They
pop into my memory occasionally, because they were (for a few months) a big
deal for the Chicago Police. They were a missing couple who, for awhile, it was
feared had run up against foul play.
IN
REALITY, THEY were in Southern California – having run off together so they
could live what they hoped would be a cozy lifestyle. Searching for “perfect love,” as I recall Carolyn
saying once the couple turned up.
It
seems the couple – who were students about to graduate from Wheaton College
back when they disappeared in spring of 1988 – wanted to marry. They went up to
Wisconsin, where they were wed. Then, then went to Southern California, where
they lived for a couple of months under assumed names.
Back
then, I was a police beat reporter for the now-defunct City News Bureau. I can
remember being the reporter who, every day, was contacting Chicago P.D. to see
if they had come up with any new traces about what might have become of the
couple.
As
I recall, police figured out within one day of the couple being reported
missing that they had eloped. Then, the trail went cold.
I
REMEMBER DAY after day of doing stories that reported on the various tactics
used by Chicago police to try to find out about the couple – only to have those
tactics turn up new information.
In
the end, the couple was found when they wanted to be found – which was when
their money ran out. They wrote home, and the parents went out to California to
get them.
I
still recall the sight of Scott Swanson being interviewed live from California by Chicago
television stations (no, City News didn't send me out there, a trip to California Avenue was exotic for their budget), talking about the life he and bride Carolyn had during
those two months. I also recall hearing from police sources about the chewing
out that high-ranking Chicago police officials gave the couple upon their
return for just running off without leaving any kind of word of their
whereabouts.
Since
then, the couple has lived the past quarter-of-a-century in relative anonymity.
They’re not the kind of people who keep popping up into the public eye.
WHICH
COULD BE the eventual fate of Braxton Wood and Jayden Thomas. They’re the pair
of 14-year-olds who were found in a Ford Explorer parked near a gas station in the
Lakeview neighborhood.
They
wanted to be together. They had parents who didn’t like the idea of them
spending so much time together (which is a difference, because I seem to recall
the Swanson and MacLean families approving of each other).
So,
they took the SUV belonging to Braxton’s parents and drove to Chicago, where it
seems they have spent the past couple of weeks “roughing it” in the streets not
far from Wrigley Field.
The
Chicago Tribune reported that a man recognized the couple from television news
reports about their disappearance. He then contacted police, who were the ones
who approached the van with covered windows (one smashed from when the couple
locked themselves out) and found the couple on Sunday.
BY
THAT POINT, they were ready to be found. They were hungry and didn’t have money
to fill up the gas tank any longer.
Police
literally gave them Egg McMuffins, before contacting their parents in Michigan to
let them know their kids had been found.
I’m
sure the disappearance of Braxton and Jayden is a bigger deal from a legal
perspective than that of Scott and Carolyn 25 years ago because of the age –
these were both minors who were roaming the streets.
Admittedly,
they weren’t in the inner city. But they are both fortunate that they didn’t
suffer serious harm while in Chicago. Just think of the negative publicity
Chicago would be getting these days if something had happened to them.
PERSONALLY,
IT WOULD be best if the teenage couple winds up with the same ultimate fate as
the Swansons – they have just receded into the woodwork of our society.
They’re
not constantly in the news. They got on with their lives. Let’s hope Braxton
and Jayden do the same.
-30-
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