SALON

Wednesday, Oct 17, 2012 12:45 AM UTC

Hundreds expected at memorial for slain Colo. girl

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Hundreds expected at memorial for slain Colo. girlThis image provided by the Westminster Colorado Police Department shows Jessica Ridgeway, who went missing on her way to school on Oct. 5. A body found in a suburban Denver park was identified Friday, Oct. 12, 2012, as that of the missing 10-year-old girl, as anxious parents kept close watch over their children because of the potential presence of a predator in their midst, authorities said. (AP Photo/Westminster Colorado Police Department)(Credit: AP)

DENVER (AP) — Hundreds of friends, family and community members will gather Tuesday to remember a 10-year-old Colorado girl who was abducted on her way to school and killed.

Even as the service neared, multiple agencies were checking leads and asking for more tips from the public in their hunt for the killer of Jessica Ridgeway, a fifth-grader who was abducted Oct. 5 on her way to school in suburban Denver.

Cases like this — in which a child apparently is abducted and killed by a stranger — are “the ones that shock entire communities and scare us all,” said Robert Lowery, senior executive director of the missing children’s division at the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about the investigation since they announced Friday that a body found on the edge of town belonged to Jessica.

The girl was last seen alive walking down a quiet street in her modest Westminster neighborhood. Her school backpack was found three days later in Superior, another Denver suburb about 7 miles northwest of her home.

Jessica’s body was found Wednesday, the same day authorities ruled out her parents as suspects in her disappearance. Her body was found along a remote road that locals say few knew about.

Authorities usually are reserved in what they say to the public, out of concern for causing unnecessary alarm. But they issued a statement last week advising residents to be suspicious of their bosses, friends and family members.

Authorities asked the public to keep an eye out for people exhibiting unusual behavior — like leaving town unexpectedly, missing appointments, consuming unusual amounts of alcohol or changing their appearance. The idea was that the killer would not be able to act normally after committing the crime.

“They may have no suspects,” said Kenneth Lanning, a retired FBI behavior analyst in Fredericksburg, Va., who is now a consultant specializing in crimes against children. “But likely at this point, they have so many suspects and now they’re trying to sort through them.”

Lanning is not involved in the Colorado case but described such investigations as multi-track efforts, with volunteers and deputies searching homes, bushes, drainages and open space near the child’s house while investigators develop a criminal case.

Police likely are pouring through hours of surveillance video taken at banks, gas stations, government buildings and elsewhere, Lanning said.

In Cody, Wyo., where an 11-year-old girl was abducted and sexually assaulted Oct. 8, police were able to get a license plate number from surveillance video at Yellowstone National Park that led them to a suspect in Montana. The girl was released hours after her abduction.

Investigators also have statistical data based on past crimes of this type that could provide a general profile of who may have committed the crime, Lanning and FBI profiler Clinton Van Zandt said.

Neither Lanning nor Van Zandt would provide an opinion on the Colorado case, saying each case is unique.

However, a 2006 report funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and compiled by Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna determined the majority of suspects in such cases are single and between 18 and 30 years old.

The study looked at more than 800 cases from 1968 to 2002, the latest figures available. It found nearly half the suspects were unemployed, and those who did have jobs worked in unskilled or semi-skilled labor occupations.

“We have all the stereotypes of some kind of ghoul who does this thing, a hunchback, pocked-marked face and lurks in the shadows,” Lanning said. “Don’t just call in about the evil nut job. Call in about the guy who appears normal.”

The report also said 21 percent of victims were 10 to 12 years old and initially encountered their abductor within a quarter-mile of their home. Jessica was 10 and last seen within two blocks of her house.

Lanning and Van Zandt noted investigators will build their own suspect profile and criminal case using the evidence they’ve gathered. They’ll consider where Jessica was last seen alive and where her body was found, along with the condition of her body, which police have said was “not intact.” There’s also the girl’s backpack, which might contain clues.

“Behavior can be expressed in a crime scene,” Lanning said. “We’re greatly hoping that in addition to behavioral clues, how about he left his DNA?”

Lowery, of the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, added that fewer children have been abducted and killed in recent years because of greater awareness and the Amber Alert system established nationwide in 2003. He said several abductors have released children after seeing or hearing such an alert.

___

Online:

Center for Missing and Exploited Children, http://bit.ly/UatP0

2006 Case Management for Missing Children Homicide Investigation, http://1.usa.gov/SZvor6

Westminster Police Department, http://bit.ly/Km28Nr

___

Follow P. Solomon Banda on Twitter: http://twitter.com/psbanda

More P. Solomon Banda.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations