As I opened my computer this morning, I saw a story that, once again, touched my heart deeply; a 24 year old son doing an interview pleading for knowledge about his missing mother. As the tourist season on the Grand Strand in South Carolina is preparing to open, with headlines about all the latest attractions, we have forgotten a story that one family lives with each and every day.
It's reported that in 1990, Larry Hayslette, Andrea Hayslette's husband and father of her two children, was convicted of a charge of domestic violence against Andrea, an incident where he attacked her in the shower, held her hostage in a locked bathroom for hours, then tried to make her leave the home, still naked. She stated that Larry was often violent if under the influence of alcohol.
In 1993 Andrea Hayslette was a straight A student at local Coastal Carolina University where she also held a part time job. She was married and the mother of two small children, a devoted mother, preparing for a career in marketing and communications, getting ready to take her final exams. One of the things in her regular routine was taking her two children to the library in Surfside Beach twice a week. By all accounts of both friends and family, Andrea would never leave her children behind, so to assume that she somehow walked away from her life doesn't add up.
On April 24, 1993, Andrea was last seen by a neighbor at the Deer Track Villas in Surfside Beach where the family of 4 lived. By April 28, 4 days later, she was reported missing by her parents because it was not in her character to be out of communication with them for that length of time, and to be away from her two small children. Her truck and her van, along with all of her clothing and jewelry, were still at the home, but missing was her suitcase, toothbrush, her purse and other personal identifying items.
When her parents returned from a trip to Disney World with grandson, Ryan, his younger sister, Katie, only 2 years old at the time, stated that "Daddy put Mommy in those bushes." Because of her young age, this statement was not allowed to be presented in court, but led investigators to believe that foul play existed and Larry Hayslette became the number one suspect.
By May 24, 1993, a mere four weeks after Andrea disappeared, Larry Hayslette returned to his father's in West Virginia, returning to Surfside Beach one time after that to gather his belongings and move back there. Family court judge awarded Andrea's parents permanent custody of her two small children, a move that was definitely in their best interest considering some of the headlines we read today.
Eventually, in 1995, Larry Hayslette was convicted of forging Andrea's signature on the title of her vehicle for the purpose of selling it, and in 1996 he was charged with Andrea's murder, however, the charges were dropped in 1997 for lack of evidence and this case has grown cold over the years.
Here we are today in April of 2012 still without answers or justice for Andrea Hayslette and her family. Along the Grand Strand we have a couple high profile, nationally known, missing persons. Alice Donovan's case came to a close in 2009, 6 years after she was abducted from Conway's WalMart parking lot, when her remains were finally found, and Brittanee Drexel who vanished from an Ocean Blvd. hotel while on Spring Break in 2009, yet we haven't heard much about Andrea Hayslette and the circumstances surrounding her case.
What can we in our community do to help find the answers? With so many advances in technology in the last 19 years, including DNA and social media, we can do a lot to at least bring the name Andrea Hayslette back into the forefront. News pieces like the one today from WPDE, Carolina Live, helps tremendously, it's this piece that brought my attention to the case, and I'm sure there are others in the area who were not aware of it before. Registering the case with a missing persons organization like CUE Center for Missing Persons located in Wilmington, NC,also raises the awareness level and continues to educate the public on the fact that she is still missing, and offers advocacy for the family and for the case.
The family can continue to make noise publicly and on social media networks to bring awareness back to the investigation. Clues are there, we just need to find them, and to assist investigators in bringing a resolution and justice for Andrea and her family. Over 19 years memories tend to lapse, but someone knows something and has been living with it all this time; hopefully they hold the key and will come forward.
If you feel you have that key, please reach out and contact Horry County Police, Lt. Russell Jordan at 843-915-5350. Case #1993-00014009
NamUs MP # 10575
Case Information
Missing
Andrea
Lynn
Hayslette
April 24, 1993 00:00
05/04/2011
29 to years old
48 years old
White
Female
64.0
100.0
Information for this article gathered from the following sources:
Two years ago on New Year's Day 2009, Renee Pernice vanished, leaving behind her home in Kansas City, MO, her husband and three children. Two years ago her husband, Shon Pernice, says she just walked out of the house on foot and he couldn't "remember" where she said she was going. Renee has not been seen nor heard from since.
Following this case for the last two years has been a series of twists and turns, watching Shon Pernice sidestepping with inconsistencies in his original story, never participating in searches for his wife, and being arrested on several charges, finally for the murder of Renee. He will go to trial in 2011.
The pattern of conduct of Renee Pernice leading up to the day she vanished could be like so many other women trying to leave a marriage. Renee held a good job with a salary enough to support herself and her children, in fact, Renee alone cared for her children while her husband was stationed overseas. During the investigation divorce papers were discovered in Renee's home office, leading us to believe she was serious about leaving her marriage this time.
Renee Pernice was close to her family, was in constant contact, and, as is often heard in cases of missing mothers, "she would NEVER leave her children." Most of the statements from Shon Pernice are in direct contrast with the woman and mother her family knew her to be. Perhaps Renee confided in her family or close friends about the upcoming divorce, or the problems in her marriage leading her to make the decision to finalize it.
Maybe Shon Pernice has a history of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, being one of the last to see another missing mother, Star Boomer who vanished in 1999. It would be a great service to the family of Star Boomer if information on her whereabouts would come forth during the investigation of Renee's murder. Although there were a reported 13 witnesses, no one is talking. As always, someone knows where the remains of these two mothers are today.
Hindsight is always valuable, and one of the reasons many blog about cases like this is to learn and use the information to educate others in the hope that another mother may be spared. Had Renee Pernice, or Susan Powell, or Stacy Peterson taken precautionary measures while preparing to leave their marriages, this blog would not have been written. A revolutionary new procedure has been introduced by Susan Murphy Milano in her latest book, "Time's Up: A Guide on How to Leave an Abusive and Stalking Relationship" called the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit. This simple procedure is likened to a living will, spelling out in notarized, witnessed documents and video testimony the evidence of what went wrong in the relationship and, if abuse is present, it's documented as well. Procedures utilized by Murphy Milano over the last 20 years have led to a perfect track record in keep women alive during the traumatic end to their relationships.
Writing about missing mothers has given me an insight, as well as working closely with advocates and organizations surrounding the issues of intimate partner violence and missing persons. In many cases, there is a clear pattern of conduct in the actions of those involved, a relationship with violence, or at the least an "ownership" attitude, that if you leave me, no one else will have you and my children. It's a pattern that is seen over and over, and the results, unfortunately, are usually the same.
While remembering Renee on the second anniversary of her missing, I also urge readers to remember her children. They are now in the care of Renee's father, Rick Pretz, and although trying to give them the best childhood they deserve, it can't be easy. Children left behind with no answers, children left to deal with the trauma, children who were unconditionally loved by their mother, have daily reminders that their lives have changed dramatically. They have needs expressed in ways that we sometimes don't understand, and will be forever branded in their psyches. They are the innocent bystanders in the chaos surrounding them that makes no sense to them. Never will they have the opportunity to know what could have been.
Just as others who have come after her, many whose names have been in the news or discussed on the internet, Kimberly Ann Langwell somehow knew her demise. She was involved in an unstable connection with an ex-boyfriend, but had begun a new relationship, was very close to her teenage daughter, as well as her sister and family. Kimberly would never walk away from those who loved and cared for her, especially the daughter with whom she shared a special bond.
July 9, 2010 marks 11 years since the evening she left work in Beaumont, Texas, checked in with her daughter, informing her that she needed to stop by the ex-boyfriend’s, and that she would be home within a couple hours. When too much time had passed, her current boyfriend retraced the route she would have taken, and found her abandoned car. Her purse and keys were gone, but left behind were her cell phone and other personal items, items most women would keep on hand if they were walking away to a new life.
Like the others, Kimberly had been threatened and frightened of her ex-boyfriend, who, by the way, has not been named in any news articles I could find. She was frightened to the point of telling her sister that if something happened to her, that she did not commit suicide, and where to look for her body; she intuitively knew something bad was about to occur and wanted someone to know. Unfortunately, it was not enough, and as the years of investigation have gone by, Kimberly is still missing.
Searches of the area around her abandoned car turned up no clues as to what could have happened, and many have speculated that her body could have been dumped in any number of abandoned wells in the area around Beaumont.
As is often the case, the daughter left behind grew up, married and left town. Often the feeling that others look at you differently when you are a survivor of a tragedy, the fact that there are few resources of support, and your own internal pain, cause you to search for new beginnings. Not only will she endlessly search for her mother, she will be endlessly searching inside herself for answers, often re-living the event.
Every July 9, devoted supporter, DeDe Keene of A.M.A.L.P. Ministries, gathers others together and returns to the last place that Kimberly was seen, the parking lot where her car was found, and passes out fliers to spark the memories of those who live nearby. Someone knows something, someone has the clues that will unlock the mystery and someone has the ability to give her family peace.
If you have any information, no matter how small, as to the whereabouts of Kimberly Anne Langwell, please notify the Beaumont Police Department 409.880.3865 or call 911
Last Known Location: Phelan and Dowlen in the parking old of the former Eckerds
Name: Kimberly Ann Langwell
Nickname: Kim
Sex: Female
Race: Unknown
Age: 34 YOB: 02-24-65
Height: 5ft 4in
Weight: 135 lbs
Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Vehicle was located in the parking lot of the old Eckerds store on Phelan and Dowlen. There were no signs of struggle. Her car is a 1994 Silver Nissan Altima.
Case: 99-17661 Beaumont Crime Stoppers - 409-833-8477
In remembrance of all the Mothers written about on this site, as well as all the missing mothers who have not yet come home. May their children know that they are loved always and forever.
When I read this news report this morning I literally had to get up and take a walk to blow off steam. It was like a punch in the stomach that took my breath away!
Posted: Feb 22, 2010 9:41 AM ESTUpdated: Feb 22, 2010 9:46 AM EST
COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - Attorneys for a man on federal death row after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering a South Carolina woman say their client should not be executed and deserves a new trial.
Chadrick Fulks' new defense team says he should get a new trial because his original lawyers were ineffective. They're expected to begin making those arguments at a hearing Monday in federal court in Columbia. Fulks is expected to appear by video conference from federal death row in Terre Haute, IN.
Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham were convicted of killing Alice Donovan during a two-week crime spree after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002.
Attorney Beattie Ashmore says his client's assistance in finding Donovan's remains should be taken into account in determining his fate.
So Chadrick Fulks, a confessed killer, has a new team of attorneys saying that his original team was ineffective. Ineffective at what!? Fulks and Basham got caught, were convicted and sentenced to death. Why do they have the right to a "do-over?" Alice Donovan and Samantha Burns are still dead, they will never have a chance at a "do-over!"
I'm so sick of hearing about killers and their rights! What about Alice's rights, what about Samantha's rights? What about the rights of their surviving families? Our justice system has gone insane when they grant convicted killers more than enough legal representation, paid for by taxpayers, when the families of the victim can barely pay for a funeral in many cases! What about their rights!?
So Fulks and his new attorney feel that because he finally told where he and Basham stashed Alice's body that he is hoping to get a pass on his death sentence? What the attorneys didn't say was that it took him 6 damned years to do it! Could this be the reason Fulks has lead searchers for Samantha Burns on a wild goose chase based on his information? Samantha has yet to be found! Does he think that Samantha's family should take that into account when he asks for a new trial?
The insanity has to stop! I will remind you that this is not a questionable case where circumstantial evidence convicted Fulks and Basham, where DNA evidence may prove them innocent. I've read the appeal where they told every grisly detail of what they did to their victims. They were found guilty and sentenced to death and these families will not find peace until the evil stops rearing it's ugly head as a reminder.
It doesn't matter that Alice Donovan found a happy life in South Carolina, or that Samantha Burns was working towards a good career, these two snuffed out everything for them and their families.
This whole thing is just utterly crazy and I can't even believe that it is happening. I never thought or dreamed in a million years that we would be in this situation six years later. In 2004 we sat in a federal court room and listened to what he and Basham did to our mother. We saw their clothes, we saw pictures and we saw video of them carjacking my mother. I had to get on the stand and testify because I was the person that my mother spoke to while she was captured and then I had to get up on the stand again for the Victims Impact Statement. I had to sit in the court room for hours starring at the back of this bastards head. And never once did he look at me or the rest of my mothers family. He is the biggest coward I have ever seen...We had to listen to his ex-wife tell us about how he abused her and the little baby Miles..This man is a monster no matter how you look at him...And just because he "finally" decided to lead people to my mother does not make him a decent human being...To me he is still the piece of shit that raped and murdered my mother and he deserves to die!
I honestly don't know what I am going to do if I have to go through another trial. The agony of it all is more than words can explain..I can remember when we were told that the jury had come to a verdict. We all walked into the court room..The court room was full to the point where people were standing. The room was full of federal court marshalls..And as we sat there waiting for the jury to enter and give the judge their verdict it seemed like eternity. As the judge read the paper, my mind drifted off to a far away place and I could barely hear his voice. With tears falling from my eyes, and my inner voice begging for him to die...And then I heard the judge say death....With the tears still streaming from my eyes, I smiled with relief and began to sob for my mom....Justice was served or so I thought.....
The name "Star Boomer" fascinates me, I don't know why, but I remember the day I first saw it, thought it was actually pretty cool, like something my "60's" mind would make up. But Star Boomer is not just a cool name, but a real woman, a woman who has been missing under suspicious circumstances for way too long.
I first wrote about Star Boomer's disappearance, a mother of a young boy at the time, last year when I learned that another mother was missing from the same area, Renee Pernice, and that her husband, Shon Pernice, was one of the last persons to see each of them alive. Another year has passed and still there is nothing to investigate until bodies are found. Each family has dealt with the fact that murders have occurred, however, they can't come close to starting the grieving process until they have answers and until these women are in a place of peace.
The following is an article written about Star's sister, Cynthia Hurtie, who has made a mission of finding, not only her sister, but, as many others with missing loved ones do, she has set out to help find other missing persons. So many family members I've communicated with seem to have a need to give. Whether it be by physically searching, changing legislation, calming spirits with support or setting up internet sites for information, all of them have the need for a way to give answers to others if they can't have the resolutions they want for themselves. Each day may be a personal struggle, but they find a way to step above it and face each obstacle with courage.
While researching "Star Boomer" I came across the site of someone from Australia who designs and makes toys. One of her toy sets are called "Star Boomers" based on an Australian Christmas song. As she explained the toys there was a paragraph that struck me as being written for the "real" Star Boomer!
I hope that next time you look up into the night sky you might imagine a mob of Star Boomers traversing the heavens, bounding over the Milky Way in search of green starry pastures.
I hope one day, while looking into the heavens for answers, the family of Star Boomer will find her.
Finding the lost has been something of an obsession for Cynthia Hurtie, Spring Hill. She’ll settle for finding just one missing person, but ideally, Hurtie, a recent graduate with a degree in forensic science, would like to find her sister, Star Boomer.
"If you have a person go missing in your life, it’s unrepairable," she said. "It does major damage to the family members."
The last people to see Boomer alive told police that Boomer got into an altercation on Feb. 23, 1999 at Uncle Mike’s Bar in Kansas City, Kan. She was allegedly knocked to the ground and where she lost consciousness.
According to old news accounts, Boomer went to the local watering hole with friend and roommate, Carolyn Marshall. Marshall stayed for one drink and planned to return to pick up Boomer later in the evening. Marshall was told that Boomer had left with two men, when she returned to pick Boomer up. Investigators believe she was killed at the bar and her body was dumped.
The following article shows the connection from domestic abuse to missing mother. Maybe not physically missing, however, she is missing from the lives of her children. Her children are, in most cases, left behind to deal with the aftermath for the rest of their lives.
The cases listed below are just a tiny example of an ever increasing list of women (and men) who are taken down by the manipulative, angry, and deadly abuser.
Just two weeks before she was killed — run over by her estranged husband in his car — Walz had obtained a protective order from a court in Cincinnati ordering him to have no contact her — even with her permission.
But Paul Walz spent most of the evening drinking with his estranged wife on the night she was killed, Boone County sheriff's spokesman Tom Scheben said.
Paul Walz told police the two had just left a party when she opened the door to his car and leaned out to vomit. She fell out and suffered fatal injuries when he ran over her, police say.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter, drunken driving and violating a protective order, and a trial is set for Jan. 18, 2010.
Deputy sheriffs in Hamilton County, Ohio, had charged Paul Walz two weeks before his wife's death with domestic violence and felony assault for allegedly running over her foot with his car. A protective order issued on May 25 ordered him to have no contact with her.
AMY DAVIS, 29, Jeffersonville, Ky., May 29
Amy Davis' family knew that her relationship with her ex-husband, Tony Patterson, was rocky, but they say they never suspected it would end violently.
She had taken out an emergency protective order against Patterson, but only because Amy's daughter — one of three children she'd adopted with Patterson before the two divorced — had told her that her ex-husband had made inappropriate sexual comments.
“It wasn't about violence to her,” said Davis' father, Ralph Davis.
Patterson couldn't accept the fact that she had met another man, Ralph Davis said.
“He kept calling her at all hours of the night,” he said. “She would change her number, and he would still get a hold of it.”
Nine days before she and Patterson were scheduled to appear in Montgomery County for a hearing on the protective order, Patterson forced his way into her mobile home southeast of Mount Sterling, shot and killed Cain, then chased Amy Davis into the yard and shot her dead, before killing himself.
“This just blindsided everyone,” Ralph Davis said. “He was always making threats, but we didn't think he would deliver on them.”
DANA GABRIELLE MCDONALD, 26, Louisville. Feb. 20
A therapist and nurse at the Home of the Innocents, Dana McDonald had been living with 29-year-old Michael Elery for about two months when they got in an argument two weeks before Christmas last year.
He refused to leave, so she called police, at which point he warned her that he would beat her up when he got out of jail, she said in a petition for a protective order.
“I think Michael will harm me,” McDonald wrote. “I want Michael to stay away.”
After hearing Elery's side of the story, a judge issued a domestic-violence order for three years, ordering Elery to stay 1,000 feet from her, and away from guns.
On Feb. 20, 2009, Elery was picked up in Harrison County, Ind., on a charge of public intoxication and told police he had assaulted his girlfriend in Louisville, according to court records.
McDonald was found dead of blunt-force injuries and multiple stab wounds in the apartment and Elery was charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is set for Aug. 27.
TASHA DYE, 35, Westport, Ky., Nov. 19, 2007
Tasha Dye was scared. Her estranged husband, Charles “Chuck” Dye whom she was divorcing, had threatened her and her family, she said in a petition for a protective order on Oct. 25, 2007.
That day, he had come to the home they had shared near the Ohio River, knocked on the door, and then barged in when she said to go away, she said. She locked herself in a bathroom and called 911, and he fled when he realized she'd called police.
But she had taken out a protective order against him in the past, and knew that other women had as well. “I am fearing he will do something to hurt me and my family,” she said in her petition.
Family Court Judge Tim Feeley had issued a domestic-violence order, instructing Dye to stay 500 feet away from Tasha and her mother, Carolyn Schildknesht, 55. There was no restriction placed on firearms.
The next month, three days after their divorce was final, Chuck Dye, 51, came to mobile home that Tasha Dye was sharing with Schildknesht, chased his ex-wife into the front yard and shot her in the head before killing himself.
“I really don't know what more could have been done to protect her,” said Joe Wells, her divorce lawyer. “The DVO was in place. All the boxes were checked like they're supposed to be.”
But Oldham County Police Detective Paul Kerr, who investigated the murder-suicide, said a GPS monitoring system — like the one proposed by House Speaker Greg Stumbo — may have saved Tasha Dye's life.
Although Chuck Dye lived close to his ex-wife — and could have beaten police to the scene if they had been alerted that he was approached her — Tasha Dye also would have gotten notice and would have had a chance to flee, Kerr said.
He said Chuck Dye would have been a perfect candidate for electronic monitoring.
“We knew him for years,” Kerr said. “We knew he was a violent person.”
A waitress and mother of three children, Theresa Hicks once tried to get Robert W. Casey out of her life, then let him back in.
On Sept. 30, 2006, after Casey, a disabled former gas station worker, smashed the window of Hicks' van, cutting her and two of her children, she won an order requiring him to stay away from her for two years.
“He threatened my life,” she told District Judge John McCarty.
But four months later, she asked to have the order “completely dropped.”
McCarty refused to do that, ordering Casey to continue in anger-management counseling, and to refrain from further violence or harassment. At Hicks' request, though, he dropped the no-contact order, and the couple reunited.
“He persisted until she came back,” said Jennifer Anderson, Hicks' sister.
On Oct. 17, 2007 — a week before the protective order was to expire — Hicks and Casey went out drinking, got into a fight, and Hicks was pushed, fell or jumped from a moving vehicle, police said.
Hicks died of multiple blunt-force trauma and Casey was charged with murder, drunken driving, violating a protective order and assault of another person earlier the same night.
Casey eventually pleaded guilty to violating the order and second-degree manslaughter, and was sentenced to 10 years. His public defender, Lelah Rogers, declined to comment.
Anderson said her sister was “miserable” in her relationship with Casey.
“She didn't want to go back to him,” Anderson said. “She began living with him to get him to leave her alone.”
There are many strategies that are available that may have been able to save the lives of these women.
Our country's attorneys, judges, advocates and citizens must start practicing better procedures to help victims of abuse stay alive.
Obviously an Order of Protection is nothing but a paper trail of future abuse
This story is of a mother who really didn't "go missing" but vanished right before her son's eyes. This is a story that connects the dots between domestic violence, murder, and a child who will forever be branded as the "kid whose mother got killed."
As the trial proceeds and witness after witness describe the events, a young 13 year old boy is sharing with the jury what he saw that afternoon as he was being picked up from his father's after a custody visit. To say that the "family" had a strange living arrangement is an understatement.
Micheal Lister, Anthony Lister's father, was also Tracie Raisner's EX-boyfriend. Living in the Lister home was Micheal's wife of 25 years, his current girlfriend and 6 of his children by 3 different women. Needless to say, this doesn't sound like an "Ozzie and Harriet" type of household.
Testimony revealed what Lister's own lawyers say was an ''unusual'' living arrangement at Lister's home. Staying there were Carol Lister, his wife of 25 years; Christina Murawski, his girlfriend; and six of his children by three women.
On the evening of the shooting, Lister got a call letting him know Raisner was dropping Anthony off, Carol Lister and Rivera testified. He then had Murawski get his gun, and he holstered it and went outside, they said.
Anthony Lister saw it all. At 12 years old he watched as his father gunned down his mother on a sidewalk in front of several people begging him to stop. He is the one who ran to her and cried frantically over her lifeless body. Anthony Lister will never, ever forget what he saw that day as his mother lay dead.
Michael Lister will be found guilty of something, whether it be first, second or third degree murder, or voluntary manslaughter. He will serve jail time, but it will be Anthony, now 13 and entering the turbulent teens that will be forever serving a life sentence. I doubt that after this trial we will hear about Anthony Lister again. As he continues on with his shattered life he could go down as many paths as the directions of shards of broken glass. Will he choose a path of destruction or will he choose to find strength to break the chains from the anger, sadness and defeat he must be feeling? He couldn't save his mother that day, no matter how hard he screamed for her to come back to him.
Anthony has joined the ranks of the thousands of children who have lost a parent to violence. We don't hear much about these kids, and probably don't wonder about them either. They tend to be "yesterday's news" as a more thrilling story comes to the media outlets. Have you ever thought about the scars these children carry? There is not much help available for the child victims of violence as they are shuttled through the system or through family members. They are expected to grieve, move on and get over it.
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