Someone Knows Something

I don't know why this came to my mind the other day rather all of a sudden. This was said by Montell Williams on one of his shows about missing persons. My girlfriend, Sandra, had told me about it while I was still in New york so that I would be sure to watch it. It was still during the time that Kevin was still missing. Since being here in Des Moines I haven't been able to watch his show because of the time but I think he periodically deals with this topic. My girlfriend did tell me that Mrs. Veronica Freer was on the show, perhaps more than once, concerning the disappearance of her son, Craig, from Scotia, N.Y., my former hometown. He had disappeared a few weeks before Kevin did. I think it was June 26th or 27th. A couple of weeks ago I asked Sandra if there had been any news lately but she said no.

I remember the show and Montell's voice and final words towards the end of the show. Somebody has to know something. Somewhere, somehow, some person has to have seen or heard something. That isn't a direct quote but that's it. Regarding Craig Freer, Kevin, and thousands of others. Somebody has to know something, has to have seen something. I don't remember the specifics of the cases he had on the show that day but they all were similar in that the person was last seen, whatever the circumstances were and then gone, disappeared. Without a trace. In some cases the police did more. In another case the young person was seen leaving the scene of a car accident but there was no immediate follow up. Just recently I had looked over the initial reports concerning Kevin. Apparently fishermen thought they had snaged a body. They did send divers in the river but because of the rough conditions and high waters they pulled the divers out. The discription didn't fit Kevin. Anyway, what I'm saying is that I don't think that was an attempt to search for Kevin as I originally thought but as a result of a sighting on the part of the fisherman. Thank God for the fishermen. A fisherman found Kevin's remains as most people know.

I remember also the night I went down to 4th and Court on a Saturday night during the Summer to get a feel of what it was like at 2:15 in the morning, the time Kevin supposedly disappeared from in front of the Royal Mile Bar. There were lots of people milling around as the bars were closing and people were heading for their cars or waiting for a ride. I walked down to the Court Ave. bridge, about 4 blocks away, and yes, there were a couple of fisherman on the bridge that night. They told me they were there frequently on the weekends in the Summer. They couldn't remember whether they had been there that night, July 18th, but the point is , there very well could have been fishermen on the river that night too as there were the night I visited. Fisherman or people on their way home, somebody. I still can't understand why no one saw Kevin that night, on a busy Summer's night, in the entertainment district of downtown Des Moines.

I remember the repeated response of the police those first few weeks. There was nothing they could do. If there wasn't a body, or unless someone comes forward, there was nothing they could do. I thought to myself. If someone went to them and said that their car was stollen, would they say there was nothing they could do unless someone comes forward to say they saw the car being stollen or unless they found a dead car? I know, or have heard anyway that police wait something like 72 hours before they investigate a claim of a missing person. To make sure the person is really missing, but as I've said, with young persons, 21 and under they're suppose to investigate right away (Suzanne's Law - an extension of the Amber Laws). Perhaps that always isn't the case either as I saw police and search dogs looking for an elderly man immediately after his disappearance.

So I still hear Montell Williams words that somebody, somewhere, must know something about Kevin. Whether he was harmed, or jumped or fell into the river that night, it seems that someone knows what happened...