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

Shane Montgomery Missing: Presumed Drowned

The search for missing student Shane Montgomery has focused on the river and canal. Like other Smiley Face Killer victims who vanished after a late night mid-winter encounter with heavy-handed police, and/or bouncers, he too was instantly presumed to have "somehow" drowned:

Montgomery disappeared in Philadelphia over the Thanksgiving holiday immediately after an over-zealous bouncer unceremoniously ejected the youth from the bar he and his friends were celebrating at.

It is the same district that Carlesha Freeland-Gaither's violent street-abduction occurred last month. One which was captured and thus quickly solved via surveillance cameras positioned throughout the area, and, of course, with aid from the kidnapped woman's abandoned cell phone.

Yet, strangely enough, Montgomery's would-be rescuers claim those very same devices are of little help to them now. It seems, when a hunt involves a missing young man, "it's a real challenge looking for video from surveillance cameras." And, "Trying to determine from the missing person's cell phone where they were last using the phone," is also weirdly perplexing.

But at least these inordinately confounded authorities are "interviewing as many people as [they] can."

Classically, this approach too will no doubt prove futile, as stories quickly change and film footage of the event and the territory it took place in begins to rapidly deteriorate, ultimately to vanish just as Shane Montgomery did: without a trace.

One thing is for certain though, if indeed the *educated hunch* is correct that Montgomery is somewhere in the frigid canal or river, then his body won't refloat to the surface for a number of weeks and maybe even months. By which time his slowly decomposing corpse would have naturally created volumes and volumes of alcohol -- far in excess of what he consumed just prior to his death.

And, using that false BAC level, he'll thereafter officially be declared to have been "severely intoxicated" and to have "accidentally drowned" as a result.

Case closed. Again.

Story from 12/1/14 - see comment section for updates

NOTE:  Body found in river on January 3rd 2015
believed by family to be Shane Montgomery's -  read 
SHANE MONTGOMERY "ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED"
(Feel free to add your own comments and
updates in either article's comment section.)

Missing UK Man Found Drowned

Missing man James Brindley inexplicably vanished this month during a Christmas party at a pub in Stoke-on-Trent. Days later his corpse was fished out of a nearby canal.

Staffordshire Police said the 28-year-old's disappearance and death was now being treated as "unexplained" and that some of his personal items were also retrieved on the canal's towpath in the water-rescue team's search for him.

Brindley's disappearance from a downtown bar and his apparent cold-weather drowning is similar to many others confounding cops in the UK in recent years. Even Spain and France are beginning to see a similar pattern in their river districts.

Until then such cases -- dubbed the Smiley Face Murders -- had been a decades-old phenomenon largely limited to the United States and Canada, and particularly concentrated in the Great Lakes region where both Canada and the US share a border.

UK authorities are presently awaiting autopsy and toxicology results before listing a cause or manner of death for James Brindley.

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".

LIVE FREE OR DIE: Searching for Abby Hernandez

 12/8/13: MAJOR BREAK IN ABBY HERNANDEZ CASE
[ORIGINAL STORY FROM 10/18/13 BELOW]

In the mountainous, sparsely populated state of New Hampshire there are probably as many dead people as there are alive, although police insist the woodlands and high peaks are not teeming with corpses.

Searching that vast, rustic terrain this October for missing teenage track-star, Abigail Hernandez, who disappeared in thin air while walking home after school, officials immediately stumbled upon two bodies already: one badly decomposed and the other skeletal.

But neither of these remains belonged to the girl they are desperately seeking.

In fact, day ten since 15-year-old Abby Hernandez went missing and all the leads in her case -- even those which once seemed so solid -- have evaporated. The truth about what really happened to her now shrouded as densely as the thick clouds that sometimes hide the White Mountains.

Surely those towering, picturesque peaks, painted red and orange and gold by Mother Nature in autumn, hold the key to solving the Abby Hernandez mystery, for they lure both locals and tourists alike to come and admire them.

Rugged individuals who call the largely uninhabited state of New Hampshire home understand, however, that their alluring wilderness is more than just quaint. They know from experience that their mountains are not merely pretty places for skiing and hiking and camping. 

These can be deadly, and many a climber and Cessna has suddenly disappeared on them throughout the years, never to be seen or heard from again.

In the shadows of these mighty sentinels sit historic villages and cities that thrive on a brisk tourist trade year round.  

North Conway, where missing schoolgirl Abigail Hernandez lives with her family, is one of these municipalities, and the road she was last seen traversing on foot, known simply as the North-South Highway, is a route well traveled by residents and out-of-state visitors.

That's especially true during the Columbus Day holiday week, the height of the 'leaf-peeping' season, when the Hernandez girl strangely disappeared.

Vermont, Virginia, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, Texas, Rhode Island, Connecticut ... even visitors from as far away as California make the annual pilgrimage by vehicle to view New Hampshire's splendid fall foliage this time of year.

Could Hernandez have been hit by a distracted driver and dumped somewhere in a panic? Was she kidnapped by a prowling predator taking advantage of all the bustle? Or did she secretly rendezvous with someone she connected with on social media?

That's the $20,000 question now, the reward amount posted just yesterday by the FBI, for any information which will lead to the prompt return of young Abby Hernandez, dead or alive.

1-800-CALL-FBI

Tips.fbi.gov

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.

In hunt for Abigail Hernandez "No tip too small" FBI says

The FBI's lead investigators in the search for Abigail Hernandez say it's looking "less and less likely" that the New Hampshire teen simply ran away.

The athletic 15-year-old from North Conway, NH has been missing since October 9th when she sent her last text at around 3 PM to a friend while walking home from school.

Since that afternoon there's been no activity on her cellphone or social media accounts either, a troubling indicator in the case of a girl who is said to be very active online, especially with her Facebook page.

"She has gone totally dark from a very robust social media presence," FBI agent Kieran Ramsey reports. "We have no idea where she is right now."

Regardless of the trail growing cold, however, state and federal officials insist that the search for Abigail Hernandez is still very much underway, even though, so far, they have no solid leads to act upon.

Agent-in-charge Ramsey also expressed a degree of frustration with what he perceives may be reticence on the part of some people to provide investigators with more tips. 

"Nothing is too small" he assured the public yesterday, emphasizing he'd rather get duplicate tips phoned in than nothing at all.

And those need not be about the specific moment the child vanished either, he added. 

Information about Hernandez and her relationships and activities prior to disappearing is equally being sought, since this could provide more insight to the events that led up to her vanishing. 

With October coming to a close and cold weather fast bearing down on the northland, there is an undeniable sense of urgency in the hunt for Hernandez who the authorities do consider to be endangered.

The teen track star joins a growing list of similar disappearances in the region, some of which, like Celina Cass, age 11, ended in homicide and a body-dump, or, as with the missing-person cases of Heide Wilbur, Brianna Maitland and Maura Murray, remain unsolved to this day.

The prospect of a serial predator freely roaming such a vast and mountainous territory  targeting young females to victimize has both citizens and law enforcement alike on edge.

Abby Hernandez went missing in broad daylight at the side of the busy North-South highway, just two miles from her residence and an even shorter distance from her high school. 

Police ask that anyone with knowledge of this missing child's current whereabouts -- or any info whatsoever -- immediately contact 1-800-CALL-FBI. A $20,000 reward is also being offered as an incentive.

You can view Abby's missing-person poster and find other important details here, and learn more about her and the scenic area she lives in right here.

NEXT: August Reiger and Jenny Pope - is there a connection?

Perhaps fearing the August Reiger case is another Jenny Pope scenario, Ecuadoran officials claim there's been "credible sightings" this month of the missing Oklahoma teen.

Reiger, a recent Classen School honors grad, disappeared from the resort town of Baños this past June while hiking with his family on a scenic jungle trail overlooking the touristy hotspot.

Authorities in charge of the Ecuador hunt for him continue to assert that the youth didn't accidentally die or get murdered, but, rather, was "kidnapped" by thus far unknown individuals aiming to extract a ransom in exchange for his safe return.

 

However, it's been over 70 days since August Reiger mysteriously vanished and still no demands for money -- either by phone or in writing -- have been made.

 

What's more, the area he disappeared from isn't known for such abductions and Reiger himself doesn't fit the typical profile kidnappers are usually targeting...

 

To glean what's true from potentially good PR spin, I analyzed what is known about this vexing equatorial riddle and compared it with yet another famous missing person case from that very same locale: That of British backpacker Jenny Pope.

 

The 50-year-old athletic Pope went missing abroad under eerily similar circumstances in 2006 and is now presumed to have been brutally robbed and murdered by a phony Baños tour guide.  Her remains have not been found yet.

 

NEXT on Killing Killers, in both English and Spanish translations.