STANTON, CA – Five-year-old Samantha Runion (sp.?) was kidnapped from in front of her home the other night. Her playmate said that a man approached them saying that he’d lost his dog, and had they seen it. Then he grabbed Samantha and dragged her kicking and screaming to his car and drove away.
Yesterday hang gliders in the Cleveland National Forest spotted a body. An autopsy is scheduled, and it has not been said whether the body is Samantha’s. The parents are praying it is not their daughter.
The parents are quite naturally hoping against hope that the body is not Samantha’s. But if it’s not, then that means that another family will suffer the horror of knowing their daughter is dead. Either way, it’s tragic.
I’m not a parent, but when I was little I remember adults always saying “Don’t talk to strangers!”. I don’t really know why I’m posting this thread. It’s just very, very sad.
It’s so sad. It’s such a fine line between terrifying your children and thus destroying their innocence, or just plain not giving them the tools to survive in this world.
This whole thing is just so horrific. A little girl, playing in her front yard, grabbed literally kicking and screaming and shoved into a car.
Note to all parents, teachers, whatever: Reiterate 1000 times to the children–keep your distance from a stranger. The “have you seen my puppy” routine is an old ploy…but here, it worked. Samantha walked up to the car–and was grabbed.
Then, less than 24 hours later, a small girl’s body is found 50 miles away. They haven’t yet officially identified it, but it matches her description. Shit, just like that…in 24 hours, a little girl is snatched, and then dead.
I can’t wait for this bastard to be put in prison. Those who molest and kill little girls are the bottom of the prisoner hierarchy and get what many of us want them to have.
I’ve been following the news since yesterday about this–I really hope they do catch this monster.
I can’t imagine what Samantha’s little friend (the only eyewitness to the abduction) is going through right now.
Last year a registered sex offender moved into a house in our neighborhood. The newspaper has a regular column when this happens, showing a photo, giving the address and describing in full detail what the offender did, so at least we knew all about him.
A few days later my daughter tells us that he was standing ouside the school watching the kids come out. Having grown up in hill country where “911” is “357,” I naturally start considering my options. But I know the cops have already heard about his lurking, so I see my job as keeping my kid away from him, not him away from my kid.
So this is where I explain to my 9-year old “you see the look on your kitty’s face when she watches the birds outside? That’s how exited he feels when he watches you. If he catches you he will fuck you and then kill you.”
That’s probably not the way families on TV sitcoms deal with these situations, but I don’t think my approach was that unusual.
The AP says in their story, “The abduction was at least the third high-profile disappearance of a child in the United States this year. Seven-year-old Danielle van Dam of San Diego was found dead, and a neighbor is on trial. Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart of Salt Lake City has been missing since June 5.”
Gee—that must make the thousands of parents of low-profile missing kids feel great! This says a lot more about the media than it does about any rise in kidnappings.
I am so glad that kidnappings ARE getting national attention. I think that if a kid is stolen, they should interrupt local programming with a description of the child and the suspect, go around with bullhorns, anything they need to do to bring attention to the crime and get that child back.
Sometimes we are just too damn polite in this country.
If they catch the bastard that murdered little Samantha, I’d line up to pull the switch. I really would.
Can anyone find a link to a photo of her mom, Erin Runnion? I ask because I went to high school ten years ago with an Erin Runnion, who exactly matches all the written descriptions I’ve read so far today. I’d really like to know if it’s the same Erin Runnion. To my memory, Samantha even resembles the girl I knew in high school.
It says a lot about the world we live in that we can’t afford the children one bit of naivete when it comes to the evil here. Not that I’m saying you’re wrong, just that it’s sad that absolute blatancy is required.
Larry King’s got the story right now. I was astounded when I read the initial story of the kidnapping. I was shocked to the point of breathlessness at this morning’s story that her body was found.
And you know, my cynical side already figured that she would wind up dead, but when I read the news it hit me hard.
I just don’t fucking get how someone could do that. No clue.
Fucker should definitely die. This, in my book, is what the death penalty was made for. I’ve said recently that I have a great deal of issues about the death penalty in general, but in this specific, I’m all for it.
This guy will be caught, I guarantee it. They have a description, they know what kind of car he drives, and from the other evidence, he sounds like what profilers call a disorganized criminal. He was probably cruising for a victim rather than picking them in advance, and didn’t have a private place to commit his crime or dispose of the body. It’s a horrible, horrible thing that this happened. Absolutely abominable. But they will catch him, and heaven help him when they do.
