Missing Tuesday - George Smith IV

(I have been trying to post this since last Tuesday and keep getting interrupted.)

I love going on cruises – it’s my favorite way to vacation. But since 1995, at least 165 people (both passengers and crew) have gone missing from cruise ships. Are they victims of a shipboard crime wave or an unfortunate accident? Did they disappear voluntarily or plan to take their own lives? Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, there is no answer. Disappearances almost always occur in the middle of the night, when the ship is far out to sea.

The disappearance of George Smith IV from the cruise ship Brilliance of the Seas in 2005 is one of the most-publicized continuing mysteries of the cruise industry. Although George’s family has accepted the fact that he is no longer alive, they are still waiting for answers about how he died.

George Allen Smith IV was born in Greenwich, CT, on October 3, 1978, and grew up in the suburb of Glenville. He grew to be 6’2” and played high school football. With his father, he managed the Cos Cob Liquor Store in Glenville. George’s family describes him as very devoted to his family; college classmates say he was a quiet student and a friendly guy, well-liked by everyone.

George, age 26, and Jennifer Hagel, age 25, of Cromwell, CT, met in Newport, RI, in 2002, and were married there in a clifftop ceremony on June 25, 2005. Jennifer was an elementary school teacher, beautiful and outgoing, with a great personality. Four days after their wedding, the couple set sail on a 12 night honeymoon cruise of the Mediterranean on Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas, sailing from Barcelona, Spain, a trip that they had planned together. The Brilliance of the Seas is a very large ship, carrying almost 2300 passengers. They had a balcony stateroom on the 9th deck of the ship. The personable young couple soon made new friends on board the ship.

Halfway through their honeymoon cruise, they spent the day ashore in Mykonos on July 4, then returned to the ship and changed for dinner. They had a romantic dinner in one of the shipboard restaurants, and then went to the casino to meet up with another couple also on their honeymoon. They also connected with several young men that they had met on the cruise.  There was a rumor on the ship that George was carrying large sums of money, and a report that both had talked about how people were stuffing cash into their pockets at their wedding, and that they had brought all the money with them on the cruise. When the casino closed at 2:30 a.m., they moved on with their friends to the disco. They were all drinking heavily, and Jennifer began flirting openly with other men, including one of the casino staff. At some point, someone brought out a bottle of absinthe (not sold on the ship). Jennifer and George got into an argument, and at least three witnesses said that both George and Jennifer were very drunk, and that Jennifer kicked her husband in the groin before walking out of the disco at 3:15 a.m. Later, Jennifer said that George was mixing alcohol with two prescription medications, Zoloft and Clonazepam.

The ship docked in Kusadasi, Turkey, at 6:14 a.m., and passengers were cleared to go ashore at 6:39 a.m.  When Jennifer awoke on the morning of July 5, she was not immediately concerned that George was not in their stateroom. She believed he had continued partying after she went to bed and had simply fallen asleep in their new friends’ room, as had happened on at least one other evening on the cruise. She and George had appointments at the ship’s spa for massages; she went to the spa to keep her appointment and thought that George would join her there when he woke up.

Around 8:30 a.m., over two hours after the ship had docked, several passengers on their balconies noticed a large bloodstain on one of the lifeboat canopies. At least one passenger photographed the bloodstain. Blood was also found on the Smiths’ balcony railing, in their cabin, and on the side of the ship. A search of the ship initially showed three missing passengers: George and Jennifer Smith, and one other passenger. Jennifer was located in the ship’s spa shortly before 10 a.m., and the third passenger was also found. Three officers came to the spa to talk to Jennifer and tell her that George was missing. When questioned, Jennifer said she did not remember anything after leaving the casino until she woke up in their room that morning. While it has been suggested that Jennifer was drugged for her to go into such a deep state of unconsciousness that she remembered nothing afterwards, it is also possible that she was just extremely drunk.

Thanks to the access cards, security cameras, and passenger accounts used on the ship, George and his friends left an electronic trail of their movements. After the disco closed at 3:30 a.m., George and his friends went back to the Smiths’ room since George was too drunk to walk on his own. When George realized that Jennifer was not with them and not in the stateroom, he asked the other men to help him locate her, but they were unable to find her. They all returned to George’s room at 4:02 a.m., where the partying apparently continued. Sometime between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m., George’s companions returned to their own room and ordered room service, even taking pictures of the food because they were amazed at the quanitity.

The passengers in the neighboring staterooms, Cletus Hyman, a law enforcement officer from Redlands, CA, and Pat and Greg Lawyer, said they heard what sounded like a loud party and a drinking contest in the Smiths’ stateroom that night around 4 a.m. Mr. Hyman called the Guest Relations desk at 4:05 a.m. to complain about the noise. He thought he heard at least one voice out in the corridor, and then what he describes as an argument on the balcony that lasted about a minute, involving three voices. At around 4:15 a.m., he heard voices saying “good night” softly and when he looked out his door, he saw three men walking away. Pat and Greg Lawyer who were staying on the other side of the Smiths’ room also called Guest Relations to complain about the noise. They said they heard three male voices talking quietly outside their room, although they did not look to see who it was. They believe two of the men spoke with accents.

By now, it was approximately 4:15 a.m. Based on witness testimony, either three or four men had left the Smiths’ stateroom. The Smiths’ neighbors heard someone talking in a conversational tone in the Smiths’ room, and sounds like furniture was pushed around and cabinets being opened and closed, as though the room was either being put back in order or searching for something. Mr. Hyman said there was only one voice speaking, and after about ten minutes, the voice moved to the balcony, where he heard one of the metal balcony chairs being moved. It was quiet for a minute or so, and then he heard what he described as “a horrific thud” coming from the Smiths’ balcony, strong enough that he felt the vibration in his room. He said his first thought was that someone had fallen on the balcony. He did not hear anyone leave through the Smiths’ door, which he normally did.

When security personnel finally responded to Mr. Hyman’s call about the loud noise in the neighboring room, it was 4:30 a.m. and everything was quiet.  Mr. Lawyer suggested they might want to enter the room because it sounded as though the room was being trashed, but the security staff opted not to do that when there was no response to their knocking. 

Shortly after 4:30 a.m., Jennifer was discovered passed out in a corridor on Deck Nine, but on the other side of the ship from her own stateroom. She had made it to the right deck, but was too disoriented to find the correct room.  If she had made it back to her own room after leaving the disco, the night would most likely have ended differently: George’s friends would not have entered the room, or she could have prevented him being pushed or falling overboard, or she too might have ended up in the ocean. Jennifer was able to tell the staff who she was and her stateroom number.  Crewmembers stayed with Jennifer while two other staff went to her cabin to try to locate her husband.  Unaware of the first visit by security staff just a few minutes earlier, they entered the room around 4:45 a.m. looking for George and found the room empty. Two security officer and a female crewmember took Jennifer by wheelchair back to the Smiths’ cabin, entering the room at 4:57 a.m., and helped her to bed.  As they were leaving, Mr. Hyman stuck his head out the door and mentioned that he had heard a commotion in the room about an hour earlier. The security personnel assured him that they had seen nothing amiss in the room and then left.

George was reported missing to the Turkish police, and Jennifer and Josh Askin, one of the men who had been partying with the Smiths, were taken ashore to be questioned by police. Askin had heard the page aboard the ship asking George and Jennifer to check in with them, and volunteered the information that he had been with George in the early hours of the morning.  At 6 p.m., Captain Lachtaridis had the crew wash the bloodstain away the bloodstain on the lifeboat and prepared to depart for the ship’s next port of call. When Brilliance of the Seas returned to the Bahamas where it is chartered after the cruise, the captain filed a report calling George’s disappearance a “probable accident.” The Turkish police and Royal Caribbean turned over their findings to the FBI, including over 100 security tapes from various points on the ship.

In addition to his wife, George was seen with four men in the early morning hours of July 5, 2005, before he vanished: Josh Askin of California; and three Russian-Americans, brothers Greg and Zachary Rozenberg and their cousin Rostislav “Rusty” Kofman of Brooklyn. All four men were in their late teens or early twenties. The Turkish police interviewed Askin, but none of the others. When contacted by the FBI, they insisted that they had all left George’s room by 4:15 a.m. and returned to Kofman’s room to order room service. Askin said he returned to his own room around 5:15 a.m.  All insist George was alive and well when they left him in his own room. Askin met the Rozenbergs and Kofman on the ship; there is no reason to think that he would be covering for them, or they for him.

The young Russian men had already been warned by ship personnel regarding their behavior. During the 48 hours after George vanished, there were several more incidents involving the Rozenberg brothers and Kofman. The Rozenberg family, Kofman, and the Askin family (13 people in all) were removed from the ship in Italy after an alleged sexual assault on a female passenger that at least two of the young men participated in and videotaped. That case is still being investigated by the FBI.

Royal Caribbean officials are blamed for failing to lockdown the ship when it reached the port of Kusadasi, allowing passengers and crew to leave the ship. But at that time, they were unaware that anyone was missing. The Turkish police investigated the crime scene for about two hours, but were rushed off the boat in the afternoon, so that the cruise ship could continue on to its next scheduled port of call. Jennifer at first criticized the cruise line for abandoning her in Turkey to fend for herself, but Royal Caribbean officials say that is not true, that a crew member stayed with her from the moment she learned that George was missing until she left Turkey to return home. The Smiths’ stateroom was sealed to preserve a potential crime scene, and ship personnel provided clothing for Jennifer from the shops on board the ship.

In January 2006, Royal Caribbean allowed forensic specialist Dr. Henry Lee aboard to collect forensic evidence from the Smiths’ room.  He collected samples, photographed the scene and took measurements.  He wanted to perform an experiment throwing a mannequin off the balcony, but Royal Caribbean denied him permission to do this.

In May 2012, a new piece of possible evidence was made public. A video taken in the dining room onboard the Brilliance of the Seas shows the four men who had been with George prior to his disappearance, sitting around and talking about his death and apparently mocking him, while the search for George was still going on around them. The four men took the video themselves, apparently passing around a flip phone.  The FBI has had the video in their possession since 2005. Were the men admittiing that they had killed George, or was it just a bunch of young callous guys sitting around, trying to impress each other?

Cruising is still one of the safest forms of vacation, particularly for women, singles, and seniors. Millions of people vacation on cruise ships every year. The crime rate is minute compared with the rate of crime on land. It is a fact that people do dumb things when they are on vacation, things they would never do when they are at home (if you don’t believe me, watch a few episodes of “Vegas Strip” on TruTV). If you get drunk or high enough, it might seem like a good idea to stand on the rail of your balcony, or jump off and take a swim in the ocean.

In the years since George Smith vanished, cruise lines have changed their policies and practices regarding missing passengers. Now when a passenger is missing, no one is allowed to leave the vessel until a thorough search has been performed.

In 2010, Congress passed the Cruise Security and Safety Act, which stipulates more onboard security personnel, crime response training for security officers, and improved communications between cruise lines and the FBI and Coast Guard. In addition, the International Cruise Victims Association founded by Kendall Carver, father of Merrian Carver who vanished on an Alaskan cruise in 2004, is advocating background checks for all crewmembers, higher railings, more and better security cameras, security bracelets for all passengers and crew, complete documentation of all persons boarding or leaving the ship, and access to records and security videos for investigators.

Jennifer received a $1.1 million settlement from Royal Caribbean in 2006. George’s family challenged the settlement and Jennifer's position as executor of her husband's estate, but a probate court approved the settlement and the ruling was upheld in Superior Court in 2008. A portion of the money went to create a charitable fund in George's name.  Included in the settlement was an agreement from Royal Caribbean to turn over the evidence they collected at the time of George's disappearance from their own internal investigation.  In 2009, Jennifer remarried, to financial analyst Jeff Agne, and they have a child.  While the mystery of George's disappearance will undoubtedly stay with her forever, she is a young woman and deserves to have a life.

What really happened to George Smith IV? A number of possibilities exist:

- George was earmarked for murder because it was believed he had a lot of money in his room. Was his death the result of a robbery gone bad?

- A bunch of drunk guys got into an argument that ended horribly, and then panicked and threw George’s body overboard.

- Young drunk guys can do stupid things, like dare each other to stand on the balcony railing of a cruise ship traveling through rolling seas.

- Like a lot of men, George enjoyed a good cigar. Passengers mentioned smelling cigar smoke from the Smiths’ balcony earlier in the cruise. Possibly the opening and closing of doors that Mr. Hyman heard was George looking for a cigar, and then going out on the balcony to smoke. If he decide to get up on a chair so that he could sit on the railing to look out while he smoked, it is entirely possible that he lost his balance and fell overboard because he was extremely drunk.

On an interesting side note, a lengthy article about George’s disappearance was deleted from Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.  Since Wikipedia has stories about Natalee Holloway, the Springfield Three, and Etan Patz, I am at a loss to explain why this particular article was deleted.

If you have any information about the disappearance of George Smith IV, please contact the FBI.

Missing Tuesday - Jeffrey Lynn Smith

Minorities who go missing frequently receive less police and media attention than Causcasians do.  This was was true 25 years ago when Jeffrey Lynn Smith disappeared while she was on her way home from school, and it is unfortunately still true today.

Jeffrey Lynn Smith vanished on December 4, 1985, from Hot Springs, AK, as she walked home from school. She was last seen a few blocks from where she lived, walking with her boyfriend. She never arrived home and has not been heard from since.

Jeffrey Lynn was born on October 12, 1969. Jeffrey is an unusual first name for a girl, and she went by her middle name Lynn. Lynn’s mother named her for President Bill Clinton’s stepfather, Jeffrey Dwire; she had worked for Clinton’s mother as a maid and babysitter while she was pregnant with Lynn. Clinton’s mother, Virginia Dwire, was a nurse anesthetist and helped during Lynn’s birth. Lynn’s mother remembers preparing a meal in the kitchen of the Dwire home while she was pregnant, and young Bill Clinton (at that time a Rhodes scholar studying in England) coming in and chatting with her.

Lynn’s older sister Lisa Murray remembers her pretty younger sister’s bright smile, her sweetness. She recalls that Lynn was very low-key and vulnerable, not the kind of girl to stand up for herself. Classmates remember her as a quiet girl that everyone liked. Just two months before Lynn disappeared, her family celebrated her 16th birthday with a party.

On December 4, 1985, Lynn attended school as usual.  Friends remembered seeing her walking home from school with her boyfriend.  According to Lynn's sister, the boyfriend was abusive and Lynn wanted to end the relationship.  Somewhere between the high school and her home, Lynn vanished without a trace.

While other people were shopping for Christmas and attending parties, Lynn’s family was frantically searching for her, going from house to house, posting flyers, trying to find any shred of information about Lynn, filing a missing person's report with the police, and praying that she would come home to them.  Lynn was close to her family and they knew she would never have gone away or left the area without telling them.

At first, the police believed that Lynn had run away from home although she had no prior history of running away, and they were slow to investigate her disappearance, even though she was a minor. The family felt that because Lynn was African American, the police paid less attention to her case than they would have had Lynn been Caucasian. The Hot Springs police actually harassed the family, at one point contacting Lynn’s mother and stepfather to tell them that they had news about Lynn, but when her parents arrived at the police station, they arrested Lynn’s stepfather for an outstanding traffic warrant. As time passed and there was no word from Lynn, police came to suspect that Lynn had been abducted and that foul play was involved in her disappearance.

Lynn always wore a gold ring with an opal stone, her birthstone, that she had received as a birthday present from her mother for her 16th birthday. Her sister said she cherished the ring and never took it off. Smith’s boyfriend pawned the ring shortly after her disappearance. The ring showing up in a pawnshop was the only real clue that police had to Lynn's disappearance.  The boyfriend was later imprisoned for assaulting another girlfriend.

Lynn's sister Lisa, her mother, and her brother moved to Pennsylvania several years after Lynn vanished.  In 2005, Lisa Murray and her mother returned to Arkansas in an attempt to get Lynn's case reactivated. Lisa had learned that Lynn’s former boyfriend had assaulted at least two other women, shooting one in the face and serving jail time for the assault. Lisa tracked down the two women and interviewed them by telephone. Both women told of being abused at the hands of Lynn’s former boyfriend. Lisa transcribed the interviews and turned them over to the police.

When they had the opportunity to examine Lynn’s case file in 2007, her family learned that Lynn’s boyfriend, the last person she was seen with, was never questioned in depth by the police. Police officers had gone to his house, stood at the door and asked him a few questions, and then left. Lynn’s parents know this is true because they were present at the time, waiting outside. The boyfriend was never re-interviewed.  In 2010, on the 25th anniversary of her disappearance, a team coordinated by the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children and the Morgan Nick Foundation searched three heavily wooded areas with cadaver dogs. Police did not say what, if anything, was found during the search. They said those searches were based on information from a possible suspect. A person of interest in Lynn’s disappearance was identified but no arrest has been made.

Thanks largely to Lisa’s persistence, the Hot Springs police agreed to reexamine the case in 2012, with a new detective assigned to the cold case. Detective Lee Ann Clem, a compassionate and hard-working officer, reviewed Lynn’s case file, looking at every detail. She re-interviewed countless witnesses in an effort to connect the dots, even tracking down people in other states. Detective Clem has since been re-assigned to another case, but Lisa is hopeful that whoever takes over her sister’s case will continue to keep the case active. She feels the Hot Springs police department has a different mind-set now and if Lynn had disappeared today, her case would have been treated completely differently and her life would have been accorded the value it deserved.

Lisa volunteers with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. She says that while she still seeks justice for her sister, she and her family are at peace with the fact that Lynn is deceased and have forgiven the person who took Lynn from them. Lisa wants to bring her sister’s remains home, to be buried beside her other sister who passed away as a baby.

Jeffrey Lynn Smith was 16 years old at the time of her disappearance; today she is 43 years old. She is an African American female, with shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes and a medium complexion. She is 5’3” tall and weighed around 110 lbs. when she was last seen. She has pierced ears and a mole on the right side of her chin. She was wearing a brown jacket, pink pants, and brown shoes when she was last seen.

Jeffrey Lynn Smith’s family has been looking for her for a long time, almost 27 years. Her sister fears that if the case remains unsolved much longer, those who know what happened to Lynn will all be dead. Lynn’s mother is in her 80’s and fears that she will pass away before learning what happened to her daughter.

If you have any information about her, please contact the Hot Springs police department, 501/321-6789.

Missing Tuesday - Steven Koecher

I spent a week in southern Utah earlier this month, and we went through the city of St. George.  It is an attractive mid-sized city with a beautiful setting, a year-round mild climate and many amenities to offer its residents.  It brought to mind the disappearance of Steven Koecher, a St. George resident who vanished Sunday, December 13, 2009.  He has not been seen or heard from since that date.

Steven was born on November 1, 1979, into a large devout LDS family.  The family home is in Bountiful, UT, in northern Utah.  His parents are Deanne and Rolf Koecher and he has four siblings.

Steven was a college graduate and aspired to a career in public relations and communications.  He played guitar and tried his hand at writing music. He served a mission in Brazil, as had his father before him.  He enjoyed genealogy and often took his parents on cemetery tours to show them his discoveries.  An Eagle scout, Steven was a genuinely good person and tended to think the best of people. 

From September 2003 through May 2004, Steven worked as an intern at the governor’s office in Salt Lake City.  Before moving to St. George, he had worked as a stringer for the Davis County Clipper newspaper in Bountiful, UT, where his father was the editor.  Steven sometimes published his stories as Steven Thell (his middle name) to distance himself from his father’s position at the newspaper.  In March 2007, he took a job working for the online version of the Salt Lake City Tribune, but was laid off in July 2008.

After losing his job at the Salt Lake City Tribune, Steven took a sales job with MatchBin.com in Salt Lake City in October 2008.  He moved to St. George, UT, in March 2009 to get away from the northern Utah winters while continuing to work for MatchBin.com.  He was let go from his job in April 2009 because the company felt he was not working out as a sales rep.  In December 2009, Steven found a job working part-time for Travis Window and Blind Cleaning Company, distributing flyers.  Also during the month of December, Steven was subcontracting to put up Christmas decorations to earn extra money.

After his move to St. George, Steven did not having much luck finding a full-time job.  His family said he was depressed and having financial problems, and that he refused an offer of financial assistance from his father to help him with his rent just days before he vanished.  Steven was also feeling pressured to live up to his family's expectations for a successful career, marriage, and family of his own, as his siblings and cousins had all done.  On December 9, a few days before arriving in the Las Vegas area, Steven drove 500 miles to Ruby Valley, NV, to visit the family of a girl he had briefly dated.  The visit was unannounced and the young woman was not even home.  Steven visited with her parents, John and Kathy Neff, and stayed for lunch, then returned to St. George, making stops at Wendover, NV, Springville, UT, and Nephi, UT en route.  He drove 1,200 miles in three days without any specific purpose.  It appears to be random or stress-induced behavior.  His behavior and mental state prior to his disappearance could have been leading up to amnesia (amnesia is rare in disappearances, but Steven had some of the classic behaviors).

Steven contacted both of his parents on December 10, sending his father a text message and speaking with his mother.  They talked about the holidays, and Steven told her that he expected to arrive in Bountiful to spend Christmas with the family on December 23.  That was the last time his parents heard from him.

On December 11, Steven assisted two children who were locked out of their St. George home.  Steven was seen leaving his residence on December 12, 2009.  He stopped for gas in Mesquite, NV, about 40 miles away from St. George.  No one knows why he was in Mesquite in the first place.  He bought Christmas presents for his brother’s children on the same day at the K-Mart in St. George – this was his last financial transaction according to bank records.  He was seen arriving home in St. George at 10 p.m. by a neighbor; the same neighbor saw him leave about a half hour later at 10:30 p.m.

He spoke with several men from his church the next day via cell phone and told them he was in Las Vegas, but did not state why he was there.  One of his friends called about a church meeting, and Steven offered to return to St. George.  The friend told him not to worry about it.  No one spoke to Steven after that call.

On December 14, Steven’s car, a white 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier, was found abandoned in the 2600 block of Savannah Spring Avenue, a cul-de-sac, in Henderson, NV.  The area is part of an upscale retirement community known as Sun City Anthem.  Video footage from two security cameras shows Steven parking the car on December 13 and then walking away with a firm step as though he had a specific destination in mind.  Approximately 6 minutes elapses from the time Steven's white car is first seen at 11:54 a.m., until he walks past the first security camera at exactly 12 noon.  The second video camera picks up Steven's car in the background at 11:54 a.m., and then the image of Steven walking at about 25 seconds after 12 noon.  So he waited in his car for six minutes before getting out.  It seems pretty obvious that he had an appointment with someone for 12 noon and wisely arrived a few minutes early.  We will never know what Steven did while he waited - it's a shame he didn't make a couple of cell phone calls while he sat in the car.

The surveillance footage shows Steven walking down the sidewalk, turning left, then crossing the street, and moving out of sight.  There is nothing unsure or hesitant about his demeanor.  He is dressed casually in sneakers and jeans, certainly not business attire that would be appropriate for a job interview.  Steven was carrying a folder, which could have contained resumes or flyers or sales contracts for the company that he worked for.  Possibly he had been contacted about putting up Christmas decorations for one of the houses in the area.  He appears to know exactly where he is going, as he is not approaching any of the houses to leave a flyer or pausing to look for a house number.  The two sections of video footage may be viewed on YouTube.

Steven’s shaving kit, clothing, pillow, and blanket were found in the car, and it appeared he had been sleeping in his car while driving around during the days before he disappeared.  The car also contained wrapped Christmas presents that he had purchased a few days earlier.  His cell phone, wallet and driver’s license were missing.  He had left his laptop computer and cell phone charger at home, indicating that he did not intend to be gone from home longer than a day or two.

About five hours after Steven was seen on the surveillance video, his cell phone signal was picked up several miles north of where his car was found.  Two hours later, his cell phone signal was picked up again, this time in Whitney Ranch, a Henderson subdivision.  At 6 a.m. on December 14, the day after Steve was last seen, someone used the phone to check for voice mail messages at a third location.  The signal remained in that location for two days, and then was lost, probably because the charge on the phone ran down.

Three days after his car was found abandoned, Steven’s parents were contacted by the Henderson parking police.  Steven’s father and brothers drove to Nevada to look for Steven just hours after they were notified, searching the Henderson and Las Vegas areas, posting flyers, and checking with hospitals, restaurants and even the Clark County jail and morgue.  They were baffled by the car’s location, since the area was not easy to find and off the beaten path for the casual visitor.  The car started and had a half tank of gas, so car trouble was ruled out.  Since he was not seen leaving the area, possibly Steven was meeting someone there and got into a car and drove off with this person.

Extensive searches were conducted near the last place Steven was seen and in other areas near Las Vegas.  No evidence turned up.  The case remains open and police are investigating any leads or tips.  Obvious places to search would include the area where Steven's car was found, and the locations where his cell phone signal was detected after he was seen on the surveillance footage.  Also, where was Steven when  he talked to the members of his church earlier in the day?  His cell phone records might give a clue to where he spent the night.  If he left St. George at 10:30 p.m., he should have arrived in the Las Vegas area shortly after midnight.

The Koecher family believes Steven went to Nevada to follow up a job lead.  Although he did not specify to his friends why he was there, he made no secret of the fact that he was in Las Vegas.  His disappearance does not appear to be intentional or planned, since he took no money and his passport was found in his apartment, as well as his computer and phone charger.  His bank account has not been touched since he vanished, and his cell phone has not been used.  If Steven did disappear voluntarily, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.  Although his random driving in the days prior to his disappearance appears erratic and secretive, his family says he was just trying to stay busy.

There has been speculation that Steven was gay and could not reconcile his sexual orientation with his LDS beliefs, or that he left to start a new life, or that he had met a guy online.  It IS odd that Steven was 30 years old, a devout LDS, and not married.  He was a good looking guy, and marriage at a young age is encouraged in the Mormon church.  Even his mother made a remark about how he just needed to find the right girl.  There are a lot of guys out there who are straight, have never married, and just don't know how to connect with women (I have two brothers-in-law who fall into this category).  They feel lonely and left out at family gatherings.  So while it's unusual that Steven was 30 and not married, it doesn't mean he was gay.

Initially, an attempt was made to tie Steven’s disappearance to the disappearance of a Utah woman named Susan Powell who vanished the same week that Steven did, but no connection was made since Steven and Susan did not know each other.  Susan’s disappearance received far more media attention than Steven’s did.  Susan’s father-in-law was obsessed with her and it is possible he had something to do with her disappearance.  Her husband Josh had a suspicious alibi and is suspected of involvement, but he died in a fire in February 2012.

A Henderson man reported to police that he spoke to Steven twice in the parking lot of the Best Buy store in Henderson on Super Bowl Sunday 2010, over a month after Steven was last seen.  The man’s wife and another person were present and agreed that they were positive that it was Steven.  When he went to the Henderson police to report the sighting, the detective assigned to the case treated the information with suspicion, particularly regarding the date, even though the man had a date-stamped receipt from the store.  When the man related the conversation to Steven’s parents, they said it sounded exactly like Steven would have acted.

Workers at the International House of Pancakes in Flamingo also reported seeing Steven several times.  They believed he was homeless and disoriented.  Although his family staked out the restaurant for several days, they did not see Steven there.  Bus riders in the Las Vegas metro area reported seeing Steven riding buses there, but the sightings were never verified.

It seems like Steven's computer should have provided more clues.  Nowadays, people rarely do things like travel without leaving some sort of trail on their computers:  Google searches, websites, blogs, travel reviews, etc.  If Steven was short on cash and planned to sleep in his car, it seems like he would have checked out inexpensive restaurants and places to wash up in the morning (especially if he was planning to keep an appointment about work).  You can plan to eat breakfast at McDonald's but if you don't find out where one is located, you may not be able to follow through with that plan.

Steven’s car was not checked for DNA and other evidence, so it is unknown if anyone was with him during the days he was driving around or when he was in Nevada.  The Koecher family had a Salt Lake City police narcotics dog sniff over Steven’s vehicle, with no hits for drugs.  They hired a private investigator to canvass the residents in the Henderson neighborhood.  Other than the security footage, no one admits to seeing Steven.  A real estate agent who was driving a white SUV in the area that day does not remember seeing Steven (her vehicle appears on the surveillance tapes).

Steven’s mother Deanne thinks he may gave committed suicide based on his mental state, but other family members disagree and believe he was the victim of foul play.  They do not believe that Steven disappeared by choice and that he would have contacted them by now, even if he had decided to embark on a new lifestyle.  He was particularly close to his younger brother Dallin.  Rolf Koecher passed away suddenly in February 2011, without ever learning what had happened to his son.  Every December, Steven’s family and friends gather for a tree-lighting ceremony to mark the date of his disappearance.  For them, not knowing is the worst thing.  The police do not know what to think about Steven's disappearance:  there is no evidence of foul play, but they have no evidence or explanation about what happened to Steven or where he is.

Steven Thell Koecher was 30 years old at the time of his disappearance; today he is 32 years old.  He is 5’11” tall, of average build weighing around 180 lbs.  Steven is Caucasian and has blond hair and blue eyes.  He has a surgical scar behind each ear.  At the time he vanished, Steven was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans or Dockers pants, and white sneakers.  He is a clean-cut young man with no criminal or drug-related history.

Anyone having information about Steven should contact the Henderson police at 702/267-5000 or the St. George police at 435/627-4319.

 

Missing Tuesday - Angela Marie Finger

Angela Marie Finger disappeared from Las Vegas, NV on June 25, 2006.  She may be missing by choice, or she may be held against her will.

Born 11/8/1983, Angie is the daughter of Michelle and Patrick Finger. She has a brother, Josh, and a sister, Jen. Angie was employed as a cage cashier at the Monte Carlo casino in Las Vegas; she worked for the Monte Carlo hotel and casino for two years and had been promoted twice. Her family describes her as bright, sweet, and close to them.

All that changed when Angie met a man named Craig Raether on the Internet. Raether said he was 27 years old, and that his parents had been killed in a car accident. After meeting online, Raether came to Las Vegas to meet Angela in person in May 2006, and also met her mother, Michelle. Michelle disliked him from the start and suspected he was lying about his age and background. She describes him as smooth and manipulative, and believes that he may have gotten Angie involved with drugs. Raether proposed to Angie the day after meeting her. Although her parents did not like Raether, their opinions had little impact on Angie.

Shortly after meeting Raether, Angela’s personality changed; she began dressing provocatively and acting disrespectfully to her parents. Michelle and Angie argued frequently. Angie and her parents went out for dinner and bowling on Father’s Day (June 18, 2006), and began to discuss her brother Josh’s upcoming wedding. Michelle indicated to Angie that her new boyfriend was not welcome at the wedding, which triggered a huge argument and Angie stopped speaking to her mother. That was the last time her family saw Angie.

Michelle went on a planned vacation to Florida and attempted to contact Angie several times while she was out of town. When she returned, she decided to go visit Angie at her condo. When she arrived, she discovered that the condo was completely cleaned out. The phone was disconnected and the family had no way to contact Angie. She had also walked off her job. Her parents heard that she had moved in with her boyfriend and an older woman, but they did not see or hear from her for a year.

They were frantic with worry and began digging for any information they could find. Michelle located a woman who had shared an apartment with Raether and said that he had tried to get her to go against her parents’ wishes but that she had refused. Angie’s parents contacted the Las Vegas Metro Police and gave them the information that they had collected, but nothing came of their efforts.  In 2007, Michelle Finger had a heart attack.  Her greatest fear while recovering was that she would die without knowing what happened to Angie.  She decided to devote her life to finding her daughter.

In May 2007, Michelle was able to contact the real Craig Raether through the Classmates.com website. Craig said that the real name of man that Angie was with was William Matthew Smolich. In 2006, Smolich was actually 37 years old, not 27 years old as he told Angie and her family. Craig Raether was a former friend of William Smolich, and Smolich stole his identity; Smolich also used the alias Shawn Odow. He was a convicted pedophile wanted in Colorado for failing to register as a sex offender. Smolich was also wanted on charges in Arizona.

Craig’s information confirmed Michelle’s worst fears. Wanting to help Michelle find her daughter and to stop Smolich from using his identity, Craig began doing some investigating of his own. Within a few days, he sent Michelle links to a number of porno websites that Smolich operated and asked if the girl featured on the site was Angie. Although it was heartbreaking for Michelle to look at the sites, she confirmed that it was indeed Angie.

Angie’s mother combed through the websites and found a Colorado telephone number listed on one site. When she dialed the number, Smolich answered; she called him by his real name and demanded to speak with Angie. Smolich apparently transferred the call to another number and stayed on the line when Angie answered. Michelle quickly told her Smolich’s real name and that he was a convicted sex offender. She asked Angie where she was and told her she would come and get her. About ten seconds later, the phone line went dead. Michelle tried calling again repeatedly, but the number would go directly to voicemail. After Michelle’s phone call, Smolich took his websites offline. After October 2007, all traces of Angie and Smolich vanished – it was like they fell off the face of the earth.

Michelle contacted the Boulder County police department regarding Smolich, but they seemed uninterested in pursuing the information. Continuing her investigation, Michelle discovered that Smolich had rented office space in Mesa, AZ. She drove to Mesa and staked out the building for several days, but did not see Smolich or Angie. Local police obtained a search warrant and located an address for Smolich, but when they went to the address, he had already moved out.

Angie supposedly boarded a Greyhound bus in February 2007 in Portland, OR. Later in 2007, she was seen by several photographers at photo shoots in the company of her husband/boyfriend/manager who was really William Smolich. The most notable was the Arizona Shootout 2007, a nude photo shoot held in Phoenix. She identified herself as Angela Raether at least once, and said she was registered with a modeling agency as Angel the model. The couple appeared relaxed and comfortable together. Later, a man who identified himself as Randy Albrecht and said he was Angie’s uncle (Michelle’s brother) told one of the photographers that Angie had left Las Vegas voluntarily to get away from the dysfunctional relationship she had with her mother. He also made disparaging comments about Michelle and Patrick Finger. If that IS true, Angie should at least contact her family and tell them that she is all right, and then move on with her life.

The last information the family received was in February 2008. A man who purchased a car at an auction found some of Angie’s belongings inside. He returned the items to her family but nothing proved helpful.  Angie's parents separated in 2011; the stress of searching for their missing child undoubtedly contributed to the collapse of their marriage.

The FBI is investigating her disappearance and believe that Angela is in danger and may have met with foul play. In 2008, they requested Angie’s dental records for comparison with a body found in the Las Vegas area, but apparently there was no match. Angie may be a victim of human trafficking. She may have gone with Smolich willingly at first, but may now be unable to get away from him, as she has not contacted her family in over six years. Her mother says that even if Angie was angry with her, she would never have cut off contact with her dad and her brother and sister.

Angela Marie Finger was 22 years old at time she vanished; today she is 28 years old. She is 5’7” and weighs 105 lbs., a Caucasian female with brown shoulder length hair with red highlights and hazel eyes. She usually wears contact lenses and always has her nails done in a French manicure. Her ears and navel are pierced; she has a nose ring on the right side. She has two tattoos, one on her right arm (butterfly tribal band) and another on her lower back (sun with a heart in the center and a crescent moon in the heart). Her nickname is Angie, but she may also use the aliases Jordan, Angel, Crimson Heart, or Marie.

William Matthew Smolich remains on the Most Wanted list in Colorado. He is Caucasian, 5’11” tall and weighs 196 lbs, with blond hair and brown eyes. He is considered dangerous and anyone who might see him should not attempt to apprehend him.

If you have any information, contact the FBI’s Las Vegas field office at 702/636-5033, or the Las Vegas Metro Police Department at 702/828-2907.

Missing Tuesday - Billy Smolinski

Janice Smolinski’s passions used to be gardening and jet-skiing. Now she devotes all of her energy to finding her missing son. She is sure that someone, somewhere knows something about her son’s disappearance. He was last seen by a neighbor on August 24, 2004, and has not been heard from since that date.

William Paul Smolinski, Jr., known as Billy to family and friends, was born on January 14, 1973, to Janice and William Smolinski, Sr. He attended Kaynor Technical High School for three years and then Naugatuck High School for one year, graduating in 1991. He studied auto mechanics at Naugatuck Valley Community College for one year, as well as for his CDL in Bridgeport, CT. He was considering pursuing a career in law enforcement.

Billy is an athletic guy who loves fishing, hunting, horseback riding, snowmobiling, and going to demolition derbies. He also loves listening to music and working on cars. He enjoys drinking beer with friends, and going for cheeseburgers or barbecue at Big Franks in Waterbury. He would often drop in at his younger sister Paula Bell’s house in the morning with a bag of bagels. Billy had no history of drug use, did not have a police record, and did not drink to excess.

He worked as a part-time tow truck driver for Durable Towing and was a full-time apprentice heating and air conditioning technician at Midland Heating & Air Conditioning. He also mowed lawns in the summer and plowed driveways in the winter to earn extra money. He was a dependable employee and had just been offered extra hours at his part-time job. He was physically and mentally in good health.

Billy was last seen at his home at 130 Holly Street in Waterbury, CT, between 3:30 and 3:45 p.m. on August 24, 2004. A neighbor said that Billy rang their doorbell and told him he was going out of town for three days to look at a car he was considering buying and asked them to watch Harley, his five year old German Shepherd dog, while he was gone. When the neighbor went to check on the dog and let her out the next morning, the house was locked and no one was home, but Billy’s truck was in the driveway. A key that was supposed to be hidden outside the house was not there. It is unknown how Billy left the house, whether he was driving someone else’s vehicle or was in the company of another person. The neighbor said Billy was acting normally and did not seem agitated when they saw him.

The Smolinski family found his behavior to be odd, since Billy had just returned from a vacation in Florida, and it was out of character for him to leave town without telling them, especially leaving the care of his dog to someone other than a family member or close friend. At the time he vanished, Billy was a first-time homeowner and was getting his house ready to paint when he had some spare time. Friends reported that Billy was very excited about having his own house and was planning home improvement projects. Inside the house, there was no indication that Billy was not planning to return. A receipt from Burger King time-stamped 2:59 p.m. was found in the trash inside the house, indicating that Billy had picked up the meal right before he spoke to his neighbor and that he had definitely been inside the house before he saw the neighbor. He had unpacked his suitcases after returning from Florida just 48 hours earlier. Also, Billy was devoted to his dog and would never have left without having arranged proper care for Harley. He treated her like his child, and it was seeing Harley left unattended that made alarm bells go off for the family.

Upon learning of his behavior, his family contacted the Waterbury Police Department and wanted to file a missing persons report immediately. Waterbury police refused to take the report and insisted on waiting three days, the time that Billy had specified to his neighbor that he would be gone (to their credit, the police department has since changed their rules about missing persons, realizing that evidence and clues can disappear and trails can go cold quickly). So it was three days before any investigation was begun, even though Billy’s truck was sitting in the driveway. Billy’s wallet and keys were found inside the white Ford pick-up truck. The truck was not checked for fingerprints, nor was it impounded. Prior to his disappearance, Billy deposited most of his last paycheck in his bank account. His accounts have not been accessed since he vanished, nor has his Social Security number been used.

Rather than waiting for the police and their three-day waiting period to be up, the Smolinski family sprang into action, doing everything they could to find Billy: putting up missing person flyers where they would be seen, calling everyone they could think of, contacting the media. Yet, Billy’s former girlfriend Madeleine Gleason and her friend Frances Vrabel were caught on film tearing down the missing person posters, often within minutes of when they were put up.

Gleason claimed that the Smolinskis were targeting her in some way by saturating her neighborhood and the places that she went with the flyers. She went so far as to sue Billy’s mother and sister Paula Bell as well as the Waterbury Observer newspaper in 2006, saying that they were harassing her and that the flyers had damaged her reputation at her job at B and B Transportion, where she worked as a bus driver. The Smolinski family put up flyers by the thousands all over Connecticut and as far away as Grand Central Station in New York, everywhere they could think of that people might see them, in an effort to find Billy. Gleason is not a suspect or even a person of interest in Billy’s disappearance, but her behavior is certainly suspicious for someone who has nothing to hide.

Gleason is several years older than Billy. Just days before Billy’s disappearance, they took a vacation together to Florida. They quarreled during the trip because Gleason kept receiving calls on her cell phone from another man, a married man named Chris Sorenson that Gleason was involved with. When they returned to Connecticut on August 22, after having dated for a year, the couple broke up. After the break-up, Billy went to Gleason’s house in the middle of the night to talk to her; she said that when he left, he was a little depressed but seemed all right otherwise. Although he was angry about Gleason cheating on him, Billy’s family says he was not despondent over the break-up and did not seem bothered much at all.

According to Billy’s phone records, the last three phone calls Billy made were to Sorenson on August 24, but Sorenson said he did not see Billy at all that day. Sorenson said he recognized Billy’s voice on one call, telling him to watch his back.

Madeleine’s lawyer, high-powered Connecticut defense attorney John Williams, has stated that he does not believe Billy is missing at all but went off on his own free will. At first, Waterbury police also believed that Billy left of his own accord. By 2006, the Waterbury police department had exhausted all leads and asked the FBI for assistance. The FBI disagreed with both Gleason’s lawyer and the local police: they believe foul play is involved in Billy’s disappearance and that he was murdered.

Billy’s mother Janice was arrested by the Woodbridge, CT, police for trespassing while putting up flyers about his disappearance; the charges against her were eventually dropped. The family believes the arrest was at the instigation of Madeleine Gleason.

Several years after Billy went missing, the Smolinski family was shocked to learn from a source close to the Waterbury police that Billy’s missing persons file contains information that he was murdered. Police received a tip that Madeleine Gleason’s son Shawn Karpiuk killed Billy and told a friend that Billy got what he deserved, and that he and a friend had buried his body. Karpiuk died of a drug overdose in 2005.

In 2008, Chad Hanson, a local man, was named in at least two anonymous tips as Karpiuk’s accomplice in Billy’s murder. When questioned by police, Hanson claimed to have helped bury Billy off Bungay Road in Seymour, CT, although he said he had no part in Billy’s murder. He said that he helped Karpiuk bury a barrel in a wooded area but did not realize that Billy’s body was inside until later. After a massive police search of the area turned up no evidence, Hanson admitted that he had lied and that he had no idea what had happened to Billy Smolinski. Hanson was serving out the remainder of a jail sentence at a halfway house in Waterbury for charges relating to Billy’s disappearance (making a false statement and interfering with a police investigation) when he escaped. He was recaptured after being on the run for a week.

In April 2012, the family hired a private detective to search a site in a wooded section in Shelton, CT. Jean Petrucelli, a cardiac nurse who lives very close to the area, believes she saw Billy’s white pick-up being driven into the woods followed by a smaller red car as she sat on her back deck on a summer evening in 2004, right around the time that Billy vanished. She noticed the two vehicles because she had never seen vehicles being driven into the woods before, nor has she seen any since. She noticed that the truck had unusual headlights, big and round, and that the grill on the front of the truck was flat; when she saw a photo of Billy’s truck, she immediately identified it as the same type of vehicle, if not the exact same truck. The two vehicles scraped against the trees as they forced their way into the woods. A police investigator agreed to meet Ms. Petrucelli after she contacted them in 2012, but he did not keep the appointment and police never followed up with her, until the private investigator began looking into her story and found evidence that may relate to the case.

The Waterbury police have agreed to reinvestigate the case from the beginning, based on new evidence and leads that were not investigated in 2004. It is always difficult re-visiting a case so many years later: witnesses move out of the area or have passed away; memories are not as clear as at the time of the event; evidence has been destroyed deliberately, by accident, or by nature. The family feels that the police ignored tips in 2004 and did not follow through on other leads. In 2012, the Waterbury police began a complete review of the case from scratch.

In August 2012, the lawsuit against Janice Smolinski and Paul Bell came to trial, and Madeleine Gleason was awarded $52,000 in damages for defamation of character. The Smolinski family is appealing the ruling. Families of missing persons are fearful that if the ruling is allowed to stand, it could alter the way they distribute flyers and disseminate information about their missing loved ones. It could also open the way for any potential witness or suspect to sue a missing person’s family for attempting to locate that person. Many people feel the ruling is blatant censorship and in violation of the Smolinkskis’ first amendment right to free speech.

William (Billy) Smolinski Jr. was 31 years old when he vanished; today he would be 39. He is a Caucasian male, with short light brown hair and blue eyes. He is 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 lbs. He is slightly bow-legged. His left ear is pierced and he wears a small diamond stud earring. He has a tattoo on his left forearm of a blue cross with the name Pruitt incorporated into the design; on his right shoulder is a tattoo of a blue cross outlined in orange. He does not smoke. When last seen, he was wearing a gold rope chain with a cross pendant, blue jeans, a blue work shirt and work boots.

If you know anything about William Smolinski’s disappearance, contact the Waterbury Police Department, 204/574-6941.

Missing Tuesday - Joan Yarbrough Bernal

So many people have been missing for decades, and their loved ones still don't know what happened to them.  Today's story is about an Illinois woman who went missing without a trace in 1988, yet her story has an uncanny resemblance to the story of another missing woman, Stacy Peterson.

Joan Bernal disappeared on December 9, 1988. She was last seen at her home in Crest Hill, IL.

Joan Yarbrough was born on July 17, 1954 at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, IL. She and her three siblings grew up in Hickory Hills, IL. She attended Stagg High School and graduated in 1972.

Her first husband was Larry Stanfill. Joan had a son from a prior relationship, Alexander (called Lex for short), and Larry adopted Lex. He and Joan had a daughter together, Larissa. When they divorced, Larry was awarded custody for the two children.

Joan worked for the Joliet Mass Transit District as a bus driver. Her mother Florence Wilms said she adored her job because she was a “people person.” At the transit company, Joan met a man named Gilbert Bernal Sr., a mechanic who worked in the bus barn. Joan became completely infatuated with Bernal and divorced her husband Larry to marry Bernal.

                                                      Joan Bernal

Larry and Joan remained on good terms after the divorce, and Joan visited her children every two weeks like clockwork, never missing a visit. After Joan’s disappearance, Larry raised the two children.

Joan’s relationship with Bernal was often stormy. Both Larry and Lex Stanfill stated that Bernal abused Joan, and that she and the children sometimes spent the night at a shelter for battered women to get away from Bernal. When interviewed, Bernal himself admitted that he is a violent man and that Joan was often the subject of his violence.

In December 1988, Joan and Bernal were scheduled to travel to Edinburg, TX, and would be gone for two weeks. They intended to take Joan’s two children and the couple’s two year old daughter Sarita with them. Between them, the couple had five children from previous relationships and one child together. When Joan contacted him on December 9, 1988, Larry Stanfill told Joan that he would not allow the two older children to leave the state. He was the custodial parent and it was the middle of the school year, so he refused to allow them to leave Illinois. It was the last time he heard from Joan.

According to Bernal, the family went on the trip to Texas as planned but Joan missed her children and wanted to go back home to see them. He said when they reached McAlister, Oklahoma, he gave Joan $1500 and put her on a bus back to Joliet. He says it was the last time he saw her and that she must have gotten off the bus somewhere along the route. Investigators learned that Joan never got on the bus and never made the trip.

Stanfill became suspicious when Joan missed her next scheduled visit with the children about two weeks after he last spoke with her. He called the Bernals’ home and asked about Joan; Gilbert Bernal said he put her on the bus in Oklahoma, but she never came home.

Joan told a relative that Bernal threatened to kill her and hide her body in a 55 gallon drum and make sure no one would find her, which is eerily similar to what authorities suspect happened to Stacy Peterson in 2007. Witnesses said Bernal purchased two 55 gallon barrels shortly before Joan disappeared but only one was found in his garage.

Gilbert Bernal Sr. was charged with Joan’s murder in February 1993 even though no body had been found. His arrest was based on the purchase of the barrels plus Joan’s relatives’ testimony and testimony from Bernal’s son, Gilbert Bernal Jr. Gilbert Jr. stated that he, his father, Joan, and his toddler sister left their Crest Hill, Illinois, home for Texas on December 9, 1988, but soon turned around and returned home. Joan and Bernal went into the house and Gilbert Jr. remained in the car with his sister, where he could see Joan and Bernal through a window. They got into an argument and Bernal allegedly hit Joan, yanked her hair and then began to choke her; when she went limp, he dragged her out of the room. Bernal then returned to the car and the three drove away without Joan. Joan was never seen again.

The charges against Bernal were dropped eleven months later when witnesses came forward claiming to have seen Joan in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and in Tennessee. The last alleged sighting of Joan was in December 1992; four witnesses claimed to have seen Joan, and two of the witnesses knew Joan personally, so their evidence carried additional weight. The Will County state’s attorney’s office said the witnesses were not reliable and their stories were not convincing but without a body, they had no choice but to drop the charges against Gilbert Bernal. Otherwise, if Bernal was tried and acquitted, he would go free and they would not be able to try the case against him again. Authorities believe the witnesses were planted, just as was suspected about witnesses in the Stacy Peterson disappearance who claimed to have seen Stacy after she went missing.

Larry Stanfill raised questions about Joan’s disappearance after Lisa Stebic disappeared in 2007 and her case gained national prominence. Joan’s mother said that when they first reported Joan as missing, the family was told to keep quiet and not go to the media, so as not to jeopardize the investigation, so it was several years before a news story about Joan appeared. Now Joan’s family and friends feel that if they had been allowed to publicize the case like Lisa Stebic or Stacy Peterson, or offered a reward for information, the police may have received tips and information from the public.

Gilbert Bernal Sr. continues to insist that Joan is alive and living in Tennessee or Kentucky. No one has heard from Joan for 24 years.

Joan Yarbrough Bernal was 34 years old at time of her disappearance; she would be 58 in 2012. She is a Caucasian female, about 5’2” tall, weighing 135 lbs. when she vanished. She has long brown hair, blue eyes, and wears contact lenses. She has a scar on her upper lip and several scars on her knees from multiple knee surgeries as a child; there are several stainless steel screws implanted in her knees. When last seen, she was wearing a wedding band and wristwatch.

Her mother Florence Wilms fears that Joan is dead but is still hoping for answers about what happened to her child. Joan's father William passed away in 2009 without ever learning Joan’s fate. Joan has three children: Alexander (Lex) Stanfill; Larissa Stanfill; and Sarita Bernal Woerheide. Joan is also a grandmother now: she has two grandchildren who have never met their grandmother. Joan’s family has placed a memorial marker for her at Chapel Hill Gardens South in Oak Lawn, IL.

If you have any information about what happened to Joan Bernal, contact the Will County Sheriff’s Office, 815/727-8574.

Missing Tuesday - Kara Kopetsky

Kara Kopetsky went missing on May 4, 2007 from outside her high school in Belton, MO.  She has not been seen since, nor have her family or friends heard from her.  I heard about her disappearance in 2011, almost four years after she vanished.  Even thought Kara was only 17 years old, and despite what her family told them, police believed that Kara was a runaway and had disappeared voluntarily.  It was not until Kara had been missing for several days that they took her family's concerns seriously, when the clues and the trail had cooled off considerably.  Even today, the Belton police insist there is no evidence of foul play, although they do admit her disappearance is suspicious.


Kara Elise Kopetsky was born February 17, 1990 in Frankfurt, Germany. She was a junior at Belton High School in Belton, MO. Her parents are divorced and her father lives in a nearby town. Kara lived with her mother, Rhonda Beckford, her stepfather, Jim Beckford, and her younger brother. Her family describes her as a typical 17 year old girl who had friends and an active social life, enjoyed shopping, and occasionally played truant from school but was looking forward to her senior year in high school.

                                                          Kara Kopetsky

On Friday morning, May 4, 2007, Kara left home and walked to school rather than having her mother drive her. She arrived at school by 7:30 a.m., when classes began. Around 8 a.m., she called her mother and told her that she had left her history textbook at home and asked her mother to bring it to school. She also asked her mother to wash her work uniform since she was scheduled to work that afternoon. Rhonda dropped the book off at the high school office, and Kara picked the book up sometime that morning. After getting into an argument with one of her teachers, she apparently decided to leave the school for a while. Her cell phone records show that the last call she made was at 10:30 that morning, to her ex-boyfriend. Kara was last seen on a surveillance video inside the school, heading for the exit around 10:30 a.m. She does not appear to be in any kind of distress or in a hurry. It is not known if she was leaving the school or meeting someone or perhaps just stepping outside for a cigarette, since she had only her phone with her and had left her backpack in her locker. Her actions indicate that she planned to remain at school and then later, stop at home, change her clothes, and go to her job. The last person she spoke to at school said Kara indicated that she was going to leave campus for a while and asked if the friend want to come with her. She is also seen on the same video footage chatting with others near a drinking fountain.  She was not seen again on the school’s surveillance cameras, and if any of the other students saw Kara outside, they have not come forward.  The school does not have outside cameras.

Kara did not come home from school that day, nor did she show up for work for her 4 p.m. shift. After trying to call her cell phone repeatedly, by 5:30 p.m., her mother and stepfather reported her missing to the police. They were stunned to learn that a school friend of Kara’s had just reported her missing as well. Since Kara was in school that morning, as was shown on the surveillance tapes, why would the friend think Kara was missing?

On April 28, 2007, only a week before her disappearance, at around 10:30 p.m., Kara had been forcibly abducted by her boyfriend, Kylr Yust, while waiting for a friend to pick her up outside the Popeye’s Chicken restaurant where she had a part-time job (Kara did not yet have a driver’s license). A friend called her cell phone while she was in Yust’s truck and she told her what had happened. When Yust pulled into a parking lot off the interstate, she jumped from the truck to escape from him. Kara obtained a restraining order against him on April 30, four days before she disappeared, describing how he kidnapped and restrained her and threatened to slit her throat. She went missing on the Friday before Yust’s court date. Kara had a history of running away or disappearing for a few days, and Belton police believed that she had left of her own accord. They dropped the charges against the boyfriend, believing that once the charges were dropped, Kara would return home.

Yust was initially a suspect but had an alibi for the time of Kara’s disappearance and passed a polygraph test (although later reports revealed he only passed some parts of the test). He stated that he was cooperating fully with the police. Kara’s stepfather was also questioned by police and cleared of any possible involvement (this is standard procedure – family are always considered the first suspects).

There was a possible sighting of Kara 13 days after her disappearance, in Louisburg, KS. The young woman in question was in the company of an unidentified man. Another teenaged girl, Kelsey Ann Smith, disappeared from Overland Park, KS, approximately one month after Kara disappeared. Kelsey was similar in appearance to Kara and at first police believed there was a link between the two cases, but Kelsey’s body was found a few days after she disappeared. She had been murdered and a suspect was charged with her death. Authorities decided that there was no connection between the cases after all.

                                                           Kelsey Smith

Area residents said that there were several searches in the woods following Kara’s disappearance but the searches always covered the same areas. They question why Kelsey Smith’s case received so much more publicity than Kara’s case. There are persistent rumors that Kara went to the house of a local drug dealer and possibly came to harm there.

Kara’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, believes that Kara’s ex-boyfriend Kylr Yust has answers to what happened to Kara. In 2011, Yust killed his girlfriend’s three cats and later pleaded guilty to charges of choking the same pregnant 18 year old girlfriend until she passed out; he was sentenced to two years probation and no contact with the victim. Yust insists that he never abused Kara or tried to hurt her. There are at least two other unnamed suspects in the case, one who confessed to killing Kara while intoxicated, another who was seen driving in his truck heading toward Belton High School around the time that Kara was last seen on the school video.

In 2011, Kara’s family learned that the police file about Kara’s case contained serious discrepancies. One report notes that Kara actually disappeared on May 2, not May 4, and that in a conversation with her mother, Rhonda Beckford indicated that they believed Kara was a runaway and had gone off willingly with her boyfriend. Rhonda and her husband Jim both said that phone conversation never happened and when they did contact police, the officer who came to their house didn’t write anything down. Rhonda states that Kara was home on the morning of May 4 and the family all saw her. Belton police officials stand by the information in the file. The Beckfords also learned that a box of Kara’s possessions were turned into Belton police two years after her disappearance.

In the Belton area, a group of unidentified people including former police officers, researchers, and dog trainers with cadaver dogs have banded together to try to find Kara themselves. Following up on local gossip, rumors, and word-of-mouth clues, they followed the clues to an abandoned house in the Belton area, where Kara is reputed to have died or been buried. In February 2012, investigative reporter Russ Ptacek of KSHB accompanied the group of amateur sleuths to two locations that they feel have been missed or ignored by police, a house and an abandoned building. Kara’s father said there have been continuing rumors and innuendos about Kara’s disappearance that are connected to the house that the team visited. The group found graffiti that read “Kara is gone” and “I did it.” In the other building, a cadaver dog was filmed searching in the basement and repeatedly sitting down, the signal that the dog has picked up the scent of remains. Belton police have indicated that they do not want help from the amateur investigators or Kara’s family, threatening legal action if they don’t stop “interfering with the investigation.” Belton police did go to the house that Ptacek visited, stayed about 40 minutes, and never returned. Kara’s family does not believe that a thorough search could have been conducted in just 40 minutes.

The amateur group investigating Kara’s disappearance have handed over all evidence that they discovered to the FBI and the Kansas City police. They told Ptacek that instead of investigating Kara’s disappearance, the Belton police are more interested in investigating them.

At the time of her disappearance, Kara was 17 years old; she is now 22 years old. She is 5’5” tall, weighs 125 lbs., Caucasian, has brown hair with reddish blond streaks, and hazel eyes. She was wearing a gray t-shirt with a white skull print, dark jeans, a studded belt, a gray sweater with ¾ length sleeves, black and white checkered sneakers, and a black hobo bag. She has a scar on her forehead and her ears are double-pierced. Her navel is also pierced. She pronounces her name CAR-uh. Since her disappearance, she has not accessed her bank account or her MySpace page, and her cell phone had either been shut off or the battery had run down after she made that last call. All her personal possessions including clothes, cigarettes (Marlboro Lights), make-up, phone charger, and iPod are at home in her room; her backpack and debit card were found in her school locker.

While police say there is no evidence of foul play, they no longer believe Kara simply ran away and consider her disappearance to be suspicious. An $80,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to Kara. Her story has been featured on Disappeared on Investigation Discovery and Nancy Grace’s America’s Missing on HLN/CNN Headline News. In August 2012, a photo of a woman arrested in Indianapolis who bore a strong resemblance to Kara was believed by some to be the missing girl, but it was later determined that the woman was not Kara.

Every year, Kara’s family marks the anniversary of her disappearance with a two-mile walk to show that they are still seeking answers and working to keep Kara’s story in the public eye. They just want to know what happened to her and bring their child home. They will never give up looking for her.

If you have any information about Kara Kopetsky, contact the Belton Police Department, 816/331-1500.

Missing Tuesday - Danielle Imbo & Richard Petrone

(No Literary Monday this week, since I only had time to finish one book.)

Sometimes when a person goes missing, the police have a set of baffling clues. In other cases, law enforcement is faced with the frustration of having almost NO clues.

Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone disappeared on February 19, 2005 from a Philadelphia street. They were last seen leaving Abilene’s Bar & Restaurant on South Street around 11:45 p.m. and have never been seen or heard from again.

South Street is where the young and hip go to party in Philadelphia. The area is lined with restaurants and bars, trendy shops, and tattoo parlors. Danielle and Richard met two of Richard’s friends that night, Anthony Valentino and Michelle McLaughlin. Earlier that evening, Danielle had met her mother, Richard’s mother Marge, and Richard’s sister Christine Lavita at a restaurant for dinner. The women were close friends and met monthly for dinner. Richard picked Danielle up at the restaurant after dinner.  They had drinks with friends at the restaurant and then said they were leaving to go to Danielle's home.  Their friends stated that both seemed in a happy mood.

No one saw them walk to their vehicle, no one saw anyone approach them, there was no sign of a struggle, nothing was found near where the truck had been parked, no one saw the truck drive away. Richard’s truck, a black and silver 2001 Dodge Dakota pick-up, has never been found. Video cameras at highway toll plazas and river crossings have not picked up any images of the truck. Neither of the couple’s ATM cards and cell phones has been used since they disappeared, and the EZPass in Richard's truck has not been used on the highway.

Danielle and Richard had known each other since high school, as Richard’s sister Christine is a close friend of Danielle’s. Although Danielle had a crush on Richard, they did not date at the time, since Richard was caught up in playing sports, especially hockey. They became reacquainted several years later.

At the time of their disappearance, they had been dating for about a year. According to her friends, Danielle was having second thoughts about the relationship and was feeling pressured by both Richard and her estranged husband Joe. She wanted to break off the relationship with Richard to give herself some space from both men. She had also come to realize that she and Richard wanted different things. Richard wanted to marry and live in the city; Danielle wanted to move to the suburbs to raise her son and didn’t feel ready to marry again. Shortly before she told Richard she wanted to break up, Danielle had settled custody arrangements with her estranged husband Joe. Despite their impending break-up, Danielle agreed to go out with Richard on February 19.

Danielle worked from home as a mortgage processor while caring for her son Joseph Imbo III. Danielle and her husband were separated; according to one of Danielle’s friends, her husband had abandoned her and their child when he started an affair. She and her son lived in a condo in Mount Laurel, NJ.

Richard worked at his family’s bakery, Viking Pastries, in Ardmore, PA. He was known for his cake decorating skills and created all of the wedding cakes for the bakery. For several years, he lived with his daughter Angela in an apartment over the bakery. In 2003, Angela decided she wanted to live with her mother in South Philadelphia. Richard relocated to stay close to Angela. He and Angela’s mother had never married. Both he and Danielle were close to their families.

Danielle had an appointment for a haircut at a salon in Cherry Hill, NJ on February 20. Her friend Christine (Richard’s sister) works at the salon, and when Danielle didn’t show up, she called Danielle’s cell phone. Danielle didn’t pick up and Christine became concerned because it wasn’t like Danielle to miss an appointment without calling to reschedule.

Richard’s Marge Petrone mother tried to reach him at home and on his cell phone on February 20 but her calls went to his voicemail mailbox. Richard had told friends that he was planning to be home on Sunday afternoon watching the Daytona 500 on television. Marge thought it was odd that Richard would have turned off his cell phone, since he always wanted to be available for his daughter. Richard’s family says he would never have abandoned Angela.

Later that day, both families realized that it had been 24 hours since anyone had heard from Danielle or Richard. They contacted police departments in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, then put together a missing persons flyer featuring photos of Danielle, Richard, Richard’s truck, and the license plate. They made hundreds of copies and distributed them all over the South Street area. Despite the flood of posters, there were no tips from the public and none of the couple’s possessions were found and turned over to police. Police searched for the truck, including the parking lots at Philadelphia International Airport and a swampy area in Tinicum Township, eventually focusing on the Delaware River.

The Delaware River was searched for the truck, and while many other vehicles were submerged in the river, the Dodge Dakota was not found. A psychic contacted the families and told them that the truck was submerged near the Walt Whitman Bridge that connects New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but nothing was found in that area.

Joseph Imbo, Danielle’s second husband, says she was a good mother and would have never have gone off without their son. He says little Joe meant everything to her. Joe Imbo spent the night of February 19 in Toms River, NJ with his son and his parents at the home of a family friend (a retired law enforcement officer). He planned to bring his son home to Danielle on the afternoon of February 20 around 3:30 p.m. Joe says he has cooperated with police and even taken a polygraph, although police say the results were inconclusive. He says that for the past four years, when he has contacted police to find out about his wife’s case, he is told there is nothing new. Both families have accused Joe Imbo of being involved but he denies it. He says that although he and Richard had some heated conversations and that he wanted his wife back, he says he never threatened either of them. Danielle’s friends and family agree that Joe is not the type to harm Danielle or Richard. Their marriage fell apart after the birth of their son, since Joe was not ready for the responsibilities of fatherhood. But since Danielle’s disappearance, he has stepped up to care for his son.

Initially the families hoped that the couple would show up and that there would be a logical explanation for their disappearance. But as time passes, their hopes have faded and foul play is suspected. A reward that has grown to $100,000 has been offered, and Danielle and Richard’s information and photos is on a billboard facing I-95 in Philadelphia. Neither the police nor their families believe their disappearance was the result of kidnapping or random violence, and that one of the victims was the target. This belief has caused the two families to turn against one another. The Petrone family believes that Danielle’s husband is involved and that her family is covering up for him because of their child. Danielle's family believes that Richard may be responsible for Danielle’s disappearance, that he became angry with her over the break-up and accidentally killed her, then panicked and fled.  Richard's family insists the break-up was mutual.  Danielle’s family, the Ottobres, believe that Richard put Danielle in jeopardy through some illegal activity.  Both families have accused members of the other family of being responsible for the disappearance.  There is no evidence to support any of these theories.

Danielle Imbo is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighes around 118 lbs.; she has dark hair and hazel eyes, and there is a small gap between her front teeth. She wears little make-up but always has a manicure and pedicure and prefers designer clothing.  On the day she disappeared, Danielle was wearing blue jeans, an off-white sweater, a dark jacket, and three silver rings, and was carrying a black double-handled purse.  She smokes about a pack of Marlboro Light cigarettes a day.  She is described as smart with a great sense of humor. She has a tattoo on her lower back that is the astrological sign Leo inside a horseshoe of flowers. She was 34 years old at the time of the disappearance.

Richard Petrone is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs about 200 lbs. with a stocky build.  He has brown hair and blue eyes and wears glasses. He wears a goatee, and has two tattoos: on his right arm there is an image of clowns; on the left arm is the name Angela (his daughter’s name).  At the time of the disappearance, he was wearing jeans, a gray Polo hooded sweatshirt, and sneakers.  He was 35 years old when he vanished.

If you have any information, contact the FBI in Philadelphia at 215/418-4000, the Philadelphia police at 215/686-3013, or the Mount Laurel, NJ police at 856/234-1414.