Are You Really Ready to Help Find The Missing?

May 11, 2008

We’re all here because we want to help find missing persons but just how prepared are we to find someone who’s missing? John Mercure, a reporter with Today’s TMJ4 News in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, decided to find out just how ready we really are.

The Pettit National Ice Center is an Olympic training center, located in Milwaukee. When not being  used to train speed skaters for international competition, the ice can be open to anyone who wants to skate, but it is also used to train figure skaters and for local hockey teams to practice and play tournaments. It is a busy place, with hundreds of kids around, parents waiting for their kids as well as parents dropping off and picking up kids as hundreds of kids and adults taking advantage of the ice.

The Today’s TMJ4 I-Team printed up some posters that said in bold letters, MISSING with a large photo of 9 year old Jason, and a phone number to call if Jason is seen. The team put up the posters on the front door, in the lobby, anywhere people would see them. One of them was even in front of a hidden camera, one of several placed around the lobby.

The team then placed the most interesting item of all into the ice center: Jason.

Missing Poster
Have you seen this Boy? Really?
He’s right in front of you.

The number of people who looked at the poster and looked right past Jason was amazing.

Watch the video here, on the website of WTMJ-TV, Today’s TMJ4.  It is a most eye opening report!

Mercure interviewed some of them.

John: “Did you see the poster on the wall right there? Is that one you saw?”

Kelly: “Yes. Oh my gosh. There’s that child.”

Laurie, walked right past the poster. She then looked at a copy of it on the counter and walked away, Mercure approached her and asked her about the poster, showing her a copy.

John: “What do you think of that?”

Laurie: “That’s not good at all.”

John: “Can you look right there?”

Laurie: SIGHS “There he is. I didn’t see it.”

Several people also saw the posters then looked at Jason, and recognized him. One person agonized over what to do, and finally pointed out Jason to the attendants at the desk. Mercure says that adults seemed the most puzzled about what to do, but several youngsters simply walked up to Jason and asked if he was okay.

Mercure went on to report that Joel Diehn, the crime prevention officer with the Glendale Police Department, advises that changing our habits can make us more observant and help us become better citizens. He says small things can make us more observant. “Pick one thing at a time,” he told Mercure. “For example: ‘I’m not going to text message my friends and family while I’m going to and from my car or whatever it might be. I’m going to pay attention,’”

Mercure says, “Paying a little more attention could pay off for our kids. Each year 800,000 children are reported missing.”

And being a little more observant might help bring one more missing person home.

Report information and transcript courtesy of Today’s TMJ4 Television, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Reporter: John Mecure 

Written by Ghost Writer · Filed Under Commentary, Media and the Missing, Missing Children | 1 Comment 

The Smiley Face Killers Story Is Heating Up

May 7, 2008

This story is catching much national, as well as local, interest as well it should. These serial killers pose a major threat to many, many people.

Sniley FaceSmiley Face

 A forum has been set up here, on Help Find The Missing, specifically for the Smiley Face Killers.

 Keep an eye on the forum.

Written by Ghost Writer · Filed Under Cold Cases, Commentary, Smiley Face River Killers | Leave a Comment 

A Child, Still Unknown After 25 Years

May 3, 2008

It was a couple of guys just snooping around an abandoned apartment building in St, Louis that started it all. No one really knows what they were doing there, they told the police they were looking for a piece of pipe to repair a broken down car. That was as flimsy as story as anyone could come up with, but what they intended was meaningless because of what they found when they got there.
 
The two guys were searching the upper floors and after a fruitless search, found their way to the basement. To light the darkness, one of the prowlers lit a cigarette lighter and screamed at what he saw. It sent the two running and screaming, looking for help from the police. It was a find that continues to haunt everyone who was involved.
 
What he saw was a young African-American girl in the furnace room. She was face down, wearing only a yellow V-neck sweater. She was naked below the waist and her hands were tied behind her back with red and white nylon rope. Most disturbing, her head had been separated from her body with a large-bladed knife. The girl had been strangled to death after she had been raped. 25 years later, “Jane Doe” remains unidentified. She still haunts detectives and her head has never been found.

The yellow sweater
All she was wearing was this sweater,
red nail polish, and the piece of red
and white nylon rope that bound
her wrists.
 
The gruesome tale has another twist. There were no signs of any previous abuse, in fact, her fingernails were painted with red polish. She seemed to be otherwise healthy, well nourished and cared for. She had no deformities, scars or any other marks that indicated prior trauma, or worse, would help identify her remains.
 
The apartment building was the secondary crime scene, the murder and assault had taken place elsewhere. Her body had been hauled to the abandoned building and a blood trail indicated how she had been dragged to the basement. Detectives made a thorough search of all the school systems in the St. Louis area to attempt to identify the girl, months of searching revealed that no one was missing. At that point, detectives could only  speculate that the young girl was from out of state. The FBI made a nationwide search in an attempt to locate her family, with no results. The FBI says that, at the time, this was the only decapitation in the country involving someone this young.
 
Until 2001, anyway, when a similar case occurred in Kansas City. The decapitated body of an African-American girl was found in a wooded area. Her head had been located in a garbage bag near the location of her body but she remained unidentified. She became known as “Precious Doe,” and her case remained unsolved for four years. St. Louis detectives speculated that perhaps the killer of Jane Doe had been in prison for 18 years on some other charge, then returned to commit a similar heinous deed. That theory was dashed when Precious Doe was identified as Erica Michelle Marie Green, just 3 years old at the time of her death.  The case of Precious Doe was solved in May, 2005 which resulted in the arrest of her mother and step father. The two would have been babies at the time of the Jane Doe killing. Source: KMBC-TV Kansas City. 
 
But in St. Louis, to this day, no one has any idea who Jane Doe was. Her murderer has never been brought to justice, although several men were under investigation. No arrests have ever been made, and no one has ever come forward to claim her body, buried in a troubled cemetery near I-70 and the airport.

A non-discript grave with a donated marker
The non-descript grave in a troubled cemetery
is marked with a donated headstone.
Photo by Jennifer Silverberg
 
The River Front News reports that the detectives who were first involved in the case have retired and many of them have died. The younger, replacement detectives continue the search, however, and everyone would like to clear this case. (The RFN published an extremely thorough feature about this case in 2004. See: The Case That Haunts.)
 
Jane Doe was 4′10″  and 70 pounds, all data are estimated. Her date of birth is thought to be as early as 1972 and as late as 1975, making her 8 to 11 years old at the time of her murder. She was found wearing a yellow V-neck sweater and red nail polish. Her DNA and all known data about her are in COTIS and NCIC. With her DNA on record, detectives await the day a matching DNA hit occurs in the database.
 
St. Louis Police would like your help to bring her, and her family, the peace and justice she deserves. Authorities are all awaiting the day that someone steps forward with a missing clue. If you have any clues at all, contact us, and we will alert the proper authorities.
 
Someone, somewhere, must miss her. Who is she? Where is she from? No one seems to know, but someone, somewhere must want to know whatever happened to the girl known only as, Jane Doe.

# # #

Related and Interesting Links:

The Doe Network: Case File 54UFMO
HFTM Thread: Headless Female Child - Found in Missouri 2-28-1983
The River Front News story: The Case That Haunts
HFTM Thread: Woman’s Headless Body Found In Detroit Manhole

Written by Ghost Writer · Filed Under Cold Cases, Missing Children, Unidentified | Leave a Comment 

“Accidental Drowning” Threads on HFTM

May 1, 2008

After writing the entry about the Smiley Face Killers the other day, and after both reading and viewing the stories that have developed since Kristi Piehl broke the story on KSTP-TV last week, someone suggested that there may be more cases out there than Messrs. Gannon and Duarte are considering, or be aware of. We did some research and found these cases here on HFTM that may, or may not, be related to the Smiley Face Killers. What caught out eyes on these cases were the times the person went missing, the amount of time between going missing and being found, and the autopsy report that says accidental drowning, no foul play detected.

If all of these cases are Smiley Face killings, the MO also includes women and men who are slightly older than college age men. You are welcome to follow the links and read the threads for yourself, and you decide if you think these cases are related.

Gabriel Michael Smith 27, [FOUND DECEASED] MSG Ludington, MI - Last seen at 2:15 AM

Joshua Szostak, 21 [Body Found] MSG Albany, NY - Last seen about midnight.

Jeffrey M. Liepitz 35 [Body Found]Missing Since 2/10/08 from Mosinee, Wisconsin - Last seen at 1:30 a.m. walking out of Dinger’s Sports Bar on Main Street in Mosinee.

Thomas J. Booth, 24 MSG [FOUND DECEASED] Last seen in Ridley, PA on 1-20-08 - Last was seen at the Bootleggers Bar around 1:30 Sunday morning.

Tom Smith- Forsyth (Montana)Missing [FOUND DECEASED] - Last seen leaving a bar late in the evening.

John Schnicke MSG [Body Found] from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin since 1-11-08 - Last seen outside a bar, late in the evening.

Holly Metzger, 34 MSG[Body Found] Since 12-17-07 from Mansfield, OH - Last seen at 9:11 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Cayle Bywater, 29 [REMAINS LOCATED] MSG from Athens GA Since 12-29-07 - Last seen outside her home on South Milledge Avenue in Athens on Saturday - time unknown

Body found on SIU’s Carbondale campus[IDENTIFIED as Huaijun Meng, 31 ] - Time of disappearance unknown.

Old Photo Helps Solve Drowning Mystery - The body of Andrew Bookless was found on June 13, 1993.

SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES BUT STILL NOT LOCATED

Nicholas Garza-19 Missing Since 2/5/08 Student from Middlebury,Vermont

Craig Hoskie, 22, Missing Since 4/12/08 Pensacola, FL - Last seen 12:30 AM.

EDITED TO ADD

These cases have been added because of observations made by members of HFTM.

Justin Gaines, 18, MSG Nov 1, 2007 - Last seen in a bar late at night, never located.

Phill Gall MSG from Dayton, OH since 10/13/1994 - Last seen walking toward a bar, never located.

Kyle Fleischmann 24 MSG Charlotte, NC since 11/09/2007 - Last seen leaving a bar at 2:20 AM, never located.

Written by Ghost Writer · Filed Under Cold Cases, Commentary, Smiley Face River Killers | 7 Comments