This is such a freaky thing:
More at this link
And here
I’d not heard about this until yesterday when an English friend asked me if I’d heard that this girl was found.
I can’t believe anyone can be so awful. I’m glad she’ll get what’s left of her life back.
Unfortunately, the Japanese had a case to rival this one.
This made the news here, and online. It doesn’t sound like there was much news to be had until she escaped, so I’m not sure why you think that this wasn’t covered in the American press.
I can’t turn a corner without hearing about the whole Karr/Ramsey thing. I hadn’t seen anything about this on the local media here, and hadn’t seen anything all about it on here, not even in the Pit.
It’s the front-page picture in today’s Toronto Star.
I heard about it on the local news and on the American version of the BBC news that we watch in lieu of the US networks in the evening. What an awful thing – but it’s amazing that after eight years, she still had the gumption to make her escape!
They sentenced the kidnapper to 14 years?!???
How can that possibly be?
Maximum sentence for a rape charge perhaps.
There was a manga released here (Japan) that was about something like this. I hadn’t realised it was based on something that had recently occured. For anyone who can read Japanese, I do recommend it though. Here.
Violent crimes are extremely rare in Japan. Prison terms are generally longer because there are far fewer criminals to lock up.
That’s not longer.
In this situation, where the kidnap victim was held for nine years, the sentence of fourteen years for the kidnapper seems a little mild.
It’s happened more recently (English link) in Japan than the Sato case, too.
The story is getting around–it was in my local paper (Raleigh, NC) today.
I think you’re right on, since the article mentioned that the prosecutor tried to hit him with a bunch of other obscure charges.
But he kidnapped a kid for 9 friggin years.
Wow.
One reads such stories as Captured Caroline (warning: if you search for it, it’s erotica) and then one sees the reality.
I’m just glad she escaped. As for her kidnapper, well, the less said the better.
I saw the case before. I don’t know why anybody in America would be concerned about this one case over others. Out of the many missing childern, this really is tame.
They just had this in my newspaper today. I thought it was a little strange that a story about a woman in Austria locked up for 8 years made it in but half the child abuse cases here in Carson don’t get printed (although, to give us the benefit of the doubt, the cops are notoriously closemouthed about informing us when they bust someone).
~Tasha
I agree. I just saw it too, and it made me wonder why certain ones filter to the top (JonBenet and Natalee Holloway), while others, like this one, are virtually unknown in a global sense. Is it because her family isn’t rich? Or she’s not displayed to the nines like the other girls were? What?
I mean, I realize with the sheer volume, that many will never come to the public’s attention. But exactly what factors keep so many minority (or poor, etc…) abductions from the CNN ticker and the whole circus?
They’re looking for Big Stories that they can replace as much hard-news coverage as possible with. If the Big Story is not about someone White and at least middle-class, it tends to scare off the ad buyers, and then the numbers don’t look good and important people begin to get canned. :rolleyes: