Crusade to find missing Nailah made us care

An interesting article by Mary Mitchell at the Chicago Sun-Times discussing how the crusade to find Nailah was different from other cases of missing black women.

Crusade to find missing Nailah made us care
Black families push to get coverage of disappearances

October 2, 2007
BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist

The relatives of Nailah Franklin are living a family's worst nightmare. Last Friday, an unclothed body that was discovered in the Calumet Woods was identified as the 28-year-old Franklin. With her fashion model looks, Franklin has been described as the "star" of her close-knit family.

Franklin was reported missing Sept. 19.

Like most parents, I worry about my adult daughters because, unfortunately, there is too much mayhem in the world. I don't think my family is much different from a lot of others.

And while every missing person is neither pretty or even lovable, if someone we love goes missing, we want police to turn over every stone. We want our friends and our neighbors to fan out across the city and join in the search. We want that person's face plastered on national news programs as well as in the local papers.
She was not seen in the same light

Yet, too often when young black women disappear, none of those things happen without the family waging a crusade.

These relatives have to scuffle to get alerts posted, and when the police department distributes the alert, it is still a fight to get the notice in a newspaper.

Franklin's disappearance didn't follow that pattern for several reasons.

First, she was a very attractive black woman who came from a middle-class background.

As such, her disappearance didn't get typecast as a throwaway. Franklin wasn't seen in the same light as the troubled black women who walked the streets in neighborhoods like Roseland and Englewood and ended up being found dead in abandoned buildings without anyone knowing they were missing.

Neither was Franklin's disappearance viewed in the same way as law enforcement views the average teenage runaway. Although many of the parents and guardians of these young people do their best to get media attention, their pleas are routinely ignored. And while police will pick up runaways if they happen to bump into them, they don't make it a priority to locate teens who bolt from their homes.

Franklin's relatives and friends made sure her plight was not ignored. Her sister, Lehia Franklin Acox, used her media contacts to ensure that photographs of her missing sister were widely circulated. For consecutive days, Nailah's beautiful smile graced the front pages, while updates of the search aired regularly on national news programs.

This is a significant change from just four years ago.

When Nancie Walker, a Chicago businesswoman, disappeared in 2003, her family and friends had to pressure the Chicago Police Department to investigate the disappearance as a possible abduction even though Walker was not known to take off without letting anyone know of her whereabouts.

Three months after vanishing, Walker's dismembered body was found in plastic bags. No one has been charged with that crime.

The way Nailah Franklin's disappearance was handled -- not just by the police but by the media -- shows that black families now are more aggressive about getting the media's help.

Because of the Franklin family's efforts, I saw the face of Nailah Franklin so often, I began to feel as if I knew her. And just as the faces of two other missing persons -- Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway -- were etched into our consciousness through media exposure, by the time Franklin's body was found 10 days after she disappeared, many of us were genuinely moved by the tragedy.

It is a tragedy, but also a blessing that Franklin has been humanized in a way that so many missing black women have not been.
Case can't be dismissed

From her sisters, we learned that Franklin was someone who brought incredible joy to their lives. From her employers, we learned that the young professional was so well-respected in the workplace that her unscheduled absence was cause for alarm.

During days of waiting, we learned that Franklin had a spiritual family, that she had career goals and that she was a real role model for her younger relatives.

Nailah Franklin's family made sure there would be no presumptions. People who loved Franklin made sure that her disappearance wouldn't be dismissed as just another act of random violence.

No missing person should get less than that.

Read More...

Summary only...

Nailah Franklin's Body Found

Update 1 (Sept. 30, 2007 @ 9:38am KST)

There were some people who didn't believe the body was Nailah's. However, authorities have confirmed that it's her body with medical records.

Here is the article: Police identify body of missing Chicago woman
______________________________________________

Horrible news - Nailan Franklin's body has been found according to a report from the Associated Press.

I'm posting the article here, but as I mentioned in the original post on Nailah, the Crime US blog is posting regular updates on this case.

Uncle: Missing drug rep's body found

Story Highlights

• NEW: Uncle of Nailah Franklin says her body was found
• Police haven't identified body found in Illinois forest preserve
• Franklin was reported missing September 19 after missing a meeting
• Her car was found in Hammond, Indiana, near abandoned building
  

CALUMET CITY, Illinois (AP) -- A drug sales representative who disappeared last week was found dead near a forest preserve, not far from where her car was abandoned, her uncle said Thursday.

Calumet City Police Chief Russell Larson confirmed only that an unidentified woman's body had been found in the area Thursday morning.

But Nailah Franklin's uncle Jon Merrill and family friend Andrew Holms said authorities had told the family the body is that of Merrill's 28-year-old niece.

Franklin, a pharmaceutical sales representative for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, was reported missing September 19 after she missed a meeting at work. Her car was discovered in Hammond, Indiana, on Friday night near an abandoned building.

Franklin had filed a police report shortly before her disappearance about getting threatening phone calls from a man she had dated briefly.

Chicago police said Monday they had interviewed someone Franklin once dated but have not named a suspect in her disappearance.

Since her disappearance, family members and volunteers have papered the area with fliers and taken out a newspaper ad seeking the public's help.

They have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts.

Read More...

Summary only...

Nailah Franklin: Missing Since Sept. 18, 2007

Nailah Franklin is 5′2″ and weighs about 115 lbs.

Please call the police at (312) 746-9259 if you have any information about the case.

For more info about the case check the Crimeblog USA which is updating its post on Nailah regularly: Missing Person from Chicago: Nailah Franklin

The latest news as I'm typing this is that her vehicle was found in Indiana, but she's still missing.
Here is an article from CBS News in Chicago.

Family Fears Missing Woman Was Harmed

Friend Says Nailah Franklin Disappeared After Threatening Message From Ex-Boyfriend


(CBS) CHICAGO A massive effort is underway to find a missing woman who disappeared apparently without a trace. Nailah Franklin's family and friends, along with police, are scrambling to get the word out.

As CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports, the Little Gym in University Village served Friday as the gathering point for Franklin's family and friends. There was a continuous flow of well wishers stopping by, picking up fliers that they're passing out in the community. Both the police and Franklin's family say they're not giving up hope she'll be found.

Family and friends spent Friday afternoon passing out fliers near Franklin's University Village condominium.

"We just want to get as much information possible out about Nailah and to be able to talk and keep the momentum in the streets," said Franklin's friend Lavelle Smith.

The 28-year-old Eli Lilly pharmaceutical representative was last seen on September 18. Her family says she is always in constant contact, especially by text message. The last message she sent was that night, saying she was at dinner and would call later. No one has heard from her since.

"She is very bright, smart, educated, a beautiful black woman," said Franklin's uncle Dwayne Johnson.

At a news conference on Friday afternoon, police said they are tracing phone calls as well as personal and business credt card records. They're also going over video from a surveillance camera outside her condo.

"I'd just like to find her," said Sgt. Virginia Zic-Schlomas of the Area 4 Special Victims Unit.

Police are talking with several people Franklin has had relationships with. Sources say one of them has a history of making threats to other women. A week before she vanished Franklin had filed a report with police about a man she had dated, claiming he was threatening her by phone.

"She had already had contact with a detective of our agency, who was in constant contact with her giving her advice," Zic-Schlomas said.

Among the advice was to file a restraining order against the man.

Franklin's friend Dana McClellan said the message contained the following: "Basically 'I could do harm to you. You haven't seen that side, of me but I do have a bad side and I could do harm to you.'"

Franklin's sister went to the Harrison Area police headquarters Friday morning to talk to detectives about the case. She said detectives called her and asked her to come in.

Police say they still have confidence Franklin will be found.

"I'm still hoping there's a positive outcome in the results of all this," Zic-Schlomas said.

Two computers are also missing from Franklin's home: a personal laptop and one she used for her work with Eli Lilly.

Franklin is 5-feet 2-inches, 115 pounds, with brown eyes and brown hair.

Her company car, a 2005 four-door, black Chevy Impala, has also vanished. It has Illinois license plate number of 1957855.

Eli Lilly is also involved in the investigation since one of their employees, and a company computer, is missing.

"This is someone who just had everything to live for; she was at the top of her game professionally; she bought two condos on her own as a single woman; she dotes on her niece, my daughter; she's just a person who is very connected with the people she cares about," Franklin's sister said. "This is so out of character."

If you have any information about the case, police ask that you call (312) 746-9259.

Read More...

Summary only...