Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: Song Joseph

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I’m profiling one Asian or Pacific Islander MP every day for the month of May. Today’s case (which was supposed to run last night but didn’t; I forgot to schedule it and it was stuck in drafts) is Song Im Joseph, a 20-year-old Korean-American woman who disappeared from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on June 8, 1975.

Song had been born and raised in South Korea and moved to the U.S. in late 1974 after she married an American serviceman, Alton Joseph. By the time of her disappearance, mere months into their marriage, the couple was having unspecified problems, and Song told people she was being followed around by a Korean-speaking man.

It really doesn’t look good for her and I feel deeply sorry for her. I mean, she was a young woman who moved to another country, another culture, to have a happy life, a better life than she might have expected in South Korea, and then everything so rapidly went sideways.

This concludes my Asian Pacific American Heritage Month posts. See you next year.

Black History Month: Jamir Richardson

In honor of Black History Month I’m profiling one African-American MP every day on this blog for the month of February. Today’s case is Jamir Bashir Richardson, a 30-year-old who disappeared from Wilmington, Delaware on May 14, 2012.

The circumstances seem to indicate suicide: Jamir was despondent over the loss of his job and had told his wife he felt suicidal, and his car was found abandoned next to the Christina River with all his stuff inside.

However, the bodies of most suicide victims are found, and Jamir’s never was. I wonder how thoroughly they searched the river for him.

A mother-and-son ET entry

My second Executed Today entry of the month: May and Howard Carey, a mother and son hanged in Delaware on this day in 1935. They’d killed May’s brother, Robert Hitchens, for his insurance policy, worth $2,000 — the equivalent of 35k in 2017, sez this inflation calculator. One of May’s other sons, sixteen-year-old James, got life in prison for his role in the murder.

I’ve got two more entries this month, on the 17th and the 19th. (Unless I write some more. Which I might, who knows. I bet I could get some out of the books I bought at Auschwitz.)

Documentary being made about Janteyl Johnson’s disappearance

A little bird  Twitter told me they’re making a documentary about the 2010 disappearance of Janteyl Johnson, who was only 15 years old and pregnant when she vanished. She’s classified as a runaway. The documentary trailer can be viewed here. I don’t know very much about this case and neither, apparently, does anyone else. Hopefully the film will change that.

MP of the week: AbdulNur Wilson

This week’s featured missing person is AbdulNur Wilson, a teenage boy who disappeared from Wilmington, Delaware in 1998. He was listed on the NCMEC site for a long time, classified as a runaway. He’s no longer on there, but he is on NamUs.

Given AbdulNur’s involvement with drugs and the length of time that’s passed since his disappearance, it’s entirely on the cards that he met with foul play. It seems like if he were still in the local area and still alive, they’d have found him by now.

Just realized

Truman Thurman White, a woman beater, child abuser and all-around dirt bag, who almost certainly murdered his one-month-old son Shawn, is, I believe, due to be released from prison this year. Or perhaps he’s out already, I don’t know. I tried to find some information about him on the web but didn’t find anything that isn’t already in Shawn’s casefile. I bet Shawn’s mom is on Facebook or something, but there must be hundreds of people named Tonya Graham, and even if I found the right one it’s against my personal rules to cold-contact her.

Shawn and Jay-Quan Mosley, another chubby-cheeked infant who was killed by his father, touch my heart. Shawn looks so innocent in his photo. And Jay-Quan, so joyful.

Flashback Friday: Donna Lee Urban

I think this is the first time I’ve profiled a probable suicide for Flashback Friday. It’s pretty obvious what happened to Donna Urban: on February 7, 1983, she jumped off a bridge over the Delaware River, presumably to her death, at the age of 23. Over 30 years later, it’s unlikely her body will ever be found.

Another young life lost to depression. Wherever she is, I hope she’s finally at peace.

Flashback Friday: John Jay Ashley Jr.

This week’s Flashback Friday is John Jay Ashley Jr., who was addressed by his middle name. He disappeared from Wilmington, Delaware on December 14, 1971, at the age of eighteen and a half. Unfortunately I don’t have much on the circumstances of his disappearance, except for a curious thing: another boy, aged seventeen, disappeared from Wilmington on the same night. He turned up, drowned, in February 1972.

It would be interesting to see if authorities believe Jay Ashley also drowned, or if his case is connected to the other one. From what little information I have, it seems unlikely that they were. Yes, it’s a bit strange that two boys almost the same age disappeared from that city on the same night, but the other boy’s death doesn’t seem to have been foul play, and Wilmington’s not exactly a tiny hamlet or anything. I found this chart that says the population in 1970 was 80,000 and change.

So what happened to Jay Ashley on that cold night over forty years ago? I doubt we’ll ever know.

People who vanished from five more state capitals (okay, more like four)

For Make-a-List Monday. A month ago I did a list of people who disappeared from the capitals of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas and California. Now Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida and Georgia:

Denver, Colorado:
Amy Ann Ahonen
Uvaldo Moises Anaya
Nonnie Ann Dotson
Jennifer Anne Douglas
Daphne Ronette Hope
Rebecca Ann Kellison
Jennifer Lynn Marcum
Anthony Steven Michael Moya
Irma Rosario Muneton-Cueto
Diana Judith Portillo
Brian Pytlinski
Ian Ashley Richardson
Teresa Schilt
Alexander Joseph Talamantes-Bourg
Nicholle Torrez
Ligia Miranda Uribe-Ramos
Michelle Ileana Uribe-Ramos
Jesus Vizcaino Maldonado
Jose Vizcaino Maldonado
Maria Guadalupe Vizcaino Maldonado
Sofia Vizcaino Maldonado

Hartford, Connecticut:
Griselda Aguirre
Rosa Marie Camacho
Angel Garcia
Sandra Santiago
Rosa Maria Valentin

Dover, Delaware:
Um….nobody

Tallahassee, Forida:
Danielle Tamara Brown
Jeremiah Dominique Bryant
Eddie Albert Bunion
John Wesley Davis
Ali I’isha Gilmore
Merlene Hayes
David Jackson
Erik Sol Patchin
Cristina Valasquez
Jerry Michael Williams

Atlanta, Georgia:
Gloria Jean Baird
Donald Boardman
Monica Renee Bowie
Carolyn Ann Brown
Jose Cruz
Dymashal Lashon Cullins
Athena Joy Curry
Desmond Santonio Dix
Gabriella Larasati Elprana
Muzhgan Fazil
Darron Glass
Raymond Lamar Green
Marion Bobby Gresham Sr.
Dianna Affana Hammonds
Artdrunetta Lareann Hobbs
Toffazzal Hossain
Latrease Hunter
Douglas Morris Jarmon II
Sabah Nasheed Karriem-Conner
Katie Dell Kemp
Devona Kincaid
Mary Shotwell Little
Lydia Michelle McDuffie
Shannon Denise Melendi
Robert Lee Mitchell
Daryl Edward Nicholson
Cheryl Bernita Parks
Timothy Rideaux
Elliott Calhoun Rountree
Alisha Smiley
Hazel Ruth Smith
Tavish Sutton
Grongie Ward
Brenda Ann Walters
Michael Way
Mary Ann White
Nikita Michelle Wingo
Christoph R. Zahn