Saturday, January 20, 2007

Miracles and Mysteries in Missouri

I have had a couple emails about this so I thought I would answer using a post.

Those of you who check the locations of your visitors (using SiteMeter or other service) know that when I'm in Missouri my "location" shows up as "Beaufort" (bu-fort). This is the same Beaufort where 13-year-old Ben Ownby disappeared after getting off of a school bus. Unless you have been living in a cave for the past week, you know that Ben and Shawn Hornbeck (who had been missing for 4 1/2 years) were both found in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

I do have four first-cousins who live in the Beaufort area, but my mother was one of 13 children so my first cousins in general pretty much blanket eastern Missouri. When I am in Missouri, however, I am not anywhere close to Beaufort. I'm in the same county, but it's a really big county. I have no idea why the location shows up as Beaufort except that it must have something to do with how Charter Cable has its system wired.

In case you are trying to figure out why Shawn did not try to escape, you might want to read this news story about
Steven Stayner, who was kidnapped in 1972 when he was seven. His case also involves the eventual taking of a second boy, which actually led to their rescue.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jim - why did you say you have someone stalking you? lol - that post was really funny and it got taken down -

Did you finally catch your stalker who answers to "Golden Balls" or something? ;-)

I've missed you!
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I nuked the post -- I assumed everyone was suffering from Beckham-overload -- if you make $20 million a month, do you suppose they pay you by check??

Jay Noel said...

Thanks for that link...that's an incredible story as well. I think people who don't understand how this can happen have to remember that the victims are children.

Children don't think the way adults do.

That story of Steve was so tragic. I can't believe he died in a motorcycle accident after all of that.
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you would think it would be talked about more, the cases are so similar

Anonymous said...

That's weird... I saw an episode of American Justice, or Cold Case Files, whichever, last night that was about Steven Stayner's brother Cary. If you're not familiar with this case, he's the guy who killed the four women, including a mother and daughter, in Yellowstone Park in 1999.
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definitely a family with lots of bad luck, and a few mental problems

Anonymous said...

Actually, I've been suffering from "The Missouri Miracle" overload. Yeah, I get it... kids lost, kids found, seemingly harmless man charged.
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let's see: interview on Oprah, interview on Today, show, interview on Channel 4 in St. Louis -- my overload was the interview on one of those "Entertain Tonight" type shows --

-- ps. they are getting a new house courtesy of a St. Louis construction company -- and Shawn's father was 60 when he was born (since deceased)