I wish they stayed with Morgan while she dumped sand from her shoes after they finished playing. Unless the perpetrator had accomplices, he may have been less likely abducting all three girls together, i.e. safety/strength in numbers.

You aren't thinking about that stuff as a kid. Yeah for sure if all three are together then she isn't abducted, but it wasn't as if they were far off from her. Who knows, she could have been stalked for a bit as well and the abductor found an opportunity to snatch her. We have kids over all of the time to play with ours, and in the summer outside as well. When they want to go to the park and such we always say stick together. However, they are older than the girls that were with Morgan. It is like asking kids to have stuck around Nyleen Marshall when she most likely got kidnapped. If she is the area, you aren't thinking about it.

I wish they stayed with Morgan while she dumped sand from her shoes after they finished playing. Unless the perpetrator had accomplices, he may have been less likely abducting all three girls together, i.e. safety/strength in numbers.
Do remember they are kids, they likely thought it would be ok and while they found him creepy, maybe they thought he knew their friend.

I remember I drove my parents nuts a few times when I was under 10, and family not home. Was invited to friends house or went with my neighbor and her kids to playground, spur of moment thing. This is late 70's / early 80's. Yeah should have probably left a note. Unfortunately you didn't think like that as a kid in the middle of summer. You couldn't pick up a cell phone and text or call your parents or siblings at work. Yes I got the riot act read to me. Again I was a kid thinking like a kid. If these weren't family friends, I wouldn't have obviously gone.