Missing Shirley

What if there was a cure?

2012-01-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

This was sent to me by my daughter. It was reported on CBN. There is a video and an Adobe file that can be printed.

In My Mother's Eyes

2011-05-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Was looking for a song I heard on the radio yesterday and found this video. What a beautiful tribute. Click on the title and it will take you to the video.

She Calls Me Raymond

2011-05-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

I heard this song on the radio this past week and thought of my mother and all those who suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's.

The Dash Poem, by Linda Ellis

2010-11-16T18:23:00.000-08:00

This poem was read today at my Aunt Jeannie's funeral by her daughter-in-law. My Aunt Jeannie made the dash between the years matter.

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on his tombstone
From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came the date of his birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered the most of all
Was the dash between those years

For the dash represents all the time
That he spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved him
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own;
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

Alzheimer's on Facebook

2010-09-15T16:08:00.001-07:00

If you are a member of Facebook you might want to become a friend of Alzheimers Withlove. It is full of information concerning Alzheimer's and wonderful but sad videos about people and the disease.

Memory Walk

2010-09-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

If you would like to participate in the Memory Walk you can find the information for a walk in your area simply by clicking on the title Memory Walk.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. If you are able to be with your mother this year tell her how special she is and that you love her. If you are separated call and tell her. Don't let the day pass without letting her know she is loved.

Rusk County Sheriff's office conducted search

2010-03-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

The Rusk County Sheriff's office conducted a search on Tuesday, March 9th of the creek and dad's, Bobby's, house. They are planning on returning at a later date to search more behind the Good Spring's Methodist Church in a heavily wooded area.

Rusk County Sheriff's office to search creek

2010-03-09T04:32:00.000-08:00

The Rusk County Sheriff's office will conduct a search of the creek near Shirley's home on March 9th. Please pray from them as they continue to search for Shirley.

Cold case could heat back up

2010-03-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

Please pray for Ellen Tant and Brandi's family as they continue to search for her.

Rusk County Sheriff's office cancels search, rescheduled

2010-01-30T03:36:00.000-08:00

Rusk County Sheriff's office has canceled the search for January 30th and rescheduled it for Saturday, February 6.

Alzheimer's Disease, Where America Stands

2010-01-13T17:34:00.000-08:00

Rusk County Sheriff to conduct search

2010-01-12T06:48:00.000-08:00

Rusk County Sheriff will conduct a search on January 30 of the creek near where Shirley went missing.

More muscle power means lower Alzheimer's risk

2009-11-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

Police determine teen missing since 1954 was slain

2009-11-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

Missing Person Gayle Moran

2009-10-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

Vehicle similar to Gayle's

Name: Gayle Moran

Alias: Clarkie
Date of Birth: 08/29/1939
Date Missing: 07/31/2009
Age at time of disappearance: 69
City Missing From: Lake Placid
State Missing From: Florida
Gender: Female
Race: White
Height: 5 ft 6 in
Weight: 225 lbs
Hair Color: Gray with brown undertones
Hair (other): Short/Straight
Eye Color: Hazel: Brown/Green
Complexion: Light

Identifying Characteristics: Glasses, scars from double knee replacements and right shoulder operation rotor cup. Birthmarks and numerous moles all over her body, both ears are pierced

Clothing: Dark lime green top and bottom, similar to a sweat suit or green t-shirt with elastic waist blue jeans. Brown or beige sandal type shoes, Purse, deep with strap. May have kept a red sweater in her vehicle.

Jewelry: Two gold rings, 1 wedding, 1 engagement, several bracelets, and wore two or three on each wrist. 24" long necklace with a baby Jesus charm, Seiko gold watch, half circle gold rope earrings.

Circumstances of Disappearance: Gayle was last seen at home in bed at approximately 2:30am by her daughter, who was checking on her. Gayle seemed disoriented and was asked by her daughter if she wanted medical attention. Gayle indicated she was ok. Her daughter checked on her again at 3:45am, and found that both Gayle and her vehicle were gone. It is assumed that she woke up, dressed, and left in her 2006 red Nissan Murano with FL tags TO7-2XC. She has not been seen or heard from since. At the time of Gayle's disappearance, her husband was terminally ill and was receiving in-home care. He passed away on 8/12/2009. There is a yellow paint scratch on the passenger side of Gayle's vehicle where the front and back doors meet.

Medical Conditions: Limited mobility due to two knee replacements, right shoulder rotor cup surgery. Gayle has high blood pressure and diabetes. She takes medication, but does not have it with her.

Investigative Agency: Highland County Sheriff's Office
Agency Phone: (863) 402-7200
Investigative Case #: HCSO090FF005471
NCIC# M278269797

CUE Center for Missing Person
PO Box 12714
Wilmington, NC 28405
(910) 343-1131 or (910) 232-1687

Participating in Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Trials and Studies

2009-10-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

National Missing Person Road Tour 2009

2009-09-10T16:14:00.001-07:00

Wednesday marks 10 years since teen vanished

2009-09-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

National Missing Person Tour Makes Stop In Henderson

2009-08-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

Longview News-Journal

Tour Hopes to Improve Awareness of Missing Person

2009-08-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

Tyler Morning Telegraph

Two years later, still missing

2009-08-19T17:08:00.001-07:00

Missing persons tour comes to town Thursday evening

2009-08-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

2009-08-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

Search for elderly women garners national attention

2009-08-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

National Road Tour

2009-07-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

If you will click on the title above it will take you to the information about the Missing Persons National Road Tour. Each year the CUE Center for Missing Persons travels across the country featuring missing person cases. This year we have scheduled a stop in Henderson for Shirley.

The date for the stop is:

August 20, 2009
6:30 p.m.
Henderson Plaza Shopping Center in front of Tractor Supply
musical performance by Cal Riley from Groveton
bring you lawn chair and after looking at the missing person photos sit and enjoy the music

Caring for a Person with Alzheimer's Disease: Your Easy-to-Use Guide from the National Institute on Aging

2009-06-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Caring for a Person with Alzheimer's Disease: Your Easy-to-Use Guide from the National Institute on Aging is now available FREE from NIA's Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center. This easy-to-read, 136-page handbook helps family members and others learn about and cope with the daily changes and challenges of caring for someone with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The comprehensive guide provides helpful tips and advice on topics including:

Helping family members and others understand AD
Health, legal, and financial issues
Safety
Daily care and adapted activities
Caring for the caretaker
Medical issues and medication use
Getting help and finding long-term care
Coping with the last stages of AD
Participating in clinical trials

Caring for a Person with Alzheimer's Disease was developed in collaboration with the Rush University Alzheimer's Disease Center and field tested with AD caregivers to ensure the guide's readability and usability. A detailed medication chart, glossary, and resource lists are included.

To view, download, or order free copies of Caring for a Person with Alzheimer's Disease, visit www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/Publications/CaringAD or call the ADEAR Center toll-free at 1-800-438-4380. Bulk quantities (25 or more) may be ordered by visiting www.niapublications.org/adearorder/bulk.asp.

Please pass this information along to others who may find it useful!

ADEAR Center Staff

10 Warning Signs of Alzheimers disease

2009-05-20T05:54:00.000-07:00

A well-deserved break: For caregivers of Alzheimer's patients, Treatment Center offers a weekend break

2009-05-10T17:05:00.001-07:00

Alan Jackson's Sissy's Song

2009-05-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

I very seldom listen to country radio anymore but on Monday I was driving to Nacogdoches and the only station I could pick up was 101.5 in Tyler. I heard this song on the way and thought I would share it. Jackson wrote the song in 2007 at the death of their housekeeper who died in a motorcycle accident.

Sissy's Song

Why did she have to go
So young I just don't know why
Things happen half the time
Without reason without rhyme
Lovely, sweet young woman
Daughter, wife and mother
Makes no sense to me
I just have to believe

She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels
By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees
And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting
And I know she's smiling saying
Don't worry 'bout me

Loved ones she left behind
Just trying to survive
And understand the why
Feeling so lost inside
Anger shot straight at God
Then asking for His love
Empty with disbelief
Just hoping that maybe

She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels
By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees
And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting
And I know she's smiling saying
Don't worry 'bout me

It's hard to say goodbye
Her picture in my mind
Will always be of times I'll cherish
And I won't cry 'cause

She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels
By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees
And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting
And I know she's smiling saying
Don't worry 'bout me
Don't worry 'bout me
Don't worry 'bout me

The Alzheimer's Project

2009-05-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health is very pleased to announce the launch of The Alzheimer's Project, a multi-platform public health series that seeks to bring a wider public understanding of Alzheimer's disease research and care.

Co-presented by HBO and NIA, in association with the Alzheimer's Association, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, and Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Alzheimer's Initiative, The Alzheimer's Project features a four-part documentary series, 15 short supplemental films, a robust website (www.hbo.com/alzheimers) and nationwide community-based information and outreach including other resources such as a companion book to the series. Co-executive produced by Maria Shriver and HBO Documentary Films President Sheila Nevins, the series debuts May 10-12 on HBO (see air dates below). All films will be available to view free anytime at www.hbo.com/alzheimers and will be offered free on multiple platforms by participating television service providers.

HBO air dates and times

Sunday, May 10 at 9 p.m. ET
THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT: THE MEMORY LOSS TAPES

Monday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET
THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT: 'GRANDPA, DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?' WITH MARIA SHRIVER
THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT: MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE (Part 1)

Tuesday, May 12 at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET
THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT: CAREGIVERS
THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT: MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE (Part 2)

For more information on The Alzheimer's Project, go to www.nia.nih.gov/hbo.

FBI database links long-haul truckers, serial killings

2009-04-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

From the Los Angeles Times

The growing database includes more than 500 female victims, most of whom were killed and their bodies dumped at truck stops, motels and other spots along popular trucking routes crisscrossing the U.S.

By Scott Glover

April 5, 2009

The FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truckers are responsible for the slayings of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near highways over the last three decades.

Federal authorities first made the connection about five years ago while helping police link a trucker to a string of unsolved killings along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and several other states. After that, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to track suspicious slayings and suspect truckers.

A computer database maintained by the FBI has grown to include information on more than 500 female crime victims, most of whom were killed and their bodies discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations along popular trucking routes crisscrossing the U.S.

The database also has information on scores of truckers who've been charged with killings or rapes committed near highways or who are suspects in such crimes, officials said. Authorities said they do not have statistics on whether driving trucks ranks high on the list of occupations of known serial killers.

But the pattern in roadside body dumps and other evidence has prompted many investigators to speculate that the mobility, lack of supervision and access to potential victims that come with the job make it a good cover for someone inclined to kill.

"You've got a mobile crime scene," one investigator said. "You can pick a girl up on the East Coast, kill her two states away and then dump her three states after that."

Although some local police agencies have been briefed on the program, the FBI had not publicized its existence outside law enforcement until earlier this year, when officials agreed to show The Times the inner workings of the operation and share details of some of their cases.

Housed in a nondescript brick building on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., FBI analysts pore over reports and computer entries looking for patterns in slayings from California to Connecticut.

Since the program began, more than two dozen killings have been solved, authorities said.

Michael Harrigan, who oversees the Highway Serial Killings Initiative, said the program helps local police "connect the dots" to slayings outside their jurisdictions. He said most of the victims led high-risk lifestyles that left them particularly vulnerable.

"We don't want to scare the public and make it seem like every time you stop for gas you should look over your shoulder," Harrigan said. "Many of these victims made poor choices, but that doesn't mean they deserved to die."

Though most of the entries in the database pertain to unsolved slayings, cases that authorities consider "cleared," or solved, remain in it so that investigators may potentially link additional crimes to a known perpetrator. There are also entries on sexual assaults and missing-person cases linked to highway locations. FBI officials declined to provide The Times with a more detailed breakdown of the database's contents.

The program's success depends largely on local police departments' voluntarily providing data on seemingly random killings, sexual assaults and other violent crimes to the FBI, where it is stored in a massive computer database. FBI analysts can query the computer to spot patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.

This was exactly the kind of help Terri Turner was looking for when she turned to the FBI in early 2004. Turner, a senior criminal intelligence analyst with the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation, was working on a string of seven slayings along I-40 in which the victims were truck-stop prostitutes who had been killed and left at roadside locations.

Turner's inquiry was given to an analyst with the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, which maintains the agency's crime database. The analyst found that the database contained more than 250 cases of roadside female crime victims, many of them bearing enough similarities to suggest patterns in the violence. Subsequent searches and Internet research bumped the number to 350. As a result, bureau officials created a separate computer database to track such crimes and assigned an analyst to work full time on the serial killer program.

Later that year, Turner's suspected killer was identified as John Robert Williams, a 28-year-old trucker.

Williams and his girlfriend had kidnapped a woman from a casino in Mississippi, killed her and dumped her body along a rural county road, authorities said. Concerned that they'd been seen leaving the casino with the victim, Williams' girlfriend panicked and called police, telling them that she and Williams had found the body. Their story quickly unraveled, and the pair were arrested for murder.

During subsequent interrogations, police said Williams confessed to more than a dozen slayings -- including many of the cases Turner had been investigating. He had detailed knowledge of how the crimes had been committed, such as whether the women were killed by manual strangulation or with the use of a ligature, according to authorities. He explained how some had been sexually assaulted, in some cases after they were dead, they said.

Williams knew, for example, that one victim, Buffie Rae Brawley, had the word "Ebony" tattooed on her right thigh, investigators said. And he knew that the truck-stop prostitute had deep lacerations on her head, which he said she suffered when he struck her with a "tire thumper," a trucker's tool used to bounce off truck tires to gauge their pressure.

Police said Williams told them that Brawley solicited him for sex at a truck stop in Indianapolis.

"The second she tapped on my window, she was a dead woman," one investigator quoted the trucker as saying.

Williams has since recanted his confession, and there is no DNA linking him to any of the slayings. But Sgt. Larry Hallmark of the Grapevine, Texas, Police Department said he and other investigators do not believe that Williams' confession was bogus.

"He actually bragged that we wouldn't find any DNA because he didn't have sex with them in the traditional sense," said Hallmark, who interviewed Williams several times and has submitted a potential death penalty case to the district attorney in his county outside Dallas.

Hallmark said investigators from other jurisdictions "are kind of waiting in line" to see what happens with his case.

The investigator of Brawley's death is among them.

"We're about 10th in line," said Capt. Clarke Fine of Hendricks County, Ind. "I figure if Texas fries him, we're good."

Spotting patterns

For the most part, the FBI analysts assigned to the serial killer program have spent their time combing through crime data that is months or even years old for patterns that might link slayings to one another or to a suspect. But occasionally, they have spotted patterns as they were actually occurring. That was the case two years ago when authorities noticed that dead prostitutes who had been shot with a .22-caliber gun were being found along highways in Georgia and Tennessee.

The body of one victim, Sara Hulbert, was found behind a truck stop in Nashville.

Sgt. Pat Postiglione, a veteran homicide investigator with the Nashville Police Department, was assigned the case. He called the FBI and learned that Hulbert's killing fit a pattern of recent slayings and might have been the work of serial killer, something he'd already suspected.

With little to go on, he and another detective began reviewing videotape taken at the Truck Stops of America site in downtown Nashville where the victim had been found. It was mind-numbing stuff: big rigs pulling in and out of one of the busiest truck stops in the state, like planes taking off and landing at LAX.

The only thing that caught Postiglione's eye was a yellow 18-wheeler that seemed to come and go within about 30 minutes. The interval seemed short compared with that of other truckers, who spent at least an hour -- or even several -- as they fueled up, ate and maybe slept for a while.

As leads go, it was pretty thin. But then the detective got lucky. As Postiglione approached the truck stop the morning after watching the tape, he said, he saw what he thought was the yellow rig heading toward a nearby area of East Nashville known for prostitution.

Postiglione said he followed as the driver slowly wheeled his truck down streets lined with warehouses, budget motels and liquor stores. After a few minutes, the driver returned to the truck stop and parked, he said.

His curiosity piqued, Postiglione approached the driver's door and knocked. After a few seconds, a disheveled-looking man emerged from the cab, the detective said.

His name was Bruce Mendenhall. He was of average height and build with a sort of pinched face. His shirt was unbuttoned and he wore no shoes. As Postiglione sized him up, he said he noticed a speck of blood on the man's thumb and what he thought were several corresponding drops on the driver's door of the truck.

Though there could have been many reasonable explanations for the blood, Postiglione said, he was suspicious.

"Something -- I don't know if it was instinct or whatever -- was telling me, 'Don't let this guy leave before I look in his truck,' " the detective recalled.

According to Postiglione, Mendenhall calmly agreed to submit to a DNA swab and signed a consent form granting the detective permission to search the truck.

The officer said he stepped up into the cavernous cab, large enough to stand up in and walk around. He took a couple of steps into the sleeper compartment and sat down on the bed. To his left, behind the driver's seat, was a plastic bag. In it was some women's clothing covered in blood, he said. Also recovered from the cab were a cellphone and an ATM card belonging to a young woman who had gone missing in Indianapolis just 12hours earlier, authorities said. She has not been heard from since and is presumed dead.

By the time crime-scene technicians were finished with the cab, authorities have said, they had found blood or DNA linking Mendenhall to at least seven victims. He has since been charged with four slayings, officials said. Mendenhall has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial in Nashville.

Postiglione said the timeline the FBI put together showed that the intervals between killings were getting shorter and shorter.

"He was spiraling out of control," the detective said.

Other targets

Not all the victims attributed to alleged serial killer truck drivers have been prostitutes whose work made them easy targets. About a month after Mendenhall's arrest, another long-haul trucker, Adam Leroy Lane, parked his rig in a suburban Boston neighborhood and slipped through an unlocked door into the home of Kevin and Jeannie McDonough.

The McDonoughs were lying in bed when they heard a whimper from the adjacent bedroom where their 15-year-old daughter, Shea, had been sleeping. They went to see what was wrong and found a masked figure holding a knife to their daughter's throat. Kevin McDonough, a slight but muscular utility contractor, grabbed the intruder, applied a chokehold and wrestled him to the floor. His wife grabbed the knife.

When police arrived, they discovered that Lane was armed with three knives, a length of wire and a martial arts throwing star. In the cab of his truck was a DVD titled "Hunting Humans," about a serial killer.

A Massachusetts state trooper who earlier that year had attended an FBI presentation in Reno about the serial killer program sent an e-mail to the bureau.

"I just want to make sure this guy is on your radar," the trooper wrote.

That message ultimately led to Lane's being connected to slaying s in two other states, for which he is awaiting trial. He pleaded guilty to the Massachusetts charges and was sentenced to 50 years in state prison.

J. Patrick Barnes, a New Jersey prosecutor who charged Lane with one of the murders, said the FBI was instrumental in helping solve his case.

"We're so busy looking at cases in our own towns, our own counties and our own regions that we sometimes miss what's going on around us," Barnes said.

"You can't connect the dots if you don't know what the dots are."

Access to a database

Hanging in a cubicle in the FBI office near Quantico, Va., is a map of the United States. It's covered in red dots representing some of the 500-plus cases in the Highway Serial Killings Initiative database. For all the crimes they represent, FBI supervisory agent John Molnar said he thinks the number of such offenses has been "grossly underreported."

Molnar said he hopes that will change in the wake of a decision last year to make the database available to law enforcement officials online, allowing police with a password to submit case information and make their own queries.

Though many of the dots on the map now appear connected to one another by similarities -- such as the killers' modes of operation -- the vast majority are not connected to any known suspect.

They are potential serial slayings waiting to be solved, the FBI says.

One involves the 2005 discovery of a decomposing human leg by ATV riders roaring through the woods near Interstate 55 in central Illinois. Painted toenails suggested that the leg, and another discovered nearby, belonged to a woman. But with little else to go on, the case went cold.

Three years later, an FBI analyst used a partial tattoo on one of the legs to help state police link the remains to Lindsay Harris, a 21-year-old call girl who had vanished from the Las Vegas Strip -- some 1,400 miles away -- about two weeks before the limbs were found.

She was the third Las Vegas s ex worker whose dismembered remains were found along a highway from 2003 to 2005, prompting authorities to speculate that a trucker or someone else who frequents the highways was responsible for the slayings.

A fourth young woman who disappeared from the Strip and is presumed dead is also thought be part of the pattern. Her remains have not been recovered.

Mike Jennings, the Illinois State Police special agent who worked with the FBI to identify Harris' remains, said he plans to retire in a couple of years and that the case of the fourth woman will weigh heavily on his mind if it remains unsolved.

"My gut feeling," Jeninngs said, "is that it's a trucker."

CUE Center for Missing Persons

PO Box 12714

Wilmington, NC 28405

(910) 343-1131

(910) 232-1687

cuecenter@aol.com

www.ncmissingpersons.org

Missing persons Sharpsburg woman's mission

2009-04-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

Shirley Hunt Case Reopens

2009-03-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

NJ officials ID woman found wandering mall in 1994

2009-03-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

Developing Discernment

2009-03-06T16:14:00.004-08:00