Monday, January 24, 2011

Oprah's Longlost Sister

There was a recent story of a 23 yr. old woman finding out she was kidnapped as a baby. The "mother" who raised her could not produce a birth certificate. They were estranged. The woman was a drug addict. The 23 yr. old searched the internet for stories about abducted children and found an artists drawing of what one infant would look like as a young woman. It looked like her. She followed up and eventually was reuinited with her birth parents. DNA tests confirmed she was their kidnapped daughter.

Over the weekend the woman who raised her was apprehended. She surrendered on Facebook.
I'm scratching my head now. How does one surrender on Facebook? I searched for some names of "famous" cops like Joe Webb, (Dirty) Harry Callahan and even "America's Most Wanted", John Walsh. Each of those names brought dozens of pages of hits. Some don't have photos so you can ID them. I am baffled.

Someone may explain to mehow to surrender on Facebook. Much of the world is registered on this social network. This could be a cost cutting measure in an era of penny pinching.

Do you think with good facial recognition software Facebook could be used to identify suspects before they turn themselves in? Think of the possibilities. You don't even have to be "ON" Facebook. Friends post pictures of people in their lives and name them.
Watch out crooks. Facebook might be coming to get you.

If this stream of thinking isn't too far fetched, maybe combining artists renditions of missing infants and advanced facial recognition software could find missing people. People who were kidnapped at a young age or people with amnesia. Maybe I am one of them. Maybe when Oprah announces her "family secret" on her TV show today they will reveal I am her long lost sister. That would be a windfall, wouldn't it? Since I am pretty fair skinned, it is also unlikely.

1 comment:

Mary said...

Well, the news that you are Oprah's long lost sister certainly would be surprising.