【英文小说】The girl in the picture（6）
writer作者：Nile Cappello
cast演播：underage未成年吖
translater译者：underage
THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE
相中女郎
THE AMATEUR SLEUTHS HAD THOUGHT THEY WERE CONNECTING THE DOTS IN A SINGLE COLD CASE WHEN ALL ALONG THEY’D BEEN LOOKING AT TWO.
业余侦探曾以为他们是在拼凑悬案的线索，但他们一直在关注两个案件。
Jennifer Jones became friends with Aundria in middle school band, where they both played in the wind section. They remained close during their freshman year of high school. One Tuesday afternoon, Aundria came home with Jones, but when it was time to leave, she said she didn’t want to go. According to Jones, Aundria said that her father was sexually abusing her. Jones’s mother let her stay the night, and the next day took her to the principal’s office, where Aundria repeated the accusation to school officials. Jones was sent to class and assured that the adults would handle the situation. Aundria wasn’t at school the rest of the day, and Jones assumed that she was in protective custody. Later she learned that Aundria had gone home with her parents.
Jennifer Jones和Aundria在中学乐队上成为朋友，她们都在管乐队中演奏。到高一仍关系密切。某个周二下午，Aundria和Jones一起回家，但当分别时，她说她不想走。据Jones说，Aundria说她父亲性/虐待她。Jones的母亲让她留下过夜，第二天带她去校长办公室，Aundria向校官复述，而Jones继续上课，并被告知大人会处理好的。那之后Aundria没有去学校，Jones以为她被保护局监管。后来她得知，Aundria已经被父母接走。
Around the time Aundria confided in Jones and her mother, she also spoke to Arlene Rahn, another local mom. Aundria befriended Rahn’s sons through their church’s youth group and had started hanging out at their house; Rahn assumed Aundria had a crush on one of the boys. Eventually Aundria told Rahn that her father was abusing her. She also said that Brenda knew and didn’t care. Rahn was hesitant to get involved; she told Aundria to talk to her youth pastor. Then, one evening as Rahn pulled into the Bowmans’ driveway to drop Aundria off, Dennis appeared and told Rahn to stay out of his business. “It just made me so uncomfortable,” she later said. Rahn never reported the incident to authorities. Within a few months, Aundria was gone.
Aundria对Jones和她的母亲倾诉时，她还与当地另一位母亲Arlene Rahn交谈。Aundria通过教会的青年组结识了Rahn的儿子，并在他们家玩耍；Rahn认为Aundria对其中一个男孩有好感。最终，Aundria告诉Rahn，她的父亲虐待她，而Brenda知道却并不关心。Rahn有点犹豫。她让Aundria去找青年牧师谈谈。之后某晚，当Rahn把车开到Bowman夫妇的车道上准备送Aundria回家时，Dennis出现了。他告诉Rahn不要多管闲事。"这让我很不舒服。"她后来说。Rahn从未向当局反应。几个月内Aundria就走了。
There were other red flags. The Shaffers—the couple who’d grown up with the Bowmans in Muskegon—knew about Dennis’s criminal record and recalled him bragging about sexual conquests as early as high school. They’d always felt uneasy about him, and they kept a watchful eye over their own daughter when he was around. The Shaffers ultimately ended their friendship with the Bowmans after Aundria went missing. When their daughter, Mindi, found the Facebook page for Aundria, she said her parents had never been contacted by the police about the case. In fact, it wasn’t until Koppelman and Terkanian connected with them on Facebook that the couple spoke to anyone about their suspicions.
还有其他危险信号。Shaffer夫妇与Bowman夫妇在马斯基冈一起长大，他们知道Dennis的犯罪记录，并回忆起他早在高中时就吹嘘过性/征服。他们一直感到不安，当他在身边时，他们警惕着自己的女儿。在Aundria失踪后，Shaffer夫妇与Bowman夫妇断交。当他们的女儿Mindi发现Aundria的Facebook时，她说警方从未就该案件联系过她的父母。事实上，直到Koppelman和Terkanian在Facebook上与他们联系，这对夫妇才与说出他们的怀疑。
Facebook turned up another source, one who believed that Dennis Bowman’s criminal behavior had persisted between his convictions in 1980 and 1998. (At her request, The Atavist is using a pseudonym to protect the source’s privacy.) When Melissa found the Find Aundria page, she sent a message to the administrators describing what had happened to her on a bright September afternoon in 1989, when she was six. As she was walking to a friend’s house, she was flagged down by a man in a truck who promised to take her to see some puppies. He told her that her mother said it was OK and pulled Melissa into the cab. As he drove, the man stroked her face. Melissa’s stomach churned. “Is that it?” she asked again and again, pointing to each barn and turnoff they passed, hoping that was where the puppies would be.
Facebook上有另一个消息，她认为Dennis Bowman在1980年和1998年被定罪期间一直在作案。(应她要求，The Atavist用假名来保护隐私）。当Melissa发现 "寻找Aundria "页面时，她给管理员发了信息，描述1989年9月那个明亮的下午她的遭遇，当时她才6岁。当她走到朋友家时，一个开卡车的男人拦住了她，答应带她去看小狗。他说她的母亲同意了，然后把Melissa拉进驾驶室。他一边开车，一边摸她的脸，这令Melissa作呕。"就是这？"她一遍又一遍地问，指着他们经过的每一个谷仓和岔道，希望那就是小狗们的所在地。
Eventually, the driver pulled into a rural area near the town of Hamilton. The man parked the truck, grabbed Melissa by the neck, and dragged her into a thicket. He ripped off her blue sweater, printed with the words “Young at Heart,” and wrapped it around her mouth. He tied her hands behind her back with a length of rope and removed the rest of her clothes. Then, as the attacker knelt over Melissa and unzipped his pants, he startled at the sound of barking dogs nearby. The man ran off, leaving Melissa alone. She walked naked and barefoot to the main road. Two cars pulled over, and someone called 911.
最终，司机把车开进了汉密尔顿附近的郊区。他停好卡车，掐住Melissa的脖子，把她拖进灌木丛中，撕下她印有 "年轻的心 "字样的蓝色毛衣，缠在她嘴上。他用绳子将她的双手绑在背后，脱掉了她剩下的衣服。当袭击者跪在Melissa身上拉开裤子拉链时，被附近的狗叫声吓到，留下Melissa一人。她赤身裸体，赤脚走到大路上，两辆汽车停了下来，有人拨打了911。
The police visited Melissa’s home that night, and a sketch artist created a rendering of the perpetrator and his vehicle—a red pickup truck with a white cab. But a suspect was never found, the case went cold, and the statute of limitations eventually expired. As she got older, what bothered Melissa most was that the man who’d attacked her was still out there and could be hurting other girls. She kept tabs on local news articles, police statements, and social media posts, looking for any stories like hers. But it wasn’t until she stumbled upon the Find Aundria Facebook page that Melissa believed she could finally name the man who’d lured her into the truck: Dennis Bowman.
当晚，警察来到Melissa家中，一位素描艺术家绘制了肇事者及车辆的效果图——一辆白色驾驶室的红皮卡车。但始终没有找到嫌疑人，案件不了了之，诉讼时效最终过期。长大后，Melissa仍担心，那个袭击她的人仍逍遥法外，可能伤害其他女孩。她一直关注当地的新闻报道、警方声明和社交媒体的帖子，寻找和她相似的故事。但直到她偶然发现了 "寻找Aundria "的Facebook页面，Melissa才相信她终于找到诱拐他的卡车司机的名字：Dennis Bowman。
Terkanian and Koppelman were now convinced that Dennis Bowman was a serial predator who had killed Aundria and covered it up by claiming that she’d run away. “By 2016,” Terkanian said, “I was screaming from the tops of Facebook that he had my daughter buried in his backyard.” But any evidence remained circumstantial at best. There was no proof Aundria was dead, let alone murdered. And nothing tied Bowman to other unsolved criminal cases, including Melissa’s abduction.
Terkanian和Koppelman现在确信， Dennis Bowman是连环杀手，他杀死了Aundria，并声称她离家出走掩盖事实。"到2016年，"Terkanian说，"我在Facebook上呐喊，他把我女儿埋在他的后院。但没有直接证据，无法证明Aundria已经死亡，更不用说谋杀了。没有证据指向鲍曼与其他未解决的刑事案件，包括Melissa的绑架案。
Between 2013 and 2017, Terkanian and Koppelman met in Michigan four times. While there, they occasionally caught up with Chris Haverdink, the detective who’d taken over Aundria’s case. Usually, they met him on the patio of Googs Pub & Grub, a local haunt next to the Days Inn where Melissa worked and helped Terkanian and Koppelman get discounted rooms. Haverdink agreed that Bowman was suspicious, but that wasn’t enough to arrest him.
2013年至2017年间，Terkanian和Koppelman在密歇根州见过四次，在那里，他们偶尔会遇上Chris Haverdink，接手Aundria案的侦探。通常，他们在Googs Pub & Grub的天井里见到他，那是当地一个紧挨着MElissa工作的Days Inn（戴斯酒店），他帮助Terkanian和Koppelman订到折扣房。Haverdink也认为Bowman可疑，但这不足以逮捕他。
Terkanian and Koppelman visited Michigan for the last time in May 2017. It was becoming clear that they’d gotten as far as they could on their own; a break in the case would almost certainly have to come from law enforcement, a witness, or Bowman himself. Before flying home, Terkanian and Koppelman sat in their rental car outside the Bowmans’ house in Hamilton. After years of examining Google street maps and satellite images, Terkanian had zeroed in on a concrete slab at the back of the property. She was convinced Bowman had buried her daughter underneath it.
2017年5月，Terkanian和Koppelman最后一次访问密歇根州。他们越来越清楚，他们里真相越来越近。执法部门、证人或Bowman本人才能提供证据。在飞回家前，Terkanian和Koppelman坐在租来的车里，守在Bowman汉密尔顿的家门外。多年研究谷歌街道地图和卫星图像，Terkanian将目标锁定在房后的一块混凝土板上。她确信Bowman将她女儿埋在下面。
She stared at the house until the last possible minute, when Koppelman insisted they’d miss their flights if they didn’t leave. “She was just sitting there with these binoculars,” Koppelman said, “like she knew that’s where Aundria was.”
她一直盯着房子，直到最后一分钟，当Koppelman坚持说如果他们不离开就会错过航班。"她就坐在那里，拿着望远镜，"Koppelman说，"好像她知道Aundria就在那里。"
