Results tagged “missing”

Over the weekend, officials announced that they had identified the teenager who was found wandering in Times Square with near-total amnesia. She is 18-year-old Kacie Aleece Peterson of Hansville, Washington, who was first reported missing on October 2nd. But detectives in Washington found bank activity and other evidence that she was alive and getting by, so they did not issue an Amber Alert. Her father Henry Peterson is flying to NYC today, and he says his daughter has experienced amnesia before.

A few days ago, city agencies asked for the public's help in identifying a teen girl found wandering in Times Square, because the girl could not remember anything about her past, save some recollections about a fantasy novel and writing some fantasy fiction. Now, a tipster has led police to believe she is a missing 18-year-old from Washington State.

The mother of a 6-year-old Queens boy is outraged at police for what she's calling a slow response time to her son's disappearance yesterday. Shortly before 3 p.m., the boy was in the courtyard at P.S. 80 at dismissal time and managed to walk through the gate without anyone stopping him. He wandered Jamaica, traveling four miles from the school before finally being located at his father's Rockaway Boulevard office—two hours after he was found missing. And that's also when police finally showed up!

Investigators, searching for missing bride-to-be and Yale graduate student Annie Le, found a body in the New Haven research building where Le was last seen. While the body has not been identified as Le's, New Haven police are assuming it is hers. According to the Hartford Courant, "The body was found inside a chase, a square area in a wall used to run pipes and wires from floor to floor. Police would not say in what area of the building the body was found. Le's family has been contacted." The 24-year-old, who was supposed to be married to Columbia graduate student Jonathan Widawsky on Long Island yesterday, had been missing since Tuesday, when she was last seen entering the building (she had left her purse, credit cards and cell phone in her office a few blocks away).

Local, state and federal authorities are looking for 24-year-old Annie Le, a graduate student last seen at a Yale research building in New Haven, Connecticut. While there are reports that her bloody clothes were found above a ceiling tile in the building and her body was even found in the building, FBI special agent Kimberly Mertz said, "We are not in a position today to conclude whether this is a missing persons case or whether criminality is involved... I will categorically say a body has not been found," adding, "Items that could potentially be evidence has been seized," but said they had not yet been associated to the pharmacology doctoral student. Le, whose credit card, purse and cell phone were left in her office a few blocks away, was to be married tomorrow at North Ritz Club in Syosset, but the wedding was canceled; Newsday reports, "Police have said that Le's fiance, Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington, a graduate student in physics at Columbia University, is not considered a suspect and that he is in New Haven cooperating with police." And Yale said reports (from the Post and a Fox affiliate) suggesting a professor was a suspect were "typical Fox News hysterical headline[s]."

Investigators from the FBI and NYPD have descended onto a house in Brooklyn's Sea Gate section, in hopes of finding clues around the disappearance of Irina Malezhik (pictured). A tipster called the authorities, saying that she could be buried in the basement of Dmitriy and Julia Yakovlev's home. Malezhik, a 47-year-old Russian translator who worked on federal cases including those involving the Russian mob, was last seen on October 15, 2007; the Daily News reports, on that very day, "checks bearing her forged signature were deposited in the Yakovlevs' joint bank account. The next day the couple allegedly obtained a credit card in Malezhik's name and a woman matching Julia's description made purchases of wrist watches from a Brooklyn jeweler and other items at a Century 21 department store in Westbury, L.I." Dmitriy Yakovlev is still in jail after being arrested last month (his wife is out on $500,000 bail) and his lawyer maintained the couple's innocence. An acquaintance of Malezhik told WCBS 2, "If she was involved with the Russians they'll never find her."

Terrible news everyone: Sad Panda has gone missing. A reader sent us these disturbing images of a Wall Street with no mascot. His usual stomping grounds have been checked out, but he's nowhere to be found. One concerned citizen even put up a missing poster.

On Saturday morning, 86-year-old Betty Zengel, who suffers from Alzheimer's, managed to disappear from her caretaker's watch on the Upper East Side—and somehow ended up outside a Chelsea nightclub at midnight. M2 Ultralounge's owner and head of security contacted the NYPD, whose officers escorted Zengel away. But later the club's owner and security noticed Zengel wandering in the rainy streets a few blocks away—and now the club claims the NYPD abandoned Zengel.

Yesterday, the body of a woman missing since last Tuesday night was found stuffed into the air conditioning vent of a Financial District buliding. The Post reports that Eridania Rodriguez's body was found "fully-clothed" and "face-down" in a 12th floor duct at 2 Rector Street, the office building where Rodriguez worked as a cleaning woman. And the Daily News has these grisly details: "Her head wrapped like a mummy in heavy-duty yellow and black construction tape, police sources said...[Her] hands and legs had also been bound with tape before she was shoved into an eye-level air-conditioning duct."

This morning, during a third search of 2 Rector Street, police found a body stuffed into a 12th floor air conditioning vent, and the body has been identified as that of Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who was last seen there during her Tuesday night shift. While surveillance cameras show her entering and on certain floors, there was no sign of her leaving the building. The Post reports, "Rodriguez left her to clean the bathroom on fifth floor as usual when she received odd instructions from an unknown person telling her to work on the eighth floor instead. [She] called [a co-worker] to tell her of the change in plans and was not heard from again." The co-worker was later worried and "She and a supervisor found the Inwood resident's cart in the ladies' room, and her mop and hair clip strewn about in a room housing air conditioning units." No arrests have been made, but the police did question the building's freight elevator operation, Joseph Pabon, who has a "lengthy list of prior arrests including one for a violent attack on his girlfriend's car with a bowling ball" and who "inexplicably left work early on Tuesday night." Police had been searching a Pennsylvania landfill for her remains yesterday.

Police are still searching for Eridania Rodriguez, who was last seen at a Financial District office building on Tuesday night, but they have also brought the search to a Pennsylvania landfill. According to the Daily News, Rodriguez was part of 2 Rector Street's cleaning crew and her cleaning cart was left abandoned on the 8th floor. Newsday reports that detectives are sifting the landfill where garbage from 2 Rector Street was taken: "Among those questioned about her disappearance are a DOT worker who had worked in the same building and appeared to be following her and a freight elevator operator with an arrest record, police sources said." Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "We have reason to fear the worst. That's the theory that we are operating on, that something untoward happened to Mrs. Rodriguez inside the building." The police, who are also searching the building for a third time, are asking for the public's help: Call 1-800-577-TIPS or send a text message to "CRIMES," (274637), then enter "TIP577".

A woman, last seen at a lower Manhattan office building on Tuesday night, is presumed to be dead, according to WCBS 2, which says the police are treating Eridania Rodriguez's disappearance as a homicide. A Gothamist reader mentioned on Contribute, "My building (2 Rector st) was completely shut down [Wednesday] with everyone evacuated. The story we got is that a cleaning woman didn't sign out last night and they had to shut it down to search for her. The family was apparently there this morning looking for her." A lawyer for Rodriguez's family says that the building's surveillance cameras caught her working, but did not capture her leaving the building. Also: "Relatives tell CBS 2 that the married mother of three, who was also a grandmother, didn't feel safe on the job and that a man who worked inside the building was scaring her. She had recently told her bosses she was going to leave her job because she feared for her safety."

Last September, friends of a 23-year-old woman became worried when she had been missing for several days. However, Hannah Upp, a teacher at the Thurgood Marshall Academy and Pace graduate student, was spotted at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue—she spoke to a fellow Pace student—raising questions about whether she wanted to be found. She was ultimately spotted in the water—and alive— off Staten Island two and a half weeks after she was last seen. Upp has said little since re-emerging—except to explain she suffered from "dissociative fugue" and thank her rescuers who rescued her... until now.

A 19-year-old St. John's student who had been missing since January 20 was reunited with her family yesterday. Erica Desai was last seen by a cousin who dropped her off at a dorm, and her family worried that something might have happened to her. A surveillance tape seemed to show a woman of Indian descent using her ATM card, raising questions whether she was missing or AWOL. Now, NY1 reports that Desai "called police late last night after seeing herself on television...Police say she was embarrassed about being expelled from school" for using someone else's credit card "...They also say she's been riding the trains for days." Desai initially told police she was abducted, but then admitted to running away.

A 22-year-old East Harlem man with cerebral palsy was found, suffering from hypothermia, after spending nearly a day in a freezing bus. Edwin Rivera, who doesn't speak, should have been dropped off at home yesterday afternoon, after attending a program for the disabled, but apparently the driver forgot and brought the vehicle to the bus depot in Brooklyn. WCBS 2 reports that his parents reported him missing, but the bus company didn't find him when they searched last night. His parents joined the search this morning and found him—and his mother was happy and annoyed, "I'm so relieved and I'm so mad at the bus company for leaving him. He's not a kid. He's almost 6'2" how do you miss him?" Criminal charges may be filed against the driver.

The State Police are still working hard to find Laura Garza, a Brooklyn woman who has been missing since early this month. Investigators suspect that a convicted sex offender, Michael Mele, she met at Marquee may have killed her, after they found blood in his car and noticed a piece of carpet in his apartment was missing (it was later found, bleached, off a highway). Divers broke through 4 inches of ice on Lake Echo in upstate Orange County (it's close to Mele's Wallkill apartment) and took turns searching its depths. The police also searched his apartment again. Mele is in jail, held on parole violations.

As the search continues for missing Brooklyn woman Laura Garza, police say they have found a bleached section of carpet along Route 17 in Bloomingburg that appears to be the same one that was missing from Michael Mele’s apartment in nearby Wallkill. While police wait for it to be tested, a spokesman said, “It is anticipated that it will be significant.” The discovery came a few days after police questioned Mele’s girlfriend, who had allegedly helped him remove the carpet the day after Garza disappeared.

Bail for Michael Mele, a convicted sex offender, was raised to $150,000, as he remains the sole suspect in the disappearance of Laura Garza. Garza, a Brooklyn resident who had recently moved from Texas, was last seen in a SUV with Mele, who she apparently met at Marquee nightclub last Wednesday. Mele's friend told state police he last saw the Mele and Garza in a McDonald's parking lot in Newburgh. The Daily News reports that the state police are also trying to use Mele's cellphone records to "trace his steps...When a cell phone is on, it frequently 'pings' off the closest tower, and that information can be used to create a road map of the user's movements." Mele's lawyer points out that his client hasn't been charged in Garza's disappearance, in spite of the police searching his apartment and finding blood in his car (Mele is being held on a probation violation).

After the State Police asked women to come forward with any information about a man suspected in the disappearance of missing Brooklyn woman Laura Garza, "stories of creepy run-ins" with Michael Mele are emerging. According the Daily News, the 23-year-old, "in most of the attacks...followed women to their cars and then masturbated in front of them." He was convicted of doing that in NY State and may face charges in NJ and Connecticut. Garza was last seen with Mele, apparently meeting him at nightclub Marquee. Investigators found blood in Mele's car and there's a large piece of carpet missing from his apartment in Wallkill. Mele has not been charged yet—he's being held on a probation violation.

Police are looking for witnesses who may have seen the silver Infiniti SUV "any time after early Wednesday morning," because that's the vehicle a missing Brooklyn woman was last seen in. Laura Garza left the Manhattan nightclub Marquee early Wednesday morning with Michael Mele (pictured), a convicted sex offender, and hasn't been heard from since. State police investigated Mele's upstate apartment, finding a woman's shoe near a dumpster and a large piece of his home's carpet missing.

Steve Tarpin, who runs Steve's Key Lime Pies in Brooklyn, has been looking for his missing dog since Saturday. Mango, a Jack Russell terrier, was last seen outside Jake's BBQ and the B-61 Bar, at the corner of Degraw and Columbia Streets in Red Hook, where he often sat, greeting other dogs and customers--more details here. Tarpin tells the Post, "Absolutely someone took him. He would never walk away with anyone. Even if they were dragging a T-bone behind them he wouldn't go." He adds on his website, "If indeed some nefarious naerdowell did scoop him off, I am asking the good people of Brooklyn to assist in returning Mango to his rightful home and his rightful routine with our family and friends, including his 32 children, his partner Mammey and us."

A missing 12-year-old's grandparents tell the Daily News that they fear she was "lured into a trap" by someone on MySpace. Apparently Juliana Carrozza claimed she was 17 on her MySpace profile and grandfather Vinny Carrozza, who has custody of Juliana, said, "She went on MySpace a lot, fooling me and my wife. She knew how to delete it without us picking it up. The language on there was disgusting for a 12-year-old. There was guys there, too." Last seen on November 14, she said she was sick and stayed in her room. But neighbors say they saw her go into a black car, possibly a livery cab, which "peeled off about 5:45 p.m. near her home...in Windsor Terrace." The News, which points out how MySpace's user agreement says visitors must be 13, reports the police are investigating; Juliana is listed on the NY State Missing and Exploited Children Clearninghouse.

A 29-year-old schoolteacher has been missing since yesterday morning: Newsday reports that Leah Hirschel Walsh's "disabled car" was found "at daybreak Monday," on the side of the Seaford- Oyster Bay Expressway. Her purse was on the road.

Thank goodness for the eagle eyes of Staten Island Ferry captain Christopher Covella. His and his crew's actions led to the rescue of 23-year-old Hannah Upp, a public school teacher missing since August 29.

Yesterday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that 23-year-old missing teacher Hannah Upp, last seen on August 29, was spotted at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store. According to the Daily News, Kelly said, "We know that because a classmate saw her and approached her in the store," and then police checked tapes.

WNBC reports that Hannah Upp, the 23-year-old school teacher last seen on August 29th (leaving her keys, phone, wallet, and ID in her apartment), "was reportedly spotted checking her e-mail" at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. According to WNBC, "members of Upp's family screened the tape and confirmed it was her," and police are also checking to see if Upp did access her e-mail. Police had not suspected Upp was the victim of foul play, because she may have been unhappy with her job. America's Most Wanted is now involved and there's currently a $12,000 reward for information about her whereabouts.

Unless Michel Gondry somehow went missing without it making the news, then this is either a marketing campaign, or some crazy fan trying to make contact with the director. Signs that have popped up in Manhattan (Gondry now lives in Brooklyn) state, "Have you seen French film maker Michel Gondry? Any infos please be kind and send email" (our email to the address has yet to get a response). EV Grieve saw the sign on 7th Street and Avenue A yesterday, meanwhile Fimoculous saw one in Freeman's Alley. The former thinks that if this is in fact a marketing campaign, it's "especially tacky when family and friends are in a desperate search for Hannah Upp."

Some more info about 23-year-old missing school teacher, Hannah Upp, who works at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem. WNBC reports police want the public's help in finding her. A source says cops "don't suspect foul play" since "she may have been unhappy in her job," though many close to her say she was looking forward to the school year. Her brother told ABC that she "isn't some naive small-town girl off to the big city thinking the world is made of cotton candy and gumdrops." The NY Post reports friends have "posted fliers throughout Times Square, where she last used her ATM card at a movie theater." And on the Facebook page they created, they say Upp enjoys running in two parks--presumably Jackie Robinson and St. Nicholas, which are both near her apartment (where she left her keys, wallet, ID and other belongings).

A reader has just written in to inform us about her friend who has been missing for a little less than a week. Hanna Upp (pictured) is a 23-year-old Spanish teacher in the NYC school system, and was last seen on August 29th near her home in Hamilton Terrace. According to her roommates she had planned to go away last weekend, but was returning by Sunday. When she didn't return, they went into her room and found "her keys, her phone, and her handbag containing her wallet. Her ATM card, her subway card, and her ID (right now just her passport) were all in there." The police are on the case, and her friends have started a Facebook page to inform others about the situation. If you have seen Hannah Upp or have any other information regarding the case, contact the 30th Precinct.

Just after Brooklyn's two-headed turtle made it into the papers, The Daily News reports that someone snapped up the rare reptile sometime between 11 a.m. and noon Sunday, right from its window spot in Sean Casey's Hamilton Dog House shop! Casey says it's imperative he "get the turtle back fast because it requires special handling," and he'll take the it back "no questions asked." But just how did someone pull off the mid-day turtlenapping? Casey had placed it in the open "so that the kids could interact with him," but when a customer inquired about it, he was shocked to find it missing. Currently he's getting together some $1000 in reward money for the turtle, and added that he grew up in Windsor Terrace and "did not expect it in this neighborhood."