
Again I thank each of you for a job well done!
Rich

http://texasequusearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Somer-Thompson-Thank-You.pdf

Catching up today.

Rich Giles is not Somer's father. Samuel Thompson  is.

As far as I can see, Rich Giles is a (possibly retired) police detective from Leesburg.

[EverySunset]

Good morning monkeys.

I am just gonna throw this out there don't think it has a particular role in this story but somethin to think about...

You guys have been talkin about trash and how they should be able to know where she came from or was put in the trash (so sad to say) anyways, we do not throw anything with our name or address or any combination of those in the trash we shred everything.

Not that everyone does just a thought

we shred stuff too,,,but not junk mail with our address on it or magazines with the subscription name on it...probably should...or what about prescription bottles of meds? those labels should be shredded as well but I bet that most people don't do that...

I don't  But I guess I better.

I shred everything, including both of those because I am paranoid. The prescription pill bottle labels ended up sticking to the blades of my shredder and causeing probs, because they are stickers. Anyway, I just shred all the pill bottle labels and the extra labels on the bag that walgreens gives me, by hand, now. I spend a lot of time ripping stuff.