I wonder what's the deal in the town of Modesto, California. It keeps popping into my consciousness because of missing women. First, it was the Yosemite tourist murders. They went missing in February 1999, at a time that I was on a business trip in California, for 3 weeks. This was the mother (Carole Sund), daughter (Julie Sund), and young family friend (Silvina Pelosso). I was riveted to this story, following it online for years. Carole's wallet was found on a street in Modesto. Some methamphetamine dealers were jailed and suspected, but that turned out to be a false lead by the real killer, Cary Stayner, who threw the wallet in the trash in Modesto to throw the police off the real track. Stayner was recently sentenced to death.
The next story was Chandra Levy, a Washington intern from the Modesto area, who was having an affair with Gary Condit, the Modesto congressman. After much obfuscation, he finally "didn't deny" having a sexual relationship with her. She went missing on the day she was to fly back to California after her internship was over. Her remains were found over a year later, in a park where she may have been jogging, and where 2 women were raped in the following weeks. It currently looks like Condit might have had nothing to do with her murder - another man, Ingmar Guandique, is being questioned. But Condit's congressional career is over - in his interview with Barbara Walters, he was the perfect picture of the sleazy politician, no matter how much he might protest that he won't answer questions about his sexual relationship with Levy to "protect his family and the Levy's family". Yeah, right. I was riveted by this story, too. I also read a lot of serial killer books. I'm already tying the two together, even though "two incidents make only a coincidence".
The current story is Laci Peterson, almost 8 months pregnant and a resident of Modesto, who went missing on the morning of Christmas Eve day. It's over a week later now, and the bloodhounds seem to indicate that she left in a car. The husband had gone fishing that morning while Laci was heading out to take the dog for a walk. The husband so far is "not a suspect, but not ruled out". So far I haven't read anything that makes me think the police are suspecting him more than they are letting on.
So what do these stories have in common? Modesto, and missing women. Nothing else, as far as I can tell. I don't know why these stories stick in my consciousness more than other stories over the past several years. A couple of years ago I attended an adult education lecture on profiling serial killers, taught by a retired FBI profiler. There were 13 students, and only one was male. The lecturer said that he'd taught the course many times, and it is always over 90% women. He went around the room asking each of us why we were there. The most common response was that we want to know what makes these killers tick, and we want to know how to protect ourselves. Both are good explanations for why it's mostly women - women in general seem more interested in psychology than men, and women are overwhelmingly the victims of personal violence due to nothing they themselves have done.
In the newspaper this week, there was an editorial about how the cosmetic industry in America serves the same purpose as the burqa industry in Afghanistan, to make all women look the same. Someone also wrote in to the newspaper to praise the article, stating that she'd gone to the Middle East and had to wear the chador (a similar garment), and that it was liberating because she didn't feel any women were judging her clothing, hair or makeup, and that no men glanced at her. Um, sorry, no, it's not the same thing. First of all, no one makes anyone wear makeup in this country. I haven't worn makeup on a regular basis in 10 years, and I have never once been beaten with a stick over that. I've gotten over my fear of the negative judgment of others over my appearance. It's called "self-esteem". And as far as the glances of men, yeah, they do sometimes make me uneasy, but rape is a crime of violence, not passion. Any potential rapist in the middle east KNOWS you're a woman under there.
Anyway, back to Modesto. One thing that has helped me to follow all these stories is the Modesto newspaper, http://www.modbee.com. They know what local stories have ongoing interest, and they group all the articles together with a link, so people that are not from Modesto and don't care much about other Modesto news can still keep up with the stories that obsess them.
I have heard that Modesto makes Spartanburg, SC look like a progressive town. Spartanburg is similar to Greenville SC (where Bob Jones University is), except without the education level. So, I doubt I will make it a point to ever go to Modesto.
1:47:14 PM 
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