But with the media now converging on the scent and starting to bay, he only had so much time.

As media and technologies converge, the old divisions separating cable from telephone companies, Internet providers and satellite broadcasters are quickly falling by the wayside.

As the arts, media and technology converge at a staggering rate, here are some of the biggest technology trends and companies to watch in the year ahead:

Within hours of Dugard's disappearance, local and national media converged upon South Lake Tahoe to cover the story.

"As you start to see media converge and stations begin broadcasting digitally, you'll see more stations with that sort of information on the screen," he said.

Nexus is the intersection where law, politics, economics, and media converge.

In the schoolhouse explosion case, various media converged to catch the government, if not in a lie, at least in a hasty and poorly enunciated explanation.

"The timing is important because communications, computers and media are converging just as the wireless revolution is coming of age."

It would be the biggest merger in history and the best evidence yet that old and new media are converging.