Missing Persons Still Missing

911

911

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I decided to watch a crime show on TV this morning and my wife sat down to watch it also, which for her is not normal. After the show was over, my wife asked me if the show reminded me of anything. I knew what she was talking about. We had a woman that had just divorced and was going to move from Pennsylvania to Oregon. She was warned by several friends and relatives to be very careful traveling alone on the road. Her son wanted to take a week off from college to go along, but she was against him missing any school time.

She told her son that she would call him each evening. She only had a mid size U-Haul trailer attached to her car. She had sold everything else with the idea of buying all new furniture when she bought her home. She went to Oregon to be closer to her sister and her husband. They figured the drive should take no longer than 4 days with traveling at 10 hours a day.

On the third night there was no phone call. This was in 2005, so both people had cellphones. The son kept trying, but each time, the call would go straight to messaging. At about midnight, he called me for advice and I suggested he call the OSP. They took the info and because of the situation, they put the car out as a BOLO. The car was located about 4 in the morning at the entrance to a state park. Six Troopers immediately searched the area to no avail, including no evidence, other than footprints. By that, they could tell there was an encounter.

After searching for the next 2 days, the OSP thought sinister issues may be at play. After the 2 days, the search went to a recovery. After another 3 days with no luck, they marked it as a possible kidnapping. Two days later, a hunter found her beginning to decompose and lying in a pile of green vegetation. The cause of death was strangulation and the manner was labeled as a homicide. To this day, the case remains open.

The FBI reports about 600,000 people go missing each year with about 4400 being recovered. Unfortunately not all of them are identified. When I was on active duty, we would normally get about 2-5 of these per year. Some people just go missing. People are allowed to just up and leave for no reason. You want to tell everyone, if you are going to runaway, please leave a note, but even that doesn’t mean anything.
 

911 said:
I decided to watch a crime show on TV this morning and my wife sat down to watch it also, which for her is not normal. After the show was over, my wife asked me if the show reminded me of anything. I knew what she was talking about. We had a woman that had just divorced and was going to move from Pennsylvania to Oregon. She was warned by several friends and relatives to be very careful traveling alone on the road. Her son wanted to take a week off from college to go along, but she was against him missing any school time.

She told her son that she would call him each evening. She only had a mid size U-Haul trailer attached to her car. She had sold everything else with the idea of buying all new furniture when she bought her home. She went to Oregon to be closer to her sister and her husband. They figured the drive should take no longer than 4 days with traveling at 10 hours a day.

On the third night there was no phone call. This was in 2005, so both people had cellphones. The son kept trying, but each time, the call would go straight to messaging. At about midnight, he called me for advice and I suggested he call the OSP. They took the info and because of the situation, they put the car out as a BOLO. The car was located about 4 in the morning at the entrance to a state park. Six Troopers immediately searched the area to no avail, including no evidence, other than footprints. By that, they could tell there was an encounter.
:eek:ater, a hunter found her beginning to decompose and lying in a pile of green vegetation. The cause of death was strangulation and the manner was labeled as a homicide. To this day, the case remains open.

The FBI reports about 600,000 people go missing each year with about 4400 being recovered. Unfortunately not all of them are identified. When I was on active duty, we would normally get about 2-5 of these per year. Some people just go missing. People are allowed to just up and leave for no reason. You want to tell everyone, if you are going to runaway, please leave a note, but even that doesn’t mean anything.
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Don't you think it's dangerous though to do what she did? Driving to another state all alone? I wouldn't do that. I'm much too much of a coward. There are too many creeps out there.
 
They just found Suzanne Morphew, I was glad to read that.

This is in Colorado. They're thinking her husband had something to do w/her disappearance.
 

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chic said:
Don't you think it's dangerous though to do what she did? Driving to another state all alone? I wouldn't do that. I'm much too much of a coward. There are too many creeps out there.
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My daughter drove from one country to another almost 2 Christmases ago.. she drove from Spain to the UK .all the way up to the north of Spain then into France, and all the way down to the South of France, then onto the boat with her 3 elderly dogs, a car and a trailer, to sail to the UK ...then drove from the docks up to here..

I was panicking the whole 3 days and nights.. but there was nothing I could do.. she said she'd be fine.. and she was, she's a really motivated girl (woman)... but even in saying that.. ..she looked after the dogs needs every step of the way..

She had to sleep overnight in France before boarding the boat and there were lots of illegal immigrants hanging around at the docks, so she locked herself and the dogs in the car as best as she could.. , and kept as far away from them as possible..

When she got here I was mightily relieved.. but it had taken it's toll on her.. and as we went grocery shopping.. she burst into tears in the middle of the supermarket...:(:( and if you knew my daughter, you'd know that is far from her nature.. but the whole thing just finally dawned on her just how much danger she had been in
 
fuzzybuddy said:
When I was about 12, I had a cousin, who was about 4-5 years older. He was a good looking farm kid. He was on his way back home, when he didn't show up. They did find his car, but nothing was ever heard of him again. That was 60+ years ago.
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I lost a family member 50 plus years ago. He just disappeared and though my whole family has tried to find him, we've had no information whatsoever. He just fell off the Earth. There is no closure for us, just the harrowing pain of never knowing what has happened to a loved one. :cry:
 
The numbers of missing or never solved is amazing ....
When my kids were teens we always had a keep in touch....... let me know where you are at or if you go somewhere else ..... as most parents do ...
but i always added........... "remember when we watched "Criminal Minds" i want to tell the investigator exactly where to start ....not playing follow where you were all day up to the disappearance. takes too long you may only have hours to be found alive......"

that was like" wow mom ... i get it " ... so they fessed up even if sometimes they were not where i would like them to be......
 
It does happen

Stopped at a park in Tillamook, for the kids to stretch their legs before the trip home

We watched 'em play on the swings and such from the car
about 50 feet away

Saw this guy get outa his car and walk straight for them

I jumped outa the car and hollered 'HEY!'

He immediately ran back to his car and took off

Never got his license, but reported the make

Too too close

The boys were around 5 and 3 at the time
 
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Gary O' said:
It does happen

Stopped at a park in Tillamook, for the kids to stretch their legs before the trip home

We watched 'em play on the swings and such from the car
about 50 feet away

Saw this guy get outa his car and walk straight for them

I jumped outa the car and hollered 'HEY!'

He immediately ran back to his car and took off

Never got his license, but reported the make

Too too close

The boys were around 5 and 3
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Phew! Thank God you had your eyes on them. How scary! 🙏
 
Many years ago, some guy approached me in the parking lot of a major discount store, holding a tire pressure gauge. He said my tire seemed low, and he would check it. I never got close, sort of started walking away when a bunch of people came through. I think I said "No thanks" and continued walking.

A few months later, maybe more... they caught some guy who tried to force a woman into his car after luring her with a "tire pressure" rap. She fought him off and got away. Some one saw and got his plate number resulting in his arrest.

I felt weak, when I read this in our paper.
 
chic said:
Don't you think it's dangerous though to do what she did? Driving to another state all alone? I wouldn't do that. I'm much too much of a coward. There are too many creeps out there.
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So, first of all, I really enjoyed reading the feed back snd hope there are more to come.

We (the State Police) never recommend that females of any age, size or occupation go on road-trips by themselves. In the movie I was watched, which was true crime, the lady stopped at a diner for a bite to eat. When she paid and left the diner, she was followed by a medium built man that followed her out of town until they got to a lonely area and he forced her off the road. He ran up to her car, grabbed her out of her car and threw her into his car and took off.

When they got to a turn off down a lonely country road, he made the turn and drove about 2 miles from the main highway where he stopped the car, raped her and killed her and threw her into the bushes.

I don’t even recommend 2 women travel together. When my wife goes away with her friends, it’s usually by bus with a chaperone. They highly recommend that when you go into your hotel room at night, you shouldn’t come back out until morning. If my wife and her friends go by themselves in a car, it’s usually the 4 of them. Between the 4 of them, 3 are carrying a gun.

I have a few of my own stories.
 
That's so sad. :cry: There's a case that's been haunting me for a couple of years now. I actually started typing out all the things that could have happened, but my post got much too long and the story is much too convoluted. It's a little girl in Tennessee named Summer Wells. So many lies and speculation on how she could supposedly disappear almost literally into thin air. It's all very disturbing including trafficking, drugs, child molesters in the area, possibly corrupt people in LE that were supposed to be working on the case, etc. See, even explaining why I couldn't explain it all got much too long. Suffice it to say it's a very sad story. :cry:
 
Missing people are some of the toughest cases to solve. People runaway, change their name and apply for a new social security card, drivers license and so on. This makes it a reall problem to find them. If a husband reports his wife missing and there are no other reasons to go with it, it’s really out of the police’s hands. People are allowed to walk away. If the husband reports his wife missing and they had a big blowout or fight beforehand, the police may want to look a little deeper into the matter.

The police can run the husband’s name and if he has a record for domestic violence or abuse, that may spur an investigation.
 
CallMeKate said:
That's so sad. :cry: There's a case that's been haunting me for a couple of years now. I actually started typing out all the things that could have happened, but my post got much too long and the story is much too convoluted. It's a little girl in Tennessee named Summer Wells. So many lies and speculation on how she could supposedly disappear almost literally into thin air. It's all very disturbing including trafficking, drugs, child molesters in the area, possibly corrupt people in LE that were supposed to be working on the case, etc. See, even explaining why I couldn't explain it all got much too long. Suffice it to say it's a very sad story. :cry:
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I have been looking for a nurse that went missing at a bus stop years ago. I keep looking whenever a lead comes in, even though I am no longer on the force and am doing it on my own time. I have my suspicions as to what happened, but no evidence. I just need someone to talk.
 
Another case I've been following is that of Ray Gricar. Assuming you know all about that one because of locations, @911 ? Every time I'm in that part of the state and go past the location, I think of him... and wonder.
 
I don't mind traveling alone. I figure whatever could happen there could also happen here. I live alone and wherever I go I go alone.

However, I do have a security lock I can put on hotel doors and something for self protection. I want to try camping in a well populated campground but so far haven't quite gotten up the nerve for that. I do have a tent that would attach to the back of my car allowing me to sleep in the car.
 
CallMeKate said:
That's so sad. :cry: There's a case that's been haunting me for a couple of years now. I actually started typing out all the things that could have happened, but my post got much too long and the story is much too convoluted. It's a little girl in Tennessee named Summer Wells. So many lies and speculation on how she could supposedly disappear almost literally into thin air. It's all very disturbing including trafficking, drugs, child molesters in the area, possibly corrupt people in LE that were supposed to be working on the case, etc. See, even explaining why I couldn't explain it all got much too long. Suffice it to say it's a very sad story. :cry:
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I've done some reading about her disappearance on a forum I frequent.
They were even suggesting that the grandparents may have had something to do with it.

It's like she was outside playing, and the next minute she was gone.

ETA: Yes, Ray Gricar too. Such a mystery...
 
chic said:
There is no closure for us, just the harrowing pain of never knowing what has happened to a loved one. :cry:
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No knowing would be worse, IMO. The daily pain of just not knowing.

Years ago I knew a fellow that took off on a trip and after two years had never reported back to his family. The parents were ill and heartbroken. His brother said he‘d take off travelling and not report back for a few weeks. He was thoughtless.
 
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