“It’s called the manosphere, and no, most of us had never heard of any of this, and we wish we hadn’t heard of it now. I think it’s important to note that for the many, many ways the internet has made life easier and more efficient, it also has a dark side where like-minded individuals with serious grievances can find community and in some cases can organize to perpetrate violence upon their perceived enemies.”
“This sounds like a pretty sophisticated society, if you will, with common vernacular and terminology. Is this something regular people, and women in particular, need to be afraid of?”
“I wouldn’t advise wide-scale fear, but more of an awareness that this mindset exists. We’ve all known of cases in which a woman rejects a man’s advances and is served with violent retribution of some kind. It can be everything from stalking to intimidation to assault to murder. Many of those cases are not directly tied to incel culture or the manosphere, but in this case, there’s a direct tie.”
“How did Mayfield and his son make contact with Tomas and Ethan?”
“The boys met at a video arcade at the Wharf some time ago and became friendly, meeting up several times after that initial contact. Once, Asher Mayfield accompanied his son and met the boys. He treated them to more games and pizza. They said the son was, as they put it, obsessed with Luna. Ethan and Tomas had met her a couple of times. At one point, Ethan passed her a note that said he thought she was very pretty and he’d like to talk more. He gave her his phone number. To our knowledge, she never reached out to him, nor do we believe the younger Mayfield ever knew about the note from Ethan to Luna.”
“How do you know about the note?”
“It was found in Luna’s room when our detectives searched it. We believe the Mayfields targeted Ethan and Tomas and encouraged their friendship with her so they could use the boys’ phones to get her to come out to meet them. Except she didn’t know it wasn’t them waiting for her.”
“I know one of these kids is your nephew, Lieutenant, but aren’t they young to be running around the city unsupervised?” The question came from a male TV reporter, who she guessed to be in his early forties. “I have middle school kids who don’t go anywhere without an adult with them.”
“I hear you, and I understand that parents will be questioning their decisions on these things in light of this case. I want to be clear that I’m not standing in judgment of any parents, especially my sister and brother-in-law, who have to confront these challenges with their tweens and teens. As I told my sister, I’m the last person in the world who’d ever judge the choices of other parents, especially with my kids under Secret Service protection. That said, as a police officer, I was surprised that Ethan was allowed to go out with only his friends at age eleven.”
“So you were unaware he was allowed to do that?”
“I was. In this high-tech age, I think parents are possibly lulled into a false sense of security because of cell phones and the ability to track their child’s location. They have the numbers of the friends their children will be with and parameters set on where the kids are allowed to go—and where they’re not allowed to go. In the case of my nephew, my sister and brother-in-law first became alarmed when they realized Ethan’s phone had been shut off. They were no longer able to see his location, their calls were going to voicemail, and texts weren’t being delivered.”
“Lieutenant, with this case involving a family member, were you permitted to work on it?”
“I wasn’t formally assigned to the case, but I did help out behind the scenes where I could without compromising the investigation in any way. I was sent out here today to talk to you because there’ve been a lot of specific questions about my nephew and my family, and they wanted me to share with you that he’s home safe and that everyone involved is heartbroken over the senseless murder of Luna Ahern.” She took a beat before she continued. “I’d like to also brief you on a second case, that of Dale Carver, who was fatally stabbed at the Vacation Inn and Suites on 10th Street Northwest. He was in town from Spokane, Washington, for meetings at USDA.”
“Was he stabbed in his room?”
“No, it happened in the room where guests go to get ice. We’re pursuing a number of leads in that case and will have updates for you as they become available. That’s all I have for now.”
“Lieutenant, were you and the president concerned that your nephew’s disappearance might somehow be tied to your roles as POTUS and FLOTUS?”
Sam debated whether she should answer and decided to address it to hopefully shut down that line of questioning. “Of course it crossed our minds before the evidence led in other directions.”
“Was the federal response to his disappearance due to his proximity to you and the president?”
“The FBI and U.S. Marshals regularly assist us, and that was no different in this case.”
“Who called them in?”
“Thanks, everyone.”
Sam ducked inside, ignoring the shouted follow-up questions.
Malone followed her. “You did good.”
“Is that question about the Feds going to haunt me?”
“Maybe a little, but who cares who we asked for help? We have the culprits in custody.”
“We’ll get a lot of follow-up questions about this case.”
“We’ll let Public Affairs take them. I’ll make sure they’re fully briefed.”
“Let me do that so you can go home and get some rest.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. Go ahead.”
