Steve McAfee, 19, Missing in Michigan (reward offered)

A reward is being offered in the disappearance of Steve McAfee (below) in Michigan.

The 19-year-old art student went missing from a Macomb Township neighborhood on the afternoon of March 10th, and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

 

“It is extremely unlike Steve to be gone from home for more than a couple of hours and not have direct contact with his family or any personal belongings on him,” confirmed a close relative.

She also said McAfee doesn't have a car or a driver's license, so if he left the area on his own volition it would have been by foot or as someone's passenger.

Stephen Christopher McAfee is a thin Caucasian male, about 6-feet tall and 140 pounds, with dark hair and brown eyes. Per the photos above, he may also have a beard now.

Crime Stoppers of Michigan will pay a cash reward up to $2,500 for any verifiable information which will successfully solve his missing persons case. Tips may also be submitted to that organization anonymously.

Anyone who's seen Steve McAfee, or with knowledge of his current whereabouts, is urged to alert Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP,  or to text the tip to them at CRIMES (2746370).

The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is also involved in this investigation -- tipsters can contact the MCSO directly at (586) 307-9412.

EPONYMOUS ROX

ALERT: College Student Mossa Almasmari Missing in Michigan

Missing college student Mossa Almasmari (below) was last sighted on the grounds of the Macomb Community College in Michigan on March 29, 2016.

As of the date of this alert, the 20-year-old's silver 2009 Hyundai Elantra is still parked in an MCC lot, but no one has seen or heard from him since that afternoon.

Mossa Salleh Almasmari resides in Hamtramk Michigan. Police there are heading up his missing persons investigation in cooperation with Macomb Community's campus security division.

Investigators have not said whether they suspect foul play in the youth's disappearance this week but are now asking for the public's help in locating the missing college student.

Almasmari is a slender light-skinned male, about 5-foot-6 and 125 pounds, with short dark hair and a beard.

He is believed to have been wearing a gray coat, plaid shirt, khaki pants and black Air Jordan's on the day he vanished, and may also be toting a black Nike backpack. 

Anyone who knows what happened to Mossa Almasmari, or his current whereabouts, is urged to alert the Macomb College Police in Warren MI at (586) 445-7135, or the Hamtramck Police Department at (313) 876-7803.

EPONYMOUS ROX

Missing in Michigan - Ken Gruno

Ken Gruno went mysteriously missing in Michigan on the evening of December 27th 2014, after stepping outside a pub for a breath of fresh air. The 27-year-old left behind his coat and credit card, and a group of bewildered mates.

Since Gruno's unexplained disappearance, family, friends and police have conducted numerous searches of the neighborhood and even the nearby riverbanks.

Now, however, bad weather and subzero temperatures are seriously hampering their efforts to find the missing man, and the major search which was to be launched today has had to be postponed for fear that participants may be harmed in the process.

Ken Gruno was celebrating the holidays with friends at the Otisville Hotel bar in the 100 block of West Main Street in northern Genesee County, where he appears to have somehow completely dematerialized -- he has not been seen or heard from since that night.

"It's completely out of his character," say those who know him best. "He's always in contact with someone, or on his computer." 

Gruno is approximately 6-feet tall and 175 pounds. He was wearing blue jeans, a gray flannel shirt with a vest and bowtie, and slip-on work boots. Anyone with information regarding his bizarre disappearance is asked to call the Michigan State Police Flint post at 810-732-1111.

Eponymous Rox

Twisted Tweets and Demons: Teleka Patrick Tortured, Still Missing

"I can't take much more of this," Dr. Teleka Patrick tweeted on December fourth, just one day before she deleted her Twitter accounts and mysteriously vanished from Kalamazoo Michigan without a trace:

"There are normal ways to contact people you know," she added in her highly public reproach of a thus-far unidentified recipient, "but you reach me through a demonic power. That gives demons power over me and dilutes my spiritual authority."

Dozens of not-so-sweet nothings like that one were posted online in the days, weeks and months before Patrick disappeared. A fact which even her family seemed unaware of until now and which has led investigators to at last conclude that the missing woman vanished on purpose for "emotional reasons."

Whatever turns out to be the explanation for her puzzling absence, one thing has become crystal clear: Teleka Patrick was a tormented soul. And that was manifested in a tortuous and allegedly unrequited obsession with a Grammy-winning gospel singer who Patrick likely began to perceive was actually a devil.

"Because you are using a demon to contact me, when I turn my heart towards you, it passes through a demonic power. When I say I love you, I am also saying I love you to a demon because that is how you made me fall for you," she plaintively posted via @PatientMunchkin.

Patrick's apparent descent into madness seems to have happened quite suddenly, since only last spring the otherwise outwardly contented 30-year-old had graduated with a medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry.

Today, however, people close to her and afar are speculating that she took those accolades all the way from California to Western Michigan University School of Medicine solely to be near to the object of her desire, Reverend Marvin Sapp, and against his express wishes.

By September 2013 that unwavering fixation had developed into outright stalking and thus earned the new and religiously devout doctor a restraining order from Sapp, at which point her tweets show her coming unhinged.

"I basically got papers in the mail which were a whole bunch of lies," she cryptically acknowledged on Twitter. "I chose not to fight anything. If I was really guilty, I would have just started spreading lies about you. Or the truth. That's just as bad. But I'm not that type of person. I answer to God. That is why I protect you."

The brilliant but addled Dr. Patrick then disappeared after completing shift-work at Borgess Hospital on December 5th 2013, and has not been seen or heard from again. 

All her online profiles and bank accounts have similarly gone inactive.

$10,000 QUESTION: Where is Dr. Teleka Patrick?

Baffling case of missing doctor Teleka Patrick gets even weirder with new revelations she "was hearing voices" and stalking Marvin Sapp -- a Grammy-winning gospel singer and popular Michigan pastor -- for over a year. Read up-to-date coverage of this developing story now, and read Killing Killer's original missing-person alert dated 12/19/13 below:

Dr. Patrick disappeared from Kalamazoo Michigan on December 5th 2013 and has not been seen or heard from since.

The 30-year-old new doctor-in-residence at Borgess Medical Center vanished under very peculiar circumstances and now authorities from two states and her loved ones are left to work with odd pieces of a puzzle in hopes of finding her again:

Who mysteriously cell-phoned Patrick the day before she vanished causing her such visible distress?

Why did she attempt to get a hotel room near to the hospital where she worked when she had her own apartment?

Why was her car observed driven "erratically" a few hours later on Interstate 94 in Indiana, only to be found shortly thereafter abandoned at the side of that highway with a flat tire?

Where did she then go on foot, presuming she was the driver?

And where is this brilliant woman now?

Teleka Patrick is an African-American female about 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She went missing from the same medical facility -- and in the same manner -- as 30-year old out patient Shay Lynn Eisenhardt in 2003.

Eisenhardt's remains where discovered three years later scattered in a wooded area across from the hospital grounds.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information which leads to Dr. Patrick's return. Anyone who knows what may have happened to her and/or her current whereabouts is asked to call 911 or Silent Observer at 269-343-2100.

The young doctor has been gone without a trace for more than two weeks ... time is of the essence.

E.R.

CASE UPDATES HERE

NOTE: Found drowned -- "no foul play suspected".

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

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

 

Jimmy Hoffa Remains MISSING

An aged thug, possibly purging his soul, claims Hoffa remains can now be found on the outskirts of the city of Detroit ... so that's where officials are digging this time.

 

 

BUT DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP: Today's massive Hoffa search resembles numerous other wild goose chases investigators have been sent on in their efforts to bring closure to the most famous missing person case since Amelia Earhart vanished in 1937.

 

Unlike the much loved American aviatrix, however, shady Teamster prez Jimmy Hoffa was up to his elbows in wrongdoing and rubbing elbows with organized crime on a regular basis. 

 

Not surprisingly then, more than one criminal cohort has claimed responsibility for killing him and unceremoniously disposing of his carcass.

 

According to these same *reliable* felons, the shot or stabbed or bludgeoned or dismembered corpse of Hoffa remains buried in secrecy somewhere, and that unmarked burial plot is either a swamp or a stadium parking lot or the backside of his once-favorite restaurant or, now, an overgrown field in Michigan.

 

Boy, for a dead guy he sure gets around, doesn't he?

 

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 

Cullen Finnerty Famed College QB Found Dead

UPDATE 6/14/13:  Cullen Finnerty toxicology tests negative;
Cause and manner of athlete's death still undetermined; 
Preliminary autopsy revealed a "slightly enlarged heart"
but coroner says there was no evidence of a heart attack.

Finnerty found face down in the woods with arms spread;
Had been fleeing "two men" allegedly following his boat.

-  5/29 story below; join active case discussion via comment section -

Cullen Finnerty, 30, a former star college QB found dead while fishing on Baldwin River in Michigan: Snakebite? Suicide? Psychosis? Or just another run-of-the-mill 'Smiley Face' serial killing?

 

Finnerty spent the weekend vacationing with his family and, in a classic Smiley Face Killer scenario -- absent an outright drowning -- somehow got  separated from them on Sunday, May 26th, while boating downriver.

 

Shortly thereafter the panicked-sounding athlete cellphoned his wife to vaguely inform her he was "in danger." He then left his watercraft and fled on foot into the adjacent woods ... promptly disappearing.

 

A massive search in those dense and swampy woodlands ensued, and the young man's corpse was found three days later. He was still wearing his waders and cammies.

 

Autopsy results are pending, but Michigan authorities are already insisting there was "no foul play" involved in the famous college quarterback's premature death. Ostensibly because there are no apparent indications of trauma on his body.

 

They also emphasize, rather self-consciously, that he "was not found in the water."

 

That's because Cullen Finnerty is but one of hundreds of males between 17 and 30 to weirdly vanish under similarly suspicious circumstances over the past 16 years, only to be found deceased days, weeks or months later in or near a lake, creek, pond, stream, or river.

 

In fact, Finnerty's sinister disappearance matches the following sampling of missing/found drowned cases documented for the month of May alone:

 

May 5, 2013 - Oklahoma: The body of Jerry Lytle, 22, was discovered floating face down in a local creek. Police state the young man disappeared following an altercation with friends and was found in the water a few days later. Foul play is therefore being investigated.

 

May 6th - Indiana: While searching for a male reported to be missing, searchers found the cadaver of a man in a nearby pond. Officals say it's not clear if this unidentified victim is the same person they were looking for, as an ID is still pending.

May 9th - Arkansas: The body of a young adult male found floating in a Polk County pond has been identified as that of missing 19-year-old Benjamin Wahl. Officials say the exact cause of his death is still unknown.

 

May 12th - Texas: The man recently discovered dead beneath a Medina River bridge has been identified as Mohamad Taiym. Foul play is strongly suspected, police say, because the 23-year-old vanished under suspicious circumstances. His car is still missing.

 

May 15th - Washington: Officials state that the body found in one of their coastal rivers is that of 30-year-old Jake Simons, missing since April 5 2013. They "know of no medical reason" why the man disappeared and drowned, they've claimed.

 

May 18th - Illinois: Officials have confirmed that the decomposed corpse of an adult male found in a local lake is that of Matt Pulis, the 31-year-old man who had suddenly gone missing in October 2012 during a night out with his coworkers and friends.

 

May 19th - Michigan: Forensic analysis of the remains of an unknown male found drowned in Thornapple River are being compared to local missing person reports in hopes of identifying the victim. The nature of John Doe's death has not been announced yet.

 

May  24th -  South Carolina:  Authorities have identified the body of a man found in Lake Welchel as Terry Lynn Martin Jr. The  29-year-old's disappearance was reported by his family and is considered suspicious, although his cause of death has not yet been determined.

May 26th - Georgia: The body of Calvin Cunningham, 19, has been found in an Augustan canal, after he was reported missing only days earlier. A local police officer claims to have sighted Cunningham and then pursued him on foot, but then he says the teen fled and even "jumped in the lake" to elude capture ... so he removed Cunningham from the missing persons databank. Further details concerning this case are being withheld pending a full investigation.

 

May 26th - New York: The badly decomposed corpse of an unidentified male was pulled out of the Hudson River. The body was discovered just 20 blocks south of the George Washington Bridge, the area where Curtis Aukshunas, 25, was said to have been sighted just before he mysteriously vanished on May 8, 2013.

 

May 28th - Michigan: Following an intensive search for him, '30-year-old Cullen Finnerty college QB found dead near Baldwin River', search-and-rescuers have just announced. The star athlete vanished without a trace after placing a distress call to his spouse in which he stated a belief that he was imminently "in danger." A cause of death is unknown at this time, authorities are stating.

May 28th - Arizona: The "fully clothed" body of 21-year-old Gerrick Begay was discovered floating in Tempe Town Lake, the same river basin where a number of other men his age have similarly been found over the past few years. Police are investigating and autopsy results are still pending.

May 29th - Alaska: Authorities say the remains of a young adult male retrieved from an Alaskan lake have been tentatively identified as those of Shanon Lovell, a resident of Anchorage. The 30-year-old had been reported missing after attending a party in early October 2012.

May 29th - California: Marine patrol deputies were dispatched to Konocti Bay in Clear Lake to retrieve the drowned body of 31-year-old Cuong Minh Tran, missing a few days prior after allegedly visiting his friend. Autopsy results and a cause of death are still pending.

May 31st - Pennsylvania: Rescue divers and homocide detectives from the Pittsburgh Police Department were called to the shores of the Ohio river after a boater spied the rotting corpse of 25-year-old Vijay Rajaputana floating in the water. No report yet on the cause or manner of death.
  

(NOTE: This is a partial list; more cases will be added as additional IDs and CODs as determined. Bookmark to follow and be sure to also check out April 2013's victims as well. Use the comment sections to send notice of other cases or updates on existing ones.)

 



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