Crime is a function of family, friends, and acquaintances

A good ending to an otherwise tragic story, an update from Jayme Closs, Kidnapped by a Stranger, Endured Horror, Police Say by By Matt Furber and Mitch Smith. Independent of this instance, the thing people tend to be most afraid of, murder or kidnapping by strangers, also tends to be exceptionally rare in our teeming nation of 330 million.

The charges against Mr. Patterson buck national trends in homicides and kidnappings.

In 2017, fewer than 10 percent of homicide victims were killed by strangers, according to the F.B.I. And according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, cases in which strangers abduct children are very rare; of more than 25,000 reports of missing children that the group received in 2018, only 77 were abductions by nonfamily members, said Erin Farrell, a center representative.