Have you heard of her? I don’t blame you. The news stations in California apparently never heard of her either because I don’t see one, not one article on this missing young lady and she has been missing for over a month.
For those of you who don’t know, Chioma Gray is a 15 year old black female who went missing from Ventura, California on December 13, 2007. She was abducted by Andrew Tafoya. He was issued a felony warrant for kidnapping the next day.
Below are pictures of Chioma and Andrew:
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And guess what? Not only is there no news on Chioma, but the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website messed up her poster several times. The first time, they released an updated poster on Chioma without a picture of her abductor. They also misspelled the city she went missing from.(The city was spelled “Vetura” instead of “Ventura”) Then on Tuesday (Jan 22), they updated the poster again. They added the abductor picture back but changed his relationship to her. He is now a companion instead of abductor even though the poster states that there’s still a felony warrant out for his arrest. And they still didn’t spell the city name right! Yup, confusing I know. So what’s really going on here? No news on Chioma, no Amber Alert issued and now her kidnapper is her friend?! Google news search: |
I’ve sent out some emails to the local news stations regarding this issue but still haven’t received an answer. I’m sending out more emails after this post. This is very disappointing.
Hello, I just caught your post this afternoon over at WOAD and was just sickened. I live in California and had no idea this sista.
I am going to remedy that and put it on a post on my site Universal Blackness along with a link to your post.
I commend you and the work that you are doing and I will do all that I can to help you. God Bless.
I’m going to add a link to your site from mine, Plus i’ll pick up a few of these missing people. I’m from Chicago where the problem with covering missing children of color is horribly embarassing. the suburban kids get all the coverage.
I’m so P*SSED! Two starcrossed young teen lovers ran away from home, and I’ll be DOGGONE IF THE MEDIA DIDN’T STOP THE PRESSES UNTIL THOSE BAY-BAYS WERE RETURNED HOME!!
And the beauty of it all? Inside Edition-YES THE TABLOID TV SHOW…was there to document the madness with the children’s parents.
check it out:
Only non-black missing people will get coverage
Just so you know, I am a white woman with 4 bi-racial children, but I too am disgusted that black children and women don’t get the attention they deserve. I have a section on my myspace page and my website dedicated to missing African-Americam women/children/men. Please keep posting about these beautiful forgotten girls.
Race has nothing to do w/ NCMEC messing up her poster several times, and trust me, I noticed the mess ups. But I have seen this w/ more than one poster. Six hispanic siblings from FL’s poster was messed up just as many time as her’s, I noticed that one too. The people at NCMEC are human and they make mistakes. I have tried looking for more info about Chioma, and could not find anything. I run a missing site on myspace and I have her on it. I am white and 16, and I hate to think whether or not race plays a role in how much media attention a missing child gets. I believe ALL missing children should get equal media attention, no matter what race, age, gender, medical status, and etc they are. Maybr there should be a magazine dedicated to missing children and telling their stories. I hope the Chioma is found safe very soon. And if I offended anyone, then I’m sry, that was the last thing I wanted to do! Good Luck!!
~Lizzie
I was curious if there had been any resolution to this case and did a search and found FBI and America’s Most Wanted links (below)
It sounds like he was her boyfriend and they were in contact by phone up until the time he took her from her school, so although she is underage and obviously at risk, I dont know we can say a 16 yr old girl is TOTALLY incapable of making a decision to willingly go with someone she considered her BF, he wasnt a stranger.
And in CA we have the age of consent law of the minor being 18 OR over 13 and less than 5 years younger than the adult, so at 15 or 16 (Chioma) and 20 (the guy) he is not in violation of statutory rape laws
I hope things turn out ok for her and she is safe but I would guess she is with him willingly
(sorry I couldnt get it to take as a link)
http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=53332
I don’t think that it matters if she went with him willingly or unwillingly…She is a child and she missing. Point, blank, period. Attention should be paid no matter what the circumstance is surrounding it. People may try to delude themselves, but race does play a part in how stories are covered…Or even if they are covered at all. This is a prime example. Not saying that it happens each and every time, but it does happen, and we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to it. For example…I live in NJ. I am more likely to hear a story within a hour of a young blonde hair blue eyed girl going missing in California, then a young black girl going missing right across the bridge in Philly. This is a reality and if we don’t open our eyes and speak up about it, then it will never change.