Michael got me this coat for Christmas

This past spring Michael and I went to a furrier’s to get one of my leather jackets repaired and we noticed this coat. It is a really pretty color and is cruelty free — the fur is sheared; no animals died to make it. (I am not against wearing fur, but I am against people yelling at me in the comments section for wearing fur.) Michael said he’d get it for me and then I promptly forgot about it entirely, until today when I finally got back to his house to open the box waiting for me under the tree.

The quality of the photograph doesn’t really do the coat justice (stupid cell-phone camera technology). It’s super-warm too.

Executed again

Another of my guest entries has run on Executed Today: Three Bialystok Jews.

Happy New Year

2012 approaches. I am drunk.

I had not thought I would live as long as this. Yet here I am, alive and well and not entirely unhappy.

Wow, I am stunned!

Got an email from a woman who’s on my website as a family abductor. She explained that the situation had been resolved because the searching father had died, and custody automatically reverted to her, so could I please remove her and her child from Charley? (I checked and he is, in fact, no longer listed as missing.)

And she DIDN’T THREATEN TO SUE ME. *faints* In fact, she even wished me a happy New Year.

Christmas loot thus far

I’ve got at least one extra gift coming to me; it’s waiting under the tree at Michael’s house. His household is doing Christmas tomorrow. But for now I’ve got:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson from my dad (we saw the first movie on the 23rd; Lisbeth Salander is so much like me it’s terrifying)
Some tights and The Holocaust Chronicle from Michael’s parents
A book tote and a $25 Amazon gift card from my mom
Some socks and Middle Passages: African-American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005 by James T. Campbell from my sister
Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters by Charlotte Grieg from Michael
A $100 Amazon giftcard from my fellow blogger at Executed Today

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Some MPs who disappeared on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day

Okay, these are like way incomplete, but whatever.

Christmas Eve:
Siphat Chau, Maine, 2002
James Clark Creighton, Maryland, 2000
Mari Ann Fowler, Louisiana, 2002
Travis Lamont Lynch, North Carolina, 2003
Lluvia Sharanique McCraw, Texas, 2008
John Pavlat, California, 2002
Sherry Michaud Petersen, Florida, 1992
Rodolfo Ricardez, California, 1999
Five children from the Sodder family: Betty Dolly, Jennie Irene, Louis Erico, Martha Lee and Maurice Antonio, West Virginia, 1945
Ben Ta, California, 2000
Sean Wheeler, New York, 2003

Christmas Day:
Betty Vigil Garcia, New Mexico, 1995
Connie Lyn Leama, California, 1995
George Rodrigues Pereira Jr., California, 1995
Julian Feixas Polcaro, New Jersey, 1997
Lawrence Jay Riegel, Washington, 2009
Bettina Diane Scott, Connecticut, 2004
Kenneth Ray Weaver, Oklahoma, 2000

As a bonus: One MP whose (middle) name is Christmas: Cora Christmas McGuirk. The only other person I’ve heard of that was named Christmas was a girl in one of the James Bond movies. I think they named her that just so he could make a horrible pun at the end of the film, when they were having sex: “I thought Christmas came just once a year.” Groan.

Merry Christmas Eve

Today I am thinking of all the families of missing people out there — this upcoming holiday must be a particularly difficult one for them. But maybe some of those aforementioned MPs will call home. After all, Theodore Szal, a presumed victim of John Wayne Gacy, has just turned up alive, well and kind of confused and surprised that his family had assumed he was dead. For that family, anyway, Christmas came early.

Quebecois missing kids

Found this article about missing children in Quebec. It gives details about the Yohanna Cyr case, about which I’d previously known nothing besides what was on the NCMEC poster. (Not that I’d bothered to research it; it isn’t a Charley-eligible case.) Yohanna was a year and a half old when her mother, Lilianne, left her with a boyfriend for a few days. When Lilianne came back, Yohanna was nowhere to be found. Her boyfriend said she’d died but refused to reveal where her body was. If she is alive today (and she might be, who knows) she would turn 35 on the 28th of this month.

The article also talks about Melina Martin, a thirteen-year-old girl who’s been missing 2005. No clues there.

Article about unidentified DeKalb County, GA boy

Found this article about a five- to seven-year-old boy whose body was found in DeKalb County, Georgia back in 1999. They still have no idea who he is, but have named him Dennis.

Toxicology reports found acetaminophen and anti-nausea medicine in Dennis’ system.

“This child appeared to be well cared for,” said forensic investigator Greg Johns said. “And for him to just be dumped out like that and all these years with nobody coming by, it just makes it that much more unusual.”

I should note here that the kid was wearing Timberland boots. Timberland is not a cheap brand. Their website says kid-sized boots cost about $80 a pair, depending on the model — and this for a shoe the child will outgrow in six months or a year.

The medical examiner’s analysis in 1999 found no signs of trauma and no cause of death could be determined. Investigators believe the remains were in the woods for three to six months before they were found, putting the possible date of the death late in 1998.

It reminds me a lot of the Boy in the Box case. I think chances are “Dennis” was never reported missing. As I’ve noted before, it’s sickeningly easy to conceal a child’s disappearance for years.

Never give up, people. Not even when all hope seems to be gone.

“An Indonesian girl swept out to sea and feared dead during the 2004 Christmas tsunami has emerged alive and well seven years later.”

“A girl who was swept away in the Indian Ocean tsunami seven years ago said Friday she broke down in tears this week after tracking down her parents, who had long lost hope of finding her alive.”

“An Indonesian girl separated from her family during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has been reunited with her relatives after seven years living as a street child, her parents said Friday.” (with pics)

I have nothing more to say.