Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: You're listening to the Weighing In podcast, the show that brings you inside the Daily Gazette's featured news column.
And now, here's your host, writer of the weigh in in column, andrew, wait.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Thanks for listening. I'm andrew, waite.
[00:00:32] Speaker C: So, at the beginning of the month, our region was pretty gripped by the disappearance of a nine year old girl from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County. And while this was playing out, I think many people in Schenectady were thinking of one name samantha Humphrey.
Samantha, she went missing November of last year. She's 14, schenectady high freshman.
And for an agonizing three months, she was missing until her body was found in February in the Mohawk River. And I think as the nine year old case in Saratoga County was playing out, many people initially in Schenectady were fearing the worst, as we all were, and fearing that we were going to be heading toward another just awful, awful outcome. But then, of course, there was a different result, thankfully. I mean, we were all so incredibly grateful that the nine year old was found two days after she went missing.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: And an arrest was made.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: But I think when that different result came about, there was some then feelings in Schenectady and people who had been thinking about the Samantha Humphrey case. There were feelings of, I think, honestly, resentment or just anger and not directed toward any other case, but just how come we can't get the same result? How come Samantha Humphrey's case couldn't have ended with her being found safe? And of course, these are just very different cases. When the nine year old went missing, it was pretty clear pretty early on.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: That she was likely abducted.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: And that then changed the direction that the search took. And that likely shaped some of the media coverage that she got, where that mean, rightfully so, made national and international headlines. And meanwhile, the Samantha Humphrey case, while covered pretty well in the local press, never reached the national consciousness.
And I think some people were just sort of asking that question of why not? And again, they were different cases. But I think part of what people were feeling, even if it wasn't quite accurate in these cases, but was this idea of missing white woman syndrome. And that's what the late journalist Gwen Eiffel dubbed as basically this idea that the media is going to give undue attention to missing white women compared to missing persons of color. And what's interesting here is that in.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: These two cases, they're actually both missing white girls. One a nine year old, one a 14 year old.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: So that notion wasn't entirely accurate. And consequently, it made writing a column about it fairly difficult because it wasn't like I could just hold up one example where a missing white girl received tons and tons of media attention and.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Had this amazingly miraculous great result two days later.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: Whereas let's say a black girl was.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Missing for months and then found tragically dead.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: That wasn't the case.
These were two white girls. But I think that people were bringing.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: This up in reaction to this case.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: It represented something that is true about the ways in which biases can shape reactions to missing persons cases. And even if biases did not in any way affect police or media attention in the Humphrey case or in the differences of these two local cases, and I think there's reason to say that the biases actually didn't necessarily factor in. They were just different cases. But even if in these specific cases, biases didn't necessarily factor in, we know that they do, generally. And so I thought that this moment when we're thinking about missing people, that this was a good opportunity to explore the ways in which biases can shape our reactions to missing persons and possibly prompt us to reconsider some of our reactions. So here's the piece that I wrote.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: You're listening to the Weighing In podcast with columnist Andrew Wake.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: When a nine year old girl went.
[00:05:46] Speaker C: Missing at Moreau Lake State Park two weeks ago, jeff Humphrey felt a sense of terror. Meanwhile, Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford said he had feelings of deja vu.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Indeed, as the horrifying news about the missing nine year old quickly spread across the capital region, some in Schenectady quietly thought of one name samantha Humphrey. Last November, less than a year before the nine year old was abducted in Saratoga County, schenectady faced its own agonizing search for Samantha.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: A freshman at Schenectady High School.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: The 14 year old Samantha Humphrey disappeared November 25. Last seen at Riverside Park in Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood. Her father, Jeff Humphrey, 53, told me.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: This past week that he was the.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: One to find Samantha's coat at the.
[00:06:34] Speaker C: Park a day after she was first.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Reported missing injecting an intensity into the search that lasted a painful three months before Samantha's body was found in the.
[00:06:43] Speaker C: Mohawk River on February 22.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: As the Amber Alerts buzzed our phones earlier this month with reports of the missing Saratoga County girl, many in Schenectady feared another family in our region was.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Destined to be dealt the most devastating.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Loss imaginable, Schenectady's Police Chief Clifford told me. We just felt for the family, knowing how much the family has been going through here in Schenectady.
And then, 48 excruciating hours later, the nine year old in Saratoga County was found. After fingerprints on a ransom note led police to a suspect's home where they found the girl hidden in a closet, but mostly in good health.
Relief washed over the entire region and much of the country. The story of the missing upstate New York girl had made national broadcasts. At the same time. Some in Schenectady wish the Humphrey case, which never reached national consciousness, could have had a similarly happy ending. Alas, it did not. Samantha is dead. And nearly eight months after her body was found in the same area where she was suspected to have gone missing. There have been no arrests. Chief Clifford told me the investigation is ongoing. The case file is on the desk of the investigator. It's being worked on.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: That's really all I'm comfortable saying right.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Now as far as that case goes.
When one girl is found safe after two days and another from a neighboring county is found dead after three months, with serious questions remaining about who and what killed her, there's an inherent sense of injustice. One family gets its loved one back and the other doesn't. That grave unfairness surely went through the heads of many whose thoughts turned to Samantha while the more recent missing girl case played out. We could stop there. We could chalk up the different outcomes to the world's randomness. And with these two cases specifically, that's probably the grim truth. After all, despite similarities, these were very different incidents. The recent Saratoga County case was thought to be an abduction from its earliest stages, and the rapid response this engendered, combined with the alleged kidnapper making some very dumb moves, led to the happy resolution for which everyone is so grateful. Contrast this with Samantha's case, which has.
[00:08:59] Speaker C: Always been a bit murkier.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Her disappearance initially seemed to suggest she ran away from home. Her dad even told me it was common for her to spend the night with friends.
[00:09:09] Speaker C: So when he first saw she wasn't.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: In her bedroom, he wasn't initially concerned.
In addition, the investigation into Samantha's alleged murder faces serious complications, including the fact that the forensic pathologist was unable to determine a cause of death, making answers even harder to come by. So here we sit two missing girl cases that took place less than an hour's drive apart and within a year of each other and two drastically different outcomes. That's how it goes sometimes, right? One miraculous resolution can cause frustration and even resentment for those close to an unsolved tragedy. But we'd be remiss if we didn't take this moment to truly reflect on the fact that not all missing persons cases are the same, and more notably, on the fact that not all missing persons cases receive the same level of attention. When the missing person is a nine year old white girl, the entire world seems to grieve and pray, as it well should for any missing person. But vary the victim's biography even slightly, and the level of attention and panic begins to dissipate.
Vary the biography further, and the responses diverge again. Even in these two local cases of missing white children, the fact that one received international headlines while the other garnered mostly local coverage shows this dynamic at play.
We should take this moment, while the subject is still so raw, to consider the disparity.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Database, about 600,000 people in the United States go missing every year. For those missing people, nearly 40% are persons of color, according to the Black and missing foundation, while white people make.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: Up 75% of the entire US.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Population.
Compounding. This is the problem that the late journalist Gwen Eiffel dubbed Missing White Woman Syndrome.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: Put simply, when young, well off white.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Women go missing, people pay far greater attention than when persons of color vanish. The Columbia Journalism Review recently put out a tool analyzing some 3600 articles that puts missing white women syndrome in sharp relief. The examples of underreported people of color are numerous, but one that stands out for Dereka Wilson, a former police officer who cofounded the Black and Missing Foundation is Alaysia English.
The 17 year old English went missing in Charlote, North Carolina in June, but law enforcement didn't put out public notification until August, Wilson said.
English was initially labeled a runaway. She's since been deemed missing, Wilson said. Sadly, when people of color are disappearing, especially children, law enforcement tends to classify them as a runaway. And we know that runaway does not meet the criteria for Amber Alert, Wilson told me. And quite frankly, it doesn't seem that there is a sense of urgency finding the missing children because the perception in society is, well, they ran away, so.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: Whatever happens to him or her, they.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Brought it on, Wilson said.
Again, Samantha Humphrey was not a person of color. But the response to her disappearance helps highlight the difference in response when someone is seen as missing versus seen as someone who left home voluntarily. Kids labeled as runaways don't typically get.
[00:12:33] Speaker C: Their faces shown on CNN.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: They don't receive international headlines, they don't get news of their disappearance widely shared on Facebook.
Chief Clifford told me an Amber Alert was considered when Samantha went missing, but ultimately, quote, the incident did not fit the criteria. Clifford said schenectady police often deal with teen runaways and activating Amber Alerts for all of these would essentially have the effect of the police department crying wolf, he said. It's not until more information surfaces that we have to go on that we can really focus our attention on it. And in Samantha's case, it was her coat being found that got us to do a full court press on the investigation. Until then, it's unfortunate that we just simply don't have the resources to look.
[00:13:17] Speaker C: For any teenager that leaves their home.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: On their own will and doesn't come home. The sad truth is that our society tends to want to blame the victim, said Frankie Bailey, a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the Rockefeller.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Her research includes a synthesis of crime, social history and popular culture. Whether consciously or not, when someone goes missing, we often ask ourselves what level of culpability that person has in his or her own disappearance. Biases often impact such opinions, with people of color facing a higher barrier to being perceived as innocent, Bailey said. For instance, black children are often perceived as being older than they really are, prompting people to falsely assume their disappearance was an act of their own volition. Meanwhile, black men are often stereotyped as being criminals, and black women tend to be stereotyped as being sex workers or.
[00:14:13] Speaker C: Drug addicts, Bailey said.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: She said this is a process in becoming a victim, and it works in the victim's favor to be constructed as innocent as to not be blamed, Bailey said. With people of color, they are more likely to be somehow blamed for whatever has become of them in terms of becoming a victim.
Even as a young white woman, the kind of missing person the Columbia Journalism Reviews research shows gets the most coverage samantha clearly faced hurdles to gaining the kind of widespread attention we saw paid to the case earlier this month.
Somewhere in the recesses of our collective consciousness and in the hive mind that is national news production. Samantha's biography as a teenager from a broken working class family from a small city who was originally thought to have run away undercut her perceived innocence. Was there a certain amount of collective bias that emerged from these biographical details? Some modicum of to be expectedness that was entirely absent in the case of the missing nine year old who just.
[00:15:17] Speaker C: Wanted to complete one more loop on her bicycle.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: In this moment of grief set against hope, we can all reconsider the way we respond to missing persons if we find ourselves blaming a victim. Why is that? And how can we set that aside?
We must be the, quote, digital milk carton, as Wilson of Black and Missing put it, for all missing persons, so that each case has a chance to receive the appropriate level of attention.
Wilson said she's beyond thrilled that the nine year old in Saratoga County was found. She said in her case, it showed the power that we all have law enforcement, the media and the community.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: It shows what we can do when we work together.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: In other words, it showed the kind of response that can lead to the happy ending that families of all missing persons deserve.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: You're listening to the Weighing In podcast with columnist Andrew Waite.
[00:16:26] Speaker C: I wanted to turn now to a happier piece that I wrote this week, which was about the migrants who are.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: At the Rotterdam Super Eight.
[00:16:38] Speaker C: Now, in July, I met a 35.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Year old sorry, she's a 30 year.
[00:16:43] Speaker C: Old nurse from Venezuela. Her name is Hennessis, and when I met her, she and her three kids, ages 1411 and two, they were some of the roughly 230 plus migrants who had found their way from New York City up to Rotterdam. And so she shared her story, and I wrote about her story, and one of the things that she had told me was that her husband Richard, who.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Was a 35 year old cook, he.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: Had arrested instead of allowed to pursue the immigration process. So in Texas, the women and children were taken through the immigration customs process and starting the asylum seeking process while.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: The men, because they were traveling in.
[00:17:34] Speaker C: A fairly large group, about 40 people.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: As they crossed the Rio Grande, the.
[00:17:38] Speaker C: Men were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. Well, just recently, Richard was able to be reunited with Hennessys and his family. There was a local advocate who videoed the moment at Newark International Airport. And just the images of the two.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Year old toddling up to her father.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: And the hugs and kisses that Hennessys gives to Richard and Vice just it.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Was just a universal moment, and I.
[00:18:13] Speaker C: Encourage you to check it out on our website.
The video, it just tugs at your heartstrings. And so I was able to write a column telling the story about their reunion, and it was just an honor to meet them. And what they were saying is that.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: In Richard's case, he and also several.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: Of the other men, the best course of action that their lawyers were saying was to plead guilty to these criminal trespassing charges, which is what they did. And they were released from state prison on time served. But then they were taken through the immigration process and they were detained at Ice centers.
And it was unclear really what their fate was going to be. And Hennessys believes that really what made the difference was the September 21 decision by the Biden administration to grant temporary legal status to Venezuelans who were already in the country. And it was shortly thereafter that Richard was released from the Ice detention center and then able to be reunited with Hennessys.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: And so now we'll see what happens.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: If what should be a result of that policy decision is that Venezuelans should be granted expedited work permits, allowing them to work more quickly. And it's what Hennessis and Richard say.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: They want to do.
[00:19:46] Speaker C: And they said about half of the.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Still more than 200 migrants who are.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: Living in the Rotterdam Hotel are Venezuelan.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: And that that's the goal.
[00:19:56] Speaker C: Their goal is to find work, find an apartment, and make their lives in Rotterdam.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: The two boys are enrolled in the.
[00:20:05] Speaker C: Mahatison Central School District, and they said, contrary to being bullied, which they had.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Feared, actually, they've made friends and many.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: Of the kids are interested in them, and they practice Spanish with them.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: And meanwhile, the boys practice their English.
[00:20:19] Speaker C: With some of the other kids. And so it's just a bit of.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: An unexpected.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: Turn in that story because three months ago, it seemed reasonable that Richard might be deported to Venezuela and.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Who knows when he would see his family?
[00:20:37] Speaker C: And thankfully, that wasn't the case. And I was able to write a piece about it, so I'm happy to share that.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: That's all for the Weighing In podcast for this week. Thanks so much for listening.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: I'm andrew, waite. Take care.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: You're listening to the Weighing In podcast with columnist Andrew Waite.
