"Little Caleigh was gone, and so was family’s center; It’s been 5 weeks since a 2-year-old vanished on a Rockport beach, apparently swept away with the tide. Grief, anger, and a thread of hope have defined her family’s life since" by Bella English | Globe Staff, May 27, 2012
It has been five weeks since the little girl with the Pebbles ponytail and winsome dimples disappeared. Gone, too, are the lives her loved ones led, replaced by an agonizing wait and the devastating question: Where is Caleigh?
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FLASHBACKS:
Agonizing search along Rockport’s Long Beach
Police end search for missing toddler in Rockport
Search in Rockport for missing toddler called off
Police have no evidence girl was abducted
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The Harrisons and the Hammonds agreed to talk to the Globe about the ordeal, saying they don’t want the public to forget about Caleigh.
According to the Department of Justice, an average of 2,185 children under the age of 18 are reported missing every day.
That's an astonishing number.
Some are abducted by relatives or strangers. Some run away from home. Most are found within a few days.
Experts say that the disappearance of a child can be more devastating than the death of a child. Death, at least, provides a conclusion.
“The hardest thing is having nothing to give closure,’’ says Maureen Flatley, a child welfare advocate who works with the Quincy nonprofit Mission for the Missing and has spent many hours with Caleigh’s family, offering support and guidance. “Having no body keeps hope alive, but it also prevents closure and reconciliation.’’
That day
Anthony Harrison and Allison Hammond, both Gloucester natives, met in 2005 over karaoke at a local bar and married less than a year later. Elizabeth was born in 2007, Caleigh in 2009.
I never liked the idea of meeting in a bar.
The couple separated last September - amicably, both say - and share custody of the girls. Anthony has them Wednesday nights and weekends; Allison works those days and sometimes nights as a bartender and waitress at Stones Pub in Gloucester.
I'm not looking to ban them (although philosophically I do); however, I just can't help thinking it's not a good environment for people. Either way it's a tragedy.
The night before Caleigh disappeared, the girls were with their father. He made chicken fingers and french fries, and they watched “Scooby-Doo.’’ The next morning, he dropped them off at the home of his in-laws, Chris and Jerry Hammond, where Allison had been staying since the separation.
Then, for Allison and the kids, it was off to the beach.
“Allison was trying to get the kids worn out that day at the beach, so she could come home and pack. She was moving two days later,’’ says her sister, Melanie Pyle.
Allison says she was throwing a tennis ball for Lucas when it went over a 15-foot sea wall. Behind the wall, perched above the beach, is a row of summer cottages, most of them empty in April. She left the girls on the beach, close to the wall - she thinks they were a long way from the water; police say at high tide the children would have been quite close - while she walked up the steps to look for the ball on the other side.
The beach remained within view as she climbed, and she says she looked down at the girls as she walked. “I checked on them a couple of times as I was searching. But that last time, it was too long that I had my back turned. You know, you get that feeling . . .’’
As Allison gazed down at the spot where her daughters had been, there was only Elizabeth, arms outstretched, shouting: “Caleigh’s gone!’’
Allison, who estimates she had been away from them no more than two minutes, ran down to the beach and into a nearby creek with a swift current that empties into the ocean. “It’s like a water slide with a vacuum cleaner,’’ says Flatley, who lives in nearby Essex.
Caleigh, 2 years and 9 months old, was wearing bright pink shorts and a pink top, and the water was crystal clear, her mother says. There was no sign of her.
Except for a few surfers and dog walkers, the beach was empty. Allison’s cellphone was in the car, way down the beach. Two women, checking out summer rentals, heard her calling for Caleigh and telephoned 911.
Rockport police arrived and took Allison, hysterical, to her car, along with Elizabeth. Later her mother would say that the girl was actually comforting her. “She was soothing me, petting my face,’’ Allison says. “She knew I was upset, but she didn’t really get it.’’
In Danvers, Anthony was building a deck with his construction crew. At 12:35, he got the call from his sobbing wife. It took him 10 minutes to make the 20-minute drive.
The search
That first day, 45 Rockport police officers and state troopers, as well as firefighters, environmental police, Coast Guard vessels, helicopters, and several volunteer boats began the search. Two K-9 dogs were airlifted to uninhabited Milk Island, a mile offshore, because the current was moving that way.
Caleigh’s family looked, too, combing the beach and marshes. They joined police in searching the cottages, most of them still boarded up: under porches, on decks, in cars and boats, and inside the few houses that were open.
“I said, she’s going to come out from under a porch, or maybe she’s hiding,’’ her father says. “It was her naptime, and it was possible she fell asleep.’’ Some relatives stayed out until nearly midnight. They could not bear to go home without Caleigh.
The second day, the Coast Guard stopped calling it a rescue; it was now about “recovery.’’ “Deep down, you know if she’s in the water, every hour that went by, the chance of finding her alive was going down,’’ says State Police spokesman David Procopio.
On day three, a storm rolled in, making an ocean search impossible. On April 25, 40 police officers and divers were back at it. The next day, a week after Caleigh went missing, the search was suspended.
Lizzie’s story
Naturally, everyone wondered what Elizabeth, who is known as “Lizzie’’ and will be 5 in June, would reveal. At first, she told police and her parents she did not know what happened. But a few days later, her family says, she told a friend she was playing with that “a mean man took Caleigh.’’
Her father, aunt, and grandmother say they overheard the conversation. Lizzie, they said, described a heavyset man in black shorts, smoking, with a bald patch and facial hair. She even drew a picture for them.
“The detail was eerie,’’ her father says. “The hair on the back of my neck was standing up.’’
The family asked police to interview her again. Afterward, police told the family that there was no evidence of kidnapping, that the disappearance was “a tragic accident.’’
Procopio declined to give details of the interview with Lizzie but said: “We did not have a description of any man on the beach.’’ Witnesses told police that they saw Allison and her daughters but didn’t see anyone else coming or going.
“There is no evidence of foul play, period,’’ Procopio says.
Her father thinks Lizzie might not have disclosed the “mean man’’ to police out of fear. “I believe she’s scared she’s going to get in trouble,’’ Anthony says. “She feels she was supposed to watch her sister and she didn’t.’’
Lizzie’s story is the life preserver to which the family is clinging. “Growing up here, I absolutely know the ocean takes things away,’’ her mother says. “But I truly believe if Caleigh was in the water, rescuers would have found her the first day.’’
The backlash
In cases of missing children, the family always comes under scrutiny. After appearing on cable network HLN’s “Nancy Grace’’ show two weeks after Caleigh disappeared, her parents were skewered by viewers.
Yeah, that LYNCH MOB is the LAST PLACE you want to go for help.
The couple say they went on the show in hopes of generating leads about their daughter, but viewers’ online reaction was scathing.
Allison didn’t show any grief, some said. Anthony simply “looked guilty.’’ One post questioned whether the couple had a book deal. (They don’t.)
“The blogs were horrible,’’ Anthony says. “It’s bad enough I have no idea what happened to my daughter, and I have to deal with these crazy [expletive]?’’
Townspeople have also questioned why Allison was seen out in stores, a beauty parlor, and the pub where she works in the first week after Caleigh’s disappearance....
Aaaaaah. Another Casey.
Catherine Curcuru, Anthony’s sister, owns a beauty salon in Gloucester and hears the word on the street. She knows many in town wonder at Allison’s seemingly dispassionate response to her daughter’s disappearance.
“A lot of people aren’t happy with her demeanor,’’ Curcuru says. “She acts like nothing ever happened. It’s almost like she lost her luggage at the airport.’’
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In fact, Curcuru says, Allison has lost sight of the girls other times, including incidents at the beach that Curcuru’s children, 10 and 7, have reported. Last summer, she says, Lizzie was lost at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester for 45 minutes. A friend who was with Allison told Curcuru about it. After that, Curcuru told Allison that her children would not be returning to the beach with her.
Allison acknowledges that Lizzie “took off’’ at the beach twice last summer, but denies losing her. “Once, Lizzie went one way, and Caleigh went the other, so I went after Caleigh. The second time, Lizzie went off after her cousins without telling me.’’ She adds: “This is two times out of dozens of times we went to the beach.’’
Shouldn't be one, but....
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Allison's parents, Chris and Jerry, and Allison’s sister Melanie also say they believe that Caleigh may be alive. Two psychics they consulted told them Caleigh didn’t go in the water....
Really reaching now.
Since Caleigh vanished, her parents have worked together to care for Lizzie. But last week Rockport police asked the state Department of Children and Families to investigate the girl’s well-being. The report was filed after Anthony expressed to police his concern over Allison’s emotional state.
“I never asked for an investigation,’’ he says. But police told him it was protocol in cases where a child goes missing. Department caseworkers have interviewed both parents; the inquiry is ongoing....
Unfortunately, that is why you never want to bring police in on the matter.
--more--"
Yeah, that's someone else you may not want to involve.
UPDATE: Specialists say missing Caleigh Harrison was likely swept out to sea
