Laci Remembered

Seven years ago there were a lot of preparations surrounding December 24.  Preparing for Christmas, the baking, shopping, wrapping, and decorating as well as preparing for birth.  Christmas, the birth of Jesus, a celebration, and the birth of another, a first son was just around the corner.  It was a busy time of last minute scheduling, gifts to be picked up and delivered, as well as tending to personal needs of the season.

Being 8 months pregnant is exhausting and topped with all of the other things to do, Laci Peterson still managed to attend a Christmas party, dressed in red silk and a dimpled smile, she went alone, her husband away on a business trip.  She didn't know that would be one of the last pictures taken of that smile, and yet, it's that smile that captured the hearts of millions. 

Laci was last seen on December 23 while attending to the last minute appointments and errands surrounding the coming festivities planned with her family and friends.  The world stopped for her that day and we were all breathless, waiting on news that she had been found.  Her husband made calls to her family searching for an answer to where she could be.  It was December 24, Christmas Eve, dinners planned and Laci had prepared a recipe for French Toast for their breakfast.

Massive searches of the area disrupted the carefully planned holiday for several families in the Modesto, California area.  Horses, dogs and people combed the park where her husband said she had gone to walk the dog.  The dog returned home, Laci did not.

Days, weeks and months went by, and no sign of Laci.  Her family looked distraught on television interviews, her mother, Sharon, frantic with worry, and yet, Laci's face held that famous smile with a twinkle in her eye looking like she would return at any time and start chattering about where she had been.  A massive awareness campaign was being carried out, flyers posted, media coverage and we waited for any word of what happened to Laci and her unborn son, Connor.

All the while her husband was being looked at in a different light.  He seemed to be avoiding contact with the press, avoided being seen with tears, avoided begging for help in finding his wife.  It seemed like unusual behavior, but, there are no set patterns on how to act when your wife is missing.  At the candlelight vigil it's reported he was in almost a jovial mood, making calls on his cellphone and caught by the camera with a smirk on his face.  His behavior in light of his wife and unborn son being missing was disarming.  Many started to wonder.


As the months wore on to the Easter season, Laci and Connor washed  ashore near the Berkeley Marina, a place it was proven that her husband had been that very Christmas Eve, fishing.  The media coverage was extensive when her husband was finally arrested and brought to trial, convicted and sentenced to death.

As we are in the same week of preparation for the Christmas holiday, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, there is another high profile case of a missing mother with a big bright smile in the news.  Susan Powell, the mother of 2 toddlers, disappeared sometime in the night of December 7.  Her husband, Josh, unexpectedly bundled up the two children and took them camping on a freezing cold night after midnight.  When he returned the next day, Susan was gone, leaving behind her cell phone and purse.

A husband's strange behavior is being revisited each day on the media reports. Josh Powell, at this time, is the only "person of interest" until such time as he can be eliminated.  Time will tell. 

As you gather with your family this Christmas, hold your children tighter and remember those little ones who are spending Christmas without their mothers, and the big ones, too.


Remember the brown eyed girl, Laci Peterson, whose dimpled, smiling face we will never forget.

Susan Powell: Familiar Scenario

If you follow this blog about missing mothers you know some of the familiar circumstances, phrases, and words that ring through most cases.  This case, again, sounds so familiar.  Many prayers go up for the safe return of Susan Powell, and may her children be loved and cared for.

DESERET NEWS

WEST VALLEY CITY — There are many theories about what could have happened to Susan Powell.
There are also assumptions about what already has happened.
But almost everyone who knows her agrees that Powell would never have left her two young boys, one reason why police are now calling the 28-year-old's disappearance "suspicious."
Josh Powell told the Deseret News he last saw his wife about midnight Sunday at their home. He said that was when he decided to leave the house and take his two sons, ages 2 and 4, camping "down south."
He said he didn't realize his wife was missing until a friend called him Monday and told him that police officers were looking for him and his family.
Since then, no one has seen Susan Powell. She failed to go to work Monday, and no one has an explanation about where she could be — not police, friends or family.
"It's a still a missing-person case, but the circumstances surrounding it are very suspicious," West Valley Police Capt. Tom McLachlan said Thursday. "Nobody can tell us where she is at, and she has not contacted family or friends that we know of."

Police obtained a search warrant for the Powell home, 6254 Sarah Circle, late Wednesday and have collected various pieces of furniture to submit for forensic tests. While he wouldn't go into specifics, McLachlan said Susan Powell "left items at the house that you would normally associate if you were going on a trip or going somewhere."
Susan Powell's father, Chuck Cox, said his daughter's purse and cell phone were still at the home. McLachlan said police focused their efforts on the home because it was the last place she was seen. An endangered-person alert was issued Monday, but police have heard nothing as a result of the alert.
"There's a lot of different scenarios you can put with the situation," McLachlan said. "Because we don't have enough information on any one of those possibilities, you have to work all of them. It keeps us busy."
About 100 of Susan Powell's friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members — including, for a short time, her husband and two sons — gathered in the cold at a candlelight vigil Thursday night at West View Park. In addition to holding lighted candles, they prayed for Susan Powell's safe return, shared stories about her, passed out missing-person fliers and sang "Silent Night."

"She's really special to us," said Crystal Peterson, who attends the same LDS Church ward as the Powells. "We just want to see her home. We want her home. That's all we want."
Investigators have interviewed Josh Powell and were working Thursday to verify what he had told them.
Josh Powell told the Deseret News that when he returned home Monday night, he discovered a front window had been broken out. The window had been broken by police, who worried the family might have been poisoned by carbon monoxide. Josh Powell said he didn't see "any sign of anything" out of the ordinary inside.
When asked what was going through his mind on the fourth day since his wife's disappearance, he said it was "hard to concentrate," before going into detail about how he had placed cardboard in the broken window.
Close friend and neighbor Kiirsi Hellewell, who has become the self-appointed advocate for Susan Powell because the woman's family lives in Washington, has pieced together a detailed timeline of events. She said she walked home from church with Susan Powell and her sons around noon Sunday. Another friend from her LDS ward ate dinner with the Powells Sunday evening. That friend told Hellewell she left the home shortly after Susan Powell said she wasn't feeling well and Josh Powell announced that he was going to take the boys sledding and then go eat.
Josh Powell said he last saw his wife around 12:30 a.m. Monday as she headed to bed.
Josh Powell described his wife as a "really good mother" who enjoys singing in her church choir and doing art projects with her boys.
"She really takes care of us," he said. "She's really committed to the family, and I guess she puts up with me, too, and does a good job of it."
Neighbor Stephanie Olson said as soon as she heard her neighbor was missing, she had a bad feeling.
"I know she would never leave her kids," Olson said. "If anything, she would have left with the children while Josh was at work. She'd take her kids. I believe that 100 percent. She was really good with her children."
Olson and other neighbors said about a year ago, Susan Powell began talking openly in church about obtaining a divorce. Olson said Susan Powell was very open about her home life and the issues in her marriage.
"She wasn't shy," Olson said. "She talked about divorcing and trying to save money to leave him."
Hellewell started a Facebook group with updates about her friend. At this point, she said she has to keep busy, because if she stops to think about what may have happened to her friend, she "can't handle it."
She described Susan Powell as "very outgoing, very friendly, an instant friend to everyone." In addition to being funny, pretty, talented, healthy and athletic, Susan Powell is "fearless," Hellewell said.

"If she had any way to contact somebody, she would," Hellewell added. "She's not the kind to go and hide. She's not scared of anything."
In the meantime, as he tries to "get things normal," Josh Powell said he wants his wife to know that he and the two boys "love her and miss her."
"I want to try and do the best I can to get the word out, even if it's hard," he said. "If anyone knows where she's at, have them call police."
A candlelight vigil is scheduled for 9 p.m. tonight at West View Park, 6050 W. 4100 South.

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She Wants To Find Her Way Home For Christmas

Do You Know Me?

I belong to a little girl who now is all grown up
I have held her tears
for many many years

You see one day she was taken from her family so dear
And made to live with someone who anyone would fear

When she first was kidnapped I helped her fall asleep
But it was so hard every night to listen to her weep

She is all grown up now
But her Christmas wish remains
For one more chance to be held close
By those who loved her so

Maybe they are searching for her too
She has such beautiful eyes of blue
She has a happy spirit that has never left her heart
She believes she got this from her family who taught her how to love

She is so determined
To find her way back home
And have a chance to say
She always held them in her heart
And wished they were never ripped apart

Please help me Findmywayhome@comcast.net

Known Details:


Kidnapped in the early to mid 1960s
Blue eyes
Brown Hair


Used to dream all the time of a brown house
Flag staff walk way
Swing set in the back yard


The stuffed Kitten above may have been from before I was kidnapped
Had glow in the dark eyes
Had a bell in his tail


My mom used to sing to me
One song that I remember is
Down in the Valley: Link to this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GucC_Zbyw1o&feature=related


DNA is in
CODIS

If you recognize anything on this post, please leave a comment or contact information, if you like.

All she wants is to be reunited with her family for Christmas, it's been a long, long time.



[caption id="attachment_581" align="alignleft" width="341" caption="Do You Recognize Her?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_582" align="alignright" width="293" caption="Graduation"][/caption]

Monique Vereen: Missing From Queens, NY

"A mother from Queens has suddenly vanished and her family is fearful of what might have happened to her.

Monique Vereen is concerned over the fate of the aunt she lives with, a 36-year-old hairdresser named Jamaica Smith, who took her daughter to school, then vanished.

"It's creepy for somebody to just drop off their daughter and then you don't see them no more?" said Vereen.

It's been a week now, Vereen said, since then. Last Wednesday morning, Smith took her 6-year-old daughter to school on a bus, the Laurelton School, PS 156. The child showed up safely, but Smith has not been seen since.

Family members say they've heard talk that there was a man seen in the neighborhood around the school, speaking suggestively to women, including Smith.

"As far as I know there was a guy that was giving girls compliments in the neighborhood," said Vereen. "I guess he made compliments when she was walking by or something, that she was pretty, and stuff like that."

From the school, Smith was to walk a few blocks to the home of her recently deceased mother to meet a carpet installer, but she never showed up.

The family suspects foul play.

"Her daughter was her right hand, she would never leave her daughter, never. To drop her off at school and not go back for her?" said Vereen.

While it's unclear what may have happened to her, parents at the school expressed concern.

"The children are in danger if something like that happened," said parent Arlene Clemmings.

For now, the family is hoping that the hundreds of fliers they have posted all over the area will lead someone with information to come forward. A police source said while detectives have no evidence to go on, they are not ruling out an abduction.