What's Going On In Florida?

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Somer Thompson
Haleigh Cummings
Kaylee Anthony
Jessica Lunsford
Mr & Mrs. Billings
Michael Brewer...etc, etc.

Is it just me or has anyone else been just baffled by all that has gone on in Florida?
Just so much tragedy, why in Florida?

 

[Feralpeg]

I'd really like to know the answer to this question. It is getting darn depressing living here. I'm to the point where I don't want to turn on the news.

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

I don't watch the news.

 

[ChrisFL]

Don't watch America's Most Wanted or The World's Dumbest Criminals either, I swear 80% of the people featured on those shows have a Florida connection

 

[NotUrsula]

I suspect that it is mostly because Florida has so many transient workers who move from job to job in construction, agriculture and hospitality. An economy like that makes it easier for people with ugly pasts and ugly habits to manage to hide.

Here is an innocent situation that illustrates how easy it is: A former columnist with the Post-Dispatch became a novelist a while back, and at the same time relocated to Miami because of her husband's work. Her name is Elaine Viets and she writes popular comic mysteries. She has an ongoing series set in Florida called Dead-End Jobs. The protagonist is a former high-powered finance executive who has reason not to want to be found, but her money is gone, so to survive she takes a series of cash-only jobs in South Florida. Viets makes it a point to actually DO those jobs for a while as research. She has written 8 of them so far, and in every one the character has a completely different under-the-table job. She isn't finished yet, either. Florida has a thriving underground economy.

I'm wondering something about the Thompson case. Have the police definitely said that there was foul play involved? I haven't heard that yet, and I'm not sure that I want to decide that she was nabbed by a pervert until I do. In that particular case, she could have decided to hide or rest in a dumpster, and then tragically have been unable to get out or get the truck operator's attention. It was unusually chilly that night in Jacksonville, so I've thought that it might be a possibility if she got lost when she took off.

 

[Feralpeg]

I'm wondering something about the Thompson case. Have the police definitely said that there was foul play involved? I haven't heard that yet, and I'm not sure that I want to decide that she was nabbed by a pervert until I do. In that particular case, she could have decided to hide or rest in a dumpster, and then tragically have been unable to get out or get the truck operator's attention. It was unusually chilly that night in Jacksonville, so I've thought that it might be a possibility if she got lost when she took off.

Yes. They've done an autopsy, but have not released the results yet. They are saying it was a homicide.

 

[KAMKIM]

Interesting thread - my coworker and I were just talking about this. I suspected it is because the weather is so much nicer there kids tend to be outside more? At least that would explain the abductions that take place outside....

 

[RadioNate]

There is a reason that Fark has a Florida catagory.

Believe me, I'd like to move.