On March 16, 2003, it will be the three year anniversary of little Sara LeeAnn Tibbett's brutal and horrifying murder. It marks the day that our precious baby girl became "just another child that fell through the cracks".
To the various state agencies that were involved, directly and indirectly, in this tragedy, I'm sure this tragic event has long ago been delegated to the status of another "child abuse fatality statistic".
But to my heartbroken family, it marks the day that a precious child was brutally torn from our midst. It marks the beginning of a long, painful, and disillusioning search for answers, and for justice. Now, after two years of desperate searching, we still have found neither.
Despite countless letters sent to our state representatives, governors, and congressmen, our quest for justice and answers as to how this could POSSIBLY have been allowed to happen has been futile. Our letters for the most part went unanswered, ignored by the people elected to represent us.
I have contacted hundreds of attorneys, from Missouri and several other states, in an attempt to find JUST ONE PERSON willing to help me make little Sara's voice be heard. I felt then and STILL feel that it is a parody of justice that her cries are to go unheard, her pleas for justice forever silenced by the "veil of immunity" that cloaks our state agencies, the very agencies that were supposed to protect her.
Over the past three years I have spent countless hours researching cases similar to Sara's, seeking ways to at least make the public aware of the horrible fate that so many of our nations children have needlessly suffered. It was through this research that I became aware of the sickening fact that Sara's is not an isolated case. Hundred's of our nation's most precious resource, our children, have fallen victim to the same tragic end that little Sara suffered. The following website: http://www.join-hands.com is one I found on my searches. I found statistics and documented cases there that viciously opened my eyes to the knowledge that this type of tragedy occurs over and over again, and is for the most part, ignored, or classified as "tragic, but unavoidable". I, also, was guilty of being "blissfully ignorant" of the plight of so many helpless, innocent children. At this website: www.join-hands.com/victims I read the following quote, which struck me as a chilling wake up call: "I wondered why somebody didn't DO something. Then I realized...I AM somebody." written by: "Anonymous" Please, join me in the attempt to make this type of tragedy a thing of the past. We, as a people, should find the loss of even ONE child due to ANYONE'S failure to act legally and morally unacceptable. It should shake us to our very core.
Even though my quest for justice, and for someone to help me prevent the truth about the circumstances surrounding Sara's death from being forever hidden, has proven futile, I will continue to seek ways to bring about change. If our family could save the life of even one innocent child through our efforts to bring the story of our Sara's horrible, unneccesary death to the light of day, then we could at least have the comfort of knowing that Sara's death was not completely in vain. I am sure that Sara is watching us from heaven, and the knowledge that she helped save an innocent child's life would bring her beautiful smile back to shine on us all from the stars above. In closing, I would like to invite you to please sign my guestbook, which can be found on the Home page. I would appreciate your thoughts on how we might work together to prevent this kind of tragedy from occurring to another innocent child. Thank you for your time.
