I got an email from a lady about an old case, early 1980s. She was a bit confused cause she’d known the MP and the Charley Project said his car didn’t turn up for ten years, but she had heard about it’s being located just a few months after he went missing.
I went back and investigated and discovered a rotten bit of luck and an important lesson. Newspapers.com had several versions of the same article about the man’s disappearance, all written years after the fact. ONE of these multiple versions of the article had a small typo, giving the time the man’s car was found as October 1992. In fact the car was found in October 1982.
And of course of all the articles I used when researching the case for the write-up, I had to pick the one with the typo.
Whoops.
Note to self: in future, when possible try to compare articles against each other, even if all the articles appear to be exactly the same.
On the plus side, my disorder is starting to swing back out of depression so there’s that.
The Charley Project Blog 
Meaghan,
If you get a chance, The Vanished aired a podcast on October 4th on my brother.
We spoke before on the phone a while back and indicated that you would get back with me to verify my relationship with Bob via birth records and such but I never heard back.
Any thoughts as to where I can go from here? I spoke to the case manager at NVMEC last week. We must have spoke over an hour and a half hopefully this case will be investigated further.
Hope all is well with you.
Joy Parrella Lee
On Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 10:18 AM The Charley Project Blog wrote:
> Meaghan posted: ” I got an email from a lady about an old case, early > 1980s. She was a bit confused cause she’d known the MP and the Charley > Project said his car didn’t turn up for ten years, but she had heard about > it’s being located just a few months after he went missi” >
On Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 10:18 AM The Charley Project Blog wrote:
> Meaghan posted: ” I got an email from a lady about an old case, early > 1980s. She was a bit confused cause she’d known the MP and the Charley > Project said his car didn’t turn up for ten years, but she had heard about > it’s being located just a few months after he went missi” >
I suspect this happened to you because of the sheer volume of cases you write about plus the number of errors that happen in newspaper (and other media) articles. With a database of over 14,000 cases, taking a date from the one article that was wrong is going to happen at least a few times just by chance. I think the cool thing is that the lady who knew the MP was able to contact you and correct it.
I hope your brain continues to be kinder to you.
Mistakes happen! By the way, if you ever need an editor or anything, I’m available. I think I’ve read almost 1/4 of every article on Charley. It’s my hobby lol. I know it’s kind of a one man show but if you ever decide you want a helper, consider me!!! Glad your brain is cooperating.
A mistake! Oh my gosh Meaghan! So glad life is welcoming you back. I welcome you back as well. 🥰
Doh! Don’t sweat it, mistakes happen to the best of us.
I’m so glad you’re starting to come out of depression. 🙂