Sad news about Jessica Ridgeway. I was going to make a post about her the other day. What kind of monster kills a 10 year old child? I hope they pay for this crime for eternity. :( Rest in peace Jessica.

Thankfully; her body has been found; many are not. I used to help at a sleuth board; it broke my heart that some were not found as well as some that have been found but can't be identified because they can't match them to any missing persons reports.

My son's friends aunt has been missing for a few years; not being able to bury her has been hell on her daughter & family.

Here is a link that might be useful: People magazine- Jessica Ridgeway: Police Find Missing Girl's Remains

She looks so sweet and happy in that picture. Rest in peace, Jessica.

So horrible. Praying for her family.

This story makes me feel physically ill.

When I was about 10 or 11 a 12 y.o. girl in my neighborhood was kidnapped from in front of her house. Our church had search parties out looking for her as she had Down Syndrome and her family hoped she wandered off and couldn't find her way home. A few weeks later her body was discovered in a shallow grave a mile away from her home. I knew her from church and will never forget the feeling I felt as a child of knowing someone who was murdered like that. It has instilled in me a life long fear and I trust no one.

My almost 9 year old daughter now wants to walk our dog without me, I won't let her. Many of her friends walk to school together and she doesn't understand why I won't let her. This is why. We live in a beautiful safe community, but you never know. I trust no one with my children.

I pray for her family, they are now living every parent's worst fear.

Polly, you're doing the right thing. DH and I were talking about it just this morning. Our town is "safe" too. Very small. But there is no way I'd let my kid's walk to school if they were small again.

What bothered me was that there was a recent national "Walk to School" day. They had it here and in other states. My first thought was, "WTH are they thinking?"

That's exactly what Jessica was doing.

Our school does "Walk to School" day too. I walk with them. In my area a lot of parents walk their kids to school because the school is so close. But many also trust their kids to walk in packs. I trust my kids. It's who is lurking that I don't know that I don't trust.

I fear someday my kids will hate me for following them when they are old enough to walk alone, but I'd rather them hate me and be alive than the alternative.

It breaks my heart too. I read about another young girl who had been kidnapped and found (alive)-she'd been asked by the creep to help her find his puppy.

Children ABSOLUTELY need to be taught not to approach strangers, no matter what they tell them. It's hard, because you want your child to be a compassionate person, but then you're telling them to say no to the man who has lost his puppy. The predators are always one step ahead of us.

Unfortunately, this is not new. I remember as a young girl that I'd be approached ALL THE TIME by men asking me if I needed a ride while I was waiting for the bus. I shudder now thinking of how many girls (or young boys) took people up on those offers.

I know, and they want us to believe that this kind of kidknapping only happens to a very small percentage of kids, but, it is way too many, and even one is bad enough! Bad enough to not let your kids walk to school alone. I know in our school district, you have to live 1- 1/2 miles away before the school bus can pick you up to take you to and from school, but, I am wondering if it for for the "in town" schools only, because where our elementary school is, in the country, by no housing additions, and I never see kids walking to school. I drive my DS to school everyday and we transfer him into his elementary anyway.

I noticed the article stated she walked a mile and half to school, which I would never let my child do. Feel SO SO sad for that family! And, the horror that little girl must have gone through is just unthinkable.

It's just not walking to school, it's being alone anywhere.

When I see a young child (sometimes a toddler) walking alone in a store, I just cringe. Someone could grab them in a second and be gone while their parent is an aisle away.

Pesky, yes, this has been happening for as long as I can remember. There will always be monsters lurking to hurt children. Unbelievably sad.

The piece of scum who murdered this child needs to be caught. It breaks my heart to hear about the confirmation of identifying her. We work with our local Safe Routes to School group to encourage kids to walk and/or bike to school. However, we do encourage groups and parent/grandparent escorts.

I walked to school K-12 in Buffalo, but we always had neighborhood schools including my high school. Now pretty much no one I know has a child who walks to school.

So sad about Jessica. My daughter walks 1 1/2 blocks to school each day and I walk her. We talk about strangers, the importance of NEVER approaching a car, and how an adult will NEVER need the help of a child to find a puppy, directions, his/her own child, ect. My daughter is a fast runner so I say anytime you are nervous about someone, just run home. I teach her to trust her gut instinct, that when she has a feeling that something isn't right - trust that. Something probably isn't right.
My understanding is that she was walking 3 blocks to meet up with friends then as a group they were walking over a mile to school. This is NOT this mother's fault. Her daughter at 10 SHOULD be able to walk that far. Children do it in our town all the time. It is the fault of the sick perpetrator. These parents will beat themselves up and mourn their child for the rest of their lives. My prayers are with them.

I agree, it is not the mother's fault at all. They did everything right and still this happened which is what makes it so sad.

I definitely walked a few blocks by myself to school at 10 years of age.

I also agree it's not the mother's fault. My heart is aching for her.

If a monster wants to kidnap a child, they will do it whether it be a block or 5 miles from school or from the child's home. They look for opportunity.

I was totally in NO WAY blaming the mother! It is 100% the sickos fault! Sorry, if that sounded like that. I am just saying because of sickos like that, I would not let my child walk to school.

The sicko probably knew she walked alone for 3 blocks before joining her friends. Makes me sick, literally.

When I was 12, my cousin was abducted. She was seven and missing for three days and found a mile away stunned and bleeding. She had been raped more than once. After my Mom told us (she omitted the rape part) we were in horror thinking of my poor cousin. My Mom went on to say that (jane doe) would not want to talk about it so never ever say anything to her, we'll never talk about it again and so we didn't. I would see her occasionally but never dared bring up the subject. There was no therapy, just silence. Today she suffers from crippling arthritis plus other immune deficiency diseases. I'm sure the stress of keeping that secret and the demons in her mind contributed to lowering her immune system. There are monsters among us and they look usually like nice people. The kids don't have a chance. So incredibly sad, that Dads tears were so despairing. God bless them.

Yaya, that is so sad.

I heard on the news the police in CO are looking at cell phone records in the vacinty of where she disappeared and where she was found to see if there any connections. They do not believe this person was a first-time killer.