For a moment I am going to be personal here. Because some of us forget that when we where younger, we where wilder. Some of us will look at this story and perhaps think that this girl was asking for trouble. We'll forget that we ourselves may have perhaps been asking for trouble once too.
In my younger days, I dreamed of meeting a older man who would swept me away. There where so many things I wanted to run away from- and lets face it, very few young men able to accomodate that desire. I had a fancy for older men. There weren't many- but I will admit once or twice my parents could have walked into my room and would have been left looking at a open window and a makeshift "me" in bed. I remember sneaking out that window, and sneaking back in. Now, I count myself lucky to have been ABLE to sneak back in.
At one point I must have gotten caught somehow- the details of what lead to the conversation are not as clear as the conversation. I remember dad very clearly asking "what in God's name does a 38 year old man have in common with a kid- what could you even possibly talk about??" Thankfully he wasn't asking me- he was asking the married father of 2 who I had been seeing. I might have answered that there really wasn't a lot of talking going on, the man came up with some that although sounded better, was much less true.
That's the thing. Where young girls given to fantasies of older mature men are less likely to have the experience of lying their way out of trouble- these older men can be pros at it. I'm not saying that any of the older friends I had where intently searching out young girls. They where accustom to having affairs. Today for the relationships we had they would be sex offenders. I never seen them that way. Today if I seen the same story of the older man and the younger girl in the paper, I would write to you about it. I would condemn it. I would say they should be ashamed, they should be locked up. Then, I was just hoping one of them would swept me away to somewhere perfect. Today, I hold nothing against them. I can sit here and tell you I knew what I was doing. That I was just as guilty. It could be true, or it could just be my objection to the thought that they took advantage of a young girl looking for a way out. How I would hate to have to admit that. Even now.
Grown now, I admit to still favoring older men. Tim's 17 years my senior. I adore him. But- I still look at my kids and think- over my dead body will they ever...
I wrote about this a few days ago- and today, while doing the daily "sex offender" search on Yahoo News, I came across it again. This time with a bit more to the story- this time with enough details about a young girl, not unlike any one of us could have been at that age-...Erin wanted to run away from home... she rebelled... it fits into the story of each of us who for a moment perhaps felt trapped as a young teenager, wanting freedom, wanting adventure. How many of us snuck out of a window to be with friends- to show our rebellion? The difference comes when Erin's friends turn out to be sex offenders. And when Erin doesn't sneak back in that window in the morning. She's still missing. So remember when you start to question what she was thinking... she's not the first to make wrong choices. And she won't be the last. All we can do now it try to help bring her home- and try to keep our kids from being too much like us.
SOURCE
Erin Nembhard, 15, hails from the Treasure Coast town of Port St. Lucie. She plays the violin and attends a Christian school.
Eduardo Narvaez is 21, a Miami-Dade County resident with no criminal record. Corey Witty, 35, is a registered sex offender who police say failed to notify authorities he had moved to a new home in Miami Gardens.
Chatting over the Internet brought the three together, say investigators, who are now searching for Erin -- who has been missing since last Friday in North Dade -- and have arrested the two men on charges related to the teen's disappearance.
Authorities say Erin sneaked out of her Port St. Lucie house on Friday night to meet Narvaez, who she met through an America Online chat room, then drove with him to Miami.
Later, he dropped her off at Witty's Miami Gardens home, where she stayed for one day before apparently slipping away shortly before detectives arrived.
The twisted tale of the teen and the two men, according to police and interviews, begins in the Christian home of the Nembhard family in Port St. Lucie.
SIGNS OF TROUBLE
Erin's mother, Joy Nembhard, 42, said she never suspected serious trouble with her daughter.
The middle of three children, Erin was born in the United States of Jamaican parents and was in her fifth year at Treasure Coast Christian Academy.
There, her Bible teacher lectured on the ills of modern society -- and warned about the perils of meeting people through the Internet.
Erin played the violin, liked football and wanted to become an FBI agent or join the military.
She was quiet and always willing to lend a hand. When her pregnant sister threw a baby shower, Erin decorated with pink and yellow balloons, and fuchsia and lime green streamers.
The teenager even met a boy while on vacation in Jamaica. He called sometimes, talked to her about going to church. He mailed her one of his high school graduation photos.
''Maybe some day he'll make a good husband,'' her mother told her.
But like any teenager, Erin rebelled.
One day last summer, Joy Nembhard received a call from the grandmother of one of Erin's friends: She had been told that Erin wanted to run away from home.
So Joy Nembhard took Erin for a drive along the beach. Erin told her mother she hated her school and wanted to return to public school. Her mother responded firmly that she would never take her out of the academy. Besides, her grades had improved at Treasure Coast.
The two went to a riverside restaurant. Erin didn't want to eat.
More signs of trouble emerged. Recently, Erin's older sister had disconnected the family's Internet connection because she was growing suspicious of Erin's online activity.
But on Friday, Erin told her mother she needed to do research for school, so Joy Nembhard reconnected the Internet. Later, she saw her daughter whispering into the phone.
TIME TO PANIC
Saturday morning. About 2:30 a.m.
Joy Nembhard discovers her daughter gone. She calls Port St. Lucie police, who come to the house, scribble out a report and leave.
Only later does Erin's 8-year-old brother admit to his mother that someone named Ed helped his sister escape Friday night through a window carrying three bags stuffed with clothes. They drove away, he tells his mom, in a yellow Nissan.
INTERNET TRACKER
Almost immediately, police summoned Port St. Lucie Detective Charlie Lumpkin, who had completed specialized training last August to investigate Internet crimes against children.
So far, his work had netted one arrest: a businessman from New York who traveled to Orlando on business, then drove to a Port St. Lucie house to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex.
In Erin's case, Lumpkin called America Online and obtained important account information on Narvaez and another one of Erin's online chat buddies. He then used his own computer's instant messenger to contact them.
''Within 30 minutes, we were able to conduct a conversation with two suspects,'' he said.
Eventually, Narvaez told detectives that he picked up Erin and they drove to his Miami home. Investigators believe he may have had ''inappropriate sexual contact'' with Erin, said police spokesman Officer Robert Vega.
On Saturday morning, he drove her to the Miami Gardens home of Witty, who had recently been released from prison for lewd or lascivious battery involving a child younger than 16.
Narvaez was later arrested by Port St. Lucie Police and charged with harboring a runaway and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
When Port St. Lucie detectives went to Witty's home on Sunday morning, the only person home was a family member, who police believe called Witty.
Witty then phoned Port St. Lucie detectives.
By the time detectives returned, Witty told them Erin had just left on foot, without her belongings.
Witty was arrested for failing to notify police he had changed his address. Miami-Dade police have since charged him and Narvaez with lewd and lascivious battery, although they are prohibited from identifying the victim.
Miami-Dade police, Port St. Lucie detectives and FBI agents have been scouring a 99-mile radius around Witty's house, passing out fliers and interviewing people.
If you have information about the case, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS, or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers 800-273-TIPS.
In my younger days, I dreamed of meeting a older man who would swept me away. There where so many things I wanted to run away from- and lets face it, very few young men able to accomodate that desire. I had a fancy for older men. There weren't many- but I will admit once or twice my parents could have walked into my room and would have been left looking at a open window and a makeshift "me" in bed. I remember sneaking out that window, and sneaking back in. Now, I count myself lucky to have been ABLE to sneak back in.
At one point I must have gotten caught somehow- the details of what lead to the conversation are not as clear as the conversation. I remember dad very clearly asking "what in God's name does a 38 year old man have in common with a kid- what could you even possibly talk about??" Thankfully he wasn't asking me- he was asking the married father of 2 who I had been seeing. I might have answered that there really wasn't a lot of talking going on, the man came up with some that although sounded better, was much less true.
That's the thing. Where young girls given to fantasies of older mature men are less likely to have the experience of lying their way out of trouble- these older men can be pros at it. I'm not saying that any of the older friends I had where intently searching out young girls. They where accustom to having affairs. Today for the relationships we had they would be sex offenders. I never seen them that way. Today if I seen the same story of the older man and the younger girl in the paper, I would write to you about it. I would condemn it. I would say they should be ashamed, they should be locked up. Then, I was just hoping one of them would swept me away to somewhere perfect. Today, I hold nothing against them. I can sit here and tell you I knew what I was doing. That I was just as guilty. It could be true, or it could just be my objection to the thought that they took advantage of a young girl looking for a way out. How I would hate to have to admit that. Even now.
Grown now, I admit to still favoring older men. Tim's 17 years my senior. I adore him. But- I still look at my kids and think- over my dead body will they ever...
I wrote about this a few days ago- and today, while doing the daily "sex offender" search on Yahoo News, I came across it again. This time with a bit more to the story- this time with enough details about a young girl, not unlike any one of us could have been at that age-...Erin wanted to run away from home... she rebelled... it fits into the story of each of us who for a moment perhaps felt trapped as a young teenager, wanting freedom, wanting adventure. How many of us snuck out of a window to be with friends- to show our rebellion? The difference comes when Erin's friends turn out to be sex offenders. And when Erin doesn't sneak back in that window in the morning. She's still missing. So remember when you start to question what she was thinking... she's not the first to make wrong choices. And she won't be the last. All we can do now it try to help bring her home- and try to keep our kids from being too much like us.
SOURCE
Erin Nembhard, 15, hails from the Treasure Coast town of Port St. Lucie. She plays the violin and attends a Christian school.
Eduardo Narvaez is 21, a Miami-Dade County resident with no criminal record. Corey Witty, 35, is a registered sex offender who police say failed to notify authorities he had moved to a new home in Miami Gardens.
Chatting over the Internet brought the three together, say investigators, who are now searching for Erin -- who has been missing since last Friday in North Dade -- and have arrested the two men on charges related to the teen's disappearance.
Authorities say Erin sneaked out of her Port St. Lucie house on Friday night to meet Narvaez, who she met through an America Online chat room, then drove with him to Miami.
Later, he dropped her off at Witty's Miami Gardens home, where she stayed for one day before apparently slipping away shortly before detectives arrived.
The twisted tale of the teen and the two men, according to police and interviews, begins in the Christian home of the Nembhard family in Port St. Lucie.
SIGNS OF TROUBLE
Erin's mother, Joy Nembhard, 42, said she never suspected serious trouble with her daughter.
The middle of three children, Erin was born in the United States of Jamaican parents and was in her fifth year at Treasure Coast Christian Academy.
There, her Bible teacher lectured on the ills of modern society -- and warned about the perils of meeting people through the Internet.
Erin played the violin, liked football and wanted to become an FBI agent or join the military.
She was quiet and always willing to lend a hand. When her pregnant sister threw a baby shower, Erin decorated with pink and yellow balloons, and fuchsia and lime green streamers.
The teenager even met a boy while on vacation in Jamaica. He called sometimes, talked to her about going to church. He mailed her one of his high school graduation photos.
''Maybe some day he'll make a good husband,'' her mother told her.
But like any teenager, Erin rebelled.
One day last summer, Joy Nembhard received a call from the grandmother of one of Erin's friends: She had been told that Erin wanted to run away from home.
So Joy Nembhard took Erin for a drive along the beach. Erin told her mother she hated her school and wanted to return to public school. Her mother responded firmly that she would never take her out of the academy. Besides, her grades had improved at Treasure Coast.
The two went to a riverside restaurant. Erin didn't want to eat.
More signs of trouble emerged. Recently, Erin's older sister had disconnected the family's Internet connection because she was growing suspicious of Erin's online activity.
But on Friday, Erin told her mother she needed to do research for school, so Joy Nembhard reconnected the Internet. Later, she saw her daughter whispering into the phone.
TIME TO PANIC
Saturday morning. About 2:30 a.m.
Joy Nembhard discovers her daughter gone. She calls Port St. Lucie police, who come to the house, scribble out a report and leave.
Only later does Erin's 8-year-old brother admit to his mother that someone named Ed helped his sister escape Friday night through a window carrying three bags stuffed with clothes. They drove away, he tells his mom, in a yellow Nissan.
INTERNET TRACKER
Almost immediately, police summoned Port St. Lucie Detective Charlie Lumpkin, who had completed specialized training last August to investigate Internet crimes against children.
So far, his work had netted one arrest: a businessman from New York who traveled to Orlando on business, then drove to a Port St. Lucie house to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex.
In Erin's case, Lumpkin called America Online and obtained important account information on Narvaez and another one of Erin's online chat buddies. He then used his own computer's instant messenger to contact them.
''Within 30 minutes, we were able to conduct a conversation with two suspects,'' he said.
Eventually, Narvaez told detectives that he picked up Erin and they drove to his Miami home. Investigators believe he may have had ''inappropriate sexual contact'' with Erin, said police spokesman Officer Robert Vega.
On Saturday morning, he drove her to the Miami Gardens home of Witty, who had recently been released from prison for lewd or lascivious battery involving a child younger than 16.
Narvaez was later arrested by Port St. Lucie Police and charged with harboring a runaway and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
When Port St. Lucie detectives went to Witty's home on Sunday morning, the only person home was a family member, who police believe called Witty.
Witty then phoned Port St. Lucie detectives.
By the time detectives returned, Witty told them Erin had just left on foot, without her belongings.
Witty was arrested for failing to notify police he had changed his address. Miami-Dade police have since charged him and Narvaez with lewd and lascivious battery, although they are prohibited from identifying the victim.
Miami-Dade police, Port St. Lucie detectives and FBI agents have been scouring a 99-mile radius around Witty's house, passing out fliers and interviewing people.
If you have information about the case, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS, or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers 800-273-TIPS.
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