Saturday, March 22, 2008

In Memory of Chiquita Ford

Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing in December 2002. We got news updates daily. National coverage in the newspapers and on television. I don't even watch much TV, and I can still picture her face. People went crazy with the story. Everyone knows the story. Her husband, who we all agreed was the jackass to end all jackasses, was eventually convicted of killing her. Now he is on death row in San Quentin.

Chiquita Ford was five months pregnant when she was reported missing in October 2007. That was after I got rid of the cable, so I cannot for a certainty say there was never a news report about her disappearance. I do read the newspaper, however, and I can say that there was not daily coverage, not even locally. No big People spreads with pictures of Ms. Ford and her family in happier times, no People interviews with friends and family members.

Here is Chiquita Ford. The remains of her body were found near Lexington Reservoir on March 7.
Chiquita Ford deserves to be remembered just as much as Laci Peterson. Toward that end: Ms. Ford was 33 years old. She lived in Oakland. She was the mother of two teen-age boys. She liked to watch comedy; she like to do hair; and she liked to dance. She had a family, she had friends, and there are people who loved her who miss her. There is a lot more to her story, just as much to her story as there was to Laci's, but we'll probably never know it.

5 comments:

A Voice of Sanity said...

Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing in December 2002. ... Her husband, who we all agreed was the jackass to end all jackasses, was eventually convicted of killing her. Now he is on death row in San Quentin. ... There is a lot more to her story, just as much to her story as there was to Laci's, but we'll probably never know it.

Actually we do know a lot more. Those who have taken a logical view of the actual evidence in the Peterson case have concluded that her husband's involvement was non-existent. In fact there is more than enough evidence that she was the victim of a fetus napper - something which explains the evidence much better and overcomes all of the impossibilities in the ever changing theories of the state.

leslie said...

That's really not my point.

My point is that Laci Peterson's murder was the focus of national news coverage, but Chiquita Ford's murder received little attention. Because she was Black.

A Voice of Sanity said...

You don't have to go so far from Modesto for an example:

"As Laci Peterson's murder grabbed the headlines, the family of Martha Moreno watched and waited their turn, and believed their day would come.
But no jury will ever have the chance to decide if Gilberto Cano, 32, should get the death penalty for stabbing his pregnant girlfriend in the belly three times, then strangling her.

Monday, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Hurl Johnson sentenced Cano to 17 years to life in prison, in a stamp of approval to a plea deal — negotiated by the district attorney's office and defense attorneys — for second-degree murder".

The same attorneys who spent over $4 million to convict Scott Peterson with no evidence, prosecutor Rick Distaso — now a Superior Court judge — Senior Deputy District Attorney Dave Harris and Chief Deputy District Attorney Birgit Fladager, pled Cano out despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt in the double homicide. It's hard to see why the standards should be so much different - except for the total lack of interest by the media in a case involving Hispanics.

Unknown said...

Oh wow. I completely agree with the original post on this. I was reading articles regarding The ford case. It never was stated she was pregnant, or had children. Very sad. Only that she lived in various places, and her sister reported her missing, even though she often was gone for days. Everyone deserves the same media attention, every crime. Unfortunately I have found, while being on a search team for missing individuals. That unless the family is active and on the forefront of things keeping the name in the media, it doesn't happen.
As for Scott Peterson, seriously. Guilty beyond reasonable doubt, with enough evidence to prosecute. Clearly you don't have the facts.

A Voice of Sanity said...

> Clearly you don't have the facts.

Neither does anyone else including, as he admitted, the prosecutor. Somehow I doubt you have any facts either. But go ahead, dazzle us all.