Apologies for lack of updates lately

I really haven’t been as productive as usual this month and I apologize for that. Normally I get my work done while Michael’s at work, but he was sick and I had to take care of him, and the weather has been so horrible that they keep canceling school and so he doesn’t have to go to work. (There’s a two-hour delay today. So far.) I refuse to let the Charley Project interfere with our relationship to the extent that it used to, so there you are. Between him being home and me getting his flu, not much is getting done around here.

But rest assured, there will be updates today.

Did radio interview

My interview went very well. No, it wasn’t live — thank goodness — and I’m not sure when the interview will air. But they promised to let me know when it DOES air, and I, in turn, will let you guys know.

Still getting over the flu. Still purging cases. Even if Charley looks calm and still on the surface, more often than not it’s boiling underneath.

Missing Person of the Week: Christina Lewis

This week’s featured MP is Christina Lynn Lewis, a sixteen-year-old girl who was last seen in New Bern, North Carolina in 2000. As with Alexander Ferguson, this is a case with frustratingly little information available: it isn’t clear how, or even precisely when, Christina disappeared. She would be 30 years old today.

Surge in traffic over the weekend

According to the Charley Project’s visitor stats, Thursday, Friday and Saturday all saw over 10,000 visits, with over 15,000 on Friday. This is in contrast to the usual eight to nine thousand visits. Besides my frontpage, the most popular page on the site was Nicholas Patrick Barclay‘s casefile.

I think he might have been featured on CNN recently; my friend KC said he saw a program about “an impostor who passed himself off to family as missing son” and said one of their graphics was credited to the Charley Project. KC couldn’t remember the names in the CNN story, but if it wasn’t about Nicholas I don’t know who they could be referring to.

Make-a-List Monday: MPs from Africa

Unsurprisingly, this is a list of missing people who are originally from Africa. (A list of African countries can be found here.)

Just Africa, not sure where
Mohama Samsoudini Baba

Cote d’Ivoire
Irene Kouame

Ethiopia
Tigist Hailu

Kenya
Edwina Atieno Onyango
Eugene Bush Wekesa

Somalia
Muna Mahamud Haji

Sudan
Marceline Tolondo

As you can see, this is a pretty short list. The Charley Project features far more cases of people believed to be be IN Africa. Perhaps that is a list for another time.

Purging again

It’s been awhile, so once more I’m going through Charley Project casefiles and purging those that have been removed from the source. So far I haven’t removed any yet, but I’m making a list of ones to remove. I’ll spare you the usual jokes about Siberia, this time.

Select It Sunday: Alexander Ferguson

This Sunday I’m profiling Alexander Ferguson, selected by Annie. Alexander was born on New Years’ Eve, 1987 and disappeared on March 9, 1988, at the age of only two months. His mother, Eugenia Cortez, vanished with him; I have no description for her. I have no further information for either of them: it’s a “few details are available” case.

This is beyond frustrating. A two-month-old baby doesn’t just go walking out on his own. Was this a family abduction? Did Alexander’s mother run away and take him with her? Did she give him to someone else? Did one or both of them meet with foul play? Why isn’t Alexander on the NCMEC database? I have no idea.

If he’s still alive — and there’s nothing to suggest that he isn’t — Alexander Ferguson would be 26 years old today.

Ben Fowler

Executed Today entry by me: Ben “Two Gun” Fowler, who shot a guy in the cinema because he was drunk and ticked off. This was in 1928, but it sure sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

A birthday

Michaela Garecht, who was abducted from Hayward, California in 1988 at the age of nine, is 35 years old today. I was reminded of this by her mother’s blog.

I am officially sick

Michael has been sick as a dog for much of the week, even calling in sick three out of the four days (the fifth day, I believe school got canceled anyway). Now he’s on the mend but, unsurprisingly, I’ve caught it from him. Ah, the gift that keeps on giving!

We both went to the doctor and Michael’s diagnosed him with a bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics. Mine diagnosed the flu and told me to wait. Well, I’m armed with ibuprofen and the prescription cough syrup Tussionex (which I highly recommend because, unlike all the others, it doesn’t taste bad).

I just hope I’m sufficiently recovered to do my interview Tuesday without sounding like a frog.