09-12-2011, 06:32 AM
Toronto Sun criticizes the RCMP. i'm sure others have as well. it appears hopley is a ghost in the darkness.
CALGARY - To be any more under the nose of RCMP, Randall Hopley would have to be a police moustache.
That's assuming Hopley really is the criminal mastermind who managed to vanish with a Sparwood, B.C., tot, eluding officers over a frantic five-day manhunt before returning the boy to the scene of the crime.
Inexplicably, and unbelievably, the story has a happy ending - at least for now.
With so many expecting tragedy and heartache, we instead have the near-miracle of a child returned unharmed to his overjoyed family after the kidnapper decided to bring little Kienan Hebert back.
The sigh of relief is understandable.
The failure to nab the creep behind this nightmare is not.
"Maybe he's invisible," is the sarcastic quip of Hopley's Sparwood, B.C., landlord, Orville Sheets.
It's humour barbed with criticism for Mounties handling the kidnapping case, where a man described as a simpleton managed to waltz back to the scene of the crime, unchallenged, and then escape.
"They have 50 people standing around during the day and no one watching at night," said Sheets, repeating what so many in the southeast B.C. town are wondering.
Despite 60 RCMP officers working the kidnapping case, there was apparently no one posted at the Hebert home. That's where Kienan was found at 3 a.m., sitting alone on a couch with a blanket.
With his family staying with neighbours, the house was empty - begging the question: Who was monitoring the place for activity, or standing by in case the abductor decided to make contact by phone?
No one, it seems.
It took a 911 call from the alleged child-snatcher to alert RCMP to the boy's safe return, at which point police sprang into action, setting up roadblocks and once again scouring the Sparwood area.
Too late. Whoever it was who took Hebert - and RCMP are adamant it was the 46-year-old ex-convict - made a clean getaway after dumping the boy.
At what time Hebert was actually dropped off, is unknown - the call placed to the emergency line was probably dialed in only when the elusive abductor felt safe to do so.
Of course, it's all conjecture, given a wall of silence from the RCMP.
If the police had any pre-emptive hint of the child's return, they aren't saying. Indeed, the RCMP aren't saying much of anything, testily dodging questions about police tactics at Sunday's press conference.
One thing is certain - the Mounties had no one poised to pounce on the kidnapper as he fled the scene for the second time in five days.
Maybe they were caught by surprise. Possibly, they assumed the worst and had dropped their guard, expecting a gruesome answer to the abduction mystery would come in weeks, or possibly months.
We can't say, because the Mounties refuse to explain.
The RCMP have plenty to say about Hebert's return - actually thanking the kidnapper for being so decent - but nothing to offer the countless parents left to fret over their own children.
A boy safely returned doesn't absolve the criminal who snatched him, and Mounties need to spend less time praising the kidnapper and more time reassuring the community of police competence.
There's the cloudy issue of a second attempted child abduction in Sparwood the same day Hebert vanished, which was somehow foiled - again, details are frustratingly vague.
Sunday
![[Image: 1315601310595_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x]](http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1315601310595_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x)
a local's comments about hopley:
Randall Hopley's life was pretty much over the moment he was born. He was intellectually disabled, functionally illiterate, and very socially awkward. His mother put him in foster care but kept all of his siblings. He has obviously dysmorphic facial features suggestive of some sort of congenital syndrome in addition to prenatal alcohol exposure.
CALGARY - To be any more under the nose of RCMP, Randall Hopley would have to be a police moustache.
That's assuming Hopley really is the criminal mastermind who managed to vanish with a Sparwood, B.C., tot, eluding officers over a frantic five-day manhunt before returning the boy to the scene of the crime.
Inexplicably, and unbelievably, the story has a happy ending - at least for now.
With so many expecting tragedy and heartache, we instead have the near-miracle of a child returned unharmed to his overjoyed family after the kidnapper decided to bring little Kienan Hebert back.
The sigh of relief is understandable.
The failure to nab the creep behind this nightmare is not.
"Maybe he's invisible," is the sarcastic quip of Hopley's Sparwood, B.C., landlord, Orville Sheets.
It's humour barbed with criticism for Mounties handling the kidnapping case, where a man described as a simpleton managed to waltz back to the scene of the crime, unchallenged, and then escape.
"They have 50 people standing around during the day and no one watching at night," said Sheets, repeating what so many in the southeast B.C. town are wondering.
Despite 60 RCMP officers working the kidnapping case, there was apparently no one posted at the Hebert home. That's where Kienan was found at 3 a.m., sitting alone on a couch with a blanket.
With his family staying with neighbours, the house was empty - begging the question: Who was monitoring the place for activity, or standing by in case the abductor decided to make contact by phone?
No one, it seems.
It took a 911 call from the alleged child-snatcher to alert RCMP to the boy's safe return, at which point police sprang into action, setting up roadblocks and once again scouring the Sparwood area.
Too late. Whoever it was who took Hebert - and RCMP are adamant it was the 46-year-old ex-convict - made a clean getaway after dumping the boy.
At what time Hebert was actually dropped off, is unknown - the call placed to the emergency line was probably dialed in only when the elusive abductor felt safe to do so.
Of course, it's all conjecture, given a wall of silence from the RCMP.
If the police had any pre-emptive hint of the child's return, they aren't saying. Indeed, the RCMP aren't saying much of anything, testily dodging questions about police tactics at Sunday's press conference.
One thing is certain - the Mounties had no one poised to pounce on the kidnapper as he fled the scene for the second time in five days.
Maybe they were caught by surprise. Possibly, they assumed the worst and had dropped their guard, expecting a gruesome answer to the abduction mystery would come in weeks, or possibly months.
We can't say, because the Mounties refuse to explain.
The RCMP have plenty to say about Hebert's return - actually thanking the kidnapper for being so decent - but nothing to offer the countless parents left to fret over their own children.
A boy safely returned doesn't absolve the criminal who snatched him, and Mounties need to spend less time praising the kidnapper and more time reassuring the community of police competence.
There's the cloudy issue of a second attempted child abduction in Sparwood the same day Hebert vanished, which was somehow foiled - again, details are frustratingly vague.
Sunday
a local's comments about hopley:
Randall Hopley's life was pretty much over the moment he was born. He was intellectually disabled, functionally illiterate, and very socially awkward. His mother put him in foster care but kept all of his siblings. He has obviously dysmorphic facial features suggestive of some sort of congenital syndrome in addition to prenatal alcohol exposure.