Dear Poster Partner:
Katherine Soto missing from Greenville, SC, has
been recovered. Please discontinue dissemination of this poster. Your
participation in this program has made a valuable contribution to this recovery.
Please remove and discard any posters on this case that you have placed in
public view.
Thank you for your support.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Visit our web site at www.missingkids.com.
Dear Poster Partner:
Dominique Watts missing from Pittsburgh, PA, has
been recovered. Please discontinue dissemination of this poster. Your
participation in this program has made a valuable contribution to this recovery.
Please remove and discard any posters on this case that you have placed in
public view.
Thank you for your support.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Visit our web site at www.missingkids.com.
Faime Lynette Francis
Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
Missing Since: March 28, 2008 from Swissvale, Pennsylvania
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: May 28, 1977
Age:
30
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 115 lbs.
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color:
Dark Brown
Race: Black-African American
Gender: Female
Distinguishing Characteristics:She may be wearing a wig or have weave added
to her hair.
Medical Conditions: She suffers from Schizophrenia/Bipolar
Disorder and does not have her medicine with her.
Clothing: Unknown, but she
prefers to dress in all black.
Jewelry: Engagement type ring on her left hand.
Details of Disappearance
Faime left her residence on March 28, 2008 and has not been heard from
since. She has a mental illness and needs her medications.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Swissvale Police Department
Officer Costa
(412) 271-0430
Source Information
Frank & DeNita Francis - Faime's Parents
The Missing - A Weekly exposé of Lost Souls - Issue #19In this week's
edition of "The Missing," we revisit the mysterious disappearance of Cynthia
Louise Day, a 38-year-old resident of East St. Louis, Illinois, who went missing
on Aug. 10, 1990.
"I was 18-years-old and fresh out of high school when my
mom disappeared," Cynthia's daughter, Melody, said in a telephone interview with
Investigation Discovery. "On the day she went missing my sister, Kimberly, had
just come home from the hospital with her son. My mom was excited, so my sister
and I went over to her house so she could get to know her new grandbaby. My mom
took him around and proudly introduced him to all the neighbors. We had a good
time. We did not know it when we left, but that would prove to be the last time
that we ever saw her."
Approximately one week later, Melody and Kimberly
became concerned because they had not heard from their mother. It was unlike her
to stay out of contact for such a long period of time, so the girls decided to
go check on her. To their surprise, their mother, along with her boyfriend of
seven years, had vanished. In addition, all of their possessions were also
gone.
"My mother was into beauty and fashion and everything – clothes,
makeup, perfumes – was all gone" Melody said, adding, "We did not even find a
single toothbrush."
Both girls were young at the time and neither of them had
any idea what to do, so they went to the East St. Louis Police Department and
filed a missing person report. It was their hope that the police, people they
felt were skilled and knowledgeable in missing person cases, would be able to
uncover the mystery of their mother's disappearance.
"With each year that
passed by, I just assumed that the police were investigating the case," Melody
said. "I would call them whenever I heard they had found a body and would check
to see if it was my mom, but they always said it was not her. Then, in 2004,
when I needed a police report to get the website going and all this stuff, I
discovered that they had never even opened a case. We resolved the issue but
from that day forward I decided to do everything in my power to find out what
happened to my mother."
As part of her own investigation, Melody went back to
the neighborhood where her mother had lived and discovered that many of her
mom's old neighbors suspected that Cynthia's boyfriend had something to do with
her disappearance. This was something that Cynthia's daughters had also
considered because, according to Melody, their mother had allegedly voiced her
unhappiness about the relationship the last time they spoke. In addition, there
was another incident that had occurred prior to Cynthia's disappearance, which
her daughters found troubling.
"Sometime before they went missing, my uncle
Wayne supposedly shot himself in front of my mom and her boyfriend," Melody
said. "The entire thing is strange and my family is convinced that Wayne did not
commit suicide. We think that something happened to him and that my mom
witnessed it."
The case took another unusual twist about five years ago, when Melody
discovered her mom's boyfriend was being held in a California Prison. She cannot
recall the exact charges but said she believes they had to do with an armed
robbery.
"He never once contacted us to tell us that our mom was not with
him," Melody said. "Why didn't he say, 'where's my old lady, where's your
mom?'"
According to Melody, an officer in California questioned her mom's
ex-boyfriend but he claimed to have no knowledge of what happened to
her.
"The officer in California who questioned him told me he is convinced
this guy did something to both my mom and my uncle," Melody said. "He gave my
local police department permission to come down there and question the guy but
they said they did not have the money. I offered to buy the plane tickets myself
but they would not take me up on the offer."
The boyfriend was paroled from
prison two years ago and to date Illinois investigators have yet to question
him.
"Getting the cops to do something is like pulling teeth," Melody said.
"I've been the detective on this case for a long time. Two plus two equals four
and if the police had done their job they would have had this case solved a long
time ago. To know that the cops are not doing anything is frustrating. They take
more interest in an animal stuck in a tree than a missing person. We know my
mother is not alive, we just want to put her to rest whatever way we
can."
When asked what she would like to say to her mother, Melody
responded:
"I love and miss you so much. I am still looking for you all these
years later and will continue to look for you until I find you. You have a
beautiful family that is still hopeful. We will do whatever we can to keep your
memory alive."
Yesterday, Investigation Discovery contacted East St. Louis
police Capt. Lenzie Stewart and asked him if he could provide any information on
the case. Stewart had this to say:
"At this particular time we don't have
very much going for that. We have elicited the Illinois State Police to help us
… What has happened there is we have got DNA from the family members and we are
trying to run that through our database to see if we get any pop-ups on any Jane
Does we have found … I am not actively investigating the case and cannot answer
any further questions at this time."
Stewart referred further questions to
the investigator who is handling the case for the Illinois State Police; however
that investigator was unavailable for comment.
Cynthia Louise Day, nickname
"Peaches," would be 55-years-old today. She is described as a white female, 5'2"
tall, 125 lbs., with blonde hair and blue eyes. She has a hysterectomy scar and
is missing an eye tooth on the left side. Anyone with information is asked to
call the East St. Louis Police Department (Case # ES-04-06787) at 618-482-6724
or the Illinois State Police at 618-346-3781.
For more information or to
help, please visit: http://www.findcynthia.com/.
Missing person cases in Nebraska go unsolved
By: Jon Burleson
07/02/2008
Updated 07/12/2008 05:06:03 AM EDT
In Douglas County, law enforcement
lists 1,850 people missing. About half the cases involve children.
On June13,
2001, Jason Jolkowski, then 19, became a statistic. Since that day, his mother,
Kelly, has been striving to make him more than that to lawmakers.
"Nobody knows how big an issue this is," Jolkowski said. "Those who are
missing are more than a height, weight, hair and eye color. They are
people."
After laboring on behalf of missing persons for the last seven years,
Jolkowski has mobilized a new effort to get law enforcement the tools they need
to help families of the missing. Campaign for the Missing is a grassroots effort
to pass legislation in each state that will serve to improve the law enforcement
community's ability to locate and ensure a safe return of missing persons.
"This is so needed," she said. "Things fall through the cracks. Families
aren't told to get vital pieces of information that could help them solve the
case."
The campaign's central focus will address the national problems of missing
persons and the identification of human remains and provide the framework for
improving law enforcement's response. It will also improve the collection of
critical information about missing persons, prioritize high-risk missing persons
cases and ensure prompt dissemination of critical information to other law
enforcement agencies and the public that can improve the likelihood of a safe
return.
"Most law enforcement officers are not trained in missing persons cases,"
Jolkowski said. "Some police academies don't even teach about missing persons
investigations."
The Department of Justice, working with federal, state and local law
enforcement; coroners and medical examiners; victim advocates; forensic
scientists; key policymakers; and family members who have lived through this
tragic experience, developed the legislation to be presented in the Nebraska
Unicameral.
The bill made it mandatory for law enforcement to follow certain procedures
at the beginning of a missing persons case. Certain steps need to be taken in a
specific order and resources must be allocated to assist, Jolkowski said.
"Nobody told me to get his toothbrush or his comb," she said, "and by the
time I knew, it was too late."
On almost a daily basis, unidentified bodies are found across the country.
Over the last year, law enforcement agencies have reported from 40-50,000 bodies
with no means to identify them, Jolkowski said. These bodies are usually buried
or even cremated with no DNA saved for the possibility of a future
identification.
"The families of those missing live in a horrible limbo of not knowing,"
Jolkowski said. "These families need an answer and this legislation could help
provide an answer."
Having run into a roadblock in the last Unicameral session, Jolkowski has
been waiting patiently for the next session. Patience is something she has
developed over the last seven years.
But, she has not been idle. Jolkowski has been working with Nebraska
legislators, such as Steve Lathrop and Brad Ashford to move the bill forward
this time around.
"Last time, I was told that the $50,000 needed to run the program each year
wasn't available," she said. "I feel that if Nebraskans knew how many people go
missing each year, they would be willing to help find them."
If you are interested in helping make a difference in the lives of
thousands of missing persons and their families, send an email to campaignforthemissing@projectjason.org.
After six painful years, search for Audrey continues
July 20, 2008
EARLTON — It’s been more than half a decade since Audrey May Herron
disappeared without a trace, leaving family and friends desperately wondering
what happened to the mother of three. But six years later, they continue to hold
out hope, and add to the reward for information leading to a solution to the
heart-breaking mystery.
On Saturday, the sixth annual Riding for Audrey was held, an annual
fundraiser and awareness campaign designed to ensure the community does not
forget her, and with the hope that someone may remember something.
Well over 100 motorcycle riders completed a ride that started at Brennan’s
on Route 81 in Earlton on Saturday morning, headed out to The Hideaway in
Athens, then on to Blackthorne Resort in East Durham, Gardner’s Brass Rail in
Greenville, and then back to Earlton.
“It means a lot that so many people came out to raise money for my mother,
and to help find her,” said Herron’s daughter, Sonsia Rae Court. She was 10
years old when her mother disappeared. Her siblings, Katie and Quinn, were just
4 and 2 at the time.
Proceeds from the ride, and the fundraising activities that followed, were
donated to the Audrey May Herron reward fund, and to the Center for Hope, an
organization that helps families search for and find missing loved ones.
“We hope to get Audrey’s face out there so one day, someone may come
forward with information that may help find her, and at the same time, help this
organization that helps so many others,” said Michelle Turk, Herron’s
sister-in-law.Audrey May Herron, 32, of Freehold disappeared on Aug. 29, 2002 when she
headed home from her job in a Catskill nursing home. She started making her
regular trek home — 12 miles away — but never arrived. She has not been seen
since, despite an extensive air and ground search by State Police, friends and
family. Her 1994 Jeep Cherokee has also disappeared.
Since then, there has been no credible evidence or clues to Herron’s
whereabouts, despite investigations by state police, the FBI, and even a private
investigator hired by Herron’s family. However, her friends and family continue
to search for an answer, and to maintain a tireless effort to keep her name and
face in the public eye with the hope that someone, somewhere, may have valuable
information.
Herron’s friends and family also hope to shine a light on the plight of
other families with missing loved ones, and the fears and frustrations they face
every single day.
“This is something that really needs to be supported. The missing person
problem is only getting bigger. You see stories about missing people in the news
all the time, but you never hear about the people who have been missing for a
long time,” said friend Maria Ferencz. “If someone knows something, how long are
they waiting to come forward? She has three kids who want to know what happened
to their mother. It’s just not fair.”
Anyone with information about Audrey May Herron’s disappearance should call
the New York State Police at (518) 622-8600.
Endangered RunawayJAMAL CHRISTIAN
DOB: May 3, 1993
Missing: May 26, 2008
Height: 5'8" (173 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Age Now: 15
Sex: Male
Weight: 185 lbs (84 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From:
PITTSBURGH
PA
United States
Jamal was last seen on May 26, 2008. He may still be in
the local area.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Pittsburgh Police Department
(Pennsylvania) 1-412-323-7800
