Hailey Owens Killer Says He's Not Guilty

Craig Michael Woods says he is not guilty of any of the charges against him by the state of Missouri in the kidnapping and murder of ten year old Hailey Owens. Someone who, according to eyewitnesses, looks exactly like Woods, snatched Hailey from the sidewalk and forced her into Woods's truck. Later, she was found deceased in his basement. While no one saw the murder, the kidnapping was actually seen by more than one person, so Woods's attorney definitely has his work cut out for him. When a person is abducted by someone whose intentions are murder, it usually happens with the first three hours of the kidnapping.

Here's How The Kidnapping Happened

In the wake of the Amber Alerts that have been issued in areas that involve Northeast Kansas lately, it seems apropos to take a harder look at how the kidnapping of ten year old Hailey Owens actually happened, since there is an eyewitness who willingly gave law enforcement all the information he had after seeing the incident. There have been comments emailed to this site that actually defend the actions of kidnappers and others who instigate and escalate danger to children, (curiously, all from Frankfort, Kansas) and if an understanding of how quickly such a crime can be committed can be conveyed, perhaps a life can be saved.

Young Hailey would have been much safer in this company than in the company of the teacher/coach who killed her. 

A Few Kansans With Misplaced Priorities

A couple of trolls, who left tracks from a certain location in Northeast Kansas, seem to be very discontented with the fact that I support safe schools and background checks for teachers and others whose job descriptions involve contact with children. Very recently, a ten year old girl named Hailey Owens was forcibly kidnapped and murdered. The murder happened within the predicable time frame of three hours from the time of the kidnap. Yesterday, after finding that Hailey had been found deceased, I quoted an early article, on this site, identifying the perpetrator as a para professional and athletic coach at Hailey's school. It happened to be the article that I linked when I stated that the Amber Alert had been cancelled. Later on, it was discovered that while this man occasionally substituted at all the schools in the district, his duties as a para and as a coach were actually at the local middle school, not the elementary school attended by Hailey. While the statement probably deserves clarification, any inference that teachers and other school employees should undergo background checks is still spot on, and I will not back down from my statement that we need to be much more careful of who we trust to teach our children, here in the Midwest. But wouldn't you know it; one of the above mentioned trolls from Northeast Kansas had this to say:

"He was NOT a para or coach at her school. He was employed through another school and did not know her. You def. need to get your facts straight!"

As it happens, this troll is angry and upset because I won't shut up about a coach from Frankfort High School, in Northeast Kansas, who dropped my daughter off by herself four miles away from the school for cross country practice. I had already told him not to do this with my daughter, who was only fourteen years old at the time, because without adult supervision, any child who fell and suffered injuries or got stung by a bee and suffered an allergic reaction would have no available support. Cell phone signals are not the best in this area, and I have never heard of this practice in a public school. After refusing my offer to help supervise, as a volunteer, (only Christians are allowed to volunteer, Methodists and Catholics preferred; and I am not Christian) the coach promised me he would not do it again. A week later, he did it again, only this time, my daughter was all by herself, as the only girl who attended practice that day, and she got lost. When the coach person realized she was lost, he looked for her for awhile by himself, but did not call me, her her father, or the police. After school was over for the day, he went home and had dinner, and still had not told anyone my daughter was missing! Some folks who happened to be driving in the area where my daughter was lost gave her a ride home. Suppose it had been a dangerous person, instead? Coach person certainly was nowhere nearby, and did NOT know where my daughter was! He certainly had no control over who offered her a ride at that moment. It was a terrible chance to take with my child's life, and I certainly will never personally trust him again. I also resent the school's insistence, by keeping him on the payroll, that parents continue to trust this man.

Both the coach at Frankfort High, and the coach who kidnapped Hailey Owens are the type of school employees who should never be trusted with children. I'm so sorry if I read an article that had the wrong school listed as the place of employment. The particular school where he taught is not the point; the point is that he had access to children and children had seen him supervising games and classes, and therefore trusted him. He was not just any stranger; he was a teacher. My point was, and is, that we should not pay people who are obviously dangerous in one way or another to teach or care for our children. One way to weed out the bad ones is to perform background checks. What, pray tell, is wrong with reiterating that? How could such a statement provoke such ire? A background check probably would have weeded out the coach at the Missouri School, and the past use of terrible judgement would weed out the coach at Frankfort, Kansas. Really simple stuff; no need to become a rocket scientist first.

It's abundantly clear that the Frankfort Kansas crowd desires strongly that the incident involving my daughter and the errant coach be swept under the rug and forgotten. I will never do that for them, but here's a question: who benefits when criminal behavior is covered up and kept secret? The victims? Any potential or future victims? No, not at all. The people who benefit when crime is kept secret are criminals. Frankfort Kansas school employees and assorted others want me to stop talking about child safety and help them make their community a more welcome environment for crime against children.

Here's another group of Kansans who are upset that a nearby community is taking a serious look at child safety:

My daughter was missing just a little bit longer than Hailey Owens was missing. She is certainly very blessed and very lucky. Shut up, Frankfort Kansas!

Amber Alert Cancelled For Hailey Owens

The Amber Alert from Missouri that was initiated last night for Hailey Owens has been cancelled. It took me awhile to figure out how to write about this, since it she never needed to disappear in the first place, but it seems that the driver of the gold Ford Ranger, Craig Wood, was an athletic coach and a para at Hailey's school. Now; where, in the entire vicinity of the televised airings of the amber alert, have we heard about something like this happening? Just one hop across the state and a couple of hours travel, and Frankfort High School can be observed supplying the same type of school employee with a paycheck for similar dereliction of duty. Granted, the child who was abandoned and left to her own devices on a dirt road in an isolated area four miles away from the nearest town was extremely lucky, and lived to tell about it. Hailey was not so lucky. The Ford Ranger belonged to a school employee, and as soon as it was located at the address to which it was registered, a search warrant was obtained for that residence. Then, Hailey was found; unfortunately, deceased. Why?

There have been rumors that Craig Wood had used different names in the past, but I have seen no real evidence of this. Even so, a school can still conduct a decent background check. Women often change their names when they marry, and many marry more than once. Reasonably accurate background checks are carried out in those circumstances every day. I have even done background checks on potential employees whose backgrounds were mostly not national, and I even had to speak to providers of references in other languages on a few occasions concerning applicants who have not always used surnames. There was no problem, in any instance, performing the background checks. And none of the three companies for whom I did this had any reason as important as teaching or childcare for checking applicants' references. 

Checking references of school employees and weeding out the ones whose past histories contraindicate contact with children is a no-brainer and a requirement on paper in most states and counties. Why aren't we doing it? Why does a teacher with politically well connected parents have free reign to endanger children with impunity? Why does a teacher who graduated from the same school where he abuses and neglects remain employed at that school? Why do "friends" feel like they are doing him a favor by protecting him? Only the shadow knows! And how did a para and athletic coach with drug problems that were unearthed in a matter of minutes by journalists fly under the radar of whoever checked references and ran background checks at the Missouri school? 

Several people have commented about this, stating that the school should not be held responsible in any way. I disagree. Hailey was, most likely, encouraged to trust and respect authority. Children are rarely taught to question authority anymore. Parents who teach their children that valuable lesson are stigmatized and marginalized by "good, upstanding" koolaide drinking school administrators. Life is often hell for the parent who loves his children enough to tell them that teachers, principals, coaches, guidance counselors, and para professionals do not always have their best interests at heart. But; while life is often hell, it would be more hellish to have to say goodbye to a beloved son or daughter because the lesson of questioning authority had not been taught.

Amber Alert for Hailey Owens

Hailey Owens is ten years old, about five feet tall, ninety pounds, and has brown hair. She was last seen a few minutes before five o'clock this evening in Springfield, Missouri. There is an Amber Alert out for her because a stranger driving a gold 2008 Ford Ranger, with Missouri tags, 1YF 454 or 1YS 454, grabbed her, pulled her into the vehicle, and traveled south. The stranger is described as a man in his forties with grey hair. If you have nay information about this, please call 1-800-KS-CRIME, or 911.

Here is what a 2008 gold ford ranger looks like:

Update: The 2008 gold Ford Ranger in question, and it's owner, were both found in Springfield Missouri a little while ago, but Hailey was not. Please be aware that the Amber Alert for Hailey Owens is still in effect.