The Case of the Disappearing College Student

My recent adventures as a journalism student have taught me one overriding truth, namely that if I had to write about one thing for the rest of my life, it could very well be about crime. So it is with no hesitation that I launch upward to the blogo-sphere to share my experiences with the two people who will probably read this. My first post will deal with the case of missing Fullerton College student Lynsie Ekelund. Here's her picture:

The bare bones of this case are deceptively simple. On February 17, 2001, 22-year-old Chris McAmis said he dropped off 20-year-old Lynsie at the street corner near the home she shared with her mother, Nancy. McAmis said it was 2 or 3 in the morning. "I just remember seeing her walk down the sidewalk, then I just made a u-turn thinking everything was okay."  Somewhere in the tiny span of suburbia between the street corner and her front door, a distance any able bodied person could have covered in less than a minute, Lynsie was said to have disappeared. To date, the police have no 'formal suspects' and the case is being investigated as a 'no body homicide'. Michael Plotnik, who admitted to seeing Lynsie days before she disappeared, said he remembered that Lynsie was nervous because she had just learned she was pregnant. However, according to Lynsie's mother, doctors said Lynsie was unable to have children as the result of injuries she sustained in a childhood accident. To read my full article follow this link.

This is a case that exhibits its fair share of tragic elements. For starters, Lynsie was mildly paralyzed on her left side as the result of a car accident she experienced as a child. For almost the entirety of her life, she was forced to grapple with the challenges of being markedly different from her peers. Her high school boyfriend, a young marine named Jason Harris described a formal dinner he took Lynsie to when they were dating. Not wanting to have to explain her physical limitations to strangers, Lynsie had a special cast made for her arm to make it look as if it were simply broken. On the day following the dinner, she had the cast removed. But aside from the fact that she overcame great adversity and persevered only to disappear without a trace, what makes her case so markedly tragic is the apparent lack of interest by public officials in finding out what happened to her. It's as if she vanished from public conciousness as quickly as she vanished from the street she lived on. To date, the city of Placentia has offered no reward leading to the whereabouts of Lynsie. According to Lynsie's mother Nancy, the Carrington/Sund foundation was willing to offer a reward in this case on the condition that the investigating law enforcement agency write a letter summarizing the details of the case. Nancy said the police declined to write this synopsis.

I would have liked to ask the police for the reasons supporting their decision not to write this letter, however they were resistant to releasing any specifics related to this case. I spoke twice with Detective James McElhinney of the Placentia Police, both interviews were short. The second time I spoke to him he abruptly told me he wished there was more he could say but that he had said all he could. Compounding matters, I wasn't allowed to use my digital audio recorder during our discussion and he wouldn't give me the names of the people Lynsie was last seen with. The police have maintained almost total silence regarding this case for eight years. With no apparent leads, no imminent arrests and no formal suspects it would be easy for an outsider to characterize the Placentia PD as indifferent public servants. But if one takes a look at the investigation of Cathy Torrez, the 20-year-old CSUF student who was found stuffed in the trunk of a car back in 1994 (coincedentally across the street from where Lynsie lived), one will see that the dogged persistence of the police eventually led to an arrest. That said, according to a July 7, 2007 Los Angeles times article, Torrez' mother, Mary Bennett, cultivated personal relationships with the investigating officers. She even went as far as taking a job in the city planner's department because of it's proximity to the police station. Meanwhile, Torrez's sister joined the department's explorers program. It was no doubt, the proactive efforts of the Torrez family that helped keep the case alive.

Nancy Ekelund is a woman who lacks the daring bravado of a Cindy Sheehan, or the the camera ready charisma of a John Walsh. She even demonstrates a certain naivety in her dealings with law enforcement(reference Nancy baking cookies for the officer armed with a search warrant for her house). What came across in my discussions with Nancy, was a quiet desperation to tell her story to anyone who would listen. It just seems that nobody is listening.

No doubt the police are frustrated by this case. I contend it may be possible that they know who is responsible for Lynsie's disapearance and just lack the evidence for an arrest. But frustrated though they may be, I don't know that society and justice are well served when public officials are allowed to stand behind the veil of 'the ongoing investigation' defense indefinatley. Is it not possible that a large reward may be the motivating factor that leads to an arrest? If there is a potential abductor living in our midst, should not law abiding citizens be made aware? It seems to me that by remaining tight lipped, both the city and it's police force are complicit in allowing this case to go cold. That's the story so far. What do you think?