<p>
I think reporting is on the rise. I think colleges used to try to handle things internally.
There is an outdoor, smoker’s balcony at JPJ. People don’t leave the venue when they want to smoke. JPJ is a relatively new, enclosed arena, not a stadium, so there is no smoking allowed inside.</p>
<p>Reading between the lines, I can’t help from thinking that alcohol was a factor in all of this confusion. Were none of them thinking straight when she said she would find her own way home? They were either not thinking straight or they were ****ed off at each other about something. Charlottesville is not just a few minutes away from Roanoke or Harrisonburg and it was cold that night.</p>
<p>theres always something going on in vtech…</p>
<p>It actually happened at UVA.</p>
<p>I live in Harrisonburg and Charlottesville is about an hour away. It was about 30 degrees here that night. I don’t have a good feeling.</p>
<p>To go back to Dean J’s post…I would agree that reporting is more common now. The other comment that I would add for the parent who is about to send a child to college is talk to your child now about how to be safe.
In the case of the UConn student he was at an event with a large crowd where a fight was ensuing. Time to go home when it is clear you are in a bad situation. My son goes to a large school in an urban area. The crime logs are 99 percent kids who did dumb things. A few weeks ago a student was robbed at gunpoint. Turns out the student signed a non student into his dorm to conclude a drug deal. The drug dealer pulled a gun and stole the kids laptop. Not a random crime. On a fairly regular basis he tells me of stupid stuff that he has seen. We were in DC a few years ago and overheard a young woman dressed in a short dress and talking loudly on a cel phone about how she was drunk and couldn’t remember where she had parked. Not a good situation. Alone at night on a fairly dark street.<br>
I’m certainly not saying that this incident was this girl’s fault somehow but I am saying that these young adults can be aware of their surroundings, careful of alcohol and drug intake, etc.</p>
<p>UVA has done a wonderful job keeping the public updated with accurate information. D has indicated that those students discussing the situation did not fear for their personal safety. I agree with your comments, ebeeeee; you just hate to see such a potentially bad outcome from poor decisionmaking. </p>
<p>[Police</a> Set Up New Tip Line in Harrington Disappearance](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=10092]Police”>http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=10092)</p>
<p>Very little information is known or at least public and so this is much conjecture…but the odd thing to me is that she told the friends she had gone to the concert with (in her own car no less), that she’d find another way home to Virginia Tech. Then, the friends never touched base again with one another to see how she got home or no roommate back at school questioned that she never arrived and then the first time anyone noticed her missing was at noon the next day when she didn’t go to her parents’ house as expected. I’m wondering how this girl expected to get back to Virginia Tech. And the only way I can imagine is that she met someone who offered to give her a ride back or something. Her pocketbook and cell were found in another parking lot nearby I think. If she did not meet up with foul play or go off with others, then she may have run into danger if perhaps she wasn’t sober or something but that would conceivably be nearby and the area nearby was searched. It is all very disconcerting. They can account for sightings of her up to 9:30 PM. You’d think someone saw something.</p>
<p>Just wondering why the thread on the UCONN student died out after 8 or 9 contributions.</p>
<p>tsdad, I think until they have found this young woman hope remains that she is still alive. I don’t think that people are indifferent or uncaring to the death of the young man from UConn. As other posters have mentioned, it seems that the circumstances of this young woman’s disappearance may give us discussion points to use with our own children about personal safety and decisionmaking. The death of anyone through violence is a tragedy.</p>
<p>tsdad, not sure how the UConn tragedy is related. That was an awful event around a murder, which has been concluded as far as knowing the outcome. The tragedy and aftermath still exist and are worthy of discussion. I think with the V Tech student, the situation is ongoing without an outcome. The UConn situation is tragic to the nth degree. The V Tech student’s situation is hopefully not tragic but is not yet resolved.</p>
<p>Cross posted with sabaray.</p>
<p>Re tsdad’s comment, possibly because what happened at UConn was a tragic incident that occurred in front of witnesses, not mysterious circumstances other than the specific identity of the assailant. The young man was stabbed; they know he’s dead, not missing. Obviously it is an awful thing. (I also cross-posted.)</p>
<p>Or possibly the Nancy Grace approach to young people’s untimely deaths?</p>
<p>soozie - it is unclear to me whether they were going back to VTech or JMU. Harrisonburg is closer than Blacksburg to Charlottesville, but I agree that it is weird that her friends would be okay with her saying she would find her way back. The only way I can explain it to myself is that they were all a be fuzzy headed.</p>
<p>Cartera…but what seems weird is that not only didn’t they touch base about how she got back but didn’t they notice when she did not return? She came up missing not until noon on Sunday when she did not show up at her dad’s to get his help on her college math homework as planned. Add to that…they traveled in this girl’s own car and didn’t they have to return it to her?</p>
<p>As I said, this is all speculation over stuff that is not very clear. The latest articles say that one of the friends who was in the concert with her (went with her) is her roommate. So, that’s what makes me wonder why the roommate would not have questioned that her roomie never returned that night (except one plausible reason could be if roomie herself did not go back to their dorm that night either).</p>
<p>soozie - I agree, but we don’t know what was “normal” for them when they went to things together. If someone doesn’t always make it home at night, then there is no panic when it happens. The other consideration is that the room mate may have been afraid that she would get her in trouble and just hoped that everything was alright.</p>
<p>re tsdad’s comments:
At the end of August, two Vtech students were murdered at a nearby park. Two threads were created (one in Parents Forum, one in Parent cafe) and there was barely any response. I think there is continued interest in this thread because we all hoping and praying that this young lady will be found alive.</p>
<p>cartera…agree…too many aspects that we don’t know. Those questions came to my mind on the very limited available information but they may all have plausible answers. </p>
<p>I don’t know the area, but if there is no public transportation between those locations, wouldn’t the girls wonder how the friend even proposed to get home an hour away? Did they have possession of the keys to her car so they could use it to get home later? </p>
<p>All these things likely have been answered but I was just wonderin’ as so little information raises more curiosity over the mystery.</p>
<p>I don’t think she could count on catching a bus from Charlottesville to either Harrisonburg or Blacksburg. I think more was said between friends than we know. Several scenarios come to mind. The friends had an argument and the lack of response was in anger. Maybe the girl expected one of her friends to come outside and wait with her and when they didn’t, she got ****ed and said “fine, I’ll find my own way home.” Maybe the girl met someone at the concert and told her friend - I’ll get home on my own - wink wink. Maybe the girl had friends on campus - I’d be surprised if she didn’t since kids at UVA, Tech and JMU have friends at all these schools. Maybe she said she would track down one of them to stay with and was walking to a dorm or nearby apartment.</p>
<p>^^^Agree…all those are plausible and in fact, they may have more information of this sort than they released.</p>
<p>She very well may have voluntarily gone off with someone else she didn’t know at all.</p>