Mindi Chambers

The Arizona Republic has an article about Mindi Chambers, a seventeen-year-old girl who disappeared from Mesa, Arizona in 1982. I hadn’t really had much info on her case before, other than the peculiar fact that she wasn’t reported missing for seven months. But this article says it was actually thirteen years. Go figure.

It really doesn’t look good. Mindi’s dad sounds like a monster. He was suspected of killing Mindi’s mom when Mindi was two, but never charged. Mindi disappeared just days after she said her sorry excuse for a father had been molesting her for years. The police sent her to live with her stepmother, who was in the process of a divorce. She disappeared. No one seemed to care.

Mindi’s father is dead now. The police don’t have her dental records, and they only DNA they have is from her half-sister, which isn’t really conclusive for identification purposes. They have a body that might be hers, but they can’t tell for sure. It seems to me that an exhumation is in order — get her father’s DNA, or her mom’s.

In any case, none of this will do her any good.

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.