25-year-old missing child case reopened in Ann Arbor

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Twenty-five years ago, Olisa Williams was believed to have been abducted by a stranger while her father slept on a park bench in Ann Arbor.

Now, the search is back on to find her.

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The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children wants to know what happened to the then-1-year-old Olisa. The center is an Alexandria, Va.-based nonprofit that works with law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Department of Justice. The Ann Arbor Police Department plans to collect any tips about the case. When last seen, Williams was 2 feet tall and weighed 35 pounds. She would be 26 years old today.

To provide information in the case, contact 800-843-5678 or the Ann Arbor Police Department at 734-994-2877 or 734-994-2880.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080211/NEWS06/802110337/1008/NEWS

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The story told by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is chilling - Olisa Williams was 1 year old when her father took her to an Ann Arbor park in 1982.

He said he fell asleep and awoke to find his daughter gone.

The Ann Arbor Police Department never believed that version of the story.

Today, the file on Olisa Williams' abduction is kept alive by Jerry Nance, a case manager with the Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Virginia.

Nance sends out details on Olisa's case once every six months, as he has every year after he took over her case in 2001. Her one-inch-thick file is one of about 500 that Nance oversees.

This month marks the 25th anniversary since Olisa was reported missing. Nance recently sent out a press release urging anyone who has information on the case to come forward, but even he admits it's "unsolvable" by local authorities.

Many experts say there's a chance Olisa is still alive.

But what happened to the Ann Arbor baby in 1982 remains a mystery. The police report - now buried in the basement of the Ann Arbor city hall - paints a far different picture than the numerous blogs and Web sites that feature her case.

According to the police report, Denise Williams told her attorney, Molly Reno, that Isiah Williams entered her residence in Cincinnati in May 1982, knocked her down and took their baby. The report then inexplicably notes that both Isiah and Denise Williams moved to Ann Arbor.

In court, Isiah told a judge the last time he saw Olisa was in June 1982. He admitted he had been smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol while driving around with Olisa. Isiah said he parked his car at Island Park and fell asleep. He said he woke and discovered the car door open and Olisa gone.

"We didn't believe him. We felt either he gave the baby to another family member to be raised or the child was deceased. I think that was the belief of most everybody."
- Retired Ann Arbor Police Detective Mary Smith.


Isiah said in court that he didn't report the abduction to police because he thought his wife or one of her relatives had taken the child.

Reno told police Isiah had called his wife on numerous occasions with different versions of what happened. Among the stories: He lost the baby, killed the baby, she died at the hospital, and "the child was across the water."

Retired Ann Arbor Police Detective Mary Smith, who was involved in the case, said officers searched the Huron River looking for Olisa.

"We didn't believe him," Smith said recently. "We felt either he gave the baby to another family member to be raised or the child was deceased. I think that was the belief of most everybody."

Isiah was brought before a judge for violating a restraining order and said he would only reveal what happened to Olisa if the case against him was dismissed. The judge refused and threatened to put Isiah in jail if he didn't cooperate. That's when Isiah told the story of falling asleep and waking with Olisa nowhere in sight.

"The baby is missing, but there was no evidence (Isiah) was involved in the disappearance of the baby," Ann Arbor Police Lt. Mike Logghe said Tuesday. "He wasn't arrested because we couldn't prove he was not telling the truth."

Nance said Denise Williams called his agency in March 1985, making it one of the first cases for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The center didn't officially start until a year later.

Denise Williams' last contact with the agency was in 1992, when a case worker called her to ask if there were any updates. Denise stopped responding to letters after that, and Nance said he hasn't been able to locate either parent since.

The Ann Arbor News was also unable to locate Olisa's parents.

Nance said the case will remain open until it's solved.

Every six months, it goes through another three-hour review, and a "special alert" file is sent to coroners and medical examiners in Michigan.

National missing child experts say it's unlikely Olisa was ever abducted by a stranger.
Kidnappings by strangers are rare. A 2002 national study estimated 1.3 million children were missing in 1988, and only three percent of those missing children were believed to have been taken by strangers. The vast majority of the cases involved relatives or acquaintances and were resolved within hours, studies show.

Based on her age at the time, missing child experts say, the chances she's still alive are much better than if she had been 5 or older.

"With a young baby like that, it is usually somebody wants a child or you have a really sick person," said David Thelen, CEO of the Committee For Missing Children in Georgia, explaining that Olisa could have been given to someone who couldn't have a child or could have been killed.

Nance also thinks Olisa's age at the time of her abduction improves her chances of still being alive.

"If she was 12 or 13 and missing this long, there would be only a 1 percent or 2 percent chance she is still alive," Nance said.

Even if she is alive, Olisa may not know that she was ever missing - or who her parents are, the experts said.

Nance said the best chance of finding Olisa is if her adopted family "comes clean" and tells her they're not her biological parents.

"We get calls from people all the time that say, 'I found out I was adopted and there is no record of my adoption,'" Nance said.

Thomas Lauth, a missing persons investigator from Indianapolis with 15 years of experience, says he gets a call about once a year from people who discover they were abducted as an infant but know little else.

"They'll say, 'I need to know who I am and where I come from,'" Lauth said. "There is nothing I can do. There are not enough facts."

http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/02/is_olisa_williams_still_alive.html

[Roamer]

What a strange story. Lots of twists and turns. Kudos to them for keeping it alive. :1222423:

[packy]

What a strange story. Lots of twists and turns. Kudos to them for keeping it alive. :1222423:

It seems a shame that no one knows where Olisa's parents are anymore according to the article. I wonder if there were any other kids in the family.

[Try2Win]

But it reminded me of the story about a boy who was missing from a shopping center in Livonia, Michigan at christmas time and was never found. I cannot remember his name now but I think it was around 1995 but not sure.

[packy]

But it reminded me of the story about a boy who was missing from a shopping center in Livonia, Michigan at christmas time and was never found. I cannot remember his name now but I think it was around 1995 but not sure.

Would it be D'wan Simms missing from Wonderland mall in 1994? http://fromwhisperstoroars.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html