An 18 month old Texas toddler has gone missing. Last Friday, Joshua Benitez was watching Toy Story with his mom and left the room. Outside of the room were six other adults and another child. After ten minutes and Joshua not coming back, the mom went looking for him but no one had seen him. The mom does not believe that he would have walked outside on his own, but that is what police believe happened. During the ten minute period, one adult came in and out of the house, but police do not believe that person is a suspect.
How does an 18 month old walk out of a house with all those people there? What were they doing that they would not notice some kid going outside. Can an 18 month old even reach the door knob and turn it and walk out? No Amber Alert was sent because it has to look like an abduction before one will be issued. Here is my thing with that. If some kid did walk out by himself is that not worthy of an Amber Alert? You know, be on the lookout for an 18 month old kid wandering around in the dark? This is so sad and hopefully they find him really soon.
Uh yeah. I don't think this story will have a happy ending. Someone took that gorgeous little boy or this family isn't coming clean about something that happened.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't sound right.
ReplyDeleteI agree, this does not sound right. What the hell? Who doesn't notice a little boy and who lets him walk out a door alone? I don't even let my 10 year old nephew out the door without my beady eye on him.
ReplyDeletevery sad...if this was my kid they would be putting out some kind of an alert...an AMBER JOSHUA MIKE or something alert. I would be going nuts if that were my kid...but I always wouldnt have let my kid leave out a room for more then a minute without looking for him...even if there were people there in the house
ReplyDeleteToddlers are quick and quiet. Depending on his height he may very well have been able to reach the door knob. I don't like to jump to conclusions. There was a mother and her two children who were taken to hospital here in Australia. I thought it was an attempted murder/suicide, turned out to be a gas leak. The children died the mother lived. Imagine having to live with that. Hope this darling boy is found safe and well.
ReplyDeleteI am assuming they searched the house really well. When Jon Benet Ramsey was killed, they didn't find her for a long time.
ReplyDeleteyou need to believe the child is in immediate danger and enough info to issue an amber alert, something like the vehicle description of the person doing the abduction. they won't even issue an amber alert if they believe it's a custodial matter where one of the parents takes the child from the other without permission
ReplyDeleteugh, I don't want to know.
ReplyDeleteIt can happen. And completely innocuously too. One of my cousins (I have a gazillion) slipped out of the house when he was two. The house was crowded, it was the holidays, kids and people all over the place. He sneaked out the front door. No one realized he was gone until my uncle up the street called down to my grandparents' house and asked if anyone had seen my cousin. My aunt who answered the phone asked why, and my uncle replied that he asked because the baby had walked up the street to his house. We were all gobsmacked. Fortunately he was safe and nothing happened to him, but I can completely believe a toddler walking out of a house full of people. Especially if the door isn't in plain view.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible.
ReplyDeleteLook at the photo. It happened in the middle of the night. What was the kid (and the other child) doing up in the middle of the night?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking the cops aren't doing the Amber Alert because this was a drug/party house. Or it was just a party that night.
Reading the local news websites, if the boy literally walked out the front door, the cadaver/search dogs would have a trace on him immediately outside of the house, and they also live in an area surrounded by large fields. It sounds like perfect conditions to me for search dogs.
ReplyDeleteI'm predicting foul play one way or another.
I actually found a kid (about 18 months - 2 years old) wandering along a 5-lane road in nothing but a diaper. There weren't any houses around so I didn't know where he came from. I called 9-1-1 and the cops went door to door (the houses were way off the street) and woke the father up to tell him his kid was missing. He came to get him and said, "Fu-uck, boy, you gotta quit doing that." The cops gave him back to the guy and Child Protective Services treated me like I had done something wrong. Unreal.
ReplyDeleteThis whole story is a little fishy, but right now this is a lost child not an abducted child. These are the US Department of Justice guidelines for Amber Alerts taken from Wikipedia:
ReplyDelete"1. Law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place.
2. The child must be at risk of serious injury or death.
3. There must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor's vehicle to issue an alert.
4. The child must be 17 years old or younger.
Many law enforcement agencies have not used #2 as a criterion, resulting in many parental abductions triggering an Amber Alert, where the child is not known or assumed to be at risk of serious injury or death."
In know in my area ignoring #2 is true. Most of our Amber Alerts are parental abductions.
I just Googled some news stories. Kid's name is Joshua Davis (mom's name is Benitez). It wasn't in what I consider the middle of the night, but apparently, they reported it about 10 p.m.
ReplyDeleteStill, as a veteran crime writer, I'm very suspicious of this. There's more to it than meets the eye and I'm sure that's why cops didn't put out an Amber Alert. Somebody knows something. Kids just don't vanish into thin air like that, and as blue sky pointed out, had the kid walked out the door, the dogs would have been able to trace him.
It's not going to end well.
The article said that it happened just before 8pm, so it wasn't quite the middle of the night.
ReplyDeleteMy son is 2 years old and can barely reach a door handle, but he's small for his age. It is definitely possible that he was able to open the door. It's also likely that the person who last came into the house didn't close the door completely and he was able to open it...but then I guess the door would still have been open. I don't know, just really hoping foul play isn't involved and that he is found safely.
There was a kid down the street that got out of the house all the time. The mother watched him like a hawk and they made sure the door was locked but every now and then she would be vacuuming or something and he would manage to get out of the house.
ReplyDeleteThe adults may have just been involved in their own conversations and didn't notice. Depending on how the room was situated I could totally see it happening. Kids are sneaky.
And who the heck knows why the kid was up at that hour. I see parents with their toddlers out all the time and wonder why the child is not in bed.
I guess my point is that I don’t want to automatically assume it was foul play.
as for the why the "child wasn't in bed" chatter, I have to say, that now my husband's and my work schedules are arranged in a way where my kids go to bed at 8 on the dot. But back when I worked straight nights and my husband went to work in the day, he would keep our oldest up until 11 or 12. Why? Because when I got home at 8am I wanted to sleep a couple of hours before I had to be up with him. It is whatever works for the family, and since the kid is obviously not school aged, I don't think they should be judged merely based on how late the kid's bedtime is.
ReplyDeleteI just read from a Texas news site that yesterday the search was changed to a recovery effort after hopes dimmed for the child after a weekend of subfreezing weather. So sad. Hoping for a miracle..
ReplyDeleteMy son goes to bed @ 8:30pm, 8pm is not that late.
ReplyDeleteMy son has been walking since 14mo, and has been opening doors and walking out of them since about the same time. If a door has a lever vs a knob, it is very easy. 18mo love the concept of opening and shutting a door, repeatedly.
I lock the door, my babysitter locks the door, anyone I have stay with my kids is told to lock the door. My son plays pretty well by himself, and will quietly play with his trains or cars. I will easily go 7 minutes or so before I check on him.
With all of that said - something still looks fishy about this story.
I had to start locking the front storm door after I glanced up and saw my very spirited then-2 yo running across our front lawn to the street.
ReplyDeleteThat was the only time that ever happened, and she was the youngest of 3, but it still scared the crap out of me. And it wasn't being careless or negligent--my older two were in preschool, and I watched her like a hawk--but she still got out, the sneak.
This story, however, doesn't sound right.
Forget what his bedtime is.. When is an 18 month old kid NOT being watched, unless he's in bed or somewhere that he can't get out of?!
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to be a nanny I even used to leave the bathroom door open a crack if I had to go so I could hear if the kid got up and started moving around. I also kept the door locked but that was mostly to keep people out.. he wouldn't have been able to get a chance to get out since I was watching him all the time.
I mean I know someone might turn their back for a second, but long enough for the kid to get to the door, open it, and get far enough away from the house that you couldn't run and pull him back in??? That kid was NOT being watched closely enough. IF that story is true. Which I find suspect.
I don't live in the US, but I think that you should be able to put out an Amber alert if a child is missing, regardless of how they got missing. I mean, if a child is wandering around alone at night, doesn't that put them in more danger than if they're taken by a parent or relative??! Honestly, if they weren't abducted out of the house, once they're alone outside at night, they could be then!
I saw this episode of Law & Order a week or so ago.
ReplyDeleteWhile I feel in my gut that something bad happened to that little boy, I do know for a fact that a boy that age can slip out quickly and quietly. My little brother was a regular little Houdini from about the age of 18 months onward. When he was 2 years old a neighbor found him walking down the road a little over half a mile from our house, and my mom and I both watched him pretty closely. He slipped out of the house when doors were locked, fenced in yards, you name it, my bro could get out of it. He did it often and sometimes decided to take his walkabouts buck naked. I'm sure the neighbors thought Mom and Dad were neglectful, but they weren't.
ReplyDeleteOur neighbor's toddler used to leave their house and go walking in the street all the time. One of us would find him and carry him back. They were all usually asleep (during the day). One day, he got out of the house with no one seeing him and drowned in the neighbor's pool. These things happen -- even to vigilant parents but more often to crappy ones.
ReplyDeleteThese stories are sad/scary.
ReplyDeleteThat is a precious little boy. I will pray for a miracle.
Enty, it's very possible. When I was 16mo I unlocked my playpen. Made it past a grown up, undid the kitchen door, walked down stairs and walked a block away to the playground (a block away from my home).
ReplyDeleteKids can be very resourceful and sneaky to boot! I am hoping desperately he is ok....
ReplyDeleteAnd as for an Amber Alert, I would hope the rules could bend a little for a missing toddler especially when it is freezing outside, the neighbors could start looking around, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis is not far from where I live and a very sad tale. Mom believes it was an abduction. Who knows. My husband's brother used to do this when he was a little kid.
ReplyDeleteIf it happens once, why not get the chain lock and shorten the chain. This is so sad!
ReplyDeleteI hope the child is okay.
ReplyDeleteI have an 21 month old nephew and that kid can get into anything. He can unlock his father's Android phone; get the sharpest knife from a closed dishwasher; open his mother's purse, get out her wallet and fling her credit cards all over the house (some never to be found again). I'm convinced he could crack a bank safe if given the chance.
i hope this little boy is found... as much as it sounds crazy, 18 months is not too early to break out of the house. my husband did it at that age, and was found playing on the front lawn in the middle of the night by his dad (arriving home from a late shift job)
ReplyDelete