text messaging & the hubby

[wowie]

We have text messaging turned off on all the phones because hubby insists phones should be used to talk to people and nothing else (can't say I have a technophile here!) *rolls eyes* but maybe with a story like this he'd change his mind?

LUGOFF, S.C. — A man suspected of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl, who was rescued after sending her mother a cellphone text message, was charged Sunday with raping the teen, Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said.

Vinson Filyaw, 37, had eluded police with an elaborate system of hideouts and bunkers since November 2005 when he was charged with criminal sexual conduct on a 12-year-old girl, McCaskill said.

Investigators arrested Filyaw in neighboring Richland County about 24 hours after rescuing the girl, who sent a text message to her mother on Filyaw's phone while he was asleep Wednesday, McCaskill said. The sheriff said Filyaw woke up and the girl still had the phone, but she told him she was simply playing with the phone.

"This little lady getting that message out was really the break in the case," the sheriff said. "She helped herself as much as we helped her."

Investigators used cell towers to triangulate the general location of the phone.

Police say they still have not interviewed the girl, whose name was previously released when she was a missing person. USA TODAY is not using her name because police have identified her as a victim of sexual assault.

Police found the girl Saturday about a mile from her home, hidden in a booby-trapped, 15-foot-deep hole carved out of the side of a hill and covered with plywood. The bunker had a hand-dug privy with toilet paper, a camp stove and shelves made with cut branches and canvas.

McCaskill said the girl cried out as searchers approached the bunker.

"She was standing at the mouth of the bunker with the door open," sheriff's Capt. David Thomley told WLTX-TV in Columbia.

Investigators said Filyaw posed as a police officer when he met the girl. He walked her around the woods until she became disoriented and used handmade grenades and a flare gun to threaten her, McCaskill said.

The girl's family reported her missing on Sept. 6. Classmates said she had gotten off the school bus and was last seen walking the quarter mile toward her home in a rural area 10 miles outside of the South Carolina capital, Columbia.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division never issued an Amber Alert, a public all-points bulletin that triggers broadcast and traffic messages about a missing child.

According to the South Carolina Amber Alert program manual, such an alert is issued when a law enforcement agency believes a child has been abducted, is in immediate danger, other possibilities for the victim's disappearance have been reasonably excluded, and there is sufficient information available that could help find the victim, suspect or vehicle used in the suspected abduction.

Police were tipped to Filyaw's location Sunday after getting a call from a teen who described a man who she said tried to carjack her and her mother about 2 a.m. outside a pizza restaurant, police said.

Briar Rose Lin, 17, and her mother, Jennifer, had locked up their pizza restaurant in Elgin, S.C., between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Sunday and were about to get into their car when a man approached them.

Briar Rose, a high school junior, described him as about 6 feet tall, skinny and wearing camouflage clothing. He had what looked like a paint-covered fake gun, she said.

"He said, 'I need your keys. I need to get out of here. I'm wanted,' " Briar Rose said.

Her mother began arguing with him, giving Briar Rose time to get away and call the police. Police caught Filyaw about 5 miles from his house. He was on foot and carrying a paint-covered pellet gun, a Taser and a long hunting knife.

His girlfriend, Cynthia Hall, has been charged as an accessory and with neglect in the earlier case, McCaskill said. Investigators say she allowed the earlier assault to take place in her home and gave Filyaw supplies to live in the bunker.

On Sunday, the driveway in front of the 14-year-old's home was decorated with "Welcome Home" balloons.

Contributing: Donna Leinwand in McLean, Va.

USA Today Link

Comments

[urgayleswoman.livejournal.com]

Wow!

I have texting. We pay $5 a month and it includes texts w/in the US. International Texts are .25 ea.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

I think hubby's heard so many horror stories about kids creating gazillion dollar cell phone bills (ok, so I exaggerate a bit here) he wanted to stop that its tracks before it happened.

[caranglamiel.livejournal.com]

I heard about that this morning on the news. I only know a couple of people that text (hubby's not a fan either). Thank goodness her mom knew how!

[foona.livejournal.com]

Over here we text more than we speak nowadays. Very handy ;)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Don't have to talk hm? That PoDN guy Clay would've loved that!

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Texting is more popular than speaking in Sweden too. :)

I have unlimited free texts (and MMS messages) to most people I text with, because they have the same service provider, so it's cheaper to text than to call. I only pay for overseas texts, and they're only about $0.09/text.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

it's cheaper to text than to call.

That's interesting, as here, depending on your provider the calls are free and they charge ya for the text messages.

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Ah. We do have some providers that have plans like that too. With my provider (and the most popular in Sweden) my calls are sort of free also. I pay $0.09/call no matter how long it lasts, it's the same for 30 seconds or 30 hours, and with a lot of stuff that would only require a minute long call at the most it's cheaper to text for free. My monthly fee for my plan is about $6,65.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

My monthly fee for my plan is about $6,65.

Is that dollars? Whatever... it sounds dirt cheap!

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Yes, dollars! I converted it just for you. :) It is dead cheap. These days it's cheaper with cell phones than it is with landlines. I make all my calls from my cell, and I would get rid of the landline if I didn't need it for the internet. It used to be really expensive to call with cells in Sweden, but then suddenly there was an explosion of providers and they all started competing against each other. Everything else here is expensive but I think we must be somewhere towards the top of cheap countries in that area.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

cheaper with cell phones than it is with landlines

Are there towers everywhere? I have a friend who got rid of his landline until he realized how lousy the reception was in his apartment for his cell and got it back.

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Yes, absolutely everywhere. And they're adding all the time. :) Sweden is a tiny country. *g*

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

How big is tiny?

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Okay, it's bigger than Denmark.. and Norway.. and, yeah, bigger than Finland too.. *googles* Landarea is 411,620 sq km (158,926 sq miles)! It is tiny compared to some countries though. :)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

*googles*

says it's roughly the size of California. Would eat poor little Maryland right up!

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Told you it was tiny! California is just an itty bitty part of the whole country.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

yeahbut... Maryland is way tinier!

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

So, how big.. erm.. small is Maryland? Like Denmark?

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Thank heavens for Google :)

Maryland is about the size of Belgium

this is from the CIA World Fact Book

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

Ah, that small. :) OMG, *saves link to favorites*!! That's a great page when one needs to compare sizes.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

That was a lucky Google find - but beware since it says CIA... they might be tracking us visitors!

I have the hardest time comprehending the sizes of places outside the US. If I have state to compare to, it makes it a lot easier.

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

OMG I didn't even think about that!! *paranoid look* I probably shouldn't post my 'how to be a terrorist handbook' now. :p

It's always easier to have something to compare with.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

definitely not a good idea!

[pusspower.livejournal.com]

I have yet to send a text message. It seems like an adolescent pastime, but maybe I just need to get with the times...

[carelessmemory.livejournal.com]

My mum, age 53, texts all the time! It took a bit of nagging from my sister and me, but she learned eventually. In Sweden it's definitely not an adolescent pastime, everyone does it. :)

[foona.livejournal.com]

Not adolescent at all! I've sent/received about a dozen so far today. Adolescent is talking about your love-life on the phone in a public place;)

[foona.livejournal.com]

Just to add: My dentist use it to remind me of my appointments, the garage text me when my car is ready. You read the message when it suits you, and is not disturbed by calls at work.

(No I'm not payed by the telephone company)

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Wow. You are a nation of text messagers!

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

But is it on, on your phone at least?

[pusspower.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I have never used it. I guess I don't know what I am missing!

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

That makes two of us :)

Bet my kids could tell me (from their friends!).