I am quite happy to have returned to my usual updating. I had a lot to catch up on! These last few days I’ve been suffering from really bad hay fever and have just sat in bed, working on the computer. Yesterday I felt horrible and didn’t get out of bed most of the day except to go to the bathroom. I missed class. I ached all over and my nose was running like a faucet and there were no allergy meds in the house. Finally in the evening I dragged my carcass next door to my minister neighbor friend, and she gave me some Claritin that helped a little. I feel somewhat better today, but still snuffly.
Anyvague, highlights of the recent updates:
Nadia Dabbagh has made contact with her mom. This adorable little two-year-old was kidnapped by her father in 1990. He took her to Syria, dumped her with relatives, and went to Saudi Arabia. Nadia’s mother, Maureen, launched on an active and vocal campaign to have Nadia returned to her, but the Syrian government mostly refused to cooperate. Frankly, I didn’t think she’d ever see Nadia again. Well, Maureen emailed me last night to say Nadia, who is now 20, had gotten in touch with her. I don’t know any details, but I am so happy for them. Hopefully Nadia can return to the US and get to know her mother again.
Sherry Sellers, a 50-year-old who disappeared from Tuscaloosa, Alabama last January, has been found in the trunk of her own car. She left a suicide note when she disappeared, and the police concentrated their searches on nearby rivers because Sherry had earlier said if she killed herself, she’d do it by drowning. Sherry’s car was parked in the garage and they checked it, but didn’t find anything of interest and didn’t notice any smell. She had locked herself in the trunk with the only set of keys, so they couldn’t get the trunk open and for some reason they didn’t bother to call a locksmith or anything. Finally her family did, and they found the body. The police have apologized for their oversight.
A guy named Jason Gross has been charged with murdering Rochelle Battle, a sixteen-year-old girl who disappeared from Baltimore like March. Very little information has been released about the murder case. I don’t even have a picture of Gross. I did do a criminal record check on him and found out he’s got a record for all sorts of things, including sex assault.
The police have announced they think Haleigh Cummings was murdered and they have some suspects in her disappearance, whom they haven’t named yet. Odds are these suspects include Misty Croslin, her father’s girlfriend, and Joe Overstreet, Misty’s cousin. There’s an unconfirmed story that Overstreet went to the Cummings home that night looking for a gun to steal, couldn’t find it, and put a knife to Misty’s throat and kidnapped Haleigh instead. I don’t know why Overstreet would have done that, or why Misty wouldn’t have called the cops after he did. I don’t even know whether this story is true or not. But the cops searched a river for evidence and brought Misty (who’s in jail for drug charges) to the search site. They didn’t find anything though.
I just added the cases of Ronkeya Holmes and her daughter, Masaraha Ross. As the story goes, Ronkeya sent Masaraha to live with her father, Lester Ross. Later Ronkeya wanted her back, but was unable to even speak to Masaraha on the phone. Lester always claimed she was asleep or out. Ronkeya drove to Lester’s house to pick up Masaraha in early October last year and Lester promised to turn her over, then reneged. Ronkeya returned to her own home in Georgia and went to the police at that point. A few weeks later she went back to Florida to try again to pick up Masaraha. Then both of them disappeared, and Lester’s cousin was arrested driving Ronkeya’s car. Lester claims he met Ronkeya at a Wal-Mart and gave her their daughter and that was the last he saw of them, but the police looked at the Wal-Mart surveillance cameras and didn’t see any of them on there. So far the cops have been pretty quiet about this case, but it sounds very much like Lester did something to his daughter, then had to stop Ronkeya from finding out. I wonder when was the last time anyone besides Lester saw Masaraha before her reported disappearance.
The Charley Project Blog 