"First of all, like many of you, I suspect one of the monks was involved. It is commonly known that the Abbey houses known sex offenders. Standard police protocol should have guided a full investigation of these individuals that determined their whereabouts the night of, their travels and actions before and after the disappearance and many other facts. If these folks were housed anyplace else--they would have been rapidly ID'd as suspects and ‘shaken down’ by the police. ... The Abbey/Church's money controls the local politics to a large extent, thus the pushback from the authorities--nobody wants to bite the hand that feeds them. Politics in America! ... All solutions involve media focus and money. A major and concerted effort to draw attention to this case has to be initiated. YES, it has been done before, but you have to keep pushing and pushing! When that doesn't work, you push some more. Media attention will help collapse the Abbey’s house of cards. ... Could Josh’s story be ‘sold’ to one of the evening news shows for money to fund the investigation?? Could someone on this list make a catchy presentation to entice media to air the case again?? Josh is handsome young man in the prime of his life—cases like these are easier to sell to media. ... Also, maybe criminal justice students at a MN college could be solicited to take this investigation-- similar to the Chandra Levy case? (http://www.vsuspectator.com/?p=922) ... Simultaneously to the media work, money must be raised to fund a private investigator or lawyer. An aggressive bull-dog type investigator and/or a lawyer who knows how the local and State Police work, could really make some headway. Are there any retired investigators that could be hired by the family? The police may not be helpful, but they can not penalize the family in anyway for investigating. For example, which of the monks has a vehicle? What about the Abbey's phone records? Are the sex-offender monks free to come and go, do they have cars?? Why would they not allow searches of their property if they had nothing to hide? ... A lawyer might be able to file an open records request to obtain some of this info—the college is a private religious college, but it does accept some government money—so it might just fall under the open records act. If not, there are still legal avenues to continue the investigation. A well orchestrated lawsuit against the school for not providing Josh a safe environment could also facilitate a legal discovery process whereby the school and Abby would have to be more forthcoming. ... Lastly, many have speculated a link between Josh’s abduction and Jacob Wetterling. Has the family investigated this possibility?? Would the Jacob Wetterling foundation lend some support and work in tandem? ... My deepest sympathies to Josh’s friends and family; your government and the Church have both failed you terribly. It is time to take aggressive action. ... " |