Diary of a Mother's Mission

My son, Kevin Martin, disappered under mysterious circumstances in the wee hours of July 18, 2004. His partial remains were found on February 1, 2005 in the river. The Des Moines Police have not been helpful and this is my blog to tell what I have done as it's done.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Back to Reality

This is not what I wanted to write about today. Yesterday Chief William McCarthy's face was on the front page of the Des Moines Register. I think he has been in the news once or twice recently. They also had a brief interview with him on the morning news promoting his new anti-terrorism program here in Des Moines. I have met Chief McCarthy regarding Kevin and the "search" I was planning to have last November. The police discouraged me from having the search and would not committ any manpower to it. In Scotia,New York, where I was living at the time, I participated in a search for Craig Freer who had disappeared a few weeks before Kevin. There were a couple of officers who volunteered their time. There were some who were working but oversaw the search intent on protecting those who came to help and bringing their expertise so as to do as thorough a job as possible. I guess this started it all.

On many occasions I was confronted with news situations concerning missing persons. I could not understand why things were being done elsewhere, searches, the use of search and cadaver dogs, etc. and they weren't being done in Kevin's case. No investigation was done in Kevin's case although "Suzanne's Law, a federal law signed by President Bush April 30, 2003, states that missing young people age 21 and under are to be investigated immediately. I wrote a letter to Chief McCarthy regarding my concerns but not regarding Suzanne's Law since I did not know about it at that time. Suzanne's Law is a result of the work done by Suzanne Lyall's parents. Suzanne disappeared almost 8 years ago April, I think, from Albany, New York. This law was to extend the age from 18 years according to the Amber laws to 21 years.

Chief McCarthy told me that I had animosity toward the police. I have no animosity toward the police as I really have not had involvement with them other than a traffic violation or two many years ago. I was trying to relate a conversation I had had with my son Brian when Cief McCarthy jumped down my throat and accused me of wanting the police to slap around people verbally or physically. What I was trying to say was that more police presence on the case might pressure some people to come forward. There had been no police presence until I said that I was coming out to Des Moines to have a search. They then talked to a handfull of people. If people thought that the police were very involved in this case, continued to talk to people, reinterview some,things might have been different. People might have felt "pressured" if they thought that the police meant bussiness. This was all I meant. This did not happen.

Reality. February 1st will be the one year aniversary of when a fisherman discovered what turned out to be Kevin's remains. Partial remains since the skull was not found. Thanks to a woman who had come to Kevin's search, Patsy, I've mentioned her before, I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to a reporter at the Register. She will do a story for this anniversary date. It was very difficult trying to put all of my hopes and concerns into order so that I could somewhat intelligibly relate them to her, the reporter. I'm not sure I did that as I had to go back and relive alot of the past year and a half. It was very difficult especially as Chief McCarthy's image was stareing me in the face reminding me of alot of unresolved issues which I'm about to tackle...

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home