Just Another Missing Kid

This is the best documentary I've ever seen. It is forgotten and impossible to get, but I'm sure if it were available again it would be judged among our best documentaries. It tells as chilling a tale as I have seen told on film. A young boy "goes missing" during a cross-country teenage trip. It is clear that he has been killed, but the family is unable to get any information though the police. They hire a private detective who tracks down the boy's killers and reconstructs the crime. The interviews with the boy's mother and brother bring this sweet boy back to life. The chilling interviews with the killers give the detective his moment in the sun. He is brilliant, and the killers a portrayal of the banality of evil. Wonderful film. Horrible story.

This is a well done documentary and the family was very involved in it, all of which was never before seen in that era. I was able to watch it on you tube. What strikes me is that this was a time when states felt and acted more like small countries. It was rare for criminals to be persued across state lines because each was simply focused on their own territory and had their own budget. But this case is one that helped make all law enforcement rethink how things were done and began working together instead of individually.

Based on the information in this film, I definitly believe Eric was assaulted rather than that he picked up hitchhikers. Otherwise, the crooks wouldn't have been hovering at the mechanic garage as if threatening. Because according to them, Eric wasn't yet under duress but he clearly was, according to the mechanic.

It was also a time when most citizens were too honest, like Eric's family. If it were in modern times even the most honest of us would have pretended to be Eric and signed all those documents it would have taken to get the records faster from the bank.

And clearly the private detective is who cracked the case, God bless him.

I think the garage should have been liable somehow for withholding information. They all covered for the guy or guys who pocketed the money even in the face of an investigation of a missing person. If that info had come out sooner the case could have been solved much sooner.

I think people who don't believe in the death penalty are the ones who hold onto the idea of "life" actually being the life of the convict. Those who do are the ones who know that the only way to truely stop a serial killer for good is to take away his life - or disable him like cut off his arms, but ironically, people would think that's even more cruel and they'd probably be right. To me, death is too good for them but I sure don't want them on the street.

Somehow I vdeotaped this back in the early 1980's perhaps on HBO?? What a moving story about something that could happen to anybody. The frustration of the family getting no cooperation from the law, the law protecting every right of the criminal, the justice system cutting deals to avoid court costs, the system allowing this loser out of prison to begin with, and the pursuit of a private investigator.

I think I need to dig the VHS out of my collection and revisit this riveting story.

Perhaps it should be covered on A&E's Cold Case Files or better yet, American Justice (or lack of it)!

Great performances by the real people (not professional actors).

The death of a loved one is one of the worst things that happen in a life time. What is worse is not knowing what happened to that person. Where are they? This is how documentaries should be done. It really puts the viewer into the family and the detective hired to find their missing son. A young man drives a car from Canada to The US in 1978 and agrees to call a certain time every night. He calls to say he has car issues and then the phone calls stop. He is missing. Did the earth swallow him up? This is an emotional ride where you are emotionally invested the whole time. The police are less than useless. Telling parents that we can't look for your son but we'll let you know if his automobile shows up in a river or a creek is cold as its gets. Highly recommended. 8/10.