Although we talked about one particular west coast missing persons case on my International radio program in 1999, I couldn't recall this victim's name until I googled her... and from the keywords I typed in, I'm impressed that google found her straightaway. If only there were a Google for missing people! What's interesting is that on the same day I thought of this case, another that I have been following appeared as someone's blog entry.
The TV show I was imagining found a link between that case and this one. Could that be? Did my subconscious pick up on something? The mental state is just like when I "have a gut feeling" a particular number will come out in the lottery, for example, 2469. But 2369 comes out instead... There was some connection that wasn't comprehended correctly by my analyzing brain. I almost had the answer, almost arrived at the right combination.
Compare/contrast those West Coast incidents with two East Coast unsolved mysteries:
I've always thought that the Albany area disappearance cases of Karen Wilson and Suzy Lyall were related. They are similar in many ways. My guess was if the girls were murdered, it was by someone working construction who moved from place to place following the work. Think: you could be 20 and kill someone. You could do it again at age 60. That's a span of 40 years right there. But why assume they were killed at all? It is possible the girls were captured and are being kept as slaves, God knows where.
We tend to assume that ourselves and our children and other loved ones are safe. And most of the time we are. But there are incidents like the four mentioned above that can chill your soul. You'll see many similarly strange cases appear on the TV shows 20/20 and Dateline NBC. Sometimes I wish I had chosen detective work as a career. But maybe I'd be too consumed trying to solve these crimes to do anything else! Still, the feeling of accomplishment in being able to give others closure must be somewhat gratifying.