Tomahawk, I agree with you that it seems the case was bungled from the start. It very well could be that the police focused their attention in another direction, got fixated, and ignored another more obvious path. However, I think where are agreement ends. 

Yes, the police made mistakes at the start. But, it's been over 19 years now. And the case has passed through several different hands, has it not? I just have a hard time believing over the last 19 years that some competent, curious cop hasn't had the file in his hands and pursued the person who many believe is the culprit in Jodi's case: JVS. I mean, if we know about him, then they know about him. If we know the state he lives in, then the authorities know the state he lives in now. I will even go as far to say that within the last 19 years some detective made it a point to get a copy of JVS's handprint and compare it to the one on Jodi's car.

But JVS is still a free man.

Furthermore, as far as I know, JVS has no criminal record. In the last almost 20 years I bet he's had other young female friends and I bet they are all still alive. I'm sure a couple of them have jilted him at one time or another, and they're still alive. Maybe he even named his boat after one of them, and the young woman is still alive. Has JVS gotten into trouble at all with any woman before or after 1995? Not to my knowledge.

In addition, there's no evidence Jodi and he were on the outs. Sure, maybe she complained once in a while about him. So has every woman complained about every man--it's not proof of anything.

I know how popular it is on here and other sites like websleuths for us amateur detectives to criticize law enforcement--the solving of a case seems so crystal clear to us sometimes, doesn't it? And granted, the police have earned a lot of that doubt. But we have to remember: Most murders/disappearances/rapes get solved in this country. In addition, we know in MANY cases, a crime isn't solved at the time but somewhere down the road another detective comes along and notices something the others didn't. So, bungling does have short-term consequences but many times someone else--another detective--cleans up the mess.

So, I'm sticking to my original point that if it was JVS, he would've been caught by now because him being the culprit is almost TOO obvious, even if the police were incompetent at the beginning. The palm print would've matched, the cops would've put JVS in an interrogation room, they would've worked on him for a while, they would've guilted him, and because he's not a hardened criminal he would've confessed, claiming it was an accident and he didn't mean to hurt Jodi.

We have to remember something about single, attractive women like Jodi--they usually have 5 or 6 guys orbiting them at any one time. Men waiting to have a chance at something intimate should she give them the nod. My guess it's one of the other guys, and not JVS, who caused Jodi to disappear. It's probably one who has a criminal record. Who's been in trouble with women since 1995. Who had problems with women before 1995. Probably one who her friends didn't know about. Maybe it's just my cynical side talking, but every un-attached, attractive woman like Jodi who I've known has one guy in her orbit who's like that--the kind of guy women don't tell their friends about because the friends would tell the women to stay away because he's trouble. But the woman is attracted to the guy so she continues to see him.

That's the guy police should be trying to find.