I'm not sure that it would. At least, this story is not unusual. It's horrific, but not unusual to anyone working in social work or health care.
This girl was certainly very young, younger than the norm, but girls of 13-14 marrying older men happened more often in the 50s than we like to admit. The lines between 'running off' and 'abduction' aren't clear today and certainly were not clear then. States like New Mexico still allow marriages at such ages in cases of pregnancy ... a shocking twist in the law. Marilyn Monroe famously married at 15 in 1944. That wasn't considered odd. Had this man been single and convinced the girl to go through with a marriage ceremony prior to her escape, or had they not crossed state lines, the entire case might have never have risen to any public attention. The girl would have been returned, the marriage annulled, and the entire affair quieted.
Note how she was rescued. Her rescuer did not go immediately to the police but instead contrived a scheme to move the pair out of their local support network. The rescuer wasn't taken aback in horror by the situation. She recognized what was happening and knew to take certain steps. Her getting them to cross state lines is either lucky coincidence or legal genius as she did not know of the pair's travel history. She was not surprised to the point of immediately marching down to the police station. She was aware of the difficulties because this was not something totally new in her experience.
This girl was certainly very young, younger than the norm, but girls of 13-14 marrying older men happened more often in the 50s than we like to admit. The lines between 'running off' and 'abduction' aren't clear today and certainly were not clear then. States like New Mexico still allow marriages at such ages in cases of pregnancy ... a shocking twist in the law. Marilyn Monroe famously married at 15 in 1944. That wasn't considered odd. Had this man been single and convinced the girl to go through with a marriage ceremony prior to her escape, or had they not crossed state lines, the entire case might have never have risen to any public attention. The girl would have been returned, the marriage annulled, and the entire affair quieted.
Note how she was rescued. Her rescuer did not go immediately to the police but instead contrived a scheme to move the pair out of their local support network. The rescuer wasn't taken aback in horror by the situation. She recognized what was happening and knew to take certain steps. Her getting them to cross state lines is either lucky coincidence or legal genius as she did not know of the pair's travel history. She was not surprised to the point of immediately marching down to the police station. She was aware of the difficulties because this was not something totally new in her experience.