# Woman claims to be missing daughter **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 31, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107 "2003-07-31T12:24:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/1 "2003-07-31T12:24:32Z")
[http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=824312003](http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=824312003) I don’t understand this woman. What a cruel and vicious thing to do. What possesses someone to call up a random stranger and claim to be their missing daughter? She must have done some research to fool the police and the family enough for them to take it seriously for a time. She has no heart and no soul. What a monster. ---
**Author:** ![summerbreeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@summerbreeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/summerbreeze)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/2 "2003-07-31T13:00:08Z")
I agree, **ivylass**. She’s reported to have done this before, and, in this instance at least, there doesn’t seem to be a financial motive, so perhaps she’s mentally ill. ---
**Author:** ![hilltopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@hilltopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hilltopper)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/3 "2003-07-31T13:02:19Z")
What about the media…setting that guy up to make him think it was his daughter and then capturing his reaction on film for all of us to see. They are the ones who should be strung up. ---
**Author:** ![Shark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Shark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/4 "2003-07-31T13:08:22Z")
The town this little girl dissapeared from 17 years ago is close to where I live. This story has gotten enormous press in central Indiana. In the local paper yesterday the father said that once the police became involved, that the woman hadn’t contacted him again. This was before the hoax was revealed. Huge Red Flag went up in my head, and I hoped I was wrong, but obviously I wasn’t. How utterly cruel can you be? What did she hope to gain? I feel for the family of the child. To tear open this wound and throw salt in such a callous manner is deplorable. ---
**Author:** ![hilltopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@hilltopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hilltopper)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/5 "2003-07-31T13:09:15Z")
" “I wasn’t expecting this at all. When they called me with the information that we were going to have a news conference, I thought they were going to bring Shannon in here. I thought this was something,” he said before covering his face and breaking into tears. The father had learned just moments earlier that authorities had identified the claim as a hoax. " [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/07/30/missing.girl/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/07/30/missing.girl/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/6 "2003-07-31T13:14:02Z")
This woman must be starved for attention. I knew someone that LOVED to give bad news. She loved being the center of attention. After 17 years I would give up on ever seeing my daughter again. I would resign myself to the fact that she is dead. I think the news was doubly cruel to wai to capture this father/mother on tape to tell them that it was a hoax. But the media is like that. How many times have you seen reporters shove microphones under peoples noses as their house is burning down and ask “how do you feel?” ---
**Author:** ![Shark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Shark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/7 "2003-07-31T13:17:07Z")
Even though I agree that someone should be strung up for the way they broke the news to the father, I think the blame goes to the police and not the media. They are the ones who had the information and withheld it until right before the news conference. They are the ones who called the news conference. Unfortunatly, no television station would ever pass on showing that kind of heart wrentching display of emotion. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/8 "2003-07-31T13:26:16Z")
I think she’s a pathological liar. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/9 "2003-07-31T14:37:03Z")
I think she’s a sadist. I don’t want her to get off because she’s mentally ill. She deliberately and cruelly harmed a family that’s been through hell. To me, that’s evil and sadistic. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/10 "2003-07-31T16:20:40Z")
There is a story in our Topeka paper about this, because the hoaxer has been living in Topeka. [http://www.cjonline.com/stories/073103/loc\_hoax.shtml](http://www.cjonline.com/stories/073103/loc_hoax.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![summerbreeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@summerbreeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/summerbreeze)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/11 "2003-07-31T17:28:30Z")
**Shark** is right; the police set the family up. ---
**Author:** ![LauraLittlePony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LauraLittlePony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LauraLittlePony)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/12 "2003-07-31T17:37:36Z")
Not to be unnessecarily catty, but did you see the pic of the woman? She looks so creepy! ::shivers:: Eeek! It’s the eyes. And then a dumb nitpick. . . did anybody else find it annoying/odd that the articles kept referring to the parents as “the parents of a 6-year-old girl missing since 1986”? I mean, she wouldn’t be 6 anymore. Perhaps I am too picky. 🙂 How horrible that they didn’t tell them that it was a hoax before they showed up! Sheesh! To go into something like that thinking you were going to be reunited with your daughter and then to learn it was a hoax and be interrogated by reporters. . . I hope that woman is damn happy. God. I thought _I_ was a drama queen! ---
**Author:** ![tunabreath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@tunabreath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tunabreath)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/13 "2003-07-31T19:53:34Z")
[She’s insane](http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=57770&ran=60798) > [@](#): > > At a hearing to charge Walker in Boone County, Ind., Heck said a 1992 homicide investigation report from Virginia Beach indicated Walker might have ``multiple personalities and is capable of talking in a male voice.’’ > > Walker had reported witnessing a murder in Virginia Beach, but police learned that she had mental problems and dismissed her claims, according to court documents obtained by The Virginian-Pilot. Her insanity is cruel. sorry but I posted this as well in a pit thread about the same creature. Just thought I’d copy it here in case folks don’t read it there. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/14 "2003-08-01T04:08:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ivylass \* > \*\*I think she’s a sadist. > > I don’t want her to get off because she’s mentally ill. She deliberately and cruelly harmed a family that’s been through hell. To me, that’s evil and sadistic. \*\* In order for her to have done this deliberately, she would have to have a capacity for empathy. If she has no such capacity, then as far as she is concerned, no one has feelings but her and if they do, those feelings bear no relation to her actions. Therefore in her mind, she is not capable of harming anyone, since other people’s feelings have nothing to do with what she chooses to do. ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SnoopyFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyFan)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-claims-to-be-missing-daughter/192107/15 "2003-08-01T04:52:52Z")
Who gives a shit what’s going on in her mind? The bitch needs locked up! I don’t agree with those who are calling for life sentences (shit, there are murderers who don’t even get that) but I think the max would be appropriate in her case. Haven’t computer hackers been banned from using computers as part of a sentence? Could they ban her from using phones, since she has a history of doing this?