The evolution of crime journalism is both disturbing and disheartening. Too often missing persons go unreported by major media outlets because they do not fall into a specific category. If you're not white, blonde and good-looking, then you had better hope that you never go missing. If you do, there is a good chance that your case will receive little media coverage. Unfortunately, this form of "media profiling" also spills over into unsolved homicide cases. If you are the victim of a homicide and your family wants the media to help catch your killer, you had better think ahead and do your best to ensure your murder occurs in a quiet suburban neighborhood, otherwise your case probably will not warrant even a two-minute mention on any of the major media outlets.
However, all is not lost. There are exceptions to the “white, blonde and good-looking” rule. If your death was horribly graphic, or if you have a social networking page on MySpace or Youtube, your case could provide the media with fodder for an editorial. A case in point is the recent murder of 17-year-old Heather Walker (photo here) in Dayton, Ohio.
On the evening of February 9, Heather had friends pick her up at Heather’s parents’ house on Gummer Avenue and take her to a convenience store on East Third Street, where they dropped her off. Heather never made it home that night and failed to contact her parents in the ensuing days. Concerned, Heather's parents, Robert and Tammy, contacted police and attempted to file a missing person report. The police, however, declined to take the report; citing Heather’s previous history of running away. Due to her past actions, Heather was automatically placed into a specific category, which deemed her case unworthy of police manpower.
The officer who spoke with Heather's parents probably felt it was a waste of time to devote police resources to a teen who, based on her past, had intentionally disappeared. There were, I am sure, far more pressing cases on the docket. Sadly, this happens all too often and many times these teens, who are thought to be runaways, are in fact the victims of heinous crimes.
Undeterred by the lack of cooperation from local police, Robert and Tammy made up flyers and posted them throughout the area, hoping that someone might recognize their daughter and provide them with clues to her whereabouts. The flyers resulted in several tips; however, none of them helped the Walkers move any closer to discovering what had happened.
In the interim, Heather's case went uninvestigated and unreported on.
Then suddenly, this past Saturday, Heather's disappearance was finally deemed worthy of coverage by the local press and an investigation by the local police department. What changed? Heather's decomposing body was found hidden in a bin between abandoned buildings, just three blocks from the convenience store where her friends had dropped her off.
According to the county coroner, Heather had been dead for "quite a while" before the discovery was made. It will most likely be revealed that Heather's body had been there since the day she disappeared. Had the missing person report been accepted, there is a good chance her body would have been found much sooner, before much of the evidence in the case had been compromised by the passage of time.
Instead of focusing on the tragedy of the case and providing a detailed description and photo of the victim, much of the coverage focused on Heather's MySpace profile, which has been described as "obscenity-laced." The relevancy of that remains unknown. Coverage of the homicide has also focused on the area in which Heather's body was found, an area that is known for vandalism and prostitution.
The fact is, a 17-year-old girl is dead. Was her geographic location a contributing factor? Probably. Did her "obscenity-laced" MySpace profile have anything to do with her murder? Probably not, but it does make for good press.
It remains to be seen if publishing Heather's case in the media would have made a difference; however, it definitely would not have hurt the case. One paragraph of text can often make the difference between a hot case and a cold one.
Anyone with information on the murder of Heather Walker should contact the Dayton Police Department at (937) 333-2677 (333-COPS).