Too close to home

After a reprieve from true crime for a few months, I've started to watch it again.

I've been watching the "Disappeared" series, which is actually quite anticlimactic because most of the cases remain unsolved. As you might imagine from the title, people disappeared for unknown reasons and, well, still haven't been found. If the show was called "Found Dead," "Lost and Found," or something that indicated some resolution, then perhaps I'd say there was false advertising involved if no one was ever found.

Last night was a little too creepy. One of the cases literally happened a few minutes from my house and where I drive by every day.  I had a friend in high school who lived within spitting distance of this guy's house. I had no idea this case had been open. It happened back in 2005, but one might have thought it would have made the news. It did make two national shows, including the one I watched last night, but I couldn't find anything in the local news archives.

One of the reasons might be because it's a guy. It seems like guys who have gone missing don't get as much media attention. But without any local media attention?

The case is rather shady. The guy who went missing had been going unglued in the weeks/months prior. His relationship with his girlfriend was rocky. He was in a band, and his relationship with his bandmates was rocky; he had recently quit the band. He had just seen a mental health counselor. Suicide was a possibility. Walking away from his life and starting anew was a possibility. Murder was a possibility. So many unknowns.

The local police department (not the city where I technically live) seemed like idiots in the interviews. Maybe I'm harder on the police department nearby than, say, a police department in rural Oklahoma. I felt embarrassed FOR them. One of the officers was a little kooky. She said she had a "vibe that something happened there." (They didn't find any evidence of anything happening there.) Police work goes off of vibes*??? At the end, she said that she thinks he was murdered. Again, no evidence. If she legitimately thinks he was murdered, then get your ass out there and get the evidence to put the perpetrator behind bars. Otherwise, shut up or be diplomatic and say that you couldn't find evidence. You look idiotic talking about your personal theories when you can't back it up! There was another officer interviewed, but he was completely stiff and then was talking about going back to the apartment months later (without a warrant) to look for evidence in the apartment. Ummm...shouldn't you have done that originally and why didn't you get a warrant?

All that aside, it's really creepy to think an unsolved crime could have happened just a few miles away. I suppose it's easier to think the "bad" things happen in different places, but once I realize that it could happen such a short distance away, it makes me kind of afraid to go to sleep at night.


* The rest of us non-police officers can talk about our vibes as a personal opinion. But police officers? Um, let's stick with the facts.