Sounds like a dozen other cases obsessed over in the U.S., while more important news gets ignored. After all, what's more important, a missing young white female or a hundred war victims?! We seem to have a victim importance scale that goes something like this.

1. Domestic white female child.
2. Domestic white male child.
3. Domestic young white female.
4. Family pets.
5. All other domestic people, with some variation for whiteness, femaleness, youngness, etc.
6. All other foreign folk and domestic animals, with some variation for fuzziness, cuteness, whiteness, femaleness, youngness, etc.
7. Cockroaches.
8. Mulch.

The numbers just indicate relative importance. I don't know the actual point values, but a rating system does apparently exist.

Love the news stories about 100 people dying in a plain crash, and there were 4 Americans.