For the Lost Blog

I just received this notice from NCMEC.

Dear Poster Partner:

It is with great sadness and deep regret that we notify you that Duncan & Jack Connolly missing from Bloomington, IL, has been located deceased. Please discontinue dissemination of this poster.

Please remove and discard any posters on this case that you have placed in public view.

We greatly appreciate your part in our efforts to reunite families and look forward to your continued support.

Thank you for your support.

A family abduction. Another set of dead kids.

But it’s okay. They were with a parent.

NCMEC has recently changed the wording on their family abduction cases, from “abducted by non-custodial (relative)” to “allegedly abducted by (relative).” If it said “in the company of non-custodial (relative)” it now has removed the non-custodial bit. It’s a change I can understand. Defenders of parental abductors can get vehement, and I suspect this was related to lawsuit threats.

Doesn’t mean I like it, however. I don’t. I will continue to use “non-custodial” on the For the Lost site. If I find out there was no abduction, I’ll say that. However, I think that wording NCMEC has now takes away from the cases, as ninety-nine percent of the time there is no doubt whatsoever an abduction by a parent occured.

Go ahead, try to sue me for it. When your lawsuit gets dismissed (when, not if) I will countersue and you will be sorry. You have been warned.

A new poster has been added to the California Kids pages, that of Rosa Valentin. Please print out the poster and help find this missing child.

Police say woman used different names, Social Security numbers

A Seacoast business owner has been arrested and charged with being on the run from crimes she allegedly committed in Arizona 12 years ago.

Police said Danielle Bascom, 50, was difficult to track down because she uses six aliases, three birth dates and four Social Security numbers. Investigators said she is also known as Paula and sometimes uses the last names Bruno, Bryce and McClain.

This is the only article I could find about Darlene Tolbert, and it’s about her mother and not her. It mentions the case was dropped, but nothing about where her daughter is now. I will keep looking but doubt I will ever find more information.

A new poster has been added to the California Kids pages, that of Mayra Garcia. Please print out the poster and help find this missing child.

I have just received word from NCMEC that Darlene Tolbert has been found safe. I have resolved her case and if I find an article I will post it here. The new case on the site is that of Moneisa Vardaman.

Recently there were two recoveries in family abduction cases not on the For the Lost site, those of Anna and Hopi Gray, twins abducted by their mother from Arkansas, and Karen, Laura, and Leigh Matusiewicz, abducted by their father and grandmother from Delaware. In both articles I have provided links to, there are comments on them. In both cases, a commentator insinuates that the parent must have had a good reason for running off. But in the Matusiewicz article, those people are far outnumbered by the ones who say the dad is scum and should be punished for his crime. I agree with the majority of commentators there. Their father was actually telling people that the girls’ mother committed suicide, and was not working where they were found in Nicaragua. I’m grateful they were found before the girls could fully grasp the implications of a death by suicide – suicide by a parent is known to be detrimental to the child, and if years passed and their mother who “killed herself” suddenly reappeared alive the psychological effects would be devastating.

And in the Gray article? Well, you probably have already guessed that most people say she must have run off for a good reason. The kids were found living in a van, filthy, and couldn’t tell the police when they had last eaten. While those conditions are fairly bad, I sadly accept them as one of those things that are all too common in these cases. But several of the commentators say, essentially, “I know it looks bad, but she might have had a good reason to do so…” With the circumstances they were found in, one might think that it was obvious they were not being protected from anything. And it’s still assumed. Because the abductor has two X chromosomes.

Am I one of the few who finds this deeply disturbing?

Jahi Turner has just gotten an age-progression. After seven years. That’s too long. I’m glad to see it, but he should have had one five years ago, and the one we have now should be an updated one.

I’m aware this does disqualify him for Jahi’s Pages, but as he is our inspiration for that section, he will remain up. I have made some changes and added the age-progression, however.

Today is the eighth anniversary of the disappearance of Ayanna Lopez. She was abducted by her non-custodial father from Pensacola, Florida. They are believed to be in Mexico.

Above is a picture of Ayanna. If you have any information as to her whereabouts, please contact the the County Sheriff’s Office at 850-436-9199.

I have been informed in her anniversary post that Andrea Bremmer has been found safe. I have resolved her case and modified the post so there are no dead links.