Victoria Prokopovitz’s husband charged with her murder

Victoria Lynn Prokopovitz has been missing from Pittsfield, Wisconsin for six years and counting. Her daughter, Marsha Loritz, was the one who started those missing persons event I go to every year. Marsha is a very sweet person, just lovely. She cries when she talks about her mother’s disappearance.

Well, it looks like answers may finally be coming, because yesterday, Vicki’s husband, James, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and perjury. James’s girlfriend, Kathryn Friday, whom he started seeing just a month after Vicki vanished, was charged with perjury and obstructing an officer.

This isn’t really a surprise; James had been a suspect in his wife’s disappearance for awhile now. I don’t know whether I should be happy or sad for Marsha. James had been her stepfather since she was a kid and I’m sure she hoping someone else was responsible for whatever happened to her mom. She always said she didn’t know what happened and just wanted to find out, find her mother.

I hope James confesses, pleads guilty and discloses the location of Vicki’s body without any further BS. Not only is he a murderer, but he basically tortured Marsha and her sister and the rest of the family for the past six years by not letting them know what happened.

Articles:

• Green Bay Press Gazette: Missing Pittsfield woman Victoria Prokopovitz’s husband arrested; homicide charge pending
• Fox 11 News: Husband of missing woman, his girlfriend jailed on homicide charges
• WBAY Action News: $2 million bond set for husband accused of missing wife’s murder

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: Maureen Kelly

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I am profiling one Asian or Pacific Islander MP for every day of the month of May. Today’s case is Maureen Leianuhea Kelly, a 19-year-old Pacific Islander woman who disappeared from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington on June 9, 2013.

Maureen told her friends she was going on a “spiritual quest” and to that end she removed all her clothes and walked off into the woods wearing only a fanny pack carrying some very basic wilderness supplies. She never returned. Her friends waited ten or twelve hours to report her missing.

My guess is she’s still in the forest, perhaps very near to the spot where she went missing. Temperatures that night dipped into the low forties; without any clothes on, she could easily have died of exposure.