Who Exactly is Expendable?

A recent news item hit too close to home in that Kevin Bacon, six-degrees-of-separation kind of way.
A young woman named Sunday went missing in Tifton, GA. Her sister owns a local new age shop which I frequent for items for my massage business, and Sunday was also friends with a young woman, Millie, who is the daughter (step-daughter) of the couple I married in December 2008. For about a month, I would receive messages every few days via a Facebook Group looking for tips on her disappearance, or calling on people to help search, or hold a vigil, or otherwise keep Sunday's face circulating so that someone with information on her whereabouts might come forward.
Sadly, the worst has come to pass. Her body was found on May 27th. And with it, a story that sickens the soul.
Arrested in this case are her in-laws and one of their friends. Her estranged husband, who had a history of violence, is already in jail and it's unclear at this point if he had anything to do with her murder.
Worse yet is that friends of the victim say the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are the ones who took the lead in the search for Sunday. Why were state resources brought in on a missing person case in rural southwest Georgia? Because, apparently, the Tifton police department was dragging its collective feet on hunting for Sunday. In fact, it seems that if it hadn't been for Millie's phone call to the FEDERAL Bureau of Investigation, there would have been very little effort made to find this missing young woman. I mean, the in-laws, who seem to be less than stable, were burning a couch outside their property on the day Sunday went missing! And that didn't raise a red flag for the cops?
I have heard this same story before. Police departments making decisions about who is worthy of the time and effort to follow a case, and those who are basically expendable.
It's not just law enforcement with this kind of prejudice. Academic studies of the death penalty indicate that if a jury can empathize with the murder victim (i.e. can put themselves in the dead person's shoes) they are more likely to vote for a death sentence. But if the victim was engaged in an activity that doesn't resonate with the individual jurors (i.e. a drug deal), then they are less likely to recommend death.
Even in churches, you'll sometimes hear about those who God loves more than others. I was stunned to hear in a sermon that a birth mother of an adopted child was a drug addict; thus the baby was born with health problems. The bishop preaching this sermon stated he was having a hard time forgiving the addicted woman. This was a moment of disconnect for me. Are we not supposed to pray for those who need it? Are we not suppose to see the addict as one in need of God's love big time?? And is this a bishop telling me that some people are not worthy of forgiveness?
Am I just crazy, or does this lead to a mentality of who will we be willing to throw away next?
I'm reminded of the hauntingly beautiful song by Sweet Honey in the Rock called "Would You Harbor Me?"

Would you harbor a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew
A heretic, convict, or spy?
Would you harbor a woman or runaway child,
a poet, a prophet, a king?
Would you harbor a Tubman, a Garrett, a Truth,
a person living with AIDS?
Would you harbor a Haitian, Korean, or Czech,
a lesbian or a gay?

Who is our neighbor? And who is not worthy of that dignity? Tell me, world.