More than three months after Peggy McGuire, a nurse, vanished, investigators still don’t know what happened to the young mother. However, family members are not keeping silent. They’ve been very active on the Bring Peggy Home!!! Facebook page–including the missing woman’s own mother who, based on her recent post, believes something bad has happened to her daughter:
The person(s) responsible are not coming forward! I don’t know how you can live with yourself knowing you got rid of my daughter! Pray nothing like this ever happens to one of your loved ones! It’s a feeling of hurt and emptiness wondering if you will ever see her again and not knowing where she’s at! I pray everyday all day someone will come forward! I don’t know why you just didn’t let her go on with her life! You took everything and what do you got nothing! cause you let it control you! God will forgive you but you will live with this thru eternity!!–Betty Davis, Peggy’s mother
Via McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office
The Details
McGuire was last seen dropping her young son off at school outside Eufaula, Oklahoma.
A grainy image captured the next morning around 5:00 a.m. shows Peggy’s Toyota truck being parked at T&J’s Ice House, a rural bar along Highway 9. A dark, unidentified figure can be seen walking away from the vehicle through an early morning storm.
That’s when the trail appears to go cold, leaving family, friends and thousands of complete strangers painfully anxious.
“The Sheriff’s Department is continuing this investigation and have spoke to numerous people as information is discovered. At this point we unfortunately do not have any further information to disclose. Anyone with information regarding this case needs to contact the Sheriff’s Department day or night,” duties wrote on the official McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office official Facebook Page.
The Investigation
Witnesses reported seeing a man leaving Peggy’s vehicle and walking away from it before it was discovered during the search for her.
Forensic evidence has been retrieved from the vehicle and sent for analysis, but no reports have indicated whether or not any of the evidence was relevant to the disappearance of the Oklahoma woman.
The last person to reportedly speak with Peggy was her stepfather, whom she phoned that morning on her way to the home she shares with her son and the boy’s father. She was going to call him back shortly with the measurements for a new deck, her mother said.
Authorities in Oklahoma have not yet addressed whether or not they suspect foul play in Peggy’s disappearance. However, it’s been confirmed that search warrants are being issued in the search for her this week, indicating that detectives are working in at least one specific direction.
Can You Help?
The family of Peggy McGuire is offering a $25,000.00 reward for anyone with information that leads to the location of Peggy or arrest and conviction of the person responsible for her disappearance. PEGGY WAS LAST SEEN AT HER HOME. You may call in ANONYMOUSLY to the McIntosh county Sheriff 918-689-2526 or the OSBI Hotline at 1- 800-522-8017.
Detra Duncan, nicknamed DD, has been missing since before Christmas. Photo from: KSAT 12 News
16-year-old Detra Yvonne Duncan was last seen on Dec. 23 at about 10:30pm near the 200 block of Nacogdoches Road in San Antonio. The area where Duncan disappeared is just blocks away from her school—Alamo Heights High School.
According to the San Antonio Police Department, several facts lead investigators to believe that the Texas teen may have been a victim of human trafficking.
Duncan’s father, Juan Armenta, told reporters from San Antonio’s KSAT 12 News that sheriff’s deputies had found his daughter, on multiple occasions, at the home of an individual that Armenta says has been rumored to participate in human trafficking.
“The second time, they found her with two other little girls there. They said he was involved in trafficking,” Armenta said.
According to a report from KSAT 12, police officials said that they have seen numerous indicators and red flags that point to human trafficking. Officials also said that Detra could be with an adult, Hispanic, male.
Armenta said that he believes his daughter left with this man, in part, because of the fact that she left him a note asking him not to contact police. Armenta also told reporters that his daughter has emotional problems and described her as a recurrent runaway.
Anyone with information about Detra Duncan’s disappearance, or her whereabouts, is being asked to contact either the Heidi Search Center at 210-650-0428 or the San Antonio Police Department at 210-207-7662.
UPDATE: Black and Missing, Inc. posted a statement on their Facebook Page, on February 6, saying that Detra Duncan has been located. No details have been released, but we will report the latest when details have been made public.
Thelma Thomas (second from right) of Merrillville, mother of the missing Rochelle Thomas Stubblefield, listens to investigators Friday (December 12) during a news conference seeking the public’s help in the case. -Damian Rico/Photo (The Times)
Rochelle Thomas Stubblefield of Merrillville, In. was supposed to celebrate her 21st birthday on December 25 with friends and family. She was also supposed deliver her first child on Dec. 15—a boy, who she had already decided to name “Amir”.
However, the 21-year-old went missing on Nov. 10 after attending classes early in the day and going a girls basketball game later on. Her family reported her missing on Nov. 12. Almost three months later, investigators are still unable to locate Stubblefield.
The Calumet College student was attending school on a track scholarship. Calumet College of St. Joseph is a private college that is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Stubblefield was a criminal justice student who had hopes of becoming a police officer upon graduation.
Stubblefield was proud of her school, and she was last seen wearing a maroon Calumet College sweatshirt, black jeans, and glasses.
Stubblefield’s friends and family are still desperate for answers.
“We need to find her. Help us,” Stubblefield’s cousin, Lajuaina Riley, told the Chicago Tribune in late December, “If anyone has any information, don’t be afraid.”
Police Detective George Dickerson from the Gary Police Department told reporters that investigators do have a person of interest in the case, but declined to comment further. Dickerson did say that this person is someone that Rochelle Stubblefield knows, and that the individual is not cooperating with police.
Investigators have also recovered some personal items belonging to Stubblefield, but would not comment on the location that these items were found.
“We don’t want to compromise the integrity of the investigation,” Detective Dickerson told the Chicago Tribune.
Police did say that they suspect foul play, but were unable to comment any further.
Police are asking anyone with information about the case to call (219) 755-3855 or the anonymous tip line at 866-CRIME-GP.
Jim Will, the father of a missing man from Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, offered a $10,000 reward earlier this month (Jan 5) for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of persons involved in the disappearance of his son, Judge Will.
Jim told reporters at Oklahoma’s KFSM-TV that he does not believe his son is still alive, but is still desperately looking for answers. Will was 39-years-old when he went missing in March of 2014.
“He was at his residence with two individuals and during the interview with those individuals, they say he went outside on the back porch to use his phone and never returned,” Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart told KFSM reporters.
The area where Judge Will went missing is a densely wooded area that extends more than 500 acres behind his property.
“Me and some close friends have been out here on four wheelers searching all the hills back behind here, and all the ravines, and roads multiple times in the past two or three days,” Judge’s father, Will, told 5News reporters shortly after his son’s disappearance.
Sheriff Ron Lockhart says that investigators do have persons of interest in the case, but declined to release any names. It’s possible that the individuals who last saw Judge Will are still persons of interest in Will’s disappearance.
Curiously, Lockhart also said that several months ago a woman at a local convenience store told someone that she might know where Judge Will is buried. The area was thoroughly searched and nothing was found, however, Lockhart did say that the woman’s statements led investigators to additional information in the case.
According to Lockhart it is still not clear if there is any foul play in the disappearance. However, he did tell reporters that its possible that the last two people to see Judge Will know something.
“Those two individuals could be lying to us; we don’t really know, but we feel like there is more information that is being withheld,” Lockhart said.
It’s an alarming statistic. Approximately 2,300 Americans go missing every single day. This includes both children and adults. Even more disturbing, perhaps, is that every 40 seconds, a child goes missing in the United States. For families with missing relatives, the pain of a lost loved one is indescribably hard. Their world is forever changed—especially when there’s no closure or explanation as to what led to the disappearance in the first place.
However, the search for missing people has been revolutionized thanks to the rise in social media. Now shares and retweets can help bring missing people home. Hundreds of law enforcement agencies and private investigators around the country are using social media in a way never imagined—to solve cases.
To date, there are more than 1.3 active users on the hugely popular social media site Facebook. There are presently more than 645 million active users on Twitter. Other popular sites include Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram—all with millions of active users as well. With so many active users on each of these sites, the chances of “clues” emerging into a missing persons case increases dramatically.
A prime example of how law enforcement uses Facebook in an attempt to locate missing people. (Courtesy: Horry County Police/Facebook)
INFORMATION GETS DISTRIBUTED FASTER
“Social media enables us to spread the word further, and it has proved more successful for us finding people,” Lt. Raul Denis with the Horry County Police Department recently told Myrtle Beach Online. “It generates tips, it works.”
REACHES A LARGER AUDIENCE
Thanks to the ease of sharing information via retweets, reblogs and “likes,” word of missing persons reaches many more people over a much larger geographical area. Friends and family often make Facebook pages dedicated to the search for those they’re trying to find, and it often yields positive results.
LETS USERS EASILY INTERACT WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT
Within the last few years, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have created Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc. Along with distributing information quicker and reaching more people, social media allows law enforcement to conveniently interact with the community through posts and messaging. By creating an environment where every day people can easily reach authorities, tips or other pertinent are likely to increase.
CAN IDENTIFY A PERSON’S LAST KNOWN LOCATION
Depending a user’s privacy settings, social media posts may include a person’s whereabouts. Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp and several other sites make it possible to share a person’s last known location by “checking in.”
ALLOWS LAW ENFORCEMENT TO IDENTIFY PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH THE MISSING PERSON
Many social media sites, like Facebook, will allow users to “tag” other people in their posts. They can also allow someone to see who they are friends with and even what relationship they are to other users. This can be very beneficial to investigators looking to possibly question people who may have known the missing person.
While social media sites are primarily used to communicate with friends and family in a fun and entertaining way, never underestimate their value when it comes to cracking a missing persons case.
FINAL NOTE:
Lauth Investigations and Thomas Lauth work with social media experts to design a social media
advocacy specifically designed for a missing person case. If you or someone you know need assistance locating a loved one, call them today at 1.800.889.FIND or 317.951.1100.
