This is such a tradgedy. I know you read these before they are posted, so I just wanted to make you aware that if you click on the police report to read it, the full names addresses and phone #s of people are displayed. This is concerning to me. You may delete my post after reading, but something needs to be done to prohibiy access to this information, identity theft is so prevalant.

Thanks, DP. The police report is hosted on another site, and not SunSentinel.com. I will alert the host of the issue. I agree with you.

Now to the real issue. My heart is breaking for Somer's parents. How do we keep our kids safe? I honestly don't know. I have kids of my own and you think you do everything right, so that the "bogey man" won't get them, but then the bogey man could be in your own home, or a stranger that snatches your child as she walks home from school. So who knows? I am sure everyone will have all kinds of advice or even critism but the truth is, it can happen to any of us at any time, no matter how careful we are.

To Somers' parents: I am so very sorry for your loss and may justice be served quickly on the monster who did this to Somer.

As to the questions of ways to possible prevent this, I think a huge mistake some parents make is having older children in charge of younger ones. I see this all the time. In the parents eyes their children are supervised because they are with each other. However, the expectation that one child can take care of another child is often not realistic (elementary aged). I believe children that are in elementary school should always have an adult to walk them home. And I know the thoughts about allowing children to be "free range". However, I think there can be a balance between both. When I was younger my mom always walked me home from school, but she always stayed back and let me talk to my friends. I never felt like she was watching me or being a nag.
My prayers are with this family.

I just blogged about this same thing at http://beclever.wordpress.com
We have found John Walsh's "The Safe Side" program to be very effective in teaching our kid about stranger safety. More comprehensive and more empowering than the usual "stranger danger" stuff...

You have a good point, Sad. I was wondering that as I was reading the police report myself. 10 seems a bit young to be in charge of younger siblings.

I see this all the time,. 10 year olds in charge of young siblings even toddlers in public places. No parents to be found. How can a parent justify putting that responsibility on a 10 year old? That sister will always feel she is to blame although in reality her sister was her parents responsibility not hers.

We live in Boise ID, and while not a hotspot for this type of activity, it is extremely concerning. We live in a reasonably nice neighborhood, however for my daughter to get to her junior high, she has to walk through some areas that are not so great, with known sex offenders and drug-related issues. The frustrating part is that the school bus stops "ON" our property, exactly 1 mile from the school, for another student at another school - this bus does stop at my daughter's school. Because the district criteria states the distance must be greater than 1.1 miles, she is not eligible to ride, and in fact was told not to ride unless her parents make arrangements to pay for the bus. The ironic thing is that the bus has perhaps 5-10 kids on it; certainly there are many seats left vacant. My daughter is not the only young female in the neighborhood that would like to ride the buse either. But RED TAPE rules! It is this type of beuracratic nonsense that makes no sense, and endangers our children! So much for public safety being priority #1. If the school district or the bus were truly worried about the children's welfare, this wouldn't be the case! This must change!!!!

Matthew:

If your state is anything like ours, shortly after school starts (usually Sept-Oct) you can petition the department of transportation to let your daughter ride the bus. If there are empty seats available and she is chosen, she will be allowed to ride the whole year. I did this for my daughter when we lived not quite 2 miles, and you must do it each year.

All I can think of is the enormous contrast between the beauty of childhood and the beyond-all-measure evil, selfish, revolting inhumanity of the thing that could commit this act. What I would like to see is a complete army of hundreds of top investigators from every state working on this. And when the thing is found, it should be given no mercy - because it simply cant be called human. To Somer, we all care for you, and are so very sorry this happened.

Walking home from school with a group of kids should be safe. Monitoring the situation closer might have helped, a few skills on how not to argue coming home or why not to split off from the group.Whatever. Our children aren't safe and the boogeyman is loose , and this dear child stumbled on evil , just by being a kid and walking home from school , which was not far away if you will look at the map.My heart is broken for her family, who's suffering has just begun, and for all of us , who can't let our kids ride their bikes to the playground after school , or walk across the park to visit a friend.

Why is the focus on teaching our kids to be safe? Shouldn't it be how do we as a society implement tougher penalties for these sick animals...castration, select communities, more death penalties, one strike you're out? I don't give a rat's ass about their civil rights when it comes to the rights of a child to be able to live free and safe in their neighborhood.

Hello
Oh god this is really sad about that little girl.I completely agree with you that now children are not that much safe.Parents should really take care about their children.Thank you very much for sharing this with us.

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. Catya has an interesting point, but would tougher penalties REALLY keep our kids safer? These monsters are still out there. It is so sad that we cannot even let our kids play with their friends in their own neighborhoods without an adult watching like a hawk. I can remember running all over my neighborhood as young as age 8 without supervision and you rarely heard of something like this. Is it really a sign of the times?

Perhaps we should mandate every citizen to watch
"Law Abiding Citizen"
and take notes, its seems it will be the only way of dealing with these freaks.We certainly cant expect our justice system too.