Family deserves answers

We hope it never happens to any family. The loss of a loved one under mysterious circumstances, without a trace, we're sure is an emotionally excruciating experience. For the family of Amanda Dean, it's been more than 5½ years not knowing where she is, not hearing from her and being fearful that she is in danger, or worse, that she might be dead. Amanda Dean And, for all that time, the Huron County sheriff's office has treated Dean's disappearance as a non-event, as if it hasn't happened. It seems clear, too, that the sheriff's office has not followed its own guidelines for what to do when a person is reported missing. Nobody's been talked to — not the last people to see her or the individuals who potentially were a danger to her — and we're left scratching our heads trying to understand why. Amanda's mother, Caroline Tokar, and her sister, Shannon Dean, and Amanda's oldest son, Joshua Dean, became more hopeful than at any time over these many years that they might finally get some answers after the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation agreed to search for Amanda, and assigned an agent to interview the family. That was Jan. 4; there's been no interview. Nobody's been talked to — not the last people to see her or the individuals who potentially were a danger to her — and we're left scratching our heads trying to understand why. But by this point, we should not be surprised that the BCI has disappointed yet another family seeking justice, seeking answers. This is the same BCI under Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost that charged a woman with falsifying a report about being raped when there never was any real evidence she lied. This is the same BCI under Dave Yost that matched DNA samples in three rape kits to a single person in Ottawa County but has failed to provide the community any update in a year about that investigation. We should not be surprised, but we're still hopeful, for Dean's family, that someone at the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation will step up and try, without making excuses, to help this family get some answers.