MISSING PERSON ALERT: Charles Geurts

UPDATE - April 18, 2013: R.I.P. Charlie Geurts, missing on January 15 2013 and found "drowned" in Wisconsin's Lake Monona in the city of Madison on April 17, 2013  MORE COMMENTARY HERE  (Post has been bounced to top of blog for ease of commenting.)

 

 

UPDATED 1/25/13 - STILL MISSING: Charles Geurts, 26, from Kaukauna Wisconsin was visiting the nearby city of Madison for an agricultural conference. He went missing early in the morning of January 15th after leaving his hotel room at the Sheraton.

 

Over the past 15 years, this northern U.S. city has become a hot spot for 'Smiley Face' disappearances and drownings of men between the ages of 17 and 30. Not incidentally, for that same length of time the Madison Police Department has shielded amongst its ranks a cop known for especially abusive treatment of young males he perceives to be inebriated.

 

Badged sociopath, Stephen Heimsness, has been written up a number of times for using excessive force -- beating, tasering, and even shooting to death unarmed and allegedly intoxicated men.

 

Recently suspended for the wrongful shooting death of 30-year-old Paul Heenan, officer Heimsness was cleared to return to work at the MPD just this month, ominous news for men like Geurts who was last observed to be drinking with friends.

 

Coincidentally, police say that someone in the neighborhood of the Sheraton Hotel had called the police about "a prowler" in their yard only 20 to 30 minutes after Charles Geurts left the hotel premises. Police say they have a "strong reason to believe" it was the missing young man, but refuse to elaborate on the basis for that hunch.

The MPD did, however, start searching for the 26-year-old almost immediately, which, as most people who follow these cases know, is an unusually swift response to a missing man report...
 

They have ended those search efforts now, and have also recently begun asserting that Geurts "fell into Lake Monona" and drowned, although this theory too they don't expound upon. As of January 23rd 2013, the MPD has still not released the name or names of the cops who responded to the 911 call on the evening the young man vanished into thin air...or thin ice.

Regardless of who the perps turn out to be, anyone with information about this case should contact the police at 608-266-4275. Charles Geurts is blond-haired, blue-eyed, and approximately six-feet tall and 180 pounds. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt, denim jeans, and boots when last sighted.

In that same now-notorious region Nick Wilcox, 24, still remains missing as well. Wilcox disappeared from downtown Milwaukee while celebrating New Year's eve with his friends. They last saw him being physically removed by bar bouncers for some yet unexplained reason, after which he too vanished in thin air. 

Nick Wilcox is described as a blond-haired, blue-eyed, six-foot-two, 180-pound Caucasian male. He was last seen wearing a gray shirt, dark pants and black shoes. Anyone with any information about this case is urged to contact the Milwaukee police at 414-933-4444, or their Sensitive Crimes Division at 414-935-7403. (Found drowned March 2013)
 

READ NEXT: An in depth look at the drowning death of actress Natalie Wood in November 1981. The "accidental" ruling in Wood's death has finally been overturned due to the recent determination by LA's county coroner that extensive bruising on the front and back of the victim's body is totally inconsistent with injuries derived in an ordinary ocean drowning. Wood's cold case is in the very early stages of a homicide investigation now, with her husband at the time, actor Robert Wagner, the prime suspect. Christopher Walken was also present the night that Natalie Wood--in the midst of a heated altercation with her soused spouse--disappeared from Wagner's yacht The Splendour. Wagner waited almost two hours after his wife went overboard before calling rescuers, during which time Wood perished. Of the two famous leading men on the luxury vessel that night, only Christopher Walken is cooperating with investigators; Wagner has gone into hiding at his mansion. In my examination of this famous drowning incident, I'll be comparing the Wood "accident" and her autopsy with the "accidental drowning" and autopsy findings of 22-year-old Joshua Swalls. Swalls' body was pulled out of a shallow retention pond in downtown Indianapolis this past November, a full three weeks after he mysteriously vanished. That pond had already been thoroughly searched by tactical divers within only days of his initial disappearance and his body is estimated to have only been in it for about a week...yet police have closed their investigation. How are these two suspicious water fatalities related? (Stay tuned for the answer.)