Virginia Ratliff, 82, Missing, 2/28/08, Brookhaven, MS

[Faith]

Brookhaven 03/18/08
Missing Woman's Husband Appeals for Clues

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It's been almost three weeks now since 82-year-old Virginia Ratliff of Brookhaven disappeared. Since then the search for her has not turned up any clues on her whereabouts, or what may have happened to her.

Monday, St. Patrick's Day, marked Charles and Virginia Ratliff's 62nd wedding anniversary. This year was the first they spent apart.

Virginia missing since Feburary 28th, while Charles was hospitalized in at the V.A. hospital in Jackson.

"I cried a lot," says Charles Ratliff. "We dressed alike, played golf together, played tennis together."

Investigators suspect Virginia Ratliff may have tried to drive to Jackson on February 28 to see her husband, who was being treated at the V.A. Medical Center. He fears his wife may have gotten lost.

There were even signs left behind at the Ratliff home that she had packed items before she left.

"I'm missing my slippers, I'm missing my shaver, my coat," he said. "Both of us had an L.L. Bean coat; she must have been bringing them up to me -- or was trying to, at least. She hadn't driven too much in the last year or so."

Virginia Ratliff suffered from memory loss.

Police are asking everyone to be on the lookout for Virginia Ratliff or her car: a white, four-door 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis with tag number 987 LIH. There is a navy Seabees tag on the front of the car, and two yellow veterans magnets on the back.

The Ratliffs are well known throughout Brookhaven for dressing alike and serving their community. That's something Charles Ratliff says he can not do alone.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Virginia Ratliff, or if you think you've seen her, call Brookhaven police at (601) 833-2424.
http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8036343

[Faith]

Search For Missing Brookhaven Woman Goes High-Tech
Virginia Ratliff Missing For One Month

POSTED: 5:09 pm CDT March 27, 2008

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. -- A high-tech, aerial search was under way Thursday for a missing senior citizen from Brookhaven.

Virginia Ratliff, 83, and her car, a white Grand Marquis, disappeared one month ago. Ratliff was last seen at her Brookhaven home after taking her husband to the hospital. Thursday, volunteers from the Down East Emergency Medicine Institute in Bangor, Maine, took to the air to help find Ratliff.

From a helicopter, volunteer Gary Soucy took high-resolution pictures of places where Ratliff may have driven off the road. The photos have been used before to find people and cars in heavily wooded areas, even under water.

”We know someone is wearing a red shirt they will do what they need to make a red shirt pop out in an image,” Soucy said. He's working with the highway patrol, trying to spot Ratliff's white Grand Marquis.

Virginia Ratliff's sister-in-law, Agnes Ratliff, said she is grateful for the help. Now the family is waiting for the pictures to be analyzed. “To keep praying and keep looking and prayers will bring Virginia home. She is coming home,” Agnes Ratliff said.

Virginia Ratliff was last seen driving her 1999 Grand Marquis with Mississippi license plate number is 987-LIH.

If you have any information, call Brookhaven police at 601-833-2424.
http://www.wapt.com/news/15726507/detail.html?subid=10101263

[Faith]

Search on for missing city woman

A search has begun for 83-year-old Brookhaven woman after she disappeared from her home sometime Thursday or Friday, authorities said.
Virginia Ratliff, who is described as a white woman about 5-foot-1 and weighing 135 pounds, is believed to have been driving her white 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis bearing Lincoln County tag 987-LIH.

"A relative is the one that called it in," said Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson. "The house was open but she and the vehicle weren't home, so we started searching."

Authorities said Ratliff might have been going to visit her husband, Charles, who is hospitalized Thursday in Jackson.

Family friend Mary Lynn Hudson, who answered the phone at the Ratliff residence, said the Ratliffs left Thursday morning when he was transported by ambulance to the VA hospital in Jackson.

At that point, Mrs. Ratliff drove home from Jackson. Hudson said neighbors recall seeing the car in the driveway as late as noon on Thursday.

"After that, no one has seen or heard from Virginia," she said. "It looks as if she got in the car to drive herself to the VA."

Hudson said Ratliff has had bouts of dementia and is not otherwise in top health. She said the family is skeptical as to whether she could operate the car for extended periods of time.

First Baptist Church of Brookhaven assembled a quadrant search of the Brookhaven area, sending groups into areas off the roads that might not be directly visible from the road. Officials from State Bank and Wal-Mart have also joined in the search.

"Our goal is simply to go road by road and look on the side of roads, culverts, behind shrubs or anywhere a car could have gone off the road and been hidden. We're going to stop and look in those places," said the Rev. Greg Warnock, pastor at First Baptist. "We're not going to assume she went in any direction, but we'll try to cover all the directions."

All eight Lincoln County volunteer fire departments and the Brookhaven Fire Department offered their assistance and were also mobilized Saturday to conduct a road search for Ratliff's car or any other sign of the beloved Brookhaven socialite, said Heuck's Retreat Fire Department President Jim Craig.

"I've asked all the chiefs in the event they locate the vehicle to call the sheriff's office to let them know," he said. "And if there are areas they couldn't get to, they're to call back and let us know, so we've got an overall picture of what parts of the county have been searched and what haven't."

Mississippi Highway Patrol Sgt. Rusty Boyd said troopers have been alerted to look out for Ratliff, and that lookout alert has been sent out to Alabama and Louisiana as well.

Henderson said the Civil Air Patrol joined the search Saturday, flying patters from Jackson to Hattiesburg.

"They're flying as we speak," he said Saturday evening. "They're canvassing the area as far as Hinds County, and they came out of Hattiesburg. They're doing their best to help us out."

Henderson said the good news is that there doesn't seem to be reason to suspect foul play.

"To my knowledge there's really no indication of foul play," he said. "She doesn't hardly ever drive as far as what I've been told. We don't have any info leading to anything other than she might be disoriented and got lost."

Law enforcement officials have asked that if the public finds any sign of Ratliff, they notify the Brookhaven Police Department at (601)833-2424, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at (601) 833-5231, or Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop M at (601) 833-7811.


http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19354106&BRD=1377&PAG=461&dept_id=172922&rfi=6

[Faith]

Ratliff search goes high-tech

March 28, 2008

A high-tech photography expert was in Brookhaven Thursday to assist in the search for missing woman Virginia Ratliff.
Gary Soucy, of Brewer, Maine, was one of several searchers who took part in a second helicopter search for Ratliff Thursday, flying over areas she could potentially have traveled when she went missing exactly a month before.

Soucy said the digital imaging technology searchers used yesterday has never failed to find a missing person if that person is actually lost within the search area.

"In all the cases I've been involved in, we've found every one of them," he said.

The results of the digital mapping process could be available in about a week, he said.

Soucy was brought in after Brookhaven Assistant Police Chief Nolan Jones spoke with former congressman Mike Parker, who put him in touch with Mike Sheppard at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Sheppard offered his assistance with a plane used for air searches. When the plane began malfunctioning on the way to Mississippi, Sheppard called it back, but a local helicopter was enlisted.

The process, as Soucy explained it to searchers from Homeland Security, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Division of Public Safety and the Brookhaven Police Department, involves taking high-resolution pictures of the ground from inside an aircraft.

Each picture covers between 500 and 1,000 feet of ground area. The pictures are taken from different angles as the aircraft flies over the search area.

Once the photos are processed, each one of the possibly thousands of photos is reviewed by technicians trained in photo analysis.

"Certain colors are pulled out, hoping the other colors will pop and show us what we call 'points of interest,'" Soucy said.

After a point of interest - something that looks unusual or out of place for the terrain - is located, the digital image is superimposed over a map so searchers can locate the closest road access. Ground crews are then sent to that area to identify the point of interest.

Soucy said it's almost always surprising to hear where the missing people are found.

"Even I'm sometimes like, 'You found them ... there?'" he said. "A lot of the time I don't know how we're going to find them in the kind of terrain we search, but if they are within our search area, we will find them."

Soucy said he himself is only the photographer, and that his images are sent back to Verisar, a company out of Dayton, Ohio, that specializes in image analysis.

"It's a real team effort," he said.

Homeland Security Deputy Director Byron Thompson said Thursday's search would key on areas not only that Ratliff was known to travel recently, but also in years long past. He said that seniors will sometimes revert and try to visit places they were familiar with in earlier stages of their lives.

Family members said Ratliff, 83, had not driven a car in six years, and that her husband, Charles "Ploochie" Ratliff, had recently found the billfold he thought she might have taken with her.

"So I'm not sure she ever left Brookhaven," said her sister-in-law Agnes Ratliff. "Never could I even drive in all that traffic (in Jackson), so I'm certain she couldn't have traveled all that distance. If she left Brookhaven, it's because someone carried her away."

One theory is that Ratliff went missing while on her way to sent her husband, who was in the hospital in Jackson at the time of her disappearance. Authorities have said they do not suspect and there has been nothing to indicate foul play in the disappearance.

Thompson said one thing complicating the case is that Ratliff apparently left in her vehicle.

"When you drive off, it makes it a lot harder to find you than if you leave on foot," he said. "People on foot are much more predictable, and we can do canine searches. But in a vehicle, you don't leave a trail. Plus, you can travel a greater distance in a shorter time."

Soucy said the large amount of area covered in the search could slow down the digital mapping process a little, as usually a search area is only a few square miles. The search for Ratliff could potentially cover hundreds of miles.

"This process is not a guarantee, but it greatly improves your chances of finding someone," he said.

Jones said Thursday's search actually found an abandoned white Mercury fitting the description of Ratliff's car in Hazlehurst. While the car had no tag, when the vehicle identification number was checked, it turned out to be a different car.

"We really appreciate these guys and all their help," Jones said.

Jones said if this search turns up nothing, another one could be conducted once Sheppard's airplane is back up and working.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19434412&BRD=1377&PAG=461&dept_id=172922&rfi=6

[Faith]

Mainers aid search in Mississippi
By
Friday, March 28, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

A Bangor-based organization is using its high-tech talents out of state for the first time to assist in the search for an elderly woman in Mississippi who has been missing for more than three weeks.

The story of Virginia Ratliff, 82, of Brookhaven, Miss., has been spread all over the news, and her husband of 62 years is anxious for any word of his wife’s whereabouts.

The two are well-known in Lincoln County, Miss., and are reported to have done everything together and even dressed alike, according to media reports.

Gary Soucy, a volunteer with the Down East Emergency Medicine Institute of Bangor, traveled to the Magnolia state Wednesday at the request of Mississippi State Police and local authorities.

Using a high-resolution Nikon camera, Soucy is able to fly over locations and take detailed pictures that are then sent by FedEx to analysts at Volunteer Imagery Analysts for Search and Rescue in Ohio. It’s difficult to send the images electronically because of the magnitude of the files.

"It’s a new high-tech way of finding people that are missing and lost," Richard Bowie, DEEMI director, said Thursday. Even if the woman has died, her body would still appear in an image, he said.

Once VIASAR receives the images, they immediately begin to analyze them. "We can read the ‘Clorox’ on a bottle, so it’s not hard to find a body with this imagery," Bowie said.

VIASAR is a nonprofit affiliate of DEEMI that’s dedicated to providing advanced imagery analysis services to search and rescue organizations across the country. The Ohio-based organization has a business office in Blue Hill, Maine, and was founded by Chris Rowley.

Rowley is the cousin of Harrison Damon, the 17-year-old Orland boy who was killed in a fall from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge last March. Rowley founded VIASAR in memory of Damon and the technology was used in the search for his cousin.

"It’s nice that this simple idea we’re using here in Maine, it’s made a difference," Bowie said.

The technology has been successfully used in numerous searches in Maine, including for a 3-year-old girl who apparently drowned last April in the Aroostook River; for missing Bangor man Matt Lacrosse whose body was recovered from the Penobscot River earlier this month, and for a fisherman who was missing off Little Deer Isle.

In Mississippi, they’re hopeful that the technology will help them locate Ratliff, who is believed to have gone off the road into a ditch or swamp area, Bowie said.

"In those areas it’s ‘un-guardrailed’ and there’s lots of swampy areas," Bowie said.

Ratliff’s husband, Charles Ratliff, suffered some sort of medical problem the night before his wife went missing, and had been transferred from one medical facility to another.

Virginia Ratliff, who suffers from dementia, hadn’t driven for at least a year but went home to gather some of her husband’s belongings and is believed to have been on her way to see him at the VA hospital in Jackson.

There’s evidence that Ratliff made it home and picked up some of her husband’s personal items, including his slippers and an L.L. Bean jacket.

"She’d put them in the car and gone, and no one’s seen her since," Bowie said. "We think she just drove off the road."

Ratliff had three-quarters of a tank of gas in the white 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis she was driving and could have traveled anywhere in a 275-mile radius from the couple’s home, Bowie said.

"You really want to help them end this," Bowie said. "He’s sitting at home post-surgery waiting for his wife to come home and the door doesn’t open."

In a phone interview Thursday afternoon, Soucy said he had completed part of the search, and that they were going to continue after a short break.

"We’re still doing our mission," he said. "We’ve done a large stretch of area and we’ve met with the family and the other agencies down here and we’ve got some new information that we’re going to act on, but we’re going to continue with the original flight plan."

Soucy said the plan was to map or photograph an area that totals about 100 miles, but they take pictures from two angles, so it’s a total of about 200 miles.

"Everyone down here is just so nice and awesome to work with," Soucy said. "[They] make me feel like one of their own."

Soucy was scheduled to complete his mission Thursday and would be back in Maine this afternoon.

Bowie expected there would be several thousand photos that need to be analyzed in the search for Ratliff, and volunteers here in Maine will assist VIASAR analysts.

How long it takes will depend on whether the analysts have to go through every photo before finding something helpful.

"When people reach out to us like this, we’re willing to help," Bowie said. "We’re willing to cross borders to see if we can help families to put things to rest."

http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=162211&zoneid=500

[Faith]

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll116/helpfindthemissing/flier.jpg

[breezybidj]

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg241/LavandaDolce/VirginiaRatliff_PrayersForReturn.jpg

[Faith]

Mrs. Ratliff has been missing almost two months now. My prayers are with her and her family. :1222423:

[Faith]

Reward Offered In Missing Woman Case
Virginia Ratliff Was Last Seen In February

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. -- A $5,000 reward is now being offered for any information that could lead to the location of Brookhaven resident Virginia Ratliff.

Ratliff, 83, has been missing since February. She was last seen driving a white 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Brookhaven Police Department at 601-833-2424, or Crime Stoppers at 601-355-TIPS.
http://www.wapt.com/news/15926542/detail.html

[Faith]

Virginia Ratliff, 82, of Brookhaven, Miss., had been missing for more than three weeks at that time and she still hasn’t been found.

"They believe that something terrible has happened to her now," Bowie said.

Four people have been reported missing after leaving the VA hospital where Ratliff had been visiting her husband before her disappearance.


http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164945&zoneid=500

[Breezy]

Virginia Ratliff, 82, of Brookhaven, Miss., had been missing for more than three weeks at that time and she still hasn’t been found.

"They believe that something terrible has happened to her now," Bowie said.

Four people have been reported missing after leaving the VA hospital where Ratliff had been visiting her husband before her disappearance.


http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164945&zoneid=500

That's definatly strange!

[Amusedtdth]

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8434168&nav=1L7u

Brookhaven police are still looking for answers in the disappearance of Virginia Ratliff.

Ratliff, 82, was last seen at her home on February 28. She suffers from memory loss.

Ratliff was driving her white, four-door 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan with license plate number 987 LIH. She may have been driving to Jackson to see her husband at the V.A. hospital.

If you have any information, call Brookhaven police at (601) 833-2424.

At least they are still keeping her in the news! My prayers to out to the family.:1222423:

[Nut44x4]

:1187603408.CR.Mothe

The Brookhaven Exchange Club Fair's bingo games are one of the biggest fundraisers for the club during the annual event, and the games have only one master.

But there once were two.

For almost 40 years, Charles "Ploochie" Ratliff and Virginia, his wife of nearly 63 years, have been in charge of the games - he retrieving the bouncing, numbered spheres and she lighting up their placement on an overhead board for players to see.

But now Ploochie is alone - a master without his match.

On Thursday, Feb. 28, Virginia Ratliff, 83, set off behind the wheel of a car - for only one of a few times in five or six years, due to bouts with dementia - toward Jackson to see her husband in the G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center, where he was staying for problems with his gastrointestinal tract. She hasn't been seen or heard from since.

"My wife gathered up two of my jackets, my electric razor, my slippers - she was gonna bring them to me," Ratliff said. "But she never did get there. All that's missing now. That's kind of my life."

March 2 would have been their 62nd anniversary, and Saturday, July 26, would have been their 38th consecutive year of Exchange Club bingo. Now, for the first time in almost half his life, Ratliff is alone - at home and at the bingo machine.

The husband and wife team, who often dressed alike, took over the club's bingo duties in 1970, when the previous bingo operator decided the game was too near to gambling and got spiritually nervous about casting lots.

The Ratliffs stepped in to run the show. Every year, the pair would contact local businesses seeking prizes for donation, make the rounds to gather the prizes and set up the game in the Exchange Club Park's pavilion.

Bingo was too popular and the people loved it too much to let it die.

"We just loved to do it," Ratliff recalled. "Winning gives some people a real thrill. We wanted to help 'em, and we did help 'em. Now we can't help 'em."

Now, without Virginia, Ploochie is running bingo on half power. He has friends and family members who help him execute the game, but the thrill is most definitely gone.

"She was my right hand," Ratliff said of his missing wife. "But without her, I don't know what I'm gonna do. You can guess, when you've been together 62 years, and something happens like this ..."

No one knows exactly what "this" is. Cops, deputies and troopers all over Mississippi and neighboring states have searched, and are still on the lookout, for the 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis Virginia was last seen driving. But all the efforts have been in vain thus far.

No one knows if she's alive or dead, just that she isn't where she belongs - with Ploochie.

As a member of the First Baptist Church of Brookhaven - when he feels well enough to attend - Ratliff still has hope in faith, but is losing faith in hope.

"I'm getting to where I don't," Ratliff said of optimism toward his wife's return. "It's been about six months, and nothing - not one thing. And I've got a whole U.S. coverage; I don't know how many people check on it every day. I'll see her again in Heaven, I reckon ... I hope."

Friends, loved ones and those in the know about Virginia keep a constant check on Ratliff when he dons the bright red top hat and calls bingo numbers out over the microphone.

As he sits in an old lawn chair in front of the bingo machine, with his elbows resting on a pair of pillows that have been electric taped to the hard plastic arm rests to comfort his old arms, he is greeted by big smiles full of white teeth and firm handshakes every few moments.

And he tries to shoot the friendliness back to his visitors with various cute remarks and comments. But his mind is somewhere on Interstate 55 in the northbound lane, peering over into the kudzu gullies or wandering around street corners somewhere in Mississippi, looking for his wife.

"I just figure somebody kidnapped her or something; that she got off on the wrong road," Ratliff said with a shaky voice. "I know she wouldn't run away from me or nothing like that - she was coming to see me."

Ratliff talks to God about the whole ordeal, probably asking Him to give her back. He prays for Virginia every night before he goes to bed and every morning when he wakes up.

It hasn't done any good.

Ratliff last saw his wife while he lay in pain on a hospital bed. He was kept at the hospital for one week, and Virginia had refused to be talked out of driving herself to Jackson to see him as his stay continued.

Ratliff said the procedure he was in the hospital for could have been done in 12 hours, but doctors' attention was focused on other patients.

"They put me off - they said they had to take patients coming from out," Ratliff said. "I thought, 'What about me? I came from out.'"

At first, Ratliff wasn't concerned when Virginia didn't show up on time at the hospital. She has a brother in the Canton area, he said, and he thought she had dropped in for a visit.

The coldness crept in on him when he discovered she had not visited her brother.

And she had not returned home.

And she had not contacted anyone.

And she was gone.

Ratliff awakens in the middle of the night to an empty bed and begins to cry, then he cries himself back to sleep.

"I just can't help it," he admitted. "You can realize we've been together 62 years. We wanted to stay together."

While Ratliff is separated from his wife, he is not separated from the bingo. He can barely get along, but the bingo can't get along without him.

With a heavy heart, he sits dutifully behind the machine with microphone in hand, raising money for the club that raises money for children.

And he's making a mint. On Saturday, Ratliff's bingo sessions generated $1,200 for the Exchange Club, most likely a record for opening night.

Part of Ratliff's dedication comes from the desire to be alive. Barred from driving on account of his health, Ratliff said he gets tired of "sitting around the house and doing nothing" while a home care worker visits him twice weekly to take care of his washing and cleaning.

The other part of his dedication, however, is the same as it was when he ascended to the bingo chair with Virginia 40 years ago.

"I plan to do it as long as I can get around," Ratliff said. "I love to do it so I can help the club out. I know I have to do it for all the people."

Brookhaven Exchange Club member Harold Gary said bingo is an instrumental part of the fair, serving as "the nucleus" of the festivities and drawing people through the fair.

And Ratliff is an instrumental part of bingo.

"Even with the tragic loss of Virginia, Ploochie, in his strong leadership way, has been able to keep bingo intact," Gary said. "So far this year, we've had two of the biggest nights we've ever had. Bingo has come out stronger than ever."

While the bingo is strong, Ratliff has weakened.

Clyde Allgood, Ratliff's nephew and bingo assistant, said Ratliff is doing better now than in months past. But the strain of losing Virginia shows in small things.

"He gets frustrated with little things like, 'Ploochie, you're not holding the mic up to your mouth close enough,'" Allgood said. "It's kind of hard to say, but he was rather emotional for a while - he would call the house and say, 'I just want my Gin back.' I'm a realist, and I just told him, 'Ploochie, it doesn't look good.'"
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19881783&BRD=1377&PAG=461&dept_id=172922&rfi=6

[Roamer]

How very sad.

For Ploochie and his Gin. :1222423:

[nicky]

Now that I've had a good cry! I hope Ploochie and Gin are reunited soon! I hope Gin is found!

[Faith]

Thinking of Mrs. Ratliff :1222423:

[Faith]

Virginia Ratliff
Missing Since February 28, 2008 from Brookhaven, MS
Please help us find her! Please look on your land, your lease, wherever you go for her automobile which also has not been found since her disappearance.
http://www.braggingpost.com/VirginiaRatliff/Virginia.jpg
http://www.braggingpost.com/VirginiaRatliff/1999%20Mercury%20Grand%20Marquis.jpg




Vehicle shown is "similar" to Mrs. Virginia's 1999 white Grand Marquis
Magnetic Ribbons on back of vehicle
Missing one hubcap


$5,000 REWARD
For information leading to the location of Virginia Ratliff.
Contact the Brookhaven Police Department
601-833-2424
Sponsored by the Brookhaven Exchange Club &
friends of Virginia and "Ploochie" Ratliff
An account has been established for the reward fund and
contributions may be made at any
State Bank & Trust location.
http://www.braggingpost.com/VirginiaRatliff/VirginiaRatliff2.jpg
Sportsmen, please help us search for this sweet, sweet person. As you travel to and from your hunting places, please be aware and look for this vehicle. Search your property, your lease, especially those with road frontage and roads running through the property with access from main roads. She could have gone any direction from Brookhaven, not just north toward Jackson.
Virginia Ratliff, 83, of Brookhaven, MS has been missing since last seen by family and friends on Thursday, February 28th. Her husband of 62 years, Charles "Ploochie" Ratliff had been taken by ambulance to a hospital in Jackson on that day. It is believed that she was trying to get to him and got lost during a bout of dementia. She had not driven for 6 years.
Virginia is described as a white woman, around 5'1" and 135 lbs. It is believed she would be driving her white 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis bearing Lincoln County, MS Tag number "987 LIH".
Virginia and her husband are dearly loved and well known in the community for their generosity and participation in civic activities and have been recognized with various awards. They are avid fund raisers for the Humane Society. Charles, a World War II veteran, is an active charter member of the Brookhaven Exchange Club. Charles and Virginia work the Bingo booth for the club's annual Fair.
Turkey hunters, fishermen, etc. please be on the outlook to and from hunting and fishing outings for this precious lady and her 1999 Grand Marquis. Please help us.
Anyone with possible information leading to Ratliff's whereabouts is asked to call the Brookhaven Police Department at (601)833-2424.


http://www.braggingpost.com/VirginiaRatliff/index.htm

[annalyzer]

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=9920952

Elderly woman missing one year later

Posted: Feb 27, 2009 07:19 PM EST
Updated: Feb 27, 2009 07:54 PM EST

BROOKHAVEN, MS (WLBT) - Still no sign of elderly woman one year after she went missing.

"If I could I would like to get her back," Charles Ratliff said.

The pain of not knowing where his wife is still haunts Charles Ratliff one year after she went missing.

On February 28th, 2008, 82-year-old Virginia Ratliff left their home in Brookhaven to visit Charles at the VA hospital in Jackson but she never made it.

For the past 62 years, the two were inseparable. They traveled, played sports, and went to church together.

"What do you miss most about Mrs. Ratliff?, WLBT asked.

"Her sleeping beside me," Ratliff said.

Brookhaven police launched a massive search at the time. Chief Pap Henderson says although they have no new leads, the department is not giving up.

"Every tip that comes in we check it out. Every agency that finds a body we always call that agency. We don't wait. We let them know we have a missing person here," Chief Pap Henderson said.

"We have a hopefulness that we will find the answer. The reality is we won't ever find her," Caby Byrne said.

Caby Byrne has accepted the fact that he may never see his sister again. Byrne says he thinks about her daily and believes his sister is with him in spirit.

"All of us have either ceramics or stained glass that she made at one time that was the annual gift we all got was and she was quite good at that so her presence is in little things around us as well as the photos that we keep," Byrne said.

Authorities say Virginia Ratliff was last seen driving a white Mercury Grand Marquis.

If you have any information on her whereabouts call the Brookhaven Police Department at 601-833-2424.

You could receive a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.

[Faith]

This is so sad. :sad0119:

[sarahhod]

Missing Woman's Family Wants Answers
Woman Disappered More Than 1 Year Ago

March 1, 2009

The family of Virginia Ratliff continues to pray for answers in her disappearance.

The 83-year-old Brookhaven woman vanished a year ago.

Family members said they believe she was headed to the VA Hospital in Jackson to visit her husband. She never made it.

Ratliff's brother, Caby Byrne, asked Sunday for the public's help to find his sister.

Ratliff's family said it has come to the painful conclusion she is probably not alive. But said it still wants to find out what happened to her so it can get closure.

In the days after Ratliff vanished, there was a massive manhunt. Searchers combed the area near Brookhaven by land and air to no avail.

Byrne said she suffered occasional memory loss and confusion. Soon after she disappeared, the family said it got tips from people who thought they saw Ratliff at area convenience stores.

Her family said it looked through surveillance video from those stores but still couldn't find her.

Her family said it hopes someone out there can help provide a lead or information to finally solve the mystery of her disappearance.

"We honestly don't think we'll find her alive, but we sure would like to know what happened and it would help us get closure," said Byrne.

Byrne said his sister's husband is still coming to terms with losing his wife of six decades. He still lives in Brookhaven.

Ratliff was driving a white 1999 Grand Marquis with Mississippi license plate 987 LIH.

Anyone with any information about Ratliff is asked to contact the Brookhaven police at 601-833-2424.

http://www.wapt.com/news/18827891/detail.html

[sarahhod]

Family marks one year in case of Ratliff disappearance
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By: THERESE APEL, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer March 02, 2009 http://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gif http://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gif http://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gif


It's the constant support of the Brookhaven community that has kept Charles "Ploochie" Ratliff afloat since his beloved wife Virginia's disappearance one year ago Saturday, family members said. "I have to say with unquestioned sincerity that the people of this community have been friends to both of them through him for a year," said Virginia Ratliff's brother Caby Byrne. "There are still consistent people that come by to check on him and offer to do things for him. So often you think things would kind of wane like that, but that's certainly not been true here and that's made a difference in his life."

http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/bannerad.asp?ADLOCATION=4000&PAG=461&BRD=1377&LOCALPCT=50&AREA=410&VERT=7029&NAREA=410&barnd=9700 Virginia's disappearance kicked off manhunts, air searches, media campaigns and personal quests, but very little remains known about her disappearance or possible whereabouts.

Following her disappearance in late February 2008, friends and family members said at first that she may have attempted to drive to Jackson to see her husband in the hospital and gotten lost during a bout of dementia. But now she seems to have disappeared into thin air.

"What we know now is in better perspective now that the emotions are under control," Byrne said. "We're better able to at least talk about the reality that it's been a year and something of a foul play nature may have actually occurred rather than her being lost somewhere.

"The logic is that the car would have been found if not her," he continued, "whereas if she were the victim of foul play, that opens up all kinds of avenues that are harder to trace."

Officials said leads came from all over the South in the search, but that none of them have panned out. Still, Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson and Assistant Chief Nolan Jones said as far as they are concerned, the investigation will never be over until they have discovered what has become of Virginia Ratliff.

"We certainly haven't stopped looking," Henderson said. "Every time we hear something from another jurisdiction, we call the agency. We don't rely simply on NCIC (National Crime Information Computer). We let them know ourselves that we have a missing person and we're searching for her."

High-tech photography experts were brought in for air searches to see if anything could be uncovered in a radius that included long stretches of Interstate 55 and Highways 84, 550 and 51.

The digital imaging technology searchers used last year has never failed to find a missing person if that person is actually lost within the search area, officials said. That is what has Brookhaven police and other authorities baffled.

Both Virginia Ratliff and her white Mercury Grand Marquis have been entered on NCIC, and various alerts have been issued all over the country that would lead authorities back to Brookhaven if she, her car, or any of her DNA turns up. And it is for that reason that investigators still pursue any and every lead.

"We, especially Assistant Chief Jones, have spent a lot of hours working this case and followed a lot of leads, and we have not given up," Henderson said. "We don't take anything for granted. We don't set any lead aside, and we aren't satisfied, and we don't plan on giving up."

Authorities have asked that anyone with possible information call the Brookhaven Police Department at 601-833-2424, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department at 601-833-5231, or the Lincoln County Crimestoppers at 601-823-0150.

Jones said DNA samples from Virginia Ratliff's home and family have been sent to the National Missing Persons Program at the University of North Houston, which processes DNA similar to the way fingerprints can be nationally processed. That way, if any forensic sign of Ratliff appears, investigators won't have to search for weeks or even months to find out who it belongs to.

But Byrne said the hard part is the worry that people will begin to forget about his sister. He worries that as time passes, she will begin to fade in the memory of all but those who love her.

"I thought this year anniversary might be our last shot to have a reason to have a focus on her, because what's going to be the reason to bring it up when it's still an open case six months from now or two years from now?" he said. "It might in Brookhaven but not necessarily other places."

But he said it still surprises him when he talks to people who know exactly who Virginia Ratliff is. He said there are still signs all over the place that the search continues.

"I had occasion to have to go to the courthouse in Jackson, and when I went through the detectors, there's Virginia's flyer on the wall all by itself," Byrne said. "That made me feel good that there is still some potential awareness out there."

As the family has finally begun to pack up her things rather than leaving them exactly as they were when she left, Byrne said his heart is moved for his brother-in-law, who has been forced to learn to live life as a single person again, without his partner of more than 62 years.

"He gets up in the morning and has a routine that works for him as far as breakfast and getting dressed - he's not sitting in a housecoat somewhere moping," Byrne said. "And each morning, weather permitting, he's going to feed the birds, though he can't take care of the squirrels quite like he used to, and he can't go gather up the cans from Wal-Mart for the animal rescue league like he and Virginia used to. He misses doing those things."

And Byrne said visits, phone calls and letters are always appreciated at the Ratliff home. He said sometimes even junk mail can be a high point in a day to his brother-in-law.

"It probably makes the days longer when he doesn't see anybody and doesn't get the phone calls and the like," Byrne said. "He's done what he can to take care of himself personally, but conversations help him stay mentally in touch. And I know the night is a lonely time for him."

But Ratliff is making it. By putting one foot in front of the other on this journey, he continues to move forward, Byrne said.

"The main reality we've dealt with has been him being able to sustain himself, and it's been a collaborative adventure," Byrne said. "He amazes us, he's still very much in tune with what happens, but he just misses the things they enjoyed doing together. That's his grief, but he's done an amazing job of keeping that in perspective."


http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20272101&BRD=1377&PAG=461&dept_id=172922&rfi=6

[annalyzer]

Mary Virginia Ratliff
AKA: Virginia
Missing Since: 2/28/2008
Sex Female Race White
Age 83
(At time missing)
Age 84
(Current)


Hgt 5Ft2In Wgt 135
Hair Grey Eye Blue

Has slight dementia. Driving a 1999 mercury marque lic# 987 LIH. May have been abducted. Missing since 02-28-08. Probably dressed in jeans and a white shirt. Possibly wearing some kind of a hat. Has a number of medical problems. $5000 REWARD

Law Enforcement Agency: Brookhaven Police Department
Report Number: 02-0938-08
Reward:
Contact: Nolan Jones

http://mississippimissingadults.com/

[Faith]

http://missingpatient.com/page.php?id=618

[Faith]

This case has always bothered me. From the VA in Jackson to Brookhaven is 4 lane good roads. I can't imagine what happened to her.

[nanabillie]

When she left home to go to Jackson, she may have headed in the wrong direction. At her age, not haven driven in a year and even slight dementia makes it all sounds like it could have turned into too much for her.

She may have tried to turn around someplace and wrecked.
It is truly a sad story. I pray she is found soon. Her birthday is the eleventh and I'm sure that will be more stress on her poor husband.