Recently many of us have found ourselves immersed in a strange case of kidnapping in Arizona, with the disappeared being the mother of a celebrity. We get updates from the local police and hear that the FBI is involved. This is not unusual, but the fact that the two forces are not colliding despite the lack of evidence was a bit surprising to me.

My brother-in-law was a career FBI agent, working from San Francisco to San Diego and ending his career in Kentucky. Needless to say, we had many conversations. One of the topics that surprised me at first was that the local authorities totally disliked the FBI entering a case that they considered “local”. After explanation, the reason for this often-minimal cooperation became clear. The local police know the terrain, the people, and the law. The FBI comes in with more general knowledge of the type of crime along with a ton more background and scientific methods of crime fighting. Often, the locals are offended and believe that the FBI agents are trespassing on their authority. And the feds think that those local police are not as well trained and are prone to making mistakes. Thus, the standoff.

But who has the jurisdiction in the first place? Well, that depends on the case or the crime. What laws have been broken? Kidnapping has been going on for centuries. Here in the US, states have certain rights that are not federal. Amazingly, prosecution for kidnapping is one of them. This was somewhat changed when the son of Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and held for ransom.

After a career in the United States Army Air Corps, Lindbergh joined the US Postal Service as a mail carrier and in 1927 became the first man to fly an airplane from New York to Paris, non-stop and solo. He was a national hero and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Medal of Honor by then President Calvin Coolidge.

Prior to 1932, there was no federal law covering kidnapping. Then the case of all cases arose: the kidnapping for ransom of the toddler son of Charles Lindbergh. On March 1, 1932, 20-month-old Charles Jr. was taken from the Lindbergh home that evening, with the kidnapper leaving a handwritten ransom note in an envelope on the windowsill. The New Jersey State Police were instantly involved. The demand was for $50,000, and the language in the ransom note led the police to believe that the perpetrator was foreign.

Because the Lindbergh family was involved, J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the BOI, later the FBI, informed the New Jersey police that they could contact the BOI for any resources and any assistance. By May 13, 1932, the president declared that the Bureau was at the disposal of the New Jersey Police Department. By October of 1933, President Roosevelt declared that the Bureau would take jurisdiction of the case. Perhaps this was where the differences toward cooperation and dislike arose.

Within days, a man told millionairess Evalyn Walsh McLean, a non-relative, that he could save the child if she could provide $100,000. Being extremely rich (and the owner of the Hope Diamond), she gave the money only to be defrauded. The man was later charged with embezzlement and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Not the first side attempt to get some ransom money.

The kidnapper sent two more ransom notes and through an intermediary, $50,000 was passed to the kidnapper on April 2. But on May 12, a delivery truck driver went into a grove of trees to urinate and found the decomposed body of Little Lindy.

Later a man named Bruno Richard Hauptmann was charged with the crime after he had spent one of the traceable bills at a gas station. The owner had suspected something in his behavior, thinking he might be passing counterfeit money and wrote down the man’s license plate. The investigation handled by the New Jersey Police was quite thorough. They immediately got a search warrant for his house and made many evidential findings, including wood in Hauptmann’s attic that matched a piece from the hand-built ladder used to remove the child, along with more of the ransom money. Also, his handwriting was found by experts to match the notes. Hauptmann was convicted, lost his appellate appeals, and was executed on April 3, 1936.

While it took months to come up with any real evidence, the lack of intelligence of the suspect helped the state authorities despite rather unsophisticated investigation ability back then. Now we have DNA, multiple video cameras, experts defining the weight and height of the suspect, and even tracing a backpack through Walmart. But we may have a criminal with more intelligence and more ways of concealing his crime. Needless to say, all the TV dramas about the techniques of the police and FBI on almost every night can make the criminal a lot smarter as well.

The US Congress passed the Federal Kidnapping Act and made it effective June 22, 1932, but the act only forbids transporting a person in interstate or foreign commerce, kidnapped or otherwise unlawfully detained. The rub may come in the case of Mrs. Guthrie. Is there any indication that she crossed a state line? If not, the jurisdiction is totally in the Arizona authorities.

With Nancy Guthrie being gone this long, it is becoming clear that she probably has not survived, but that would not appear to be the fault of the local or federal police. We can only hope for some resolve.

· Dennis Marek can be contacted at llamalaw23@gmail.com.