Newport News police said 15-year-old Enaesha Lattice Innis’ mother reported her as a runaway on March 30.

Enaesha was last seen wearing dark jeans, a white shirt and brown and black Polo boots.

Police said she has been in phone contact with friends and family since she has run away, but that the teen not tell them where she is staying.

Additionally, police said the teen has made threats in the past about hurting herself.

Police said Enaesha is 5-feet, six-inches tall, 151 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. She also has a tattoo of a cherry vine underneath of her right arm.

However, officials said she might have changed her appearance.

If you have seen Enaesha, call Newport News police at 757-247-2500.

[Source]

The 15-year-old sister of Julius TaDarius “Punkin” Jones, who has been missing for eight months, Joquasha Samuel misses a great many things from the person she idolized most. She still has a hard time talking about her older brother. The time he has been missing has been a drain on the entire family.

Jones’ mother, Tabitha Jones, knew something was wrong when her son failed to pick up one of his other sisters, Jotoria Jones, to take her to her job. It is a feeling of dread that has haunted her all these months.

“As a mother, I hold out some hope he is still alive, somewhere,” said Jones. “But as a person who knows how the world works, I’m inclined to believe my gut when it tells me he is no longer with us. I have been going back and forth with these emotions ever since he went missing.”

Julius Jones was reported missing on Aug. 14, 2011. His Buick Century was found by Meridian Police Department patrolmen near an abandoned home on 27th Street a couple of days after his reported disappearance. Since that time, officers and detectives have been running down leads.

Thursday, Tabitha Jones talked to officials at the MPD. She said they told her they have exhausted all the leads and the evidence has dried up. It was not the information she wanted to hear.

“I can’t fault anything the police have tried to do in this case,” said Tabitha Jones. “They talked to everyone who had seen my son. They collected all the evidence that was in the case and they have done really good work. It is just there is nothing left for them to go on. No new direction.”

Tabitha Jones hopes a fundraiser for her son will help. On May 5, in Highland Park beginning at 10 a.m., The Life and Love event will take place with free hot dogs, drinks, games for the kids along with singing and praise dancing. It is a community event Tabitha Jones hopes will help in the search for her son. Incidentally, May 5 will be Julius Jones’ 27th birthday.

“It is going to be hard to do this when we should have him home celebrating his birthday,” Tabitha Jones said. “I hope this fundraiser will go a long way in getting the community support behind this and maybe, maybe, some information the police can start on and a new direction will come out of it.”

The official colors for the event will be purple and red. They will be displayed on the fundraising tents that will be erected in the park. Also, a benefit account at Great Southern National Bank in Meridian has been set up to accept donations for the search for Julius Jones. Anyone interested can send funds to Great Southern National Bank, Julius TaDarius Jones Fund, P.O. Box 1271, Meridian, MS, 39301, or call (601) 485-0904 for more information.

Tabitha Jones has sponsors who are willing to help her in her quest for closure in this matter. At her job, people are constantly coming in and asking her if there is anything new, a break in the case, concerning her son. Sadly, and for far too long, she has had to slowly shake her head no.

“No mother should have to go through this but it happens all the time in this world,” Tabitha Jones said quietly. “I wish I didn’t have to.”

[Source]

The family of a missing Canonsburg woman is using social media, posters, prayer vigils, friends, family, and the police in an effort to find Murphy Jane Hickerson.

Hickerson, 43, was last seen near Hutchinson Avenue in Canonsburg Saturday. “This has never happened before, she is always in touch,” said Hickerson’s sister, Tanya Sexton.  “We usually talk or text two to three times a day.”

“We have been tracking her cell phone and credit cards, but so far there has been no activity,” said Canonsburg Police Detective Al Goghill. “She had booked a flight for Thursday night from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, before all of this broke, so officers and the TSA waited for her at the gate, but she never showed.” Goghill said Hickerson had planned to visit her brother in California.

Murphy Jane Hickerson lived with her mother, Delores Hickerson, a retired schoolteacher, in Canonsburg.

Delores told KDKA-TV she went out for few hours with another daughter and when she came home, Murphy Jane was missing.

Hickerson underwent kidney and pancreas transplants last March. Police consider her an “endangered missing person” because she may not have her anti-rejection drugs.

“The police have been very supportive,” said Sexton. The family is also hoping social media might help. “We have several Facebook blasts, with numerous repostings, and several friends and family are spreading the word through other Internet networks, said Sexton. “We have also heard of various prayer vigils, and not just in this area.”

Sexton said her sister has battled depression, and had been particularly worried about a terminally ill cousin who lives in New York City. “They have been close for many years, and it’s been very difficult since his condition worsened,” Sexton said.

Posters of the missing woman are being distributed in Canonsburg and New York City, where her family said it’s possible she traveled to see her ailing cousin.

“We are also concentrating our search in New York,” said Detective Coghill. “We just hope she shows up there, and that nothing has happened.”

According to police, Hickerson drives a 2009 Honda CRV with the license plate HDZ-1217.

Anyone with information about her location is asked to call 911.

[Source]

43-year-old woman from Washington County disappeared on Saturday (4/38/12) and her family is worried.

Murphy Jane Hickerson lived with her mother, Delores Hickerson, a retired school teacher, in Canonsburg.

Delores told KDKA-TV she went out for few hours with another daughter and when she came home, Murphy Jane was missing.

“I just want her to be safe and get in touch with us,” she said. “This is just so unlike Murphy. It really is. That’s the thing that’s more scary to me than anything else.”

Hickerson’s sister, Tanya Sexton, says it’s like Murphy literally disappeared.

“I want us to find her. I want her to be okay,” she said.

Murphy Hickerson was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was four. She got a new pancreas and kidney last year.

She’s been on anti-rejection drugs and her family is worried that she doesn’t have her medication.

Also missing is Hickerson’s 2009 Honda CRV with the Pennsylvania license plate HDZ 1217.

[Source]

Brian’s checks and check card have been used since his disappearance and investigators pulled over an individual who had Hatfield’s license plate on his car. Authorities then ruled foul play in Brian’s disappearance. Brian was the manager of a Racetrac gas station on O’Neal Lane at the time of his disappearance. He was planning to move to Atlanta, Georgia before he vanished.

Brian is described as a black male, 5’8 and 120 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He has a scorpion tattooed on his right shoulder and the word “Taz” tattooed on his lower left leg. Brian is a cross-dresser; he was last seen wearing women’s clothing.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Baton Rouge Crimestoppers (225) 344-7867.

[Source]

Tova is described as a black female, 5’3-5’4 tall and 118-130 pounds. She has brown hair with reddish highlights and brown eyes. Tova was last seen wearing a blue pullover shirt, jeans, sneakers and a shell necklace.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office (225) 389-5000.

[Source]

UPDATE: 

Ann Arbor police continue to search for missing former University of Michigan student Brice Moss but said there’s very little new information to report on his whereabouts.

He was last seen at 2:40 a.m. Saturday by one of his roommates and was reported missing by his mother after not showing up for the U-M graduation ceremony, police said.

Ayanna Patterson seldom refers to her daughter Alexis Patterson in the past tense, even though in the 10 years since she last saw her, Alexis’ name and image have come to personify the heartbreak of the term missing children in Milwaukee.

She professes a firm belief that the then-7-year-old girl, who vanished May 3, 2002, is now a young woman, so she celebrates Alexis’ birthday every April 4 – this year, her 17th, with a roller skating party.

“Alexis loves to go skating,” Patterson says of her daughter, whose disappearance 10 years ago this Thursday led to a massive search involving hundreds of volunteers and one of the largest missing-person cases in Milwaukee history.

“Last year we had a Sweet 16 party for her.”

Alexis’ family and others will gather Thursday at Hi-Mount Elementary School, where Alexis was a student and where her stepfather told police he dropped her off the day she went missing.

The gathering will be part of a commemoration Patterson calls “Forget Me Not Day,” which she hopes will help keep attention on her daughter’s case, and those of all missing children.

“We must never forget her. I can’t ever forget her,” says Patterson, who during the past 10 years has taken the search for Alexis nationwide, appearing on numerous television shows, including “Maury Povich,” “Ricki Lake” and “The View.”

During an interview in her Milwaukee home, she describes her struggle to keep her daughter alive, both in memory and in flesh – a battle she says has been accompanied by an agonizing, perpetual sense of anguish, loss and grief.

“I have a pain, I have an ache, I have a hole in my heart,” she says.

“I never stop hurting.”

Recounting the fateful day

According to news accounts:

On the morning of May 3, 2002, Alexis was upset because she couldn’t take cupcakes to school for a class treat because she hadn’t done her homework.

Her stepfather, LaRon Bourgeois, told police that he and Alexis walked the half-block from their home to Hi-Mount, 4921 W. Garfield Ave., and that he last saw her crossing the street toward the school.

Along with Patterson, police extensively questioned Bourgeois, who had a criminal record that included involvement in a 1994 bank robbery that resulted in the fatal shooting of Glendale police Officer Ronald Hedbany.

During media interviews, Bourgeois, who was granted immunity in the Hedbany case in exchange for his testimony, angrily denied any role in Alexis’ disappearance.

Neither he nor Patterson was ever connected with it.

The two have since divorced.

Outpouring of aid

In the weeks following Alexis’ disappearance, the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee County sheriff’s office embarked on one of the largest joint efforts in the history of the two law enforcement agencies, setting up a command post in Washington Park and searching for Alexis by boat, motorcycle and horseback.

The search – conducted in the area between W. Meinecke Ave. and W. Vine St. and N. 16th and N. 60th streets – drew hundreds of civilian volunteers on bicycle and foot. They posted and passed out thousands of fliers with the image of the smiling little girl with the braided, beaded hair.

The image became seared into the city’s collective psyche as the fruitlessness of the search seemed to break the heart of an entire community.

Through the years, age-progression images on the website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have depicted an older Alexis, and investigators have pursued hundreds of leads.

None of them, however, has delivered the missing daughter Patterson has sought for a decade.

“It’s just so frustrating I found myself losing my mind,” she said.

“Everybody has their theories, but as far as I’m concerned, I don’t know what happened so I know they don’t know.”

Police have always been careful to stress that Alexis’ disappearance was a missing person case and not a criminal investigation.

Detectives with the department’s cold-case unit, to which it is assigned, were not available for comment. But Anne E. Schwartz, speaking for the department, said Milwaukee police continue to investigate every credible lead in the case.

The sheriff’s office is still offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to Alexis, and Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. still holds out hope that someone who has such information will come forward.

“Maybe someone on their deathbed who wants a clear conscience before they die,” Clarke says.

“People hang onto information until they need it,” he says. “Information is currency.”

Not forgetting their sister

Patterson says she has to remain on guard so that the drain she feels over Alexis doesn’t take away from the attention she gives her daughters Dysoni, 10, and Eri-Onna, 7.

She says she makes sure the girls grow up knowing their sister, telling them stories about Alexis and taking them to the places where she used to play.

“They are always around me,” Patterson says. “I take them to school and pick them up. No bus. I barely let them out of my sight.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will proclaim May 3 as “Alexis Patterson: Forget Me Not Day” in the city.

As Patterson prepares for the day, she and her daughters sort through mementos of Alexis spread across their kitchen table: a watercolor self-portrait, homework assignments written in kid handwriting, a school pocket folder with a ladybug print, photographs of a happy Alexis striking impish, little girl poses and smiling from ear to ear.

And though there is no proof her daughter is still alive, Patterson’s rejection of the notion that Alexis was destined to remain a little girl forever is absolute.

“I think she looks just like me,” Patterson says.

“I don’t think the age-progression pictures look like her at all.”

The commemoration to mark the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Alexis Patterson will begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Hi-Mount Elementary School, 4921 W. Garfield Ave., with a prayer and balloon release, followed by a walk to Washington Park. Another event in her memory is planned for May 12. Anyone with information on Alexis Patterson’s whereabouts is asked to call the Milwaukee Police Department at (414) 935-1212.

[Source]

Police say Mariam Atiku met the local residents through Facebook. The name she gave police was “Gucci Johnson. Police tell us that they haven’t located Johnson, but he faces “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”

According to police, Johnson told Atiku he was 17, when in fact he is 30.

She has been missing since 4/27/12. She told police she was mad at her dad and left on her own free will. Police say she was uncooperative with them. She is now sitting in a juvenile center.

[Source]

Previous Story: 

The DeKalb County School System is searching for a student they believe ran away from Druid Hills Middle School on Wednesday.

The 13-year-old student, Mariam Atiku, was last seen at the school; it is unknown what she was wearing at the time of her disappearance.

According to her father, Atiku left a note, took her father’s debit card and withdrew $300; authorities believe she is trying to meet a man, from Facebook, called “Gucci Johnson” in Ohio.

Atiku is 5’6 and 180 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on Mariam Atiku’s disappearance should contact the Dekalb County School System’s Department of Public Safety at 678-676-1810.

Maybe Bene’ will say she needed to get away. Or that she went on an adventure with a friend.

Whatever the reason, Archie wouldn’t mind.

“We’re a family,” she said. “She is loved by her family, and we want her back.”

Kathryn Bene’ Griffin disappeared on Jan. 7. Her former boyfriend saw her at his Portsmouth barbershop. She borrowed his bicycle, he said, then pedaled away.

Griffin’s life had been troubled, her mother said. In the early ’90s, she had an 11-month-old son who died. She served time on a drug charge and probation violations.

Her mother took in two of her children and encouraged her daughter to make some changes.

At Thanksgiving, the two women talked about the future. Griffin said she liked to style hair. Her mother told her she should get her barber’s license.

Archie recalled the last time she saw her daughter, a few days before she went missing.

She had taken the children to Perry’s Cutz, the barbershop where Griffin often helped her former boyfriend. The children ran inside and embraced their mom. Griffin gave them each $5 and took them across the street to a store. When it was time for them to leave, she hugged them and made sure they put on their seat belts.

“Bene’ was a good girl,” Archie said, then she caught herself. “I don’t want to say ‘was’; that’s past tense.”

More than 600 people were reported missing in Portsmouth last year, said Detective Jan Westerbeck, Portsmouth police spokeswoman.

In Virginia Beach, the number was 1,934.

Most are runaways, some located by police and returned to families. Some are adults. They tell police they forgot to call their families or lost track of time. Some just wanted to leave a spouse or stressful situation.

“It’s not against the law to walk away from your life,” said James Thomas, a police detective in Chesapeake, where 161 were reported missing last year. “People over the age of 18 can come and go as they please.”

For families, the not knowing is the worst part, said Virginia Beach police Detective Angela Murphy. “They just don’t know, and they don’t know what to feel.”

To track down the missing, police generally follow a process that begins with determining the person’s age and whether he or she is in danger because of an abduction or mental disability, such as dementia. For an endangered missing person, a search is immediate.

If a person is not in danger, detectives follow leads and conduct interviews.

The process can be frustrating.

Cases aren’t solved the way they are on TV, Murphy said. On TV, police track the missing in minutes using a cellphone’s GPS or other technology. In real life, detectives must have a court order to do so, Murphy said.

Citizens also think they have to wait before reporting a disappearance.

“I’ll ask them, ‘Why did you wait two days?’ ” said Chesapeake’s Thomas. “They say they thought they had to wait 24 hours.”

He said police will take a report about a disappearance any time, from anyone.

Sometimes, despite weeks, months or even years of investigating, the trail to a missing person grows cold.

“After a while, they either have to accept the fact that they are not going to find their loved one,” Murphy said. “Or in their mind, that the person is alive and I’m never going to see them again … or they are dead.”

Archie has gotten calls from friends and family offering support and kind words, but none with information about her daughter.

Police divers searched waterways for Griffin. Officers with dogs have taken to fields and wooded areas. Detectives have gotten some leads, according to Westerbeck, who said the investigation is open and she couldn’t provide details.

“Every day, I pray for us,” Archie said. “I pray that wherever my daughter is, the Lord is looking after her and will touch her mind.”

She and her sons have made fliers that are posted in businesses near the barber shop. They offered a $500 reward for information that leads to Griffin. Her former boyfriend put up a flier in the window of his shop. William Perry Jr. said he has talked with police, too, and recommended they talk with Griffin’s acquaintances.

Archie ponders the milestones Griffin has missed, including her 44th birthday. She wondered recently whether Griffin would return in time to attend a scholastic banquet at school with Wilmesha, 10, and William, 8.

The children have asked about their mom. Archie answers carefully.

“They understand what Heaven is.”

As she continued, she began to cry. Wilmesha and William piled on top of her and made her laugh.

“It’s all right, Grandmamma,” they said. “It’s all right.”

“I just can’t see her going somewhere this long and not calling me,” Archie said. “She was very close to me. I know she loves her children.”

[Source]

Anisty “Tic” Markray, 16, is from the Tank Farm area of Haughton, and detectives have deemed her a runaway juvenile.  Anisty is a black female, stands 5’ 2”, weighs approximately 140 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes.  Description of clothing is unknown.

Detectives determined she spent the night with a friend in Bossier City Sunday night, but sneaked out sometime after midnight Sunday.  They then discovered she spent Monday night with a friend in west Shreveport, but she departed that residence Tuesday morning.  She is a student at Booker T. Washington High School and was not present at school neither Monday nor Tuesday.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Anisty is asked to contact the Bossier Sheriff’s Department at 318-965-2203.