abducted 18-year-old Samantha Koenig in downtown Anchorage Saturday night (Metlakatla: club, move)
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All the police reports say she was led away. To say she didn't have a choice would be to suggest otherwise. I'd like to believe I'd run because I know the minute I get in that car I'm already dead. What choice do I really have left? It's either run now, and possibly live, or definitely die later.
If he talked, wouldn't this suggest he confessed? An admission would have been reported. Right now, he's just a suspect. I also don't know how tracing his cellphone would in any way help locate the body of the woman.
As I have said before on the thread, sometimes deals are offered to suspects that if they tell the authorities where the body is, they are promised to not divulge this during the trial. If the suspect had made a call from the area of the body disposal, it can be pinpointed that the call was made in the area of a specific cell phone tower. I read a lot of non-fiction criminal investigation books.
I lived for quite a while in a SE Asian country that has notoriously cruel prisons. The crime rate was quite high. General consensus among my friends there was that the bad prisons didn't convince people to avoid crime, but rather to be ruthless about not getting caught.
All the police reports say she was led away. To say she didn't have a choice would be to suggest otherwise. I'd like to believe I'd run because I know the minute I get in that car I'm already dead. What choice do I really have left? It's either run now, and possibly live, or definitely die later.
This is easy to say but the more the size difference between victim and attacker favors the attacker, the less likely this will even be an option.
I, too, am terribly sorry for this lovely young woman's tragic death.
this story does reinforce statistics that show a kidnapped victim's greatest chance of being found alive are in the first 2 hours. After 2 hours, the chances of finding the victim alive are slim at best. This young lady was murdered in that 2-hour time frame. If only---parents, boyfriend, etc, had reacted sooner. As I understand it, it took almost two days for her to be reported as an abduction.
Instead of saying that it's too bad that girls aren't armed and too bad that they can't fight back, we should perhaps consider saying that it's too bad that our boys are being raised to be sociopaths.
I hate to have to break it to some of you, but a gun isn't always the answer. These predators operate on the "element of surprise." Most of the time, the time that it would take to reach for a firearm simply doesn't exist.
As far as fighting back - -hell yeah. Kick and scream and raise the biggest fuss possible, provided that you have that chance.
But that's not usually an option, because predatory abduction rarely involves hand-to-hand combat. They usually come from behind and disable the victim before it ever gets to that point.
I know that there are things that women can do to protect themselves in the event of this type of encounter. And again, every time something like this happens, out comes the advice of kicking and fighting, having a gun, screaming, et al.
But guess what. More often than not, the attacker has already taken those things into consideration himself.
I agree that a gun isn't always the answer for multiple reasons...
If you are not properly trained in hand gun retention (and even if you are) there is the possibility your gun may be taken and used on you.
And again, here we go jumping to conclusions, when we don't have the complete story as to what happened.
While working as a third shift cashier several years ago, I was certainly startled when a lone customer shoved that gun in my face and demanded all my cash. Well, startled is an understatement...I was sh_ting myself!! Lo and behold I remembered the advice my husband gave to me. IT WORKED!!! I started babbling, hitting myself, clucking like a chicken and just acting crazy!! Lol... that guy couldnt leave fast enough!!! My husband (an ex phychologist) said that MOST people are scared by mental illness..like it may be contagious or something. Not saying that it would work every time but in my case it may have saved my life.
After reading ADN and getting up-to-date on the story I spent some time looking at the comments people had written to ADN. As is usual many of those writing comments have no knowledge of the facts and little knowledge of the terrain involved. Many of the comments are about APD not releasing the surveillance video of the area. I did live a couple of miles from the location for a couple of years and went to Lowes and Home Depot across the street so I know where it is. I opened Goggle Earth and went to intersection of Gambell Street and Tudor Road. After looking at the immediate area from the sky view it was obvious that whoever abducted Samantha had a limited choice of places to park their vehicle. With Street View you can literally stand on the corner next to the coffee shop in the middle of the intersection of Gambell on the South side next to the East Bound lane of Tudor Road with the window of the coffee shop maybe fifty feet away. Then swinging around there appears to be three surveillance cameras on the side of The Alaska Club. The one which is closest to the coffee shop. and faces toward it, is maybe one hundred feet away. It is on top of the building, maybe 25 feet high, and faces down toward the parking area. That side of The Alaska Club has no entrance and appears to be a blank wall so their camera wouldn't really be facing the coffee shop but the area where their customers park. From that distance looking down facing toward the lights in that direction the visible scene wouldn't be clear near the coffee shop. But thinking about what APD did say "She looked scared" implies they walked toward the camera in order to see her face with that detail visible. Now parking in that area would have allowed a view of a parked vehicle. But if the perp parked on Gamble the camera wouldn't have been able to see the vehicle. So walking away from the coffee shop to a vehicle parked in a Southbound direction would have meant the view from the camera's position was getting worse as they walked. That side of the building has the dumpster parked next to the road. Then driving away on Gamble would have showed nothing to the camera. So release of the tape might have shown a pair, walking at an oblique angle, with the girl's facial expression visible. From 100 feet coming out of the door to the coffee shop with the camera facing into the lights from across the street the picture probably wouldn't show much of value. So why release a picture of a frightened girl if the perp isn't identifiable? Just thoughts from 3000 miles away. Goggle Earth is a source of a lot of information for someone who uses it in the case.
There also appears to be surveillance cameras on Lithia Kia but they don't seem to be in a position to show the coffee shop nor traffic on Gambell Street.
After reading ADN and getting up-to-date on the story I spent some time looking at the comments people had written to ADN. As is usual many of those writing comments have no knowledge of the facts and little knowledge of the terrain involved. Many of the comments are about APD not releasing the surveillance video of the area. I did live a couple of miles from the location for a couple of years and went to Lowes and Home Depot across the street so I know where it is. I opened Goggle Earth and went to intersection of Gambell Street and Tudor Road. After looking at the immediate area from the sky view it was obvious that whoever abducted Samantha had a limited choice of places to park their vehicle. With Street View you can literally stand on the corner next to the coffee shop in the middle of the intersection of Gambell on the South side next to the East Bound lane of Tudor Road with the window of the coffee shop maybe fifty feet away. Then swinging around there appears to be three surveillance cameras on the side of The Alaska Club. The one which is closest to the coffee shop. and faces toward it, is maybe one hundred feet away. It is on top of the building, maybe 25 feet high, and faces down toward the parking area. That side of The Alaska Club has no entrance and appears to be a blank wall so their camera wouldn't really be facing the coffee shop but the area where their customers park. From that distance looking down facing toward the lights in that direction the visible scene wouldn't be clear near the coffee shop. But thinking about what APD did say "She looked scared" implies they walked toward the camera in order to see her face with that detail visible. Now parking in that area would have allowed a view of a parked vehicle. But if the perp parked on Gamble the camera wouldn't have been able to see the vehicle. So walking away from the coffee shop to a vehicle parked in a Southbound direction would have meant the view from the camera's position was getting worse as they walked. That side of the building has the dumpster parked next to the road. Then driving away on Gamble would have showed nothing to the camera. So release of the tape might have shown a pair, walking at an oblique angle, with the girl's facial expression visible. From 100 feet coming out of the door to the coffee shop with the camera facing into the lights from across the street the picture probably wouldn't show much of value. So why release a picture of a frightened girl if the perp isn't identifiable? Just thoughts from 3000 miles away. Goggle Earth is a source of a lot of information for someone who uses it in the case.
There also appears to be surveillance cameras on Lithia Kia but they don't seem to be in a position to show the coffee shop nor traffic on Gambell Street.
Those Google pictures were taken in the summer. Because of the record snowfall this winter, the snow berms were so high back in Feb you couldn't even see that Coffee Stand or the Alaska Club from the street. Shortly after the disappearance, the city sent in heavy Loaders to remove the berms and clear the parking lot to restore visibility.
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