Sierra LaMar went missing just last Friday, March 16th. I had to look up Morgan Hill, California on the internet. This is Northern California, rural, a population of 37, 882. Some common occupations for this area are: farmers, ranchers, and orchardists, according to Wikipedia. The county is Santa Clara; Morgan Hill is 24 miles south of San Jose. Never been through Morgan Hill, but San Jose rings a bell! They grow great avocados there. Sierra moved from Fremont, Ca. last October.
Morgan Hill’s remoteness was mentioned on Nancy Grace last night (with Rita Cosby as a guest host) as a significant factor in Sierra LaMar’s disappearance, when she never made it to her new high school, Ann Sobrato. Sierra’s cell phone was found on the side of the road close to her home. The cross streets are Palm and Dougherty Avenues; news footage reveal remote, sweeping green fields in this area where the cell phone was found. A reasonable theory is the cell was tossed from a fleeing vehicle.
Sierra was a cheerleader, seems to be popular, and has been very active on Twitter and Facebook. Very active! Her activity on these common social media sites has been bandied about as relevant, and I have to agree with this assessment. Some suspicion (in news stories) has pointed towards her father, Steve Wayne LaMar, who lives in Fremont and has a record. It’s my understanding, however, that her father has been cleared, since he wasn’t in Morgan Hill last Friday morning.
Much of the keenest speculation has revolved around the possibility that a predator had been stalking Sierra, and therefore abducted her just as she departed her home to leave for school. That is, she had to walk to the bus stop first; this was her means of transportation to her new high school. Scent dogs could trace her scent up to the end of her driveway and then it ends. Another mitigating factor, is it was rainy and cold last Friday. Yet, the end of the driveway is apparently as far as Sierra ever got.
Her mother left for work before Sierra supposedly left for school, so no one actually saw her leave her home. Well, maybe someone did? The school bus driver does know for sure she never got on the bus. I heard something about her last text message coming from a Seven Eleven, but I didn’t quite get the scoop on this relevant bit. Where is this 7- 11 in relation to her home? What time was the text sent? If this is true, it’s a good clue.
Once again, there’s much wild speculation on the internet about a sex-offender connection. I heard there are 57 registered sex offenders in the Morgan Hill zip code. I heard also, California has 100,000 of these curmudgeons, and nation-wide there are a half-a-million of such people with this troubling MO. The Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office is conducting interviews with all of these SOs. This is a good starting place for their investigation.
Why do we see so many of these types of cases in the news? My strongest suspicions focus on Sierra’s excessive use of the internet, or more specifically, Twitter and Facebook. I’m not suspicious of any of her family members or anyone at her two most recent schools. This looks more like a stranger is involved here. That’s what it looks like so far, unless we can dig a little deeper into her case. Investigators will have to check out all of her Facebook Friends. First time I can think of when Facebook Friends become a viable pool of suspects, but that’s what our world has come to.
