Thanks for covering Jason's case. There is a handful of truly maddening disappearances I search periodically, hoping to find there has been a resolution, and wishing for the miraculously unlikely "happy ending."

You do a great job of fleshing out the details of this disappearance with concision. Some of what you write about Jason's seemingly intense engagement with his church is new to me. I have seen people speculate along those lines when it comes to the predator theory; that is, perhaps the "familiar person" who offered him a ride was someone he knew through his church activities. It's bound to be on people's minds with the recent exposes of rampant abuse.

I found it intriguing that you left out the Samuel Sherman disappearance. I'm wondering if that means you discounted any connection or whether you (like many online) doubted the very existence of such a person. I realize he's on an official list of missing individuals still maintained by law enforcement and they even have a putative DOB, but many still seem to think he might be pure fiction. If he is real, and he did disappear in that close proximity of both time and place under similar circumstances, it is troubling.

I think it's wonderful what Jason's mother managed to accomplish in the wake of what is doubtless a loss which renews each day as long as one has breath and a heartbeat. I think she has every reason to believe he is gone and at peace and I hope this brings her some small measure of peace, to know that he is not suffering. But I also understand the inability to let go when one does not have absolute certainty. I'm sure we'd all be the same way with a loved one. It's why we follow up on stories like this, hoping for some vicarious release from the worry. We all want a safe return for the missing and, barring that, justice.

If only this disappearance had happened a few years later when cell phones and video cameras everywhere could assist in providing so much more knowledge. Probably every street on all possible routes to that high school have cameras eyes staring and recording.

I think in the future we could all benefit from microchip implants. Nanotechnology has advanced so far and we chip our pets for safe return. People scoff and worry about government spying or abuse of such technology, but we're approaching an age when everyone can be accounted for if such technology were utilized. This would be especially useful during the early stages of an abduction. And the chipping could be done so that it was truly unfindable by a perpetrator. Miniaturization capabilities are truly stunning these days.

I hope Jason's case has a miraculously improbable happy ending. Stranger things have happened. Sometimes the "rational" probability is not the actual outcome.