Black and Missing but Not Forgotten

When former Chief Deputy Ronnie Barnes arrived at 36 Doc Bass Lane on the afternoon of March 1, 2006, he thought he was answering a call about a missing child.

He had no way of knowing that less than an hour after he arrived he would find the body of 7-year-old Jamaya Griffith stuffed in the closet of a neighbor’s home.

“When I arrived on Doc Bass Lane, I spoke with Ms. Mary Knight and she told me her granddaughter was missing,” said Barnes, now a Jefferson Davis County Justice Court judge, during the capital murder trial of Johnny Ray Sims on Tuesday.

Knight said she had seen Sims on the property earlier that day.

Barnes said he then drove up the road looking for Jamaya until Jefferson Davis County Sheriff Henry McCullum called and said he had secured permission to search Sims’ home.

Sims, 40, who has a Sumrall address in Jefferson Davis County, is accused of killing Jamaya of Hattiesburg.

His trial started Monday in Jefferson Davis County Circuit Court.

Jamaya, a Lillie Burney Elementary School student, was visiting her great-grandmother when she disappeared after she went outside to ride her bicycle.

During a search of Sims’ home, Barnes said he smelled gasoline. He discovered a lawn mower in a bedroom. The lawn mower was turned on its side and slightly leaking gasoline onto a blanket, Barnes said.

Barnes said he lifted the lawn mower off the blanket and found a bicycle matching the description of the one Jamaya was last seen on.

Barnes said, after he confirmed that the bike was indeed Jamaya’s, he went back into the bedroom to continue his search.

Barnes said he looked into the bedroom closet and saw a pile of clothes that came up almost to his waist. Barnes said he began slowly pulling the clothing out until he felt something.

“At that time I didn’t know what it was… it felt warm,” Barnes said. “I said, ‘Lord, don’t let this girl be in this closet,’ and when I pulled it back I found Jamaya.”

Barnes said Jamaya was wearing a only a shirt and socks, and he saw what he thought were stab wounds.

Barnes said he then contacted an agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations.

“At the time, I was distraught and I couldn’t say much to him,” Barnes said. “I just said I need you.”

Barnes said he then helped rope off the scene and waited until MBI agents arrived.

Barnes was the prosecution’s first witness in the trial. McCullum took the stand after Barnes.

McCullum said when he spoke with Jamaya’s great-grandmother she said the last time she had seen Jamaya was when the child was in her yard playing on her bike.

McCullum said he secured permission from Sims to search Sims’ residence. McCullum said he looked into Sims’ home.

“I didn’t touch anything, I just went around and looked,” McCullum said.

McCullum said he then went outside Sims’ residence and asked Sims to sit in his patrol car because of the amount of tension at the scene.

“There were a lot of people upset about this child missing,” McCullum said. “I sensed he needed to be put in the car for his protection.”

After Jamaya’s bike was found in Sims’ home, Sims was then placed in custody and taken to the Jefferson County sheriff’s department.

Sims’ defense attorney, Deborah Gambrell, asked both Barnes and McCullum if they were certain the crime scene was secured because of the number of people involved in the initial search for Jamaya.

Barnes said he was aware that before law enforcement officers were called, some of Jamaya’s family members had searched Sims’ house. Barnes said he did not know the total number of people who had been in the house.

Gambrell asked McCullum if the crime scene could have been corrupted.

“Could have been,” McCullum replied.

McCullum then asserted the crime scene was sealed off.

David Oubre, a former MBI special agent, said the residence was encircled with crime scene tape when he arrived. Oubre said he never made entry into the home until a search warrant was secured.

Oubre said the day after the murder he received a packet containing a sexual assault kit from the nurse who collected the specimens from Sims. Oubre said the sexual assault kit was signed over to the state crime lab.

Oubre also was responsible for getting a full set of fingerprints from Sims, including palm prints.

After the court returned from a lunch recess, former MBI crime scene analyst Marcos Rogers took the stand.

Rogers said he and his partner, Grant Graham, were responsible for collecting and photographing the evidence at the scene.

Fifteenth Circuit Court District Attorney Hal Kittrell showed Rogers several photos, and Rogers said he took all of the photos associated with the case.

Kittrell showed photos of Jamaya’s bicycle in Sims’ home and then moved on to photos of a small laundry room. A maroon-colored, rolled-up carpet was shown in the corner of the laundry room. Rogers identified a shoe in the photo and said it was a Timberland tennis shoe, youth size 1.5.

Kittrell then showed a photo of the carpet – this time it was unrolled.

Rogers identified what he said was a pair of children’s size 6 Gap jeans and a knife on the unrolled carpet. Rogers said reddish stains had been found on the knife.

Kittrell also asked Rogers about a photo shot under a bed. Rogers identified the mate of the other Timberland shoe.

The next set of photos showed a mattress stained with a red substance and blood spatter on the wall behind the mattress. Rogers said the mattress was originally turned so the blood was hidden.

Kittrell then began showing Rogers several photos taken within the closet where Jamaya was found.

At that point, several of Jamaya’s family members left the courtroom with tears on their faces.

Several photos of Jamaya and the surrounding scene were shown to the jury while Kittrell asked Rogers about what was being shown.

Rogers said the photos showed that the victim was naked from the waist down and that there was trauma to the vaginal and rectal areas. Rogers then said two pubic-type hairs were found in the vaginal area of the victim.

An initial attempt to try Sims in August ended when a mistrial was declared during jury selection. It was discovered that more than 100 potential jurors had been given information about the case.

Judge Prentiss Harrell, who also presided over the first trial, said the information – which was never made public – may have prevented an impartial verdict.

Although Sims is charged with capital murder, the prosecution is not seeking the death penalty if a conviction is found.

“That would leave, if upon conviction, a life sentence without parole,” Kittrell said.

The trial is expected to continue this morning with the prosecution’s witnesses.

[Source]

Police are searching for a University of Massachusetts in Amherst sprinter who was reported missing Monday.

Police said they had located Ian Hackney’s car in the town’s Weekapaug area, but a ground search by the state environmental police failed to find the missing 21-year-old.

Hackney was last seen wearing a black-and-white checkered hooded jacket, blue jeans and Timberland boots. He is 6’2 and weighs about 170 pounds.

Police asked that anyone with information about Hackney to call their headquarters at 1-401-596-2022.

[Source]

Friends said Hackney is suffering from depression and may be suicidal.

U of Mass Amherst is a nationally ranked public research university…a top notch school to say the least  – they are ranked 106th for Best Colleges and Universities in the US News and World Report  for 2010- where’s the news?

Monica Renee Bowie is still missing, but we won’t forget her on her birthday. Will you help us celebrate it? Join her facebook page here and share your thoughts and prayers with us!

Police are investigating after a 5-month-old boy was taken from the Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side to Indiana by his father Saturday night.

Police are investigating after a 5-month-old boy was taken from the Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side to Indiana by his father Saturday night.

At 9:15 p.m. Saturday, the child was with his maternal grandfather at the man’s residence in the 7300 block of North Honore Street, where the baby’s father dropped him off, according to Rogers Park District police Capt. Robert Whalen, who was citing preliminary information.

The biological father returned and told the older man he wanted to take the baby back.

“A scuffle ensued and the father took the baby,’’ Whalen said.

The baby’s 18-year-old mother is in a correctional facility and the father lives in Indiana, which is where authorities believe he took the baby, according to the captain.

As of 6 a.m. Monday, the child remained missing, but Whalen said there was nothing to indicate the child was in danger.

An Amber alert was not issued, likely meaning the child was not at risk of being harmed, said Illinois State Police District Chicago Master Sgt. Anthony Hoop. He said the baby’s father lives in Washington, Ind., and the baby is described as being a male black weighing 17 pounds.

The Belmont Area Special Victims Unit is investigating.

[Source]

No pic, no clear description, no amber alert. Not much help, but hopefully someone knows something.

Investigators say it could take a week to identify skeletal remains found Saturday in an Edgecombe County area where the bodies of other Rocky Mount women were discovered.

Ryan Page said he discovered the human remains around 1:23 p.m. off Seven Bridges Rood, between Battleboro and Whitakers.

“A few of the bones were lying around here,” Page said Sunday while revisiting the area. “It was kind of crazy seeing something like that out here.”

Within a 10-mile radius of that same area, the bodies of Taraha Nicholson, 29, Jarneice Hargrove, 31, Jackie Thorpe, 35, Ernestine Battle, 50, and Melody Wiggins, 29, were found over the past four years.

“It was a nice area out here, and it’s kind of been ruined by all the bodies being dumped out here,” Ryan said.

Each slain woman was black, reported missing and had a history of drug use or prostitution. Family members and friends have said that many knew each other.

A special task force of local, state and federal authorities has been investigating the deaths, as well as the discovery of Christine Boone’s body. The 43-year-old woman was found this month about 20 miles away in Scotland Neck.

Two other women, Yolanda Lancaster and Joyce Durham, are also missing from the area.

The missing women’s families were notified Saturday about the discovery of the remains.

“The first thing that hit my mind was Lord, please don’t let it be my baby,” said Juray Tucker, Lancaster’s mother.

Lancaster has been missing since February 2009. Authorities said both missing women have similar profiles as the other Rocky Mount women and that they are considering a possible connection.

Page said he also found a bracelet beside the human remains Saturday. Tucker said investigators had her look at the bracelet, but she didn’t recognize it.

She said she hopes the remains found Saturday do not belong to her daughter.

“That she’s still alive. I keep that hope. I won’t lose that hope,” Tucker said.

Authorities have charged Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, with first-degree murder in Nicholson’s death. But they have been relatively quiet about whether he might be suspected in any of the other deaths.

Records show Pittman also once lived near a wooded area off Seven Bridges Road where remains of three of the slain women were found.

A North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper also arrested Pittman for driving while impaired and driving with a revoked license after finding him along Seven Bridges Road on April 25, 2009 – that same day family members last reported seeing Hargrove, according to the warrant.

Hargrove’s remains were found on June 29, 2009, about 200 yards from where the trooper said Pittman was parked.

Thorpe’s remains were found Aug. 17, 2007, in the same area along Seven Bridges Road. She had been reported missing in May 2007.

Battle’s remains were found in the same area on March 14, 2008. She had been missing since February 2008.

Anyone with information about the slain women or the human remains found Saturday is asked to call the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office at 252-641-7911 or Rocky Mount Crime Stoppers at 252-977-1111.

A man already charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Rocky Mount woman is also believed to be involved in the deaths of four other Rocky Mount women, according to a search warrant obtained by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation on Friday.

The warrant, obtained for the search of Pittman’s former residence at 98 Nasturtium Lane in Scotland Neck, states that probable cause exists to believe Pittman was involved in the deaths of Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, Ernestine Battle, Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, Taraha Shenice Nicholson and Christine Marie Boone.

Pittman was charged in September in Nicholson’s death. Her remains were found on March 7, 2009, on Marriott Road in Edgecombe County, two weeks after the 29-year-old was reported missing.

DNA found on Nicholson’s body matched that of Pittman, according to the search warrant.

Pittman was also linked to a wooded area off Seven Bridges Road, near Rocky Mount, where Hargrove’s remains were found on June 29, 2009.

Family members reported last seeing Hargrove on April 25, 2009. That morning, North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper J.J. Scott responded to an accident in a ditch along Seven Bridges Road, according to the warrant.

At the scene, Scott found Pittman asleep in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, about 200 yards from where Hargrove’s body was eventually found. Dirt was on his boots and his pants were unzipped.

Thorpe’s remains were found Aug. 17, 2007, in the same area along a Seven Bridges Road, between Battleboro and Whitakers in Edgecombe County. She had been reported missing in May 2007.

Battle’s remains were found in the same area on March 14, 2008. She had been missing since February 2008.

Pittman grew up in the area and worked on a farm near the vicinity of where the bodies were found in Edgecombe County, according to the search warrant.

Boone’s remains were found March 5 in a wooded area behind Pittman’s former residence, 98 Nasturtium Lane in Scotland Neck.

Halifax County Sheriff’s deputies have been assisting in the search of 18-year-old Jalesa Reynolds, who went missing from the local library on Feb. 22. It appears a deputy involved in that search found Boone’s remains. Authorities would not comment on the investigation.

Authorities investigating the Boone’s death executed a search warrant at a mobile home located at 98 Nasturtium Lane on Friday.

According to the search warrant, authorities believe Boone might have been killed at the vacant mobile. DNA testing was done at the home, according to the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office.

In a news release Friday afternoon, Rocky Mount police Chief John Manley said the skeletal remains of Christine Marie Boone, 43, were found March 5 in a wooded area behind the former residence of Antwan Maurice Pittman.

Pittman was charged in September with first-degree murder in the death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, another Rocky Mount woman who is among six found dead in Edgecombe County over the past several years.

Boone was one of three missing women who fit a similar profile of those six – each was black, had a history of drug use, prostitution or both, and family members and friends said many knew each other.

A special task force of local, state and federal authorities is looking for possible links among the cases. The last time authorities spoke of the investigation was in September, when they charged Pittman in Nicholson’s death.

A family member reported Boone missing to Rocky Mount police on Jan. 16, 2007 and was last seen Aug. 25, 2006.

Rocky Mount police said her remains were found in a wooded area behind 98 Nasturtium Lane in Scotland Neck, the residence they say Pittman lived in 2006. A vacant mobile home currently sits on the property.

“We want the public to know that while this case is complex and ongoing, law enforcement is working diligently to resolve this matter,” Manley said.

It is unclear, still, how Boone died.

“My sister was a very loving and caring person who got caught up with the wrong crowd,” Boone’s sister, Minnie Jones, of Knightdale, said Friday afternoon.

Boone leaves behind three children and seven grandchildren.

[Source]

The victim was discovered on September 30, 1968 in Los Angeles County, California

• Estimated age: Over 25 years old
• Approximate Height and Weight: 5’3″; 110 lbs.
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Black hair; brown eyes.
• Clothing: Unknown color pullover shirt, unknown color pants, black shoes, black socks.
• Dentals: Did not have her wisdom teeth, but also had no dental fillings.

The victim was located on September 30, 1968, at approx. 7:05 am, behind a residence located at 2356 West 31st Street in L.A.
Possible drug overdose, may have died at another location & left been left at the site.
Had been seen at Jefferson & Arlington in L.A., but her ID was not known.
If you have any information about this case please contact:
Los Angeles Coroner
Investigator Daniel Machian
323-343-0754
323-222-0343
Email

You may remain anonymous when submitting information.Agency Case Number:
1968-09865

[Source]

Missing since August 20, 1975 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Classification: Endangered Missing 

• Age at Time of Disappearance: 1 year old
• Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 3’0″ (91 cm); 30 lbs. (14 kg)
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Black male. Black hair; brown eyes.

Dontray was last seen playing outside of his home on August 20, 1975.  

 [Source] 

I wish I could give more information, but this is all we know Taken straight From the Doe Network website. 

There have been no other missing children in Newburgh in recent months, Newburgh City Police Chief Eric Paolilli Thursday afternoon said it is likely the body found in a wooded area Wednesday is that of Marc Bookal, the 4-year-old who went missing in early December of last year.

An autopsy was continuing Thursday afternoon, but the chief said all they can confirm is that the body was that of a young boy.

DNA tests will be needed to confirm the identity, and that can take a month, or more.

“We have in our own minds come to the reality that since we do not have any other reports of any other missing children in the city or, in fact, in any kind of proximity that would lend credibility that this might be anybody else, that we have come to that conclusion; however, we cannot confirm that. That is not a certainty,” the chief said.

Details of the investigation, including how long the body was in the woods and cause of death, have not been disclosed.

The body was found in a vinyl book-type bag by a State Police cadaver dog in an area the police had extensively searched during the intensive investigation for weeks after Marc disappeared. The chief said it appeared to the investigating officers that the body was “purposely secreted there.”

Paolilli said Corey Byrd, the boyfriend of Marc’s mother, is a “person of interest.” He said “logic dictates” the investigation is going to lead to Byrd, the last person to see Marc alive.

Byrd, who still won’t talk to authorities, remains in the Orange County Jail on a parole violation.

There have been no other missing children in Newburgh in recent months, Newburgh City Police Chief Eric Paolilli Thursday afternoon said it is likely the body found in a wooded area Wednesday is that of Marc Bookal, the 4-year-old who went missing in early December of last year.

An autopsy was continuing Thursday afternoon, but the chief said all they can confirm is that the body was that of a young boy.

DNA tests will be needed to confirm the identity, and that can take a month, or more.

“We have in our own minds come to the reality that since we do not have any other reports of any other missing children in the city or, in fact, in any kind of proximity that would lend credibility that this might be anybody else, that we have come to that conclusion; however, we cannot confirm that. That is not a certainty,” the chief said.

Details of the investigation, including how long the body was in the woods and cause of death, have not been disclosed.

The body was found in a vinyl book-type bag by a State Police cadaver dog in an area the police had extensively searched during the intensive investigation for weeks after Marc disappeared. The chief said it appeared to the investigating officers that the body was “purposely secreted there.”

Paolilli said Corey Byrd, the boyfriend of Marc’s mother, is a “person of interest.” He said “logic dictates” the investigation is going to lead to Byrd, the last person to see Marc alive.

Byrd, who still won’t talk to authorities, remains in the Orange County Jail on a parole violation.

[Source]

Are you kidding me?? No other missing persons in Newburgh in months and it’ll take a month to ID this boy despite SEVERAL news reports already out there that it is him? What the heck? I feel so bad for this boy’s family. This same thing happened with Cassandra Morton – only person missing in her town, yet when a body was found – nobody thought it was her.

Police have identified the woman whose headless, hand-less body was found Monday afternoon in west Atlanta.

Linda Symantha Myrick, 44, is said to be the woman found in a vacant lot on Elm Street and Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, police said.

Atlanta Police Maj. Keith Meadows said investigators with the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office were able to identify Myrick from medical records.

The medical examiner’s Web site described the body as weighing about 110 pounds with surgical scarring on her left ankle and evidence on her left leg of  “surgical placement of plates and screws.”

Myrick, whom police said lived in DeKalb County, wasn’t listed in Atlanta police missing person’s database.

Investigators aren’t sure what happened in the moments leading up to her death, but Meadows said detectives are placing her final hours sometime between late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

“We have not been able to retrace her steps,” he said.

Police said there were no other initial signs of injury or sexual assault, but the full autopsy report from the medical examiner’s office is still pending.

Meadows said Myrick is believed to be a mother of three adult-aged children, and was known to frequent a notorious section of Moreland Avenue and Memorial Drive in DeKalb County. Police are canvassing the area and talking with Myrick’s family.

“We are seeking to question some of Ms. Myrick’s known associates,” Meadows said. “At this point we have not developed or eliminated one particular person as a suspect.”

Authorities said Myrick has had some minor criminal activity in her past, including a Fulton County probation violation arrest in February 2009 for a previous criminal trespassing charge.

Investigators spent Tuesday canvassing the west Atlanta neighborhood, bordered by Vine City and the Bluffs, where Myrick’s body was discovered.

Residents say crime has always been a fact of life along that section of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, and even Monday’s gruesome discovery was not unprecedented.

“We’ve had these kind of murders over here before,” said Gwendolyn Grady, 48. She said that over the last two decades two other dismembered female bodies were found within this same area. Other residents repeated Grady’s claim.

“There isn’t much going on here at night,” said 60-year-old Johnny Searcy. “And with all the abandoned houses, I guess this has become a simple place to dump a body.”

The woman’s body was found wrapped in a comforter by a passer-by amid a thicket of weeds and discarded soda bottles. Neighbors say the vacant lot has been used as a dumping ground before.

“I see people go up there to relieve themselves every now and then,” said Ron White, 51, who works across the street at Wingo’s Body Shop. He recalled the discovery of a body years earlier on this same corner.

“It was right at Elm and Jones,” Grady said. “I was working on a demolition crew. Found this woman cut up in a freezer.”

Longtime resident Jerry Clayton, 41, said crime has gotten worse, though not everyone agrees.

“Go down to James P. Brawley,” he said, pointing to an intersection a couple of blocks west of Elm and Jones. “Every other weekend you’ll see a new teddy bear on the corner.”

The bears are left behind by relatives and friends mourning the loss of a loved one, he said.

But even here, where most everyone has been touched by crime in some way or another, Myrick’s murder has people talking.

“There’s nothing you could do to deserve what happened to her,” Searcy said.

Police are asking anyone with information about Myrick’s murder to call Atlanta Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.

[Source]

Police are looking for a man who has not been seen or heard from since November 2009.

Sean M. McCracken, 24, was last seen in the 1100 block of LaSalle Avenue. At this time, the circumstances surrounding his disappearance are unknown. It is possible that foul play might be involved, police said.

McCracken is black, 5-foot-8, and 148 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about McCracken’s whereabouts are asked to call Hampton Police at 727-6111.

[Source]

Note: This was also the same block where the Hampton’s first homicide of 2010 was located. Maybe something to look into?