http://findcayle.blogspot.com/

A site has been launched to help consolidate all information related to missing UGA grad student Cayle Bywater. I copied some information from an Athens Banner-Herald article about her disappearance a few days ago and have gotten some comments and messages from friends and people on the search team thanking me. As in all cases when someone is missing, I suppose every little bit counts.

Walking around downtown Athens this weekend, I saw her face on the MISSING posters in several windows of stores, bars, and restaurants. You can hear people here and there talking about her in hushed tones, people who don't know her at all or who have seen her around. People who wonder where she could be, people who hope she has just wandered off for a bit and will soon be discovered. My friend Paul told me that six years ago or so a young woman in Athens just up and vanished and was never heard from again. I don't know what the details of that story are or how sensationalized it is, but it made me go cold inside, just as I went cold when I first read about Cayle, whom I've never even met.

The local and national news channels are going haywire covering what little information they have on the missing Georgia hiker and her dog, but there's been virtually nothing on Cayle. In no way am I trying to minimize the anguish of the missing hiker, who is, according to the news reports I read this evening, now believed to be dead. That is awful. But how is one human being's utter disappearance any more important than another's? It seems we're stepping into elusive territory here. One friend said, "Maybe that's 'cause going missing in the mountains is creepier somehow." I disagree. I think it's far scarier, far more menacing to go missing from your own home.

I'm sure that hundreds of people go missing each year, and the media become obsessed with one or two of them. We can make it our job to make sure they pay attention to both these Georgia women. Perhaps you can write a quick email to your news channel, even if it's just to direct them to http://findcayle.blogspot.com/ They'll find all the news articles and links there.
Below I've created a quick list to get you started. Won't you take a minute to do this? Thanks.

1. Here is an article on the 11Alive website. You can post a comment to ask them to cover the story more prominently. (I just wrote a comment--writing it took one minute!)

2. Here's the Fox 5 Atlanta article. Same ol', same ol'. Here's their contact form--why not ask them to feature it on the news and not just on the webpage?

3. Write The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ask that they make the story a feature. Their contact address is: newstips@ajc.com Be sure to send them the link to the blog with all the news articles! (http://findcayle.blogspot.com/)