commentary by Patrick H. Moore
The “Lolita Syndrome” refers to when a full-gown man of mature years becomes so infatuated with a girl of around the age of 12 that he will risk everything to possess her in every sense of the word. The phrase is based on a rather brilliant novel by Russian expatriate writer Vladimir Nabokov which tells the sordid, but in some ways charming, tale of Humbert Humbert who falls in love with Lolita, marries her mother so that he can be close to Little Lo, and then absconds with the child when her mother conveniently dies of a heart attack.
Nobokov was a respected professor of literature at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and has long been lionized by the literati.
Now although Lolita threw Humbert over eventually, he would have gotten away with his unlawful abduction of Lolita, had he not gone berserk and shot and killed Clare Quilty, a bothersome dipsomaniac whom he blamed for the destruction of his relationship with the girl. In real life, however, it’s not that simple, as alleged Colorado kidnapper and child rapist, Timothy Wind, 53, is in the process of finding out.
Mitchell Byers of Times-Call Local News writes:
A Longmont man last month kidnapped a 14-year-old Connecticut girl he met online and brought her to Colorado after plotting the abduction for more than a year, police and prosecutors allege.
Acting on a tip from the FBI, Longmont police found the missing girl Wednesday at the apartment of Timothy Wind, 53.
Wind was arrested on suspicion of second-degree kidnapping, sexual assault on a child, enticement of a child and Internet sexual exploitation.
Thus, unlike Humbert Humbert in Nabokov’s novel, who conveniently died of coronary thrombosis while awaiting trial for murdering Quilty, Timothy Wind, if convicted of the charges, will likely spend a considerable period of time in a Colorado State Penitentiary.
In a court appearance on Thursday, Boulder County Deputy District Attorney Tim Johnson expressed his belief that Wind had been plotting to kidnap the 14-year-old for more than a year after meeting her in a kids’ chatroom online before actually abducting her.
Hilary Hanson of Huffington Post reports that police have stated that “Wind met the girl about two years ago via a website for children called “Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow,” according to NBC Connecticut. The website was shut down in September 2013.”
At the hearing, D.A. Johnson informed the court that after contacting the girl via online communication platforms Skype and Pinger, he ultimately drove out to Hartford, Connecticut, to “take possession of the girl” in August. According to a Hartford police news release, the child was last seen in the backyard of her house on August 25th.
What set this case apart from more typical abduction and child rape cases is that the alleged perpetrator Wind appears to have been quite enamored of his child victim, not just in a crude physical sense, but emotionally as well. Furthermore, he does not seem to have abducted hr against her will.
According to the prosecutor, after picking her up in Hartford, Wind took the 14-year-old on a “romantic” six-day trip to New York, New Jersey and Kansas on what the girl said Wind referred to as a “honeymoon.” The girl said Wind even took her to the place where his parents first met, according to an arrest report.
Shades of Humbert Humbert…
After the abduction, the FBI got involved and skillfully “put the pieces together”, ultimately locating the girl in Longmont. The FBI then contacted the Longmont police and told them they believed they would find the child at Wind’s apartment on Birch Court.
A Longmont officer tried to contact Wind at his apartment, but Wind did not answer the door. The officer was able to reach Wind by telephone at work at IBM, and Wind told the officer a female “acquaintance” was staying at the apartment, according to the affidavit
The officer called the female on the phone and got her to answer the door to Ward’s apartment. The officer identified her as the missing teen, even though when asked how old she was, she replied, “I’m 20, no I mean 19,” after counting on her fingers.
Wind lived in a two-bedroom unit. One of the bedrooms was reportedly used as an exercise room. When questioned, the girl said Wind slept in the exercise room and denied that he ever had sex with her.
Evidence found on the victim’s laptop would seem to counter her “no sex” claim. Detectives reportedly found images of male genitals and a poem that expressed love for “Tim.” In addition, a friend of the victim said she had been claiming to have a boyfriend named Tim for about a year.
The proof with respect to the sex (or lack thereof) should be at least somewhat apparent from DNA testing, an issue which was apparently not raised at the preliminary hearing.
On the day of his arrest, Wind was taken into custody upon returning home from work and taken to the Boulder County Jail.
The DA asked Boulder County Judge John Stavely to set bond at $500,000, citing the considerable amount of planning that went into the alleged kidnapping:
“We are very concerned about the community safety aspect of this case. He was planning this for over a year and is a high risk to re-offend.”
I agree that Wind certainly appears to be rather resourceful and I would not be comfortable having him free in my neighborhood.
As for the judge, while stating that the case was “concerning,” he pointed out that Wind had strong community ties and no past criminal convictions. He, therefore, set bond at $100,000 cash, surety or property, or $10,000 cash only.
Based on the fact Wind is an IBM employee, it is not unreasonable to think that he will be able to post bond. If so, his release conditions will be stringent:
He will be placed on electronic home monitoring and not have access to computers. He also will have to surrender his passport and was ordered not to have contact with anyone under the age of 18.
Formal charges will be filed on Tuesday.
At present, Boulder County Housing and Human Services is caring for the teen, while steps are being taken toward family reunification. The child’s family is reportedly already in Colorado.
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I suspect that many true crime followers will be outraged if Wind posts bonds and is temporarily released from the Boulder County Jail. The judge’s decision to make the bond workable for him was, I think, at least in part, based on the fact that there is apparently no evidence that Wind abducted the child against her will or that he engaged in any form of violence, with the possible exception of rape, which will be dealt with at trial or in plea negotiations.
If there is no DNA evidence that rape occurred, the “sexual assault on a child” charge may be difficult to prove. On the other hand, as the case progresses, the child victim may change her tune and be willing to testify that she was indeed a victim of sexual exploitation on Wind’s part.
Something that could work against Wind is the fact that his victim was quite corpulent, especially for her age, and was possibly desperate for attention, thus making her, one would think, extremely vulnerable to his advances.