Parents Seek Info in Teen's Mysterious Death

The parents of a 16-year-old girl found dead in her car are hoping someone in the Baltimore area can answer the mystery of her death.

The 11 News I-Team reported Friday that there is evidence to suggest that Annie McCann committed suicide, but her case officially remains open.

Read more here.

PI Helps Family Search for Missing Teen

The family of a missing 14-year old California girl launched an all-out search Sunday morning that extended into the local mountains.

Hundreds of volunteers combed through rugged terrain in search for Amber LeeAnne DuBois, television news station San Diego 6 reported. DuBois was reportedly last seen shortly after 7 a.m. on Feb. 13 while walking to her high school in Escondido, Calif.

The FBI is “providing investigative assistance” to Escondido police, an agency spokesman told the San Diego Union Tribune on Saturday.

Read more at FoxNews.com.

Tracking Wanderers Made Easier

Protecting the elderly and youth in Knox County is the focus of a non-profit organization that uses electronic technology to locate missing persons.

Founded in 2005 as Project Lifesaver, the program will relaunch Feb. 1 as Rapid Recovery of Knox County. In coordination with the Knox County Sheriff’s Department and the Galesburg Police Department, the organization provides electronic monitoring bracelets to anyone suffering from mental conditions where they may wander and become lost. “The programs helps children suffering from autism or Down syndrome or adults with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Rapid Recovery board member Marianne Wiesen. “Anyone who is inclined to wander away would qualify.”

The group owns 14 electronic monitoring bracelets which may be rented for a monthly fee to qualifying families. The rental fee provides a new battery each month and monthly maintenance on the bracelet by a trained volunteer.

Read more at The (Galesburg, IL) Register-Mail.

43 Katrina Victims Still Unidentified

On the corner of Canal Street and City Park Avenue, six granite buildings hold the final mysteries of Hurricane Katrina.

Here, in these mausoleums, are 43 bodies of unidentified victims — people whose fingerprints, dental records and DNA were not enough to shed light on who they were. Three-and-a-half years after the torrential floods killed 1,500 people across the Gulf Coast and put 80% of New Orleans under water, workers in the city's forensic center are still trying to close the book on Katrina's final chapter.

Read the full story at USA Today.

Brea Landfill Searched for Missing 82 Year-Old Woman

Authorities on Thursday began searching a Brea landfill with earthmovers and a cadaver dog in an attempt to find an 82-year-old grandmother who vanished this week.

The son of Sara Mowry reported her missing from her Laguna Niguel assisted-living home Tuesday, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

About 20 investigators arrived at the landfill, in the 1900 block of Valencia Avenue, at midday, acting on an investigative lead, officials said. Amormino declined to elaborate.

The investigation has not been labeled a homicide; Mowry is considered a "critical" missing person who disappeared "under highly suspicious circumstances," Amormino said. No suspects have been named.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.

National Center for Missing Adults Being Run by Volunteers After Budget Cuts

Last year, Kym Pasqualini's nonprofit agency ran out of money.

For 15 years, the National Center for Missing Adults helped track the thousands of adults who go missing in this country every year — and did its best to reconnect them with their families. The agency operated on roughly $1 million annually, thanks to a federal grant.

But in 2005, the bipartisan bill that initially funded the grant expired. With no explanation, Congress failed to reauthorize it.

For two years, Pasqualini and her employees stayed alive by trimming operations, cutting services, taking pay cuts — and waiting for Congress to get its act together. By the fall of 2007, they were completely out of money.nt and may require same day, out of County, or out of State service.

Read how volunteers are working tirelessly to keep the NCMA alive.

Should "Silver Alerts" Become as Prevalent as "Amber Alerts"?

The missing-person case of Robert Ouellette of Cotuit makes the case for a statewide "Silver Alert" system like the "Amber Alerts" issued for missing and kidnapped children.

Florida followed the lead of a dozen other states and created a Silver Alert program in October. It's been used at least 19 times, and all the subjects were found.

Cape police — led by Barnstable — have done a good job making the 80-year-old Ouellette a priority, and other agencies and individuals have spent time and searched back roads and parking lots, too. But a statewide alert system would carry the urgency over the bridge to millions of more eyes that could be looking for Ouellette's light blue 2000 Mercury Marquis, license plate 472 BXC.

Read more at the Cape Cod Times.

Google Street View Helps Find Missing Child

Using technology more commonly seen in television crime dramas, an Athol police officer and a deputy chief in the town's Fire Department were able to track a woman and her allegedly kidnapped 9-year-old granddaughter to a motel in south-central Virginia.

They notified Virginia State Police, who yesterday arrested Rose M. Maltais of 14 Grove St. without incident around 4:15 p.m.

Natalie Maltais will soon be back home with her legal guardians after Virginia State Police found her with her 52-year-old grandmother, Ms. Maltais, at the Budget Inn in Natural Bridge, Va.

Read the full story at the Telegram Gazette.

Man Searches for Half-Brother, Missing for 47 Years

Children don't just disappear...

That's what most people living in Wichita Falls in the 1960s thought.

But Dec. 9, 1961, 11-year-old Andy Sims vanished, launching what has become a 47-year-old mystery — What happened to Andy?

Andy, who was in the fifth-grade at Jefferson Elementary School, lived at 4600 Stanford, a corner house tucked into a quiet neighborhood not far from what today is Southwest Parkway. That part of town has developed a lot since the early 1960s when it was a newer suburban area still surrounded by dairy and pasture land.

DNA Tests Match Feet Washed Ashore

DNA analysis has matched a pair of the feet that have washed up on B.C. shores this year, confirming they are from the same female and providing a small advance for investigators trying to solve the mystery that has drawn global attention.

"It helps. It allows us to confirm two cases are now one so investigators can focus," said Jeff Dolan of the B.C. Coroner's Service.

Online People Search Aids Christmas Reunion

Michael Taylor had never met his father, David, until they were reunited for the first time last week. The father and son met each other on Michael's 25th birthday, making the occasion even more special. Michael initially contacted Tracesmart in response to the company's Missing Person Campaign which has been running since March, and has helped to reunite many other families in time for Christmas.

Family of Missing Woman Hires Investigator

The family of a missing Thief River Falls, Minn., woman has enlisted the services of a private investigator to help look for Gina Anderson, who was last seen more than a month ago.

Investigator Gary Peterson, of Spring Valley, Minn., met with members of Anderson's family Sunday evening in Thief River Falls, said Anderson's sister, Jackie Pagel.

Family Not Giving Up Search for Missing Woman

There's an empty chair at her Thanksgiving table, but the mother of a missing Gaston County woman still has reasons to be grateful.

Kim Fraley is giving thanks for a new billboard offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can help locate her daughter, 22-year-old Jamie Fraley. Fairway Outdoor Advertising donated the space, and the paper billboard was designed and placed by the Kristen Foundation.

Another Body Found In Louisiana Mystery Deaths

More than three years ago, Jefferson Davis Parish authorities began investigating the deaths of Jennings women who were known to live illicit lifestyles.

All the women were in their 20s and had escalated levels of cocaine and alcohol in their bodies when they were found in rural but public areas of the small, poor parish.
With a seventh body found shortly after noon today that is suspected to be that of the 17-year-old relative of one of the victims, officials are investigating tips but are without a lead suspect.

“It is a big puzzle and we’re putting those pieces slowly together,” parish Sheriff Ricky Edwards said. “It takes time and we have to do it right. We can’t just go out and do things and ruin the case.” All the women grew up in an economically disadvantaged section of Jennings within blocks of each other. They were at least acquaintances and traveled in the same circles.

Canadian Rescue Group Helps Find Missing People

For families desperate to find missing loved ones, Manitoba Search and Rescue (MSAR) helps co-ordinate and carry out searches across the province.

"We will provide assistance to anyone," said George Leonard, operations manager for the non-profit group.

He started the organization himself about seven years ago. The group has since grown to include 238 members, featuring people with backgrounds as wilderness guides, RCMP officers, paramedics and firefighters, among others.

Last year, MSAR carried out 103 searches in Manitoba, said Leonard.

When family or friends of a missing person contact the group, a variety of steps are taken to organize a search.

Music Tour Highlights Missing Persons in the Community

GINA for Missing Persons FOUNDation presents the 3rd International Squeaky Wheel Tour® (SWT), launching October 17, 2008. The acclaimed 19-day event draws attention to several hundred missing people, each profiled by the musicians participating throughout the US and other countries, and is supported by the families of the missing and nonprofit organizations worldwide.

Musicians participating in SWT earmark their concerts or events to profile a missing person(s) in their community. They profile that missing person during their show and ask attendees to take a flyer to post throughout their community. Audience members become official GINA Volunteers simply by coming to the events and posting flyers.

This year's tour has reached across international boundaries that take us from England in 1996 to Dallas 2008. Damien Nettles disappeared from Cowes, Isle of Wight, England November 2, 1996. He is both an American and British citizen. His immediate family now lives in Dallas and continues to search for Damien whenever and however possible. Damien's family recently connected with GINA for Missing Persons FOUNDation when GINA was preparing a Squeaky Wheel Tour® web cast profiling UK missing persons to air November 2, 2008 at 2:30 CST www.411Gina.org . The Internet has become a valuable tool to help bridge the gap for families to get information out world-wide about their missing loved ones.

Body Found in Suv May Be Jennifer Hudson's Nephew

Less than 24 hours after Jennifer Hudson and her family offered a $100,000 reward for the safe return of the singer's 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, Chicago media reported on Monday morning (October 27) that police found the body of a male child in a vehicle on Chicago's West Side. At press time, according to the Chicago Tribune, police and the Cook County medical examiner's officer were investigating the scene where the boy was found and attempting to determine the identity of the deceased.

According to CNN, an FBI deputy director at a news conference on an unrelated matter said that the body is "believed to be" King and that the bureau is working with the Chicago Police Department to confirm the identity. The Tribune reported late Monday morning that members of the Hudson family were expected at the medical examiner's office in the early afternoon, and a press conference was scheduled following the identification of the body.

King has been missing since Friday, the same day detectives discovered that Hudson's mother and older brother had been shot to death inside the family's home on Chicago's South Side. An Amber Alert was issued on Friday after King was reported missing.

For a Jane Doe, Seeking an Identity and Immigration Status

One person was positive the woman was the well-dressed bag lady who used to frequent a Pathmark supermarket near the Woodbridge Center mall. Another remembered serving her cheeseburgers at the local Burger King.

Since November 1994, when she was found wandering a New Jersey mall, a woman’s identity has been a mystery. But Lt. Eduardo Ojeda, shown visiting the woman, hopes an answer is near.

A woman from East Harlem believes that Jane Doe may be a former neighbor, Jenny Peña, above with her son, right.

Nydia Nieves, a 41-year-old laundress from Reading, Pa., was sure it was someone she knew, too — an Ecuadorean immigrant named Jenny Peña, whose disabled son lives on Staten Island. Ms. Nieves drove 70 miles to visit the woman here at Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital, where the sign on the woman’s door says simply J. Doe, and held her hand.

“Inside of me, I feel that it’s her,” Ms. Nieves said afterward.

After 14 years of languishing in anonymity, of not belonging to anybody, the woman may soon be reclaimed, discovered, identified. The calls have been pouring in since the New Jersey Human Services Department circulated her photograph to the news media last month, and Lt. Eduardo Ojeda, who works for the department and is leading the hunt, said he is certain that “somewhere in there there’s going to be a bingo.”

Search Continues for Missing Detroit 2-Year Old

Volunteers along with a couple family members of missing 2-year-old Tangena Hussain held a vigil Saturday evening at the Mobil station at Eight Mile and Greenfield where the girl went missing 10 days ago.

Nilufa Begam, the girl's mother, said volunteers are helping pass out fliers to track down information on the girl who disappeared after her mother's boyfriend, Jamrul Hussain, said he left her in a 1997 Geo Prizm Oct. 2 while he ran inside to buy gum, police said. Hussain is not related to the girl.

"Everything is going great," Begam said Saturday around 5:30 p.m. "We're just staying here giving out fliers to people. I don't know what we're going to do next."

James Tate, spokesman for Detroit police, said Saturday the department has searched for Tangena everyday since she went missing, but there have been no developments leading to the girl.

"We're still investigating it as a missing persons case," he said.

Shawn Patrick Smith, Hussain's attorney, said volunteers will hand out fliers in hopes that someone remembers something that can lead to Tangena. Smith said he and others will also spread the word about her disappearance because he said some in the community still don't know she is missing.

Volunteers Search For Missing Student

A large group of volunteers, many of them UMass Dartmouth students, gathered near Chase and Town roads Saturday morning, steeling themselves for a rigorous and emotional day.

They were preparing to search for clues about a fellow UMass student, Neo Babson Maximus, who disappeared a year ago into the woods near campus.

Mr. Maximus, who changed his legal name from Charles Allen Jr., vanished on Oct. 13, 2007. The 22-year-old student was last seen allegedly trying to break into a house on College Lane Road.

The amateur searchers had attended a training session Friday evening to prepare themselves for the "line search" across four square miles of fields and woods around the university.

Meanwhile, other groups of professional search-and-rescue personnel arrived from across New England to assist with the effort. About 200 people arrived at the command post Saturday morning, including volunteers from the Bristol County Sheriff's Department, the American Red Cross and four private investigation firms.