Tonight, I have been looking at web pages on both serial killers, and also at missing persons. I find it sad that my first thought about most of the people on the missing persons websites is "They must be dead". What is wrong with this world that people either feel the need to disappear because they could not cope, or were ill, or indeed were kidnapped or murdered? It is so sad to me that in these times of greatly advanced technology, we cannot find these lost people, even if just to say to their families "They are fine, but don't want to come back".
I was recently touched by a missing persons case when a client I was due to work with went missing from a local hospital for people with mental illness (I mentioned him during my previous post). I heard that he had gone missing on the local radio, but was unaware until that point that he had even needed further treatment at the hospital. The last time I saw him, he was talking to me about how Kate Bush spent the day telling him about her "mansion", and joking with him. Of course, this was all in his head as voices, but the medication had controlled it to the degree where he was happy just to listen, and they were benign.
Then, then next I heard he was found in a river, miles away from the hospital (there is a major investigation going on with the hospital in question as there have been at least a dozen patients walk out and kill themselves/die). I mention this case as I felt so touched by the circumstances surrounding him after only knowing him for a matter of weeks, that I cannot even begin to imagine what it is like to lose a close member of your family without knowing what has happened to them.
Moving on, is anyone else fascinated by serial killers? Their minds are just amazing to me, and I cannot cease to wonder what goes wrong to make them do what they do. Is it insanity, or is it just evil, and they know they are doing wrong, but do it anyway? I am in the middle of reading about a nurse here in the UK who murdered and attacked many children on a paediatrics ward to "get attention" (Munchausen by Proxy syndrome). Amazing. Even more amazing is that people didn't spot the pattern until many children had died, and others been left with permanent brain damage.
Oh, the world is so sad these days! I shall just have to make do with sending up a small prayer that those who can be found, are found; and those families who are grieving, are comforted.
Aria