Elizabeth Gill was only 2 ½ years old when she vanished from her family’s home, in the area of the 300 block of south Larimer Street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The little blonde haired toddler had been playing in the front yard with a sand pail on June 13, 1965, at approximately 4PM. Decades later, the family has never given up the faith that they will find her alive.The family has long believed a group of drifters that had been staying at a hotel in the area of Elizabeth’s residence may have kidnapped her. A witness reported seeing the individuals on two different occasions try to lure Elizabeth into their vehicle. The drifters had been selling purses close to the house, and early on in the investigation considered persons of interest, but could never be located.
Detective Jim Smith reopened the cold case in 2003. Smith told the Associated Press, “What do they think about every night, every holiday, every birthday? Their family has never been complete. They are always going to wonder what happened to Elizabeth. If I could give them an answer, it would be one of the greatest things that’s has ever happened to me as a law enforcement officer.”
Recently, the family hired a private detective who visited with Smith and Elizabeth’s sister, Martha Gill-Hamilton. Mike Neverett, a Florida private investigator, and Smith believe it may only be a matter of time before they solve this mystery. Neverett traveled to Missouri this April to meet with Elizabeth’s family and the detective to research the case.
Taking an interesting approach, Neverett, who has been involved in the case for over seven years, recently visited the old Gill home on Lorimar Street and began taking pictures of what he describes as “pictures through the eyes of a child.” Clicking pictures of surrounding homes and the neighborhood from the height Elizabeth would have been at time of her disappearance. He hopes this may jar the memory of a woman who would now be 49 years old, and the youngest of ten children. Elizabeth’s father passed away in 1970 never knowing what happened to the youngest apple of his eye, but Elizabeth’s mother and remaining siblings have never given up hope of being reunited.
Having worked alongside law enforcement for nearly two decades with many cold cases, I agree this case had all the potential elements of a solvable case. With increased national news exposure, law enforcement and private investigators working cooperatively, and especially utilizing the power of social media, there is a good potential of bringing Elizabeth home to her family. The pictures could be the key to jogging the memory of a woman who has never truly known who she is.
Even I have memories of standing in my crib calling out to my mother because I had an earache. I could not have been more than a year and a half old. The mind stores everything and things decades old like a smell, a sound, and yes, even a picture can take us back. We also know in every case of a suspicious disappearance of a child or adult, someone out there knows something.
We can all take a part in reuniting Elizabeth with her family by sharing her information. Let us all unite as a real social community and bring Elizabeth home!
For additional information, please visit www.missingkids.com. If you have information or believe you may be Elizabeth Gill, please call Det. Jim Smith at the Cape Girardeau (MO) Police Department at 573-335-6621, ext. 1120.
Author – Kym L. Pasqualini
Founder, National Center for Missing Adults
& Social Network Advocate
Missing Persons Advocacy Network
It has been reported, 5-year old Jhessye Shockley wandered out of her Glendale residence on October 11, 2011 and vanished. She had been with her siblings, ages 13, 9. and 6 who had been watching her. Jhessye’s mother, Jerice Hunter, reported her child missing to Glendale Police Department after she said she had returned home from running an errand and could not find Jhessye. She reported she had left to run to a local check cashing business locking the door behind her and returned to find the door unsecured. A beautiful little girl who dreamed of being a ballerina seemingly has disappeared into thin air.
Since Jhessye’s disappearance, Glendale Police have conducted an intense investigation but have indicated leads are just not panning out. When a child goes missing it is initial investigative procedure to closely examine the family dynamics and substantiate information provided by family members in order to rule them out as suspects. The investigation into Jhessye’s disappearance has been no different. Recently, information about, Jhessye’s mother, Hunter, focused the ensuing investigation closer to home.
Soon after the child was reported missing, Hunter was pleading for the help on local and national news broadcasts and investigators began interviewing Jhessye’s siblings and other family members. Despite begging for the public to help bring her child home, it is reported that Hunter has been less than cooperative with police, even refusing a polygraph test.
Due to the time that has passed since Jhessye’s disappearance there is much concern for her safety. In fact, it has been reported that Sgt. Coombs from Glendale Police Department has stated it is not likely the child will be found alive. Given the new developments in the case, even statistically speaking the likelihood of Jhessye being recovered alive grows slimmer day by day.
Court documents that have been released have shed some light on the outcome of the police interviews of the remaining children. According to the documents released publicly, Jhessye’s older sister told police that she found her little sister in her mother’s closet, unresponsive, eyes bruised and her hair pulled out. She also states her Hunt thoroughly cleaned the apartment and her shoes in the closet after Jhessye’s disappearance. There is also a major discrepancy in the time frame the little girl may have vanished and Hunt’s delay reporting Jhessye missing. The older sibling indicates she had not seen her sister since September but Hunt only reported Jhessye missing on October 11th.
Police also discovered that Hunt has a prior history of child abuse and a report made to Child Protective Services as recent as April 13, 2011. During the initial police interview of the three siblings, all reported they saw Jhessye the day she was reported missing and told investigators they were told to help clean leaves in the rear yard but never saw their sister again.
All three remaining children were removed from the home by Child Protective Services and placed in foster care. It was while talking to the foster mother that the 13yr old sibling admitted her mother had told all the children to lie about Jhessye’s disappearance. She then admitted that Hunt had returned home one day and found Jhessye in the living room with a young neighbor boy and became furious calling 5yr old Jhessye a “Ho.” The older sister claims her mother proceeded to take Jhessye into her bedroom and she could hear her little sister screaming.
In the days following, the older sibling said Jhessye was kept in her mother’s bedroom closet but when her mother would leave she would take her little sister out and give her food and water, placing her back in the bedroom closet so Jhessye would not get in trouble upon her mother’s return. She further claimed Jhessye had several cuts and bruises to her face and body.
Jhessye’s 9yr old and 6yr old siblings also corroborate their older sister’s story, reporting seeing bruises and Jhessye’s eyes black prior to her disappearance. One of the children described Jhessye as looking like a ‘Zombie’ with her hair pulled out and said the closet looked like a grave and smelled like dead people. According to the children, Hunter placed incense in a purple and green container to hide the odor.
The children also stated their mother spent an entire day cleaning the home using soap and bleach in the closet. Credit card transactions confirm Hunter purchased several food items and bleach at Walgreens on October 9, 2011.
School records also substantiate the children’s claims that Jhessye disappearance occurred prior to the October 11th police report. School records indicate her last day of school was on September 22, 2011 and documented Hunter claimed her daughter had ringworm and then later pink eye but never confirmed by a medical professional.
Hunter was arrested November 23, 2011 and currently held on $100,000 bond. While Hunter is being held on allegations of child abuse, the Commissioner informed Hunter she was the suspect in her daughter’s homicide. Based upon information presented ,Jhessye is not expected to be found alive but her case remains an active homicide investigation.
This will not be the first time Hunter has faced prison time. She served 3 years in a California penitentiary after being convicted of abusing Jhessye’s older siblings. Released last year, Hunter moved to an apartment in Glendale, AZ.
Clearly, Jhessye’s disappearance may have been preventable had the children been appropriately interviewed and removed from the home when a report had been made to Child Protective Services in April. Jhessye’s disappearance follows an announcement by Maricopa County Bill Montgomery that a new Arizona Child Safety Task Force and CPS reform is underway that will assign a special unit of investigators to conduct the initial screening on child abuse calls.
The Arizona Child Safety Task Force conducted it’s first public meeting on November 16, 2011. It has been stated Governor Jan Brewer received a tip that CPS had a backlog of approximately 9,903 non-active but open cases becoming the catalyst to creating the new task force.
Meanwhile, the search continues for Jhessye and we can only hope that her tragic story, along with the so many other children who have died due to child abuse after a report and investigation was conducted by CPS does create the urgency and reform needed to save innocent lives.
Author – Kym L. Pasqualini
Founder, National Center for Missing Adults
& Social Network Advocate
Missing Persons Advocacy Network
Phone: 800-889-3463 (FIND)
PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland School Superintendent Carol Smith spoke publicly for the first time since the disappearance of a Skyline Elementary School student at a scheduled 3:30 p.m. press conference Sunday.
“The reported disappearance from one of our schools is unprecedented,” she said, “and deeply troubling.”
As such, changes are being made in how the school treats visitors.
Beginning Monday, everyone entering Skyline Elementary School will be asked to sign in. A team composed of school security services, members of the teacher’s association and other related parties also will look into safety procedures for releasing children as they leave school.
As for Kyron Horman, missing since some time Friday morning, “we’re hoping for his safe return,” said Superintendent Smith.
Authority interviews
Interviews with those who were at Friday’s science fair at Skyline Elementary School – where a 7-year-old student is believed to have disappeared – may have turned up at least one new piece of information.
In a press conference Sunday afternoon, a Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office spokesman now says Kyron Horman was last seen at “a late hour in the morning.” This raises questions about the 8:45 a.m. time released by the Sheriff’s Office in its press release about this case. We are looking for further clarification into this statement.
The press release reported the boy’s stepmother walked through a number of classrooms with Kyron and last saw him around 8:45 a.m. Friday, walking down the hallway toward his Skyline second-grade classroom. The investigation has turned up that Kyron’s teacher marked him absent when he never showed up.
Even in Sunday’s rain students came by the car load to answer questions from authorities. Andrew Delzell was one of the students interviewed; he and Kyron are in the same math class.
“He doesn’t seem like the person that would want to run away,” Delzell told KATU Reporter Adam Ghassemi. “He’s a nice kid. He plays with his friends a lot. I’m not sure if he’d ever run away.”
Delzell’s mother, Kris Delzell, also was at Friday’s crowded science fair.
“It’s horrifying. It’s absolutely horrifying,” she said. “…The dogs and the rescue people are coming through my yard, because we live close to where they’re searching. FBI people are interviewing us and [there are] police cars. We’re very shaken up.”
Classes as usual on Monday
Investigators are hoping to paint a very accurate picture of what happened Friday, knowing Monday this campus will be full of people struggling to come to terms with Kyron’s disappearance. Classes at Skyline Elementary School are scheduled as normal for Monday.
“We’re asking them to really save their energy and focus on Monday,” said Portland Public Schools spokesman Matt Shelby, “because when those students come back tomorrow we’re going to need … their full energy to support those students.”
Those at this rural Northwest Portland school are ready for any clue as to what happened to a kid everyone says is “nice” and “always smiling.”
A school has set up a “Special Education Hot Line” to answer calls for those who need insight. That number is (503)-916-3931.
An 11-year-old boy who went missing in Southwest Washington on Saturday afternoon is now considered a critical missing person, and District police are asking for assistance in locating him.
Anthony Thomas
Police said was last seen in the 100 block of Ivanoe Street, SW, on Saturday at about 3 p.m. He is described as black, with a very light complexion, 5’1″ tall, weighing approximately 110 pounds. He has brown eyes, black hair fashioned into a Mohawk, and a thin build. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and pants.
Anyone with information about the boy is urged to call police at 202-727-9099 or the youth investigations division at 202-576-6768.
Little Falls, N.Y. – A child is reported missing every 40 seconds in the United States. That translates into over 2,100 children per day, in excess of 800,000 children each year. And according to the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, another 500,000 children go missing in this country without ever being reported.
It is a parent’s worst nightmare and it can become a community tragedy.
That is why the Little Falls Police Department is stepping up its efforts to bring people home safely by utilizing a high-tech tool that can reach 1,000 people a minute.
Called A Child is Missing, the rapid response telephone system alerts residents in a targeted area about a missing child, elderly person, college student and mentally challenged or disabled individual.
“It is a powerful tool,” said Chief of Police Michael Masi at Monday night’s Police and Fire Board meeting. He added that it is not uncommon for departments to receive calls of teenagers not returning home when they are supposed to be home. “Those calls are classified as missing persons until we determine where they are. With this system, we can wrap those cases up in minutes.”
Masi said that with a nursing home, retirement community and a considerable elderly population in the city of Little Falls, the system would not be put to use just for children.
“This system can be used for any case involving a missing person,” he said, adding that he attended a training seminar in Rome and that he was impressed with its effectiveness.
A Child is Missing can place 1,000 calls in sixty seconds, can process multiple cases simultaneously and can work without jurisdictional boundaries. Success stories abound, as 670 people have been successfully rescued since the Fort Lauderdale-based program began in 1997. The average recovery time in those safe recoveries has been 90 minutes from placing alert calls.
The program is at no cost to the department or to the public, as financial support comes from special events, sponsorship, private and corporate donations and state and federal funding. Appropriations from each state are used to maintain the program in that state.
Officer Shane Riolo said that when a person goes missing, his department will call A Child is Missing with a description of the missing person and where they were last seen. Within 15 minutes, people who live in the area will be notified by telephone through an automated telephone message system.
“When we receive a missing person call now, we hit the streets and knock on doors, but that is a few officers searching in a relatively small area,” said Riolo. “By utilizing this system, we can blanket a much larger portion of the community within minutes. It is a really effective system.”
Riolo said the automated voice will give the resident a description of the missing person, explain where he or she was last seen, what he or she was wearing and what car he or she was driving in. The pre-recorded message asks residents to help police by walking outside and looking for the individual.
“It’s as quick and easy as that,” said Riolo. “And if the missing person is seen in another area of the community, a second wave of messages can be sent out specifically targeting homes in that area.”
The system will only call public phone numbers. Individuals who only have a cell phone or who have a home phone number that is private are asked to sign up online at www.achildismissing.org and register their number, so they, too, can receive the emergency alert.
Riolo said individuals will only be contacted in the event of an emergency.
