Gail Nowacki Palmgren: A Common Thread (FOUND)

I've been writing this blog for a few years now, presenting information, or just honoring missing mothers and the children they leave behind.  This blog does not intend to pass judgement, only to present what's found in the public forum, i.e. main stream media or internet sources, and occasionally from the opportunity to speak directly with families or friends of the missing mother.

What are some of the common threads that weave through most cases of missing mothers?

• She would NEVER leave her children, no matter what, no matter how bad things are in the home, in interview after interview you will see a family member or good friend repeat this, time and time again.
• She was being abused.  Abuse can take many avenues, not just physical, and many of the signs are not visible to those around her.  Abuse is often overlooked, or not believed, in families who are highly educated or hold high paying positions.  She is often portrayed as the "crazy" one, or accused of having mental issues.  (You know how females are!)
• A husband or boyfriend is usually the last one to see her, or has an alibi, sometimes flimsy.
• A husband or boyfriend who doesn't take part in searches, events, or pleas to the media for help in finding her and quickly hires an attorney, becoming uncooperative with an investigation.
• A husband or boyfriend who isolates her children from other family members after her disappearance.
• A husband or boyfriend who isolates himself from the public, and only communicates through lawyers or a particular trusted member of his own family.
• A distinct pattern of conduct in both parties, before the disappearance, which usually holds very important clues, some may be proven, others may not, but well worth studying.

Gail Nowacki Palmgren was last seen on her way to meet with her husband at their home in Signal Mountain, TN.  She was seen driving away from the home after dropping off her children, in a hurry, according to neighbors who saw her.  It's not been proven whether there was any one else in her red Jeep Rubicon, or that she drove off alone.  It has been reported that it was out of character for Gail to quickly drop off her children and never be seen or heard from since that day, April 30, 2011.

In the days following her disappearance, her husband, Matt, immediately filed papers with the court protecting his assets, the marital property and custody of the children.  He also began telling people that Gail had mental issues, although that has not been corroborated with professionals.  Making her out to be the "crazy" one, deflecting any blame upon himself, is also a tactic of one who will try to make themselves look like they are calm and in control.  Anyone going through a life changing ordeal, such as ending a marriage, will most likely have episodes where they feel everything is overwhelming, they may even lose control at times, but in Gail's case, we are to believe that she was "crazy with mental issues."

What is known is that Gail was ending her marriage to Matthew Palmgren, perhaps because she found out about his affair with a co-worker, or that he often was out of control with his drinking, as witnessed by others.  It's reported that police were called to the home on a few occasions in response to verbal domestic violence, the last time the night before she vanished.  Gail was given phone numbers to local domestic violence agencies, but it's not known if she made contact.  However, it's clear Gail was making her plans to leave the marriage.

As in most cases when someone is preparing to leave an abusive relationship, it's important to plan ahead.  Gail did her due diligence and made several correct decisions to protect her personal interests as well as her safety.  Gail had a trusted friend and gave her items of value, documents and information to hold for her.  As any good intimate partner violence advocate would advise, she took the correct steps to preserve evidence which could one day hold the answers.

In this age of technology, all electronic devices can hold potential evidence.  Cell phones, computers and GPS devices were all a part of the Palmgren household.  All of them could hold clues to what happened to Gail the day she disappeared, however, they were not readily confiscated, but only recently handed over to authorities, after Matt Palmgren and his attorney laid out the "ground rules" for searching the home.  Why have the investigating agencies delayed getting aggressive in this case?  Yes, it's important to cross all the t's and dot all the i's in any ongoing investigation, but it's just not clear why it seems they have been negotiating instead.

When all is said and done there are only three possibilities:

1. Gail left her children, home, assets, family and friends and is hiding out somewhere.
2. Gail had an accident and she and her vehicle have not yet been found.
3. Gail is a victim of foul play.

The truth will come out, it usually does, but that doesn't relieve the anxiety of two little children.  Two children who are the world of Gail Palmgren, who would NEVER leave them.  May these kids get the answers soon as to what's happened to their mother, and know that she loved them, she did NOT abandon them willingly.

Description of Gail’s Jeep

Gail drove a four-door maroon 2010 Rubicon Jeep Wrangler with a black soft top. The wheel cover on the back has the words “Life is Good” and a daisy painted on it. The trailer hitch has a picture of the Disney character Goofy on it, and the Jeep has Alabama tags that read “EAZY ST”.

Gail is 5’8” and weighs 135 pounds. She has blonde hair and brown eyes.

If you have any information about Gail’s disappearance or her whereabouts you are asked to call the Signal Mountain Police Department at 423-886-2123.

A Facebook page, "Bring Gail Home Now" has been created as a support for family and for news updates.



More information:
Isabelle Zehnder, Missing Persons Examiner
Susan Murphy Milano, Blog and Radio Show, May 19   June 16
Case Signal, Timeline and organized information

UPDATE

12/2/2011

Technology Helps in Search for Palmgren

"It appears Gail Palmgren lost control of her Jeep on East Brow Road on April 30th, 2011 at approximately, 12:25," this according to Matthew Palmgren's attorneys in a statement released today.
This is video we found of East Brow Road using Google Earth.

Resident David Axmacher She ran off the bluff some way or another. I know where that bluff is and it's really a long ways down)

The video shows the thick area where investigators found human remains and the Jeep Rubicon belonging to Gail Palmgren.
7 months after the mom went missing, it was technology that brought the case to the next level.

Monica Caison, CUE, says "it was a good day as far as all the technology and things coming together and people coming together that made this search successful."

Caison is with The Community United Effort for missing persons, also known as CUE.
CUE along with two other groups were called in to help with specialized equipment.
You can see just how steep this area is and what rescuers were dealing with.

"The technology used on Wednesday is a high resolution imaging device that can photograph in a millionth of a second the area so you can look at it in real time," says Caison.

The technology was used in aerial searches, to find this Jeep down below.
Even though many leaves have fallen off trees, some areas were hard to photograph, which is why officials came back on Thursday.
They were able to target the vehicle and send a special group of rescuers down the mountain.

"It was very difficult. Actually high angle experts were called in to go down there and actually assess a lot of the situations," says Caison.

An area where officials found Gail's purse and cell phone, just miles from her Signal Mountain home.

http://www.wdef.com/news/story/Technology-Helps-in-Search-for-Palmgren/SG0Rx0E-RUCm0wyAoWm7Xw.cspx

21 Days For Heather

It's something I just can't let go and today I'm hoping that someone will see this post on my obscure little blog and be able to "be the one." In 21 days the ex-husband of Heather Thompson will be released from Federal Prison in Bennettsville, SC and be able to resume a relatively normal life after being incarcerated for the last 14 years for beating her to within an inch of her life. He has had a lot of time to think about how he can fulfill his promise to kill her and her children, and has made numerous threats over the years from prison.

Today Bloggers Unite has declared "Domestic Violence Day" and I hope that by banding together and writing about this epidemic, it will bring awareness to the many who are still trapped in an abusive relationship, men and women alike. While there are agencies and advocates all across the country, many of the abused aren't aware or savvy enough to figure out an escape plan. There is hope and healing available on the other side of abuse, if only the abused can reach out far enough.

In Heather's, and many other cases, all the right steps have been taken, but yet she and her children are not safe. GPS monitoring has been proven to be a useful tool, but in her case, authorities will not violate her abuser's rights by putting one on him at this time. Apparently he has to take a step towards murdering her and her children in order to be eligible. I know, this makes no sense, but is another flaw in the system that re-victimizes the victims.

The public has become immune to stories of fathers brutally murdering their families in the last few months. The news reports cover these stories and all the gory details, and yet there are families grieving the horrendous losses who are raw in their emotions. Please don't let Heather and her family become just another statistic or another news story and then wonder where the system broke down. The system that should protect the rights of the innocents is protecting the rights of the ones who have beaten, battered and killed in hopes that they are rehabilitated in prison and will become productive members of society again. That rarely happens.

The faces of domestic abuse are bloody and bruised, just like Heather's was, but at least she has survived.....so far. Reach out into your community, your church, your neighborhood and become more vigilant. Really look at that woman in the grocery store with the black eye, listen to her and if nothing else, guide her to a shelter or even a website that will get her the information she needs.

Educate yourself about the ways the abused may be helped. There are many organizations and advocates willing to share this information. Susan Murphy Milano has written the "bible" of safety escape procedures in her book "Moving Out, Moving On" and her new book to be released titled "Time's Up". These are important works which lay everything out in a step by step fashion so that abused women don't wind up dead.

Heather Thompson and her children will be living in great fear starting on May 29. She is in dire need of help, publicity, and protection from the man who most likely will make a move to snuff out her life and the lives of her children. Let's hope he is not successful and that Heather is not another entry at Mothers are Vanishing.

Helping Heather

(although Heather Thompson is not a Missing Mother, it's situations like hers that lead to a woman being missing and, in most cases, murdered by her intimate partner)



While her situation is being played out online in a Facebook Group, through messages and emails, Heather Thompson is watching the clock tick.  A survivor of a severe case of domestic violence, Heather is watching her time run out.

Very soon her ex-husband, Thomas Price, Jr., will be paroled from Federal prison.  The same prison from which he sent threats to kill her and her children.  The same prison from which he has had 14 years to think about and plot ways to carry out those threats.

What are the citizens of Charlotte, NC waiting for?  Are they waiting for the next headline news story of a bloodbath, where a woman and her family are murdered?  Are they waiting to see the day's headlines and then turn away to do the dishes?

This is real life for Heather Thompson.

This is real life for her children and family.

This is not just another headline waiting to happen. Or is it?

Yes, there are things that Heather had the opportunity to do with the last 14 years, but she chose to rebuild her life, remarry, have more children and put the past behind her.  But now that past is back to haunt her.  Maybe she should have done some things differently, maybe she should have just left the family and surroundings that she knows and loves and went underground, knowing that this day would come.

Heather chose to be an outspoken spokesperson for domestic violence.  After her brutal attack, billboards were placed around Charlotte, NC so that everyone could see the injuries inflicited upon her and maybe think twice about going home and beating their partner.  Maybe Heather saved a few women that way.

Heather has spent the last 14 years, the years that Tommy Price has been in prison, speaking out for victims, serving on the board of directors of domestic violence groups , and letting women know that there is hope, that their is a way out of a sickening situation.

Heather's hope has run out.  What will it take to save her life?  Is there a safety plan for her?  Is there anywhere she can turn and not live in fear?  Is there any way to keep Tommy Price from snuffing out the lives of his ex-wife and children? What are the odds?

I'm sure Tommy Price has a cheesy grin on his face today, knowing that his actions have stirred up so much controversy.  If there were any way left in our justice system to keep him behind bars, it would be a blessing, but I doubt that is going to happen.

Every day in our country we read about cases where a partner continues to victimize and uses their children as pawns in their game. Child murder and suicide seems to be epidemic. Where is our judicial system in all this?  It is flawed to say the least.

So what can we do to keep Heather Thompson and her family alive?  There aren't many options left. She is at the eleventh hour and there are not too many places left to turn.  If Tommy Price is paroled, Heather Thompson's death cerificate is as good as signed unless drastic measures are taken quickly.

As just a concerned person with no knowledge of the law and how paroles work, I have no answers, but I know with every breath in my being that someone out there knows.

If you have the knowledge and wherewithall to stand up and do something to help Heather, please do it.  Do it quietly, do it behind the scenes, don't announce to the world and pat your own back, just take the ball and run with it.

Please save a life today.



To read about or contact Heather, please read at her group on Facebook

Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I A Woman?"

In celebration of International Women's Day I chose to honor Isabella Baumfree, better known as Sojourner Truth.  There is an excellent biography of her life, the hardships of being bought and sold in slavery in New York, abuse of her body,  and her rising above it to become a renown speaker for women's rights and other social issues that, although were relevant in the early 1800's, are still relevant today.


I chose to post her famous speech, given in Akron, Ohio at an 1851 Women's Convention.  It's amazing to me that almost 160 years later, women are still doing battle for equality.  In the year that America has elected a black president, black women are still, along with their white sisters, looking for the time when we are no longer regarded as a man's property.

"Ain't I A Woman?"

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.


Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

Isabella Baumfree, you said it oh so well.  Thank you.

Other sites with information about Sojourner Truth:


Sojourner Truth Institute
Sojourner Truth - Stamp on Black History profile
Sojourner Truth - Memorial Statue Project in Florence, Massachusetts
Sojourner Truth - Battle Creek Historical Society
"Ain't I a Woman?" Speech - Fordham University
"Ain't I a Woman?" - speech and history of, on About.com
"Keeping the Thing Going While Things are Stirring" - speech delivered at the American Equal Rights Association in 1867
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth - online text of her autobiography, at A Celebration of Women Writers
Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sibyl - Article by Harriet Beecher Stowe, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in April 1863
Women and Families in Slavery - links to essays and first-hand accounts and letters about the lives of female slaves
"Sojourner Truth will Become the First Black Woman Honored with a Bust in the U.S. Capitol"

   International Women's Day, March 8, 2009

Kathleen Savio, Justice Vanishing

As her white casket was pulled from the ground on November 17, 2007, questions arose concerning her "accidental" death, drowning in her own bathtub. Her peaceful rest was disturbed by questioning, probing and sampling. It would mark the beginning of a spotlight that has not shone on Kathleen Savio and the circumstances of her death, nor the two boys she left behind, but on her ex-husband, Drew Peterson, and the three ring circus he has created, basking in every minute of the limelight and insisting on his innocence.

Kathleen's last day on earth was March 1, 2004, not a date that too many are remembering these days, as her death has been overshadowed by news of Drew's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, and possible fifth, fiancee Chrissy Raines, but the Savio family continues to mourn and seek justice on her behalf. Little did they know, but suspected, that their beloved "Kitty" did not die accidentally, and, as a new investigation has reported, she was a victim of homicide.

Kathleen lived with and reported many beatings, threats and petitioned for Orders of Protection. Police were called to her home several times, many reports were take, but many were not. She went so far as to write to the Illinois States Attorney describing what would happen to her according to the threats she was receiving. She laid it all out describing in detail what was happening in her life and the lives of her children, and what was going to happen to her next. Kitty eerily knew she was going to die, and die at the hands of her ex-husband, according to her letters and petitions. Please take the time to read for yourself the words she wrote predicting her fate.

But where is the proof? Was Drew Peterson responsible for her death? A Grand Jury in Will County, Illinois has been probing into this for over a year and still no arrest has been made. Was Drew Peterson, as a veteran Bolingbrook police officer, able to conceal every piece of evidence of a crime scene? It's a very real possibility that he will never be charged, never found guilty, never be sentenced, and although the mother of two of his children has been gone for five years, circumstantial evidence and the layout of Kathleen's letters must not be good enough to arrest or convict.

It's hard to find accounts of Kathleen before her connection with Drew, but I am assuming she, as other of his wives, thought she had found what she was looking for. A nice home, two children, nursing school, a police officer husband, all look like a positive lifestyle from an outsider's viewpoint. However, Kathleen, as so many others, was living a nightmare behind closed doors, the dirty little secret of domestic abuse hiding behind the policeman coward's badge.

As many before, and many will again, Kathleen lost her life.

She had no safety strategy plan set in place to get out of this marriage with her life. Police officers are trained in crime scene evidence, in how to use weapons, and, in a lot of cases, how to cover up a crime committed by one of their own. It seems that the circumstances Kathleen predicted five long years ago have come true. In her words she stated that he threatened to kill her and no one would suspect. So far, Drew Peterson was telling the truth.

May the Savio family and the children of Kathleen and Stacy know that there are many, many out here that have not forgotten, that wish to see justice served, that continue to keep the memory of Kathleen as a woman and a mother alive and not just yesterday's news article about the "puppetmaster", Drew Peterson. May Kathleen rest assured that many are concerned for her children and only want what's in their best interest.

Peace to you, Kathleen.