Joshua Davis is 18 months old and very cute. He has big button brown eyes and a wide, expecting smile. He is also missing, and has been for over a week now. His mother is very pregnant, and this prevents her from taking a lie detector test. Meanwhile, Joshua's daddy has taken several lie detector tests, and passed.
According to WOAI-TV reporting (see Nancy Grace media link below), so has everyone else who was in the home that day - except for one individual who remains unidentified.
Today is the 8th day that he's been gone.
The baby disappeared during some of the coldest weather we've seen in Texas for decades. Talk of snow. Days where we didn't go above freezing. It's too hard to ponder whether or not it's merciful that those first few hours of searching around the home late last Friday and into that next chilly Saturday morning -- in culverts, underneath the houses and cars and in the wooded areas -- didn't turn up a body. (For awhile, they were calling it a recovery effort - thinking that the toddler had strolled away from his home and in the sub-freezing temperatures could not have survived the night.)
The baby's daddy told reporters that he was glad; he believes his boy is still alive and that he's been snatched. The mother cries; she tells everyone that he was wandering in and out of the room where Toy Story was on the TV and no, the door wasn't open. But it wasn't locked.
And, his mom says that Joshua couldn't open the door. Nine people in the home; mommy and daddy watching television in different rooms; and there's reportedly no trace of the baby outside of the home itself.
They've brought in the bloodhounds. They've got the FBI and the Texas Rangers on the scene. The Heidi Search Center and other community volunteers have helped combed an ever-expanding search area: latest we were told a two-mile radius, and been gone over like a fine-toothed comb.
No Joshua.
Today, there will be a massive flier outreach, with parents and friends and family and volunteers trying to reach as many people as possible in communities along IH 35, from San Antonio to Austin, with papers giving information and a big photo of the little guy.
And, Nancy Grace has joined the team. Her first report on the Mystery of Joshua Davis - gone without a trace - aired this week.
Nancy Grace? Yes, and I welcome her interest - though others may not.
Of course, Nancy Grace coverage will be unwelcomed by some, who will see her involvement as self-serving and an open invitation for media exploitation of a newstory that is growing bigger by the day. Personally, when a baby has literally disappeared from his home then any help should be welcome.
Nancy Grace can bring a huge national spotlight to this little, beloved community north of San Antonio - and it seems to me, that right now this is a very good thing for Joshua Davis. I welcome her interest.
