This week’s featured missing person is Jesse Robert Kaslov, one of the Charley Project’s older family abduction cases, missing from South River, New Jersey since January 20, 1998. This case is complicated by the fact that Jesse and his family are American Gypsy/Roma and kind of live off the grid, without much of a paper trail or anything like that. Jesse was only a toddler when he disappeared, and he will turn eighteen come December.
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
The Charley Project Blog 
Always been fascinated with this case, due to the whole Gypsy circumstances. Obviously, these aren’t the same ones who decided to do that tasteless “reality” show on TLC. From what I understand from my Grandma (Eastern European), all that info is correct, keep to themselves, etc, and it transferred here, as do many cultures. If they were to find him, he’d probably be set in the Gypsy ways and not want to back to his dad, but like many older cases, I wish someone would step forward with a resolve and/or assurance so the money and time can go towards those who need it most.
His father is from the same community and would likely live the same way.
These folks are very difficult to deal with.I knew a woman who got tied up with a man who called himself a gypsy. She had to be VERY CAREFUL he did not run off with the little girl they had together because he had literally NO RECORDS. The only proof he existed was that people saw him but the name he gave and other identifying information couldn’t be verified. He insisted he was indeed a United States Citizen but unlike her and me and the child they had he had no birth certificate,had never been assigned a SS number, and didn’t have any footprints on record. When he wanted to be acknowledged as the baby’s father and was refused because he couldn’t prove identity in the United States or elsewhere he like this man claimed discrimination. He had a habit of disappearing suddenly and abruptly returning months or years later. He always somehow managed to locate his ex and the child but his ex had no hopes of locating him for Child Support or health history if he did not want to be found. Because of this he did not find out his child had passed away for five years. Imagine his surprise to suddenly turn up unannounced after 7 years demanding to see what should have been a 16 year old high school junior full of life. Instead he was given a copy of her obituary dated from October 2005, directed to a local cemetery, and told it was a tragedy no one wanted to recall. Due to his so called “culture” he had missed the child’s entire life. Gypsies swear we regular citizens look down on them but they’re a shifty antisocial bunch who seem to think themselves above American Law.
So let me get this straight…. these people don’t have birth certificates, social security numbers, and don’t come to the attention of authorities unless they want to? How is anyone to know that they are legitimate citizens worth police intervention if they don’t legally exist? I’m am a dual citizen having one American parent&one foreign parent and each country has given me a birth certificate, so that I can obtain other identification that entitle me to certain benefits. Without laws requiring identification anyone could claim to be a citizen for economic benefit. I don’t blame the police for allegedly discriminating in this case. The parents weren’t married,there’s no proof biologically or legally that this man is the boy’s father,none of them have any identification, and there is only word of mouth to go on. We are a nation of laws. Apparently the Romany forgot that.