R.I.P. Ken Gruno (missing found drowned)

Michigan's missing man Ken Gruno, 27, was finally located this week, three months after he vanished without a trace from an Otisville pub where he'd been celebrating Christmas with good friends.

His body was just found partially submerged in a shallow pond, and a medical examiner says the Air Force veteran "accidentally" drowned there somehow.

Young males like Ken Gruno, vanishing in the dead of winter and showing up drowned in an icy body of freshwater weeks or even months later, appears to be a scary modern-day phenomena now ... read more

Eponymous Rox

BREAKING NEWS: Paul Kochu Found Drowned

Paul Kochu has been found drowned, roughly three months after the 22-year-old nurse vanished during a night out with his roommates that left him mysteriously injured. 

Pittsburgh police say they were contacted about a body floating in the Ohio River and that it was positively identified as the missing man through dental records.

An autopsy was performed but the results have not yet been publicly released, and the cause and manner of death are still unknown.

The family of Paul Kochu had conducted numerous searches for him in the Pittsburgh area and even offered a missing person reward for help in solving his case.

They've released the following statement:

"It is with heavy hearts and unspeakable sadness that we learned today of the death of our beloved son and brother, Paul. These are circumstances no family ever dream of coping with. Though we are left with many questions, what we know for sure is Paul was the light of our lives, and we will not be the same without him.

"Paul loved Pittsburgh. Having traveled here repeatedly over the past four months as we held out hope in the search for Paul, it is clear to us why the community was so dear to him, In addition to family and friends, countless strangers embraced us and offered their love and support in helping us during this difficult time. There are no adequate words to express the gratitude we feel towards the Pittsburgh community."

Eponymous Rox

David Bird Has Been Found Drowned - 1 Year Later?

"Missing man David Bird has been found drowned today," may be a New Jersey coroner's official finding by the end of the week:

A body just retrieved from a river near where the 55-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter was said to have gone walking when he vanished is now pending formal identification and notification of relatives.

click image for latest coverage of the 'Curious Drowning of David Bird'

Bird was last seen on January 11, 2014. His family had offered a $10,000 reward for any information about what may have happened to him or his whereabouts, but nothing ever came of their search.

"This is the first lead of any kind," a family spokesperson said today.

Many waterways merge in the area that the supposed body of David Bird has been found drowned in. But, still, the odds that, one full year later, his corpse would resurface there -- or be found at all -- is both forensically and statistically improbable.

Which, if it truly is the missing man himself, makes one wonder how long the deceased was actually in the water ... and who put him there?

EPONYMOUS ROX

Sahray Barber Missing Update

Foul play suspected in the Sahray Barber missing person case in southern California:

But investigators aren't sure if the 22-year-old's disappearance is related to a spate of attacks on females at Cal State's San Bernardino campus right across from her home.

Barber has been suspiciously missing since early March 2015, and this week police finally announced they had identified some people "of interest" who, the cops note, are not being as cooperative as they should.

That's led many to speculate the POIs in Barber's case may in fact be her very own roommates, said to have been noticeably absent from recent public vigils held to honor the popular but still-missing art student.

Click image for more Sahray Barber news

Reportedly, Sahray Barber rents a room in the house of a California couple who has a very young child, but detectives working the case refuse to confirm or deny if the two are the persons of interest now.

Barber's vanishing has baffled authorities searching for her, since there was "no sign of struggle" outside her residence and her laptop and cell phone were found carefully placed in nearby bushes.

K-9s traced the young woman's last movements right outside her home near the state university, and say that trail went cold at the edge of the adjoining sidewalk.

They theorize, therefore, that Barber may have gotten into a vehicle the day she went missing, either on her own free will, or involuntarily.

She was expected to be at work, but never showed.

This case is developing - read/share/comment

MAN OVERBOARD: Missing Presumed Drowned

A US student is missing presumed drowned in the Bahamas, says a Carnival Cruise Lines spokesperson.

The thus far unidentified youth is said to attend Virginia Tech University. He had booked his doomed excursion on the good ship Carnival Glory.

Although not yet deemed dead, his next of kin have already been notified of his demise, apparently...

"We extend our heartfelt sympathy and concern for the family and loved ones of our missing guest," was Carnival incorporated's official statement concerning their latest missing passenger incident.

Man Overboard

Ship security footage from Carnival Glory indicates that the hapless young man, now listed as missing presumed drowned, went overboard sometime this past weekend and was finally reported gone early Sunday morning.

Thereafter, a joint search effort with nearby cruiser Carnival Ecstasy was launched to rescue him, although that appears to have been fruitless.

But, even had the victim survived the long fall into the ocean and then managed to stay afloat all this time, trying to find someone bobbing around in such a vast body of water is much akin to looking for that proverbial 'needle in a haystack.'

If not more impossible.

Eponymous Rox

Missing Becky Watts Murdered and Dismembered by Bro

The search for missing Becky Watts ended this week in a double heartbreak for the family as police unearthed her dismembered remains and charged a stepbrother with her killing. 

The shy and pretty British teen mysteriously disappeared from her home on February 19th, and a nationwide hunt for her produced the grisly and shocking revelation yesterday that she'd been kidnapped, murdered and dismembered by her very own relative.

Twenty-six-year-old Nathan Matthews of Bristol UK, the stepbrother of Rebecca Watts, was arrested and appeared in court today for the killing of his stepsister.

Matthews' girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, was also arrested in connection with the case, charged for perverting justice and assisting an offender. The pair are said to have an infant daughter.

Apart from "consistently lying" to police, Hoare additionally made a number of deceitful facebook postings pleading for info from the public regarding Becky's whereabouts. As well she directly appealed to members of the community that the missing girl resided in to lend their aid in the desperate quest to find her.

One of Hoare's most galling facebook updates reads: "Police have turned my house upside down trying to find any clues. What fresh new hell will we go through today?"

It was posted just days before detectives discovered Watts had been slain and her severed body parts buried in an abandoned property close by.

"I just can't believe it," a neighborhood local said, upon learning of these startling developments, "I feel like I'm in an episode of Eastenders."

In all, seven men and women in their 20s, including Nathan Matthews and Shauna Hoare, are now being held and grilled by investigators in an effort to determine the extent of each suspect's involvement and to decipher a motive, if any, for the bizarre and brutal murder of a child.

In the meantime, funeral plans are underway for the late Becky Watts. She was only 16 when she horribly died.

Eponymous Rox

This murder case is still developing -- read more coverage HERE

post your own updates and observations in the comment section/s

Smiley Face Killers update

Read a 2015 Smiley Face Killers update on Crime Magazine containing special mention of still-missing Pennsylvania resident Paul Kochu, as well as the Shane Montgomery disappearance and drowning in that same state and time-frame.

Portrait on the article's accompanying illustration (shown above) is that of Michael Jansson, a youth who similarly vanished without a trace from an Illinois dance club on the evening of March 9, 2001.

In classic Smiley Face Killers tradition, he was never seen or heard from again, until the car he'd hurriedly fled in that night was found twelve years later, upside down at the bottom of the Chicago River. 

A subsequent DNA test on the skeletal remains strewn throughout the vehicle confirmed they were in fact "Mikey" Jansson's bones ... full story @ Crime Magazine.