GLENDALE, AZ – Glendale police are asking for help finding for a man who has been missing for a week.
Michael Sean Grenley
Michael Sean Grenley, 41, has not been seen or heard from since he left his home near 75th Avenue and Deer Valley Road around 1 p.m. last Tuesday, Sgt. Brent Coombs with Glendale Police said.
Grenley has an ongoing medical condition that requires medication, Coombs said.
Coombs said Grenley was driving his Red Jeep Rubicon with Arizona License Plate 797-VZS.
Grenley is an avid off-road enthusiast, and may have driven to a remote area in his Jeep, Coombs said.
Glendale police are asking anyone with information on Grenley’s whereabouts to contact Glendale Missing Persons Detective Mario Sanchez at 623-930-3000.
A city ordinance means a grandmother has been ordered to stop posting fliers about her missing 17-year-old granddaughter. It’s been almost a year since 17-year-old Paige Johnson went missing and her family is not giving up hope that she will be found.
Paiger Johnson
Paige’s grandmother, Jenny Roderick, has posters all over her car and has been putting them all over Covington, including on utility poles. But after a complaint, the city took action and asked her to take them down.
Roderick says putting up the posters help her hold onto hope her granddaughter will be found. “We miss Paige something fierce. And we want her home, you know, even if it is the other way. We still want her home and this is what keeps me going.”
The Covington City Manager says regardless of what the posters say, they have to come down. They can be posted in store windows or bulletin boards only.
Allowing access to bank, cellphone records alarms critics
The Alberta government has tabled new legislation to help police find missing people by accessing personal information.
The Missing Persons Act, or Bill 8, would allow police working on a missing-person case to search personal information -such as cellphone and financial records -even when there is no reason to suspect a crime has been committed.
The legislation requires police to apply for the personal information through the courts. When police believe there is a risk of harm or death, they can demand specific records needed to find the missing person.
The bill was introduced by George VanderBurg, MLA for WhitecourtSte. Anne, who said the legislation was primarily created in response to police requests, including a resolution by the Alberta Association Chiefs of Police in spring 2010.
VanderBurg said cases like that of Lyle and Marie McCann, the elderly St. Albert couple who disappeared last July under suspicious circumstances, provide additional impetus for the changes.
“In my constituency, it struck home,” said VanderBurg. “If there was any legislation lacking to make it easier, whether searching bank records or Visa records or phone records, it sure is a lot easier on family members.”
The proposed changes sparked concerns over privacy when mentioned in last week’s throne speech. Opposition MLA Laurie Blakeman said the legislation would give police too much power.
VanderBurg said all information collected by police must be kept separately from other police records and is not to be used for other purposes.
“The bottom line is that the privacy information people have looked at this legislation, they agree with it.”
According to Josh Stewart, a spokesman for Alberta Justice, Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work provided verbal feedback after reviewing a first draft of the bill. The ministry is waiting to receive written feedback from Work about the current draft.
A spokesman for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner declined to comment on the current draft until it can be reviewed.
Murray Stooke, deputy chief of the Calgary police, chairs the law amendments committee for the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police that recommended the changes last spring.
Stooke said the bill will go a long way in helping police track down the 200 Albertans currently missing. Since proving a crime is difficult, police were unable to access telephone, bank, or even health records. The prospective legislation will “clarify the rules.”
“In many or most missing person situations, by definition, we don’t have information or evidence of crime,” Stooke said. “This now allows us to take reasonable steps that wouldn’t otherwise be available to us.”
Melanie Alix, whose son disappeared more than two years ago, said she understands some people may have concerns about the release of personal information, but she thinks the legislation’s potential benefits far outweigh any risks.
“I totally understand that this can be a very touchy subject, but I believe in certain cases the police should have access,” said Alix, whose son, Dylan Koshman, disappeared after a fight with his cousin on Oct. 11, 2008, and remains missing.
The father of missing York chef Claudia Lawrence has asked MPs for more legal rights for families of missing people.
Peter Lawrence, 63, was speaking at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Runaway and Missing Children and Adults.
He said families currently have no way to deal with a missing person’s property and finances.
Group chairwoman MP Anne Coffey said a Parliamentary inquiry will be held into potential changes to legislation.
The meeting in the House of Commons was attended by MPs as well as representatives of the police, banking and legal sectors.
Families ‘in limbo’
Labour MP for Stockport Mrs Coffey said: “Mr Lawrence gave a very good account of what happens to families – apart from the emotional trauma of a relative going missing, they face a lot of legal and practical problems.
“For example, his daughter had a mortgage and it was difficult to get the mortgage company and bank to engage with him, the same with car insurance.
“We recognize we need to do something to support families in these situations.”
A Parliamentary inquiry will take place over the next couple of months, Ms Coffey said, with police and banking experts called to make recommendations about how the current obstacles families face can be overcome.
One option is to introduce a “guardian order” so a relative can take over a missing person’s finances.
Claudia disappeared nearly two years ago and a vigil was held on Sunday by the Archbishop of York to mark her 37th birthday.
Mr Lawrence said families are currently left “in limbo”, unable to prove a person was dead or alive.
‘Presumption of death’
Another option could be the introduction of a “presumption of death act” in England and Wales, which would allow families to resolve the financial affairs of a missing person.
Currently a person must be missing for at least seven years to be declared presumed dead.
The law change would allow anyone with an interest in a missing person’s affairs to apply to the high court for them to be presumed dead.
There would be no minimum time before they could apply, as long as they could show evidence to suggest the person had died.
Scotland already has a presumption of death act which was introduced in the 1970s.
Martin Houghton-Brown, chief executive of the charity Missing People, said: “If your house is burgled you are automatically offered emotional, practical and legal support.
DENVER — The FBI, which has joined the search for a Greeley woman missing in Nepal, said there are 10 to 12 “persons of interest” in her disappearance, her family said.
Aubrey Sacco, 23, went hiking in the Langtang National Park in April and has not been heard from since.
Her father, Paul Sacco, went to Nepal in May to search for Aubrey. He found her laptop, video camera and journal in her hotel room, but little else.
“The problem is that the people in the villages that we need to hear from are not talking,” Paul Sacco told “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. “We need to hear from the people that may have seen something of her on the trail.”
The Saccos said the FBI told them it has 10-12 persons of interest in Aubrey’s disappearance. Most of them were with Aubrey on her last trek.
“There is no evidence that she is dead,” said Sacco. “That is why time is of the essence.”
“I feel she is still alive,” mother Connie Sacco told “Good Morning America.” “I don’t feel a dread that we have lost her. I’ve never felt that.”
Paul Sacco said Aubrey did a lot of traveling alone, all over the world. He said the trip to Nepal was last minute and wasn’t on Aubrey’s itinerary.
“The hike is not a technical climb,” Sacco said. “Not like people when they think of Mount Everest. It’s a long, long trail. A lot of uphill and a lot of downhill. But it is really not that dangerous of a hike.”
Sacco feels there there was very little danger that Aubrey would have fallen into the water or off a cliff while on the hike.
Sacco’s missing persons investigation is being treated as a criminal investigation with the Denver FBI involved in the case.
LANSING — Lansing police have issued a missing person alert for a 31-year-old Lansing woman.
Police said Shannon Kay Hoppe, who has been missing from her residence in the 1200 block of N. Washington Avenue since Sunday, is believed to be having an episode from a medical condition and is most likely disoriented and in a confused state of mind.
Hoppe is believed to be on foot as her vehicle was left at her residence. She is described as 5’7” tall, weighing approximately 120 pounds, with dark hair, a medium complexion and was last seen wearing a yellow and blue sundress
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Hoppe is asked to call the Lansing Police Department at 483-7600.
