Black and Missing but Not Forgotten

 The Laurel Police Department is searching for a 21-year-old missing person.

According to police, the family of Kimberly Williams, a black female from Laurel,  is asking for the public’s help in locating her.

Williams, 21,  of North Ninth Street in Laurel, has been reported missing by her family.

LPD Detective Kevin Flynn said Williams’ cousin came into the Laurel Police Station on Monday and reported Williams missing.

According to reports, Williams was reportedly last seen on Saturday around 4 p.m.

“She reportedly left home walking to the Cameron Center, which is not far from her residence,” Flynn said. “A witness, however, reported that she was seen later getting into a car with five black males. The car was reportedly a blue vehicle with shinny rims.

“We don’t think she knew these people in the car,” the detective said. “Someone has reported that the vehicle could have possibly been headed to Heidelberg.”

Flynn said the police department is currently investigating the incident as a missing person case. However, information about the female’s whereabouts are needed.

Williams is described as a black female about 5-foot-3-inches in height and weighing about 115 pounds.

According to reports, Williams was last seen wearing a black off-the-shoulder short sleeve shirt, bluejean shorts with pockets in the front and back and flip flops with the cartoon character Betty Boop.

Anyone with information about Williams or her whereabouts should call the Laurel Police Department at (601) 425-4711 or Crimestoppers at (601) 428-7867.

[Source]

Bradley Lockhart hinted Saturday that he was wrong to leave his children with relatives and others while he worked overseas, but cautioned people that placing blame “isn’t going to move us forward as a society.”

Lockhart was the keynote speaker at Shaniya Speaks Day, Keeping the Promise – an event designed to honor the memory of Lockhart’s slain daughter and bring awareness about violence and sexual crimes against children.

The body of Shaniya Davis was found last November intermingled with deer carcasses and trash in a ditch just outside of Sanford. Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, was charged with raping and killing the child.

Police say the 5-year-old’s mother, Antoinette Davis, prostituted the girl to pay a debt. Davis posted bail in February after she was charged with human trafficking and child abuse by prostitution. Lockhart said Saturday that Davis has not called him.

Shaniya was taken from the mobile home where her mother was living, police have said. In October, Shaniya went to live with her mother while Lockhart went on a work-related trip.

“For the past 10 years, I have traveled back and forth to Iraq, traveled throughout this country, entrusting my kids with their grandparents, with my sister, with my ex-girlfriend, who is a wonderful person who we love very much and raised Shaniya to be a very, very special person,” he said.

“I got on that plane every time they told me to, thinking that making hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy that big, nice home was making up for me not being there,” he added. “The sad part is, I had to go through this to realize what I was really missing. Don’t make that same mistake.”

During his speech, Lockhart said he would not stand for negativity or placing blame. He said healing starts by being part of the solution and that the community needs to take responsibility.

“If you are not going to join this team, get out of my way because I’m going to run right through you,” he said.

The crowd gave Lockhart a standing ovation. Several people walked up, hugged him and whispered in his ear.

RB Stage Productions, a New Hampshire theater group, acted out three scenarios with sexual themes, including one where a parent overlooked a date who was hitting on her teenage daughter. Skits and music were performed in between speakers.

Audience members swayed and clapped their hands as Clarence Burke and a group of children performed “O-o-h Child” immediately after Lockhart spoke. Burke once sang with The Five Stairsteps, the family group that made that song famous.

The program closed with children gathered around the stage and a preacher placing a blessing upon them. “Jesus Loves the Little Children” played as the crowd walked out of the John D. Fuller Sr. Recreational/Athletic Complex.

Organizer Joe McGee said he was pleased with the turnout and vowed to hold the event on the second Saturday in June next year. Lockhart promised to attend.

“I think there was a lot of healing for everyone,” said McGee.

Shaniya would have turned 6 on Monday. Lockhart will be driving back to Alabama with his fiancee that day. He said he would take time to remember his daughter.

“There will always be that void,” he said.

[Source]

Manatee County deputies are asking for help finding a missing man.

35-year-old Earl Brooks Junior has been missing for almost a week now. He was released from a hospital last Tuesday, and went home to take a nap with his wife. When she woke up, Brooks and his car were gone, but his wallet and medication were still at the house.

She waited until yesterday (June 13th) to report him missing.

If you have any information on Brooks’ whereabouts please call the Manatee County Sheriffs Office.

[Source]

Baltimore County Police continue their request for the public’s help in reporting any information known about the disappearance of Cherice Ragins.

The reward for information to locate Cherice was increased on March 17 up to $4,500 through Metro Crime Stoppers. An anonymous party added the money in hopes that someone with information about the 24-year-old’s whereabouts would come forward in an effort to locate her. Since that time, no information has been received and investigators believe that someone saw something or has some knowledge of her disappearance.

Last Seen in Precinct 2/Woodlawn

She is described as a black female, 5’4” tall, 120 pounds, with brown eyes, and brown hair. Ragins also has her name “Cherice” tattooed on her neck. She was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a red hooded sweatshirt over a black shirt, and green and pink shoes. She was also carrying a black purse with silver trim.

Police say that Cherice Maria Ragins, of the 3600-block of North Rogers Avenue, 21215 was last known to be with her boyfriend on February 21 in the 1200-block of Carli Court, 21228, in Precinct 2/Woodlawn when she went missing. She has not been seen or heard from since.

On April 2 an intensive search of the area on Carli Court was completed by police with search and rescue dogs. The search failed to recover any information of value at the time.

Reward Offered

Anyone with information that will help to locate Cherice Ragins is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587). To text a message to Metro Crime Stoppers, send to “CRIMES” (274637), then enter the message starting with “MCS,” or e-mail a tip to www.metrocrimestoppers.net. Those contacting Metro Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a cash reward of up to $4,500

[Source]

 Baltimore County Police are asking for the public’s help in locating a 46-year-old woman missing from her home in the unit-block of Coliston Road, 21136, in Precinct 3/Franklin.

She is described as a black female, 5’2” tall, 180 pounds, with brown eyes, a medium complexion, and straight collar-length black hair.

Frequents Dundalk and Reisterstown

Rose Mary Bingley has been missing since approximately 6 p.m. on February 24. A family member told police that she talked to Rose Mary on the telephone and Ms. Bingley was on the way home from an unspecified job interview. No one has seen or heard from her since. She is known to frequent the Turner Station area in Dundalk, and the Reisterstown area in Baltimore County.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020, or the Missing Persons Unit at 410-887-3943.

[Source]

Do you know Ericka Jean? If Nancy Grace  “investigated” as she said she would, maybe you would have.

Al.com sums up the story of Ericka for us:

Ericka Jean for months had been planning a July wedding to her boyfriend of one year.

After getting engaged at Thanksgiving, the 27-year-old Birmingham mother of two had been shopping for the perfect gown and selecting her bridesmaids.

“We were happy about it,” said her mother, Barbara Jenkins, “because, you know, it was her first wedding.”

But all of those plans came to a halt Tuesday when police say a lovers’ quarrel turned deadly.

Jean was pronounced dead just after 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at St. Vincent’s Hospital. David Gaines, 37, is being held in the Birmingham City Jail, but he hasn’t been charged with any crime. He said he shot his fiancee in self-defense.

Shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday, witnesses reported the shooting in the 800 block of Avenue F in Ensley. By the time police had arrived, Gaines had already driven across town to the hospital.

Birmingham homicide Sgt. Sam Noblitt said the man told police they were in the car when an argument erupted. He said Jean grabbed his gun from the floor of the car and shot him in the leg. He then took the gun and shot back, he said.

Her mother said Jean was shot four times: in the chest, side, thigh and back of the head.

“That’s not self-defense,” Jenkins said. “To shoot her in the back of the head, that’s trying to kill her.”

Gaines, Jenkins said, retired from the military.

“Being a military man, he should have been able to handle her without shooting her,” she said. “I don’t know what really happened. She’s not here to say.”

The couple had prior fights.

“They would have their spats and (police) officers had been to the house several times,” her mother said. “She would hop over here in a cab with all of her clothes. She would stay a week or two and then go back.”

Jenkins said she never expected it could go this far.

“I was worried in my own way,” she said, “but I don’t get in my children’s business. If they came to me for advice, I tried to give it the best I could and reminded them to stay close to God.”

Jenkins became Jean’s foster mother 13 years ago and since raised her. Jean was attending cosmetology school at Lawson State and caring for her children, ages 11 and 2.

“She had a hard life in her younger days, but she turned it all around,” she said. “I am just so proud of her because she showed me she could pull herself together and be the lady she needed to be.”

The family is struggling with the loss.

“She had a lot of love and compassion for people,” Jenkins said. “It’s going to be hard for me and she left two children that are going to miss her very, very much.”

[Source]

I heard about this story after Nancy made a *big* announcement about how she was going to investigate this story. I was so excited that maybe this time Nancy was going to headline a black woman (shocking huh?). Well, turns out, she didn’t cover her at all.

Just a few hours after she announced that she was going to cover Ericka on her facebook page (she didn’t even include Ericka’s name, so I had to google her by typing in “shot four times”) she announced that the same night, she was going to cover missing nurse Phoung Le.

I was pretty sure that Ericka’s story was either going to be overshadowed by this story, or not covered at all. Sure enough, I was right. Check out the transcript from last night show [here].

There’s no mention of Ericka on Nancy Grace’s site, even though she was spotlighted as the head story for a short time:

Maybe something came up, we will probably never know. But I do know that this was a missed opportunity to help bring the Jean family some justice. We are praying for them.

Friday, April 30, is Mitrice Richardson’s 25th birthday. If she is alive, it will be the most important birthday she has ever celebrated, whether she is aware what day it is, or even knows who she is.

Richardson’s birthday will bring together family members and friends to reaffirm their efforts to find the young woman, or if she is not alive, to determine what happened to her. The hope that a recent drone search might provide some clues to her whereabouts proved disappointing. Still, that the high-tech equipment did not find any skeletal remains buoys those who want to believe that she did not die in the rugged Santa Monica Mountains where she was left to fend for herself on foot in an isolated area.

Richardson has been missing for almost eight months with no word to family and friends and no attempt to access her bank funds. There is disbelief that someone could disappear so completely. However, some of the recent high profile missing person cases have demonstrated that human remains can be within a few feet of search areas, passed by people daily and not be located without the help of the person who placed them there.

Friday’s gathering of family and friends emphasizes the need to keep the public spotlight on Richardson’s disappearance. In acknowledgement of her 25th birthday, they are asking everyone who can to print 25 flyers and post them at 25 locations (flyers can be downloaded at findmitrice.info). In addition, participants will release a “rainbow” of biodegradable multi-colored balloons as a representation of her “colorful and energetic personality.”

In collaboration with Maurice DuBois, the father of murdered teenager Amber DuBois who has become a missing persons advocate, a massive two-day search for Richardson is tentatively planned for June 5 and 6. Details will follow as soon as they are available.

There is hardly a news organization in Southern California and many other parts of the nation that hasn’t done an article on Richardson, the African-American honors college graduate and beauty contestant who was last seen during booking—for field citable charges—at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station for not paying an $89.51 dinner bill at a Malibu restaurant Sept. 16. She was released from Lost Hills at 12:30 a.m. the next morning without her car, purse, cell phone, or even a jacket.

Mental health experts think Richardson was exhausted from not having slept for almost a week, was lapsing in and out of coherence, and may have been early-stage bipolar. All of this appears to have been missed by the authorities who have established procedures to follow in such instances. The office of Congressmember Maxine Waters has indicated there will be an inquiry into whether any civil rights violations occurred during Richardson’s arrest, booking and release. This could trigger federal involvement in her case.

Human tragedy is difficult to deal with when the circumstances are known. When there are no answers to any of the questions, it is unbearable.

[Source]

Chioma Gray has been missing for two years, after she was last seen on the morning of Dec. 13, 2007. Tuesday is Chioma Gray’s 18th birthday.

Gray was last seen when Gray’s father dropped the Buena High School student at the school.

School video surveillance shows 20-year-old Andrew Tafoya arriving at the school at around the same time in a stolen Toyota sedan. Tafoya had been released from jail on Dec. 12. He was serving time for unlawful sex with a minor; the minor was Chioma Gray, who was 14 at the time.

Ventura Police suspect Gray left with Tafoya voluntarily.

A friend of Gray’s said Tafoya wanted to go to Mexico with Gray. A camera at the Mexican border reportedly recorded the license plate of the car Tafoya had been driving.

The FBI has declared Tafoya wanted for child stealing, unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and auto theft.

“Every day is an experience that’s like living in the pits of Hell,” said Francine Black, Chioma’s mother. “And not being able to see her, hold her or touch her is extremely life-changing.”

Black said Chioma did not go willingly, but police disagree.

“This was really her, we felt, her going on her own with somebody she knew, and leaving,” said Ventura Police Sgt. Jack Richards. “Not an abduction or kidnapping.”

Since Chioma has gone missing, her mother has not been interviewed by police or the FBI. In a conversation with an FBI investigator, she was told her daughter was dead.

Chioma was a 4.0 student at the time of her disappearance. She would have graduated high school in a few weeks.

Francine Black is now getting help from former assistant police chief of Oxnard Chuck Hookstra. They established an anonymous tip line. That number is (805) 844-5045. The number is not associated with law enforcement.

[Source]

It’s been more than two years since Franciene Black’s daughter, Chioma Gray, went off to school in Ventura and never returned.

Today is Gray’s 18th birthday, but instead of celebrating, her mother waits for any bit of news about her daughter. Gray was last seen by her family on the morning of Dec. 13, 2007, when her father dropped her off at Buena High School. She never made it to class.

Andrew Joshua Tafoya, then 20, had been released from jail the night before and picked up Gray in his car before she went into the building.

Tafoya, a former football player at St. Bonaventure High School and Ventura College, had served a seven-month sentence for having unlawful sex with a minor, Gray, who was 14 at the time.

Her mother believes her daughter was somehow forced into the car. A security tape shows him pulling up to the school.

“We’re not calling it a kidnapping,” said Ventura Police Sgt. Jack Richards. Police have said they believe Gray voluntarily left with Tafoya.

According to a sworn statement by an FBI agent in the case, at least three of Gray’s friends said Tafoya had maintained contact with her even while he was in jail.

One friend said Gray told her that Tafoya wanted her to run away with him to Mexico, and that Tafoya said “if they got caught, they could kill themselves together.” Another friend feared the teenager had been “brainwashed,” and said she didn’t believe Gray really wanted to run away.

No one in the family, however, was interviewed by the FBI or Ventura police, her mother said.

She said the last bit of firm evidence she has regarding her daughter is from a screening camera at the Mexican border — it caught the license plate of a stolen car Tafoya was driving the day Gray went missing.

“I don’t know where she is,” Black said.

Tafoya is wanted for “child stealing, unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and auto theft,” according to the FBI.

Since Gray disappeared, there has been some tension between the authorities and Black. She has a long list of issues, from not being notified about Tafoya’s release to what she said was a slow reaction by authorities on the day her daughter disappeared.

“A minor’s consent is not a license for an adult, 18 years or over, to engage in abducting or unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor,” Black said. “A girl under the age of 18 has no legal ability to give consent for this type of relationship. I am not concerned of the personal opinions of the Ventura Police Department, nor the FBI. This is the law.”

She worries now that her daughter has become brainwashed and isolated.

Beyond that, Black worries that the back-and-forth with authorities is all just noise getting in the way of finding her daughter. She wants to see her again and hold her, she said recently while sitting in the dining room of her Oxnard home.

Next to her was a heavy file cabinet containing everything she’s assembled in trying to find her daughter. She’s attempted to talk to Tafoya’s former friends and his family. She’s had her share of false leads, and the trail has gone cold.

More than a month ago, she had a chance meeting with Chuck Hookstra, a retired Oxnard assistant police chief who met Black more than 30 years ago. At the time, Black was a dispatcher for the Oxnard Police Department and Hookstra was a beat cop. Today, Hookstra does investigative work for private clients.

As they talked, Black suddenly said to him, “God sent you to me.”

He offered to help, free of charge. “I said I’d do what I could to help her,” Hookstra said.

He and Black are setting up a phone tip line, where anyone with information on Gray or Tafoya can call anonymously.

Meanwhile, Black waits to hear from her daughter. The outgoing message on her answering machine ends with, “I miss you, Chioma, and I love you. I look forward to holding you soon. Love, Mommy.”

Anyone with any information on either Andrew Joshua Tafoya or Chioma Gray is encouraged to call the tip line at 844-5045.

[Source]

It has been over two years since Chioma Gray went missing in December of 2007. She makes 18 years old today. For most, their 18th birthday marks a number of things: the first time they are an “adult”, independency, graduation and transition from high school to college, etc. For Chioma’s mom, it marks another year without her baby.

For more information on Chioma, join her Facebook page [here] or you can check the many posts we made about her case [here].

In honor of her birthday (hat tip to Electronic Village for posting), we will repost the open letter that Chioma’s mom wrote a while ago. I agree with EV that it seems like the right thing to post at this time:

If the only thing you can do at this point is to repost this blog entry or tweet about Chioma – by all means, please do. Chioma has been gone too long and we own it to her mother to at least remember her on this day and pray that she come home. With your help, maybe someone will come forward.