Amber Alert for Calgary boy, 5, who was last seen with grandparents

Sal

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Sep 29, 2007
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This is a strange scenario...



Amber Alert for Calgary boy, 5, who was last seen with grandparents



CALGARY - An Amber Alert has been issued for what police say could be the abduction of a five-year-old boy from southwest Calgary.
Police say the mother of Nathan O’Brien dropped him off at her parents' home at 10 p.m. Sunday night for a sleepover.


"She comes back at 10 this morning, notably sees that the house is not normally as it is and there's other things within the house that would lead us to believe that they did not leave on their own volition," said Calgary police spokesman Kevin Brookwell.


He said he couldn't give any details about what those things were and said the grandparents, 66-year-old Alvin Cecil Liknes and Kathryn Faye Liknes, 53, are not suspects.


"We're remaining optimistic that all three will be found safe and sound," Brookwell said. "Right now it's a suspicious disappearance of all three."


There are no custody issues with the family — the boy's parents are married and he is their biological son — and police have no history with the family, who are being co-operative, he added.


The grandparents' vehicles are accounted for, as are those of the family, which initially had police ruling out sending out an Amber Alert. But Brookwell said police and Alberta government officials then changed their minds.


"Normally when you look for the criteria for an Amber Alert, what was missing was a description about an abductor or a mode of transportation, which still exists, but given the other criteria, we do have a good description of the young lad as well as the grandparents, we decided we would put out an Amber Alert regardless of missing that one criteria," Brookwell said.


Nathan O'Brien is described as three feet tall, curly blonde hair and last seen wearing peach-coloured shorts and a blue-striped hoodie.
Alvin Liknes is six feet tall, 200 pounds with grey and blond hair and was wearing black shorts. Alvin has a distinctive walk. Kathryn Liknes is five foot, three inches tall, 120 pounds with reddish-brown hair and green eyes.


"It is a weird one," Brookwell said.


"We are doing neighbourhood inquiries as well to see if anybody saw or heard anything suspicious, but so far nothing, so that's why we are reaching out to the public."
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
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This is very bizarre. I was sure when I first heard about this that we'd eventually hear how there was some kind of dispute within the family, but that really doesn't appear to be the case. And I only say that because it's difficult to conceive of three people being taken from their home in what looks to be a normal, middle class neighbourhood. But I suppose after the Tim Bosma case, and I sincerely hope we're not looking at a replay like that, nothing much should surprise anymore.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/calgary-police-chief-questions-whether-reward-help-obrien-165127351.html
 

Twila

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Mar 26, 2003
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This is surreal. Almost unbelievable. Like something from CSI or Law and order.
 

Sal

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Sep 29, 2007
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they said this morning that there was every indication in the house that the grandparents did not leave willingly

puzzling
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
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they said this morning that there was every indication in the house that the grandparents did not leave willingly

puzzling

More than puzzling. It's frightening.

I would assume if there was anything untoward or questionable in their history (not that it would ever justify abduction, but it might explain it) it would have come to light by now, so this seems like a stranger abduction. Of two adults and one child.
 

Twila

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Mar 26, 2003
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More than puzzling. It's frightening.

I would assume if there was anything untoward or questionable in their history (not that it would ever justify abduction, but it might explain it) it would have come to light by now, so this seems like a stranger abduction. Of two adults and one child.

a stranger abduction would require a lot of prep and what would be their goal? It would have to be more than 1 person involved and that always creates issues of trust.
 

SLM

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Mar 5, 2011
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a stranger abduction would require a lot of prep and what would be their goal? It would have to be more than 1 person involved and that always creates issues of trust.

I agree, it doesn't make sense.

But then neither did abducting a fully grown and healthy male on a weekend afternoon either. Yet that is exactly what happened to Tim Bosma.
 

Sal

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Sep 29, 2007
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More than puzzling. It's frightening.

I would assume if there was anything untoward or questionable in their history (not that it would ever justify abduction, but it might explain it) it would have come to light by now, so this seems like a stranger abduction. Of two adults and one child.
It is frightening.

The other day I was flipping around and stopped at a show called Murder She Solved because it was a Canadian case and I had completely forgotten about it.

Do you remember the Blackburn case from over a decade ago. Their bodies were found in the trunk of the wife's car. They were from Toronto and had a hobby farm up North a bit Colburn I think.

The guy that murdered them had an antique store in Orangeville. When they caught him he had just garroted some woman out west. She lived. Two others that he had kidnapped earlier lived only because a cop out driving in a remote wooded area investigated an abandoned car. Snow the perp had two women tied to trees. He fled and they did not catch him for a bit.

It's a untrue that being with another person means you are safe. We used to hike in remote regions all of the time. We still take solitary trails but are far more wary than we used to be.

Safety in numbers is not true.
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
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It is frightening.

The other day I was flipping around and stopped at a show called Murder She Solved because it was a Canadian case and I had completely forgotten about it.

Do you remember the Blackburn case from over a decade ago. Their bodies were found in the trunk of the wife's car. They were from Toronto and had a hobby farm up North a bit Colburn I think.

The guy that murdered them had an antique store in Orangeville. When they caught him he had just garroted some woman out west. She lived. Two others that he had kidnapped earlier lived only because a cop out driving in a remote wooded area investigated an abandoned car. Snow the perp had two women tied to trees. He fled and they did not catch him for a bit.

It's vaguely familiar but a decade ago I was in Ottawa, so it might not have made the daily papers there as it did in SWO.

It's a untrue that being with another person means you are safe. We used to hike in remote regions all of the time. We still take solitary trails but are far more wary than we used to be.

Safety in numbers is not true.
I don't think there is ever a guarantee of safety, alone or part of a group, there just isn't. But I think what you need to do is play the odds and I think your relative safety increases proportionate with the number of people you are with.

And I stumbled across this article this morning.

Son of missing Lyle and Marie McCann says the waiting and guessing 'becomes all

When I first started reading more information about this current case of the 5 year old and his grandparents, it briefly reminded me of the McCann case. And I wondered 'whatever happened'.....and as it turns out, nothing has happened in that case. I sincerely hope this family doesn't have that to deal with in their future.
 

Sal

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Sep 29, 2007
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Police say it's become "less of a mystery". I wonder if the grandparents have abducted their grandson and made it look like a stranger abduction...or a cover up for a horrendous accident. I'm guessing there are no strangers involved.

Police say disappearance is less of a mystery� going into fifth day

could be but they are finger printing people which is strange and interested in people who dropped by the estate sale

While investigators followed up on fresh tips that emerged after the family members of the missing trio issued pleas for help, police were also stationed at the Parkhill Stanley Park Community Hall to speak with anyone who attended the estate sale at the Likneses’ home.
Visitors were seen entering the building and leaving 40 to 60 minutes later. Andrus said police are fingerprinting residents in an effort to match prints found inside the home.
The Likneses had been preparing for a long-planned move to Mexico, with eventual plans to take up residence in Edmonton.
Police are trying to figure out what items were purchased at the estate sale and what remains in the home. Anyone who attended the sale was asked to stop by the Parkhill Stanley Park Community Hall at 4013 Stanley Road S.W., from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.


___________________________________________________________________________________________
It's vaguely familiar but a decade ago I was in Ottawa, so it might not have made the daily papers there as it did in SWO.
yeah you are likely right although it did become a cross Canada search...I don't remember being all that informed about the case at the time but it was likely pre internet which makes a significant difference to me

I don't think there is ever a guarantee of safety, alone or part of a group, there just isn't. But I think what you need to do is play the odds and I think your relative safety increases proportionate with the number of people you are with.
I agree although weren't there a whole bunch of student nurses slaughtered in some house they all lived in...that is a vague recollection from when I was a kid...Richard Speck...yeah that was it...




And I stumbled across this article this morning.

geez how sad and I hate to admit it but they had slipped my mind...this couple vanished never to be heard from again

When I first started reading more information about this current case of the 5 year old and his grandparents, it briefly reminded me of the McCann case. And I wondered 'whatever happened'.....and as it turns out, nothing has happened in that case. I sincerely hope this family doesn't have that to deal with in their future.
I hope they don't either...the one that used to be in front of us all the time was John Walsh's son Adam until they found his severed head years later...sheer torture. I never knew someone had confessed but was never convicted. 8O can you imagine this kind of guilt:
Revé, Adam Walsh's mother, took Adam shopping with her in a Hollywood, Florida Sears department store on July 27, 1981. She said that she stopped to check out lamps a few aisles away and left Adam at a kiosk with Atari 2600 video games on display. Shortly afterwards, she said that she returned to find that Adam and the other boys had disappeared. A store manager informed her that a scuffle had broken out over whose turn it was at the kiosk and a security guard demanded that the boys leave the store. The security guard asked the older boys if their parents were in the store, and the boys said that they were not.[4] It was later conjectured by Adam's parents that he was too shy to speak to the security officer, who presumed that he was in the company of the other boys, and put him out the same door. Based upon Revé's claim that Adam was in the store with her, it was conjectured that Adam was then left alone near an exit of Sears that was unfamiliar to him.[4][5]
Adam's severed head was found by two fishermen in a Vero Beach, Florida, canal on August 10, 1981. The rest of his body was not recovered.[3] The coroner ruled that the cause of Adam's death was asphyxiation and that the decapitation had occurred later, perhaps to render his remains unidentifiable or the cause of his death indeterminable.
 

Twila

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Mar 26, 2003
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could be but they are finger printing people which is strange and interested in people who dropped by the estate sale

They have to account for all the finger prints in the house. Part of the due diligence.
 

talloola

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Nov 14, 2006
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that name 'McCann' confused me at first, as i was flashing bAck to the 'madellaine mcCann' abduction
which took place in portugal i think a few years back, didn't connect the names before.

the little girl who disappeared from their hotel room while they were having dinner, (or something like
that), and they haven't seen her since either, although there was a story a few months back that said
they had a report that someone thought they saw 'her', but that quickly faded away.

going back several years, since the two couples, and their children disappeared somewhere in the caribou, (Johnson & Bentley),
please correct me if i have names wrong, as they found out some lunatic who lived in the bushes,
shot them, pushed their vehicles over the bank, not sure about the rest of it.

ever since then, i have never thought about the wilderness being the serene place one thinks, its not
the four legged animals one needs to be fearful of, its the two legged ones.

at least in the city, one has grown up knowing the possibilities, and become wise to just who could be
out there, but in the wilderness, it is totally being blindsided by someone who we would not ever be
ready for.

ok, i'm off track now, back to calgary.
 
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Sal

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Sep 29, 2007
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They have to account for all the finger prints in the house. Part of the due diligence.
wow, that is one huge azzed job then because of the sale

so do you think the grandparents took him because they didn't want to go away without him...seems strange when they could just stay...it would be a weird thing to do but maybe
 

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
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wow, that is one huge azzed job then because of the sale

so do you think the grandparents took him because they didn't want to go away without him...seems strange when they could just stay...it would be a weird thing to do but maybe

Maybe they'd only be looking at prints on doors and items that would have to be touched by the kidnapper. This seems more reasonable.

I had 2 thoughts. Possibly the grandparents took the boy and made it look like they didn't go willingly. Or worse...an accident befell the boy and there is a mass coverup. Possibly the grandparents were killed in attempt to cover it all up.

I think it's highly unlikely that they will remain disappeared. It's only going to be a matter of time before someone cracks.
 

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
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Maybe they'd only be looking at prints on doors and items that would have to be touched by the kidnapper. This seems more reasonable.

I had 2 thoughts. Possibly the grandparents took the boy and made it look like they didn't go willingly. Or worse...an accident befell the boy and there is a mass coverup. Possibly the grandparents were killed in attempt to cover it all up.

I think it's highly unlikely that they will remain disappeared. It's only going to be a matter of time before someone cracks.
it certainly is a strange one but it does look like they are heading toward a solution
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
29,151
3
36
London, Ontario
I hope they don't either...the one that used to be in front of us all the time was John Walsh's son Adam until they found his severed head years later...sheer torture. I never knew someone had confessed but was never convicted. 8O can you imagine this kind of guilt:

Now that one I remember vividly. I always had a lot of respect for him in how he turned his own grief into such a positive thing, bringing a lot of other people closure I think.

that name 'McCann' confused me at first, as i was flashing bAck to the 'madellaine mcCann' abduction
which took place in portugal i think a few years back, didn't connect the names before.

the little girl who disappeared from their hotel room while they were having dinner, (or something like
that), and they haven't seen her since either, although there was a story a few months back that said
they had a report that someone thought they saw 'her', but that quickly faded away.

going back several years, since the two couples, and their children disappeared somewhere in the caribou, (Johnson & Bentley),
please correct me if i have names wrong, as they found out some lunatic who lived in the bushes,
shot them, pushed their vehicles over the bank, not sure about the rest of it.

ever since then, i have never thought about the wilderness being the serene place one thinks, its not
the four legged animals one needs to be fearful of, its the two legged ones.

at least in the city, one has grown up knowing the possibilities, and become wise to just who could be
out there, but in the wilderness, it is totally being blindsided by someone who we would not ever be
ready for.

ok, i'm off track now, back to calgary.

Honestly Talloola, I couldn't remember their names either, just that a retired couple had vanished after leaving for a road trip. It was only when I stumbled upon the article that the rest of it came flooding back.
 

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
17,135
33
48
that name 'McCann' confused me at first, as i was flashing bAck to the 'madellaine mcCann' abduction
which took place in portugal i think a few years back, didn't connect the names before.

the little girl who disappeared from their hotel room while they were having dinner, (or something like
that), and they haven't seen her since either, although there was a story a few months back that said
they had a report that someone thought they saw 'her', but that quickly faded away.

going back several years, since the two couples, and their children disappeared somewhere in the caribou, (Johnson & Bentley),
please correct me if i have names wrong, as they found out some lunatic who lived in the bushes,
shot them, pushed their vehicles over the bank, not sure about the rest of it.

ever since then, i have never thought about the wilderness being the serene place one thinks, its not
the four legged animals one needs to be fearful of, its the two legged ones.

at least in the city, one has grown up knowing the possibilities, and become wise to just who could be
out there, but in the wilderness, it is totally being blindsided by someone who we would not ever be
ready for.

ok, i'm off track now, back to calgary.
I don't really think you are off track...I think that such disappearances make us aware that there are crazies around and if they are out hunting and choose us as prey we are vulnerable
 

talloola

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 14, 2006
19,576
113
63
Vancouver Island
Now that one I remember vividly. I always had a lot of respect for him in how he turned his own grief into such a positive thing, bringing a lot of other people closure I think.



Honestly Talloola, I couldn't remember their names either, just that a retired couple had vanished after leaving for a road trip. It was only when I stumbled upon the article that the rest of it came flooding back.

the story i am remembering isn't the retired couple, it was the johnson and bentley families, 6 of them,
camping in wells grey park, way back in the 80's i think, and they were all killed by the lunatic who
lived out there in the bush somewhere.

then as the years went by, other stories surfaced of other people killed in the wilderness, including
the retired couple a few years back, i wonder what ever happened to them, whomever did them in, is
still out there somewhere.

yes john walsh is a very special person, the tragedy in his family brought him to
all of us, which turned the horrible death of his son into a very positive move
forward to create a very open and more positive reaction to such happenings,
and then the amber alert program, and his tv show, a very sad situation to begin
with.