MP of the week: Kelly Whiddon

This week’s featured missing person is Kelly Allison Whiddon, a 44-year-old woman who disappeared from Panama City Beach, Florida on April 8, 2016. She goes by her middle name.

It seems likely that Whiddon was murdered by her live-in boyfriend, William Daily. They were in the process of a breakup at the time of her disappearance, and Whiddon’s brother got a tape-recorded admission from Daily that he had caused her death. However, the police haven’t been able to file charges against Daily for lack of admissible evidence. (The tape recording is not considered admissible in court.)

Changes in the advanced search

Yeah, so you can FINALLY search for phrases in quotes on the Advanced Search Page.

You will also be able to search based on race, and sex. Though I’m still working on that. Because, you see, I have to go back over all 14,173 cases and specify their sex and race. I’m working on it.

There is also a new category of missing person: “Migrant.” By which I mean a person who disappears while traveling to the U.S. illegally. I’ve got quite a few cases like that on Charley and I never quite knew which category to put them in, so I decided to give them their own.

I have go back over the missing migrants and put them in the new category. I’m working on it.

National Hispanic Heritage Month: Ann Lombard

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month I’m featuring a Hispanic missing person every day from September 15 to October 15. Today’s case is Ann Lombard, aka Ana Lombard or Auriana Taylor, who disappeared from Placitas, New Mexico on April 29, 1996. She was 31.

It sounds likely that Ann was murdered by her live-in boyfriend, James Taylor, who claims she just left him. I’ll let the casefile tell more:

He and Lombard had a troubled relationship. In 1990, Lombard accused Taylor of holding her down and burning her on a stove. In 1992, one of Lombard’s children claimed he saw Taylor rape his mother and spray chemicals in her face.

Taylor was seen digging a large hole in his front yard the day after Lombard vanished. He asked a neighbor for digging equipment to repair a leaky septic tank. Police searched the yard when they learned about this, but the search turned up no evidence.

In 2002, Taylor allegedly choked his wife and threatened to “kill her like he did Ann.” In 2010, he was arrested at his Des Moines, Iowa home after a five-hour police standoff; he’d called 911 to say he was armed, poured gasoline all over his house and threatened to set it on fire. He has never been charged in Lombard’s case due to a lack of evidence.

Sounds like a real great guy, Taylor. I hope he gets what’s coming to him.

Ann Lombard left behind seven children. If still alive today, she’d be 56.