At first I was hopeful, along with most people, that this young woman would be found alive.  While her whereabouts were unknown I could only take a positive position on her behalf.

But as soon as she showed up back at her mother's house, I wanted her clapped into handcuffs like old Sherry Papini, for the same reason.   Allow me to list the things that set off my bullshit detector.

• No sign of any kidnapper either at the disappearance or return site.
• No sign of any toddler.
• She sees an infant in a diaper and can identify it as male?
• Most ridiculous "ruse."  Think about it.  You put an infant on the shoulder to lure a woman?  There was no missing infant reported.  So it's your infant.  How do you know the person who stops, if anyone, won't be an Alabama State Trooper?  In that case, you got some splaining to do and probably lose your baby.  Only the dumbest ruse in the world, virtually guaranteed to fail because if the baby's far enough off the road to not get hit, nobody even sees him in the dark at 65 mph in the first place.  Think about it.  DUH.
  
• After escaping from "brutal kidnappers" in some weakened condition two days later, she goes all the way back to her mother's front door.  How many police or fire stations, hospitals, or other such places did she pass between her "kidnap" location and her mother's house, and why?
• She's too traumatized to talk to the police or the press about it now that she's back.  And the money that was raised to find her isn't being refunded.

I'm working on being the kinder, gentler version of myself.

Like false rape accusers, people who do this sort of thing and gin up all this attention make life absolute hell for people like me, who struggle to have any voice at all. 

My friend Wendy Huggy was kidnapped at age 16 and murdered by an adult man with a history of violence against women.  The authorities found every possible way to blame Wendy and decline their responsibilities to her until it was far too late.  Throw Carlee Russell's ass in jail and make them give back all the money.  I'll leave it there.

ABC3340.com

The bail document for the accused Long Island Serial Killer, Rex Heuermann, can be found here.

I always like to review the public record whenever possible.  This one delivers the bottom line in the first paragraph, literally as soon as they stop listing victims:

"As described below, based on the serious, heinous nature of these serial murders, the planning and forethought that went into these crimes, the strength of the People’s case, the length of incarceration the defendant faces upon conviction, the extended period of time that this Defendant was able to avoid apprehension, his recent searches for sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives, counter-surveillance conducted online as to the criminal investigation, his use of fictitious names, burner email and cellphone accounts, and his access to and history of possessing firearms, the only means to ensure Defendant Rex A. Heuermann’s return to court is to remand him without bail. "  [emphasis added]

This is one of those situations where I wish I could laugh at the story itself, just how hilarious he sounds with that narrative coming out of his mouth.

The police commissioner of Detroit, one of the people charged with cleaning up police corruption, was allegedly caught getting a blowjob in his truck.  Kudos to the Wayne County deputies who didn't honor his alleged request to "help [him] out."  Anyway listen to his story about it, but not with liquids in your mouth.

I'm not surprised that he didn't think he'd have to resign, after Andrew Mitchell recently got a walk on that murder charge.  However, the next day the board put out a statement that Ferguson would in fact step down.

I'm so glad they caught this guy and stopped his despicable abuse, using his money and privilege to prey on desperate girls.   It sounds like some of their families were okay with it, too. He's still listed on LinkedIn as a Certified Nursing Assistant as of this writing.

From DOJ:

CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for enticing at least nine girls in the Philippines to produce sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves and send them to him.
KARL QUILTER, 58, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of sexual exploitation of children.  U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall imposed the 30-year sentence after a hearing July 7, 2023, in federal court in Chicago.
Quilter admitted in a plea agreement that he communicated with the girls via Facebook, Viber, and Skype from 2017 to 2020.  Quilter referred to the minor victims as his “girlfriends” to manipulate and pressure them into sending specific types of photos and videos that he demanded.  Quilter also preyed on the victims’ financial difficulties, using money transfers to the victims’ families to entice the girls to take the sexually explicit images.  In a message to one 16-year-old victim in 2020, Quilter promised to send money to her family for medicine and food if she complied with his demands.  “If u do what I tell you… I will make sure u can buy food for 2 weeks and your medication,” Quilter said in the message.  “Think of your little sister that she can e[a]t for 2 weeks everyday 3 meals a day and u get well.”
Quilter traveled to the Philippines in 2017 and 2018 and explicitly referenced his plans to have sex with several of the minors when he next visited the country in December 2020.  Law enforcement arrested Quilter in Chicago in November 2020.
The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago.  The Chicago Police Department provided valuable assistance.
“Victim by victim, and message by message, defendant used social media and the internet to target and groom young Filipino girls,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley A. Chung argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.  “This was not a one-time aberration, but rather a years-long pattern of predatory abuse and exploitation of minors.”
If you believe you are a victim of sexual exploitation, you are encouraged to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by logging on to www.missingkids.com
or by calling 1-800-843-5678.  The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Updated July 14, 2023

I criticize the police a lot.  So I also want to take a moment to speak up when they totally nail it, like in this situation.

This man was pulled over because of his erratic driving.

When Bert Lopez, another New Mexico state trooper, was caught having sex on the job, I remember not being able to get people to take that seriously, what a major issue that was for so many reasons.  That's probably why he was rehired by another department.  They're not worried about him out Holtzclawing in their part of New Mexico apparently.  They made him a detective!

But the easiest issue to understand:  while Bert Lopez was servicing his own sexual needs, he wasn't out there pulling over apparent drunk drivers.  This amazing guy was doing Bert's share of the workload -- and then some.  This was a truly amazing catch.

When pulled out of the vehicle, Jeremy Guthrie, 41, appeared highly intoxicated.  In the shotgun seat of his truck was a 12-year-old girl with whom he allegedly had an ongoing sexual relationship, as well as her sister.  One of them had a miscarriage allegedly by him. 

There were a total of six kids ranging in age from 12 to 14 in Guthrie's vehicle during this stop, as well as two open bottles of hard liquor.  When asked, he claimed they were his "friends" and that they were 18.

Guthrie is currently said to be texting one of the girls from jail via a guard's cell phone.

So kudos to this one state trooper, for not being a Bert Lopez, for getting out there and not tolerating the nonsense of someone like Jeremy Guthrie.  He got those six kids out of harm's way for real, God bless.

The constant violence against women and children, the way human life gets bombarded with abuse and then discarded like trash, wears me down.  I really just can't sometimes.

I always feel a certain kinship with kids who escape or are rescued from nightmare parents like Gloria Williams or the Turpins.  While what those kids suffered was on a different scope and scale than my abuse, we all have lives that are stunted by the mental illness of our parents.  Our entire lives are about recovering from our childhoods.

My newest little brother that I didn't know about is Rudy Farias.  Thank God for Quanell X, who has obviously been a great help to this young man.  I wish he would be able to adopt and raise Rudy Farias from here on out.  It doesn't look like that's anywhere on the horizon, unfortunately, nothing of the sort.

I also hate the way this is being reported, that he's been found after being missing.  It seems to me more like he finally managed to escape after allegedly being horrifically abused by his mother.

If you watch the video, the complaints against the mother are absolutely horrific.  And I have no reason to disbelieve them, because that version of events would make all of this make sense.  The explanation given by Mr. X ties everything together, unlike anything the mother has been saying.

Based on the statements in the video, it sounds like Rudy has a very Borderline mother.  It's all too classic.  His complaints are summarized that she doesn't respect his boundaries.  She treats him like a slave.  Those were the exact words he used.  I knew the feelings all too well.  My mother treated me like furniture, like I was born to be used by her.

Rudy has alleged that his mother forced him to not only serve as her surrogate husband, but attend her job and perform her work duties for her.  Literally her slave, forced to meet her every need.  She gave him extensive mind-altering drugs for which he will need long-term mental healthcare.

Based on what I know from Understanding the Borderline Mother, and my own life with my borderline mother,  this unfortunately seems pretty clear-cut to me.  The Queen believes her children are her chattel property, existing to meet her demands.  They exist to fill the void inside of her, address the emptiness.  She does not feel ashamed exploiting her children financially any more than a literal queen is ashamed to exploit her peasants.

The worst part about having a Queen mother is the "off with his/her head" phase, The Witch.  When things don't go just exactly as the Queen wants them, the Witch comes out.  The child is then subjected to merciless, sadistic rages, as potentially evidenced by the burns and scars all over Rudy's body.  My mom walked in the door drunk and unleashed the demon on me, the one who visually reminded her what a bad job she was doing.

What upsets me the most, other than all of this, is that as of this writing Rudy's mother appears to have brought him home from the hospital.  He still seems to inexplicably be in her custody.  I don't understand why she isn't in handcuffs, or why he isn't in a care facility.  He's in my heart for sure.

I have a lot of feelings about the MeToo Movement.  Mostly I try to avoid listening to everybody talk about it for the sake of my mental health.

But I very much enjoy criminal defense lawyer Bruce Rivers.  He's bright, honest, and funny.  He has two really good custom rap songs, an intro and an outro.  Importantly, he has good takes that enrich my understanding of criminal law.  And I learned something from this video!  A couple of things.

I had avoided knowing much of anything about this case, again, for purposes of my mental health.  I try not to know what happens among rich people in America because I don't care, for one thing, and because it's an added layer of stress, for another.  It makes me feel like the sky of rape culture is caving in when he doesn't face consequences, which I was sure he wouldn't.

But I always enjoy Bruce Rivers' commentary, and he didn't disappoint. 

• Right off the bat, he was stunningly candid about how his profession used to directly, attack the survivor as their go-to move, and why there's now the "rape shield" act to prevent such bullying.  But that frank admission from the opposition, and the way he elaborated on it throughout, was refreshing.
• Because of the MeToo Movement, New York, Minnesota, and some other jurisdictions crafted some temporary statute of limitations that allowed for prosecution of old sexual assault cases.  He mentioned a one-year timeframe for this jubilee.  That's why Jean Carroll was able to bring her suit. 

So while that was a pretty great accomplishment for the MeToo Movement, it was a tiny drop in the bucket for the amount of justice that was needed, right?  Like I didn't even hear about it.  And the guys I needed to bring charges against, most of them are dead.  And men acted like the biggest victims in the world about it, complaining that they all got "MeToo'd," like it's a big witch hunt over nothing.  As if we started it.  Sorry, my squillion feelings are leaking out.

  II know I probably seem like a big Debbie Downer sometimes because of the things I cover on my blog.  I've been trying to read a few more lighthearted things lately.  But really I'm in a great mood, taking it super easy.

One thing I find very satisfying is this channel:  Non Violent Citizens Against Predators

They have issues with being a bit controversial for YouTube.  I take issue with their misogynist use of "Karen."  But overall they put sunshine in my shriveled old heart.  So be sure to follow them on Rumble and Facebook.

Wait for the Van Halen song!

I write "true crime for survivors."  That's not just a tagline, it's all I can do to push back against the way sexual violence is normally reported -- by people with no skin in the game.  All personal opinions, no personal knowledge.

For example, this discussion of missing and murdered Native women on Huffington Post.  Even people who mean well say really offensive things, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I grew up with a lot of Native people in Chicago.  I went to many powwows and learned a lot about their communities and what they deal with, the lasting legacies of forced assimilation, "boarding schools," and what people do to retain what they have.

Unfortunately I can't afford to read coverage by people such as the linked author, Sage Howard.   I don't know her ethnic background but if she were Native (or a rape survivor) I believe she would have mentioned it.  Maybe she's a lawyer, I don't know her credentials for writing about it.

From my personal perspective as both a sexual assault (trafficking) survivor and a cold-case survivor with respect to my friend Wendy Huggy, what's obvious to me is that the issues Native women face are worse because of the general status and treatment of the Native community, not because of the difference among women.  I'm not saying I'm not horrified.   I'm constantly stunned by how little anyone cares when any woman or even young girl goes missing.  They're always allowed to say, "She ran off." 

It's just that the way the Native community gets marginalized by the federal government in the first place, shoved out of basic protections, metastasizes the problems that all women face in America -- which ranks pretty low in women's rights worldwide and always has.  Unsurprisingly, Native women bear the ultimate brunt of the extreme violence and apathy.  So it's bigger in scale among Native women.   It's a worse problem in a poorer community with less resources in the first place.  It's vile, the way they get ignored.  Here is a good report that suggests how this problem spirals even further out of control for Native women than for the rest of us.

But people don't seem to understand that the police ignore white women all the time, when they aren't the ones raping us.  People have told me many times that white women don't get raped by the police.  Maybe that's why Andrew Mitchell was acquitted again? 

White women aren't even people in the US constitution.  I don't believe Native Americans are, either.  We aren't mentioned, and thus have always been able to be legally discriminated against.  Not as horrifically as Native women.  But white men rape and murder us with near impunity too.  Then they monetize it on TV.  Then people are mad at us because it's even worse for Native women.

So I was hoping there would be some bright spot, some actual hopeful news for Native women.  That's why I clicked the linked article.  The most hopeful thing in that article, honestly, is that TikTok is on it now.  Because I was already aware of the new DoJ initiative, where they're adding ten new attorneys in five regions.  I have little faith or confidence in that.  Last week the Supreme Court saw fit to strip the Navajo Nation of its water rights in a bit of arrogance that stuns my mind.

But TikTok might get results in the real world.  Because TikTok can get people to wake up and understand things, possibly.  And that's what it really takes, I think, people caring about it en masse.   There's a "red hand over the mouth" visual that's really striking, and gets people to understand the gravity of the situation.  And that might help, maybe.  But I've seen the left side of America to also have a very strong male supremacist streak.  I'm not so hopeful.

What won't do a damned thing but line the author's pocket was the linked article.  And that's unfortunate, because she came dangerously close to making a useful point.  But only after making a shitty one, so bad that in my eyes it disqualifies her from writing on this topic, makes her "anti-survivor."

I'd like you to consider these two paragraphs, see how she's comparing apples to piston engines.

"During our lifetimes, we’ve all witnessed the outrage, morbid curiosity and grief that results when white women disappear or are murdered. All humans who suffer in this way deserve that same attention.

We also just experienced nonstop coverage of the Titan submersible, a vessel that disappeared during a tourist expedition to see the sunken Titanic. The urgency around missing Native people should match the media and government efforts put toward finding Titan’s five wealthy passengers."

This author conflates women who are abducted, raped, and murdered with male billionaires who go off on a lark!  HOLY SHIT. 

Howard really can't (a) see the difference between women who get kidnapped, raped, and murdered, and male billionaires who die on an adventure, if they're all white people.  

She also can't (b) see how blowing up one or two sexual violence cases in the news enables ignoring all of the other ones.  Maybe she thinks only one or two white women get murdered each year, the ones she sees on TV?  Could Sage Howard have a sensible conversation with me about Andrew Mitchell and Donna Castleberry?

Does she (c) somehow think the way sexual violence is reported is the preference of white sexual violence survivors, that people like me had a say in this? Howard assigns the same amount of agency to female rape survivors and male billionaires if they're both white.  Meanwhile on Earth 1, I have the amount of voice you see on this blog, she's on Huffington Post.

Had Howard omitted the first paragraph altogether, not felt the need to throw white rape/murder victims under the bus, I would have thought it was just another useless article for people who have never thought about this topic and really don't care about it.  Now I actually feel trolled.

Let me come back to the actual words she said, how foolish and wrong-headed they are.  I will need to address it in two passes.

1.  "During our lifetimes, we’ve all witnessed the outrage, morbid curiosity and grief that results when white women disappear or are murdered. All humans who suffer in this way deserve that same attention." 

Ask yourself, do those three emotions add up to compassion, support, or what?  Outrage and grief, okay.  But morbid curiosity?  If that were the emotional equivalent of a pie, would you eat it?  The morbid curiosity is the part where the delivery driver spat in it.  I didn't order that.  I'd prefer to cook in for everyone, if I had any say in it, which I never have had.

2.  "During our lifetimes, we’ve all witnessed the outrage, morbid curiosity and grief that results when white women disappear or are murdered. All humans who suffer in this way deserve that same attention." 

Really?  You think all rape/murder victims should be treated the same way JonBenet Ramsey was? Because the police screwed her case all up, attacked the family instead of following the evidence, the media went ridiculous, and they never solved it.  It was decades of morbid curiosity that enriched all kinds of uninvoled third parties.  I'm pretty sure her special-needs brother is still suffering about it every day.  And the actual murderer DGAF, meanwhile, this woman wrote this article on HuffPo.  Merry Christmas to the Ramseys.

You think Dave Chappelle should do a bit talking shit about every Native teen who gets kidnapped the way he did Elizabeth Smart?  They publicized that case to hopefully help find the girl over nine months.  Meanwhile the police contacted them twice and it didn't help her one bit, they allowed the kidnapper to have his way while Elizabeth was shackled to his wife.  She wasn't able to get her privacy back afterwards.  Sage Howard is wishing this on everybody.

JonBenet and her family had no agency in any of that, didn't ask to be publicized, got no benefit from any of it, didn't have the option of their privacy, and in general, it's a completely idiotic thing to wish on anyone.  Think about it.  The Ramsey family would love to have none of it ever have happened to them at all.  Same with Elizabeth Smart.  She was already rich.  She didn't need money from writing a book.  It's a moronic conversation.

Also, both of the two examples I gave were significantly richer and whiter than me, Anglo Saxon Protestants, whose crimes were able to be reported and who got support from their families and the community overall, unlike me.  Just saying.  Those two were best-case scenarios of blonde whiteness, and even they couldn't rely on the police and got seriously attacked and exploited in the media.  People reveled in the brutality against them, rejoiced in it.

Key point:  The attention to the submersible fiasco may have actually made a difference in helping the people involved.  The attention paid to sexual violence, especially against white women, is almost purely exploitative.  That's one reason I spend my time and money creating whatever little platform I have.

God bless the Native community.  I wish that there was more I could do.  I wish there were real solutions coming.  I don't know what they will be.  There's no chance that the media will start caring about them in the same way they do about the submersible people.  That will be more of a TikTok thing.