Whether it's accurate or not, it did say school bus.
Okay. I have now read the WIKI thing. I feel like I've been in some other world by the time I was finished with the long thing. The entire thing and life and questions I find odd but to center on the school bus, that part said he TWICE chose to broke from routine, but then never mentions two times of doing so and so I take it both times were to walk home rather than take the school bus?
I find the entire article like some rabbit hole in a way. I mean I guess he was 14 and so maybe the parents didn't keep an ultra close eye on him, he may have had his attitude and been doing his own thing but I find a lot of it odd. He did game but cared less about having a phone or a computer...
He wanted no part of scouts and was in Catholic school. I hate to be this way but I have assumptions about both those "groups".... And just things said about him makes me wonder as well. He didn't want to be in scouts any more and that could be so simple as he was 14 and felt it "dorky" or something more...Both the Church and scouts have had more than their share of SA and of the man on boy variety and to me that can't be ignored as a thought. And later the father wonders if he might have been gay. The whole thing and read was odd imo.
So what again was your point about not taking the school bus home one day? Do you think he is going somewhere and stopping off or that something wrong was going on on the bus? Because he didn't disappear until after that.
I'm not sure I've ever read that initial article or if I did it has been some time ago. The WIKI thing. I probably did but the bus thing wouldn't have been a total focus as he didn'd disappear then.
This may not relate and be stupid but when I was no kidding like 5 or 6, my bus would take a right just like 1/4 mile from my home which I could see early in the school bus route after school. I'd then have to spend another long period of time on the bus as it did its' thing for miles on end and then came to my home as about the last stop an hour later maybe and I was often tired and ready to fall asleep after a full school day and just sick and tired of the ride.
I started asking the driver to drop me off when he turned so I could simply walk home. Believe it or not, a nice driver and was not a problem and I didn't need a parent's note or anything and I am not kidding I was maybe 6 tops. My folks had taught me well that you don't walk on the road but in the ditch or if you do you walk on the left facing traffic, etc. and then get off if a car is coming. And I'd walk home. Seemed like a long ways to me at the time, 1/4 mile or not even, but it was way preferable to riding that bus through every rural town and on a huge loop around a lake, etc. until the route dropped me off at home. It's crazy if one thinks about it now that that age of a child could get themselves dropped off without notes, permission, etc. And perhaps there was, I can't recall, maybe my mom confirmed they could do that and she was home which she was. Still... There was just a trust and a way of life way different than today.
I don't know his reasons for not taking the bus and my story may not relate but I'm just giving an example of a possible reason.
ALSO we lived rural and by junior high and high school we were asking my mom to ride bike to school as all the "townies" did etc. and so we could ride such around town after school. Probably by or about his age. THIS though was not easy nor fun, we lived probably eight miles out and it seemed like a very long way and forever and even young, like way too much exercise and effort. BUT the real want was to be able to do it and be about town afterwards where we lived out in again the rural area....
Very different time and era but he's 14. Some things don't change, it's an age you are bored at home, want to be part of things, be in town or the city, etc. Interesting that he did not want to go to grandma's over break in London though.
I don't know but that read was something else. I find it all incredibly odd and think I must be way out of touch with the times even 17 years ago. They talk as if some is the norm, into heavy metal bands, didn't carry or care to a phone but carried the portable gaming PS thing or whatever. Took money out of his bank account and did not want a return ticket, now that to me is ODD as heck right there.
Can a kid DO that without a parent? My kids had bank accounts as minors, savings I mean, no such thing as a debit card or anything, but they couldn't have taken out without my signature I am pretty sure as they had to be joint with a parent's signature. Someone correct me if I am wrong?
Anyhow that whole read of the Wiki thing I just felt I fell down a hole. Just got up maybe part of the reason. I'm somewhat old school maybe another part and it all sounds odd to me as to knowing what your son was up to or what was going on in his life. Not judging as teenagers at that age all can be going through a something a parent is unaware of as they change and the outside world brings issues, questions and problems.
Enter the internet, phones, gaming systems, computers on top of it.
interesting that his gaming thing was checked and he never registered, signed in or whatever or talked to anyone through it or some such... Kids have always been wiser and smarter than their parents to such since such started so I wouldn't count on that.
My grandchild told me some years back he could hack the school's system and password if he wanted to. My nephews have always known how to get into anything and they are 20 or 30 years older than him. None have done such for wrong reasons, my point is the kids are way ahead on tech and changes than the adults.
It's hard to get a feeling here and then we had those ARRESTS and the men in jail for almost two years and all about trafficking and in connection to him. I mean really WTH is going on here?
In many a case i'd suspect the family but it seems pretty clear here he left home and took money out and so on and DID go to the train station and so on. I'll sidetrack there for a bit in that public transport like rail, Greyhound bus, etc. and stations are hubs for predators if a child is there alone. I can tell a story or two, true ones about THAT as well. BUT what was he doing? Did he want to go to a concert and thought folks would refuse? Why would you refuse a return ticket? I can see a kid doing that wanting every last cent until they knew even if not much higher.
These parents do not seem to be up on what their son is going through or doing and again, teenage years can be hard and they may have thought all fine until then. Or did they... And do they now with hindsight... Now wondering if he was gay, etc.
It's hard in this one to take an opinion or leaning but my leaning would be he was being abused by an adult and as a gifted student not the most social (and that can also cause that) whether in school, on the bus, or in scouts... He took money out to leave or was lured to do so or even demanded to.
I don't know and am not SOLD on that opinion as I would be in some cases but with the LITTLE we have that would be my leaning. He probably felt older than his years yet he wasn't socially but was a brain and gifted that way. I feel like something is missing also. I don't know what but for one you had TWQ men under arrest for almost two years and called it trafficking as related to him.
I know, I know, long wandering post. Been a week. And I went and read this WIKI thing.
