This News Story reminded me of the "Married With Children" episode about the Bundys' vacation trip to Dumpwater, Florida, where one of the town's prominent citizens was "the man who met the man who met Andy Griffith".
This News Story also tells me that NOW (and fading fast) is an excellent opportunity for any person who had any prior contact with, or knowledge of, Christian Longo to contact the Media, some of whom are evidently grabbing at any Longo contact to develop a story.
From piecing together the numerous stories, Christian Longo and his parents Joe and Joy lived in Iowa, where Christian was born, moved to southern Michigan for about 10 years, then moved to Indianapolis, before Christian returned to Michigan to marry Maryjane. All those locations increases the odds that someone here might "have met Andy Griffith, or the man who met Andy Griffith".
It seems that the media, or at least this Reporter, is anxious to speak with anyone who had "any contact" with any of these families. Such contact would give the person an excellent opportunity to also discuss the possible impact that shunning played in pushing Christian into a corner which had no exit, at least in his JW trained mind.
ANYONE OUT THERE???
----------------------------------------
Lincoln City Woman Met Longo Face-to-Face
January 15, 2002, 12:15 PM
By Abe Estimada, kgw.com Staff
It wasn't until Robyn Roloff sat down to watch the local evening news that she realized she may have come face-to-face with a wanted fugitive suspected of killing his wife and three children.
Roloff, 57, said Christian Longo came into her Lincoln City coffee shop after it had closed on the night of Dec. 23.
About a week later, Roloff recognized the well-groomed Longo on her television screen as the same man who had asked for a coffee latte. Authorities believe Longo left the country for Mexico sometime after Dec. 26.
"My mother kept saying, 'You need to tell someone just in case they're trying to make a timeline,'" Roloff said. "I'm really positive it was him. In fact, I am positive it was him. He had sandy red hair, and it was well-combed."
Roloff never reported the sighting to Lincoln County authorities. Had it not been for the TV report, Roloff would have passed off the encounter. She also didn't know that Newport and Waldport were the scenes of a quadruple homicide in Lincoln County.
But the segment as well as other widely-circulated media reports eventually helped Mexican police and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents capture Longo on Sunday at a beach camp in Tulum, Mexico.
Longo, who had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List, faces multiple counts of aggravated murder for the December deaths of his wife, MaryJane, and their three small children, Zachary, Sadie and Madison.
The suspected killer is on his way back to Oregon after being flown from Mexico to Houston, Texas on Monday.
Roloff said the shirt the hand-cuffed Longo was wearing in Houston was the same shirt she had seen him wearing that December night in Lincoln City.
Roloff, who owns the Seattle's Best Coffee Pacific Grind shop, had closed business for the day at 6 p.m. Roloff and her mother were the only two people in the shop. While Roloff's mother was somewhere else in the shop, Longo walked in through an open back door.
"It was an abnormal situation not because it was him," she said. "It was abnormal because it was after-hours, and he walked in and we were surprised."
Roloff and Longo made idle chatter as she worked on his latte.
"Just small talk about how it was late," Roloff said her conversation with Longo. "He was looking for coffee, and we were open, anyway, or he thought we were, so he came in."
Longo showed no signs of panic, she recalled. In fact, the fact that he was so cool later bothered Roloff.
"That was probably the most disheartening of it, to think that activity had gone in his life so recently, and he was calm, clean and tidy," she said.
Roloff didn't see what kind of car Longo was driving because he had apparently parked near the back of the shop. Roloff and her family were in and out of town during the Christmas holidays, so she was unaware of the homicide investigations going on in Lincoln County.
When she got back, Roloff heard the news. And recognized the suspect who had eluded authorities for nearly four weeks.
"It just makes you more cautious," she said. "It makes all of us more cautious."