The parents are real people on the other end of this speculation. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t on their bingo card.
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? How is this a first amendment issue??
It’s responding to a post.
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I don’t think a private message board is affected by the first amendment.
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Let’s move on from First Amendment discussions
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A post was merged into an existing topic: Political and economic aspects of murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO
He was also an adult living and working across the country from the family at this point. There’s only so much parents can do when it comes to decisions our grown adult kids make. That’s very difficult to accept - we want to keep them in a protective cocoon forever but unfortunately we cannot. We also have no idea what steps they took to intervene or contact him when he went missing.
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My brother disappeared when he was in his early 50’s. We couldn’t find him anywhere. He was an adult who disappeared, and there was nothing to indicate foul play. So … we had no right to know where he was. We were extremely fortunate to somehow find a very sympathetic police officer who was able to confirm that my brother was alive. That’s all he could tell us. The officer knew my brother was alive because he had filled and picked up a prescription. We knew where my brother lived before he disappeared, and we knew where he filled prescriptions. We were lucky because he was not too far from where we last knew him to be. Had he left the area, we may not have had any idea whether he was dead or alive. My point is, people can and do disappear, and their families can and do look for them without success. The streets are filled with stories supporting this.
(In our case, my brother came back to us after the police officer asked the pharmacist to tell him his family was worried about him next time he filled a prescription.)
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Pharmacists can be nice touchpoints. What a thoughtful and resourceful police officer! It can be tough when adults “ disappear” and loved ones can’t find them and don’t even know whether their loved one is alive and will allow for any help.
I have an acquaintance who knows her adult S would benefit from meds and treatment but he refused and she has no idea where he is or if he’s even alive. She switched from a lucrative radio career to working for an organization that serves the mentally ill.
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My middle son disappeared dropping out of college in his first semester for a number of years. The college couldn’t tell us anything because he was of age and I don’t recall them having him sign anything that they were allowed to share info with us back then. We didn’t know exactly where he was but we kept him on our phone plan so we knew his phone was alive and well. We had many, many nights worrying a police officer would knock on the door in the middle of the night and give us bad news. He finally decided he didn’t want to live like that any longer (we are not sure how he was living) and he called us to pick him up and bring him home. He went back to school, got a degree and works for Google now so doing well - but man those were very scary years when they just go dark on you.
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Before details were revealed that are suggestive of a mental decline (to me, at least), I was curious about this, too. But depending on his mental state, it is entirely possible that he was actually speaking to no one.
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Yes, that crossed my mind too upon further thought.
I saw that the FBI has a warrant for the burner phone they found, and are currently trying to get into it.
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Was my first thought! Fake, photoshopped picture.
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Appearing to be on the phone and walking back and forth provides a good excuse to stay in one area, certainly better than doing nothing and staring at people as they walk by.
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Thank you for sharing. When people blame family for not doing enough, I don’t think they can even begin to imagine how many different scenarios are possible. I’m so happy that your son’s in a good place.
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Those distinctive eye brows blend in very well here, he really looks like the average guy. My daughter who goes to college in the south was always easy to pick out here, very blonde, light eyes, light eye brows (she usually dyes them), she sends me photos from college and I struggle to pick her out. Her 4 siblings have the Italian chiseled chins, she has my roundish Irish face.
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Re: not recognizing your own kid. I always had a horrible time picking out my own kids on the soccer field, even though I KNEW mine was out there, and he had his jersey number on. They all looked the same to me. The worst was when I turned to another Mom and asked if that was my younger S who did some play. She raised her eyebrow and said “That was (her son) T.” T is African American. Clearly, some people just have a hard time. And as the article said, his curly hair is what made him stand out, and that was always covered up.
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To me he looks very different in his photos depending on whether he has his hood pulled down or not. The eyebrows are very distinctive but without seeing his full head of hair I have a hard time matching the surveillance photos with the photos that show him before the crime. The bridge of his nose looks very different depending on the angle too. Maybe I’m one of those people that can’t identify faces though 
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