It’s been weeks since I last actually sat down to write up a proper blog post. Other forms of social media, while not nearly as satisfying, have become my primary method of staying in touch with people who find what I do for a living interesting.

 

Just an observation.

 

 

Maybe one or two weeks out of the year I have the opportunity to work an early AM morning shift.

Yeah, I must be out of my freaking mind.

 

As crazy as it might sound, I actually enjoy the experience. It just takes a different kind of news photographer to do that shift on a regular basis and I’m not that guy.

 

 

Anyway, if you were following the story about the possible assault and/or abduction that occurred overnight in the El Sereno area.

 

 

Sorry, if I’m a little sketchy on the details it’s only because the victim and suspect seem to have completely disappeared.

 

The fact that nobody from the area has come forward to report anyone missing makes this case particularly troublesome for law enforcement.

 

 

 

I could tell you that the world is a dangerous place and I shudder to think what could have happened (could be happening) to the victim in this story.

 

In the cold of the morning as the sun was rising and giving gorgeous color to the landscape, I was ready with my camera and more concerned with making sure nothing went by unnoticed that we would need to put the story on the news.

 

 

I kept an eye out for the Public Information Officer while being ready to record video of anything the police were doing that would help us tell the story of what was happening.

 

 

I left the scene before anything conclusive was discovered. Clothes that matched the description of what the woman was wearing was found in the hills.

 

After the morning newscast, I was given another assignment and the search was finally called off late that day.

 

More questions than answers and the nagging fear that someone needed to be saved, but there were no heroes to come to her rescue.

 

I finished my shift, went home and went to sleep almost as soon as the sun went down. I’m going to be on the early shift for another week and if you ask me, when do I get used to it all?

 

The shift? Never.

 

The sadness in stories like this?  Yeah, same answer.