२६ जून, २०१४

"The 11-day search for a missing child in Detroit took a bizarre turn on Wednesday, when the 12-year-old was found hiding in the basement of his father’s home."

"The perplexing case unfolded on live television when, during an interview on HLN, the boy’s father, Charles Bothuell, was informed that his son Charlie had been found in the basement."
The incredulous father appeared bewildered and breathless, taking a moment to recover. “I checked my basement,” Bothuell said. “The FBI checked my basement. The police checked my basement. My wife checked my basement. I’ve been down there several times. We’ve all been checking."
That's really very strange. What did you think of the man's reaction to the news? Consider this additional information:
Charlie was found barricaded behind boxes and a large five-gallon drum, Detroit Police Chief James Craig told CNN affiliate XWYZ. “There’s no way he could have erected his makeshift area of concealment,” he said.

४० टिप्पण्या:

acm म्हणाले...

The police chief thinks a 12-year-old can't stack boxes and buckets to hide behind?

I want to believe that the kid ran off, decided he didn't like the idea of starving in the street, then came home and hid in the basement when he realized how much trouble he was in for, though. So maybe I'm just going with that to avoid contemplating the idea of a hoax or something worse.

CWJ म्हणाले...

Why couldn't a twelve year old boy erect that barricade? A 5 gallon drum is not "large." Did they mean 50 gallon?

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

Nancy Grace comes off as heartless in that interview. Those false eyelashes are not helping her, either.

First I've heard of the missing kid. Glad he's alive.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Watching Nancy Grace is why so many people can't answer simple questions about facts.

Farmer म्हणाले...

He should've read more Uta Hagen.

William म्हणाले...

The father looked genuinely astounded, but one notes that he didn't ask whether his kid was alright or what condition he was found in......Have the police cleared Nancy Grace of any involvement in the disappearance? She's the most likely suspect.

Sean Gleeson म्हणाले...

Why could the child not have erected the makeshift hiding place himself? Is he disabled? When I was twelve, I could stack boxes and buckets.

Lyssa म्हणाले...

MadMan Nancy Grace comes off as heartless in that interview.

Yeah, I saw this this morning on the news, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got at her and CNN. They must have known about this before he went on-air (as they certainly would have had to check it out to make sure it was accurate).

Assuming that this guy was telling the truth and honestly thought that his kid was missing and possibly dead, they should have had a lot more compassion than to tell him on-air like that. And on the chance that he isn't honest, they could have interfered with the investigation.

Glad that the kid is alive, hope that he's not too traumatized, and hope that it turns out like acm suggested, just a kid being dumb. Kids can climb a lot better than adults can - I agree that it sounds odd to say that he couldn't have barricaded himself in.

Chuck म्हणाले...

It gets even weirder. Watch the report by the local ABC-TV affiliate (WXYZ-TV Detroit). The reporter, Guy Gordon, is actually one of the best television reporters in all of local news. Gordon is a sometime-anchor, and has been bumped down to lower assignments because he is such an undramatic straight shooter in an environment where local news directors want drama.

Video embed at link:
http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/9698/lafayette_park_drama_a_found_child_bizarre_press_conference_many_questions

chillblaine म्हणाले...

Maybe he's one of those suburban semi-feral children I've been reading so much about lately.

lemondog म्हणाले...

Was the child hungry, thirsty? In what condition were his clothes? Any siblings/friends who could have helped him with the barricade? Any past incidences of behavior or abuse? What does the child say?

Too many unknowns.

Kids can be devilishly devious.

Is the father a suspect of something?

alan markus म्हणाले...

At least the boy didn't stuff himself into a suitcase & put it beside the road in a rural area.

Sorry, was up late last night processing the stories about the ex-police officer in West Allis who was arrested for putting two dead women in suitcases and ditching them in a rural near Lake Geneva in May. Shades of Gary Dahmer - was most likely held captive and tortured for several months. One lady that they identified was from Minnesota - mentally disabled, 7 children. Sad case.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Nancy Grace is a very strange person.

El Camino Real म्हणाले...

I'm with Farmer. That man was acting and doing it poorly.

Gordon Scott म्हणाले...

Nancy Grace is what you scrape off the bottom of your shoe after your neighbor fails to clean up after their dog.

lemondog म्हणाले...

More info:

Handsome kid.

Missing 12-year-old Detroit boy found

Craig said police have had ongoing conversations with Charlie’s parents. The child’s father submitted to an FBI-administered polygraph test, but Craig said his stepmother declined to take one.

Chuck म्हणाले...

Correction from my post above; here's the correct link to the WXYZ-TV video:

http://www.wxyz.com/news/detroit-police-find-missing-12-year-old-charlie-bothuell-alive-in-fathers-basement

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Shades of Balloon Boy?

bleh म्हणाले...

Nancy Grace clearly was accusing this guy of something without actually saying it. Though it is strange that he didn't put his mic down immediately when he heard the news and run home. Why continue the interview?

alan markus म्हणाले...

Correction to my prior comment - meant "Jeffrey" , not Gary, Dahmer.

alan markus म्हणाले...

I think this is the first time I have ever seen Nancy Grace, and with luck, it will be my last time. As the kids like to say, she is "ratchet".

Chuck म्हणाले...

Curious thing, for Althouse readers in Chicago and elsewhere who are fans of fine architecture...

That tiny downtown development, Lafayette Park in Detroit, is one of the nation's great unknown and unappreciated architectural jewels. It is a complete Mies van de Rohe development on a surprisingly generous plot; pretty carefully maintained as the Mies plan directed. If Lafayette Park was in downtown Chicago instead of downtown Detroit, art historians would be fawning all over it and writing books about it. Mies afficionadi will recognize some of his hallmarks in the background of the video.

lemondog म्हणाले...

Nancy Grace is a very strange person.

She's no dummy, but tight facelifts and too much botox might affect blood flow to the brain.

Per Wiki she could do standup comedy.

In January 2014, she again ignited controversy for her wildly negative depiction of recreational marijuana users. Grace made statements such as users were "fat and lazy" and that anyone who disagreed with her was "lethargic, sitting on the sofa, eating chips"

Michael म्हणाले...

The father is one crappy actor. Really lousy.

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

Ban basements! Nothing good ever goes on down there.
If you really need to keep all that crap, get a shed.
And your son is a frigging college graduate! Tell him to man up!

chillblaine म्हणाले...

"Shades of Balloon Boy?"

This may be a new kind of business model, driven by social media. Pretend that your kid is the victim of some circumstance beyond your control, set up the facebook sympathy trust account, watch the donations flow in.

अनामित म्हणाले...

He is 12 years old, he will tell.

Browndog म्हणाले...

Not so fast....

Moments before the kid was found, Chief Craig was standing before the cameras and said as a matter of fact that "we have evidence that a homicide has been committed."

I live in the media market, and have seen all the local reports and interviews.

Like most, I assumed the father or step mother had done something terrible, and were lying through their teeth.

Now, I stand in the camp that the kid ran away and snuck back into the house. All the while the police and media were busy railroading a father for a crime he didn't commit.

Anthony म्हणाले...

Grace had him hiding up her [censored] because she. . .

Well, I can't. After the Duke non-rape case and her screamingly bizarre interview on the Pistorius case ("PORN!") I can't imagine why she's still even on the air, let alone that there are actually people with more than a couple brain cells to rub together watching her.

bleh म्हणाले...

So the prevailing speculation right now is that the father was strict and abusive, and the boy ran away with the help of either his mother or his stepmother (or both).

DanTheMan म्हणाले...

"I have no idea!"

The classic response when caught in an obvious lie.
I don't think the astonishment was acting. What he was astonished about is the question.

I'm not saying he's guilty. But based on that reaction, he's got to be a suspect.

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

Nancy became a trained trial lawyer that at some point learned to let lose her passions for exposing BS. But she mixes that with the restrained southern lady persona which she grew up with and the mixture seems wrong.

But Nancy is a woman out there live doing a job male attorneys don't do...acting passionately on a cool medium and using her show to attack BS artists without fear or favor.

That makes her a very dangerous woman.

Smilin' Jack म्हणाले...

Charlie was found barricaded behind boxes and a large five-gallon drum, Detroit Police Chief James Craig told CNN affiliate XWYZ. “There’s no way he could have erected his makeshift area of concealment,” he said.

I'm not sure what a "large" five-gallon drum is--I would have thought they were all about the same size--i.e. not very large. Anyway, I think the Police Chief's statement helps us understand one of the reasons for Detroit's escalating crime rate.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

It's a boring story from start to finish unless you're a woman.

William म्हणाले...

The Daily Beast today links to further revelations about Jimmy Saville. Saville was the BBC dj who sexually molestd over seven hundred children, some of them physically handicapped. The article today reveals that Saville leveraged his celebrity status to gain unchaperoned access to a hospital mortuary. He used this access to pose with the corpses in sexually suggestive ways. Very edgy humor. He also took some glass eyes from the deceased. He had those glass eyes made into jewelry which he wore on his person......I think the necrophilia and glass eye jewelry really nails it. Jimmy Saville was the creepiest jerk in the history of broadcasting so Nancy Grace can just stop trying.

Curious George म्हणाले...

Weird, no crack comments?

Conserve Liberty म्हणाले...

C'mon. It's Nancy Grace.

Scott म्हणाले...

CNN has provided a huge public service in hiring Nancy Grace. She is no longer a prosecutor in Atlanta.

RonF म्हणाले...

As a Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader for 22 years, let me advise you to not underestimate what a motivated 12-year old boy can do.

Drago म्हणाले...

That guy looks exactly like Obama.

And Crack.

And Samuel Jackson.