Yesterday a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Debbie Jarvis, the mother of Kristine Mihelich, who was abducted and murdered in January 1977. The above link does not discuss the particulars and hopefully I can read the judge’s decision to consider her rationale. Among the comments to the link is the ever-present, classic misunderstanding of why these lawsuits get filed: “Hey, how dare you try to cash in on the death of your child?” I no longer respond to comments like this. I know everyone thinks they know what they would do if they found themselves in a similar situation, but trust me–they don’t. Debbie Jarvis isn’t after money. She wants the feds to step in because this thing reeks so badly.
One thing is very obvious here. None of the leads were adequately exhausted. Officials lament the fact that people keep talking about various suspects and theories, in essence saying “get over it; it will never be solved.” That may be, but if that is the case, come clean about what you DO know, tell the communities it was botched so badly that there will never be adequate answers (if any at all), and quit spending money on the charade.