2015

MP of the week: Keely Beaudry-Culver

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This week’s featured missing person is Keely Christabel Beaudry-Culver, a 26-year-old woman who was last seen in Bagdad, Arizona (yes that is the correct spelling, it’s not like Baghdad in Iraq) on July 1, 2015. She’s white, with brown hair, blue eyes and multiple tattoos; I have photo of the tattoos on her Charley Project page.

Keely has bipolar disorder and was also struggling with addictions to heroin and methamphetamine. Her husband had thrown her out due to her drug use and she was homeless. Her friends said the last time they saw her she was incoherent under the influence of drugs and just walked off into the desert. Keely’s backpack turned up in the desert but there was no sign of her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was still there.

MP of the week: Ember Graham

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This week’s featured missing person is Ember Skye Graham, a six-month-old baby who disappeared from Happy Valley, California on July 2, 2015.

Her father, Matthew, said he was passed out in the house under the influence of drugs as Ember slept in her playpen, and when he woke up she was gone. The police think it’s far more likely that Matthew himself did something to his daughter and tried to cover it up by claiming she’d been abducted. The last trace of Ember was her pacifier (with her DNA on it) found on a rode in a remote area in the census-designated place known as Ono, California.

Nine days after Ember’s disappearance, Matthew stole money and a gun from his mom and fled. Three days later he carjacked someone’s vehicle and was killed in a police shootout. The case has been kind of stalled since then, for obvious reasons.

If she is still alive, Ember would be nine years old now, going on ten. For what it’s worth, her mom said Matthew was a good father and she didn’t think he would have harmed her. Ember is white, with brown hair and brown eyes. She has epilepsy and needs medication twice a day for it.

Rudy Farias gives interview with the news

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So Rudy Farias, who was recently located alive (if not well) after eight years and turned out to have been at his mom’s house the entire time, gave an interview with Fox 26 Houston. From this article:

“She would manipulate me into saying I would get arrested for speeding ticket,” Farias says. “It just felt like brainwashing, honestly.”

He says he had the free will to leave but, felt manipulated into staying and described it as feeling like “Stockholm Syndrome”.

When family or friends would come over, he had to hide. Farias says the only person he could trust was his mom because she told him so many things he wasn’t able to verify.

“I was stuck at home,” said Farias. “Somebody would come up, my mom would just tell me to stay in the room, keep the door locked, don’t let them in [and] don’t make any sounds.”

According to Farias, family members would visit the home while he was missing.

“I would just have to listen to my family, be happy and cheerful on the other side of the (expletive) door,” said Farias. “I wanted to scream for them, but at the same time I couldn’t. The only person I could trust was my mom.”

In regards to claims of sexual abuse and his mother, Farias denies them saying, “She didn’t force herself on me or anything like that. It would never be anything like that. Just stuff that really made me uncomfortable.”

Per this article, Rudy was forced to work and wasn’t compensated:


When he did leave the house, Farias said he was forced to work “12-hour shifts, seven days a week,” he said, noting he was only paid $60.

Farias also wanted to be clear: he did not have sex with his mother.

Last week, a Houston-based activist, Quanell X, told reporters after speaking with Farias that the mom had kept him as a virtual slave, at times forcing him to kiss her on the lips and sleep with her while she was naked.

Santana did try to blur boundaries, Farias said.

Yeah. That sounds godawful. Rudy’s mom sounds absolutely insane and toxic, but I’m not sure if she actually broke any laws. Since Rudy was over 18 for most of the time period in question, and he says she did not physically force him to stay at home, I don’t think this is kidnapping or false imprisonment. That’s assuming he’d even want to testify against her.

He is now staying with relatives of his mother and says he never wants to see her again. I really hope he DOESN’T see her again because I’m afraid she would take the opportunity to try to manipulate him into returning to her. Children want to please their parents, even when those parents are awful.

MP of the week: Rita Papakee

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This week’s featured missing person is Rita Janelle Papakee, who was last seen leaving a hotel in Tama, Iowa on January 16, 2015. Because she had a substance abuse problem and sometimes dropped out of sight, she wasn’t reported missing until February 18, over a month later.

Rita is Native American and an enrolled member of the Meskwaki Indian Nation. She’s described as brown-haired, brown-eyed, about 5’4 and anywhere between 145 and 200 pounds.

In spite of her drug and alcohol abuse issues, it would be uncharacteristic of her to be completely out of touch with her family, and they’re afraid she’d being held against her will.

MP of the week: Sasha Bishop

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This week’s featured missing person is Sasha Marrie Bishop, a 37-year-old Hispanic woman who disappeared from Bakersfield, California on May 9, 2015, leaving three children.

Sasha is described as 5’2 and 120 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She has a couple tattoors, including stars on the side of her face and a full sleeve on her right arm.

The house where Sasha was last seen was “frequented by transients”, whatever that means. One neighbor believed the residents were squatting. Joe Ray McBath was shot to death in that house less than a month after Sasha was last seen. His murder remains unsolved. The police have said they don’t think Sasha’s disappearance and the murder are connected, but did say they were seeking Sasha to interview as a possible witness.

If still alive, Sasha would be 44 today.

MP of the week: Bernadino Olivares-Cruz

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This week’s featured missing person is Bernadino Olivares-Cruz, an 81-year-old man who disappeared from Robstown, Texas on August 13, 2015. He wasn’t from Robstown but was there visiting relatives. He was last seen when his son dropped him off at the cemetery. Bernadino planned to visit his other son’s grave.

Bernadino is Hispanic, 5’5 and 130 pounds, with brown eyes and gray hair. He was last seen wearing a plaid shirt, blue jeans, a black belt, black shoes and an orange baseball cap.

Little information is available in this case, but my guess is he’s deceased, if for no other reason than his advanced age. If still alive he’d be 88 next month.

MP of the week: Kenneth Saunders

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This week’s featured missing person is Kenneth Albert Saunders, 31-year-old man who disappeared from Heidrick, Kentucky on August 5, 2015. He’s described as white, 6’1 tall and between 185 and 250 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. He has some distinctive tattoos I’ve got photos of, and a scar running the length of his forearm.

Prior to his disappearance his estranged wife had asked Saunders if he was okay, and he’d answered, “At this second no, but I will be.” What he meant by that, no one knows. He wasn’t reported missing for three months.

I’m going to be away for several days. Tonight I’m going to my dad’s, and am staying to help tend to him as he has surgery tomorrow.

English woman missing in Cyprus turns up decades later in Arizona, and other stories

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Samuel Little, considered to be one of the U.S. most prolific serial killers, has died in prison at age 80. They’re still trying to locate/identify his victims.

In Arizona/England/Cyprus: they’ve found Lee-Tracey Miley, who was reported missing by her son in 2019 but had actually been out of touch with her family since 1991. She went on a vacation to Egypt that year, then traveled to Cyprus (an island nation in the Mediterranean) and never returned. Ms. Miley was located safe in Arizona. She claims she was injured in a car wreck in Cyprus and developed amnesia, and had no recollection of her previous life in Bournemouth, England.

In California: the recent arrest in Michaela Garecht‘s case has given hope for answers to the family of Amanda Nicole Eileen “Nikki” Campbell, a four-year-old girl who disappeared from Fairfield on December 27, 1991. The video clip in this link includes a color photo of Nikki which I had not seen elsewhere, and have added to her casefile.

In Florida: Steve Calkins, a former sheriff’s deputy, has been found not civilly liable for anything in the 2004 disappearance and presumed death of Terrance Deon Williams from Naples. It’s a very peculiar case. Williams’s family had filed a wrongful death suit against Calkins, who is the last person known to have seen Williams and was also the last person known to have seen another missing man, Felipe Santos, who had gone missing under nearly identical circumstances the previous year. The case had been forced into binding arbitration due to an error by the plaintiffs’ attorney, and the arbitrator ruled they had no case against Calkins.

In Iowa: it’s been nearly six months since ten-year-old Breasia Terrell disappeared from Davenport, and here’s a timeline of her case.

In Massachusetts: they’re still looking for Lisa Therisa Hazard, a 29-year-old woman who disappeared from New Bedford in March 2019. She had a drug problem and told her son’s father she was going to check into a rehab center in Fall River, but it’s unclear whether she even ever left New Bedford.

In Missouri: this article honors Marianne Asher-Chapman, who founded Missouri Missing, a nonprofit organization that helps families of people missing in Missouri and publicizes their cases. Asher-Chapman’s daughter, Michelle Angela “Angie” Yarnell, disappeared from Ivy Bend in 2003.

Also in Missouri: they’ve found the remains of Brandon L. Wood, a 23-year-old who disappeared from Mountain Grove in 2015. Curiously, the bones turned up in an area that had been previously searched.

In Ohio: this article talks about cold missing persons cases in Ohio, particularly in Butler County. It mentions Cynthia Louise Carmack, a 15-year-old missing from Hamilton since 1987, and Ronald Henry Tammen Jr., a 19-year-old Ohio University student missing from Oxford since 1953, among others.

In Oregon: this article is about the narrowly averted NamUs defunding and how it would have affected cold cases in that country.

In Texas: Fox San Antonio has released a recording of an interview police did with Elizabeth Johnson, mother of Gabriel Scott Johnson, who disappeared on December 27, 2009 at just seven months old. Elizabeth says she gave Gabriel to another couple to raise, but police have been unable to identify these people and think the child is probably dead. She was convicted of custodial interference and unlawful imprisonment, but acquitted of kidnapping, and was released from prison in 2014.

In Wisconsin: they’ve found the remains of Benjamin D. Bodwin, a 54-year-old man who disappeared from Athelstane in 2018. His death has been ruled a suicide.

In England: the police have released video footage of Steven Clark, a 23-year-old man who disappeared from Marske-by-the-Sea, Cleveland in 1992 and is presumed murdered. His parents were recently arrested and questioned, then released. They deny any involvement in their son’s presumed death and called the idea “absolutely ludicrous.”

In Russia: they’re still looking for Ayana Vinokurova and Alina Ivanova, two three-year-old girls who disappeared from Alina’s grandfather’s yard in a remote village called Sinsk in the far eastern part of the country back in 2013.

The missing persons articles I would’ve shared on Facebook if I could have

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Yeah, for the uninitiated, Facebook is mainly where I share missing persons related news. But as I addressed in my previous entry, that’s not an option right now. So I’m sharing them here:

From Joliet, Illinois: 17 Missing In Will County: One Joliet Case Dates To 1957. Includes a photo of Sarah Elizabeth Avon which I hadn’t previously seen; I have added it.

From Rice County, Kansas: Five years after she disappeared, the search for Megan continues. The Megan here is Megan Renee Foglesong.

From Tarboro, North Carolina: Cold case investigators offer $15K reward in case of missing Edgecombe County man. The missing man, Stephen Frederick MacGray, has been missing for nearly a year — not quite long enough to be eligible for listing on the Charley Project.

From San Luis Obispo, California: This coach last saw his mother in Woodland in 1979; his DNA helped find her body. About the Dolores Wulff case; she disappeared in 1979 and was identified recently.

From Texas: Congressmen introduce bipartisan missing persons bill.

From Valdosta, Georgia: Valdosta police still seek missing mother, son. This is the disappearance of three-year-old Brandon Lee Wade and his mom, Paula, eighteen years ago.

From Mobile, Alabama: Cold Case Mystery: Mobile mother missing for 20 years. That’s Lisa Ann Pierce, who went missing in 2000.

From Battle Creek, Michigan: Amber Griffin remains missing after months of failed searches around Battle Creek. She’s been missing since June.

From Montana: Officials discuss missing persons cases in Montana national parks.

From San Luis Obispo, California: Can new info help solve the case of missing college student Kristin Smart? Also: Was the beeping in a backyard coming from Kristin Smart’s watch? Kristin disappeared in 1996; it’s one of those cases where it’s pretty obvious what must have happened but the cops are having a hard time proving it.

From the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana: BIA, FBI Seeking Missing Child Mildred Old Crow. I added her the other day.

From Sonora, Mexico: Sonora mayor’s gift to mothers of missing persons: shovels and buckets.

Well, this is messed up

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So I saw this case posted on NamUs and Googled her to start the process of putting her on Charley too. And I found this article. I don’t think the poor woman, Julie Mott, qualifies for the Charley Project, but her case is certainly puzzling and disturbing.

Julie died of natural causes on August 8, 2015. She was only twenty-five. On August 15, her loved ones held a memorial service for her. Sometime after the service, before the body could be interred, it disappeared. It has never been found.

I think I speak for everyone when I say: WHO DOES THAT?!!!

They have a person of interest, per the article:

A year later, surveillance video was given to San Antonio Police by Mission Park Funeral Home of Mott’s former boyfriend, Bill Willburn, twice attempting to enter the funeral despite previously being served a criminal trespass warrant.

Wilburn was arrested and charged with two counts of criminal trespassing.

He has consistently denied stealing Mott’s remains and was never charged with the crime.

Well, the thought of Willburn being involved is …icky, to say the least. I don’t know whether he did it or not, of course. And I don’t know which is worse, the idea that Julie’s body was stolen by a man who loved her (it’s happened before) or that it was stolen by a stranger for god knows what nefarious purpose.

Julie’s family sued the funeral home and was awarded $8 million. They’ve advertised a reward for the return of her remains, but they have never been found and I doubt they ever will be.