Marissa Lopez, 14 Missing Since 9/2/2007 from Prairie Village KS

[Pauli]

Endangered Runaway
http://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMC1079077c1.jpg
MARISSA LOPEZ DOB: Jun 11, 1993
Missing: Sep 2, 2007
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Biracial
Age Now: 14
Sex: Female
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Hair: Brown Missing From:
PRAIRIE VILLAGE
KS
United States Marissa may be in the company of an adult male. They may have traveled to Mexico City, Mexico or Veracruz, Mexico. Marissa is Biracial. She is White and Hispanic.
http://www.missingkids.com/orglogos/NCMC_en_US.gif
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Prairie Village Police Department (Kansas) 1-913-642-5151

[Pauli]

http://www.myspace.com/missingmarissalopez

http://findmarissalopez.facesofthemissing.org/

http://findmarissalopez.facesofthemissing.org/blog/


Marissa Lopez is missing, she is just 14.
She may be in the company of an adult named Alberto B. Estrada, aged 21.

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa249/adelleteresa/marissa_80-1.jpg (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vczIwMS5waG90b2J1Y2tldC5jb20vYWxidW1zL2 FhMjQ5L2FkZWxsZXRlcmVzYS8/YWN0aW9uPXZpZXcmY3VycmVudD1tYXJpc3NhXzgwLTEuanBn) http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa249/adelleteresa/alberto_80.jpg (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vczIwMS5waG90b2J1Y2tldC5jb20vYWxidW1zL2 FhMjQ5L2FkZWxsZXRlcmVzYS8/YWN0aW9uPXZpZXcmY3VycmVudD1hbGJlcnRvXzgwLmpwZw==)


They may have travelled to Mexico City, Mexico or Veracruz, Mexico or be in Texas.
Marissa is Biracial, she is white and hispanic.
She has been broadcast on the news in Mexico as an Endangered Runaway.

Anyone with information or her whereabouts should contact:

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

Prairie Village Police Department (Kansas)
1-913-642-5151

You can help by downloading her ICMEC (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmljbWVjLm9yZw==) poster HERE (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmZvcmV2ZXJzZWFyY2hpbmcuY29tL2xpYn JhcnkvTWFyaXNzYS5wZGY=)

[Pauli]

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/317587.html

Father hopes for a special birthday gift — his missing daughter

By BENITA Y. WILLIAMS
The Kansas City Star

If you call John Lopez’s cell phone, you hear more than the standard greeting. He’s also recorded a special plea for his missing daughter, Marissa, asking her to call home.

“Marissa, if this is you, I just want to know that you’re OK,” the message says. “I’m not mad at you.”

The 14-year-old Prairie Village teen was reported missing Sept. 2. Though she is classified as a runaway, police say certain aspects of her case are worrisome.

•She hasn’t been heard from in more than a month. Most runaways are located within a week.

•She may be with a 21-year-old boyfriend whom the family threatened to have arrested.

•Her family thinks the man took her to Mexico.

The Lopez case, and her father’s phone message, underscore the despair thousands of families experience each year while trying to locate runaway children.

This case also highlights the factors that police weigh when deciding when a runaway case is serious enough to warrant more of their limited resources.

Prairie Village police said they’ve followed more leads on Marissa than they typically do for a runaway. However, they have not classified her disappearance as a criminal matter.

“We don’t know if we even had a crime in the state of Kansas if she left on own free will,” Police Capt. Tim Schwartzkopf said. “There are so many unknowns … but we do have a missing juvenile we are concerned about.”

Runaways don’t qualify for Amber alerts to the media. Those are reserved for children whom authorities suspect are in immediate peril.

“It’s really frustrating because all children 17 and under should be treated as missing persons, not as runaways. Especially a 14-year-old girl who cannot make it on her own,” said Janis McCall, director of One Missing Link Inc., a missing person’s advocacy group based in Springfield.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children considers all juvenile runaways endangered because they are minors and have left home.

When Marissa went missing, her family found a note and other evidence that she had fled with a man the family thought they’d successfully kept her from seeing. They also learned that the man left his job and apartment about the same time Marissa left, and that he told relatives he was headed back home to Mexico.

The National Runaway Switchboard estimates that between 1.6 million and 2.8 million youths run away each year, too many for police to chase after.

For example, the Kansas City Police Department filed 930 runaway reports last year, and by June this year they’d filed 450.

“Basically what it boils down to is manpower, and we can only investigate criminal offenses, and it (running away) is not a criminal offense,” said juvenile unit sergeant S. Zink.

Instead, Zink said, running away is considered a status offense, much like breaking curfew.

A 2006 U.S. Department of Justice report identified other reasons police often put a low priority on runaways:

•More serious public safety threats take precedence.

•They lack the resources to transport and house apprehended runaways.

•They think that some parents and guardians try to use the police as disciplinarians for their wayward children.

Under federal law, police must submit reports of runaways to the National Crime Information Center, a database that includes a missing persons file. Beyond that point, how they handle the case is left up to local police.

If the runaway is younger than 10, Kansas City police often use helicopters or canines to search the area where the child was last seen, Zink said.

While looking for Marissa, Prairie Village officers have examined cab and bus records to determine how she might have left town. They’ve contacted authorities in Mexico and examined computer records.

Her family has posted fliers on both sides of the state line and contacted the American embassy in Mexico.

Marissa’s family remains hopeful that she will return, and Lopez believes he will hear from his daughter because she usually remembers important dates, and one is coming up soon.

“My birthday’s in two weeks, so I’m waiting to see if she calls me,” he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MORE INFORMATION
For help in locating a missing or runaway child, contact:

•The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678) or www.missingkids.com

If you have information about Marissa Lopez, call 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678) or Prairie Village police, 913-642-5151.

[Pauli]

http://www.wibw.com/news/headlines/10551642.html

Missing Girl Listed as Runaway

Posted: 11:34 AM Oct 15, 2007
Last Updated: 11:34 AM Oct 15, 2007

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. (AP) _ Authorities have classified a missing suburban Kansas City girl as a runaway.

But police say there are worrisome aspects about the September 2nd disappearance of 14-year-old Marissa Lopez of Prairie Village. Most runaways are located within a week, Lopez may be with a 21-year-old boyfriend, and her family fears the two may be in Mexico.

Prairie Village police say they have followed more leads in the Lopez case than they typically do for a runaway, but since there's no evidence of a crime, it can't be deemed a criminal case.

Police say the family found a note and other signs that the girl had left with a boyfriend they thought they'd stopped her from seeing. And they learned that the man had quit his job and told relatives he was headed back home to Mexico.

[Pauli]

http://dosmundos.com/welcome/index.php?opt...9&Itemid=69 (http://dosmundos.com/welcome/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1079&Itemid=69)

Marissa Lopez still missing as sisters are buried

Written by Edie R. Lambert
Thursday, 08 November 2007

Please come home, Marissa Lopez. That’s the grief-stricken plea of the Prairie Village teenager’s family.

They’ve broadcast their appeal since the 14-year-old disappeared Sept. 2. But there’s a new, compelling urgency.

Marissa’s two sisters, Terra Lopez, 18, and Desirae Lopez, 16, are dead. They were killed in an automobile accident on Halloween evening on their way home from Wichita, Kan.

Their bodies arrived at the Porter Funeral Home in Lenexa last Friday as relatives and friends gathered here to mourn. Theresa McGraw, the girls’ mother, arrived on Saturday from Alaska.

A memorial service was held yesterday for Terra and Desirae from 4 to 7 p.m. The sisters will be cremated and buried together.

Marissa would come right home if she knew about her sisters’ deaths, her family believes, and they’ve called upon everyone who might help get word to her, including relatives of Alberto Estrada, 21. Marissa is believed to have run away with Estrada, her boyfriend and a native of Veracruz, Mexico, who may have been in the United States illegally.

State troopers processing the fatal crash scene on Interstate 35 near Williamsburg, Kan., last week noted an unusual detail in the wreckage. Taped to the cracked windows of Terra Lopez’s Chevrolet Camaro were mostly intact fliers soliciting information about Marissa’s whereabouts.

Coupled with the ruins of Terra’s mangled car, the signs bearing Marissa’s picture starkly illustrate the heartbreaking and extraordinary misfortune that’s befallen the Lopez family. The combined images will haunt them.

“Terra and Desirae never got to see Marissa again,” said John Lopez, Marissa’s father.

He and others believe Marissa and Estrada are in Dallas, Texas, because of e-mails discovered on Marissa’s computer at school and a phone call Estrada made around the time Marissa disappeared. Through a translator, the Lopez family learned from Estrada’s mother that he’d called to tell her he’d see her “pretty soon.” But so far, according to Estrada’s mother in Veracruz, Estrada hasn’t showed up or called again.

“I believe his relatives here don’t know where he is,” Lopez said. “They’re helping us try to locate Marissa and Alberto.”

He said that Estrada worked at Mimi’s Café on 135th Street in Overland Park until shortly before he left the area after Lopez forbid him from seeing Marissa. Lopez said he doesn’t doubt that Estrada cared for his daughter, promising “to treat her like a queen.”

But Lopez said the excessive age difference between the two was impractical.

Besides burying his two oldest daughters and trying to locate Marissa, Lopez and his son Johnny, 21, are coping with the grave condition of Lopez’s mother, age 69. She’s hospitalized for treatment of serious heart problems. Lopez put off until Friday informing his mother of her granddaughters’ deaths.

Lopez works on the wait staff at the Village Inn in Mission, where Terra and Desirae also worked. The restaurant has set up a memorial fund for the family at Mission Bank to help offset funeral expenses.

Since learning of his daughters’ deaths from Kansas Highway Patrol troopers around 10 p.m. on Halloween, Lopez has dealt with one heartrending task after another. His friend Kevin Riley relieved him of one – that of notifying Theresa McGraw.

Very early last Thursday morning, Lopez went to Shawnee Mission East High School.

“I had to break the news to them, and I wanted to get my girls’ belongings out of their lockers,” Lopez said, adding that school officials have been “tremendously helpful.”

For now, the loving support of his son, his seven siblings and his friends sustains Lopez. Hope helps assuage the uncertainty and close the physical distance between him and his only surviving daughter. “I have to believe Marissa’s OK,” he said.

And he wants her to know, “Marissa, you’re not in trouble. I love you, and more than anything, I want to make sure you’re safe. Please come home.”

Marissa Lopez is listed as an endangered runaway by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Anyone with information about Marissa’s whereabouts is urged to call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline (in English or Spanish) at 1 (800) 843-5678, any metro area police department, or Dos Mundos newspaper at (816) 221-4747.

[Pauli]

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/343417.html

Deaths of two daughters compound family’s tragedy

By BENITA Y WILLIAMS
The Kansas City Star

When John Lopez’s youngest daughter, Marissa, went missing two months ago, he turned to his three other children for solace.

Just after nightfall on Halloween, Marissa’s two sisters died in a one-car accident on Interstate 35 in Osage County, Kan. They were going home after a party in Wichita.

“We’re barely hanging in there,” said Lopez, who lives in Prairie Village. “It’s very hard.”

The oldest daughter, Terra Lopez, 18, was driving her Chevrolet Camaro north on the highway, with 16-year-old Desirae Lopez along.

The car left the roadway near Williamsburg, struck a guardrail and went down an embankment. It rolled and came to rest on its top.

Troopers said Terra was wearing a seat belt but Desirae was not.

Taped to the rear side windows of the car were fliers seeking information about younger sister Marissa, 14, who ran away from home Sept. 2 and may be in Mexico with a man in his 20s. She is listed as an endangered runaway by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“They’re all really good kids,” Lopez said. “They were always close. … They were very gifted in their own way.”

Lopez hopes that if Marissa hears about her sisters’ deaths, she will come back.

“I’m hoping Marissa or someone with Marissa will see this (news reports),” Lopez said. “I still love her. I still miss her. I’m not mad at her but right now we need her home.”

•••

When authorities called Lopez’s cell phone Wednesday night, for a fleeting moment he thought it might have been news, hopefully good, about Marissa. He didn’t think it would be tragic news about his two older daughters.

Lopez said Terra and Desirae drove to Wichita once a month to visit family and friends. On Wednesday they attended a Halloween party for a friend’s 5-year-old son.

They left for home about 5:30 p.m. When they weren’t back three hours later, John started calling their cell phones but got no answer.

“I thought maybe they had gotten something to eat,” he said.

About 10 p.m. the Kansas Highway Patrol called and asked to meet him at his home. When he got there, troopers were in his yard and his son was crying.

“I knew it was bad,” Lopez said.

On Thursday, he and son, Johnny, 21, planned a double funeral for the girls. Lopez, 43, tried to shield his mother, who is in the hospital with heart problems, from news reports about her granddaughters’ deaths.

Classes started late Thursday at Shawnee Mission East High School, where all three of his daughters attended. Their father cleared out the dead girls’ lockers before their classmates arrived.

•••

Later Thursday, Lopez looked around the family’s yellow ranch-style home for Terra’s 4-H ribbons. She was the tomboy who loved riding horses and driving her silver Camaro.

Desirae was more of a loner who came alive on the dance floor.

“She could outdance a lot of people,” Lopez said.

Both girls worked with their dad on the wait staff at the Village Inn in Mission, which is setting up a memorial fund for the family.

“They were great girls. Friendly, smiling, outgoing,” said Village Inn co-owner Melanie McDaniel.

They had attended Shawnee Mission schools only since last spring, after moving from Wyandotte County. The family also once lived in Alaska. After Lopez and his wife divorced, he moved to Kansas with the four children.

Terra was a senior at Shawnee Mission East. Marissa and Desirae were freshmen. Marissa had tried out for the freshman cheerleading squad before she left home.

Classmates recalled Terra and Desirae as quiet girls who kept to themselves and did not cause any trouble. Several of their teachers were shaken by the deaths, classmates said.

Even students who didn’t know the sisters cried for the family that has been through so much.

[Pauli]

http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/De...mp;pageId=3.1.1 (http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4807585&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.1.1)


Father Hopes News Of Sisters' Deaths Brings Runaway Home

Last Edited: Thursday, 01 Nov 2007, 5:32 PM CDT
Created: Thursday, 01 Nov 2007, 5:25 PM CDT

Two Prairie Village sisters are dead after swerving to avoid a deer on I-35 Wednesday night. Now the teen's mourning father hopes a runaway sister will return home.

John Lopez hopes the news of Terra, 18, and Desiree's, 16, deaths will reach 14-year-old Marisa and encourage her to come home.

Lopez said his daughters were heading back from Wichita when the wreck happened Wednesday evening.

"They think that she swerved to not hit a deer or that it was possible that she could, she dozed off and fell asleep, but he thinks it was a deer," Lopez said.

The Kansas Highway Patrol said Terra was behind the wheel of her Camero when it left the road, hit a guard rail and went down an embankment, landing upside down.

"He told me that the car flipped and they died on impact and that there was no suffering and they were in the car when they were found," Lopez said.

Lopez said he raised his children alone for the past 10 years after his divorce.

Johnny Lopez says he and his three sisters were close, but life hasn't been the same without Marisa who ran away September 2. Now he said without Terra and Desiree his life will never be the same. His only hope now is for Marisa, believed to be in Dallas, to come home.

"Marissa, me and dad are here and hopefully you are able to see this and hear about the girls and, you just come back to us," Johnny Lopez said.

[Pauli]

Written for Project Jason's 18 Wheel Angels Campaign and published in the trucking magazine:

Missing Our Marissa

By Lesa Stivers, Marissa’s Aunt

September 2nd, 2007 started off as a normal day. My niece, Terra, 18, went home to pick up Marissa, 14, and drive her to her job at Le Peep's, where she helped her older brother Johnny, 21, the restaurant manager. Unknown to Terra, Marissa had called in sick to work earlier that day.

"I went to her bedroom to get her, and kept banging on the door but she wouldn't answer and it was locked. I went to the window as it was always unlocked. I climbed in the window and she was gone." Terra said.

After quickly determining that Marissa was nowhere in the house, Terra raced across town to Village Inn, where her father, John, works.

"Terra came in and said she couldn't find Marissa,” John said. "I left work right away. I called the police. It took them like 20 minutes to get here." No one could find Marissa.

Recently, John had found out that his daughter had been secretly dating a 21 yr old man for about a year. "When I found out they were together, I went to where this man worked. I did not know that my son Jonny had already been there, and he told this man the same thing I would have, which was to stay away from Marissa." John said. But the man did not listen. John told him he was going to the police. The man begged him not to and said he was leaving to go back to Mexico.

It wasn't until later that day that John found the three page note from Marissa and other evidence leading the family and police to believe that Marissa had run away with the man at around 8 a.m. that day.

The search for Marissa

Our family is running out of everything except hope for what to do next in our search for Marissa. We have been in close contact with the police, in both Kansas and Missouri, who notified the Mexican authorities and the NCMEC. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) A poster produced by NCMEC is plastered along the Mexican border and across the metro area. Our family has also contacted local news stations and newspapers, and was featured on the NBC Action news on October 4th.

“We have passed out flyers and we have flyers on the windows of our cars," Johnny added. "I made a MySpace page and put everything about her on it."

Detective Sullivan said "We don't have a whole lot of information at this time, and she hasn't been heard from yet. Usually the runaways in this area come back or are found relatively quickly. It's not often, and that's what's strange- that she hasn't made any contact with her family."

I have also spent countless hours on the internet, pleading with different organizations for help in spreading the word about our story and getting info about Marissa made public. I have made hundreds of flyers, and mailed them out to stores in and around Texas, asking owners to hang them for us. I have written to every talk show and America's Most Wanted.

More Tragedy

Then, just as it seemed things couldn't get worse, my friend, Sandy, called me on my cell phone to see how I was doing. It was a confusing phone call. She kept asking how John was doing, and how I was coping. I finally had to straight out ask her what she was talking about. "Lesa, you mean you don't know about John and the girls?” Sandy asked.

I immediately pulled my car off the road and started sobbing, fearing the worse. “What are you talking about Sandy?” I asked. She proceeded to tell me that Marissa’s two sisters, Terra and Desirae, had been killed in a car accident on Halloween night.

I couldn't breathe and my head was spinning. I wanted to run away and hide. I wanted to scream. I thought this has to be a lie. John hadn't called me, and no one had said anything. I realized I had not been home the last couple of days. I had been working long hours and John did not have my cell number. I couldn't function, and I couldn't even think of what my brother’s phone number was, and I wanted to puke. I called my husband, and with his help finally got a hold of my brother, and found out the nightmare was true.

We flew to Kansas from Alaska to help my brother plan his girls’ funeral. We had been through this before. Our own daughter died 13 years ago. From the day I found out about the girls until we were to leave for Kansas, the whole trip seemed like a dream. How could this happen to our family, to John, Johnny and the girls? My heart ached so much and still does.

I was flooded with memories of our own child's death, and then thoughts of how to support John emotionally through this. It's the hardest thing to hear that your child has died, let alone two! With Marissa still missing, and our sister Sue, who disappeared in 2003 without a trace, I find myself crying out, asking God WHY?! I knew though, that I had to be strong for John, Johnny, and the girls. I had to, and still have to, hold on to hope.

The Funeral

John and Johnny would smile, trying to cope, trying to be normal and happy like they usually are or were before all this took place. Later on, we found them in the bedroom crying.

They have lost so much. We all have. We helped John and Johnny arrange the flowers at the funeral home, set up framed pictures of the girls, and also shopped for the right outfit for the services. During this time, we kept thinking about Marissa, and praying each time the phone rang. We hoped that it was her calling to say she had heard what happened and was coming home.

The news media went crazy, having done reports on Marissa missing. Now they were running the story of Terra and Desirae along side Marissa's. They were camped outside the house and calling to see if we had heard anything from Marissa. One story was done on Marissa when she disappeared; and now there were dozens posted all over the internet.

The services were about to begin. Family, friends and even strangers filled the funeral home. It was standing room only. I prayed with the pastor leading the services when she asked me. I asked God to give her the words to speak and the strength to get through the services. I do not recall everyone I met, or even what was said that day. What I recall is the two brokenhearted men, John and Johnny, watching the looks on their faces as the service was happening. I put aside my own broken heart and thoughts, and prayed for God's mercy for them, and for Him to help them through this. I stood near my brother all the while, watching the entrance to the sanctuary, praying Marissa would walk in. She did not.

What can you do to help?

Now we need our Marissa home. We do not think that she knows her sisters are dead, or she would have come home already. Can you please help us find her?

No matter where you live, please view Marissa’s missing poster at the 18 Wheel Angels page on the Project Jason website and consider placing several.

If you live in Texas or Mexico it is very important to view and place the poster, because these are the two places we believe Marissa may be. If you can, print a few of the posters and post them in your neighborhood or place one on the side of your truck so people will see her face.

All three girls’ belongings are in Marissa’s room now. A note from her father to Marissa sits in the window sill. A bouquet of flowers I made for her from her sisters’ funeral, one flower from each arrangement, hangs drying, along with a letter I wrote to her. Her sisters’ belongings are waiting for Marissa to hold, grieve and remember them.

[Roamer]

Why does one article say they were killed on Halloween, and another says last Wednesday? If it was Halloween, that was months ago.

Anyway, what a horrific time this family is going through. My thoughts and prayers to them and for them all. :1222423:

[Pauli]

They were killed on Halloween, the article that says last Wednesday was dated Nov 1, 2007.

Those are all old articles.. there has been nothing new at all on Marissa..

[Nut44x4]

I was just reading this thread. Good God Almighty...how much heartache are these parents suppose to endure. This is so sad. I checked for updates on her, but find nothing.

[Pauli]

It really makes you wonder doesn't it.. I get so frustrated at not being able to find any information on so many of the missing...

[packy]

How does one person bear losing all three of his daughters. My heart goes out to him and his son, and I hope Marissa does come home if she hasn't already. I couldn't find any updates either.

[Pauli]

I keep checking her Myspace page to see if there is any new information.

http://www.myspace.com/findmarissalopez

[TigressPen]

Oh, this one is too sad to contemplate. I hope Marissa has contacted her parents. :1222423:

[Faith]

Oh, this one is too sad to contemplate. I hope Marissa has contacted her parents. :1222423:

I agree, very sad. :1222423:

[LiveLaughLuv]

Just got off the phone with the records department on Marissa. The woman was reluctant to give me any updated information and ask that I fax something over to her on our letterhead and then she will speak to her captain. Include what we do and what we need to know...

I called 913-385-4625 which is the records department.

the fax number is 913-385-7710

Sorry, I couldn't give anything more on this endangered runaway.

[Faith]

$5,000 Reward Offered



Leading to the whereabouts of



Marissa Lopez, age now, 15 years



Marissa has been missing since 9/2/2007



Please contact us via the Contact Form

http://findmarissalopez.facesofthemissing.org/blog/


http://findmarissalopez.facesofthemissing.org/images/KS_marissa_alberto.jpghttp://findmarissalopez.facesofthemissing.org/images/KS_marissa_alberto.jpg

[Roamer]

Still missing.

[AmyE]

Still listed here!

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=1079077&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US

[annalyzer]

http://www.pollyklaas.org/missing/kids/pdf/pdf2/lopez-flyer.pdf

http://www.nampn.org/cases/lopez_marissa.html

http://www.lrcf.net/missing/MarissaLopez/MarissaLopez.html