hi deb...i think homolka had plastic surgery of some sort to help with new ID and location, didn't know about child...i heard that one of the boys who horrifically led Jamie Bulger to his fate also is free with new ID and child...i hope he can now, in part, feel the immense love for the child and the immense horror he would experience if someone were to abduct his child...in their case, for simple kicks
i am not a csi, law and order, etc viewer but i try get to the bottom line of 'motive' when these real life cases are eventually revealed
the common thread in some of the recent one seems to be a blend of sexual obsession and partner approval/power
recently a boy stabbed and killed a 12 year old girl simply becuse his girlfriend was tormenting him with text messages demanding that he do it if he wanted her 'rewards'
a few years back seemingly ordinary guy grabbed a wonderful young girl in plain daylight...there was no partner in that case but he confessed he was overcome by a growing obsession
http://members.shaw.ca/pdg/briere_michael.html
i am speculating but this girl who lured Tori may have been seeking approval (so insecure) from her boyfriend by bringing him a prize....i hope no photos/video was taken in the short time they had the poor girl...it's sick to thing they could be somewhere on the net and/of on pedi's hard drives
as far as the act of abduction, the only chance someone seems to have is at the VERY instance of the abduction...i imagine this 18 year old female said to Tori as she left school, that there was some sort of family emergency and she was there at Tori's mom's request to take her to the hospital or wherever...what street dumb or smart kid would second guess this type of ploy, especially coming from a female (stereotypically less creepy then a guy stranger)
...it was amazing that video footage of a portion of the abduction was captured and published for public assistnce and it worked...same true of the Jamie Bulger mall video stills
back when i read how homolka and bernardo schemed to abduct Kristen French, it made me totally ill...karla got out her car with a map pretending to be lost...then good teen citizen Kristen trying to assist was unsuspectingly blindsided at knifepoint and shoved into the car...broad daylight in a church parking lot
sure, isolated instances but the seemingly normal individuals involved in these examples (like this current 28 year old guy/alleged murderer) put folks on edge when it's so hard to judge a book by it's cover...man, it wasn't uncommon for me to meander, alone, through a ravine on my trek home in elementary school years...now seems insane
...then there's the 2 punks killed a 15 gentle teen on his way home from school as he walked through a small field...this is not in the courts yet but i believe this will be a 'gang approval act' motive...how do you possibly overcome that sort of nonsense
when i was very young, my friends and i were within half an hour of being the first to shockingly stumble upon a deceased female teen victim in 'our play field'....a man walking his dog got their first (oh, thank goodness for us wee ones) and kept us away until police arrived...i remember my folks stumbling for words when i peppered them with the 'hows and WHYs?'....that crime remains unsolved...i was sad for a long time following that event and a part of me holds onto that helpless feeling whenever senseless loss (not to mention, horror) occurs, some of it right under the publics nose ...if i interpreted it right, i think the subtext of the "No country for old men" conveyed that type of un-policeable helplessness pretty well
deb, that was a long winded tangent attempting to address the "what happens to a person's mind" part of your post...the short version is 'i really have no idea' other than i understand what obsession feels like but more as it applies to being obsessed with completing a song or a house project and ok, also can remember being obsessed with dating certain women, same age or older to the point that my body chemistry was haywire...if this is what these folks somehow feel for children and they have voices inside telling them to act, well, it's a society deflating illness with no remedy, imo