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Post by LadyBlue on May 8, 2004 21:03:04 GMT -5
Body Found Might Be Long-Time Missing Woman's Apr. 9 (AP) — The daughter of an 84-year-old man killed in a March fire says the mummified body that was later discovered in her father's garage could be her missing mother. Authorities say the body was discovered nearly three weeks after a fire destroyed the home shared by Robert Adams and his longtime girlfriend, 85-year-old Virginia Beiser. Fire officials say the two died of smoke inhalation during an accidental blaze. Annette Lusk says she learned Wednesday about her father's death in March and the body that could be her missing mother. The identity of the body has not yet been determined. Coroner's official say the body suffered trauma, indicating a possible homicide. Lusk says all the evidence points to the body being her mother, Francis Adams, who was 51 years old when she disappeared from her Poway home in 1975. Lusk says her father may have killed her mother in the heat of passion. abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/040904ap_nw_body_found.html
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Post by LadyBlue on May 8, 2004 21:18:15 GMT -5
Today, Redding Police Department investigators, working closely with the Oregon State Police Missing Childrens Clearinghouse, have positively identified the female amnesia victim who had wondered into a redding area hospital on January 20, 1998.
Her identiy was established through photographs provided by family and friends. The OSP website was utilized by family members to view the photograph distributed to the media. Her identity was confirmed through fingerprints.
The actual name of the victim CAN NOT be disclosed at the request of the victim and her family. Redding Police Department is mandated by privacy and confidentiality laws to comply with this request.
A press conference will be held today, Friday, March 13, 1998, at 2:30 p.m. in the Redding Police Investigations Conference Room located at 1516 Market Street, Redding, California.
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Post by LadyBlue on May 8, 2004 21:20:25 GMT -5
Missing man found; amnesia victim learns identity after 16 years.
A month ago a slightly graying 49-year-old man stood in the pulpit of a church and told the congregation of his strange life, one that was blank prior to 1984.
The search for his identity, lost to amnesia, was part of the message he imparted to parishioners, for whom he was auditioning as a minister. Doctors had told him he would probably never recall his life before he was found in the trunk of a car in Memphis, Tenn., in late July 1984, nearly beaten to death and in a coma.
His story triggered the memory of one of the listeners. After the service, the man approached the speaker with a startling message.
"I think I know you," he said. "I met you years ago. You're Barre Cox."
Since that revelation on Dec. 10, Wesley Barrett "Barre" (pronounced "Barry") Cox, who turns 50 on Jan. 27, has been in seclusion at his California home, grappling with the reality that he is a different person from the one dubbed "James Doe" in a Memphis hospital 16 years ago.
At the time of his disappearance Cox and his wife, Beth, had recently moved to San Antonio, where he was employed as a family minister at MacArthur Park Church of Christ. They had met at Abilene Christian University, where both had been employed. He was an admissions counselor at ACU.
In the month since Cox was told his true identity, his wife, daughter, and former friends and associates have been trying to reconstruct his life.
At a press conference Monday, ACU's director of marketing and public relations, Michelle Morris, said Cox has been told about his wife and daughter, who live in Franklin, Tenn. His daughter, Talitha, turned 17 on Jan. 1, and received a call that day from her father.
"For her it was not so much a surprise as almost an answer to a prayer," Morris said.
The daughter, who was just more than 6 months old when her father disappeared, always believed he was alive, Morris said, even though Cox was officially declared dead seven years after his disappearance.
Cox has spoken with his daughter and wife, who never remarried, but they have not yet reunited. Morris said Cox, who also never remarried, is under the supervision of specialists and is not yet ready emotionally to see the family he does not recollect.
The mystery
Cox's life has taken some bizarre twists and turns since he was the subject of a massive manhunt and media attention in the summer of 1984.
Authorities have determined some children playing in a Memphis junkyard found Cox in the trunk of a car. He spent two weeks in a hospital there in a coma. When he awoke he didn't know who he was and had no recollection of his life to that point, Morris said.
Mike Middleton, who was Jones County sheriff at the time of the disappearance and helped with the investigation, said he filed a report with both state and national law enforcement agencies after Cox's disappearance, but never heard anything. He found it odd that no one made the connection between the man in the Memphis hospital and the missing Cox.
Middleton said officers speculated that Cox took off on a small motorbike that was in the trunk of his car and intentionally disappeared. The motorbike was never found. Middleton said that over the years, after all leads had been exhausted, he has not thought much about Cox.
"I'd like to sit down and talk to him," Middleton said.
Cox's 1976 Oldsmobile 98 was found abandoned and ransacked on July 12, 1984, on a farm road 3¤ miles north of Tuxedo in Jones County. He was en route from Lubbock, where he was completing work on a dissertation at Texas Tech University, to his home in San Antonio.
He planned to stop in Abilene to visit some of the many friends he and his wife made while employed at Abilene Christian University. He phoned his wife on the evening of July 11 to tell her he would be home on the 13th.
He planned to stop in Abilene and then drive to Junction to meet the head of his dissertation committee who was attending an art camp there. Instead, Cox's car was found in a remote stretch of Jones County. His wallet and its contents were strewn on the road but there was no blood at the scene.
A police officer and a convenience store clerk in Rotan saw Cox before the abandoned car was found.
The clerk said Cox walked into the Allsup's store at 3:45 a.m. July 12 with two empty antifreeze jugs to fill with gas. He told her his car had run out of gas outside of town and he was praying all the way in that a store would be open.
The clerk, Frances Bingham, described Cox as the perfect gentleman but said he acted oddly when he spoke of his wife. Cox got a cup of water and a 7-Up and told Bingham, "My wife likes 7-Up," implying that she was with him.
Bingham said Cox made several more references to his wife, insinuating that she was in the stranded car. He was given a lift back to his car by Rotan police officer Floyd Bankston, the last person known to have seen Cox alive.
Bankston said he noticed a small motorbike in the trunk of Cox's car and that Cox had told him he bought it for his wife. When the car was discovered later that day, the bike was missing. Several people later reported sighting a man fitting Cox's description riding the scooter.
But his wife discounted theories that her husband had intentionally disappeared and staged a fake robbery and kidnapping. "His family and baby meant a lot to him," she said at the time. "I have a hard time imagining that he would give that up." She could not be reached Monday.
Questions linger
After the incident, Beth Cox moved to California and finished her college degree at Pepperdine University, later relocating to Tennessee, where she lives to be near friends. She had had no contact or word of her husband since his strange disappearance in July 1984.
Unknown to any of his family or friends, Cox was lying in a Memphis hospital being tended by doctors and a family who became attached to him. They called him "James Doe" rather than the traditional "John Doe" because they were studying the book of James in the Bible, ACU's Morris said.
After he regained his health, Cox got a job as a busboy and began to realize he had some educational background. His new friends made contact with a Virginia senator they knew, and the senator helped Cox get a new identity and Social Security number.
ACU officials declined to give Cox's new name or location to protect his privacy.
Cox later got a job at a department store and worked his way up the career ladder. While attending church with his friends, he realized he could finish Bible verses whenever someone started one. Not knowing he already was a Church of Christ minister, Cox found himself drawn to the study of theology.
Psychological testing revealed he had intelligence and knowledge equal to at least a bachelor's degree and that his interests were in art, music and ministry.
Unknown to Cox, his bachelor's degree was in art education and his master's was in art and music. He was working on a doctorate in art education when he disappeared.
Seven years ago, Cox felt drawn to the ministry and applied to six seminaries across the country, ACU's Morris said. One school offered to let him attend for one semester to see if he could handle master's level work. He succeeded, eventually completing both a master's of theology and a master's of divinity degrees.
That calling back to the ministry eventually led Cox to the pulpit of a community church where he was seeking employment as its minister. After a man in the congregation identified Cox, an intense scrutiny began. ACU officials would not reveal the church where the revelation happened.
Family and friends were convinced they had found the missing Barre Cox. His wife had no doubt after talking to him on the phone and receiving a letter from him.
"His voice is the same and his handwriting is the same," Morris said Beth Cox told friends.
Cox also has visited his mother and a brother. He didn't know them, but something in his mother's home sparked some recognition.
"He saw a chair in her home and it made him cry," Morris said, "but he doesn't know why."
Morris said a reunion is planned between Cox, his wife and daughter in hopes that the remaining pieces of the puzzle can be pieced together. For many people involved in the mystery from the beginning, those pieces are numerous.
Jack Stewart, director of career services at ACU, was an elder at MacArthur Church of Christ in San Antonio when Cox disappeared. The young family minister was well loved by the church's congregation, Stewart said, and his disappearance prompted about 40 church members to head to West Texas to help with the search.
"We walked every cotton field, looked in every abandoned well and every barrow ditch," Stewart recalled Monday.
Sixteen years later, even with Cox's physical whereabouts known, Stewart acknowledged he knows little more than he did after that long, fruitless search.
"The only question that has been answered is that Barre has been found," Stewart said.
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Post by LadyBlue on May 8, 2004 22:51:34 GMT -5
Campbell police this morning report that a 22-year-old SJSU college student missing since Saturday afternoon was found in good health late Sunday evening.
At this time details regarding Aki Yasukawa's brief disappearance are vague, but a police spokeswoman said that at 11:15 p.m. she was safely located.
According to Capt. David Dehaan, Yasukawa was reported missing by her live-in boyfriend of three years after she failed to return to their San Jose residence following an afternoon of traffic school at the Campbell Community Center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Yasukawa's boyfriend became concerned after he drove to the community center and located her blue 2000 Daewoo Lanos in the parking lot and Yasukawa was nowhere to be found, Deehan said.
The Police Department stored the car and launched a missing person's investigation into Yasukawa's disappearance. Dehaan said Yasukawa's boyfriend was cooperative and never considered a suspect.
Yasukawa was born in Japan but completed high school in the United States, Dehaan said. She attended De Anza College for two years before transferring to San Jose State University, where she is in her second year
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Post by LadyBlue on May 15, 2004 20:45:54 GMT -5
The body of a Redding woman missing since August has been found in a shallow grave near Keswick, about three miles northwest of Redding in Shasta County. The remains of 22-year old Heather Marie Carpenter were found after Redding police received a tip through the department's secret witness program. Identity of the body was confirmed through dental records. An exact cause of death has not been established. After finding the body, police took 18-year old Patrick Michael Larmour (shown above) into custody for suspicion of murder. On August 4, Larmour allegedly gave Carpenter a ride home from an all-night party in Redding. He was the last person to see her alive. It is unclear if Larmour, who was 17 at the time of the alleged crime, will be tried as a juvenile or adult. He is being held in the Shasta County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail. www.kxtv.com/storyfull.asp?id=6022
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Post by LadyBlue on May 15, 2004 21:00:50 GMT -5
Missing woman found dead in pasture 4/24/2004 8:56:18 PM Teri Nelson and Amanda Greslin The body of a California woman reported missing Thursday is found in a pasture near Hermosa. Investigators say the body of 21–year–old Kristina moore was discovered in a field off Daughenbaugh Road north of Hermosa yesterday. Representatives from the Pennington County Sheriff's department will not say whether they suspect foul play, or have any suspects. An autopsy is planned for Monday. Investigators do ask people to call the Rapid City Police Department if they have any information about Kristina Moore. They say moore was selling magazine subscriptions door–to–door along O'Brien street in Rapid Valley Wednesday evening. Moore was five–feet tall, 110 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, baggy blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. If you have any information, please call the Rapid City Police Department at 394–6115. www.kotatv.com/localnews/story.asp?ID=18656
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Post by LadyBlue on Jul 15, 2004 23:53:35 GMT -5
A body was found in the car of a missing Los Angeles-area Realtor just blocks from San Diego police headquarters Thursday, and authorities are trying to determine if the victim is the same person who vanished a week ago.
The body was found in the trunk of a Mercedes after the car was found parked by an expired meter, authorities said.
The car belongs to Manhattan Beach Realtor and El Segundo resident Julia "Deede" Buchanan Keller.
A San Diego parking controller saw the silver, four-door 1999 Mercedes-Benz E320 parked in an expired meter on 11th Avenue near C Street about noon. When the parking official checked the license plates and found the car belonged to Keller, police were notified.
Officers then opened the trunk and found the body.
Police cordoned off half a city block with yellow crime-scene tape as they investigated the find.
Officers from El Segundo and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were notified immediately, and detectives arrived here later Thursday afternoon.
Authorities, friends and concerned residents began searching for Keller, 55, soon after she vanished July 8, leaving her purse in her house and television set on. Her car also was missing.
Her employer, Shorewood Realtors, had offered a $50,000 reward.
El Segundo police said the disappearance was suspicious. There were no signs of forced entry into the home. Police questioned her ex-husband, an American Airlines mechanic who flew to Bolivia July 10 to visit a sick relative. He told authorities he knew nothing about the disappearance.
Keller's son, Mike, told authorities that his mother was meticulous and organized, and had uncharacteristically missed several business and social appointments the weekend she disappeared.
She had been dropped off at her home the night of July 8 by a date, police said.
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Post by LadyBlue on Jul 21, 2004 11:40:02 GMT -5
Farm workers Monday found a woman's body in a strawberry field outside of Salinas, marking what authorities say is Monterey County's fourth homicide case in four days.
About 9:40 a.m., field workers called sheriff's deputies after finding the body of Brandi Lee Martinez, 25, of Salinas lying about 37 feet off Hartnell Road, said Victor Lurz, a supervisor for the sheriff's forensics team.
Detectives suspect foul play and found some suspicious items near Martinez's body, although Investigative Sgt. Terry Kaiser declined to say what the items are.
Martinez, who was not a farm worker, had been in the field for no more than 12 hours when her body was found, Kaiser said.
He said it's too early to determine whether gangs or drugs were involved in her death.
Since Friday, three other homicides have come to the attention of authorities:
On Saturday night, Miguel Angel Hernandez, 24, of Salinas was shot and killed outside the Santa Lucia Townhouse Apartments on Leslie Drive.
About 7:45 a.m. Friday, a hunter found the decomposing body of a man, still unidentified, on the Gregory Ranch, several hundred yards from Panchorico Road in San Ardo. The body was fully clothed in dark blue pants, a white polo-type shirt with thin blue horizontal stripes, and white sneakers. Evidence at the scene suggested trauma.
About 5:30 a.m. Friday, Soledad police found the body of 67-year-old Alvaro Hernandez Rojas bound and gagged on his bed in the 500 block of Andalucia Drive. Two individuals who recently befriended Rojas, Maribel Morin Maldonado and Michael Isidro Renteria, are being sought by police for questioning but have not been named as suspects.
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Post by LadyBlue on Jul 24, 2004 0:58:52 GMT -5
Searchers looking for missing Carlsbad hiker Eric Sears discovered a body Friday about two miles from the site where the 17-year-old had been camping. The discovery came about noon. Volunteers had been combing the area since midmorning. Park rangers arrived about 1:30 p.m., and officials did not immediately make a statement about the remains. The decomposed body was not immediately identified, but the general description was similar to that of the missing Sears. The body appeared to be that of a white male in his late teens to early 20s, said Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Earl Quinata. The identity may remain unknown pending an autopsy, which was expected to be performed next week, he said. Sears has been missing since July 15, when a friend reported that he lost track of him during a hike. The body was in a pile of boulders east of the Jumbo Rocks campsite where Sears had been camping and near an area that search teams had previously covered. The search Friday was organized by Eric's family. The body was found by a Carlsbad firefighter, and in the group were Eric's friends from Carlsbad and volunteers from around the park. The discovery came a day after homicide investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department spent hours searching the Carlsbad home of the 17-year-old friend who went hiking with Eric. "They're trying to find any type of evidence," Quinata said at an afternoon news conference Thursday. He did not disclose what investigators were searching for or what had led them to the youth. The friend could not be reached for comment Friday. It is unclear how the friend and Eric became separated, but the friend told authorities the last time he saw him, Eric was seeking refuge from the sun under a picnic table. www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20040723-1408-lost.html
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Post by LadyBlue on Jul 24, 2004 13:52:10 GMT -5
A 20-year-old woman who was reported missing in El Cajon, Calif., was home safe Tuesday.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department says Leslie Daly returned to her home Tuesday afternoon.
She had been reported missing on Sunday and was considered at risk because she has autism.
Detectives are investigating the circumstances of her disappearance.
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Post by LadyBlue on Jul 31, 2004 12:41:35 GMT -5
A body was discovered inside a storage container at Redwood High School in Larkspur yesterday.
Now authorities are trying to figure out if he's the Corte Madera man missing since July eighth.
Investigators will identify the man through dental records. Police Detective Pat Torres says the man's body was badly decomposed, but there was no sign of foul play.
Fifty-three-year-old Dennis Michael Gerhinger was reported missing after telling his girlfriend he was walking to a pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Police say he had no prescriptions pending and that he had been depressed.
The body was found in an eight-foot-by-20-foot container that's used to store athletic equipment.
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Post by LadyBlue on Sept 11, 2004 8:45:47 GMT -5
Police confirmed yesterday that skeletal remains found earlier this year in a remote part of the Arizona desert are those of a Kensington woman missing since last September.
The remains of Joy Risker, 25, were discovered Jan. 10, according to the Medical Examiner's Office, but were only recently identified through DNA testing.
San Diego police Lt. Kevin Rooney said the skeleton was found in a remote part of Maricopa County. He said the identification of the remains was not made public.
Risker was one of two women married to Sean Goff, 36, a computer salesman. After lying for a month to friends and police about Risker's fate, Goff walked into the county jail downtown in October and told a surprised deputy he wanted to confess to killing her, according to court testimony.
After confessing, however, Goff refused to provide any details about how Risker died or what happened to her body.
Goff is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 8.
Goff, Risker and Sheila Goff lived together in a two-bedroom, single-story home on Rochester Road. Risker and Goff had two children, while Sheila and Sean Goff had one child.
According to court testimony, Sheila Goff and the three kids drove to Santa Barbara last September for a short vacation, leaving Goff and Risker alone. Goff had been thinking about breaking up with Risker and was considering doing so while his other wife and the children were out of town, witnesses said.
When Sheila Goff returned several days later, she found bloodstains throughout Risker's bedroom and an adjacent bathroom. Sean Goff came home in a dirty, rented pickup and told Sheila Goff he had driven Risker to Phoenix and that she was "gone."
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Post by LadyBlue on Sept 29, 2004 11:47:36 GMT -5
A ski resort caretaker, missing since Friday night, was found in good condition Tuesday morning hitchhiking on Angeles Crest Highway.
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Post by LadyBlue on Sept 30, 2004 10:21:53 GMT -5
Police are searching for clues after the body of a strangled 17-year-old girl was found wrapped in a blanket near Visitacion Avenue and Mansell Street in San Francisco, police said.
Maxina Nicole Danner, a senior at Lincoln High School, was discovered in John McClaren Park around 11:20 p.m. Monday night. There was no evidence of sexual assault, according to a statement from the San Francisco Police Department.
Investigators identified the girl after her grandfather reported her missing on Tuesday.
Her classmates at Lincoln High School are remembering the girl as a positive person. She was a straight-A student and played varsity softball. Danner had dreams of attending college on a softball scholarship.
Danner was described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, 160 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Police Department's confidential tip line at (415) 575-4444.
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Post by LadyBlue on Oct 8, 2004 18:35:29 GMT -5
A San Jose woman who had been missing for three weeks was found staying at the San Francisco international airport.
Sangeeta Padmanabham, 32, was last seen walking outside her north San Jose home at about 11am on July 1. She was reported missing the next day, San Jose police spokesman Rubens Dalaison told rediff.com
The airport had not contacted police about Sangeeta. Dalaison said that considering the size of the airport, it was understandable that her long presence there went undetected.
According to Dalaison, family friends had seen Sangeeta at the airport several days ago, but did not know that anything was amiss.
Several days later on July 24, the San Jose Mercury News ran a story about missing Bay Area people in light of the Chandra Levy investigation. The story included a photo of Sangeeta.
After seeing the photo, the family friends contacted Sangeeta's husband and told him they had seen her at the airport, Dalaison said.
Her husband found Sangeeta near the United Airlines terminal.
Police had feared for her safety because she had left a suicide note, Dalaison said. "She had made one attempt at suicide," said Dalaison. "She had gone to the Golden Gate Bridge, but returned."
The police spokesman said he did not know how Sangeeta had reached the airport, nor could he confirm whether she suffered from postpartum depression following the birth of a child, as reported by the Mercury News.
"All that matters is that she is back home," Dalaison said. "Her husband said he will get her the help she needs."
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Post by LadyBlue on Nov 8, 2004 0:32:30 GMT -5
Fairfield police confirmed Sunday that a woman who was reported missing on Wednesday has been reunited with her family.
Her 19-year-old son last saw Gail Gene Johnson, 46, at 3 a.m. Tuesday. He reported her missing when her employer called later that morning because Johnson had not shown up for work.
Johnson's car and personal items also were missing from the house.
Fairfield police said Johnson called her family to tell them where she was and that she was OK. Her family went to the undisclosed location and was reunited with her on Saturday.
Johnson has not stated her motive for disappearing and has said only that her family is with her now, according to police.
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Post by LadyBlue on Nov 9, 2004 20:33:16 GMT -5
After being gone for five days, a Fairfield mother of four has been found alive and well. Fairfield police say Gail Johnson called her children to tell them she was in Bakersfield.
Family members traveled to an undisclosed location Saturday and were reunited with Johnson. Authorities say Johnson didn't tell family and friends why she had disappeared.
Johnson, 46, was last seen at about 7:50 a.m. Tuesday when she stopped at a Shell gas station in Suisun City. Johnson had a brief conversation with the clerk, during which she mentioned a desire to rest and relax.
Johnson's 19-year-old son reported his mother missing later that morning when her employer called to say she had never arrived at work.
Johnson has not stated her motive for disappearing and has said only that her family is with her now, according to police.
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Post by LadyBlue on Nov 12, 2004 9:13:29 GMT -5
The 15-year-old East Palo Alto girl missing since Nov. 1 walked into the East Palo Alto Police Department at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. She appeared to be in good health and said she had been staying with a friend in Redwood City, Detective Sergeant Tom Gallagher said.
Elena Flamer had been reported missing by her father, but also has a past history of truancy and being away from home, police said.
Police are still seeking information for her whereabouts during her absence. Anyone with information is asked to call San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Frank Taylor at (650) 599-7484 or to call the anonymous witness line at (800) 547-2700.
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Post by LadyBlue on Dec 4, 2004 13:13:08 GMT -5
The body of a 64-year-old Chatsworth mechanic missing since he left on a hike in Kern County the day before Thanksgiving was found Friday by a volunteer searcher. Robert Komenda's body was found about 10 a.m. by one of the volunteers who have scoured the Mount Pios area of Los Padres National Forest since Komenda disappeared Nov. 24.
His body was found about a half-mile from his destination, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Department.
The cause of death was not immediately determined, but foul play was not suspected.
Komenda, an experienced hiker, was dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans when he embarked on what was supposed to be a three-hour hike. Nighttime temperatures in the region have dipped into the teens during the past week, and the area was blanketed with snow.
Komenda's family reported him missing about 7 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. His white Mercedes-Benz was found parked at the head of the McGill Trail, a hiking route that Komenda's wife, Anna, said he has trekked countless times over the past two decades.
Sheriff's deputies used helicopters and dogs to search the 8,831-foot-high mountain for Komenda. Authorities scaled back the effort Monday, but relatives continued to search.
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Post by LadyBlue on Dec 11, 2004 20:31:41 GMT -5
A missing Nevada County man has been found dead in his pickup truck in Placer County northeast of Auburn.
Placer County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. George Malim said this afternoon that John Douglas, 41, of Chicago Park was found Tuesday by a miner who was walking along a road almost six miles from Iowa Hill.
No signs of foul play were evident, and Douglas had been there for some time, Malim said. He was reported missing to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 15.
Although an autopsy has already been performed, the cause of death is still pending a toxicology report, Malim said. That report will not be ready for six to eight weeks.
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Post by LadyBlue on Feb 6, 2005 7:52:59 GMT -5
The skeletal remains of long-missing Palo Alto prayer leader Mary Anne Trojak have been found in Florida, more than two years after she disappeared during a religious conference at a Jacksonville hotel, police said Wednesday.
Jacksonville homicide Sgt. Evander Collier said a man inexplicably called police to say they would find a body in the woods behind a strip of hotels near the airport. Family members said the man indicated the body was of ``a young woman.'' Officers found the remains of Trojak, who was 49 years old when she disappeared, in the exact spot the caller described, Collier said.
The discovery answered the biggest question that has haunted friends and parents of the prayer minister since she walked out of her hotel in November 2002 and never came back.
``We're sort of grateful that whatever happened to bring this to light, we know this happened,'' said her father, Emil Trojak of Palo Alto. ``We would have lived with this missing-person thing the rest of our lives, and now we can present our daughter's remains for a proper burial.''
But finding her body also brought new questions: How did Trojak meet her death, and why did someone come forward more than two years later to direct police to her body?
Police would not say whether the body was buried or why no one might have found it until now. The skeleton was clad in deteriorated clothes and lying beneath some trees, partly covered with leaves and other debris, according to the medical examiner. Trojak's purse was nearby, containing a billfold with credit cards but no cash, and the body had a name tag around the neck identifying Trojak as a conference participant, the medical examiner said.
``After two years, did somebody's conscience bother them?'' her father asked. ``Why did this guy say we should look for remains of a young girl? That would be someone maybe 10 or 11, not a 49-year-old woman. And yet she was there. That's really a puzzling part.''
The medical examiner's office is still trying to determine the cause of death, and Collier said it's unclear whether Trojak had been killed. After her disappearance, some speculated she may have taken her own life. She was known as a quiet woman who suffered from chronic illnesses that rendered her frail, and who never married. Friends said she did not appear unhappy on the day she disappeared.
Dr. Margarita Arruza, the Jacksonville medical examiner, said the bones and skull didn't show signs of trauma before death, and the remains were sent to a forensics specialist.
``We may never know exactly what happened to her,'' Arruza said.
The first clue to her whereabouts didn't arrive until the man called Jan. 22. Collier said police were able to locate and interview the caller, whose identity was withheld. But he did not say how the man knew of her remains or whether he is a suspect.
Collier declined to release more information, but family members said they were told the man had called from Canada. When detectives flew there to question him, family members said, the man appeared to have mental disabilities, and someone else may have told him about the body, Emil Trojak said.
His daughter was a prayer healer and therapist at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto who led weekly prayer sessions intended as healing therapy. She often prayed with a young girl who had a terminal illness, her friends and fellow church members said at the time.
In November 2002, she flew to Florida for the Association of Christian Therapists conference in Jacksonville, and stayed at the airport Holiday Inn. She was last seen Nov. 11, leaving a banquet hall after a Catholic Mass, telling friends she was going for a walk.
Emil Trojak said that once authorities return her remains to Palo Alto, perhaps in a few months, the family plans to hold a memorial service.
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Post by LadyBlue on Feb 10, 2005 11:57:17 GMT -5
Authorities have identified a body found near Pepperwood late last February as that of a man reported missing to the Eureka Police Department last March.
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department said the body is Robert John Tobaka, 54.
Tobaka was reported missing to the Eureka Police Department March 15, 2004.
No other details about the case were released Wednesday.
The initial Times-Standard story from Feb. 20, 2004, reported that Humboldt County Coroner Frank Jager estimated the body had been at the location where it was discovered up to a month and a half.
The body was found partially buried on state park land by a man who was walking his dog.
Jager also said last February that the person was the victim of a homicide.
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Post by LadyBlue on Apr 4, 2005 12:24:22 GMT -5
A body found floating near the Small Craft Harbor Friday was identified as 14-year-old Charlie Harrison, who went missing nearly two weeks ago off Natural Bridges State Beach. "This is what the family wanted," said family friend Sharon Rohrs. "They wanted him home." Harrison, a popular Santa Cruz High School freshman, was swept out to sea in a rip current March 19 and was presumed drowned. Positive identification was made by the Sheriff-Coroner’s Office through dental records, police said. "We’re just in shock right now," Susie Curry said Friday night from Michigan. Curry, Harrison’s aunt, is the family’s spokeswoman. "(Harrison’s parents) are just going to live it all over again." Rohrs’ son Aaron had been friends with Harrison since kindergarten. Rohrs said her son had a "real strong feeling that today (Friday) might be the day" they found Harrison’s body. Harrison, Aaron Rohrs and Jonathan Ashley had been jumping and wading together at the water’s edge on March 19, at Natural Bridges State Beach, said to be the teens’ favorite spot. Sharon said the boys were not planning to swim. They had waded into shallow water when the sand under them dropped off, and the boys plunged into the ocean. Ashley and Rohrs swam to safety. A man reported seeing Harrison on a partially submerged rock a short time later, but lost sight of him after a wave washed over it. The Coast Guard and local lifeguards, firefighters and police searched by land, boat, helicopter and personal watercraft for most of March 19 and part of March 20, but turned up nothing. Earlier Friday, Christopher Sengezer, who works for the harbor, said he and three other men were in the harbor channel when several people on the jetty near the lighthouse motioned to them, pointing to something in the water. Harrison’s family previously asked that donations in Harrison’s name be made to one of three organizations. Donations can be made to the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz, P.O. Box 873, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-7024. Make checks payable to the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz. For the next two organizations, the family requests that donors write "Charlie Harrison Memorial" on the envelope: Santa Cruz High School Band Boosters, P.O. Box 7024, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-7024, and Watsonville Taiko, P.O. Box 1673, Watsonville, CA 95077-1673. www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/April/02/local/stories/04local.htm
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Post by LadyBlue on Apr 28, 2005 22:15:30 GMT -5
Human skeletal remains found by a hunter off a Santa Rosa Mountain trail south of Highway 74 in Pinyon have been identified as that of a Palm Desert woman missing since last November.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department has confirmed that the remains are of 31-year-old Tatiana Shubladze reported missing by her family November 25th, 2004. Her car was found December second, but there was no sign of her until the recent discovery.
Now authorities are considering foul play in the death of the woman. Law enforcement officers say they have interviewed a number of people and have gathered a large amount of information in the on-going investigation.
Authorities are asking for the public's help in providing any additional information.
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Post by LadyBlue on Jul 17, 2005 9:02:59 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Consuelo Abundis[/glow] Abundis was found safe in 2005. She had been missing since October 11, 2003 from Ridgecrest, California.
[glow=red,2,300]Brianne Alvarez[/glow] Alvarez was found safe in 2005. She had been missing since February 28, 2003 from Canyon Country, California.
[glow=red,2,300]Beatriz Ambrosio[/glow] Ambrosio was found safe in 2005. She had been missing since April 4, 1998 from Pico Rivera, California.
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