A Halloween Scenario That May Unfortunately Be True

 

Has anyone, anyone at all, ever unexpectedly asked you for a ride home from a hospital? It's happened to us three times - twice from friends and once from a stranger...a very odd stranger.

After visiting a friend at ECM in the weeks just before its closure, we sat in the lobby to check messages. A very disheveled woman approached us asking for a ride. The request was rambling and not very specific, but she offered money. Along the way, she mentioned her relative was in the ER due to a murder attempt. We quickly made our excuses and headed for the parking deck, checking behind us as we went.

How did we know she wasn't recruiting for a deranged husband with a back garden full of dead bodies in East Florence? How did she know we wouldn't have driven her to the basement of a medic lover who was looking for organs?

Checking earlier today, we found at least a third person missing from the hospital area - one from ECM and two from NAMC. We know the man missing after leaving ECM several years ago had accepted a ride from a stranger. The two women missing from the NAMC area? We have no details other than a "last seen."

The male and one of the females are not listed on the ALEA site. We don't know the criteria to make the list, but obviously more goes on in the underbelly of a city than is made totally public. 

The missing shouldn't be throwaway people, nor should the city allow any more victims. Why not establish a system to provide transportation home to people leaving the hospital and ER? 

It shouldn't be too much to ask.

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