November 9, 2010

Light a Candle for Joshua

Josh Guimond, Nov. 2009
On November 9, 2002--eight years ago today--Joshua Guimond disappeared from the St. John's University campus in Collegeville, MN.

Josh had been playing cards with friends at the Metten Court residence hall when he left around midnight. He never made it back to his dorm room.

It was three minutes away.

Josh's family continues to hope that they will one day find answers
and, hopefully, some justice.

Answers to what happened to Josh cannot come without more public awareness.

We need to remember Josh Guimond, and keep hope alive.

Please place a lit candle in your window on Nov. 9th.

For more information about Joshua Guimond, visit: http://www.findjoshua.com/.

5 comments:

director said...

A while back, someone left comments on how many individuals disappeared on the 13th or 14th of the month (or the 31st, or on dates where the numbers added up equal 13).
Has anyone else noticed how many years out of the last 10 have had 13 or 14 victims? And prior to that, there seem to be 6 or 7 in most years?
Now, that's assuming that all are connected (which they may not be), and that none are skipped. Definitely wouldn't consider this 'evidence' of any kind, but it's creepy nonetheless.

Also-- with all the native american connections, and the dramatic increase in unexplained drownings that seemed to begin in 1998-1998ish, is there any possibility that there's a connection to the Hiawatha/Hwy55 project bulldozing native american sacred ground (complete with large-scale community protests, followed by a huge SWAT team mobilization, etc, etc)? Considering many were from LaCrosse, played lacrosse, dressed up as Native Americans, came from high schools with native american names, or had personal items found at the base of a statue of Hiawatha....might be an interesting theory to toss around?

Anonymous said...

@ diretor

All that stuff got caught up in the "Smiley Face Killers" theory, which has been debunked.

It's possible that some of these young men were victims of murder, but the strange coincidences are best attributed to differing types of cognitive biases.

Ex - Native American names. This is the U.S., native territory. Native names everywhere.

Probably best to take it case by case.

director said...

Let me start by saying I agree with this: "It's possible that some of these young men were victims of murder, but the strange coincidences are best attributed to differing types of cognitive biases."

At the same time, I would by lying if I said the thought hadn't occurred to me that BITM is really the smiley-face killer, obsessed with knowing what everyone else may or may not think, while trying to throw everyone off. :oP

director said...

I know Josh Guimond was planning to report that he was sexually abused by priests. I would like to think that no priest would want to harm him for that. However, this news story: http://www.newser.com/story/106049/texas-priest-john-fiala-hired-hit-man-to-kill-accuser.html. shows that at least one priest is not above trying to kill a kid he raped. I sincerely hope this isn't true, but I wonder if there is any group or individual effort to silence the abuse reports against priests, and perhaps Josh was an unfortunate victim of this effort?
Again, this is only a 'what if', but if a priest has already broken one sacred vow and violated an innocent child, maybe they're not above breaking another?

Lisa said...

@ director -

Those close to the family have said that there is no reason to suspect that Josh himself was abused, only that he was unhappy with how prior abuse by clergy had been handled by the church and school. He was in the process of writing a term paper that dealt with this, but it is not known what it contained. It was deleted by from his computer around the time he disappeared.

But you do bring up a valid argument. Sex abuse is a crime, and so is covering it up. It would be important to know what Josh's paper contained and whether it was relevant to any possible criminal activities still going on.