Found Dead: Shaquieta Ywantae

Dade City, Florida - Pasco Sheriff's detectives have found the body of the Webster woman who was reported missing Wednesday night.

A sheriff's deputy found the body of 25-year-old Shaquieta Ywantae Lewis in an orange grove near Blanton Road and Frazee Hill Road in Dade City.

Pasco County Deputies are classifying her death as a homicide.

A medical examiner is trying to determine her exact cause of death.

Lewis' body was found at about 8 p.m. Thursday night.

Deputies had been searching for Lewis with both air and ground units.

Deputies responded to the area of 37402 Tait Avenue in Dade City at about 9 p.m. Wednesday night and found some blood and shell casings.

Lewis had been seen in the area before that time.

Anyone who may have any information about this case is asked to contact the Pasco Sheriff's Office.

[Source]

Police search for missing woman, 96, and nephew

UPDATE: Jannie Lee and nephew were found safe.

GREENSBORO - Police are looking for a 96-year-old woman and her nephew who have not been seen since Aug. 7.

Jannie Dye Lee left her home at 2508 16th St. in Greensboro with her nephew Victor Tyrone Powell, 43, Greensboro police said.

They were last seen in a four-door black Honda and may have been headed to Burlington, Mass., police said.

Powell and Lee have lived there since March, when Powell agreed to take care of Lee at his home, Cpl. Paul McDonald said. They had been back in Greensboro visiting family.

Police are unsure if they left the state, but suspect they may have been headed back to Massachusetts.

But police have not been able to locate a Massachusetts address or driver's license for Powell, McDonald said. Powell does freelance computer work, so there is no employer for police to contact either, he said.

Lee's daughter reported her missing on Aug. 24 when she could not make contact with either Powell or Lee, who is on oxygen.

Police are asking for the public's help because the case is unusual, McDonald said.

"It doesn't fit what we normally get," he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 373-1000.

[Source]

Blogging for Justice - The Jena 6

For those of you who did not know, I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. I love being in Louisiana because it's such a warm and fun community but it saddens me to see that racism is still alive and well here. And you know what? It didn't just start with the Jena 6. Cases like this has been going on for years.

Not even five years ago, I heard that separate proms for whites and blacks still exist here. But the question now is: When is it going to stop? When is the media going to make the Jena 6 [and other cases like it] national news and not just local so that we can start moving toward social equality? I pray that the answer is now. Doesn't America deserve to live in peace?

In the meantime for my part - I collected as much information as I could about the case for you and organized it in a way that you can stay in one spot for all the information you need. Make sure you take part in the cause in any way you can! It doesn't matter whether it's signing the petition or simply spreading the news. Let the media know that it's time to free the Jena 6 Now!

P.S. I did not forget about the missing women - with this case being a racial issue as well I felt like they deserve as much exposure as these women.

The Case:

Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the "white" tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could "take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen." Racial tension continued to mount in Jena, and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student--who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses--taunted a black student, allegedly called several black students "nigger", and was beaten up by black students, six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faces up to 22 years in prison for a school fight.




[Source]

More detailed story: Finalcall.com
Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad

JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) - Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”

An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”


“This town has always had a history of racism towards the Black man,” said Mr. Jones to the Final Call. “I am going to continue to fight for justice for my son.”

Jena, a small town still considered segregated in rural Louisiana, is the largest in LaSalle Parish with a population of nearly 3,000. Of that number, 85 percent are White, while there are only 350 Blacks in the entire area.

The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks—Whites under the shaded “White tree,” and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the “White tree,” and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the “White tree,” which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school’s population.

The school principal found the three White students responsible and advised that they were to be expelled from school permanently. The White superintendent of LaSalle Parish schools, Roy Breithaupt, overturned the principal’s decision and instead gave the White students a three-day suspension. In statements made to the media, Superintendent Breithaupt said “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” Black parents, students and residents disagreed and became upset.

“That’s a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don’t care what anybody says,” Mr. Jones told The Final Call. “A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town.”

Students began to voice their disgust and protest against the “slap on the wrist” the three White students received for what many are calling a hate crime. According to the parents of the Jena 6 and a testimony given in Mr. Bell’s trial, White District Attorney Reed Walters then visited Jena High School to address a school assembly, making remarks directed at the Black students that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank,” he could take their lives away with the stroke of his pen. As a result of a fire that burned down the main building where classes are held at Jena High School on November 30, 2006, Whites in the community started to blame the Blacks students of the school as the cause of the fire.

But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6:

On the night of December 1, 2006, Robert Bailey and his friends went to a party at Jena Fair Barn. Once inside the party, Robert was approached by a White male named Justin Sloan, who asked him “Is your name Robert Bailey?” When Robert said yes, Mr. Sloan, along with his sister Jessie, began to hit Robert, and from there, he was also attacked by several other White men before his own friends came to assist him in the brawl.

According to Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, the police who came on the scene told the Black youth that they need to get back to their side of town. The next day, on December 2, Robert and two of his friends were at the local Gotta-Go convenience store. They spotted Matt Windham, one of White males who attacked Robert the previous night. An altercation started and Mr. Windham ran to his truck and pulled out a sawed-off shot gun, which Robert was able to wrestle away from him. The fight ensued and eventually all involved left the scene running.

Two days later, on December 4 at Jena High School, a White male student by the name of Justin Barker had been allegedly making racial taunts at the Blacks, which included calling them “n-----s” and expressing support for the noose hanging, as well as the attack made on Robert Bailey at Fair Barn. Right outside the school auditorium, Mr. Barker was suddenly knocked down, punched, beaten and kicked by Black students. According to interviews with The Final Call, parents of the Jena 6 stated that school officials randomly pointed out White students to write statements describing what they saw, as well as identify what Black students were involved in the fight or were just standing around during the fight. Moments later, after several statements were collected, six Black males were taken out of their classes, arrested and charged.

Many of the Jena 6 remained in jail for several months due to the high bails set between $70,000-$140,000 on them. All are talented athletes with what their families called “bright futures.”

“We had to put up property to bail out my son,” stated Ms. Bailey. “My son is innocent. This is a disgrace and it only manifested the racism that has always existed in this town and this country. They are attacking our young Black males so we have to fight.”

Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, agreed. “My son was not involved in this fight. This is pure racism.”

Mr. Bell’s family was unable to bail him out and his father believed that is the reason his son’s case went to trial so quickly. A Black court-appointed attorney, Blaine Williams, represented Mr. Bell, pressuring him to plead guilty, but Mr. Bell refused. His attorney then gathered a list of proposed witnessed which included his father and mother, Michelle Bell. The judge put a gag order on all witnesses in the case and refused to allow his parents to be present in the court during the trial because they were potential witnesses although the victim, who was a witness, was allowed to stay inside the entire time.

When Mr. Bell’s father asked the defense lawyer to appeal the gag order so they can be inside the courtroom with their son, the lawyer replied “The best thing for you to do is to get the hell out of my face.”

“At that point I smelled a rat and I knew my son was being set up,” stated Mr. Jones to The Final Call. He also shared that the jury was all White, and that members of the jury were friends with the District Attorney as well as family members with the victim. The prosecution brought forth 17 witnesses of whom many stated that they did not see Mr. Bell hit Mr. Barker. The victim himself even testified that he did not know if Mr. Bell hit him or not. The defense lawyer did not call any witnesses and rested his case. After three hours of deliberation, Mr. Bell was convicted and is currently awaiting sentencing.

Members of the Houston Millions More Movement Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Muhammad’s Mosque No. 45 Fruit of Islam visited the families of the Jena 6 on July 14 to conduct an fact-finding mission along with The Final Call.

“Our mission to Jena made clear to me that the “old south” is not so old that it is not without a pulse and heartbeat,” stated Deric Muhammad, Houston MOJ Spokesman. “The U.S. congress and Black America doesn’t have to strain its eyes toward Darfur or South Africa to see apartheid and/or genocide. We need look no further than Jena, Louisiana.”

The Black residents have been mobilizing the last few months with protests, organizing meetings, developed a NAACP branch headed by Secretary Catrina Wallace and created the Jena 6 Defense Fund Committee. They are planning a major protest on the steps of the Jena courthouse on the day of Mr. Bell’s sentencing and are calling on everyone to support.

[Source]

Videos


Photo Story of Jena 6


Day 1 Jena 6 Trail


Day 2: Jena 6 Trail


Day 3: Jena 6 Trail


Day 4: Jena 6 Trail


Day 5: Jena 6 Trail

[Source]

Comprehensive Look at the Case: Friends of Justice

Reflections in the wake of the Mychal Bell trial

Partisan witnesses
* The ten student witnesses who testified at Mychal Bell’s trial were all white. In fact, most of them were part of a distinct minority within
the high school’s white student population who attended all-white schools in the country surrounding Jena until High School. (More on this below)
* Justin Cooper was the only witness at trial to testify that Mychal Bell kicked Justin Barker as the victim lay unconscious on the ground.
Since Justin Cooper was one of the boys who admitted to hanging the nooses at Jena High School at the beginning of the school year, he can hardly be seen as an objective or credible witness. Defense Attorney Blane Williams was apparently unaware of Cooper’s connection to the noose incident.
* Jessica Hooter was one of four trial witnesses who identified Mychal as the person who threw the first punch at Justin Barker. Two days after the assault occurred, Jessica was unable to identify the initial attacker. But as she explained at trial, “After I thought about it more, I remembered more.” In his closing remarks, Blane Williams never mentioned that she had embellished her earlier testimony. Perhaps he forgot.
* The single male juror graduated from High School with Justin Barker’s father. The tendency to sympathize with an old school buddy whosekid got punched and kicked in a one-sided assault is understandable. It also makes objectivity impossible.
* Midway through the trial, assault victim Justin Barker and his family were seen by ten witnesses (myself included) sharing a convivial meal with several of the students who had testified against Mychal Bell. This suggests that a number of “memory-enhancing” conversations about the incident have taken place between early December and late June. Jessica Hooter likely “remembered” that the unidentified attacker was Mykal Bell because this quickly became the orthodox story in the social circle she move in.

Ms. Martin’s list
* At trial, special education teacher Kristy Martin listed off the names of the boys who surrounded Justin Barker as if they were clear in her memory. Although she was forced to admit that she never saw a single student touch Justin Barker, Martin’s ability to name names seemed very convincing. Martin is the only witness thus far who has provided a list of attackers longer than three names.
* In a written statement, given immediately after the incident, Coach Wayne Spence states that he was taking names of rowdy students in the gym during the lunch hour. “I had a list that Ms. Martin obtained from me,” he wrote. This suggests that Kristy Martin specifically asked Spence for the list of names the day of the fight. This explains why she is the only witness to remember more than two or three members of the Jena 6. Most eye witnesses can’t identify a single assailant by name. Most of the students who gave eyewitness statements after the December 4 altercation at the school make references to “a bunch of black kids”.

The witness no one called
* Coach Benjy Lewis gave two statements immediately after the school incident in which he clearly states that Justin Barker was facing him when Malcolm Shaw (not Mychal Bell) struck Barker from behind. “I saw Malcolm Shaw hit Justin Barker with his right fist to the right side of Justin’s head, right around the temple,” Lewis wrote. “Justin went down face first, knocked out . . .” Most witnesses agree that a single punch knocked Barker out cold. The only adult who witnessed the punch says Mychal Bell didn’t throw it.
* In a signed statement given immediately after the altercation at the school, student Jesse Beard stated that moments after the assault Coach Manning asked him where Malcolm Shaw was.
* It isn’t hard to see why the prosecution didn’t call Lewis to the stand (his testimony would have devastated the state’s case); but how do we explain why defense attorney Blane Williams didn’t call the coach to testify?
* Several people (myself included) noticed Mychal Bell repeatedly handing his attorney pieces of eyewitness testimony during the trial. This suggests that Williams entered the courtroom utterly unprepared for trial.

The green jacket theory
* Two female students testified that the person who knocked Justin Barker cold was wearing a green jacket. Mychal Bell’s statement, given immediately after the incident, suggests that he was initially cleared of responsibility because he was wearing a black jacket. At trial, the “green jacket” witnesses were convinced that Mychal Bell was not the attacker-they knew Mychal and the guy in the green jacket was someone else.
* The “green jacket” identification means that we have at least three mutually contradictory eyewitness accounts of who struck Justin Barker: Mychal Bell, Malcolm Shaw, or an unidentified student in a green jacket.
* Both “green jacket” witnesses insist that Justin Barker was knocked cold, not by a punch to the temple, but by having his head slammed into a concrete bench. Coach Benjy Lewis says that Justin Barker was knocked cold from a punch from behind. Witnesses who name Mychal Bell as the attacker describe a face-to-face confrontation followed by a blow to the head that knocked Justin Barker out. Defense attorney Blane Williams never reflected on the evidence long enough to identify these obvious contradictions.

If Lewis is right; Bell is innocent
* The fact that Justin Barker cannot remember who hit him argues in favor of Coach Lewis’s blow-from-behind account. It must also be remembered that Lewis was the only adult who directly witnessed the assault. He was also the only non-partisan eye witness. If Lewis is telling the truth, the witnesses who identify Mychal Bell as the initial attacker are either confused or, like Jessica Hooter, they are victims of a false sense of concreteness produced by the continual retelling the story in the company of partisan friends.
* Most of the prisoners recently exonerated on the basis of unassailable DNA evidence were wrongfully convicted by confident
eyewitnesses. Memory doesn’t work like a photograph; recollections change dramatically with time. We often see what we want to see.
* All this contradictory evidence makes it impossible to identifyJustin Barker’s assailant with any confidence.
* All those identifying Mychal Bell were highly partisan observers clearly identified with one side of a longstanding and unresolved feud
between the “country” white students who hung the nooses in a tree at the high school and the black male athletes who were particularly outraged by this hate crime (see more on this below).
* On balance, the most persuasive testimony by far comes from Coach Lewis-and neither the prosecution nor the defense called Lewis to testify at Mychal Bell’s trial.

A chaotic scene
* In signed statements, several black and white eyewitnesses referred to students running to and from the scene of the assault. Justin Barker was clearly struck on the face and then intentionally kicked while he lay on the ground. However, it is impossible to determine which of Justin Barker’s bruises and abrasions were the result of intentional assault and which may have been the unintentional result of a panic-induced stampede. All witnesses agree that the scene was utterly chaotic with students moving wildly in every direction. Defense attorney Blane Williams never raised this obvious question.
* Several of the Jena 6 defendants freely admit that they were close to the altercation. This isn’t surprising when we realize that the shout of “fight” at a high school always brings students running to the scene.

“With a stroke of my pen”* In early September, the three white students responsible for hanging nooses in a tree in the school courtyard were punished with a few days of in-school suspension. The noose incident was dismissed as a childish prank. The following day, black students staged a spontaneous protest rally under the tree where the nooses had been discovered. Several black male athletes took the lead in this protest-the same students who were eventually accused of attacking Justin Barker.
* The decision to treat the noose incident as a childish prank sparked a brief firestorm of media attention in which Jena school officials were frequently accused of racism.
* In early September, District Attorney Reed Walters addressed an emergency school assembly called in response to the spontaneous student protest. With a dozen fully uniformed police officers in the auditorium, Walters warned protest organizers that with a stroke of his pen he could take their lives away. Walters has admitted under oath that he made this remark. His words were not aimed at the entire student body, nor at black students in general-he was speaking to the student athletes we now call the Jena 6. After the demonstration under the tree, Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Mychal Bell, Theodore Shaw, Jesse Beard and Bryant Ray Purvis became
notorious.

A descending spiral of violence
* Evidence suggests that some teachers and school administrators were empowered by Mr. Walters’ “stroke of my pen” remark. Defendants report that in the wake of the school assembly, several teachers became increasingly strict and adversarial in relation to the boys responsible for associating Jena High School with Jim Crow racism. It appears that some students responded to this change in attitude by withholding respect and acting out in ways that encouraged an even more authoritarian teacher response. Discipline referrals for the Jena 6 skyrocketed during the fall semester.

* In the period between Mr. Walter’s “stroke of my pen” threat in September and the assault on Justin Barker in early December, a series of physical altercations played out between the Jena 6 and the circle of boys who supported the hanging of the nooses. The white students had attended all-white schools in the countryside prior to coming to the integrated high school campus. They felt reassured by the segregated school courtyard and were intimidated by the suggestion that black students could sit wherever they wanted. Hence the nooses.
* The laughably light discipline handed down for this “childish prank” was perceived, correctly, as a triumph for students wishing to preserve a segregated school square.

A fire, a fight, and a firearm
* In signed statements, several white and black students mentioned a series of verbal altercations during the lunch hour preceding the attack on Justin Barker. The trash-talking was directly related to a fight at the Fair Barn three days earlier. On that occasion, Robert Bailey and a few of his friends were invited to an all-white student party by some of their white friends. When Robert entered the building he was punched in the face by a 22 year-old white male. In seconds, Robert was assaulted with beer bottles, punches and kicks in a virtual mirror image of the altercation at the high school three days later. The only differences were that the identify of the instigator in the Fair Barn incident was undisputed and that Robert remained conscious after the initial blow and was thus able to minimize the impact of the attack.
* The following morning, Robert Bailey and two of the friends who had come to his aid during the Fair Barn assault were leaving a local
convenience store when they encountered one of the country white males who had jumped Robert the night before. Fearing retaliation, the boy retreated to his truck and pulled out a pump-action, pistol-grip shotgun that looks like something the Terminator might have fancied. When Robert and his friends wrestled the weapon away from their would-be assailant they were charged with assault and theft. Once again, Jena’s New Jim Crow regime was reinforced.
* It is not unusual for residents of rural LaSalle Parish to drive around with firearms in their trucks. On May 10, 2007, Justin Barker was
arrested for bringing a rifle to school in his vehicle. A thorough search probably would have turned up several more illegal firearms in the school parking lot.
* The violent assault at the Fair Barn, the convenience store incident, and the assault at the school followed in the wake of a traumatic
school fire in late Novermber. Everyone associated with the school was in a state of shock akin to post traumatic stress syndrome. Concerned by the wave of violence, several teachers asked administrators not to reopen the school the Monday morning of the assault.

Running his mouth
* Student statements suggest that the student who attacked Justin Barker was responding to taunts that Robert Bailey “had his butt kicked” at the Fair Barn. In the course of this verbal jousting, several students report that Justin Barker “got up in Mychal’s face” and gave Mychal the finger. Tony Knapp, one of three boys who admitted to hanging nooses earlier in the school year, was also involved in this lunch hour altercation. At trial, District Attorney Reed Walters created the misleading impression that Barker was attacked by black thugs looking for a random white victim. He knew better.
* Several eyewitnesses recall that the initial punch was preceded by the shouted words, “This will teach you to run your mother f***ing mouth.” This statement, repeated by too many witnesses to be seriously doubted, makes no sense apart from the trash talking described in student statements.

The sins of the fathers
* This background information demonstrates that the black male students who attacked Justin Barker were bound to a steadily escalating chain of violence and counter-violence.
* This spiral of action and reaction was initiated by the September decision of school administrators to treat the noose incident as a childish prank. When Reed Walters threatened the Jena 6 with life imprisonment if they didn’t relinquish their constitutional right to denounce injustice, the boys were left with no legitimate avenue of protest. In the end, immature white and black males were left to their own devices. The consequences were as predictable as they were tragic.
* The ultimate responsibility for the violence at Jena High School lies at the feet of public officials who refused to acknowledge a hate crime
for what it was. The sins of the fathers are now being visited upon the children.

[Source]




Updates after the trail

Defense Attorney says Bell case should be in juvenile system

Bell, the first of the "Jena Six" to face trial in the adult justice system, was 16 when arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with a December incident at Jena High School.

Bob Noel, one of the team of defense attorneys from Monroe who took on Bell's case pro-bono, said a juvenile can't go through the adult justice system unless he or she is charged with one of a few crimes such as murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and attempted murder. Bell was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, not one of the specific charges.

But Pete Adams, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, said the court that starts with jurisdiction retains it.

This is an excerpt from the code that governs which court would handle a juvenile's case:

"The court exercising criminal jurisdiction shall retain jurisdiction over the child's case, even though he pleads guilty to or is convicted of a lesser included offense. A plea to or conviction of a lesser included offense shall not revest jurisdiction in the court exercising juvenile jurisdiction over such a child."

But Noel pointed out that the adult system would retain jurisdiction only if the jury came back with the lesser charge or if Bell pleaded to that charge. That wasn't the case for Bell, he said.

If the arrest of judgment -- the motion that would void the conviction in adult court and throw it into the juvenile system -- is denied, Noel said the attorneys also have filed a motion for a new trial citing improper representation by Bell's previous attorney.

The other attorneys defending Bell along with Noel are lead attorney Louis Scott, Lee Perkins, Peggy Sullivan and Carol Powell-Lexing. All of the attorneys are members of the 4th Judicial District Indigent Defenders Board.

Bell is still being held in lieu of $90,000 bond. A bond reduction hearing is set for Aug. 24. His sentencing is set for Sept.

[Source]

Bell denied bond due to criminal history

In addition to Mychal Bell's recent felony conviction, his criminal history was revealed Friday to contain four other violent crimes.

Because of that, a LaSalle Parish judge denied the 17-year-old bond in his current scrape with the law.

Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr., with the 28th Judicial District Court, went over the factors in Louisiana code used to determine bail, pointing out specifics in Bell's case:

The seriousness of the offense: "It is a serious offense because it is a crime of violence," he said.

The weight of the evidence against the defendant: Mauffray said it was "pretty weighty" considering the jury convicted Bell.

The previous criminal record of the defendant: He said a criminal record was obviously present considering that Bell had been adjudicated on three offenses that were committed while he was on probation and then convicted this year in adult court.

The nature and seriousness of the danger to any other person or the community that would be posed by the defendant's release: Again, Mauffray pointed out that Bell now has either been adjudicated or convicted of five crimes of violence.

Whether the defendant is currently out on bond on a previous felony arrest: He cited Bell's presence on probation and the fact that there were three other cases -- not including the case Bell is currently in jail for -- awaiting disposition.

"Past behavior is the best prediction of future behavior," Mauffray said.

A motion hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4. Bell's attorneys are hoping their client's adult conviction will be voided and the case remanded to juvenile court. If that motion is denied, attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial based on insufficient defense counsel for Bell among other things.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 20.

[Source]




How to Help

-Sign the Petition

-Write a letter to Governor Blanco

-Send Mychal Bell your support:

Mychal Bell
Inmate, A-Dorm
LaSalle Correctional Center
15976 Highway 165
Olla, LA 71465-4801

-Other Contacts:

Jena 6 Defense Committee
PO Box 2798
Jena LA 71342
Email: jena6defense@gmail.com

Friends of Justice
507 N. Donley Ave
Tulia TX 79088
Website: www.fojtulia.org

ACLU of Louisiana
PO Box 56157
New Orleans LA 70156
Website: www.laaclu.org

Other links

Offical Jena 6 Website

Democracy Now: The Case of the Jena 6

Deocracy Now: "A Modern Day Lynching"

Hundreds march in Jena, LA in support of the Jena 6

Searching for Justice in Jena 6 Case

NPR: Beating Charges Split La. Town Along Racial Lines

CNN Video on the Case

"Free the Jena Six" tshirts banned from Jena High School

NPR: Searching for Justice

No bond for murder suspect

Craig — A 70-year-old Craig man accused of murdering his wife and burying her near a gold mine north of Craig will be held without bond for at least another few weeks.

Terry Hankins, who was arrested by the Craig Police Department on Friday, appeared via video Monday in Moffat County Court for his advisement. It was the first time Hankins appeared in court since his arrest.

Public defender Sheryl Uhlmann, who represented Hankins during the hearing, entered her appearance in the case Monday morning and already had filed several motions in the case including one to schedule a bond hearing and one to seal Hankins’ court files from the public. Assistant District Attorney Kerry St. James and Deputy District Attorney Brett Barkey both are prosecuting the case. Fourteenth Judicial District Attorney Bonnie Roesink also was present during the hearing.

Uhlmann and St. James agreed it was too early in the case to set bond, for which Hankins is ineligible until a future bond hearing is set.

District Chief Judge Michael O’Hara scheduled Hankins to appear in court at 1 p.m. Sept. 12 for a status conference. Bond and preliminary hearings likely will be scheduled during that hearing.

Hankins, a gold miner, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, abusing a corpse, tampering with evidence, theft, forgery and possessing more than 1 gram of a controlled substance. Hankins was arrested the day before law enforcement officers uncovered the body of his wife 36-year-old Cynthia Hankins-Runnels about 33 miles north of Craig on a parcel of land Hankins lives and operates on. Hankins-Runnels had been missing since June 3.

Police suspect Hankins-Runnels was slain in Craig and that her body was buried at the site. Though officials had searched the area once, they were unable to locate the body until Saturday. Officials were investigating allegations that Hankins was involved in other criminal activity that related to his wife’s disappearance.

Craig Police Department Chief Walt Vanatta said police had executed around five or six search warrants in the case that included searches of both Hankins’ vehicles and Terry Hankins’ property north of Craig.

If convicted of the first-degree murder charge, Hankins could face up to life in prison or death. On the less severe charges, which range from a Class 3 felony to a Class 2 misdemeanor, Hankins could face from one year in prison to 24 years and up to $500,000 in fines.

During the hearing, Hankins waived his right to have a preliminary hearing within 30 days. He did not address the court expect to say, “Yes, I do understand,” when O’Hara asked Hankins if Hankins understood his rights.

O’Hara also put in place a mandatory restraining order in the case prohibiting Hankins from contacting at least a dozen people, including members of Hankins-Runnels’ family. Hankins also is not allowed to possess a weapon or consume alcohol if he were to make bond before the case is settled.

At the attorney’s request, O’Hara agreed to keep Hankins’ court files, which include details about several search and arrest warrants, sealed to minimize “pre-trial publicity.”

Both Uhlmann and St. James expressed concern about Hankins receiving a fair trial if the documents were to become public.

“My hope and desire is (Hankins) receive a fair trial in our community,” St. James said during the hearing. “The revelation of that information may infringe on that right.”

O’Hara said he was not inclined to put a gag order in place yet. A gag order is intended to limit what is made public during a criminal trial and usually involves participants in the case.

St. James assured the court that the DA’s Office would not be commenting on the case publicly.

“It has been my practice not discuss cases with the media,” he said. “I will continue to behave in that fashion.”

Uhlmann said newspaper articles regarding the case already had appeared in several regional and Denver newspapers as well as on a law enforcement Web site.

“The risk of pre-publicity is very substantial,” she said. “We want to ensure Mr. Hankins receives his due process and a fair trial.”

Uhlmann was unavailable for further comment Monday.

St. James also said the case is still under investigation, and that there are investigators working on the case outside of Colorado.

There were no other persons present during the 30-minute long hearing besides court personnel and attorneys.

On Monday, Renee McCurry, who worked with Hankins-Runnels at the Craig Motel for about a month, was distraught to hear that Hankins-Runnels was found dead.

“I am crushed,” she said. “This is awful. She didn’t deserve to be murdered.”

McCurry characterized Hankins-Runnels as “funny and outgoing.”

“She was a good woman, a hard worker,” she said. “She was very friendly. Everyone got along with her.”

Vanatta said the Hankins’ relationship, which began while Hankins-Runnels was serving a prison sentence in Texas, was “turbulent.”

McCurry said she had only met Terry Hankins twice, but that she knew the couple had problems.

“I don’t know what he was all about, but I know that he wanted to know where she was 24/7,” she said. “I ain’t lying about that.”

McCurry became suspicious Hankins-Runnels was missing after she quit stopping by the Craig Motel for visits. Hankins-Runnels apparently had quit working at the motel to work as a construction flagger, McCurry said.

“She’d stop by every other day or so and say hi, then she just stopped, and then one day I began wondering, ‘Where is Cynthia?” she said.

Police said Hankins-Runnels was reported missing around June 3 by a family member.

Moffat County Coroner Owen Grant said Hankins-Runnels’ autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. Her body likely will be sent to Fort Worth, Texas, where Hankins-Runnels is from and where her family lives.

The Hankins case is the second Craig murder case the 14th Judicial District has handled in the last two years.

In August 2005, the then 17-year-old Craig resident Hugo Antonio Silva-Larios pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter in the October 2004 shooting death of James Calvin Pogline, 32.

Silva-Larios, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, originally was charged with second-degree murder. He was sentenced to serve five years in prison and was deported to Mexico.

[Source]

Previous article:

Missing Woman found buried in Gold mine, husband arrested

Craig police say the body of 36-year-old Cynthia Hankins was found Saturday buried in a gold mine that her husband operated. Her body was under tons of dirt in the mine, 33 miles North of Craig. She had been missing since June 3rd.

Her 70-year-old husband, Terry Hankins, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder, abusing a corpse, tampering with evidence, forgery, theft and possession of a controlled substance.

Police say they believe Cynthia Hankins was killed in the city of Craig before she was buried at the mine.

An autopsy of will be released this week.

[Source]

Missing: Shaquita Bell

UPDATE: Shaquita Bell's ex-boyfriend has been charged in her murder.

The ex-boyfriend of a woman missing for 11 years has been charged in connection with her killing, News4 reported.

During a 10:30 a.m. news conference, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Michael Dickerson, 38, has been charged in the disappearance of Shaquita Bell, who was last seen 11 years ago leaving her grandmother's Alexandria, Va., home with him.

News4's Megan McGrath reported that Dickerson has also been charged in the death of Sean Thomas, who was found shot multiple times in Southeast in February 1996. McGrath said police believe that Bell was killed in June 1996 because she knew about Dickerson's connection to the killing.

"The message is loud, and it is clear. This is no longer a place where you can get away with murder," Lanier said.

Dickerson was convicted of a drug violation in 1989 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term after he was convicted in November 1996 of beating Bell a month before she disappeared. Dickerson also pleaded guilty to federal gun charges in D.C.

Lanier said on Tuesday that police executed two search warrants on Jan. 10 for Dickerson's family home in southeast Washington and his jail cell at the Rivers Federal Corrections Institute in Winston, N.C.

Bell's slaying was considered a cold case and was closed administratively in 1999 when prosecutors turned down detectives' request for a warrant, News4's Pat Collins reported.

Lanier reviewed the case, however, after meeting with Bell's mother, Jackie Winbourne, and the investigation continued. Investigators said they have new witnesses and information that has allowed them to file charges.

"Nothing better could have happened, besides Shaquita coming home," Winbourne said. "I praise God for what He's done. I thank him for this, even. At least I have some closure now."

In July 2007, K-9 units found possible clues in a Fort Washington, Md., field. D.C. and Prince George's County police departments worked at the Old Fort Road site with a Smithsonian team in August after police received a tip from Bell's estranged boyfriend.

Bell was last seen at about 1 p.m. on June 27, 1996. She was 23 years old at the time of her disappearance.

Police said Bell left her grandmother's house on East Raymond Avenue in Alexandria with her estranged boyfriend and father of her youngest child, Dickerson, just before she disappeared.

Relatives said they were perplexed by Bell's decision to leave with him.

A month earlier, Bell called police to report that the estranged boyfriend had beaten her during a squabble in the Laurel apartment that they shared. He was arrested, and Bell moved back in with her grandmother in Alexandria.

Three weeks after that incident, police said, Bell called police to say that he had held a gun to her head during a fight. He was arrested in Washington and charged with possession of a machine gun the same day.

On the day of Bell's disappearance, the estranged boyfriend had driven Bell to take two of her three children to a doctor's appointment. Family members said she called at 2 p.m. and said she was on the way home, and that was the last time anybody heard from her. The boyfriend told the family that they had gone into southeast Washington, where they got into an argument and she left him.

Police said Bell had provided information in at least two investigations, one of them a homicide. According to her mother, Bell was afraid for her life.

Police said Bell worked at a Giant Food bakery and did not have a criminal record.

No murder charges were ever filed in the case because her body has never been found.

Bell's mother and stepfather have worked for more than a decade to find out what happened to her, holding vigils and demonstrations and knocking on doors.

Bell's mother said she harbors no ill-will toward Dickerson.

Dickerson will be extradited to D.C., where he will face two first-degree murder charges. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of a mandatory 30 years to life in prison.

[Source]

Two teams of investigators spent Tuesday in a wooded area of Fort Washington, searching for the remains of Shaquita Bell. The mother of three was last seen in the District in 1996, when she was just 23 years old.

D.C. Police K-9 cadaver units have led investigators to focus on one area in the site off Old Fort Road. A team of scientists from the Smithsonian Institution came to help analyze the soil where police suspect Shaquita Bell's body may be buried.

"We had several teams show a significant area of interest," said D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. "So we marked those areas off and we want to make sure we're very careful and methodical about how we do this."

Investigators suspect Bell's boyfriend, Michael Dickerson, the father of her youngest child, killed her in 1996 in D.C. and dumped her body in the wooded area of Fort Washington. One of Dickerson's friends told police he had helped bury Bell's body in that spot. He led police to the same area off Old Fort Road before he was murdered.

That search turned up no evidence of Bell, but police have returned to the site recently, including last month, to try new technology.

"When you dig a grave shaft, you dig a grave and replace that soil; it's not as compact as it was before, and we can feel that using metal probes," said Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian Institute.

Bell's parents, Thomas and Jackie Winborne, just want answers after a decade of not knowing what happened to Shaquita.

"There's hurt if we don't find her and we don't know where she is, and there's hurt if we do find her, but like i said, there will be closure," said Jackie Winborne.

[Source]

Other articles

Smithstonian Joins Search for Shaquita Bell

A team from the Smithsonian was digging in a Maryland field Tuesday in search for clues that could help solve a mystery that haunts a local family.

Shaquita Bell was last seen 11 years ago leaving her grandmother's Alexandria, Va., home with her estranged boyfriend. A month ago, K-9 units found possible clues in a Fort Washington field. Authorities hope that might produce evidence.

The D.C. and Prince George's County police departments worked with the Smithsonian team Tuesday.

Bell's father was at the site at Old Fort Road Tuesday along with a documentary crew in an effort to gain more attention in resolving this case.

Police are searching that area based on a tip from a friend of Bell's estranged boyfriend. In the weeks before her disappearance, Bell reported to police that her estranged boyfriend had beaten her on one occasion and held a gun to her head on another occasion.

The estranged boyfriend was convicted of a drug violation in 1989 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term after being convicted of beating Bell a month before she disappeared.

Bell was a young working mother. No murder charges were ever filed in the case because her body has never been found.

[Source]

Hoping for an Answer

She was last seen at 1 p.m. leaving her grandmother’s house on East Raymond Avenue in Alexandria with her estranged boyfriend — a man family members blame for the disappearance of Shaquita Bell, 23, an attractive mother of three who worked at a Giant in Springfield. The date was June 27, 1996, and Bell has not been seen since. Now — 11 years after the disappearance — police officials in the District of Columbia have dispatched cadaver dogs and a search team to Fort Washington, Md., to look for additional remains. The search began last week, and Washington police officials acknowledge that they are investigating the possibility that they have found Bell’s remains.

"The chief has ordered a continuation of the search this week," said Officer Junis Fletcher, a spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. "At this point, we’re trying to determine more about the remains."

For more than a decade, Bell’s disappearance has troubled family members and friends at My Father’s House Christian Church. Each year, the church holds a special ceremony to remember Bell that includes dancing, singing, poetry and even fashion. Church officials say the remembrance is an opportunity to put a spotlight on the dangers of domestic violence and show support for Bell’s three surviving children: Ashley, 16; Devontae, 13, and Alexis, 11.

"They are now in the 11th year of her disappearance and they consider it to be the 11th hour," read an invitation to the June 30 event. "It is in God’s timing that they should hear from Him."

THE TIMING OF BELL’S disappearance dovetails with countless other missing persons cases — sad chapters that linger as bitter memories for family and friends who are left with fading memories and unanswered questions. A month before she was last seen — June 1996 — Bell called police to report that her estranged boyfriend had beaten her during a squabble in the Laurel apartment that they shared. The boyfriend, Michael Dickerson, was arrested and Bell moved in with her grandmother in Alexandria. On the day of Bell’s disappearance, Dickerson had driven Bell to take two of her three children to a doctor's appointment. They returned to the grandmother’s house shortly after noon. Shortly afterward, Bell and Dickerson left together — the last time she was seen alive. Around 2 p.m. she called to say she would be home soon but she was never heard from again.

"All evidence points to Dickerson," proclaimed a missing-person flyer distributed by Bell’s church.

Washington police officials thought they had a break in the case several years ago, when Dickerson’s friend told investigators where Dickerson said he had buried the body. Yet the friend was murdered the day before he was supposed to wear a wire during a meeting with Dickerson, who is currently serving time for the assault-and-battery case against Bell. The Washington Police Department searched the Fort Washington area where the man said Dickerson claimed to have buried Bell. But the results were inconclusive and police officials suspended the investigation. Bell’s family, however, did not.

"The Bible says that God answers in the 11th hour," said Jackie Winbourne, Bell’s mother. "God told me that an answer would come in the 11th hour."

Eleven years after the disappearance, Bell’s annual remembrance ceremony brought media attention and television coverage. One of the viewers who saw Winbourne on television was Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who invited family members to a July 4 meeting at police headquarters to talk about the case. During the meeting, police officials asked Winbourne how they could renew the stalled investigation.

"I thank God for Chief Lanier," said Winbourne. "She has such compassion, and she is an amazing woman."

AS THE COLD CASE heats up, police officials are continuing to search the area in Fort Washington where investigators believe that Dickerson buried Bell. Because of the 11-year passage of time, police officials have brought a Smithsonian bone expert into the investigation and conducted several sweeps of the area where the remains were discovered last week. DNA samples have been taken from family members and the analysis is now being conducted on the remains. Washington police officials say that no identification has been confirmed yet, but one could come any day.

"Part of me, of course, doesn’t want it to be her," said Winbourne. "But if she’s not going to come home I want closure."

[Source]

Investigators Renew Efforts to Find Woman's Body



There was a time shortly after Shaquita Bell disappeared 11 years ago when her parents would come to this spot in southern Prince George's County almost every day. Shovels in hand, sweating in the summer sun, they spent hours scanning the ground for signs of her body along a small wooded ravine in Fort Washington where witnesses said Bell, a 23-year-old mother of three, had been buried.

Bell's mother, Jackie Winborne, and Winborne's husband, Thomas, often came alone. Sometimes they would pause there only a few minutes, but they always prayed the same prayer: Lord, let her body be here somewhere. Lord, let it end so we can take her home.

Yesterday, they were not alone. One of the nation's leading forensics experts joined a team of police detectives from the District and Prince George's in the hunt for Bell's remains. Using a search dog, metal probes, shovels and a backhoe, Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and investigators surveyed the sloping ravines near Old Fort Road and Marge Court for hours while Bell's family waited nearby.

"We're just hoping for a proper homecoming for Shaquita today," Thomas Winborne said.

By late yesterday, investigators had not found her body. The search continues today.

Bell, who worked at a grocery store bakery, was last seen about 1 p.m. June 27, 1996, when she left her grandmother's Alexandria home with her estranged boyfriend, Michael Dickerson. Relatives said the couple, who during their stormy two-year relationship once shared a home in Laurel, split shortly before Bell's disappearance.

A month earlier, Bell told police that Dickerson had beaten her and threatened her with a gun. Bell disappeared days before she was to appear in court as a witness in the assault case.

Dickerson, who is serving a 15-year sentence for the May 1996 gun assault on Bell, has denied involvement in Bell's disappearance and has not been charged in connection with it.

Bell's mother said her daughter began scribbling notes about Dickerson's activities months before her disappearance. Flipping through a thick binder with notes and news clippings on Bell's case before yesterday's search, Jackie Winborne pointed to one of the neatly penned notes she said was found in Bell's address book. "Call homicide," the note read. "Tell them that the person was killed w/a .380 bullets." Jackie Winborne shook her head. "It's chilling to find that. There's a lot of things, you know, you wish you could have done to put her in a safe zone," she said.

Winborne said several people who knew Dickerson and anonymous tipsters hinted that Bell might have been buried in Fort Washington days after her disappearance. Over the years, the family received other clues: an envelope stuffed with documents detailing Dickerson's criminal history, a late-night phone call from a woman who said she knew Bell's body was buried in the woods.

Bell's daughter Alexis, 11, was only 7 months old when her mother disappeared, but she tells her grandparents that she remembers her mom. Devontae, 13, has his mother's eyes and recalls her mostly as the woman who smiles down from the mantelpiece photo that sits in the center of the Winbornes' collection of angel figurines. Ashley, 16, remembers more and knows what it means to celebrate her first prom without her mother there to see her off, Winborne said.

Detectives launched the new effort in June after D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier took a personal interest and helped detectives organize the search with Owsley, who has worked on several other cold cases. Lanier had heard Bell's mother talk about the case during a television broadcast on the anniversary of the disappearance.

"I called her because I thought there were some things still worth doing. There are still some people we are talking to," Lanier said.

In July, cadaver dogs from the District picked up a scent in the area once pinpointed by tipsters, authorities said. Owsley, who was in the news recently for helping to discover the body of a 13- or 14-year-old boy who died in the mid-1800s, said he agreed to assist even though he knew the Bell case would be challenging.

Lanier and Maj. Daniel Dusseau, head of the Prince George's criminal investigation division, said the search team plans to work for several days.

"We hope to do as much as we can so that we are able to bring the family closure," Dusseau said. "For them it's been an emotional rollercoaster."

[Source]


Editorial: No More Violence

Police Search for Shaquita Bell

D.C. Police Search Yields Evidence

Family Believes New Photo Is Of Missing Girl

Tionda, Diamond Bradley Disappeared Six Years Ago


Tionda Age-Progressed to 15 years


The family of the missing Bradley girls has released a new photograph they found on the Internet.

After more than six years and dozens of prayer vigils and marches, the Bradley sisters are still missing. Tionda was 10 and her little sister Diamond was 3 when they disappeared from their South Side apartment in 2001.

Despite scores of leads gathered by Chicago police, no trace of the girls has been found.

As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, now a photograph has surfaced on the Internet on a MySpace page by someone named "Angelique." Although tracing the source of the picture has been fruitless so far, the girls’ aunt believes it could well be a picture of Tionda, who would be 16 today.

"That's my niece. I'm telling you that's my niece. And if it's not my niece, only DNA can prove me different,” said Shelia Bradley Smith.

A West Side pastor who has been counseling the family thinks she may be right.

"It looks like a very close resemblance,” said Rev. Paul Jakes.

The family has posted the mystery photo on their Web site, FindTiondaAndDiamond.com.

"I need for the community, anybody throughout the United States or internationally to just take a look at the picture. Maybe they know who that girl is, because if it was put on there as a joke or a hoax, we need to just know,” Bradley Smith said.

"We have faith in the prayers,” Jakes added. “We pray that there will be a fair and good outcome."

Experts at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children say they cannot say for sure if the girl in the photo is Tionda.

Chicago police are still trying to track down the source of the picture.

[Source]
[Source]

Still Missing: 1995

Lafreda Chrispen
DOB: Feb 26, 1990
Missing: Feb 14, 1995
Age Now: 17
Height: 4'0" (122 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 30 lbs (14 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: West Palm Beach, FL

The child was last seen on February 14, 1995. She may be in the company of an adult male and an adult female.




Lenoria Jones
DOB: Jan 3, 1992
Missing: Jul 20, 1995
Age Now: 15
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 3'0" (91 cm)
Weight: 40 lbs (18 kg)
Missing From: Tacoma, WA

Lenoria's photo is shown age-progressed to 14 years. She was last seen on July 20, 1995 wearing a black "Barney" T-shirt and blue turquoise pants. Lenoria's hair was in braids.




Taranika Raymond
DOB: Jul 6, 1982
Missing: Nov 13, 1995
Age Now: 25
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Weight: 165 lbs (75 kg)
Missing From: New Orleans, LA

Taranika's photo is shown age-progressed to 20 years. She may still be in the local area.



Atlanta Unidentified
DOB: Jan 1, 1986
Found: Apr 4, 1995
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Age Now: 21
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Hair: Black
Found: Atlanta, GA

On April 4, 1995 the Atlanta Police found an unidentified black female between the ages of 15 and 28 in a shallow grave in Atlanta Georgia. She was found wearing a short sleeve, faded light blue shirt, size 16 and faded denim jeans, with black tennis shoes. This is not a portrait of the victim. This is a facial reconstruction done by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The "DOB" and "Age Now" fields are approximations.

[Source]

Still Missing: 1996

Celina Mays
DOB: May 28, 1984
Missing: Dec 16, 1996
Age Now: 23
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'0" (152 cm)
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Missing From: Willingboro, NJ

Celina's photo is shown age-progressed to 19 years. She was 9 months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. It is believed she has given birth and may be in need of medical assistance. Celina's eyebrows grow together.




Falls Road Unidentified
Missing: Mar 5, 1996
Age Now: 17-19 yrs. of age
Race: Black
Height: 5'1" (155 cm)
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Missing From: Baltimore, MD

The skeletal remains of this victim were found on March 5, 1996 in the 17800 block of Falls Road, Baltimore County, MD. It is estimated that the reamins had been at the location for approximately 5 years or longer before discovery. The left image, and thumb nail image on webpage are Reconstructions of the Victim produced by: NCMEC, the Sketch on the Right of the poster was produced by: Detective Karen Gentry

[Source]

Still Missing: 1997

Ashani Creighton
DOB: Aug 16, 1992
Missing: Mar 21, 1997
Age Now: 15
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'0" (122 cm)
Weight: 50 lbs (23 kg)
Missing From: Orlando, FL

Ashani's photo is shown age-progressed to 12 years. She was last seen by her mother on March 21, 1997. She was abducted by her grandparents who have since been taken into custody. The grandparents moved from Orlando, Florida to Tulsa, Oklahoma during the month of August, 1998 and Ashani has not been seen or heard from since. She may also go by the name Karin.

[Source]

Still Missing: 1998

Kimberly Arrington
DOB: May 23, 1982
Missing: Oct 30, 1998
Age Now: 25
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From: Montgomery, AL

Kimberly's photo is shown age-progressed to 20 years. She was last seen on October 30, 1998, when she left to go to a nearby store. She has a scar on her abdomen and her nicknames are Kim and Kiwi.



Baby Jane Doe
DOB: Mar 15, 1998
Missing: Mar 20, 1998
Age Now: 9
Height: 1'7" (48 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 5 lbs (2 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Washington D.C

This child was found abandon in the unit block Rhode Island Ave, N.E. Washington D.C. The newborn child was clothed in a knitted white blanket with sky blue and pinkish-orange border. She was wearing a one-piece sleeper, white in color with colorful construction machinery & Dalmatian puppies, which fastened in the front. She was also wearing hand knitted light purple sweater and bonnet.




Tinesha Jackson
DOB: Jul 21, 1981
Missing: Mar 2, 1998
Age Now: 26
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1" (155 cm)
Weight: 155 lbs (70 kg)
Missing From: West Covina, CA

Tineshia's photo is shown age-progressed to 22 years. She was last known to be in the company of a male acquaintance who has since been found deceased. She has a tattoo of her name on her chest and a tattoo of a rose on her left thigh.





Kamiyah Mobley
DOB: Jul 10, 1998
Missing: Jul 10, 1998
Age Now: 9
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 1'9" (53 cm)
Weight: 8 lbs (4 kg)
Missing From: Jacksonville, FL

Suspect
DOB: Jan 1, 1968
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 145 lbs (66 kg)

The images shown are all composites. The infant was abducted from her mother's room at University Medical Center in Jacksonville, FL at 3:00 p.m. on July 10, 1998. The suspect was dressed in a nurse's blue floral smock and green scrub pants. She is a black female, approx. 25-35 years old, 130-160 lbs. She possibly wears wigs and glasses. The child has Mongolian spots on her buttocks which tend to fade in 6-8 months. No infant metabolic screening has been performed on the baby. Birth mother has tested positive for sickle cell anemia and strep type B. Kamiyah also has an umbilical hernia.




Shy’Kemmia Pate
DOB: Oct 29, 1989
Missing: Sep 4, 1998
Age Now: 17
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'4" (132 cm)
Weight: 59 lbs (27 kg)
Missing From: Unadilla, GA

Shy'Kemmia's photo is shown age-progressed to 16 years. She was last seen at her residence on September 4, 1998 at approximately 7:00 p.m. She has a surgical scar along her waistline.

[Source]

Still Missing: 1999

Lakiesha Buckner
DOB: Jun 19, 1983
Missing: Aug 13, 1999
Age Now: 24
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'7" (140 cm)
Weight: 115 lbs (52 kg)
Missing From: Marshall, TX

Lakiesha's photo is shown age-progressed to 21 years. She may be in the company of an adult male.




Teekah Lewis
DOB: Jul 4, 1996
Missing: Jan 23, 1999
Age Now: 11
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 3'0" (91 cm)
Weight: 35 lbs (16 kg)
Missing From: Tacoma, WA

Teekah's photo is shown age-progressed to 10 years. She was last seen on January 23, 1999 at approximately 10:30 p.m. at the New Frontier Lanes bowling alley in Tacoma, Washington. Teekah was wearing a Tweety Bird T-shirt, white sweat pants and Air Jordan sneakers. She has eczema, with a skin discoloration on her face and left side of her buttocks. She also has asthma which may require medical attention.

[Source]

Still Missing: 2000

Jocelyn Cemervil
Asha Degree
Sabah Karriem-Conner
Dawn Koranteng
Jewel Koranteng
Belaynesh Melchishua
Sakile Melchishua
Mulenga Ngwashi-Hibbert - Recovered
Clinton, P.G. CO., MD Unidentified
Brittany Williams

[Source]

Still Missing: 2001

Diamond Bradley
Tionda Bradley
Irene Kouame
Timeka Pridgen
Jaquilla Scales


[Source]

Found Dead: Cynthia Hankins

A 70-year-old mining prospector has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, who he allegedly buried near one of his mines.

Investigators from a multi-jurisdictional task force on Saturday recovered the body of Cynthia Hankins-Runnels, 36, after six hours of digging at a site 33 miles north of Craig in Moffat County.

The task force consisted of officers from the Craig Police Department, the Moffat County Sheriff's Department, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Land Management.

Arrested was Terrence Joe Hankins, 70, who was living at and operating a mining claim at the remote location, according to Craig Police Chief Walter Vanatta.

According to Vanatta, Hankins was being investigated for a variety of criminal activities when information developed that related to the disappearance of his wife. She had been missing since June 3.
Search warrants were executed for the mining claim and for an area immediately adjacent to the claim on BLM land where Hankins' wife was allegedly buried.

Vanatta said that searchers used heavy equipment and hand tools in excavating the burial site.

The victim's body was found buried in a grave covered with a pile of dirt approximately 12 feet wide at the base and six feet high, Vanatta said. He said it appeared that the crime occurred in Craig and that the body was later moved.

Hankins is being held in the Moffat County Detention Center. He is charged with first-degree murder; abusing a corpse; tampering with evidence; forgery, theft and possession of a controlled substance.

[Source]

Still Missing: 2002

Kynande Bennett
DOB: Aug 24, 1998
Missing: Sep 29, 2002
Age Now: 9
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 3'10" (117 cm)
Weight: 90 lbs (41 kg)
Missing From: Whiteville, NC

Kynande's photo is shown age-progressed to 6 years. She was reportedly last seen in the company of her mother at a Kmart department store in Whiteville, North Carolina. Kynande has pierced ears and a birthmark on her right arm. When she was last seen, Kynande had braids in her hair and was wearing a grey "FUBU" shirt and blue jeans.



Nicole Johnson
DOB: Dec 6, 1986
Missing: Dec 13, 2002
Age Now: 20
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 115 lbs (52 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Chicago, IL

Nicole was last seen on December 13, 2002. She may still be in the local area. Nicole's ears are pierced.





Ta’Niyah Leonard
DOB: Nov 16, 2001
Missing: Oct 19, 2002
Age Now: 5
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 2'6" (76 cm)
Weight: 20 lbs (9 kg)
Missing From: Bartow, FL

The last photo is of the child age-progressed to 4 years. She was last seen at home on October 19, 2002. She has pierced ears and light birthmark on her right leg. Her nickname is Ny Ny.




Stefanie Mills
DOB: Feb 24, 1986
Missing: Mar 7, 2002
Age Now: 21
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From: Pittsburgh, PA

Stefanie's photo is shown age-progressed to 19 years. She may travel to the Colorado Springs, Colorado area. She has pierced ears and a scar on her right forearm. Her nickname is Stef.




Alexis Patterson
DOB: Apr 4, 1995
Missing: May 3, 2002
Age Now: 12
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 3'8" (112 cm)
Weight: 42 lbs (19 kg)
Missing From: Milwaukee, WI

Alexis' photo is shown age-progressed to 11 years. She was last seen on May 3, 2002 when she was dropped off for school. Alexis was wearing a red hooded jacket with gray stripes, a purple shirt, blue jeans and white Nike tennis shoes. She has a scar under her right eye and bump on her left pinky finger.



Ramona Redd
DOB: Jan 8, 1983
Missing: Mar 7, 2002
Age Now: 24
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Baltimore, MD

This is a photograph of an individual who was reported missing while under age 21 years and who has been entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 5779.




Ravenwood Avenue Unidentified
DOB:
Found: Aug 16, 2002
Age Now:
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Unknown
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Found: North East Baltimore, MD

The Homicide Victim was discovered in a yard at the 3200 Block of Ravenwood Avenue, in North East Baltimore City, Maryland near the railroad track on August 16, 2002. However, it is very likely that the death occurred earlier. The estimated date of death is unknown due to the extensive decomposition of the remains. Estimated age of the victim is early 20's. Approximate Height: 5' 4" - 5' 6", Weight: Unknown, Eye Color: Unknown, Hair: Black, Victim has a Gold Front Tooth with a dollar sign or the letter "S" on it. She had an overbite, she may have worn a wig, and one of her ears were pierced. The victim was stabbed, and was wrapped in electrical cord.





Taylor White
DOB: May 28, 1995
Missing: Jul 12, 2002
Age Now: 12
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'6" (137 cm)
Weight: 65 lbs (29 kg)
Missing From: Los Angeles, CA

Joyce Thomas
Abductor
DOB: Jul 20, 1951
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 205 lbs (93 kg)

Taylor's photo is shown age-progressed to 11 years. She was abducted by her non-custodial mother, Joyce Thomas. A felony warrant was issued for the abductor on April 9, 2003. They may still be in the local area. Joyce has a mole near her right temple. Joyce may use the alias date of birth June 23, 1952.

[Source]

Still Missing: 2003

Laroya Bray
DOB: Oct 4, 1987
Missing: Mar 26, 2003
Age Now: 19
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Los Angeles, CA

Laroya may be in the company of an adult male. When she was last seen her hair was dyed gold, but it is naturally black. Laroya has two piercings in each ear.



Syllannia Edwards
DOB: Nov 26, 1987
Missing: Aug 17, 2003
Age Now: 19
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 100 lbs (45 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Lawton, OK

Syllannia was last seen on August 17, 2003. She may still be in the local area or she may have traveled to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma or Wisconsin. Syllannia's nose is pierced. She may go by the alias first name Mimi.



Danielle Norris
DOB: Apr 22, 1988
Missing: Apr 7, 2003
Age Now: 19
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 165 lbs (75 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Elyria, OH

Danielle may still be in the local area or she may have traveled to Nashville, Tennessee. Her hair is braided in corn rows and her ears are pierced. Danielle may be in need of medical attention.





Inez Simon-Ogan
DOB: Apr 10, 1997
Missing: Jun 20, 2003
Age Now: 10
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 3'7" (109 cm)
Weight: 45 lbs (20 kg)
Missing From: Silver Spring, MD

Ibifuro Simon-Ogan
Mother
DOB: May 14, 1965
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 160 lbs (73 kg)

Inez Simon-Ogan and her brother Ablalibo are believed to be with their Non-Custodial Mother.





Iumila Vasquez
DOB: Oct 23, 1998
Missing: Dec 19, 2003
Age Now: 8
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'0" (122 cm)
Weight: 45 lbs (20 kg)
Missing From: North Plainfield, NJ

Kettly Myrtil
Abductor
DOB: Jan 20, 1974
Sex: Female
Race: Biracial
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Weight: 125 lbs (57 kg)


The child's photo is shown age-progressed to 6 years. She was abducted be her non-custodial mother, Kettly Myrtil. A felony warrant was issued for the abductor on April 8, 2004. They may have traveled to Georgia. Kettly is Biracial. She is Black and Hispanic. Kettly may use the alias last name Jackson.




Crystal Wilson
DOB: Oct 17, 1988
Missing: Dec 1, 2003
Age Now: 18
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg)
Missing From: Chicago, IL

Crystal's photo is shown age-progressed to 18 years. She was last seen at home on December 1, 2003. Crystal may still be in the local area. She has pierced ears and a small brown mark on her forehead. Crystal may be in need of medical attention.

[Source]

Still Missing: 2004

Chantal Beckett
DOB: Jun 15, 1991
Missing: Dec 23, 2004
Age Now: 16
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Missing From: Dale City, VA

Chantal's photo is shown age-progressed to 15 years. She was last seen on December 23, 2004. Chantal may still be in the local area, or she may have traveled to Alexandria, Virginia. She has chicken pock marks on her forehead. Chantal's ears are pierced.





Maimoona Carroll
DOB: Jul 22, 1994
Missing: Jan 9, 2004
Age Now: 13
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'6" (137 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From: Oakland, CA

Arifa Abdullah
Abductor
DOB: Aug 25, 1947
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg)


Maimoona's photo is shown age-progressed to 12 years. She was abducted by her non-custodial mother, Arifa Abdullah. A felony warrant was issued for the abductor on March 8, 2004. The child has a birthmark on her chin, a birthmark on each lower leg, and a gap between her top front teeth. The abductor may go by the alias name Eleanor Morris.



Ashley Cesenas
DOB: Feb 29, 1988
Missing: Jul 9, 2004
Age Now: 19
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Bethany, OK

Child has tattoo on left ankle of a crescent moon with a star. Child was last seen wearing a pink tank top, jeans, white "K-Swiss" shoes and hair in a pony tail. She may have some gang affiliation.




Ivory Green
DOB: Oct 27, 1986
Missing: Mar 6, 2004
Age Now: 20
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'11" (150 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing From: Utica, NY

Both photos shown are of Ivory. She may still be in the local area. Ivory has a mole above her upper lip and a mark in the shape of an H on her shoulder.



Stranterria Smith
DOB: Jun 7, 1989
Missing: Mar 12, 2004
Age Now: 18
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Snellville, GA

Stranterria may still be in the local area or she may be in the Atlanta, Georgia area. She has a tattoo of "T" on her left thigh.



Jessica Stokes
DOB: Aug 8, 1990
Missing: Jan 13, 2004
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Glendale, WI

Jessica was last seen on January 13, 2004. She may still be in the local area. Jessica may wear a wig.

[Source]

Still Missing: 2005

Dominique Breazeale
DOB: Dec 28, 1992
Missing: Dec 14, 2005
Age Now: 14
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Weight: 100 lbs (45 kg)
Missing From: Greenville, SC

Dominique may be in the company of her non-custodial mother. They may have traveled to the Orlando, Florida area. Dominique has a scar on her abdomen.



Edna Culbert
DOB: Aug 8, 1997
Missing: Jan 31, 2005
Age Now: 10
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'2" (127 cm)
Weight: 61 lbs (28 kg)
Missing From: Jamaica, NY

Jadeah Culbert
DOB: May 28, 1995
Missing: Jan 31, 2005
Age Now: 12
Race: Black
Hair: Lt. Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 57 lbs (26 kg)
Missing From: Jamaica, NY



The 3 children were last seen with their non-custodial father during a supervised visit. Both Jadeah & Edna were last seen wearing blue sweaters, white shirts and light blue coats. Maurice was last seen wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and black jacket. The non-custodial father is from Hampton, Virginia. He has ties to Virginia, New York and New Jersey. He is believed to be working in the construction business. A warrant has been issued by New York City Family Court for his arrest.


Bacardi Ford
DOB: Sep 12, 1990
Missing: May 8, 2005
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Memphis, TN

Bacardi was last seen at home on May 8, 2005. She has a scar near the corner of her right eye.



Sharnecia Frazier
DOB: Jul 4, 1989
Missing: Jan 14, 2005
Age Now: 18
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 250 lbs (113 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Montgomery, AL

Sharnecia was last seen on January 14, 2005. She may still be in the local area. When Sharnecia was last seen her hair was dyed brown. Her nickname is Necia.



Di’Anna Graham
DOB: Jul 2, 1991
Missing: Dec 13, 2005
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Phoenix, AZ

Di'Anna was last seen on December 13, 2005. She may still be in the local area. Di'Anna has a scar on her left eyebrow.



Alisha Green
DOB: Dec 21, 1989
Missing: Oct 20, 2005
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: San Bernardino, CA

Alisha was last seen on October 18, 2005. She may go by the alias name Tiffany.



Porshae Howell
DOB: Feb 19, 1990
Missing: Jan 11, 2005
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Eyes: Black
Race: Black
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Helena, AR

Porshae was last seen on January 11, 2005. She may still be in the local area.



Tameka Hunt
DOB: Feb 25, 1989
Missing: Aug 10, 2005
Age Now: 18
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 160 lbs (73 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Laurel, MD

Tameka Hunt is an escapee from the Waxter Children's Center in Anne Arundel County, Maryland where she was being detained as a juvenile on criminal charges. Tamkea Hunt uses the following aliases: Tamea Hunt, Tameka Hunts, Lameka Williams, and Tameka Hunter.



Skylar Lewis
DOB: Jun 8, 1989
Missing: Sep 28, 2005
Age Now: 18
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Bedford, VA

Skylar is possibly in the Roanoke or Lynchburg area. She is believed to be in the company of a Lawanda Craighead B/F.



Ayellah Marshall
DOB: Apr 20, 1987
Missing: Feb 1, 2005
Age Now: 20
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Hawthorne, CA

Ayellah was last seen at a medical facility on February 1, 2005. She has a birthmark near her left eye. She also has a tattoo of a rose on her left thigh, a tattoo of the name "Sahri" on her right shoulder, a tattoo of the name "Jeffery" on her right thigh, and a tattoo of a black panther on her back. She may use the alias name Mia Hawkins.



Anquiatte Parker
DOB: Feb 17, 1986
Missing: Nov 6, 2005
Age Now: 21
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Missing From: East St. Louis, IL
CERMEN TONEY
Companion
DOB: Aug 24, 2001
Sex: Male
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 3'0" (91 cm)
Weight: 30 lbs (14 kg)

Anquiatte was last seen on the morning of November 6, 2005 at her home in East Saint Louis, Illinois where she was babysitting her cousin, Cermen Toney. They are believed to have left from the home in a black 1995 Ford Crown Victoria with Illinois license plates 8286727. The vehicle was later found abandoned in Fairmont City, Illinois but the whereabouts of Anquiatte and Cermen remain unknown.



Sarena Polk
DOB: Dec 8, 1999
Missing: Aug 29, 2005
Age Now: 7
Height: Unknown
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: Unknown
Hair: Black
Missing From: New Orleans, LA

This is a picture of a child who became separated from her caretaker by Hurricane Katrina Sarena's height and weight are unknown. She has a round birthmark on her neck.




Aarone Thompson
DOB: Nov 30, 1998
Missing: Nov 14, 2005
Age Now: 8
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'0" (122 cm)
Weight: 60 lbs (27 kg)
Missing From: Aurora, CO

Aarone's photo is shown age-progressed to 8 years. Aarone was last seen near her home on the afternoon of November 14, 2005. She is missing her top right canine tooth. She was last seen wearing a white sweater, a gray hooded sweatshirt, pink sweatpants, and white sneakers. When Aarone was last seen, her hair was in a ponytail with a pink rubber band.


Upper Freehold Township Unidentified
DOB:
Found: Mar 18, 2005
Height: 3'3" (99 cm)
Eyes: Unknown
Race: Black
Age Now: 5-9 When discovered
Weight: 50 lbs (23 kg)
Hair: Unknown
Found: Upper Freehold Township, NJ

On March 18, 2005, an unidentified deceased female child was located in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, NJ. The child was estimated to be between 5 and 9 years of age when discovered and between 3'-00" and 3'-06" tall. She is estimated to have been deceased for over one year prior to discovery, possibly since January of 2004. A size 8-1/2 Nike Air Force child's sneaker was found near the decedent's remains. The image shown is a composite created by a forensic artist at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Items such as hair style are the artist's estimations to complete the image and should not be used as significant markers for identification.



India Waters
DOB: Jul 3, 1989
Missing: Jul 31, 2005
Age Now: 18
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 170 lbs (77 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Manassas, VA

India was last seen on July 31, 2005. She may still be in the local area.



Maya Waters
DOB: Jan 22, 1991
Missing: Mar 8, 2005
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Washington, DC

Maya was last seen on March 8, 2005. She may still be in the local area, or she may have traveled out of state.



Tenai Whitfield
DOB: Mar 16, 1989
Missing: Oct 28, 2005
Age Now: 18
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Eyes: Hazel
Race: Black
Weight: 123 lbs (56 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Chase City, VA

Ms. Whitfield was last seen at her aunts residence before going to a friends house around 10:00pm. She was supposed to have returned home on Sunday morning but hasn't been heard from since.



Katie Yancey
DOB: May 4, 1991
Missing: May 26, 2005
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'0" (152 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 90 lbs (41 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Detroit, MI

Katie was last seen on May 26, 2005. She may go by the alias name Keisha Graves.

[Source]

Still Missing: 2006

Erica Bradley
DOB: Jul 13, 1989
Missing: Nov 6, 2006
Age Now: 18
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg)
Missing From: Allendale, SC

Both photos shown are of Erica. She was last seen at a Hardee's restaurant in Allendale, South Carolina on November 6, 2006. Erica may still be in the local area.



Erika Brown
DOB: Jun 20, 1991
Missing: May 16, 2006
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Philadelphia, PA

Erika may still be in the local area. She has a large birthmark on her left leg. Erika may go by the alias name Ericka Burton. She may use the alias date of birth May 20, 1990.



Alyshia Claiborne
DOB: Sep 17, 1990
Missing: May 18, 2006
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Newport News, VA

Alyshia was last seen wearing a pink shirt, black capri pants and black capri Reeboks. She has a diamond nose ring on her right nostril, her hair was in a ponytail, wears contacts and goes by the nickname "Nuke".


Shatira Foote
DOB: Mar 15, 1991
Missing: Dec 20, 2006
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'4" (163 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 180 lbs (82 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Baltimore, MD

Subject frequents the Baltimore City / Baltimore County areas.



Charika Griffin
DOB: Apr 17, 1993
Missing: Apr 18, 2006
Age Now: 14
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Baltimore, MD


Juanita Hall
DOB: Dec 24, 1988
Missing: Mar 4, 2006
Age Now: 18
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Gaithersburg, MD

The missing child may have traveled to South Carolina. The missing child has collar length hair.




Chavon Heath
DOB: Sep 8, 1990
Missing: Apr 24, 2006
Age Now: 16
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Black
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Weight: 123 lbs (56 kg)
Missing From: Omaha, NE

Both photos shown are of the child. Chavon was last seen on April 24, 2006. She may be with a male companion. Chavon may have traveled to Texas or Delaware. She has a scar on her upper left thigh. Chavon's nickname is Nae Nae.


Aluntae Lewis
DOB: Aug 14, 1992
Missing: Aug 6, 2006
Age Now: 15
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Chicago, IL

Aluntae may still be in the local area. When she was last seen, her hair was dyed red. Aluntae may go by the nickname Tae.



Jessica Lewis
DOB: Sep 3, 1990
Missing: Apr 8, 2006
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: St. Louis, MO

Jessica was last seen on April 8, 2006. She has a birthmark on her upper left shoulder.





Angelica Livingston
DOB: Jul 2, 1998
Missing: Jun 10, 2006
Age Now: 9
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'3" (130 cm)
Weight: 50 lbs (23 kg)
Missing From: West Columbia, SC

Portia Washington
Companion
DOB: Jun 20, 1952
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Weight: 162 lbs (73 kg)

Kenneth Lynch
Companion
DOB: Feb 9, 1960
Sex: Male
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'11" (180 cm)
Weight: 167 lbs (76 kg)


The child and her grandmother were last believed to be in the company of Kenneth Lynch. His whereabouts are currently known; however, the child and her grandmother have not been seen since June 10, 2006. The vehicle shown in the left corner of Kenneth's photo is of a vehicle similar to the grandmother's tan 2005 Ford Focus with South Carolina plates 682SEH that was found in Seattle, Washington on June 18, 2006. Anyone who may have seen Angelica, Portia, Kenneth or the grandmother's vehicle are asked to call.



Tamika Major
DOB: Sep 9, 1990
Missing: Nov 28, 2006
Age Now: 16
Height: 5'8" (173 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 220 lbs (100 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: North Charleston, SC

Tamika may still be in the local area. She has a tattoo on her right arm.


Shaquita Mouton
DOB: Mar 19, 1990
Missing: Nov 8, 2006
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 118 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: New Orleans, LA

Shaquita may still be in the local area. She may wear colored contact lenses.


Kayla Riley
DOB: Jan 3, 1990
Missing: Apr 9, 2006
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'0" (152 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 98 lbs (44 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Detroit, MI

Kayla was last seen on April 9, 2006. She may still be in the local area.



Marquita Robinson
DOB: Dec 28, 1989
Missing: Jun 8, 2006
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Austin, TX

Marquita was last seen on June 8, 2006. She may still be in the local area



Patrice Rogers
DOB: May 15, 1991
Missing: Sep 19, 2006
Age Now: 16
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Missing From: Angier, NC

Both photos shown are of Patrice. She may still be in the local area. Patrice has pierced ears.



Curtia Sails
DOB: Feb 1, 1990
Missing: Nov 15, 2006
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 142 lbs (64 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Chicago, IL

Curtia was last seen at home on November 15, 2006. She may still be in the local area.



Yesmil Santana
DOB: Dec 4, 1991
Missing: Dec 27, 2006
Age Now: 15
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Height: 5'8" (173 cm)
Weight: 170 lbs (77 kg)
Missing From: Gaitherburg, MD



Jhmea Scott
DOB: Apr 7, 1990
Missing: Oct 27, 2006
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 180 lbs (82 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Baltimore, MD

The missing child may frequent the Baltimore City and County area of Maryland.


Tyshea Stewart
DOB: Apr 29, 1992
Missing: Nov 13, 2006
Age Now: 15
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 160 lbs (73 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Cleveland, OH

Tyshea was last seen on November 13, 2006. She may still be in the local area, or she may have traveled to Columbus, Ohio.


Monique Wilder
DOB: Nov 20, 1989
Missing: Jun 26, 2006
Age Now: 17
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From: Youngstown, OH

[Source]

NOPD: Missing persons cases consume time, manpower

Look who is complaining about missing persons cases:

New Orleans Police receive hundreds of reports of missing persons every year – many involving runaway teens and adults. On occasion it turns out to be a simple case of miscommunication, but the NOPD still pays the cost of manpower and time.

“Some are located quicker than others,” said Sabrina Richardson, an NOPD spokesperson, “some just simply return once their temper goes down.”

On top of battling a violent crime problem, the NOPD is also responsible for tracking down missing persons; a task that's often difficult and time consuming.

“You have the patrol unit, who takes the initial report then it's passed along to the detective who does follow up investigations,” Richardson said, “so you're talking about a lot of man hours that goes into these types of investigations”

According to Richardson, more than 90 percent of these reports result from runaway juveniles and adults, or people who do not want to be found for whatever reason. Less than one percent of the cases involve foul play and the rest usually stem from those who are mentally ill.

It's a situation familiar to Donnie Hutcherson. Her 32-year-old daughter, Charity, suffers from a severe mental disorder and has disappeared about 13 times within the last few years. The most recent scare happened last week, when she didn't come home for three days.

“You always wonder if this is the time that she met with foul play. Is this the time that she got hurt? That's the emotional toll it takes,” Hutcherson said.

Hutcherson’s daughter did not have her medication on her, Richardson said. Police found Charity right before she boarded a bus for Georgia, an ending that was met with overwhelming relief.

“With the crime being up in New Orleans the way that it is and somebody being out their who's mentally ill, they could fall prey to anyone at anytime, you know, just for looking for someone the wring way,” Hutcherson said.

Less than 10 percent of missing person cases go unsolved, police said. And even though the number of investigations can sometimes be cumbersome, Richardson said it’s part of the job.

“Just think maybe one day your child runs away because they're upset with you. Wouldn't you want us to look for your child?" Richardson asked.

To stop runaways from leaving home again, police said they’ll often question the parents in order to see what types of problems may have led to the child's absence.

The public can also be a big help in these types of cases, but investigators said they usually only ask for media assistance in situations that could possibly involve foul play.

[Source]

Family holds out hope for missing honors grad

It's been nearly three months since Stepha Henry disappeared into the muggy South Florida night, not to be seen again.

But friends and family members of the East New York woman say they haven't given up hope for her safe return.

Henry, 22, a John Jay College alumna who was preparing to go to law school, was visiting Miami over Labor Day weekend when she vanished May 29. She was last seen at Club Peppers, a nightclub in Fort Lauderdale where she was captured on a security camera.

Thursday night a prayer vigil for Henry was held by family and friends, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and City Councilman Charles Barron, at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Brooklyn.

"I would like to see someone who knows something come forward," said Sylvia Henry, Stepha's mother, who hopes that her daughter's story will garner more media attention. "This vigil is actually my way of appealing to them."

Henry's disappearance is still under investigation, according to Miami-Dade police officials. In the past month investigators from Miami-Dade and Broward County have continued their search for Henry, using helicopters and dogs to scour the counties for a dark-colored, four-door Acura Integra that witnesses claim Henry was last seen getting into at Club Peppers. Police believe finding the car would be a major break in the case.

"One of the major difficulties is that Miami-Dade County has so many canals," said Robert Williams, a Miami-Dade detective, noting that police suspect the black Acura may have been dumped in one of the area's many channels.

"But we're not just focusing on canals; we're following up on all leads, even those that come from upstate."

Henry graduated with honors from John Jay in 2006 with a major in criminal justice and a minor in psychology. She was one of only two students chosen to be a presidential intern to college president Jeremy Travis. This summer she was working at the college while she studied for the Law School Admission Test.

"She was such a great student," said Doreen Vinas, a John Jay College spokesperson. "The fact that she was chosen to be a presidential scholar says a lot about her character."

[Source]

Found: Natasha Peoples

Update: Natasha was found safe.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Police need your help finding a local teenager who disappeared without a trace.

Natasha Peoples, 14, was last seen early Sunday morning at her home on North 32nd Street.

Natasha is mentally disabled and is in need of her medication.

If you have any information on her whereabouts, call the Tips Hot Line at 816-474-TIPS.

[Source]

Rachel Barton Found Safe

TEARS of joy streamed down the face of Lilly Barton when gardai arrived at her Donabate home last night to tell her that her missing nine-year-old daughter Rachel had been found safe and well.


"I am just so happy," the Jamaican woman said, as she jumped into a car driven by Rachel's father, Remi Ugwueru, who was also beaming as they sped off towards the Swords garda station where the little girl was waiting.

An hour later, the family were happily reunited and returned home, where they cheerfully posed for press photographers, who had staked out their home all day yesterday, fearing the worst.

The photographs, which showed the little girl affectionately hugging her parents, were a far cry from photographs taken of Lilly just hours earlier, when the distraught mother, worry etched on her face, came out of her house clutching a little hat belonging to the schoolgirl.

Before they set off for the garda station, Lilly said she had no idea what happened to her daughter, although it is understood she may have had a family row.

"It's just one of the those things," she said.

The last Lilly saw of her daughter was when the little girl went off to bed in the couple's townhouse in the Beverton Court housing complex in Donabate, north County Dublin between 9.30pm and 10pm on Monday night.

Lilly immediately alerted gardai when she woke up yesterday morning to find her daughter gone.

However, there was no sign of forced entry and gardai soon dismissed the possibility that she had been abducted.

The fact that her rucksack was missing also alerted them to the possibility that she had run away. Gardai alerted the media and issued a public appeal for information as to Rachel's whereabouts and released a photograph.

[Source]

Missing; Laquanna Arnold

July 27, 2007--Police are asking for the public's help in locating a teenager who disappeared in Queens yesterday.

Fifteen-year-old Laquanna Arnold was last seen leaving a summer-school program at Springfield Garden and South Conduit Boulevard.

She is 5 foot 3, weighs about 115 pounds, has brown eyes and black hair. She was wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and black and white sneakers when she disappeared.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

[Source]

Missing: Rachel Barton

Gardaí are seeking the public's help in locating a nine-year-old girl who went missing from her home in Dublin last night.

Rachel Barton, who is from Jamaica, went missing from Beverton Court, Donabate.

She is described as being of slim build, 1.52m (5') tall with black straight shoulder-length hair and black skin.

Rachel is believed to be wearing flat shoes, blue jeans, a white hooded sleeveless top and a heavily padded black winter jacket.

It is believed that she may be wearing a black backpack with white writing on it and she may wear a black scarf with a red rose design.

Anyone with information should contact the Gardaí at Swords on 01 6664700 or the Garda confidential line on 1800 666 111

[Source]

I really don't know why they said "black skin". Do they call white people "white skin"? I guess that's a question I need to ask Ireland.

Missing girl linked to NJ Case

Conway police plan to follow up on an e-mail the department received Thursday related to the 2002 disappearance of Kynande Bennett, said Police Chief Reggie Gosnell.

Gosnell said his office received an e-mail with a drawing based on a child's remains that were found in New Jersey in 2005.

The e-mail contained a link to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Web site, where a composite drawing is posted of an unidentified female child whose remains were located in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, N.J.

The individual who sent the e-mail linked the case to that of Kynande Bennett, stating that Kynande fits the description of the unknown child.

The New Jersey State Police posted two images of the unidentified child's face on its Web site earlier this week.

Kynande's mother, Vartasha McCollough-White of Conway, was convicted of homicide by child abuse last year after she told police that her then 4-year-old daughter, Kynande, disappeared in 2002 from a Whiteville, N.C., Kmart.

She has said she did not harm her child.

Officials in New Jersey said the remains found there could belong to any missing child across the country.

DNA shows that the child is probably a black female between 5 and 9 years old, according to a statement released earlier this week by the New Jersey State Police. Authorities believe the child died between 2001 and 2004. The cause of death has not been determined, the release said.

Evidence gleaned from the child's teeth show that she probably lived within a community that offered fluorinated water rather than well water. She also had no sign of fillings or other dental work, the release said.

A child's black Nike Air Force One shoe and a piece of canvas material, possibly from a handbag or book bag, with a distinctive print of Sylvester the Cat - a Warner Brothers cartoon character - were also found by police at the scene, the release said.

New Jersey police officials said they are actively pursuing tips, including one they got Thursday about Kynande.

McCollough-White's attorney, Ralph Wilson, said Friday that they and local officials should follow it up.

"They should certainly follow up on it and send any DNA evidence they have to be compared to the bone," Wilson said. "It's important because through this entire process, my client has maintained her innocence and said the child was missing. If DNA matches, that could substantiate her claim that the child was missing because she wouldn't have had time to get to New Jersey and then get back to South Carolina [based on the timetable]. Clearly, we know she was at [Kmart]."

Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Greg Hembree said his office would be interested if there is a way to make a genetic match to find out if the remains are that of Kynande.

"We've always wanted to find Kynande's body," Hembree said. That has been a piece still missing, he said.

[Source]

Missing: Jessica Boyce

Police are looking for a mentally-challenged 18-year-old woman who has been missing since July without medicine she needs to focus and stay away from dangerous situations.

Jessica Boyce of Macomb Township was visiting family July 14 at a home on the 13000 block of Marion in the city, Detroit Police said. She has the intellect of a seven-year-old and is easily swayed without her medication, her mother, Denise Boyce, said.

"I am so worried," 55-year-old Denise Boyce said as she fought back tears this afternoon while watching a televised news report about her daughter.

"My baby. She does not know fear. She does not know the difference between a good person and someone bad. Everyone is good to her."

Relatives said Boyce went to the rear of the Detroit home about 10 a.m. July 14 to get a chair and they have not seen her since then.

Boyce adopted Jessica when she was 9 years old and knew she was mentally-challenged. Boyce also has adopted seven other children of various ethnicities, she said. Jessica is the oldest of the children.

"They all miss their big sister," Boyce said.

Jessica Boyce's condition has gotten worse as she has gotten older and even with the medication, she needs reminders to bathe, use the bathroom and perform other such daily activities, her mother said.

Macomb County mental health officials hired two staffers to help Boyce care for her daughter. They were not available for comment early this afternoon.

"The only thing keeping me strong is family members," Boyce said. "I am scared. She is so sweet. It ain't good."

Jessica Boyce last was seen wearing black jeans, a cream-colored top and a pair of sandals.

Those with information should call Detroit Police at (313) 596-5900.

[Source]

Another article:

A local teenager who vanished from a relative's home last month remains missing, and the teen's family said she's without her much-needed medication. Jessica Boyce, 18, was last seen in July.

Boyce, who resides in Macomb County, was visiting family on Maiden Street on Detroit's east side. She told members of the family she was going to step outside and sit on the porch.

That was the last time Boyce was seen.

Boyce's family said she doesn't have her medication, and without it, she could become irrational.

[Source]

Mother of Stepha Henry returns from Miami

There is an update Friday on the missing 22-year-old John Jay College graduate.

Stepha Henry disappeared in south Florida on Memorial Day weekend.
Her mother just returned home to Brooklyn and spoke to Eyewitness News reporter Kemberly Richardson.

"I'm still praying and hoping," mother Sylvia Henry said. "And I know that God will deliver her one day."

This is not how it was supposed to be, not how Sylvia Henry ever imagined returning home to Brooklyn. She returned from Miami without her daughter, who has been missing since May.

"I had a tough time sleeping last night," she said.

Sylvia has been in south Florida for months, waiting for word from police about Stepha. The 22-year-old has not been seen since leaving her aunt's Miami home with a male friend around 1 a.m. May 29.

They drove to a Fort Lauderdale club, and arrived there safely. But after that, her trail goes cold.

"I think about her all the time, because she's my daughter and she's a nice girl," Sylvia said. "She's very, very loving and caring."

Miami police have suspected foul play all along, and say they have made considerable progress in the case, interviewing Stepha's friends and people who were at the club the night she disappeared. But they say there are two missing pieces, things that homicide detectives cannot find: The car Stepha rode into the club and Stepha herself, a woman they say would not simply take off.

There are reminders of Stepha everywhere in her room: A carnival mask, a picture with her sister in Miami the day before she disappeared and her suitcase. It was Sylvia who had to bring that back to New York.

"I just try to make each a day a better day by praying, and I pray for the Lord to hold me," she said.

Sylvia still believes Stepha is alive, and spends hours keeping her daughter's story out there through vigils and rallies. She hopes the reward, now up to $15,000, will help lead to Stepha, so that the next time she comes home, it will be with her daughter.

[Source]

Missing: Gloria Walker

Name: Gloria Walker
Date Missing: May 20, 2007
Missing From: Cleveland, Ohio
DOB: 8/12/1960
Age: 46 yrs old
Hair Color: Black
Height: 5’2
Weight: 125 lbs
Eye Color: Brown
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Complexion: Medium
Police/Sheriff: Cleveland Police Dept
Officer/Deputy Name: Det. Chism
Officer’s Phone #: 216/6233333
Officer’s Case #: 200700186890
TES Case #: 07719

Gloria Walker, age 46, was last seen on Sunday, May 20, 2007 around 11:30 p.m. in Cleveland, Ohio
and has not been seen or heard from since. Gloria was last seen wearing red jogging pants and open
toe sandals, top unknown. She was last seen driving a 1996 Chevy Lumina.

Call: 281/3099500
Toll free 877/2709500

[Source]

Articles:

Gloria Walker, 46, disappeared from Cleveland's eastside three months ago.
Saturday, Walker's family received a helping hand, from 1,100 miles away.

EquuSearch, the same organization that mobilized thousands of people in the search for Jessie Davis, the missing, pregnant mother in Stark County, took on Walker's case.

More than 80 volunteers waded through shoulder-high grass and explored vacant homes on Cleveland's east side. They peeled their way through vacant homes and raked through heavy brush along the railroad tracks. They looked for any sign of Gloria Walker.

Richard Johnson saw a missing person's flier in his neighbor and decided to help out.

"We're down here looking for shoes, any kind of personal identification," Johnson said as he probed 3-foot-tall weeds with a stick. "You know, it's time consuming, but it's fulfilling. I think everybody should do more to help everybody else."

Tim Miller, founder of Equusearch mapped out specific areas for volunteers to look for Walker. Miller said EquuSearch has found 72 people in the more than 700 cases they've taken on.

Walker was last seen May 20, driving a car her long-time boyfriend had been repairing for a relative. Walker's brother reported her missing, five days after neighbors last saw her.

That car was found two weeks later in the Harvard/Fleet area of Cleveland, only three miles from her house.

Saturday, volunteers checked potential dump sites in that area. They found a five-foot long, mound of dirt next to the tracks near Walker's home. It was nothing.

"I think Gloria is findable," Miller said. "I think some new information came to law enforcement that may lead them in another direction."

Greg Washington, who said he fathered a son with Walker, was thankful for Miller's expertise.

"He's a godsend," Washington said. "Every day has been getting up thinking about Gloria. Where is she?"

Even though Saturday's searchers did not find Walker, Washington said the search encouraged him.

"We'll keep turning over every stone we can," Washington said. "I'm not giving up. I promised her we would always watch each other's back."

[Source]

Video:

[Click]

Petition!

I made a petition that I will send out to every major news station I can think of once I collect enough signatures. Please sign it [at the bottom of the page] and spread the news about it and this blog. Thanks!

Missing People Face Disparity in Media Coverage

If you are kidnapped or missing, it helps to be the right race, age, social class and gender. Otherwise, don't expect the media to cover your story.

"Sex sells, kidnapping sells, but not every kidnapping is equal," says Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a training center for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Kelly Bennett, a case manager for the National Center for Missing Adults, agrees. "Unless it's a pretty girl ages 20 to 35, the media exposure is just not there," she says. The most highly profiled missing persons cases in recent years have fit into this category: Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, Jessie Marie Davis. All of these women were also white.

What about Stepha Henry, a 22-year-old black woman who disappeared while on vacation in Florida in May?

Her case has gotten some media attention, but her face and story haven't received the same relentless level of coverage as those of other missing young women.

"It's very disheartening because it sends a message that we are not valued as much as white citizens are," says Georgia Goslee, the attorney for Stepha's mother, Sylvia.

A Tale of Two Missing Women

Stepha Henry, who lives in New York, went with her sister to visit their aunt in Miami. On Monday, May 28, Henry told her aunt she was going to Club Peppers, a nightclub in Fort Lauderdale.

According to news reports, a man picked up Henry in a dark-colored four-door Acura Integra. Video taken at the club that night shows Henry there. But no one has seen her since. The car hasn't been located.

The man who drove Henry to the club says the car isn't his. Police think the car may hold clues to her disappearance. At 4:13 a.m. on May 29, someone checked the voice mail on her cell phone. Her MySpace page was last updated on May 24, five days before she was reported missing.

Henry is an honors graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York." She has a very bubbly personality," Goslee says." She is an aspiring attorney planning to take the LSAT. She's a beautiful young girl in the prime of her life."

Henry's case, however, has not been taken up by the media with the same fervor as that of Jessie Marie Davis — a 26-year-old pregnant white woman who disappeared from her Canton, Ohio, home in mid-June — about two weeks after Henry was reported missing. Media coverage of Davis' disappearance was nonstop. TV stations nationwide, as well as newspapers and magazines, followed the case closely. Thousands of people volunteered to search for her.

The disparity in exposure for the two cases is evident on the Web, too. A Live.com news search on Davis returns almost 20 times the results of a search on Henry.

There even seems to be a difference in reward money. The FBI offered $10,000 for information on Davis. Currently, there is a $6,000 reward for information to help find Henry, but that sum came from donations. Henry's family contributed $4,000; Crime Stoppers offered $1,000; and another $1,000 was donated by a family friend.

Davis' body was found June 23. Her boyfriend, former police officer Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, has been charged with her murder and the murder of her unborn child. But the media juggernaut didn't give up on her story: At a memorial service for her, news helicopters hovered overhead.

The Missing vs. Celebrities

Meanwhile, Henry is still missing. And at one point, her case was overshadowed by celebrity news. A little more than a week after Henry disappeared, Miami Herald police reporter David Ovalle was scheduled to talk about the case on MSNBC-TV.

Ovalle says his interview was canceled because of breaking news about socialite Paris Hilton."I think the people I write about are important. I take my job seriously," he says. "I know people watch that stuff [celebrity news]. But you have a responsibility as a serious news-gathering organization, with all the things going on in the world, with all the tragedies there are; our priorities are a little skewed."

Jeremy Gaines, vice president of communications for MSNBC, explains why the June 8 interview was canceled: "Just like many days in the news business, we had breaking news on that particular day which forced us to cancel this segment. We covered the [Stepha Henry] story extensively on the following day."

Goslee remains thankful for any coverage of Henry. When asked about the cancellation, she says, "They made up for that." She and Stepha Henry's mother were later interviewed by MSNBC, she says.

Race, Social Class and Media Coverage

Why does Stepha Henry get less coverage than Jessie Davis?

"The answer is pure unconscious racism," says the Poynter Institute's Clark. "But it's not just race. It's also social class and gender."

And the difference in media attention does not go unnoticed.

"There is a huge disparity between black missing women and white missing women when it comes to coverage," Goslee says. "If Stepha could receive half the coverage of the other white girls who are missing, they might find her."

People of every race and age disappear. But missing minorities, men and the elderly simply don't generate as much media interest.

"We need the media's help in reporting all these missing people," says Kelly Bennett, the case manager for the National Center for Missing Adults. "We need media attention on all of the cases out there to solve the families' anguish. Families need that resolution."

Missing Men Ignored

Overall, more men seem to be reported missing than women, according to information gathered from the FBI's National Crime Information Center database.

For 2006, 173,903 missing persons records were entered for adults (21 and older) into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database; 99,736 were men, and 74,167 were women. However, FBI spokeswoman Connie Marsteller refused to draw conclusions from the data, saying because police departments and county sheriff's offices are not required to report missing adults, the information is not complete.
Why do the media — and their audiences — care less about missing men than women? Clark thinks it's because there's a public perception that men can take care of themselves (even though a lot of the missing men might have been victims of foul play).

If a missing person is white, female, young, attractive and has an upper-middle-class background, media coverage of her case will be far more thorough than coverage of missing men, minorities or the elderly, Clark says.

"This taps in to a sort of ancient fairy-tale mentality: the kidnapped princess, the damsel in distress."

The Missing No One Cares About

Still, not every young, white, pretty woman who goes missing gets the 24-hour cable-news treatment.

"It's as much about class as it is about race," says Ovalle, the Miami Herald reporter. "I have a stack of cases of missing white girls on my desk that nobody cares about" because they were doing drugs or working as prostitutes, he says.

Having a shady background takes a missing person off the media-coverage map because "it pulls them out from the underpinnings of class," Clark says. "Class is not just economic status but a set of behaviors. Someone who is courteous, who went to college" is someone viewers and readers can identify with.

Tragedy Parodied

Sensational stories of kidnapped white women are so prevalent they have been parodied.

A Wikipedia entry calls it Missing White Woman Syndrome or Missing Pretty Girl Syndrome. The Daily Show published the satirical "America: The Book," which contained a formula for receiving good coverage. This formula equates amount of media time with cuteness, skin color and the media savvy of the grieving parents. But for the families and friends of the missing, there is no humor to be found while searching for a loved one.

Hundreds of volunteers have turned out to help, but thus far there is no new information on Stepha Henry's whereabouts, Goslee says.

As the weeks pass, Sylvia Henry's emotional condition "is getting bad," Goslee says.

The sweeps of the water with sonar equipment and the searches using cadaver dogs have been grim tasks that, so far, have yielded no results.

Stepha Henry's family, Goslee says, "has to come to grips with what may be the unthinkable reality."

If you have information related to Henry's disappearance, call 1-800-CRIME-TV, the America's Most Wanted Hotline. You can also submit information online, at or at the Crime Stoppers site.

[Source]

My thoughts: Although I'm glad to see someone in the media write about this, I can't help but wonder why - if they are in the media and have all the connections - why argue about it when you can just do something about it? I can understand if you do not have the connections but if you do? No excuse.

Stop talking and do something. I think it's time for a petition. I'm going to write a petition asap that we can all sign and send to every major news station we can think of. Our time starts now. Don't you think?

Missing: Sandra Green

Baltimore County Police are searching for a woman who suffers from dementia and who has been missing since last week.

Sandra J. Green, 42, was last seen at 1:20 p.m. Friday. She typically spends her days at an adult day care center in the first block of Winters Lane in the Catonsville area and then rides the center's bus home to the first block of Alto Road in Northwest Baltimore. On the day she went missing, Green was seen walking away from the day care center, but she never got on the bus, police said. She last was seen on foot on Frederick Road, about a block away from the center.

Police said that Green suffers from a number of health problems, including dementia, and that she can tell people her name, but not where she lives.

Green is black, 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 150 pounds. She has brown hair and eyes and is missing her three front teeth. She was last seen wearing a white blouse with short sleeves, turquoise-colored shorts, olive green sneakers and white socks, police said.

Anyone who may have seen Green or have any information on her whereabouts is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020.

[Source]

More Missing Females

Sharron Brown
Demitrice Welch-Covin

[Source]

Found: Jade Williams

A Thornton Heath teen who went missing after a fun day has been found.

Jade Williams' mum, Thelma Graham, made an impassioned plea for her 15-year-old daughter to come home after she disappeared following a visit to the Phoenix Project in Wimbledon two weeks ago.

But police say the St Mark's Academy pupil from Galpins Road was found safe and well this morning in Lavender Hill.

[Source]

Found: Gizette St. Charles

Orlando police have located an 11-year-old girl who went missing Sunday, and she is home safely with her family this morning.

Gizette St. Charles was last seen when she took the garbage out at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday at her family's home at 4200 Nimons Street. Her family tried to find her themselves but called police after a few hours.

Detectives set up a command center and blanketed the neighborhood with fliers of the girl. They also used bloodhounds throughout the evening, trying to track the girl.

Family members said the girl - who was wearing a nightgown and slippers when she disappeared, had never run away before. They also told police that there had been no fight or problem before she disappeared.

When police found her, however, with an acquaintance, the girl said she was afraid to go home because of what would happen to her, said Orlando Police Lt. Isiah White.

The case remains under investigation today.

Glad she was found but I wonder why she ran away. I'll be looking for updates on this case.

[Source]

Previous article:

Girl Missing

Jade Williams

The mother of a 15-year-old Thornton Heath girl who has been missing for two weeks has pleaded for the teenager to come home.

Jade Williams, of Galpins Road, was last seen on Friday, July 27.

She had gone to a fun day at the Phoenix Project in Wimbledon, which works with young people to prevent family breakdown, but when mum Thelma arrived to pick her up, Jade had already left.

There has been no sign of her since and the family is growing increasingly concerned.

Mrs Graham, 56, said: "Knowing the dangers there are outside, we are extremely worried. If we had any idea where she was, we would be banging on the door but at the moment it's like a wild goose chase."

Jade, who goes to St Mark's Academy in Mitcham, has gone missing a few times before.

advertisementShe is known to have links to Brixton and Streatham, but her family does not have the addresses of anyone she knows there.

In an appeal to her daughter, Mrs Graham said: "We are missing you very, very much. Mum, dad, and your two brothers are extremely concerned about your whereabouts. Please phone home. Come home. There's no place like home. Put our heart at peace and for your own sake. You know we love you dearly. Walk straight through the door. It will always be open for you."

Jade is black, of medium build and about 5ft 4ins tall. She was last seen wearing dark blue jeans, a plain blue blouse, a black casual jacket and black boots.

She has black hair with a widow's peak, and wears a gold necklace with the initial J.

If you have seen Jade or know of her whereabouts, contact Wimbledon police station on 020 8947 1212 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

[Source]

In case you missed it...

There were several articles/blogs on the misrepresentation of missing African Americans in the media during the years of 2004-2005. Here are a few links to get you up to date:

Media Searches for Missing Coverage of Missing Women

Why do we care about Natalee, Laci, Jennifer?

Damsels in distress

The problem with MWP news stories

Article about the case of Latoyia Figueroa

As Melvin Figueroa taped up yet another faded photograph of his missing daughter, this time to the wall of a corner grocery in West Philadelphia, 7-year-old Jonathan Medina watched him with somber curiosity.

"You looking for her everywhere?" Jonathan asked.

Mr. Figueroa nodded, his T-shirt, bearing another likeness of his daughter, sticking to his sweat-soaked chest. "Got to," he said. "We have to go everywhere we can think of. Maybe somebody saw something."

After weeks of frustrating obscurity, the case of Mr. Figueroa's daughter, Latoyia Figueroa, 25, has finally captured the national news media's attention, spurred by the persistent nudging of Philadelphia-based Web logs and a city councilman distantly related to the Figueroas.

In the process, the case has become a flashpoint for the growing unease in minority communities across the country about the way they believe many national news outlets focus relentlessly on missing white women, while giving little attention to equally compelling stories involving poorer minority women.

"Certainly, everybody hopes that they find out what happened to Natalee Holloway in Aruba and to all the other missing young women," said Juan F. Ramos, the city councilman, as he handed out leaflets on the teeming corner of 52nd and Market Streets. "But for a while there, you had to wonder: why not Latoyia?"

Ms. Figueroa, who is five months pregnant, was last seen not far from that busy corner around 5 p.m. on July 18, after a doctor's visit. She lived with her 7-year-old daughter, to whom friends said she was devoted. She had a solid work record at a Center City restaurant. Neither her credits cards nor her cellphone have been used since she disappeared.

The last person known to have seen Ms. Figueroa was Stephen Poaches, 25, the father of her baby. Mr. Poaches has refused to take part in the search. The police have said he is a "person of interest" in the case, but have not called him a suspect.

"You just had to listen to the simple facts of the story to realize that there was something seriously wrong here," said Richard Blair, who runs a Philadelphia-based political blog, allspinzone.com, writing under the name Richard Cranium.

"The fact is, this issue of news organizations' obsessive coverage of missing white women has been simmering in the blogosphere for a while now," Mr. Blair said.

What the Figueroa case has done, he said, is give people something on which to focus their attention.

"When black women disappear, the media silence can be deafening," began an article in the June issue of Essence magazine, which chronicled cases of eight missing black women.

President Bill Clinton was asked at the National Association of Black Journalists' convention this week whether he detected racism behind the lack of coverage. Everyone tends to filter news based on their own experiences, he said, making this further proof of the need for more diversity in newsrooms.

"Let's face it," said Robert Niles, the editor of the Annenberg Online Journalism Review at the University of Southern California. "The obsession that the industry, especially cable channels, have to stories about missing, pretty white girls has gotten a little ridiculous. I don't know that the solution, though, is to start covering every missing black, Hispanic and Asian woman, too. Perhaps this is a moment for editors to take a moment and say, hey, wait, are we really doing the right thing here?"

Mr. Blair said he first mentioned the case on his blog about four days after Ms. Figueroa vanished, then waited for the news media to seize the story. By July 26, frustrated and angry, he sent a biting letter to Nancy Grace, host of a legal affairs program on CNN-Headline News, urging her to give a fraction of the coverage given to Ms. Holloway's disappearance to Ms. Figueroa's case.

The letter, posted on his blog, reverberated on other blogs in the area, which linked to it, commented on it and added to the pressure.

Before dawn on July 27, a story appeared on CNN. By late morning, Mr. Blair said, the detective investigating the Figueroa case told him that he had been contacted by every broadcast network and cable news channel. That same afternoon, Mr. Ramos held a well-attended news conference to announce a $10,000 reward, later raised to $100,000.

The story finally took off. Within days, it was featured on every morning network news show.

"I guess I've done, I don't know, 14 or 15 television interviews," said Mr. Figueroa, an out-of-work craftsman whose business cards read "Melvin the Carpenter," and who has spent every day and most nights handing out leaflets and searching vacant fields. "I did a Spanish-language one this morning, and now they want me to go down to Miami for another one, but I don't know."

Hearing the news reports, a Delaware-based canine search unit offered its services, and last weekend they and Mr. Figueroa scoured a cemetery, a city park and other areas. There have been prayer vigils and other shows of support. But so far, no leads have surfaced. Still, Mr. Figueroa said, he has hope.

And the recent news coverage has had other, unexpected consequences. A few days ago, the family of 15-year-old Latoya Byrd, who disappeared on Easter Sunday, came up to Mr. Figueroa and asked if they could pass out leaflets, too.

"At first, the police listed her as a runaway," said Kim Fuller Green, the teenager's cousin. "And it was so frustrating to try to get some attention and some help."

Mr. Figueroa said of course they should join in the leafleting. Families of other missing Philadelphians have also been in contact.

"My idea is, we cannot do this on our own, so it is better if we are all together," Mr. Figueroa said.

He handed a leaflet to a passing man. Ms. Green stepped forward and pressed one of her leaflets, as well.

"Please, don't forget my baby," Ms. Green called after him.

[Source]

Something to think about...

Found Dead: Javeion Mayes

Even though my blog is mainly about missing AA females, I never forgot about the missing AA males. My original plan was make a website including news of missing AA females and males. But due to money and time constraints I have not been able to get to that but I have faith that the time will come. Like I said in my introduction, I'm taking it one step at a time. Thanks for being patient! :)

GREENVILLE, S.C. | A 4-year-old boy who police and volunteers searched for over two 100-degree days was likely dead before his father called police to report him missing, authorities said.

An autopsy Thursday determined Javeion Mayes died late Monday afternoon, said Greenville County Deputy Coroner Mike Ellis.

The body was so badly decomposed that investigators had to use dental records to identify the boy, Ellis said.

The coroner's office is awaiting more tests before determining a cause of death, Ellis said.

Additional charges will likely be filed against the boy's father, Christopher Lamar Wilson, 32, who is in jail on one count of unlawful neglect of a child by a legal custodian, prosecutor Bob Ariail said.

"We're looking at every possible upgraded charge based on the evidence," Ariail said.

Wilson reported the boy missing around 8 a.m. Tuesday, starting a more than 30-hour search as highs soared to 100 degrees in Greenville.

The boy's body was found Wednesday afternoon in a thick field of kudzu not far from his home, authorities said.

Officials estimate more than 400 police officers, firefighters and volunteers were part of the two-day search.

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About the father... [Source]

"Christopher Wilson is the boy's father. He is being held at the Greenville County Detention Center on a charge of legal custodian unlawful neglect of a child or helpless person. The arrest warrant says Wilson was in charge of Javeion's care on Tuesday morning at a home on Hollywood Circle.

The warrant says Wilson failed to monitor the child for an hour and four hours passed before police were notified the child was missing.

Police and volunteers searched Tuesday afternoon and into Wednesday afternoon in 100 degree heat to try and find the child. Much of the area is covered in thick kudzu and uneven terrain.

News Channel 7 obtained Christopher Wilson's records from the State Law Enforcement Division. SLED says Wilson has been arrested 38 times since 1992. He's faced more than 50 charges including armed robbery, stalking and assault and battery. The paperwork shows most of those crimes were committed in Greenville County."

Other articles:

Volunteers asked to help search for boy
Body found close to missing boy's home
Boy Who'd Been Missing Found Dead; Father Charged

Found: Phyllis Bryant

A 49-year-old woman with dementia, who had been missing since Tuesday, has been located in Maryview Hospital, where she was admitted after suffering from a heat related illness.

The family of Phyllis Bryant had become concerned that she had left without taking her medication and become disoriented.

Police said she was in good condition and had been reunited with her family.

Previous story:

Portsmouth Police need your help locating a missing woman. She's been missing since Tuesday and is identified as 49-year-old, Phyllis Ann Bryant.

Ms. Bryant suffers from dementia and she may or may not have taken her medication when she left.

She is described as 5'6" tall and weighs approximately 150 lbs. She has black/dark brown short hair and has numerous scars, including one on her forehead.

If you've seen Bryant, please call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or the Detective Bureau at 757-393-8536

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Don't forget about the mentally ill and make sure you check the hospitals for your loved ones - nobody like to think about this but you never know a person's situation.

Reward in disappearance of Stepha Henry increased to $15,000

The potential reward for information that leads to an arrest in the disappearance of Stepha Henry, 22, who has been missing since May, has increased to $15,000, authorities announced this afternoon.

Henry's family, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Jordan, Esserman Nissan in Miami and the National Congress of Black Women donated a total of $14,000, to add to the original $1,000 reward Crime Stoppers offered.

Miami-Dade police suspect foul play but have been unable to identify a suspect or find any trace of Henry, who was visiting from Brooklyn, New York, and was reported missing May 29 by relatives in North Miami-Dade. She was last seen at Pepper's Cafe in Sunrise.

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS

[Source]

Pregnant Woman, Daughter Among Missing In Collapse

Update:

The known death toll from last week's collapse reached eight when Navy divers found a body about noon.

The body belonged to Sadiya Sahal, 23, of St. Paul. A body found Thursday was identified as her 2-year-old daughter, Hanah Sahal. Both had been on the list of missing.

[Source]

A pregnant Somali woman and her daughter are those unaccounted for after the Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Sadiya Sahal left her home at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday with her 2-year-old daughter -- Hanah Mohamed -- in the back seat.

According to a spokesman for the family, Sahal called her family several minutes later to say she was stuck in traffic on the bridge. She is five-months pregnant.

Sahal is a nursing student who came to the United States from Somalia seven years ago and graduated from Washburn High School in Minneapolis.

[Source]