Charley is about to turn ten

On October 12th the Charley Project will be a whole decade old. I remember the early days, when I was a sophomore history major in college, and frankly paid more attention to the website than to my studies–or my life. I remember doing a victory dance the first day more than 100 people visited the site. These days I average six to seven thousand! A LOT of things have changed since 2004 but Charley has stayed with me throughout. All those people lost and found. Every once in awhile I think about giving it up but then wonder what I would possibly do with myself.

MP of the week: Al’Quon Flowers

This week’s featured missing person is Al’Quon Flowers, an eighteen-year-old who disappeared three years ago. I don’t have very much on him, other than that his disappearance may have been gang-related. I did the usual check to see if there’d been any recent news: nope.

Al’Quon may have been involved in criminal activities, but he didn’t deserve what probably happened to him and his baby son didn’t deserve to grow up without a father and his large family didn’t deserve to have him ripped from their lives like this.

Another feel-good happy ending on an MP story

I wrote earlier about a missing man who was found with bovine assistance. Well, here’s this from Gawker: a missing child located by the TV reporter covering his disappearance. Talk about the ultimate scoop! Naturally the reporter filmed the little boy’s reunion with his searching family.

Make-a-List Monday: Shoeless

A list of people who weren’t wearing shoes, or might not have been wearing shoes, when they disappeared. I’m excluding people who were last seen swimming and therefore obviously sans shoes.

Breiton Scott Ackerman
Lucely Aramburo
Laura Ayala
Kristy Lynne Booth
Carrel Brady
Marco Antonio Cadenas
Jennifer Rayleen Casper-Ross
Cynthia Laura Castellano
Jeffery C. Cockrum
Annalycia Maria Cruz
Monica Cassandra Carrasco
Joshua Jayvaughn Davis Jr.
Eva Gerline DeBruhl
Robert Clarence Dunbar
Corey James Edkin
Randi Layton Evers
Ellis Faison Sr.
Angela Marie Gilbert
Jeremy James Grice
Robert L. Grossman
Tammy Ann Hill
Tamika Howard
Christopher Brent Hutson
Tyler Jennings Inman
Gail Lorraine Joiner
James Richard Keen
Chad Richard Kirkendall
David Thomas Kramer
Renee Martine Lamanna
Cassandra Nadine Landrum
James Dupree Lewis Jr.
Jeffrey Leland Lowery
Marjorie Christina Luna
Aliayah Paige Lunsford
Awilda Marrero
Jennifer Lee Martin
Cayce Lynn McDaniel
Kathleen Anne Meyer
Carlee Jade Morse
Larry Ely Murillo
Taj Narbonne
Torey Clarke Newlin
Dana Evon Null
Timeka Donyale Pridgen
Sheila Renee Quinn
Jose Alberto Ramirez
Ernest John Schmidt
Christene Nickle Seal
Shannon Marie Sherrill
Katie Faye Sinclair
Cynthia Lynn Sumpter
Vinyette Trudy Teague
Daffany Sherika Tullos
Margaret Ann Unger
Alice Mae VanAlstine
April Irene Vlk
LeeAnna Susan Marie Warner
David Edward Wetzel

Charley’s Facebook page

The Charley Project’s Facebook page has exactly 2,995 “likes” as of this writing — a mere five “likes” away from 3,000! *waves pompoms*

Select It Sunday: Roxanne Paltauf

Selected by Suzie: Roxanne Elizabeth Paltauf, missing from Austin, Texas since July 7, 2006. She was eighteen and a half at the time.

It’s a familiar story: she got into a fight with her boyfriend. He said she just walked away, leaving all her belongings behind except her ID. She has never been heard from again. The boyfriend has a criminal record and a history of violence. An Austin Chronicle article, copied here, provides details of the case and Roxanne’s background.

Her family has set up a Facebook page for her. The case is still active and the police conducted a search for her body as recently as this past March.

Roxanne seems like a responsible, hardworking young woman, not the type who would just vanish into thin air voluntarily. If she’s still alive, she would be 26 years old today. But I think she’s still eighteen.

Houston, we have another what-in-the-world-happened-here case

I’ve got a two-year-old boy named Thomas Estevis posted on Charley, one of those infamous “few details are available” cases. Well, per Annie Keller, I found out a lot more information and none of it’s good.

I will put the new info on his casefile next time I update. As far as I can tell the story is this:

Thomas has six older siblings who had been taken into CPS custody before he was born due to drug use in the household. When he was born he tested positive for cocaine and was placed in foster care as well. Eventually all the children were reunited with their parents. Then, three years later, Dad was arrested for DUI with one of the kids in the car. The police went to the house to give the child back and found Mom high and Thomas missing. Mom and Dad claimed he was with a relative in Georgia. CPS took custody of all the children again, and they weren’t able to verify Thomas’s whereabouts. Eventually, a full year after Dad’s DUI arrest, CPS filed a missing persons report for Thomas. They have no idea where he is or even when he was last seen. And there the matter rests.

Does this sound familiar to you?

I don’t know what is wrong with some people.

My latest ET entry

This one’s another Holocaust-related one, a young Dutch Jew named Raphaelson or more probably Raphaelsohn. His cousin submitted his page of testimony to Yad Vashem (as seen on Executed Today) but apparently didn’t know the time, place or circumstances of his death — only that he had been deported and never returned. The page of testimony included an exact address for the cousin. When I found out how Raphaelsohn had died, I thought I could perhaps write to his cousin with the details. I thought it might provide some closure or something, especially given that Raphaelsohn died bravely according to the account I found. I wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate to contact his cousin. But then I looked up the cousin to see if he was still living at the same address and discovered the issue was moot — he’d died years earlier. Oh, well.

Flashback Friday: Jackie Hay

This week’s Flashback Friday case is Jackie Dene Hay, a blonde, blue-eyed five-year-old who disappeared from Topeka, Kansas in September 1981. If still alive, she would be 38 years old today.

I don’t have much on Jackie. I’ve got six photos of her, but most aren’t of the greatest quality, and for some reason the NCMEC has no AP for her. She was last seen wandering away from a park, apparently being followed by a man. The police did pick up and question a suspect, but released him without charge. And there the matter rests, from that day to this. She’s listed as a non-family abduction. The NCMEC notes she could be in Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska or Oklahoma — that is, all the states bordering Kansas. I wonder if there’s a specific reason why they believe she was taken out of state?

MP of the week: Cari Farver

This week’s featured missing person is Cari Lea Farver, a 37-year-old missing from Council Bluffs, Iowa since 2012. Alas, it’s one of my “few details are available” cases — the case details are a whopping three sentences long.