Sunday, May 25, 2008

50% of elderly American are victims of financial exploitation

Studies estimate that 50% of elderly American are victims of financial exploitation while only 4% to 15% case are ever reported. Financial swindles are one of the fastest growing forms of abuse of the elderly according to NCEA.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Mother anxiously waits for news of missing daughter

Mother anxiously waits for news of missing daughter

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Monday May 19,2008
www.stltoday.com
By Denise Hollinshed

ST. LOUIS — Tracey Allen-Williams has left her daughter's bedroom untouched for 14 months, hoping that Kelly L. Allen will one day return to use it.

The room contains reminders of things important to Allen — a cluster of photographs of the rapper Lil Wayne on the wall and some Bible Scripture on a poster above her bed — and the things of everyday life, a duffel bag stuffed with some of Allen's clothes.

"This is a good child," Williams, 43, said of the second of her three children. "She never caused me any problems. She was responsible.

"For her to come up missing and nobody knows nothing, it's kind of scary, but we are standing on faith and God to bring us through."

Allen, who would be 21 now, was last seen on March 13, 2007, when she was spending the night at the apartment of a girlfriend in the 8600 block of Frost Avenue in Berkeley.

Williams, who lives on Salisbury Street north of downtown, said she last spoke with her daughter a few days earlier.

Family members have circulated fliers in St. Louis and Berkeley, and her story was featured on "America's Most Wanted" on television. The family hired a private investigator for $1,500 who turned up nothing.

Police believe foul play may be connected to Allen's disappearance. An income tax refund check for more than $2,000 has not been cashed and she left behind all her belongings.

Allen, who attended Lafayette High School, had a job interview just before her disappearance.

St. Louis Police Detective Jerry Griffin, who is handling the investigation, says police have few clues.

But two weeks ago, an anonymous phone call to Berkeley City Hall said that Allen's body had been buried in a backyard in Berkeley.

Griffin said the yard was searched, and that a bone — possibly human — was found. It is being tested.

After Williams was told that her daughter had not returned to the Berkeley apartment, she waited two days to report the disappearance to Berkeley police. She later filed a missing person report with St. Louis police.

Griffin said that the time lag has hurt the investigation. He said police were not able to properly handle the Berkeley apartment as a possible crime scene because it had been cleaned, and all of Allen's belongings had been retrieved by her family.

Williams says she regrets waiting to report her daughter missing.

"This is one of the hardest things that I've ever had to deal with in my life," she said.

Williams works at a Hilton hotel downtown, and among her co-workers is Vera Brown, a grandmother of 4-year-old Cermen Toney Jr.

He disappeared in November 2005 in State Park Place along with his baby sitter, Anquiaette Parker, 19. Their bodies were found in March in a cistern off Collinsville Road in Madison County. The former owner of that land has been charged with their murders.

Griffin said police want to do voice-stress analysis tests on Allen's boyfriend, the woman who has the Berkeley apartment, and that woman's boyfriend.

He also would like to talk to the person who called Berkeley City Hall about the buried body.

But now, he said, police have little to work on.

Anyone with information in Allen's disappearance is asked to contact Griffin at 314-444-2545 or CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS.

dhollinshed@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8319

www.stltoday.com

Friday, May 02, 2008

New Arrest in Kennett Cold Case

Kennett, MO
New Arrest in Kennett Cold Case

Posted: April 24, 2008 05:38 PM CDT

Updated: April 24, 2008 07:37 PM CDT
KFVS TV 12

By: CJ Cassidy

KENNETT, Mo. - An arrest could help heat up a cold case almost 40 years in the making.

That case revolves around a double murder in Dunklin County from 1970.

In January of last year, we told you investigators submitted DNA evidence to try to find out who shot and killed a St. Louis couple near Campbell.

The prosecutor says the details will come out in court.

As it stands, police rearrested the same suspect from all those years ago. Now he's behind bars facing first degree murder charges on both killings.

The names Alan Bradford and Mary Lou Seutter won't ring any bells for most people in southeast Missouri. Same goes for Theodore Kleine.

KFVS
http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?s=8223814

Bodies Identified in Missing Persons Case

Bodies Identified in Missing Persons Case

KSDK TV 12
(KSDK) -- Illinois State Police have tentatively identified the remains of two individuals that were found in a cistern in Collinsville on Wednesday.

The remains were identified as those of 19-year-old Anquiaette Parker, and her 4-year-old cousin, Cermen Lemont Toney, Jr., or "C.J." as he was known. The pair disappeared back in November 2005 when Parker, who was pregnant at the time, was babysitting C.J.

NewsChannel 5 has also learned that two persons of interest were taken into custody, with charges expected to be filed on Friday.

State Police have not said what evidence was uncovered, but they are telling us it has been sent to a state police crime lab, and it is likely some D.N.A testing will take place.

A source close to the investigation confirmed human remains were found during digging on Wednesday.

Police said a tip from a new property owner led them to their dig site, behind a home, right next to Fairmont Park Race Track, where investigators were still working to uncover evidence Thursday afternoon.

Police said the property owner called them when he found something he thought would be of interest to investigators.

What that was, police won't say, but they said he found it while clearing brush and outbuildings on his newly purchased land in the 9200 block of Collinsville Road.

Police said they've had their eye on the property, which they've searched dozens of times, and the two men who used to live on the property, who they've interviewed multiple times, ever since the missing pair disappeared.

Greg Fernandez is a retired Illinois State Police Lieutenant. He was one of the lead investigators in the missing persons case.
Fernandez says, "We did over 25 searches by land and air, and we had horses and bloodhounds but never could find a body."

Anquiaette Parker's car was found not far from the dig site at a veteran's hall shortly after she disappeared.

At this point, police weren't commenting on any possible motive in this case, but a source close to the investigation tells NewsChannel 5 that police "believe there's indication why this happened."

Greg Fernandez says, "I am sad for the families but at least they get to come home for a proper burial."

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