Suspect arrested in student's Miami disappearance
BY MICHAEL WHITE
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
Tuesday, January 15th 2008, 11:46 AM
Stepha Henry, 22, (center) has been missing since May, when she vanished on a trip to Miami to visit relatives.
Stepha Henry, 22, (center) has been missing since May, when she vanished on a trip to Miami to visit relatives.
Detectives arrested a Brooklyn man suspected of killing a woman who vanished last year while visiting relatives in Miami, police said today.
Kendrick Williams, 32, was nabbed this morning after forensic tests of his car linked him to the victim, police said.
NYPD officers and detectives from Miami took Williams into custody about 8 a.m. at the Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn where he had been living out of a car. He was charged with murdering 22-year-old Stepha Henry, an aspiring lawyer who was last seen May 29 at Peppers Cafe Nightclub in Ford Lauderdale.
Henry and her 16-year-old sister had traveled to Florida just before Memorial Day to celebrate her sister’s birthday. They were staying with relatives, who last saw Henry getting into a black sedan driven by a man.
Florida police said Williams drove Henry to the club in an Acura Integra. He had initially told detectives he left the venue without Henry, police said.
Investigators impounded the car last September, and a forensic analysis found substantial evidence linking him to the victim, police said.
The two were believed to have been romantically involved, police said.
Henry, a graduate of Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, had been preparing to take the entrance exams for law school when she vanished, her relatives said.
Her body has not been recovered. Police have not said how she was killed.
Source: NY Daily News
Of course it was buried underneath plenty of other news.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Update: Stepha Henry Case
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Veronica Ruiz - Missing Since Dec. 3, 2007
This is a strange one. Veronica Ruiz, 25 and an IRS agent, has been missing since December 3rd. She went hiking up on Mount Tamalpais in Mill Valley (across the bridge from San Francisco) and hasn't been seen since.
I got an email from Vox telling me about this story, so I'm posting it. Thanks Vox.
Here is a local flier announcing a community search: http://www.audcast.com/findveronicaruiz/
Here are screen shots from that flier (click on the image for a full view):
Here is a conversation about her case on the Yelp Community site:
Please Pray for Veronica Ruiz - Search For Missing Mill Valley Woman
KTVU: Search For Missing Mill Valley Woman Suspended
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tiasha Wingfield and Safiyah Horsford: Missing Since November 3, 2007
Tiasha and Safiyah may be together. They may still be in the local area or they may travel to Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, or Miami, Florida.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Port Saint Lucie Police Department (Florida) 1-772-871-5001
Missing From:
PORT SAINT LUCIE
FL
United States
Tiasha and Safiyah's Missing Kids poster: Tiasha and Safiyah have the same poster.
Tiasha's description:
DOB: Nov 8, 1993
Missing: Nov 3, 2007
Age Now: 14
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Weight: 112 lbs (51 kg)
Safiyah's description:
DOB: Aug 24, 1992
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Gray
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Weight: 129 lbs (59 kg)
Dajah Hunter: Missing Since Novemeber 9, 2007
Both photos shown are of Dajah. She may still be in the local area.
Missing From:
IRVINGTON
NJ
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Irvington Police Department (New Jersey) 1-973-399-6600
Dajah's Missing Kids poster
DOB: Feb 8, 1999
Missing: Nov 9, 2007
Age Now: 8
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'0" (122 cm)
Weight: 75 lbs (34 kg)
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Annita Nicole Herrara and Destiny Zubia: Missing Since October 27, 2007
Annita Nicole Herrara
Anita and Destiny were last seen on October 27, 2007. They may be in the company of an adult female and an adult male. They may travel to Mexico.
Missing From:
COOLIDGE
AZ
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Coolidge Police Department (Arizona) 1-520-723-5311
Their Missing Kid's poster, click here.
Anita's info:
DOB: Jun 11, 1992
Missing: Oct 27, 2007
Age Now: 15
Sex: Female
Race: Hispanic
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 4'9" (145 cm)
Weight: 125 lbs (57 kg)
Destiny's info:
DOB: Nov 25, 2006
Missing: Oct 27, 2007
Age Now: 11 Month(s)
Sex: Female
Race: Hispanic
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 2'0" (61 cm)
Weight: 20 lbs (9 kg)
Monday, November 5, 2007
Mashana Washington: Missing Since October 12, 2007
Mashana was last seen on October 12, 2007 wearing blue jeans and a black shirt. She may still be in the local area.
Missing From:
VIRGINIA BEACH
VA
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children's Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Virginia Beach Police Department Sgt. John Gandy 757-385-8175
Mashana's Missing Kids poster.
DOB: Oct 30, 1992
Age Now: 15
Missing: Oct 12, 2007
Sex: Female
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Race: Black
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Sharita Frazier: Missing Since October 14, 2007
Missing From:
COLONIAL HEIGHTS
VA
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children's Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Colonial Heights Police Department Officer H.S. Whirley III 804-520-9300
Sharita's Missing Kids poster.
DOB: Nov 10, 1990
Age Now: 16
Missing: Oct 14, 2007
Sex: Female
Height: 5'7" (170 cm)
Weight: 172 lbs (78 kg)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Race: Black
Oneika Jones: Missing Since October 12, 2007
Oneika was last seen on October 12, 2007. She may still be in the local area.
Missing From:
VA
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children's Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Caroline County Sheriff's Office Officer P.H. Blasiol 804-633-5400
Oneika's Missing Kids poster.
DOB: May 23, 1991
Age Now: 16
Missing: Oct 21, 2007
Sex: Female
Height: 5'0" (152 cm)
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Race: Black
Sherry Florence: Missing Since October 6, 2007
Missing From:
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY
VA
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children's Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Prince William County Police Department (703) 792-6500
Here is Sherry's Missing Kids poster.
Missing: Oct 6, 2007
DOB: Jan 7, 1991
Age Now: 16
Sex: Female
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Weight: 230 lbs (104 kg)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Repost: Gloria Walker
This is posted over at the CSB: Crime Scene Blog, but I wanted to repost it here.
Gloria Walker has been missing since May 20, 2007. Someone has to know where she is.
-------------------------------
Gloria Walker
Name: Gloria Walker
Date Missing: May 20, 2007
Missing From: Cleveland, Ohio
DOB: 8/12/1960
Age: 46 yrs old
Hair Color: Black
Height: 5’2
Weight: 125 lbs
Eye Color: Brown
Sex: Female
Race: Black
Complexion: Medium
Police/Sheriff: Cleveland Police Dept
Officer/Deputy Name: Det. Chism
Officer’s Phone #: 216/6233333
Officer’s Case #: 200700186890
TES Case #: 07719Gloria Walker, age 46, was last seen on Sunday, May
20, 2007 around 11:30 p.m. in Cleveland, Ohioand has not been seen or
heard from since. Gloria was last seen wearing red jogging pants and
open toe sandals, top unknown. She was last seen driving a 1996 Chevy
Lumina.
Call: 281/3099500
Toll free 877/2709500
Article:
Gloria Walker, 46, disappeared from Cleveland’s eastside three months ago.
Saturday, Walker’s family received a helping hand, from 1,100 miles away.
EquuSearch, the same organization that mobilized thousands of people
in the search for Jessie Davis, the missing, pregnant mother in Stark
County, took on Walker’s case.
More than 80 volunteers waded through shoulder-high grass and
explored vacant homes on Cleveland’s east side. They peeled their way
through vacant homes and raked through heavy brush along the railroad
tracks. They looked for any sign of Gloria Walker.
Richard Johnson saw a missing person’s flier in his neighbor and decided to help out.
“We’re down here looking for shoes, any kind of personal
identification,” Johnson said as he probed 3-foot-tall weeds with a
stick. “You know, it’s time consuming, but it’s fulfilling. I think
everybody should do more to help everybody else.”
Tim Miller, founder of Equusearch mapped out specific areas for
volunteers to look for Walker. Miller said EquuSearch has found 72
people in the more than 700 cases they’ve taken on.
Walker was last seen May 20, driving a car her long-time boyfriend
had been repairing for a relative. Walker’s brother reported her
missing, five days after neighbors last saw her.
That car was found two weeks later in the Harvard/Fleet area of Cleveland, only three miles from her house.
Saturday, volunteers checked potential dump sites in that area. They
found a five-foot long, mound of dirt next to the tracks near Walker’s
home. It was nothing.
“I think Gloria is findable,” Miller said. “I think some new
information came to law enforcement that may lead them in another
direction.”
Greg Washington, who said he fathered a son with Walker, was thankful for Miller’s expertise.
“He’s a godsend,” Washington said. “Every day has been getting up thinking about Gloria. Where is she?”
Even though Saturday’s searchers did not find Walker, Washington said the search encouraged him.
“We’ll keep turning over every stone we can,” Washington said. “I’m
not giving up. I promised her we would always watch each other’s back.”
Video:
Joshua Akeem Bland: Missing Since Sept. 27, 2007
Missing: Sep 27, 2007.
Joshua may still be in the local area. His front tooth is chipped. Joshua's nickname is Josh.
Missing From:
COUNTRY CLUB HILLS
IL
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Country Club Hills Police Department (Illinois) 1-708-798-3191
Joshua's poster
DOB: Feb 20, 1994
Age Now: 13
Weight: 125 lbs (57 kg)
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Hair: Black
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Olivia Maricela Soriano-Almendaris: Missing Since Oct. 2, 2007
Ohio Police Seek Missing Pregnant Mom
Ohio police issued missing person alert Thursday for a pregnant woman who disappeared from a bank on Oct. 2.
Olivia Maricela Soriano-Almendaris, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, is nine months pregnant and vanished on the same day she was due to give birth, according to the release from the Columbus Division of Police.
Soriano-Almendaris is 5-feet, 6-inches tall, weighs 150 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing green pants, a white T-shirt and a gray sweater, police said.
Authorities believe she may have been driving a black 1995 Ford Explorer with Ohio license plate number DZW-7021.
Anyone with information is asked to call the missing persons unit of the department's special victims bureau at 614-645-2358.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Shardae "Mimi" Jenkins: Missing Since Sept. 29, 2007
Mother Seeks Help In Finding Missing 13-Year-Old
CHICAGO -- A North Side mother is asking for the public's help in finding her missing teenager.
Shardae "Mimi" Jenkins, 13, left the home she shares with her mother near Peterson and Western avenues on Saturday night and has not been seen since.
Her mother said that the girl may be with a boyfriend who is known to the mother only as "Outlaw." She described him as a black man between 17 and 21 years old.
Shardae was last seen wearing a white shirt with dollar signs on it and blue jeans. Her mother described her as being 5 feet 4 inches tall and about 104 pounds. She is a light-skinned black girl, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Chicago Police Department's Area 3 Special Victims Unit at 312-744-8266.
Glenda Furch: Last Seen Sept. 28, 2007
PD: Fort Worth Woman's Disappearance Suspicious
Missing Fort Worth Woman's Car Found BurnedThere's new information concerning the search for a Fort Worth grandmother who has been missing for nearly a week.
According to police, Glenda Furch's burned-out car was found in Dallas Thursday morning.
Furch's daughters have been holding vigil at their mother's Fort Worth apartment. The girls said they were hoping their 51-year-old mother would come back safe and sound.
Furch's daughter Shimon is begging the public for help. "We just need to know what happened. So if anybody knows anything we just plead to the community... today it's me, tomorrow it could be you. Just to the community, just to get involved and if you know anything just call the police and let them know."
The women broke down in tears when they learned about the discovery of the vehicle.
Furch has not been seen since she left her job at the General Motors plant in Arlington around midnight on Friday. Police have been looking for her and her 1998 4-door gold/champagne colored Mazda Millenia ever since.
Early Wednesday morning firefighters in southeast Dallas found a car on fire at an abandoned car wash near Hatcher and Military Parkway.
After tracing the cars identification numbers, investigators confirmed Thursday that the vehicle is Furch's.
Investigators with the Fort Worth Police Department say the discovery of the car is a significant development. "That's one less thing that we have to focus efforts on – finding the car," says FWPD Spokesman Lt. Dean Sullivan. "Now we have to find out who's responsible for setting it on fire, determine whether or not there's any involvement."
Fort Worth homicide detectives and crime scene investigators spent part of the day in Dallas looking for evidence in or on Furch's car and checking out the area where it was found.
"Really still, at this point even though we suspect foul play, we haven't concluded exactly that there's any crime that's been committed. Of course worst case scenario, if it does determine that we locate her in peril or some otherwise means of course we'll have to start working on developing suspects," Sullivan said.
Furch's co-workers from the Arlington GM plant are planning a candle light vigil for her on Saturday.
Black Children Missing in Alarming Numbers
This is a news piece from May 2006, but I notice that it's still very much the case. I pull a lot of the missing children from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website.
I notice that the numbers of missing black children is huge. I noticed because you can run searches based on race. I almost always search for the most recent cases, so I run searches for case where the child has been missing for a month or less.
I always get a page full of faces of missing black kids, but from time to time no results for minority children of other races. Of course, I wish for no results at all, but it's profoundly disturbing to see how many kids who look like me go missing on a monthly basis.
Anyway, here is the link to the audio report: Black Children Missing in Alarming Numbers
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.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Ethlin Williams Ruddock: Missing Since Sept. 22, 2007
Brooklyn Woman with Alzheimer's Still Missing
Last Seen in Flatlands
NEW YORK -- An elderly Brooklyn woman with Alzheimer's has been missing from her Brooklyn home for a week. Her family has been handing out photo fliers, hoping someone has seen Ethlin Williams Ruddock, 78.
Police said she was last seen Saturday, September 22, at 5:30 p.m. on East 46th Street in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn.
She was wearing a floral-print shirt, beige skirt, black sandals, a black Coach purse, and a gold wedding band inscribed with "To Ethlin Love Alvin." She is of African-Caribbean descent and has black eyes, a dark complexion, and thin salt-and-pepper hair.
Ruddock is enrolled in the Alzheimer's Association Safe Return program. Her identification number is 232665, but she is not wearing any of her identification products.
Anyone with information can call the Alzheimer's Association Safe Return program at 800-572-1122 or the Crime Stoppers hot line at 800-577-TIPS (8477).
Courtney Raven Morgan: Missing Since Sept. 2, 2007
Missing From:
HALIFAX COUNTY
VA
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children's Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Halifax County Sheriff's Office Deputy Burton (434) 476-3334
Courtney's Missing Kids poster.
DOB: Dec 18, 1993
Age Now: 13
Missing: Sep 2, 2007
Sex: Female
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Eyes: Black
Hair: Black
Race: Black
Thursday, September 27, 2007
JOSIAH DAWSON: Missing Since Sept. 24, 2007
Josiah was last seen on September 24, 2007 wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and white Nike sneakers. He may have a backpack with the Harley Davidson logo. Josiah may be in the company of an adult female. He may be in need of medical attention.
Missing From:
Newark, NJ, USA
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACTNational Center for Missing & Exploited Children1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)Newark Police Department (New Jersey) 1-973-733-6000
Link to Josiah's Missing Kids poster
DOB: Mar 24, 2006
Missing: Sep 24, 2007
Sex: Male
Height: 2'0" (61 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Race: Black
Age Now: 1
Weight: 26 lbs (12 kg)
Simone Baldwin: Missing Since Sept. 8, 2007
Simone was last seen on September 8, 2007 wearing a red t-shirt and yellow shorts with red strawberries on them. She has pierced ears and wears glasses. She may be in the company of a Hispanic male named Carlos. She may still be in the local area.
Missing From:
RICHMOND
VA
United States
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children's Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Henrico County Police Department Officer Nance (804) 501-5000
Link to Simone's poster.
DOB: Nov 1, 1992
Missing: Sep 8, 2007
Age Now: 14
Height: 5'1" (155 cm)
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Sex: Female
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
