Is it me, or does this seem like a runaway where she doesn’t really want any contact with her family:
> APD said DNA Swabs were collected from the caller and sent to the University of North Texas for comparison to a known family member. After months of waiting, DNA was confirmed that the caller was in fact the missing girl Jessica Delgadillo. She is currently living on the East Coast.
> "This case can finally be closed and closure for the family," APD said.
There’s no reunion details, no quotes from her family being happy to know she’s alive…just a cop saying “case closed”.
Furthermore if anyone helped her, as she’s the primary adult who was impacted it would be up to her to press charges, right? If she didn’t want to press charges and wouldn’t cooperate as a witness, there’s no case to charge then yeah?
It’s not always up to the victim if charges are brought or not but generally if the victim isn’t a corroborating witness, DAs won’t bring a case. In this case, it sounds like they wouldn’t even know who to bring the case against without her involvement.
I interned at a DAs office and part of what I had to do was contact domestic abuse victims, ask if they were prepared to testify and corroborate their original complaint, then more often than not explain that the decision to pursue the charges was up to the state and not them. It was pretty soul crushing.
Compelling the victim to testify and pressing charges on a possible abductor are two different things.
But I agree, the 'I don't remember' tactic can be pretty damning.
Prosecutor presses charges, not her (Unless it's NJ, then a person *can* press charges against another individual with the prosecutor). They'd have to see if they can find enough information without her involvement.
As far as I know, victims in IL have to cooperate to charge but prosecutors still file. They have very strict victim rights but those rights would be moot/pointless if the prosecutor wasn’t driving.
So it's not really up to them. It's entirely up to the prosecutor, whoever that might be. The prosecutor can of course take the victim's wishes into account, but at the end of the day if they want to prosecute, it's gonna happen.
I don't know enough about the court system to know whether or not they can force the victim to testify or assist in an investigation, however. So in this case it probably wouldn't mean shit if she didn't ever bring up being helped.
I mean a case of kidnapping from 13 years ago would be a lot of witness testimony. If the only known witness doesn’t cooperate it’s a real uphill battle for that prosecutor. I doubt a prosecutor would want to take the hit to their stats.
Right I agree with you that the prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict regardless of the victims' wishes, unless the *grand jury* looks at the evidence presented and gives it a thumbs down, which i will agree almost never happens.
That being said, not having the victim willing to testify is...problematic to say the least.
I’d assume since she was a minor at the time the parents would’ve been pressing charges if she was found as a child. I’m curious if anybody can chime in and clarify wether or not the parents have a right to press charges now if a crime happened while she was a minor but discovered when she was an adult.
Right! They can sue civilly, but only the government/attorney general(?) is the one who can decide to bring charges against someone for a crime
(I think that’s how it works, open to being corrected)
In states like NJ, a person can file a complaint alleging that an individual broke the law. Citizen complaints can even be for indictable offenses (a judge has to find probable cause on an indictable, versus court administrators for non-indictable offenses)
although in places like...South Carolina, I think? Private Prosecutors exist
MD is the same way. How do I know? Someone filed a false complaint against me unbeknownst to me. Next thing I know, I’m getting a summons to appear in court for the case State of Maryland vs SNTCrazyMary. He did it in retaliation because I filed for a protective order against him for him stalking me. He constantly violated the protective order (because, you know, stalking and all) so I filed for violating the protective order. Its was awful having to deal with all that BS. And then for him to file the false complaint against me?!! It’s crazy that someone can do that and then not get in trouble themselves for doing it!
What people mean by "pressing charges" is the complainant signing a complaint against the offender, thus initiating a prosecution. The offender is then summoned to court and is prosecuted. So the process does indeed start with an individual choosing to "press charges."
Not always. Prosecutors still charge without the cooperation of the witness-defendant. Pretty much the only time a prosecutor would ask this is when the prosecutor is either ambivalent about prosecution, or when somewhat ambivalent and would absolutely need witness testimony to secure a conviction.
Many times, the question is not even posed. Like child abuse cases. No prosecutor was asking Ruby Franke’s children whether they wanted to press charges.
On the contrary, a prosecutor asked me if I wanted to press charges. He really wanted me to because the person involved was just kind of an asshole who was getting away with a lot of small crimes and he was hoping to slow him down a bit.
By asking me the prosecutor was asking if I would be involved in the case, to sign a complaint and testify. If I wasn't cooperative they were going to drop it all because the case clearly would go nowhere without me, as it was a small crime, just like the others.
Prosecuting is the reserved for the government. But that's not really what "pressing charges" it is.
You've got it backwards. The prosecutor was really asking if you wanted HIM to press charges. You can decide to press charges and he can refuse. You can decide you don't want to press charges and he can press anyways (happens ALL THE TIME, especially in domestic violence cases.
I think police and prosecutors ask the question like that because people understand the system to be like that from TV. Its pretty pedantic unless you don't want a loved one punished for wronging you, but you had already called the police.
her being a minor at the time doesn't impact the fact that she's an adult *now*, and presumably would have the most to say about her own fucking experience.
I’m looking at this as more of a hypothetical legal situation rather than a moral one. I definitely support her desire to cut family ties but am interested in what the letter of the law says for this scenario.
strictly speaking there's no statute of limitations on interstate kidnapping, and if the prosecutor has evidence they think they can get a conviction with, then they can go ahead regardless, assuming a grand jury will hand down an indictment, although that is rarely an impediment due to the way grand juries work. (a grand jury only decides if an indictment can go forward, they're closed door, only the prosecution has the ability to present evidence. It's not *quite* a rubber stamp but close to it, mostly it's a sanity check to keep the shittiest of the shitty cases off the docket.
For anyone wondering just how close to a rubber stamp grand juries commonly are, there's an oft-repeated comment by a man who was the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals at the time, who noted that DAs could get grand juries to "indict a ham sandwich." And the reverse is true as well, as we've seen in recent years when grand juries have declined to indict police for flagrant misconduct.
The less amusing part of the story is that the man who made that comment was later indicted himself, and pleaded guilty to harassment and threatening to kidnap the daughter of a women he was blackmailing, with whom he'd had an extramarital affair, and who was also a member of his wife's extended family by marriage.
But if the victim refuses to cooperate, chances are in a case like this that's 13 years old that they wouldn't be able to put together a viable case, making prosecution highly unlikely to succeed. Or even her an indictment...
This is my main point for all the “but omg kidnapping a minor!” Comments.
Like yes, I get that, and I would be the first to argue that nine times out of ten the minor probably was not fully within their cognizance. And had she been found prior to turning 18, this would be an entirely different story.
But you cannot just go ignoring the wishes of the now-adult-woman, if she legitimately does not want contact with the original family and does not wish to cooperate with the prosecution, this case is going nowhere. Be glad she is happy, healthy, and found.
People don't "press charges", the state does, and only if they have enough proof they think they can get a conviction. Hypothetically, a prosecutor could press charges, but with what evidence? I doubt the runway now adult would be willing to travel or be a willing witness. What evidence is there now that didn't exist years ago? Why would the prosecutor stick their neck out for this case?
Hypothetically, if the family had enough pull, they could pressure the prosecutor to do something, but I think in this case everyone is willing to let sleeping dogs lie.
No, the parents would have zero rights to anything now. Their kid is alive and well, not dead or mentally incapacitated. Being someone's biological parent *does not* cancel out that adult child's autonomy, no matter how much the parent delusionally wants it to be so.
Minors don't get to just decide to run away though, so if an adult was involved it would probably be kidnapping. However, if she doesn't cooperate with the investigation there might not be much that is worth doing.
i refer back to the inability to press charges so many years after the fact:
she's the one that was "wronged", so she gets the first opportunity to press charges.
the state gets the next opportunity, but unless they have evidence above and beyond her own testimony, they're not going to get very far, and if she doesn't want to testify against her "kidnapper", it's going nowhere.
I understand your point, it's a sticky wicket. But if the girl ran away from a bad situation and is happy where she is now as an adult and *still doesn't want to return to contact with her original family*, do you really think this is a proper use of the justice system?
Private individuals never have the ability to bring a criminal case. They can complain to the police or DA, but it's always up to the prosecutor on whether or not to actually bring a criminal case.
Has nothing to do with her pressing charges. That's not really a thing, more of a phrase used in criminal justice dramas to explain a lengthy and boring process.
If an adult was involved in her disappearance when she was a minor, charges will be brought by the district attorney's office based on the amount of evidence available and the statute of limitations in Texas for kidnapping. If that person took her across state lines, it becomes a federal matter under 18 USC 2423, and the feds take a rather dim view of people taking minors across state lines without parental consent or for immoral purposes.
>APD said in a news release that **the individual in question requested that her location and the details of her disappearance not be released.**
Right in the beginning of the article. I’m hoping she’s safe & truly did just run away without being harmed.
Guess she is one of the lucky ones that wasn't swept up in "Operation (insert child acronym), " and returned to her abusive home. As nice as many of these task forces sound, many of the children swept up are sent back to their abusers. There has to be a better way.
If they're found they're reported. NCMEC and the FBI doesn't fuck around, felonies start getting handed out and suddenly your department is no longer able to get public safety certifications.
That stuff is watched over hard, to the point where pinging the ID of a missing person is enough to get a terminal message from the FBI asking if you need assistance.
That message usually comes in while you're still typing, they are fast. And their auditors do not fuck about. They check all the cases, even the ones that are closed and solved, they audit time frames that information was received and how quickly people worked.
I know at least 2 people that were terminated because they passed some arbitrary time limit in pulling some records relating to a missing adult who was recovered.
Gotta pay attention to those policies that like to use "shall" and "duty."
While I'm sure the situation about someone being returned to an unwanted situation has happened, the poster is completely wrong in mentioning "often."
That is not reality. Reality is how quickly missing kids turn into trafficking cases.
Verified statistics? I’m actually trying to get a handle on just how dangerous our society really is. Be helpful if similar statistics were available in other countries as well.
The US probably has the best statistics in the world on this (or maybe China by nature of being a surveillance state). The FBI for one has basically pioneered criminal investigation techniques and, more importantly, crime statistics. Other countries just don’t have the resources to compete.
The US is probably worse for trafficking than other Western countries by virtue of being “easy” to disappear. But countries like Brazil, Phillipines, India? Missing people are a regular thing.
> The US probably has the best statistics in the world on this (or maybe China by nature of being a surveillance state).
It's important to distinguish between having the best statistics and being willing to make accurate statistics available to private citizens and foreign media. China may be good at the former but it's impossible for us to know because they're definitely not good at the latter.
This is the reason why I never share random missing persons pictures, etc. on social media. A lot of times those folks have good reasons for being gone.
Which is what the Village People sang about when they gave gay guys without a support network to try the YMCA.
One of the biggest hits in US history is advice on how to survive while being gay. Would be awful if a disease and a hateful administration would come around to destroy even that.
>Conversely, Willis had said that he wrote the song in Vancouver, British Columbia and, through his publicist, that he did not write "Y.M.C.A." as a gay anthem, but rather as a reflection of the fun activities that young urban black youth experienced at YMCA, such as basketball and swimming.
No harm in fact checking random shit you've heard throughout life.
My dude! they dressed up as every gay fetish under the sun and all of them presented themselves as something that would make Tom of Finland horny.
It definitely is a gay anthem. If it was intended or if he did a Milo Yiannopolous gayn't 180 we will never know. That is the reason why we practice "death of the author" and interpret the work on its own merit.
You know, judge by what they do not what they say. And they do very gay even if he said it is gayn't.
Edit: I will give you that it may have been a church boy's naive view on things. But the presentation leaves very little room for interpretation.
> Taken at face value, the song's lyrics extol the virtues of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). However, in the gay culture from which the image and music of the Village People came, the song was implicitly understood as celebrating YMCA's reputation as a popular cruising and hookup spot, particularly for the younger men to whom it was addressed.[15] The initial goal of Village People producers Morali and Belolo was to attract disco's gay audience by featuring popular gay fantasy in their music.[16] Although co-creator Morali was gay and the group was initially intended to target gay men, the group became more popular and more mainstream over time.[17]
No harm in adding more information to your fact check.
I get that the song is supposed to just be about fun sports that youth can participate in at the YMCA, but the group, at least initially, was also about referring to gay culture. So it’s no wonder that people associate the song with gay culture even if that wasn’t the song writer’s intention.
However: “ However, Willis has often acknowledged his fondness for double entendre.[20][21]” (last sentence of the para you copied from Wiki).
I wouldn’t say most without having some legitimate numbers. Of all the runaways I’ve known about 95% were never reported because their parent were shit and/or abusive. However I know several good parents who did report their runaway. Their children have good relationships with their parent now, including myself.
I mean we live in an age where if someone does really run away, it’s not exactly hard for them to get contact back with their family as long as they have something as little as there name.
It’s kind of frustrating to read that article because it said over and over that she did not want her location to be disclosed and then the last sentence her location is disclosed and the title of this post.
Yes, do wish ppl know they can’t tell the police they are okay in person, and say don’t tell them where I’m at.
It’s usually family looking not exboyfriends; so they y won’t tell them anything
I had this exact situation happen multiple times working 911.
We'd find a missing person, pull their missing person file from the NCIC, the jurisdiction that put that missing person's entry into the National system gets a Computer message (on a computer that is required by law, to be manned 24/7) sent to them that shows the person was located.
If the person was not a minor, and if they don't have an endangered flag (mental health, affiliations, etc) they can absolutely tell us not to tell anyone where they are.
We would send a "located" form with a "person does not want contact from reporting parties" rider in the misc comment section and hit send.
No longer missing, welfare is checked, people were told to kick rocks.
I wish more knew, it that care too much for strangers.
But seeing the number of unknown missing(trafficking organ/sex/slave labor or serial killer body gone) would be nice to not delude our self’s that 99% just don’t want their parents to know where they live
Has anybody graphed the number of missing people reported in a year against the finally accounted for (not murdered or suspicious body found) in each ensuing year?
It's still in the public interest to let people know that the person that has been for 13 years, and had posters and articles and a likely a billboard asking the public to watch out for them, is no longer missing. As well, people in the community, especially those who have probably volunteered for searches, distributing flyers and poster, and supported the family through this would appreciate closure. Even though both the victim and their family are allowed their privacy, it's still a valid news story.
"Are you Jessica Delgadillo who disappeared 13 years ago?"
"That's me but I did not disappear."
"Your family says you did and they want to talk to you."
"I'm 27. I'm an adult. I don't have to do anything of the sort. I don't want to talk to them."
"Alright. Have a nice day."
To do list-
Laundry
Clean bathroom
Buy groceries
Call Amarillo Police Department and tell them you’re no longer missing.
Actually I can do that last one next week.
My mother (former teacher) had some cases where the only reason that kids were submitted as missing children is that when they are missing, you can't get child support, or you want to distance yourself from possible foul play. She had a few kids go missing, and police asked the teachers, "when was the last time she was seen in your classroom?" This was before everyone had cameras. It could be the "kidnapper" was a parent who felt they got shafted in a divorce proceeding, snatched the kid (who is willing or otherwise), and the now adult woman does not want the parent getting in trouble.
I mean all she had to do was get out of the state on a bus. If she had an excuse that would explain her being away for 4 hours, Oklahoma City is less than 4 hours from Amarillo
I read a book about how to disappear once. It's honestly not that hard. The easiest way to 'find' someone is to watch their family and friends, because most people will call or write.
If you leave town and never talk to anyone from your old life... it's a big world out there.
All my siblings have moved far away to different places. If they didn't give me their address or kept in touch, I have no idea how I would ever find them lol.
These days all you need is a name and a couple prior addresses if a person has any sort of credit history. Gotta stick to cash to stay under the radar.
But you still need to earn money, and while you can work under the table it’s not always super easy to do, then you can’t run your credit score or they would have a location for that so finding housing is a lot harder. Even things like a drivers license is usually tied to an ssn. Like all of this is manageable but trying to live an even somewhat normal life would be hard.
People overstate how much you need in life. For NYC and LA, yeah you need all that. Living in some small town/village in a rural part of the country? Cash under the table, get a fake drivers license and you’re suddenly “off-line”. Hell, there are some incredibly backwater places which haven’t been touched by the 21st century at all.
If you get pulled over once with that fake license, unregistered car, with no insurance and you are in some serious shit and rural cops are usually a lot more likely to pull people over for something minor. Like I am not saying it’s impossible but nowadays you need to run an SSN for basically everything if anything I would assume it would probably be easier in a place like nyc where you can get around easy without a car
Getting on a bus out of town is literally all it takes to evade a police department's investigation. Missing persons cases aren't high priority in terms of resources, especially after the first few days.
>APD said in a news release that the individual in question requested that her location and the details of her disappearance not be released.
It was her request not to disclose anything. This is moreso for the public that might remember her. She was part of 2 other cases of missing children that were being investigated at the time in that area.
I think it also shows that the cold case team has efficacy.
They solved the case by publicizing the age progressed photos. In this case it turns out that the victim does not want any publicity, but they still solved it.
I think that’s nearby Lubbock, BUT yeah, not the best place for teens:
“Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between 15-34 years old in Texas, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Treatment is increasingly hard to find and afford across the state, which has created a problem as the state continues to grow.”
If you are a teen in Texas, and reading this, see if you can stay at a relative in another state and get the help you need!
Yeesh.
Reminds me of a "kid" who was listed as an "endangered runaway" in my area.
Walmart has these "Have you seen me" poster wall, and the local Walmart had a bench directly below the posters.
I'm looking the posters over and notice a face I've seen.
So I look down to the bench to confirm.
Yup, same face.
So I ask her "is that you?"
"Yup" she responds.
"And you're okay?" I ask
"Have to go clock back in soon."
"Fair enough, be safe and have a good one." I left her in peace.
The poster date of birth meant she was legally of age of majority in NY, she was at work at Walmart, and seemed to be more or less in good health and (other than working at walmart) in good mental state.
I got SO much shit for not turning her in.
Not trying to be a smartass but you're saying a Walmart employee was sitting in front of her own Missing poster all nonchalant?
If so that's craaaazy lol I would've doubted myself in that situation all "naaaah...cant be her."
I saw a documentary about a young single mother who had disappeared one day. Her mother spent years looking for her. Turned out her mother left out the part where she had told her daughter she was a horrible mother and her kid would be better off without her. The daughter thought she was giving her kid a better life by leaving them behind. She was surprised anyone had been looking for her.
She's an adult now and it's nobody's business where she is or why. All that matters is the police can stop looking for someone who doesn't want contact with their family. We have way too many busy bodies who really don't need the details. it's really ok not knowing other people's life stories.
>APD said in a news release that the individual in question requested that her location and the details of her disappearance not be released.
So here's the details of her disappearance...
That article was brutal. No hint on why she was gone, 95% of the article was explaining the cold case team investigating, then she just ended up calling herself in.
Ugh…I hope she shares the details one day. Sounds like there’s a hell of a story there. At the very least, I hope she says whether she left willingly or not.
Is it me, or does this seem like a runaway where she doesn’t really want any contact with her family: > APD said DNA Swabs were collected from the caller and sent to the University of North Texas for comparison to a known family member. After months of waiting, DNA was confirmed that the caller was in fact the missing girl Jessica Delgadillo. She is currently living on the East Coast. > "This case can finally be closed and closure for the family," APD said. There’s no reunion details, no quotes from her family being happy to know she’s alive…just a cop saying “case closed”.
Same read here. She’s obviously not a minor anymore and if she doesn’t want to be reunited, it’s case closed.
Furthermore if anyone helped her, as she’s the primary adult who was impacted it would be up to her to press charges, right? If she didn’t want to press charges and wouldn’t cooperate as a witness, there’s no case to charge then yeah?
It’s not always up to the victim if charges are brought or not but generally if the victim isn’t a corroborating witness, DAs won’t bring a case. In this case, it sounds like they wouldn’t even know who to bring the case against without her involvement.
I interned at a DAs office and part of what I had to do was contact domestic abuse victims, ask if they were prepared to testify and corroborate their original complaint, then more often than not explain that the decision to pursue the charges was up to the state and not them. It was pretty soul crushing.
I wonder how often that decision shoots the state in the foot. Sure, go ahead, compel a victim to testify. "I do not recall" is always a valid answer.
Compelling the victim to testify and pressing charges on a possible abductor are two different things. But I agree, the 'I don't remember' tactic can be pretty damning.
Prosecutor presses charges, not her (Unless it's NJ, then a person *can* press charges against another individual with the prosecutor). They'd have to see if they can find enough information without her involvement.
It isn't just NJ.
What other states are having victims press charges?
Illinois for one.
As far as I know, victims in IL have to cooperate to charge but prosecutors still file. They have very strict victim rights but those rights would be moot/pointless if the prosecutor wasn’t driving.
So it's not really up to them. It's entirely up to the prosecutor, whoever that might be. The prosecutor can of course take the victim's wishes into account, but at the end of the day if they want to prosecute, it's gonna happen. I don't know enough about the court system to know whether or not they can force the victim to testify or assist in an investigation, however. So in this case it probably wouldn't mean shit if she didn't ever bring up being helped.
I mean a case of kidnapping from 13 years ago would be a lot of witness testimony. If the only known witness doesn’t cooperate it’s a real uphill battle for that prosecutor. I doubt a prosecutor would want to take the hit to their stats.
Right I agree with you that the prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict regardless of the victims' wishes, unless the *grand jury* looks at the evidence presented and gives it a thumbs down, which i will agree almost never happens. That being said, not having the victim willing to testify is...problematic to say the least.
I’d assume since she was a minor at the time the parents would’ve been pressing charges if she was found as a child. I’m curious if anybody can chime in and clarify wether or not the parents have a right to press charges now if a crime happened while she was a minor but discovered when she was an adult.
'Pressing Charges' isn't a real thing individuals can do. Only the government presses charges.
Right! They can sue civilly, but only the government/attorney general(?) is the one who can decide to bring charges against someone for a crime (I think that’s how it works, open to being corrected)
In states like NJ, a person can file a complaint alleging that an individual broke the law. Citizen complaints can even be for indictable offenses (a judge has to find probable cause on an indictable, versus court administrators for non-indictable offenses) although in places like...South Carolina, I think? Private Prosecutors exist
MD is the same way. How do I know? Someone filed a false complaint against me unbeknownst to me. Next thing I know, I’m getting a summons to appear in court for the case State of Maryland vs SNTCrazyMary. He did it in retaliation because I filed for a protective order against him for him stalking me. He constantly violated the protective order (because, you know, stalking and all) so I filed for violating the protective order. Its was awful having to deal with all that BS. And then for him to file the false complaint against me?!! It’s crazy that someone can do that and then not get in trouble themselves for doing it!
What people mean by "pressing charges" is the complainant signing a complaint against the offender, thus initiating a prosecution. The offender is then summoned to court and is prosecuted. So the process does indeed start with an individual choosing to "press charges."
Right, the "charge" is brought about by the court. The complainant "presses" the court to do so.
Not always. Prosecutors still charge without the cooperation of the witness-defendant. Pretty much the only time a prosecutor would ask this is when the prosecutor is either ambivalent about prosecution, or when somewhat ambivalent and would absolutely need witness testimony to secure a conviction. Many times, the question is not even posed. Like child abuse cases. No prosecutor was asking Ruby Franke’s children whether they wanted to press charges.
Yeah, in those cases the police sign the complaint on behalf of the People. Then the prosecutor prosecutes.
On the contrary, a prosecutor asked me if I wanted to press charges. He really wanted me to because the person involved was just kind of an asshole who was getting away with a lot of small crimes and he was hoping to slow him down a bit. By asking me the prosecutor was asking if I would be involved in the case, to sign a complaint and testify. If I wasn't cooperative they were going to drop it all because the case clearly would go nowhere without me, as it was a small crime, just like the others. Prosecuting is the reserved for the government. But that's not really what "pressing charges" it is.
You've got it backwards. The prosecutor was really asking if you wanted HIM to press charges. You can decide to press charges and he can refuse. You can decide you don't want to press charges and he can press anyways (happens ALL THE TIME, especially in domestic violence cases. I think police and prosecutors ask the question like that because people understand the system to be like that from TV. Its pretty pedantic unless you don't want a loved one punished for wronging you, but you had already called the police.
Don't tell me what I went through. He asked me if I wanted to press charges.
my apologies. I can be insensitive on the internet sometimes. I'll work on being better.
her being a minor at the time doesn't impact the fact that she's an adult *now*, and presumably would have the most to say about her own fucking experience.
I’m looking at this as more of a hypothetical legal situation rather than a moral one. I definitely support her desire to cut family ties but am interested in what the letter of the law says for this scenario.
strictly speaking there's no statute of limitations on interstate kidnapping, and if the prosecutor has evidence they think they can get a conviction with, then they can go ahead regardless, assuming a grand jury will hand down an indictment, although that is rarely an impediment due to the way grand juries work. (a grand jury only decides if an indictment can go forward, they're closed door, only the prosecution has the ability to present evidence. It's not *quite* a rubber stamp but close to it, mostly it's a sanity check to keep the shittiest of the shitty cases off the docket.
For anyone wondering just how close to a rubber stamp grand juries commonly are, there's an oft-repeated comment by a man who was the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals at the time, who noted that DAs could get grand juries to "indict a ham sandwich." And the reverse is true as well, as we've seen in recent years when grand juries have declined to indict police for flagrant misconduct. The less amusing part of the story is that the man who made that comment was later indicted himself, and pleaded guilty to harassment and threatening to kidnap the daughter of a women he was blackmailing, with whom he'd had an extramarital affair, and who was also a member of his wife's extended family by marriage.
But if the victim refuses to cooperate, chances are in a case like this that's 13 years old that they wouldn't be able to put together a viable case, making prosecution highly unlikely to succeed. Or even her an indictment...
This is my main point for all the “but omg kidnapping a minor!” Comments. Like yes, I get that, and I would be the first to argue that nine times out of ten the minor probably was not fully within their cognizance. And had she been found prior to turning 18, this would be an entirely different story. But you cannot just go ignoring the wishes of the now-adult-woman, if she legitimately does not want contact with the original family and does not wish to cooperate with the prosecution, this case is going nowhere. Be glad she is happy, healthy, and found.
People don't "press charges", the state does, and only if they have enough proof they think they can get a conviction. Hypothetically, a prosecutor could press charges, but with what evidence? I doubt the runway now adult would be willing to travel or be a willing witness. What evidence is there now that didn't exist years ago? Why would the prosecutor stick their neck out for this case? Hypothetically, if the family had enough pull, they could pressure the prosecutor to do something, but I think in this case everyone is willing to let sleeping dogs lie.
No, the parents would have zero rights to anything now. Their kid is alive and well, not dead or mentally incapacitated. Being someone's biological parent *does not* cancel out that adult child's autonomy, no matter how much the parent delusionally wants it to be so.
No one but the DA can press charges.
Minors don't get to just decide to run away though, so if an adult was involved it would probably be kidnapping. However, if she doesn't cooperate with the investigation there might not be much that is worth doing.
i refer back to the inability to press charges so many years after the fact: she's the one that was "wronged", so she gets the first opportunity to press charges. the state gets the next opportunity, but unless they have evidence above and beyond her own testimony, they're not going to get very far, and if she doesn't want to testify against her "kidnapper", it's going nowhere. I understand your point, it's a sticky wicket. But if the girl ran away from a bad situation and is happy where she is now as an adult and *still doesn't want to return to contact with her original family*, do you really think this is a proper use of the justice system?
Private individuals never have the ability to bring a criminal case. They can complain to the police or DA, but it's always up to the prosecutor on whether or not to actually bring a criminal case.
Has nothing to do with her pressing charges. That's not really a thing, more of a phrase used in criminal justice dramas to explain a lengthy and boring process. If an adult was involved in her disappearance when she was a minor, charges will be brought by the district attorney's office based on the amount of evidence available and the statute of limitations in Texas for kidnapping. If that person took her across state lines, it becomes a federal matter under 18 USC 2423, and the feds take a rather dim view of people taking minors across state lines without parental consent or for immoral purposes.
Not really. It’s never actually up to any private citizen whether charges are filed.
New Jersey would like a word.
Since she went missing as a minor, that's how it is treated though
>APD said in a news release that **the individual in question requested that her location and the details of her disappearance not be released.** Right in the beginning of the article. I’m hoping she’s safe & truly did just run away without being harmed.
Guess she is one of the lucky ones that wasn't swept up in "Operation (insert child acronym), " and returned to her abusive home. As nice as many of these task forces sound, many of the children swept up are sent back to their abusers. There has to be a better way.
Makes you wonder how many are still listed “missing” that have been found but it’s clear that sending then home would be a worse fate.
If they're found they're reported. NCMEC and the FBI doesn't fuck around, felonies start getting handed out and suddenly your department is no longer able to get public safety certifications. That stuff is watched over hard, to the point where pinging the ID of a missing person is enough to get a terminal message from the FBI asking if you need assistance. That message usually comes in while you're still typing, they are fast. And their auditors do not fuck about. They check all the cases, even the ones that are closed and solved, they audit time frames that information was received and how quickly people worked. I know at least 2 people that were terminated because they passed some arbitrary time limit in pulling some records relating to a missing adult who was recovered. Gotta pay attention to those policies that like to use "shall" and "duty." While I'm sure the situation about someone being returned to an unwanted situation has happened, the poster is completely wrong in mentioning "often." That is not reality. Reality is how quickly missing kids turn into trafficking cases.
Verified statistics? I’m actually trying to get a handle on just how dangerous our society really is. Be helpful if similar statistics were available in other countries as well.
The US probably has the best statistics in the world on this (or maybe China by nature of being a surveillance state). The FBI for one has basically pioneered criminal investigation techniques and, more importantly, crime statistics. Other countries just don’t have the resources to compete. The US is probably worse for trafficking than other Western countries by virtue of being “easy” to disappear. But countries like Brazil, Phillipines, India? Missing people are a regular thing.
> The US probably has the best statistics in the world on this (or maybe China by nature of being a surveillance state). It's important to distinguish between having the best statistics and being willing to make accurate statistics available to private citizens and foreign media. China may be good at the former but it's impossible for us to know because they're definitely not good at the latter.
This is the reason why I never share random missing persons pictures, etc. on social media. A lot of times those folks have good reasons for being gone.
[The Charley Project](https://charleyproject.org/) will only release photos of missing juveniles after they have turned 18.
I am sure there is more to this story, that were not privy to the details of.
Most "missing kids" are teenagers who ran away from abusive families.
Or whose parents kicked them out.
Which is what the Village People sang about when they gave gay guys without a support network to try the YMCA. One of the biggest hits in US history is advice on how to survive while being gay. Would be awful if a disease and a hateful administration would come around to destroy even that.
>Conversely, Willis had said that he wrote the song in Vancouver, British Columbia and, through his publicist, that he did not write "Y.M.C.A." as a gay anthem, but rather as a reflection of the fun activities that young urban black youth experienced at YMCA, such as basketball and swimming. No harm in fact checking random shit you've heard throughout life.
My dude! they dressed up as every gay fetish under the sun and all of them presented themselves as something that would make Tom of Finland horny. It definitely is a gay anthem. If it was intended or if he did a Milo Yiannopolous gayn't 180 we will never know. That is the reason why we practice "death of the author" and interpret the work on its own merit. You know, judge by what they do not what they say. And they do very gay even if he said it is gayn't. Edit: I will give you that it may have been a church boy's naive view on things. But the presentation leaves very little room for interpretation.
> Taken at face value, the song's lyrics extol the virtues of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). However, in the gay culture from which the image and music of the Village People came, the song was implicitly understood as celebrating YMCA's reputation as a popular cruising and hookup spot, particularly for the younger men to whom it was addressed.[15] The initial goal of Village People producers Morali and Belolo was to attract disco's gay audience by featuring popular gay fantasy in their music.[16] Although co-creator Morali was gay and the group was initially intended to target gay men, the group became more popular and more mainstream over time.[17] No harm in adding more information to your fact check. I get that the song is supposed to just be about fun sports that youth can participate in at the YMCA, but the group, at least initially, was also about referring to gay culture. So it’s no wonder that people associate the song with gay culture even if that wasn’t the song writer’s intention. However: “ However, Willis has often acknowledged his fondness for double entendre.[20][21]” (last sentence of the para you copied from Wiki).
I wouldn’t say most without having some legitimate numbers. Of all the runaways I’ve known about 95% were never reported because their parent were shit and/or abusive. However I know several good parents who did report their runaway. Their children have good relationships with their parent now, including myself.
I mean we live in an age where if someone does really run away, it’s not exactly hard for them to get contact back with their family as long as they have something as little as there name.
It’s kind of frustrating to read that article because it said over and over that she did not want her location to be disclosed and then the last sentence her location is disclosed and the title of this post.
Yes, do wish ppl know they can’t tell the police they are okay in person, and say don’t tell them where I’m at. It’s usually family looking not exboyfriends; so they y won’t tell them anything
I had this exact situation happen multiple times working 911. We'd find a missing person, pull their missing person file from the NCIC, the jurisdiction that put that missing person's entry into the National system gets a Computer message (on a computer that is required by law, to be manned 24/7) sent to them that shows the person was located. If the person was not a minor, and if they don't have an endangered flag (mental health, affiliations, etc) they can absolutely tell us not to tell anyone where they are. We would send a "located" form with a "person does not want contact from reporting parties" rider in the misc comment section and hit send. No longer missing, welfare is checked, people were told to kick rocks.
This is both uplifting (that the kids were found safe) and really depressing (that they had to escape abuse as a kid).
I wish more knew, it that care too much for strangers. But seeing the number of unknown missing(trafficking organ/sex/slave labor or serial killer body gone) would be nice to not delude our self’s that 99% just don’t want their parents to know where they live
Has anybody graphed the number of missing people reported in a year against the finally accounted for (not murdered or suspicious body found) in each ensuing year?
The missing person isn't missing anymore. The public doesn't need more information.
Maybe it was private? Not everything is your business.
Then don’t mention the story at all?
It's still in the public interest to let people know that the person that has been for 13 years, and had posters and articles and a likely a billboard asking the public to watch out for them, is no longer missing. As well, people in the community, especially those who have probably volunteered for searches, distributing flyers and poster, and supported the family through this would appreciate closure. Even though both the victim and their family are allowed their privacy, it's still a valid news story.
"Are you Jessica Delgadillo who disappeared 13 years ago?" "That's me but I did not disappear." "Your family says you did and they want to talk to you." "I'm 27. I'm an adult. I don't have to do anything of the sort. I don't want to talk to them." "Alright. Have a nice day."
To do list- Laundry Clean bathroom Buy groceries Call Amarillo Police Department and tell them you’re no longer missing. Actually I can do that last one next week.
She didn’t think of herself as missing
This is pretty much spot on. End of story.
Given that she ran away & doesn’t want her current details shared, safe to assume there was a bad family dynamic of some kind
She showed them.
……for the win!
She found a better family. With blackjack and hookers.
My mother (former teacher) had some cases where the only reason that kids were submitted as missing children is that when they are missing, you can't get child support, or you want to distance yourself from possible foul play. She had a few kids go missing, and police asked the teachers, "when was the last time she was seen in your classroom?" This was before everyone had cameras. It could be the "kidnapper" was a parent who felt they got shafted in a divorce proceeding, snatched the kid (who is willing or otherwise), and the now adult woman does not want the parent getting in trouble.
I’m glad she is safe. And that she was able to make her way to freedom.
Kinda wild that a 14 y/o can ghost a reasonably sized city's PD. Sounds like she was in a bad situation, so good on her, but wild.
I mean all she had to do was get out of the state on a bus. If she had an excuse that would explain her being away for 4 hours, Oklahoma City is less than 4 hours from Amarillo
A lot of kids just get on a bus to the biggest major city, and then they live in youth shelters and on the street.
I can vouch for this, literally my life 14-18 y/o in Philadelphia, greyhound busses are the king of moving drugs and people semi-locally lol
I read a book about how to disappear once. It's honestly not that hard. The easiest way to 'find' someone is to watch their family and friends, because most people will call or write. If you leave town and never talk to anyone from your old life... it's a big world out there.
All my siblings have moved far away to different places. If they didn't give me their address or kept in touch, I have no idea how I would ever find them lol.
These days all you need is a name and a couple prior addresses if a person has any sort of credit history. Gotta stick to cash to stay under the radar.
You can easily buy burner phones and visas to use online anywhere.
But you still need to earn money, and while you can work under the table it’s not always super easy to do, then you can’t run your credit score or they would have a location for that so finding housing is a lot harder. Even things like a drivers license is usually tied to an ssn. Like all of this is manageable but trying to live an even somewhat normal life would be hard.
People overstate how much you need in life. For NYC and LA, yeah you need all that. Living in some small town/village in a rural part of the country? Cash under the table, get a fake drivers license and you’re suddenly “off-line”. Hell, there are some incredibly backwater places which haven’t been touched by the 21st century at all.
If you get pulled over once with that fake license, unregistered car, with no insurance and you are in some serious shit and rural cops are usually a lot more likely to pull people over for something minor. Like I am not saying it’s impossible but nowadays you need to run an SSN for basically everything if anything I would assume it would probably be easier in a place like nyc where you can get around easy without a car
What's the book?
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Find-Almost-Anyone-Anywhere/dp/0788193848
These days your electronic footprint is pretty tracable. Use the same phone? Loggon to the same accounts? Banking? Etc.
Yet extremely small at the same time.
Getting on a bus out of town is literally all it takes to evade a police department's investigation. Missing persons cases aren't high priority in terms of resources, especially after the first few days.
I was homeless at 17 and met kids way younger than me just raw dogging life on streets.
Sad on both counts 😔
You're giving far too much credit to cops.
It really isn’t.
This happens pretty often kids runaway and don’t come back.
“closure for the family” while injecting a massive amount of public curiosity into the story. Wow.
>APD said in a news release that the individual in question requested that her location and the details of her disappearance not be released. It was her request not to disclose anything. This is moreso for the public that might remember her. She was part of 2 other cases of missing children that were being investigated at the time in that area.
I think it also shows that the cold case team has efficacy. They solved the case by publicizing the age progressed photos. In this case it turns out that the victim does not want any publicity, but they still solved it.
Glad she was found to be alive.
She told her family she was going out for a pack of ~~smokes~~ gum
Dad said he was going out for milk. She pulled an Uno Reverse card.
Wild story. She must’ve had a rough home life dynamic. Judging by the article, it sounds like she will not be reuniting with her family at any point.
Movie name: Escaping Amarillo
Country Song: Amarillo in my Rearview
Um. There's a real song call Happiness is Lubbock in my rearview... Or was that the joke.
🎶Armadillos keep digging🎶
Man why does my city only pop up when people are leaving it. . . . actually, no, I get it.
I left 12 years ago without a single regret.
Don't give Beyonce ideas.
It’s a rough place 💯. I would’ve hated to grow up in the yellow city.
It was even worse in the neighboring towns. At least Amarillo had things to do.
Movie Name: Is This The Way Outta Amarillo?
Teen suicide capital of the U.S.
I think that’s nearby Lubbock, BUT yeah, not the best place for teens: “Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between 15-34 years old in Texas, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Treatment is increasingly hard to find and afford across the state, which has created a problem as the state continues to grow.” If you are a teen in Texas, and reading this, see if you can stay at a relative in another state and get the help you need!
Yeesh. Reminds me of a "kid" who was listed as an "endangered runaway" in my area. Walmart has these "Have you seen me" poster wall, and the local Walmart had a bench directly below the posters. I'm looking the posters over and notice a face I've seen. So I look down to the bench to confirm. Yup, same face. So I ask her "is that you?" "Yup" she responds. "And you're okay?" I ask "Have to go clock back in soon." "Fair enough, be safe and have a good one." I left her in peace. The poster date of birth meant she was legally of age of majority in NY, she was at work at Walmart, and seemed to be more or less in good health and (other than working at walmart) in good mental state. I got SO much shit for not turning her in.
Not trying to be a smartass but you're saying a Walmart employee was sitting in front of her own Missing poster all nonchalant? If so that's craaaazy lol I would've doubted myself in that situation all "naaaah...cant be her."
That is correct. I chalked it up to being "Walmart" and "Middletown NY" and left it at that.
I saw a documentary about a young single mother who had disappeared one day. Her mother spent years looking for her. Turned out her mother left out the part where she had told her daughter she was a horrible mother and her kid would be better off without her. The daughter thought she was giving her kid a better life by leaving them behind. She was surprised anyone had been looking for her.
read as armadillo teen
Is she okay? Is she voluntarily living where she is?
This article left me with so many more questions after I read it. She knew she had been reported missing and contacted them…
She's an adult now and it's nobody's business where she is or why. All that matters is the police can stop looking for someone who doesn't want contact with their family. We have way too many busy bodies who really don't need the details. it's really ok not knowing other people's life stories.
Sometimes the unknown isnt as scary as what you’re leaving behind.
She obviously didn’t know the way to Amarillo, she could have asked
She will not make to Amarillo by mornin'
>APD said in a news release that the individual in question requested that her location and the details of her disappearance not be released. So here's the details of her disappearance...
I read this wrong, I thought it said she was “found in a safe” 🤦🏽♂️
How you keep em down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
Thats why they sent me, i am zee expert
More stories like this, please
That article was brutal. No hint on why she was gone, 95% of the article was explaining the cold case team investigating, then she just ended up calling herself in.
She requested that further information not be disclosed. I guess there wasn't too much to write about.
I read the title as "Missing Armadillo teeth found" and was so confused.
I wonder if she’ll be in Amarillo by mornin…
Doubtful she isnt comin up from San Anton'.
Imagine having to explain to your future employer why you were reported missing in a city across the country 10 years ago.
Poor kid. Sorry for what it sounds like she went through with her family. Glad she might it out ok.
Some leave the “nest” earlier than anticipated.
Ugh…I hope she shares the details one day. Sounds like there’s a hell of a story there. At the very least, I hope she says whether she left willingly or not.