I always felt secretly miffed that my parents never let me do sleepovers when I was younger.
(Well I had one, but was picked up before midnight, so that doesn’t technically count)
But when I read and watched the true-life case of Polly klaas.
I now know it was a blessing in disguise my parents’ actions.
Polly Klass a 12 year old girl based in Peteluma, California was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by ‘’serial offender’’ Richard Allen Davis.
She was hosting a sleepover with her 2 best friends, when she and them were tied up, and made to count to a number, while she Polly was snatched from her own bedroom.
Being at home is like your sanctuary.
At times you can let your guard down.
But no one was to blame in the immediate house.
How could Polly Klass’s mum know a predator was lurking nearby, and her child came under his murderous gaze.
What makes it more tragic the mum was sleeping near her daughter’s room, and was constantly checking on Polly’s room, as they were playing dress-up and singing to top of their lungs, the mum then took some medication to aid her sleep as she was having a migraine.
I know she wouldn’t have been 100% to defend her child, but as a mum your maternal instinct would be ‘I wish he kidnapped me’, and ‘how could I have slept through it’.
But to me, there were so many red flags, but none of them were raised until after the brazen abduction.
First neighboring boys saw a suspicious man behind the Klass family home, but never alerted the authorities.
Town boys who were playing outside saw the same man waiting by the house ,but never told anybody.(What is sad in an interview a detective said he wished one person at least phoned authorities, as they would have been there straight away to probe the individual what a missed opportunity)
Then a babysitter who was driving through the woods saw the same man trying to get assistance for his stuck vehicle from her.
But her gut instinct she never stopped for the stranger she drove to a phone booth (thank god we live in a time of mobile phones)and called the landowner her boss to alert her of the suspicious figure on her land . Then the landowner drove with her daughter out of the woods with a cricket bat (woman after my won heart),and alerted the authorities.
And sadly the responding officers despite having suspicions helped him free his vehicle, and gave him a verbal warning not to trespass and he then left.
What makes that chilling is that probably Polly was already dead ,and he was in the process of dumping her body, and then got stuck or maybe she was alive that time, and could have been saved.
Will never know.
But we have to appreciate the advancement of police technology. Those dispatched officers couldn’t have known a girl was missing, as it wasn’t in their immediate jurisdiction, and the person they assisted with the car matched the description of the assailant.
This is something I know will haunt those officers even though they couldn’t have known.
The worst thing about this crime is it’s senseless ,and also crimes against children is just despicable.
Due to their helplessness.
From this case, I think we should always monitor our surroundings and invest in decent home security.
This case troubles me, because if you remember my use of the word ‘serial offender’ at the beginning of the article.
Why is it that people that show evidence of repeat deviant behavior can get parole and be let back in the community amongst us ,but people that have tax problems or have committed other monetary crimes are trialed like the way murderers should be.
Why is that?
It just shows the system can be flawed at times.
And unfortunately, people like Polly Klaas pay the price.