Reader: We Missed Warning Bells on Pamela Ortega, Mom Who Molested Her Kids

• Some people are cold and distant only as a defense mechanism. In reality, many viewed as cold are just sensitive people trying to protect themselves, however irrationally, from the possibility of experiencing emotional pain perpetrated by others.

• @Alexa Some kind of technology or training to detect perverts? yeah, that will work....what would be the criteria for perversion in the first place? I Slovely and cold aren't exactly markers for deviance since a great portion of sexual predators and serial killers wear what psychologists call "the mask of sanity" (BTK, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, etc) in order to blend in with society and remain undetected.

• while my ex the pedophile was charming. at least to others that didnt know him. or to friends till he got what he wanted. at home, he was the control freak. he would rather smooze with others rather than do a ounce of work. though his sense of dress was the type one would normally not see on a smoozer. sweatpants that showed a "plumber's crack" when he sat down. t-shirts that could have been at least a size bigger.

• I've crossed paths with three people I later found out were sex offenders (a co-worker, a neighbor and a friend's father) and ALL of them were exceptionally cold people. So cold I actively disliked and avoided them. That personality type sets off big time warning bells for me now.

• What warning bells? Being ugly and unkempt does not a child molester make.

• people like that Ortega woman are so peverted, half of the people in this world have become so evil when it comes to abusing babies,children, teens and adults, even animals wheather or not if its sex,beatings,kidnapping or murder. you hear so much about some sort of high drug beinng the cause because it slowly destroys the brain, then you hear o its nothing but the evil that is with -in a person that the destroying drug brings out in the long run.

• @Paul. the latching on is also a signal of no stranger danger awareness. if the kid did not know the person who they were going to. unless the kid is a natural introvert. the shyness can not normally be explained away. but the two together are a possible signal. since the kid is saying she wants to be friends. but is unknown if the person that she is dealing with is gonna be a friend or a person that she has to be wary of. @Trajan as for you. did you see about getting a sperm count done? I've heard of ladies after chemo getting pregnant. @both that piece of filth said something that is common I found out. that she was encouraged to do it by her fellow perverts online. many of these perverts encourage their fellow perverts in doing it. and now since the cops most likely have her computer. they can trace the IPs to the other perverts and get them as well. lets hope they can arrest the other perverts she was interacting with as well.

• @Sarah, Trajan is right. Until we can come up with some training or technology to detect perverts without having to strap a camera on them 24/7 (hey, wait a minute...), we can only continue to try to be sensitive and receptive. Not all suspicions can be acted upon, not in this society at this stage of our development. At least you felt compassion for the child and, as -Pete says, the next time a child acts that way, I know you will respond to her more proactively. Sometimes, the best you can do is be an emotional sanctuary. You cannot underestimate the huge value of such an act of kindness, which can often make all the difference in the world, it can be just enough for her to cling to and survive. Most importantly of all, never turn away from such a child. Always smile at her. Trajan, I hope to hear someday that you are a father. =)

• Sarah there is no reason to beat yourself up over this. It is beyond the capacity of civilized and decent people to even imagine the depths of depravity of the human soul manifested in Pamela Ortega. Nothing can be done now. All that we can hope is that justice is done and that these children get the help they need to move on. I am not a father. I will probably not be one ever due to chemotherapy treatments duriong childhood. My wife and I have already anticipated adoption and these are the sort of kids who need our help the most.

• "She is one of those children that immediately wants to latch on when she meets you." Sometimes that's the main signal a child will send, when 'something is wrong'

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