It is a cold, hard fact that Julie Michelle Bullard of Broadway, NC was abducted from a friend's home by a masked gunman. It is a cold, hard fact that every day that has gone by since her abduction, we learn of the numbers of others that have gone missing or somehow more perverse, have been found under a handful of leaves, hidden off mountain trails, tossed along the roadside like a flicked cigarette butt. And the embers once burning bright are ultimately snuffed out in the cold harsh truth of selfishness.

Who knows what the minutes, hours, days were like to those gone missing by force? We know some are next door to safety, a scream or a cry away from rescue. We know at one point, at least one point, most travel, walk, and/or fight from point A to point Z.

Between point A and point B the abductor relies on darkness, stealth and camouflage to transport his victim. Usually no one is aware of the crime, it is too early to be at too much of a risk. From point B to point C he (the abductor) relies upon the confusion, the expected misdirection of witnesses that have trouble remembering things that happened while experiencing a crazed man with a gun, of law enforcement not used to such an event, definately not the normal District Court misdemeanors and such that make up most of their career's work. From point C to D, to E, F, G, H, I, K he (the abductor) relies upon his quickness and disturbed psyche to remain free. Time means nothing at this point. The master plan is being developed. The buzz of the escape is wearing off, and sensors have alerted him to stay the course or steer away. This is the moment of terror, the moment the victim is most at risk.

There is no set time frame, the timing between C and K could be seconds, but it could be days or weeks also. Nothing in this it predictable, every case is frustratingly different.

Usually when asked the abductor will not be able to recall the process that got him past K but he will say 9 out of 10 times that, "It just happened, I didn't mean it to go that far." K is the point of no return. After that, time becomes a blur and from K to Z things hopefully will move mercifully quick.

Everything outside of the victim and abductor's control also functions on the point A to Z paradigm.

Law enforcement from point A to B relies on the fact that the abductor does not know what evidence has been gathered to send the trackers onto his trail. From B to C, press conferences are used to confuse and seek response. Sometimes authorities will say that they are about to make an arrest, mothers will be brought forward to make an emotional plea and the face of confidence will be front and center in every media. The signal is directed to the abductor, we are on top of the situation.

The family from point A to B relies on "no news is good news" to cling to hope. Living in darkness, an Ostrich like behavior. B to C they realize how this is effecting them, fearful anxiety keeps them awake at night. They are reacting, reaching out. And from C to K they try on 50 different hats, yell, fight, cry, cuss, fail. Nothing is working. Their child, their loved one, their wife, daughter, son is missing, neither living or dead. Still though, needing rescue.

At point K everyone makes a decision. Including the media. Story or no story. The term used to not run with a story is to "kill" it.

I want you to Google in the news searcher of your browser for the term"abducted at gunpoint." Abducted at gun point yielded me, at around midnight, 64 stories. Most of these stories take place on foreign soil. A couple involve robbery. Only one story was about Michelle Bullard. One current news story out of 64. They killed it. I know this because the only story out of the 64 was one I wrote.

If you Google both "abducted at gunpoint" and "missing woman" together, at the same time, you will only get one story at all to come up. It is about Michelle Bullard. Guess who wrote it?

A woman was forcefully taken from a home, is missing 16 days and not one story about any abduction, not one in any newspaper in the world, except for the story I wrote about Michelle. The media came to the K in the center of the crossroads and turned around to chase after yet another sad tragedy.

***It should be noted that, the small local newspaper, the Sanford Herald has maintained it's vigil for Michelle by publishing frequent updates.

Now do the editors sit and actually think about killing a story? You betcha! They have only so many people to cover so many stories. They know, and we should know, that no one cares. They know their readers suffer from an Attention Deficit Disorder. No one follows up, no one expects anyone to follow up. When was the last time you called a company, for any reason, and got someone to return your call? Did you expect them to call you back? Same thing. No one cares. No one cares a woman that witnesses say was taken at gunpoint from a home, not a crack house, not a juke joint, not a war zone, not a third world country, a home, in rural America, enjoying life with friends as they watch a movie. No one cares.

No one cares what lay down another road, no one cares that the family, the loved ones wait for the phone to ring, for someone to call them back. No one cares that loved ones pick up the papers everyday looking for something, anything so that if someone knows something, has seen something, heard something, someone will call.

We at the Blue Line, and those that I know such as Monica Caison of the CUE Center for Missing Persons, as she waits for a call and those outside Michelle's immediate family, as they look for clues, are all here at the crossroads, begging for the one standing at the K in the middle of the road, the one making the decision that may alter the fate of this tragic course of events, to take the road less traveled and bring Michelle home.

 

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