The following is a story from my local paper, it has been big news this past week. It is about a 14 year old girl who crossed a 4 lane freeway to "take a shortcut home" This story has been haunting me for days, why are young teenagers so stupid? why would someone risk thier life to save sometime to get home.






A mother's anguish : Goleta teen who was focus of search died in freeway hit and run.


Two days after she was reported missing, a Goleta teenager was found dead on the north side of Highway 101 on Thursday, the apparent victim of a hit and run that took place as she crossed the freeway.

The body of Christina Veloz-Payne, 14, was found by a landscaping contractor working for Caltrans at about 11 a.m. in the bushes between a guardrail and fence at Calle Real and Plumas Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol.

"The victim had apparently crossed the freeway illegally at this location on past occasions according to friends," CHP Sgt. Matthew Dawson said in a statement.

It's not known who struck Christina or when, but friends reported seeing her last at about 8 p.m. Monday at Girsh Park, where the city of Goleta was throwing a fireworks show that was pushed from Independence Day to Labor Day because of the Gap Fire.

Her mother, Patricia Payne, reported the girl missing to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department the next day. And she launched a search involving sheriff's deputies, CHP officers, friends and family.

Some of those closest to the mother and her daughter made their way to the scene Thursday as word of the possible fate of the girl who called herself Tina spread.

Ms. Payne happened upon the scene, a mix of officers and deputies in uniform, detectives in street clothes, and countless marked and unmarked vehicles, shortly after noon while driving west on Calle Real.



"That isn't my daughter they found, is it?" she cried out as a deputy directed traffic onto northbound Mendocino Drive, one block east of Plumas.

She eventually parked on Plumas, and was met by authorities not far from where the body was found.

At about 12:30 p.m., a detective approached from the scene, perhaps bearing the tragic news.

Ms. Payne responded with a stomp on the ground and a loud, "Oh, no!"

Soon she was met by friends, some of whom carried fliers that they said were intended for the search.

This is a sad story... but this mother should not jump to conclusions, most kids that endanger their safety do so because they want to avoid bullies. Maybe she felt a need to get home quicker to avoid someone, maybe she was forced out on that highway against her better judgment. Maybe she was being followed?

Who knows? This heartbroken mother may never know why, this is why I as a parent do my best to explain worse case scenarios to instill a healthy form of fear in my son so he is careful not to bite off more than he can chew. In this day and age, it is important to really talk to kids about all kinds of safety issues.

paintedlady said:

It really is a sad story, I remember watching the Mom pleading for the public to help her find her child, this was first taken as a missing person incident, as she was thrown into the bushes and could not be seen from the side of the road. Then you open the paper a few days later, and this was the conclusion, broke my heart. What was going on in this girls world that she would cross a 4 lane freeway on foot? Sad stuff

I think it hit me harder today, because her obituary is in today's paper.