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It's all too familiar: the school book in the front yard, the storefront fliers, the lingering questions of how and why.
Another child is missing, two children in fact. Just like last September when Sofia Silva disappeared from her home.
This time it's Kristin Lisk, 15, and her sister, Kati, 12. Their house was in order, its security alarm properly deactivated. Investigators are convinced they didn't run away.
The similarities between the two cases are striking. Both involve young Spotsylvania County girls, gone from their comfortable suburban homes. All three girls vanished in early afternoon, soon after arriving home from school.
Sofia, 16, was last seen doing her homework on the front porch in Oak Grove Terrace. Her 21-year-old sister was at home but didn't hear or see anything unusual.
Kristin Lisk's book bag was found in the front yard, her math book 7 feet away. Her sister's book bag was in the house.
"As soon as I heard the news I thought it was the exact same situation," said Dawn Harmon, 22, who lives in the courthouse area of King George County. "They came home from school, their stuff was everywhere and they haven't been found. It sounds so similar to the Silva case."
At this point, police don't believe the cases are related.
Yet authorities, too, have noted similarities--the normalcy of all three children, the importance of church and school, and the absence of family strife.
"There are no precipitating factors. No personal effects are missing from the home," said Capt. Pat Sullins of the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office. "There are a lot of similarities, and on our part, we've treated them the same."
Just as they did in the Silva case, Sullins said, authorities immediately called out search teams and had the girls' names logged in a national computer for missing children. Police also immediately started talking with family members, close friends and school officials. Then they fanned out to others who know the girls, or drive by the neighborhood on a regular basis.
Stephenie Fellinger is Kristin Lisk's ninth-grade English teacher. She also knew Sofia. Fellinger's daughter and Sofia played on the same soccer and basketball teams, and Fellinger often took Sofia to practices. She thinks Karl Michael Roush, who is charged in Sofia's disappearance, could be innocent.
"The general belief in my neighborhood is whoever they have in jail is not the guy who did it to Silva," she said. "I almost wish it was because it makes me sick to think that there's two people out there."
Sullins has heard that concern before.
"There's no doubt in my mind the person responsible for Sofia Silva is in jail," she said.
Still, parents are wary. Their children's routine activities--riding a bike, waiting at a bus stop, walking the dog--make them nervous.
Linda Davison, who lives in Millwood Subdivision about five minutes from the Lisk home, has two daughters. Starting today, she's picking them up from school.
"We're not leaving them home alone anymore," said Davison, who works out of her home.
She used to never worry about leaving her teen-agers at home. "I'm going to make sure I'm here from now on," she said.
Her daughters, she said, are "shook up" about the disappearance. This weekend, both girls insisted on going to the grocery store with their mom, rather than staying at home.
What frightens Davison is that the Lisk family "did all the right things" when letting their girls stay home. The parents regularly checked on their children and they had a burglar alarm system.
"It's really scary," Davison said.
Sandy Clothier lives two doors away from the Lisk family. She said all the neighbors are devastated.
"There's so much speculation. Of course everyone's aware of the possibility it's Sofia Silva all over again, but I guess we're all praying and praying that it is not."
Sofia's body was found five weeks after her disappearance, dumped in a King George County creek.
