Bejohna Peres/Brianna Cozzi identity still up in the air

Earlier I wrote that the police think a little girl in Ontario, who is supposedly called Brianna Cozzi, is actually Bejohna Peres, who’s been missing from Texas since 2007. She was taken by her non-custodial mother. Well, the jury is still out on the child’s identity. They’ve taken a DNA sample and are waiting for results while continuing to investigate the case. Brianna was taken from her supposed mother, Carol Ann Cozzi, about a week ago, and Carol got a one-hour visit with her since then but nothing more.

Brianna apparently looks remarkably like Bejohna. I really hope she really is Bejohna and therefore wasn’t taken from her mother’s care without reason, but I kind of doubt it. “Yesterday, Carol Ann brought photographs of the child — who she says is a year older than Bejohna but bears a striking resemblance — and everything from birth certificates to social security cards to a driver’s licence to authorities in Hamilton.” Either this woman is very brazen, or she has access to an excellent forger, or she really is who she says she is.

I really hope those DNA tests come back soon.

Even more Jeannie Melville articles

A whole bunch of them now. Perhaps the media attention will lead to some tangible results as far as identifying her killer.

The Chicago Tribune
The Green Bay Press-Gazette (with picture of Jeannie)
WHIO TV
WBAY TV

Authorities estimate the time of death as late September or early October 1970, but Jeannie actually disappeared in August. Where was she in the intervening weeks, who was she with, what was she doing? She was certainly a remarkably pretty girl. Did she have a history of taking off, a boyfriend, anything like that? I suppose those are questions the police will have to answer.

The “maliciously missing”

I found this editorial about voluntary missing adults, whom the author refers to as “maliciously missing.” That may be a good term for it, though as I have written on here before, I believe many adults who walk out of their lives are deeply troubled people who need help. The article references Jon Van Dyke and David Rockey, both of whom have previously been profiled on Charley.

I sometimes wonder just how seriously we should take a spouse or parent’s assertion that their MP would “never” abandon their family, children, job, etc. Of course, the MP’s family knows them better than anyone else, but at the same time they don’t want to think or speak badly of their missing relative. And it’s possible to have secrets your closest friends and relatives don’t know about. The family’s opinion should be taken into account, but I don’t think we should assume an MP definitely didn’t leave on his own just because his family says he was an honorable and responsible person who wouldn’t have walked out on them.

James Hendrickson article

The Arizona Daily Star is doing a series on cold cases, and they just ran an article on James Hendrickson, a twelve-year-old boy who disappeared from Tucson in 1991. The case has not received much publicity — most boys’ cases don’t — and it’s not really clear what happened to him, but probably it was nothing good.

Twelve or thirteen seems to be a common age for a stranger abduction. A child that age is typically given some independence (walking alone to school and stuff) and no longer watched constantly by their parents. Also they feel quite grown up and think they can handle anything that comes along, but they’re pretty naive still. When I have time perhaps I’ll go back through the Charley cases and determine if a significant percentage of presumed abducted children are that age.

Jeannie Melville article

I had previously reported that Jeannie Melville, an eighteen-year-old girl who went missing in August 1970, was found deceased. I didn’t have any details at the time, but I just found this article in the Dayton Daily News. Jeannie’s nude body was found in a cornfield in Darke County, Ohio in October 1970, but it wasn’t identified until now. She was en route to visit her aunt in Ohio when she disappeared. It looks like she met the wrong person on that bus.

Obviously she was murdered, and the killer got a 39-year head start. I doubt the case is solveable, but at least her family knows what happened to her.

Missing child Bejohna Peres possibly found in Canada

Bejohna Peres disappeared from Houston, Texas in 2007. She was three years old at the time and is believed to have been abducted by her non-custodial mother. Well, Bejohna may have been found in Ontario, Canada. According to this article (which misspells the child’s name as “Brejohna”), police have taken a little girl into protective custody and are trying to determine whether she is Bejohna. The little girl was in the care of Carol Ann Cozzi, who says she’s the child’s mother and her name is Briana. She gave the police a birth certificate to support her claims. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt about Cozzi’s identity. If the girl is Bejohna, how did she end up with Cozzi and where is her mother? This would not be the first time a parent abducted their child only to foist it on someone else.

The article contains additional info about Bejohna’s disappearance. She and her three siblings were in the care of their grandmother when their mother took all four of them. The three other children were found safe in Las Vegas, Nevada in November 2007, but Bejohna and her mother have yet to be located.

It’s not really clear why the police think Briana is Bejohna. I really hope she is. Otherwise, a mother and child have been separated needlessly and probably traumatized by the experience.

Aftermath

I want to say I appreciate those of you who have supported me and defended me from these ridiculous accusations. It made me feel a lot better to realize not everyone had decided I was a despicable liar. And anyone who still believes I made up this story, or that I filed a false report to the police, can go and soak their heads. I think it’s significant that the day I offered the police report summary, the accusations suddenly changed from “lied on the blog” to “lied to the cops” — these people do not want to admit they were mistaken. (Incidentally, so far no one has asked to look at the report.) But it’s not them I have to convince but the police and later a jury. And the police are already convinced. I have defended myself as best I can and will not do it anymore. Nor will I tolerate any more insults and attacks on my character here. Any such comments will be deleted.

I wrote about the attack on this blog for the same reason I wrote about my pet rat dying, or that day when I found a dead fly in my milk glass — because I wanted to share some details of my life with you and thought you might find them worth your time. If you don’t want to know these details, or don’t believe them, or disapprove of them, you don’t have to read about them.

I would like now to return this blog to the topic for which it was created: missing people.

Jeannie Melville found dead

Per the NCMEC, Jeannie Marie Melville has been found deceased. She was an old case that just made it onto the internet not too long ago. Jeannie was 18 years old when she disappeared sometime during August 1970. She got on a bus in Green Bay, Wisconsin that was bound for Ohio, but never arrived there.

Jeannie’s photo looks so late sixties-early seventies it’s ridiculous. I could totally imagine that picture being in one of the Classmates.com banner advertisements.

I can’t find anything about it in the news yet. I’ll keep checking over the next week or so, but frankly I don’t expect to find anything. A lot of times these old cases are ignored in the media.

Upgrading Charley Part III

My mysterious benefactor Pri has shown me some of what he plans to do and I really like it. It would make updating so much easier for me. Best of all, he doesn’t need to access my accounts to do this upgrade. He says he can write everything on his servers and send it to me to add to my servers — meaning I don’t have to trust him with my login and password.

Also, he provided me with some samples of his work. He works for a web design company.

This opportunity sounds better every minute.

Oh no, no, no…

The Cleveland Examiner says several missing kids on the NCMEC site have turned up (their photos I mean) in some perv’s child porn collection. He was arrested four days ago.

“Other images of children seized showed children who appeared to be three years old and younger.”

Of course I know, intellectually, that missing kids are likely to be exploited in this manner. But there’s a difference between knowing it abstractly and seeing it confirmed right in front of you.

I certainly hope those kids get found alive, and quickly.

Also: an article about NamUs.