Pick A Store, Any Store

Pick A Store, Any Store

It's hard to choose which "Big Gaping Hole" in Terri's story to tackle first, but this one has always bugged me a lot. 

Big Gaping Hole #1:

Why did Terri Horman go to two
Fred Meyer stores that morning?

If you're a parent, or have ever taken care of a sick child, you know they are in absolute misery and your primary concern is to help them.  You don't want to dilly dally around, wasting time before you find your child the medication they need to relieve their pain.  But that's just what Terri did on the morning of June 4, 2010, and any reasonable person should be asking her: why?

Now Hiring: Medication Stockboy Needed PRONTO!

Terri said she left Skyline School at 8:45, loaded BabyK into the truck, and immediately drove to the nearest Fred Meyer store on Imbrie Drive.  This would be an approximately 10-minute drive, according to Google Maps.  Upon arriving at "Fred Meyer #1" (FM1) on that rainy June day, Terriparked her truck far away from the building, (presumably) unloaded the baby, headed into the store, and found that the medication she was looking for (it was Motrin, according to Desiree Young, though some early reports stated it was Tylenol) was out of stock.

Location where Terri parked her truck at Fred Meyer #1, according to investigators.

Hmmmmm.

I don't know if you, dearest reader, have ever been to a Fred Meyer store, but let me tell you I have shopped at them for a number of years and have never experienced an "empty shelf" when looking for anything.  But again, let's give Terri the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe the Stockboy didn't show up to work on the night of June 3.  And maybe FM1 was not only out of baby Motrin, but was also out of all other brands of infant pain relievers, including their own generic label as well as other name brands.  So Terri was in a bit of a pickle, standing there with her sick baby, wasn't she?  Hopefully she took the time to find an employee and ask about all those empty shelves of baby medications.  But apparently she didn't, because let's not forget by 9:12 (just 27 minutes after she left the school) she reports that she had purchased something else (we're not sure what, except we know it wasn't medicine) and had a hot little receipt in her hand to prove it.

What to do?  What to do?

So it's 9:12 a.m. on a rainy June day, your baby is sick and miserable, and the giant mega-store closest to your house is out of Motrin.  What do you do?  My guess is that you - like most people - would find the next closest drugstore and go there to get some medication, right?  Well, that's NOT what Terri Horman did.

Terri hauled her sick baby, her 9:12 receipt, and whatever item it was she *did* buy all the way out to the edge of the FM1 parking lot and hauled her butt to another Fred Meyer Store (FM2), this one located on SW Walker Rd. in Beaverton - a 12-minute drive from FM1.   Why did she go to this store specifically, when there are several drugstores much closer to FM1?  Here's a map of the drugstores she had to bypass in her quest for that rare product, Motrin, to sooth her fussy baby.

We aren't sure exactly what time Terri and BabyK arrived at FM2.  But we do know that, once again, she parked far from the store.  Once inside, she chatted it up with Andrea Leckey before leaving.  Did she find the medication she was looking for?  We don't know, she didn't say in any of the e-mails that were released to the public.  

Location where Terri parked her truck at Fred Meyer #2.

We also know that - after she left FM2 - Terri (and BabyK) pretty much disappeared for over 1 hour and 15 minutes.  But that's another story for another day.