Does anyone know…

Does NamUs have a Facebook page? I can’t seem to find any, though I did find one for the Doe Network that I had previously been unaware of.

This really makes me mad

The Charley Project does not normally profile victims of disasters such as volcanic eruptions, floods, etc. I made an exception for the disappearances of Carl Rotstein, Daniel Arroyo, Timothy Noonan and Rowan Dingwall, though. The main reason was because I was so outraged by what had happened to them that I felt I had to tell their story. I’m not going to bother to repeat all the background details here; just click on any of the names and you can learn the details of that tragic event that claimed so many lives.

I updated the cases today. I thought to look up and see whether James Pflueger had finally faced a reckoning for the seven manslaughter charges or not. He’d used various machinations to delay his trial for years, and I half-expected him to die before justice could be served; he’s 87 years old now. This excellent article/editorial explains the situation better than I can, but in case you want to read my version of it, continue below:

It turns out that last summer Pflueger did, finally, flesh out a deal with prosecutors: a deal that’s very favorable to him. His COMPANY took responsibility for the seven deaths. And, since you can’t put a corporation in jail (even if corporations are people, legally speaking), it was sentenced to a fine of $50k per head. That’s what a person’s life is worth in Hawaii, apparently.

I might add that Pflueger’s personal worth is over $71 million. So this $350,000 fine is, like, a week’s pay to him. To add insult to injury, the money isn’t even going to Pflueger’s living victims or to the families of the dead. The state’s taking it and has promised to spend it on dam inspections. (If the state had been doing their job re: dam inspections in the first place, this disaster would never have happened.)

As for Mr. Pflueger, it’s been almost a year since he pleaded to one measly count of reckless endangerment and he has yet to be sentenced. He keeps pleading ill health. They are expecting the judge to sentence him to five years’ probation, although he could get *gasp* up to a year in prison. (Maybe he’ll get house arrest. That is to say, mansion arrest, or estate arrest…)

If they actually do make him to serve time, I suppose he’ll probably appeal that, saying it would be cruel to put a sick old man in jail, and while his appeal is pending he’ll die peacefully at home in his own bed. And you just know that if Pflueger wasn’t so obscenely rich he would be in jail right now.

Meanwhile, seven lives were lost — six people and one unborn baby — and this at what should have been a time of celebration, right before Daniel Arroyo and Christina MacNees’s wedding and Rowan’s birthday. All because of Mr. Pflueger’s greed. And he doesn’t seem to be one bit sorry, and it doesn’t look like he’ll pay for his crimes in this lifetime.

MP of the Week: Timmothy Pitzen

This week’s featured missing person is Timmothy James Pitzen, a six-year-old boy who disappeared exactly three years and one day ago. If he’s still alive — and that’s one big if — he will be ten in October. Although he lived in Aurora, Illinois, he’s actually missing from Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

On May 11, 2011, Timmothy’s mother Amy Fry-Pitzen removed him from kindergarten without telling her husband. Over the next few days they traveled to Wisconsin, staying at various water park resort hotels. Timmothy’s father, James, filed missing persons reports for them. Amy finally called on the afternoon of the 13th and said she and Timmothy were fine; he could be heard in the background during the conversation. This was the last sign of him.

That evening, Amy checked into another hotel, alone. She took her own life that night and her body was found by hotel staff the next day. She left a note, and mailed some letters, saying her son was fine and with people who cared about him.

And here the matter rests, pretty much. The latest news I could find was from last October, when Amy’s cell phone turned up on a roadside in Wisconsin. Unfortunately the phone contained “nothing of value.”

The police have no hard evidence that little Timmothy met with foul play, and his father and other relatives hope Amy was telling the truth in her letters and he’s still alive somewhere.