A good idea

The author of the following letter sent this to me and I decided to post this on my blog because I think it’s an excellent idea:

To Whom it May Concern:

This is an idea I have for finding women and children who are believed to have been kidnapped and sold into the human trafficking / sex slave market of third world and other countries, including this one.

My name is Anna Maria. I am a 29-year-old woman. I am a born United States Citizen, and I currently live in Altamonte Springs, Florida. As a concerned US citizen, my heart goes out to the many families who have loved ones that have been kidnapped and are believed to have been sold into the human trafficking / sex slave markets, and I am writing out of a sincere desire to help.

I believe it may be possible to locate these victims by using the internet (particularly, search engine optimization) to specifically target potential, current, or past customers of the people holding these victims captive with information about each individual victim and each family’s individual search. This may be done by building separate websites providing full information on each victim individually, but optimizing the websites as if they were the same type of sex/adult friend finder/escort service/brothel/etc website that these customers would be searching for.

The websites would need to be optimized for any, and all, search terms that these customers would type into Google, or any search engine, in order to find the websites that provide these services in the locations they are looking for. The websites should be optimized and built in each of the likely languages that would be used when searching. For example: if it is possible that a victim may be held in a place where people may speak Spanish, English, as well as Portuguese, and if the potential customers would be persons who speak one or all of these languages, then that victim’s websites should be completely optimized in all three languages, for all of the differing search terms that someone would type in their own language.

In order to entice the potential customers to ‘click,’ the websites need to have URLs appropriate for what these customers would be looking for—example: www.best-brothels-in-south-america.com, or www.gorgeous-escorts-for-your-vacation.com, or www.exotic-girls-of-ecuador.net, etc.

The websites should also contain pictures of what the victim may look like now, with as many variations as possible in hair style and color, in facial expression, and in clothing, accessories, and makeup. Pictures or drawings of every single distinctive feature, such as tattoos, body piercings, and birth marks should appear as well. I believe that pictures speak louder, and faster, than words, and while full descriptions are important and should be provided, pictures and quick, easy-to-read bold statements must be prominent. This is especially important when considering that these customers would likely stumble onto these websites, and only remain for a matter of seconds or minutes.

I am a small business owner who has found search engine optimization to be key in targeting my own potential customers. I learned much of what I know about search engine optimization from another small business friend of mine, and from, believe it or not, Search Engine Optimization for Dummies by Peter Kent. It took me a year to finally digest the information and use it effectively, but once I learned to do this correctly, it has been very successful.

I know a lot about building websites, and search engine optimization, however, I am not a specialist. There are definitely people who are experts at web development and search engine optimization, however, not all web developers know how to optimize a website for search engines. If each individual family of these victims is able to employ a specialist in search engine optimization, I strongly encourage them to do so in order to best build, and optimize the sort of website I have mentioned in this letter. If they are not able to employ a specialist, and if they want to try to tackle this on their own, I encourage them to read Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, and any other search engine optimization book out on the market today for help and ideas.

This is a complicated process—especially for persons who are not used to thinking in terms of web development and optimizing pages for key words, but if the right people are targeted with the right keywords and phrases, the persons who actually have contact with the victims of kidnapping and human trafficking would very likely stumble onto these pages.

Usually, families of missing persons only build webpages that are targeted at the regular, law abiding, concerned US citizen—example: www.amybradley.net. This is a great site for providing information to people who know Amy Bradley, or for anyone who may have seen the Dr. Phil special which aired a few years ago and might be interested in reading up on her situation, but this website will in no way reach the people who could actually do anything about it! This site is not in any way optimized for reaching the would-be customers of various brothels in third world countries. Those customers are not going to type “Amy Bradley” or “Find Amy Bradley” into www.Google.com. They are going to type search phrases in their own languages that will help them to find the type of brothel or escort service they are looking for in their location, and whatever it is they type into Google, it will definitely NOT be “Find Amy Bradley.”

If possible, please forward this information to any families who have loved ones that have been kidnapped and lost to this industry.

Thank you very much, and best wishes to the grieving families of these victims.

Sincerely,
Anna Maria

© Anna Maria 2009 | This letter is posted here with permission by the author. For permission to write about this idea, or to reproduce this letter in part, or in full, please write for permission to Anna Maria here.

Okay, now this is less than helpful

This is the only article I can find about the 1993 disappearance of Janice Wright and it’s extremely frustrating.

The article says Janice was last seen in Suffolk, Virginia in 1993. Um…what date in 1993? How old was she? What did she look like — she was a black female, okay, they have pics, but how tall, any distinguishing marks? It’s not like they don’t have this information: they interviewed her three kids on the tape, and also showed a partial shot of her missing persons flier (just the top, not the bottom part with all the details I want). So I’m going to have to post this case with next to nothing useful in it.

Blarg. *headdesk*

Why is Dana Rishby on the FBI kidnappings page?

According to the FBI, Dana Rishby is a dual German/Israeli citizen who disappeared while vacationing in Mexico. My question is: so what gives the US jurisdiction over this? Not complaining, just confuzzled.

Some people just cannot catch a break.

I was just looking at the website of Spencer Nastrom. He is the oldest son of Sandra Jacobson and half-brother to John Jacobson. Sandra and John disappeared without a trace in 1996, when Spencer was sixteen. Spencer was then raised by Sandra’s mother. In 2005, his father (Sandra’s ex-husband) was brutally murdered. The crime has yet to be solved. Spencer had three daughters and finally married their mother, his longtime girlfriend, in 2007. His 24-year-old wife died of strep throat (of all things) this past May.

Definitely a lottery family. Or at least, one lottery person. I just hope this poor man’s kids don’t start dropping dead. I’m not superstitious, but if I was I would say he was cursed.

Sex offender creates poster for missing woman

I just encountered an article about a sex offender who created a missing person poster for a woman who had disappeared. The poster, which offered a $100,000 reward, wasn’t authorized by the family, and they freaked and called the cops when they found out who had made it. The police suspected this man was trying to profit financially from the woman’s disappearance so they sent someone over to offer a “donation.” The man didn’t take the money. He said he had to call the woman’s family. So the police have determined there was no crime committed.

Frankly I’m not sure why this is considered news. It sounds like the guy was just trying to help. What is frustrating about this article is that it doesn’t say what “sex offense” he was convicted of. You’ve seen me spout off on this blog before about sex offender registration. It’s way too inclusive and you can end up on the list for very minor things (such as having sex with a 15-year-old when you’re 17, or even urinating in public). And all the media and people are going to hear is “registered sex offender.”

So it’s true

Jaycee Dugard really HAS been found — albeit living in horrific circumstances. Her abductor, a convicted rapist named Phillip Garrido, along with his wife, Nancy, kept Jaycee locked up in a shed in the backyard. She gave birth to two daughters during her time in captivity. They are now 11 and 15 years old and were also raised in the shed. It’s like something out of a bad movie — or the Elizabeth Scott novel Living Dead Girl, which is about a teenage girl who was kidnapped by a man when she was a child and has been forced to be his live-in rape victim ever since. Jaycee and the children are in good physical health apparently, but mentally it’s got to be another story altogether. That poor woman. Those poor kids.

I hope there will be an outpouring from the community like there was with Shasta Groene, and Jaycee and her kids will get the therapy they need and be able to set up a new life for themselves. The kids have never been to school. It wouldn’t surprise me if they too were sexually violated by Garrido.

On the bright side…Jaycee is ALIVE! Who would have thought? I certainly never believed this was a possibility. I believe the longest known time a child was held captive in a stranger abduction case is nine years. Well, Jaycee has DOUBLED that record, and it gives new hope for all the other children out there who have been missing for decades.

She and the kids are young yet. I only hope they can salvage their lives.

The Stuart family revisited

One of my regular informants located this article about the 1977 cases of little Fannie and Jessie Stuart and their mother Mary, whom I just added to Charley yesterday after finally obtaining her picture. As ever, the husband/father, Byron Stuart, is the prime suspect. Unfortunately for the case, he’s dead. He died in 1996 at age 48.

I was curious to see what caused Byron to die at such a young age so I looked for and found his obituary. He apparently never remarried or had any other children, though the obit does mention a girlfriend. The obit does not mention Mary, Fannie or Jessie at all. Byron was an alcoholic and a drug addict. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991 and went off substances after that, and become a local community activist for AIDS sufferers. He died of hepatitis in 1996.

Anyway, with Byron dead, at this point all the police can really expect is to maybe find the mother and children’s bodies. It’s the children that particularly horrify me — why harm them? A one- and two-year-old could not be expected to be witnesses, even if they did see what happened to their mother.

“Derogatory information”

I was just looking at the discussion section of an article about a certain young woman who’s been missing for several years. Foul play suspected. Her family has a website out for her and talk about the person they think killed her. Anyway, the commenters are talking about this woman and one of them said the woman was “a mess” and her lifestyle was high-risk so a lot of people could have killed her. Someone else started talking about the “derogatory” and “victim blaming” information posted on certain websites. They linked to Charley’s casefile as an example.

The Charley file for this woman notes that she was employed as an exotic dancer. (She disappeared after leaving the strip club when her shift was over.) It also says she suffered from bipolar disorder and had a history of abusing cocaine. These things are quite true, as far as I know. I have actually heard from this woman’s family and they didn’t tell me anything on the page was inaccurate.

Am I wrong to post these things, since they might make people less sympathetic to the missing woman?

I think not. I am certainly not “victim blaming” when I post things about an MP’s criminal record or mental illness or whatever bad things were in their lives. I refuse to judge people — an MP is missing and needs to get found, no matter who they are or what they did. Certainly, if this woman was murdered, she did not deserve her fate no matter what her lifestyle was like. I try to be as inclusive as possible because the less-than-perfect aspects of an MP’s life could well be a factor in their disappearance. I can understand it would be upsetting and embarrassing to some to have it posted online that your missing daughter or whoever has, say, a criminal record a mile long and has spent time in mental hospitals. But I don’t want to whitewash things. That doesn’t get anyone anywhere.

“Missing” fugitives

I saw the 1967 disappearance of William Leslie Arnold on the Nebraska State Patrol database. I don’t think I’ll put him on Charley, though. According to this Unsolved Mysteries post, he escaped from prison where he was serving time for the murder of his parents, a crime he committed when he was just 15 years old.

There are a few other people listed on missing persons sites who are actually fugitives believed to be on the run from the law. Heather Jean Johnson is wanted for attempted murder. Another man listed on NCMA, I forget his name, is wanted for hiding a camera in a girls’ locker room and filming the girls undressing. Whenever I find out about this sort of thing I remove the person from Charley. If they’re believed to have run to avoid prosecution, they’re not really missing, though their families may miss them.

A roundup of resolves

It sometimes happens that I get several resolved cases dumped on me all at once. Today is one of those days. We’ve got:

Alice Louise Donovan, 44, who was kidnapped from Conway, South Carolina on November 14, 2002. Her abductors were too thoroughly frightening young punks, Brenden Basham and Chadwick Fulks, who’d broken out of jail and gone on a multi-state crime spree of robbery, car theft, burglary, kidnapping and murder. The suspects were arrested two days later. They were later convicted of carjacking resulting in death in Alice’s case. Bone fragments found in Horry County, South Carolina in January have just been identified as Alice’s. Basham and Fulks are both on death row now. Another of their victims, a West Virginia college student named Samantha Burns, is still among the missing.

Michael Ray Larsen, 49, a transient who disappeared from Fort Bragg, California in August 2003. His skeletal remains were found near a homeless encampment in Fort Bragg last week, and were identified this week. There was no indication of foul play. It looks like he might have fallen off a cliff.

Tiairra Jo Garcia, 19, disappeared from Pasco, Washington on June 22, 2008. Her dirtbag boyfriend and three of his associates were charged in connection with her disappearance. The police believe Tiairra’s boyfriend accidentally shot her and then let her die without trying to get help for her. Tiairra’s remains turned up in Mount Rainier National Park. The boyfriend was sentenced to eight years in prison and one of his friends got one year for their roles in her death. It hardly seems to be enough.

Brody Shaun Shelton, 3, and his sister Logan Willow Shelton, 1, were kidnapped by their mother from Las Vegas, Nevada on March 19, 2004. The children have been found safe, according to the NCMEC; I have no other details.