MISSING IN WISCONSIN (and found in Mexico 9 years later)

The story of a teenager mysteriously missing in Wisconsin for almost a decade, but resurfacing this week alive and well in Mexico, gives many families with similar cases cause for hope:

Connie McCallister was 16 when she disappeared in 2004. Now 25, she told police she'd been drugged at a party by an abusive boyfriend who then whisked her away to Mexico against her will.

That relationship soon ended, leaving the girl stranded in an impoverished area of a foreign country she was unfamiliar with, but eventually McCallister adapted to the new situation, marrying and having kids of her own.

This year, grown and yearning to finally return home, she made contact with the American authorities who'd been searching for her on and off since she disappeared and explained what had happened.

The wife and mother of three is currently in the process of being reunited with a relieved and overjoyed family in the U.S. and arranging for her Mexican husband to also join her here.

Statistically, the chances of someone going missing in Wisconsin -- or anywhere -- and showing up nine years later alive are quite slim. So Connie McCallister's surprising tale of survival today has renewed the dashed hopes of many who've long been searching for their lost loved ones in vain.

The Killing Killers news site aids those searching for the missing: Read next about the hunt for missing teen Abigail Hernandez who just disappeared from New Hampshire on October 9th 2013, and follow the still unsolved case of Jessica Heeringa, 26 of Michigan, who was abducted from her workplace this past spring.

E.R.

JESSICA HEERINGA AND AMY DEPOY: Lookalike Blondes Missing from Norton Shores

Michigan police say Jessica Heeringa 'was abducted', but as to Amy Depoy, who disappeared practically three months to the day, they have no idea yet.

 

 

Depoy's disappearance a few days ago is similar to Heeringa's in that both abruptly vanished without a trace, leaving behind their cell phones, purses, and other valuables.

 

Depoy is 38-years-old and just like Heeringa, 25, is an attractive, slender blonde who sometimes wears glasses.

 

They both have children as well and reside with live-in boyfriends.

 

Suburban Norton Shores Michigan isn't exactly a high crime area, but the bold abduction of Jessica Heeringa on the night of April 26, 2013 from her place of employment, and the fruitless search for her and the kidnapper/s, has frayed nerves in this area.

 

Now the possibility of a second woman, almost identical in appearance, disappearing under equally suspicious circumstances leads many residents to fear a serial predator may be living among them.

 

Certainly, if that is true, abducting another victim doesn't bode well for the first...

 

Amy Depoy is 5' 8" tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was allegedly last seen by her son and reported missing by her mate.

 

Anyone who has information about Depoy's whereabouts, or that of Heeringa, is asked to call 911 or the Silent Observer at 231-72-CRIME. Tips may also be phoned in to the Muskegon Police Department at 231-724-6750.

 

Eponymous Rox

CLEVELAND BODIES FOUND: Another neighborhood serial killer?

CARNAGE IN CLEVELAND CONTINUES

 

Three Cleveland bodies found so far in one of that city's boarded up suburbs -- all African American females, all in the fetal position, all wrapped in plastic garbage bags.

 

The seemingly endless reports of people being abducted, held in bondage and/or slain in and around this northern metropolis is genuine cause for concern now, and it's suspected that the current carnage may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Held without bail for further questioning in this gruesome case is Michael Madison, a black male in his mid thirties who is said to be "unstable."

 

According to police the suspect is a registered sex offender living at his mother's address.

They also say this former prison inmate has an obsession with the Sowell series of killings and may therefore be a copycat.

 

Serial killer Anthony Sowell used his own Cleveland home to torture and kill 11 women he either lured there or abducted. He was sentenced to death in 2011 for multiple homicides and his house of horrors razed.

 

Today investigators will continue their grisly search on the block where three Cleveland bodies found murdered were unearthed. Officials in charge have intimated they're still unsure if there are more victims and, if so, whether these are also female.

 

There are many young women missing from this region, including petite blonde Jessica Heeringa who was abducted from Norton Shores, Michigan, less than five hours away. So, based upon the coroner's findings and pending DNA tests, closure may be on the horizon for some bereft loved ones and friends.

 

Like the Cleveland neighborhood where recently apprehended serial kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro operated for over a decade, this one too is rundown, with numerous abandoned buildings and vacant lots for predators to lurk and work in...

 

This case is developing - updates will be filed here or the comment section 

 

License plate scanners and the Jessica Heeringa abduction

JESSICA HEERINGA IS STILL MISSING

Fixed or on police cruisers, license plate scanners are being used to track millions of  unsuspecting Americans, it's been revealed this week. Broad illegal searches which have civil libertarians rightly up in arms.

 

That recent disclosure, coupled with revelations of the government's nonstop internet peeping, made by ex-CIA contractor Edward Snowden in early June this year, shows that indoors or outdoors Big Brother is now watching all of us 24/7.

 

And yet on the night of April 26, 2013, when underpaid Exxon Mobil-mart employee Jessica Heeringa was abducted as she closed up shop for the night, there where no cameras in her place of business and, allegedly, no license plate scanners along the route that the suspect and his silver minivan took...

 

Or was there?

 

A baffling abduction with no searches

 

Alerted by would be customers who found the Exxon station in Norton Shores Michigan curiously deserted, police were on the scene within minutes of Ms. Heeringa's April kidnapping.

 

Still, they say they found no clues, except a tiny droplet of blood which later through DNA analysis proved to belong to the 25-year-old blonde mother-of-one.

 

Fuzzy surveillance video of the suspected vehicle leaving the area that night was obtained from nearby businesses and that silver minivan singularly hunted for in the days, weeks and months since Heeringa has been gone without a trace.

 

Indeed, so sure was law enforcement about this aspect of the case, that they became fixated on the elusive van, refusing to launch any official ground searches for the victim, and further urging no one else to do so either.

 

But today stumped investigators worry that what and who they sought for so long may be a red herring in Heeringa's abduction. After all, no one has seen this vehicle ever since that date, nor a 30-something man who supposedly resembles the police sketch of its driver.

 

Never too late

 

Of course, as the Cleveland kidnappings have clearly shown us, it's not too late to organize search teams to scour the Norton Shores suburb for a missing woman. In fact, it's a darn good idea because most people who are abducted are taken by men they somehow are acquainted with.

 

Yes, men.

 

Generally, though, if a woman or child isn't found within 72 hours, the odds are they've met up with foul play, but, still, that shouldn't prevent folks from hunting for Heeringa, nonetheless.

 

One way or another, a family in Michigan needs closure now, even if all that is returned to them is their missing loved one's remains.

 

In the meantime, maybe local police agencies should just man up about their own warrantless surveillance of innocent motorists and cough up their license plate scans for that evening.

 

Sadistic stranger, fiendish friend, or even a corrupt cop, it couldn't hurt to see who actually was in the vicinity of the crime at that particular hour.

 

You know? 

 

EPONYMOUS ROX

 

Missing in Michigan: Finnerty, Heeringa, Woodruff ...

MISSING IN MICHIGAN:

Browse the missing person databanks for Michigan and you'll find hundreds of vanishing people listed for that state.
 

 

Most, in accordance with national statistics, are likely gone on their own volition. Runaway males and females of all ages and races who someday will return to their puzzled yet relieved loved ones when they're good and ready ... or not.

 

But sometimes, as in the recent case of star college-quarterback Cullen Finnerty, 30, who disappeared under suspicious circumstances during a weekend fishing trip, or Jessica Heeringa, 25, abducted one night at her place of employment, or Jeffrey Woodruff, 25, missing and found drowned behind the pub he'd visited after work, foul play is clearly indicated.

 

For Finnerty, discovered face down and dead in the woods near remote Baldwin Lake with no signs of trauma, and whose cause and manner of death is therefore still pending, the matter remains a giant question mark.

 

For Woodruff, retrieved by divers from the filthy Kalamazoo River in the quaint and touristy town of Saugatuck, three days after he mysteriously disappeared, his case too hangs unresolved. Because, without so much as a BAC test to ponder over yet, it's impossible to even know how intoxicated he was.
 

And as to the pretty and petite blonde Heeringa, abruptly gone without a trace since April 26th, leaving behind all her valuables, a toddler son, and one tiny droplet of blood, the anguish for her family, friends, coworkers and neighbors goes on and on and on.

 

Such is the plight of those connected to people like Heeringa who go missing and are never actually found. They will live suspended in a kind of anxious wait, and somehow or another search for their undead and eternally young forever.

 

Nationwide, including the folks missing in Michigan, nearly a million people annually drop off the radar, and usually they are indeed fairly young. Entire communities are turned upside down whenever that happens and, as is understandable, citizens immediately look to police to solve the mystery.

 

But most often they don't, or can't.

 

Law enforcement officers resent the fact that when they do fail to swiftly act or, worse, bungle an investigation completely, savvy searchers will now resort to social media to get the word out about their absent loved one, enlisting the aid of the worldwide Web's amateur sleuthing communities, occasionally with great success.

 

In fact, crowdsourcing the hunt for an AWOL individual is a fast growing trend these days. So, whether police like it or not, and whether they're conducting an able inquiry or being totally apathetic, they'll probably just have to learn to work with it.

 

Launching a Facebook campaign after filing a missing-person report, and then networking with specialized sites like Websleuths, Reddit and Killing Killers, has become the first order of business in effectively locating the lost these days.

 

Regardless if they're alive or dead.   

 

EPONYMOUS ROX 

The Jessica Heeringa Kidnapping - Updates

UPDATED May 8th: Amid grandstanding and blame-gaming in the Jessica Heeringa kidnapping investigation, the window of opportunity for Michigan authorities to find the 25-year-old mother of one alive is swiftly and sadly closing. 

Statistically speaking, those odds grow bleaker once 72 hours have passed.

Nearly two weeks has in fact lapsed since she vanished from her job at an ExxonMobil mart, and still there's no clue as to the petite young woman's whereabouts, nor the identity of the person or persons who allegedly abducted her just as she was closing the gas station for the night.

This, despite the fact that police where *on the case* within minutes of her kidnapping...

 

In the meantime, the many hundreds of tips they say they've been fielding and following are also proving useless, as all the prime suspects -- many already registered sex offenders -- are interviewed and then ultimately released, having established airtight alibis for the night of April 26th when Heeringa vanished without a trace.

Choppers also scanned the nearby wooded park this week accompanied by search-and-rescue teams on the ground. They were prompted to do so by belated reports of gunfire in the hours immediately after Heeringa's abduction. But police announced by day two of this effort that there was nothing whatsoever to be found there.

 

Apparently a pair of glasses had further set that frantic search into motion as well, although the glasses too proved to be a red herring.

The biggest problem is that the Exxon station Jessica Heeringa worked at had no surveillance system in place. A surprising security deficit, considering their popularity these days, and one which continues to hinder the investigation considerably. 

 

However, those residents in the neighbourhood not actively boycotting the owner of that franchise location, are claiming cameras have recently been installed throughout the premises.

This follows a wave of retaliatory gasoline thefts during the week, presumably done in protest of the owner's insistence on only hiring "pretty, young females," his refusal to assign a second person to assist with late shifts and store closings, and his deliberate decison not to install any kind of security devices that would have served to safeguard vulnerable workers like Heeringa.

The place wasn't robbed of anything, of course, but a prized and underpaid employee.

 

As to the investigation into her puzzling disappearance, a substance found in the parking lot of the mini-mart has been identified by DNA labs as Heeringa's blood. Teams of K-9s, however, have found no scent leading from the property, which further confirms she was whisked away by somebody. Purportedly a muscular, 6-foot tall, 30-ish man in a silver minivan captured minutes later by cameras at various businesses along the way.

Who that party actually is, despite a police sketch circulating all over the country AND the internet is becoming murkier and murkier day by day, as eyewitness testimony also becomes more and more suspect.

 

Whether their tales are true, false, or gravely embellished, who knows for certain. Some people will invent stories in such high profile cases as the Heeringa case though, driven by a need to insert themselves and seem important.

 

It's also not uncommon at all for the actual perpetrator to do the same, solely to throw a wrench in the operation and investigators off his trail...

 

BOOKMARK:  Validated updates will be added here and/or the comment section.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX 

ALERT - ABDUCTION: Jessica Heeringa

UPDATE for June 18, 2013 - comment section
Jessica Heeringa still missing / endangered
- MISSING WOMAN VAN HIGHLIGHTS - 
Police release sketch of kidnapper and new video;
Persons of interest detained for questioning;
Gunshots and nearby park investigated;
"Substance in parking lot" is Heeringa's blood;
Eyewitness testimony may be inaccurate:

[ALSO SEE NEWEST POST FOR ADDITIONAL UPDATES]

UPDATE May 15th 2013: Police are urging eager citizens to refrain from conducting any searches for Ms. Heeringa. Oddly enough, as of today, three weeks since she went missing, no official ground search has in fact been launched, and even the victim's family is limiting their own involvement to stationing themselves all day in a parking lot near the gas station where the young woman was last seen. Organizing broad search-and-rescue efforts is standard operating procedure in missing persons cases, including for abductions ... there is no explanation for why one has not been performed yet for Heeringa.

UPDATE: 7:49 AM, May 2, 2013: Michigan authorities continue to round up and question persons of interest in the Heeringa abduction. Last night a man matching the police sketch below and driving a van similar to eyewitness descriptions was pulled over, brought into custody, and then, after several hours of interrogation at various locations, released again. The individual is reportedly a registered sex offender.

Police have also released the second surveillance footage they found which shows a clearer image of the vehicle believed to have been driven by Heeringa's kidnapper, although still no shot of the occupants or license plates. Use the numbers provided at the bottom of this post if you recognize this van or happen to see it. A substantial reward is being offered for the perpetrator's apprehension -- ExxonMobile and its brand distributors in Michigan have added $15,000 to the fund this week. 

View the new video plus hear the original 911 call now, and scroll down to read all other vital updates on this case, including in the comment section.

UPDATE @ 8:40 AM May 1, 2013: Police are reporting they have obtained additional surveillance feed from a second location which is less grainy than the first video released earlier in the week. Like that footage, this one also shows a gray or silver van driving away from the area Heeringa was last seen in, at around the moment that she vanished. Investigators intend to make this video clip public too, once it has been fully analyzed.

So far video images have produced very few positive results, though, as days after the bold crime there are still no solid leads in the gas station abduction of the 25-year-old mother of one on April 26th.

And time, as police well know, is of the essence now, as it nears a week since the young woman went missing.

The good news, however, is that a police composite sketch of the suspect has at last been released. Authorities are looking for a muscular, six-foot tall, white male, between 30 to 40 years of age, with brown wavy hair. Click on the thug's mug above, print and distribute the flyer everywhere you can. (Find other vital information below in earlier reports of this case, and also see the comment section for an alert concerning an unauthorized altered version of the portrait being distributed on the web today.)

UPDATE @ 5:40 PM April 29th: After questioning and dismissing four persons of interest, plus family members, friends and coworkers, police are focusing in on one "white male suspect." They also believe there is a good chance Heeringa may have known her abductor, if only casually. The FBI has been contacted and is expected to join the investigation.

Ms. Heeringa's boyfriend of five years, Dakatoh Quail-Dyer, has provided more information about the missing woman for identification purposes.  He says Heeringa has a “lazy eye” when she's not wearing her glasses and has the following distinct tattoos: 

• A music note and peace sign on her left ankle,
• a star on her back,
• sleeping Z's on her left foot,
• and a sun and moon on her right calf.

[Read original story with added details below - check back again or bookmark for further updates.]

 

Police are asking for the public's help in the Jessica Heeringa abduction on April 26th from the Norton Shores suburb of Muskegon, Michigan. A reward is also being offered.

 

The 25-year-old petite blonde is an employee of an Exxon convenient store and was in the process of closing shop for the evening when a six-foot Caucasian male between "30 to 40 years of age" with "parted, light brown, wavy hair" lured her to his van parked just outside the gas station.

 

Earlier reports said a passerby saw the pair walking toward the vehicle but didn't observe anything unusual in Heeringa's demeanor at that point. However, once inside the van a struggle was overheard and then the man drove off with her.

Why the onlooker failed to intervene or take note of the license plate number isn't quite clear yet.

 

Thereafter, other customers arriving at the seemingly still-open facility observed it was unattended and at approximately 11:15 PM notified police of the situation.

 

Heeringa's purse and belongings were still inside the store and no money was stolen from the cash register. 

 

Violent crime statistics show that employees who clerk at convenient stores and gas stations are at exceptionally high risk of harm from assailants or robbers. For that reason such places of business are usually equipped with numerous security devices, including cameras hidden both inside the premises and out.

This particular Exxon station however is said to have had no electronic surveillance at all, which is grievous and clearly placed their underpaid employee in additional peril. Fortunately though, an eyewitness caught a glimpse of the potential kidnapper's vehicle and is describing it as a silver minivan, possibly a Chrysler Town & Country model.

 

Ms. Heeringa is only about five-feet tall and 110 pounds. The single mother's life is in extreme danger and the public's vigilance and assistance in locating her ASAP is now required.

 

Her family says Jessica has no enemies whatsoever and is known to go out of her way to be helpful to people, so her abductor may be a total stranger who pretended to need her aid, or he may even be a customer she was acquainted with and therefore trusted. (Statistically, the latter is more probable, since the majority of kidnap victims are somehow acquainted with their kidnappers.)

 

Anybody who sees this young woman, or recognizes her abductor and/or his vehicle is asked to immediately call 911 or the Silent Observer tip line at 231-722-7463. Visit the 'Find Jessica' facebook page here to touch base with Heeringa's loved ones, and bookmark this post for additional case updates.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX