Have you seen this person?

How many times do we see pictures on inserts in mail, food packaging, bulletin boards and lamp posts with flyers asking, "Have you seen....?"

I realized recently that I've become desensitized to these posters, flyers and inserts. Recently I picked up an insert in a coupon mail-out envelope that comes once a month in the mail. There were probably 3 or 4 separate notices of mothers and children that had disappeared and the family was looking for them. Why did the Mother leave with the kids I wondered? What is that family's story? Should they be found?

We've all seen and heard stories where the absconding parent is the bad guy stealing the children away from a devoted parent left devasted and cut off from their beloved children. Conversely we've seen and heard the stories where the absconding parent is saving the child from an unspeakable monster that hurts or molests the child(ren)that courts or law enforcement seem helpless or inept from protecting.

While in this frame of mind I saw this article from the NY Times.

Missing...kidnapped...what would I do? What would you do? While reading this article about a young woman half a world away, I was struck with a surreal moment. The article reveals that it is still an acceptable practice for men to kidnap their brides off the street in the 21st century! Okay, Checheyna is a dramatically different world than Southern California, but kidnapping? This seems incomprehensible and terrifying to me.

This missing woman, according to her mother, was forced to marry a terrorist to protect the lives of her brothers. Her ordeal began as one trying to uncover the truth as a journalist. The brutal reality of this story is horrifying to read as a news article. The irony of the article was to realize how many times I've read a similar story line in a romance novel where I know and expect the woman to be rescued by just the right guy and find love, redemption and her HEA.

There doesn't appear to be a HEA for Elina Ersenoyeva. Because of her marriage to a terrorist, a man who was killed last month, the authorities aren't very inclined to even look for her.