Is Jessica Ridgeway Victim of Sex Offender?

Jessica Ridgeway still hasn't been accounted for and officials have begun a foreboding task of sending divers to search bodies of water for potential clues in the girl's disappearance. Whenever divers are used in a missing person case it's automatically a fear that they could be considering the possibility that a death occurred in the disappearance. Over 300 volunteers are also helping in the search for the missing Colorado girl in this quickly developing high profile story.

What could have happened to this missing child? The details behind this disappearance are frightening, with it looking like someone may have snatched the child up while walking to school Friday morning. She went missing in a short period of time in a three-block-distance between her home and her school. A Google Maps view of the area shows that the missing child lives in a suburban area just a short distance from the school in Westminster. In fact, she was on her way to Chelsea Park which is only a couple dozen feet from her front door.

If she never made it to meet her friends that morning, which was at Chelsea Park, and never made it to school, then it's safe to say that something happened to Jessica Ridgeway either before she left her home or before she left her neighborhood. The timeline and geography indicate that she didn't get much farther than her home before she vanished.

The city of Westminster, Colorado also charges its citizens a fee of nearly $8.00 to know whether or not there are sex offenders living in their neighborhoods. This seems like a way to put money above the safety of the community children, so perhaps this recent disappearance might give them incentive to not charge people to know whether or not their location is safe. A cursory search on a city data website, however, indicates that there are more than 1,000 registered sex offenders in Westminster. Are any of them located around Moore St., where Jessica vanished?

Whatever happened to Jessica, happened near her home and it happened before she could even meet her friends less than even a 1/4 block away.

Comments: 13

Susan Whatever Oct 6, 2012, 11:20pm UTC

Hi, Chelsea -
I appreciate you covering this story, but I am asking you to do more research before you write. In a previous article on this story, you seemed to have no idea who Jessica lives with, if she lives in a home, trailer, apartment, etc. Her address is on the Amber Alert, so you could have found that she lives in a single family home. And by the time your story came out, there was tons of info. on the net, quotes by police officers, that she lives with her mother, grandmother and an aunt.
Also, in this current article, you are mistaken about the distance between her home and Chelsea Park. The distance is a couple of blocks, not "Couple dozen feet from her front door." Also, her home is not 3 blocks from the school, it is about 8 blocks away. You could have found all this on Google Maps. Please don't write in a hurry; check at least the online news stories to get the facts. Thank you.

Chelsea Hoffman Oct 6, 2012, 11:23pm UTC

The information I obtained, I obtained from various news sources as linked in the article. I am sorry if the information that is presented is inaccurate in a way so as to offend you.

Thanks for reading.

Susan Whatever Oct 7, 2012, 1:15am UTC

Hi, Chelsea -
Thanks for responding. You may have obtained info., but it was inacurrate, and the accurate info. was all over the news and the internet, at the time. Thank you for admitting that your info. was inacurrate. I wasn't offended, it's just that I spent years working in journalism, and expect the facts.

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Adam 1115 Oct 6, 2012, 11:33pm UTC

There is no way to "know whether or not there are sex offenders living in their neighborhoods." There is only a way to know if there are CONVICTED sex offenders that bothered to register there address.

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tawnya m. Oct 7, 2012, 12:16am UTC

Yes and there is a registered convicted sex offender on Moore circle that lives with a male family member. Susan I believe the grandmother actually is living/vacationing in Florida even though she owns the house.

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Sarah Juniper Oct 7, 2012, 12:37am UTC

I would just like to say that I think the sex offender registry is a crock! It gives people a very false sense of security, and anyone who relies on that for any information is ignorant. I think it is useful for the police to check the obvious sources, but it should not be available to the public. You don't know if the man down the street got falsely accused of rape, or molested a child. Some of these people on the registry were 20 year olds who were caught with 17 year olds. Three year age difference. I am not speaking from experience, or trying to stick up for anyone...I just think people always jump to the wrong conclusions. Also...a child molester could be a teacher, a coach, your next door neighbor. A lot of people don't get caught. If you think the sex offenders on the registry are the only people that are a threat...you are wrong!

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tawnya m. Oct 7, 2012, 12:55am UTC

Whether they have been convicted fairly or not is not up to me to decide. However, It would be foolish not to check out the avenue so it could be ruled out or not especially if they live five houses down. A conclusion is the end or finish of an event or process. So it is not jumping to a conclusion because you are right that it could be your next door neighbor, a teacher, family member etc. The thing is people don't rely on that solely as their information but in addition to. No one said that people on the registry are the only threat. YOU jumped to a Conclusion and are WRONG. It also should be available to the public. If you can't understand that you live in your ignorance.

Chelsea Hoffman Oct 7, 2012, 1:11am UTC

@Taynya M. -- I couldn't agree more with what you just said.

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tawnya m. Oct 7, 2012, 11:02am UTC

Much appreciated Chelsea. Thank you.

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Shana Rowan Oct 8, 2012, 8:36am UTC

Gee, what a surprise - you blaming a sex offender for something that statistically, is the least likely scenario. Please do some research before you write your next "article." 96% of sex crimes are committed by someone not on the registry (Sandler, 2008) and the overwhelming majority of child abductions are committed by a family member, not a random stranger on the registry. Of course I know this will fall on deaf ears since this information and more has been presented to you many times before and still, you fail to utilize it. Too bad.

Chelsea Hoffman Oct 8, 2012, 10:55am UTC

So, your reasoning is that since it's statistically more likely for someone who knows the girl to have abducted her(Which I also mentioned in my writings of this case), then there's no reason to look at any of the other possibilities in her disappearance?

Yuh...that's brilliant. derp.

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Karen Lee Oct 8, 2012, 3:15pm UTC

You have stated in your article that Westminister CO charges for a listing of sex offenders. Here is a link for a public listing of sex offenders, however, people need to be very cogsnigent to the fact that all sex offenders are not child molesters, rapists, bad people in general. I know of several young men that have to register for the remainder of their lives because they were in a sexual relationship with their girlfriends where there was only a 3 yr age difference. http://www.city-data.com/so/so-Westminster-Colorado.html

Chelsea Hoffman Oct 8, 2012, 3:18pm UTC

people need to be very cogsnigent to the fact that all sex offenders are not child molesters, rapists, bad people in general.

most registries have a tier or level system... the "good guys" who are sex offenders are usually yellow or "tier 1" offenders and often not high priority when the search is on for a child.

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Is Jessica Ridgeway Victim of Sex Offender?

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