I am very concerned that we haven’t found Sierra. This has to be one of history’s largest sustained searches for a missing person. 7,952 search volunteers have been dispatched on 750 search assignments that have blanketed a 20 mile radius around Sierra’s home and we haven’t found anything relevant to her disappearance.
Last week the terms of the reward were altered to include, “Information leading to the conviction of the individual(s) responsible for the disappearance of Sierra LaMar,” and no one has yet come forward. This morning Steve and Danielle LaMar held a press conference that was very well-attended by local media to announce that the reward has been increased to $35,000. We continue to dispatch dozens of searchers on scheduled search days. They search new areas and high probability areas that have been previously searched. Despite our lack of progress morale remains high.
We have inspired, cajoled, and manipulated every angle that I can think of to recover Sierra, yet her location continues to elude our grasp. If I thought that it would help to resolve this case I would get down on my hands and knees to grovel and beg for an endgame. What is this brick wall that we keep hitting, and what will it take to move it?
The perp and his family have amply demonstrated that they are not criminal masterminds. His claim that he never met Sierra is dispelled by the fact that police have his DNA on her clothing and evidence that she was in his car. His mother believes that he is innocent, but admits that she is not his shadow. To think that he hid her so successfully and kept that information to himself is patently absurd. I think that he has confided his secret: but to whom?
Near the end of the search day I received a call from my old friend Mike Reynolds. Mike is the father of California’s 3-Strikes and You’re Out law which became a voter driven statute in 1994. He told me that there is an initiative on California’s November ballot to overturn the law. 3-Strike holds career criminals accountable by providing penalty enhancements for subsequent felonies. I am struck by the irony of this latest effort to soft step crime and return dangerous criminals to the very communities that are already so dangerous that we cannot let our daughters walk alone for fear that they will be victimized.
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