Wish I Didn't Know

(Daily Mail By MICHAEL ZENNIE) — Police is Kansas City are frantically looking for a 10-month-old infant snatched from her crib by an intruder who came in her bedroom window. 

Little Lisa Irwin, who weighs just 26 pounds, was last seen at 10:30pm Monday when her parents put her to bed.

They called police about 4am when they woke up to check on their baby and she was gone.

Investigators believe someone came in the window and grabbed the infant because the window and screen had been tampered with.

‘I realize that some of these Amber Alerts involve parents or parental abductions, but we have both the parents here. So that puts us on a little higher state of alert,’ Sgt. Stacey Graves told the Kansas City Star.

Detectives are interviewing Lisa’s parents and her family members in an attempt to rule out their involvement in her disappearance.

The family is cooperating, police said.

Lisa was wearing purple shorts and a purple shirt with white kittens on it when she was put to bed.

She’s blond with blue eyes and has two bottom teeth, a small bug bite under her left ear, a beauty mark on her right outer thigh and currently has a cold with a cough.

Police are hoping the tight-knit, middle class community where Lisa lives will help in their search.

They have widened their search outside of Lisa’s house and are beginning to methodically comb the surrounding areas.

More than 100 police officers and fire fighters flooded the area around Lisa’s house. The FBI and other federal agencies have begun assisting Kansas City police, as well.

Police searched on horseback. Others used dogs. Fire fighters used ropes to rappel down a 100-foot embankment in search of the little girl.

However, police said their leads are drying up and they are depending on neighbors in the tight-night community where Lisa lives to come forward with information.

‘We have no eyewitnesses and a six-hour time frame when the child could have been abducted. We need any help at all,’ Officer Darin Snapp told ABC News.

The parents have made no statement about their baby’s disappearance yet.

Police urge anyone with information to call their hotline at 816-474-8477.

Original Article

Body of Mother, 32, Found Encased in Concrete Drum – Where’s Husband Who Reported Her Missing?  (WIDK)

(Daily Mail) — The body of a woman who has been missing for a month has been found encased in concrete in a drum in her basement, her mother says.

Rose Moncarz told CBC News in Canada that her daughter Randy ‘Amanda’ Lehrer was found at her home in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The police have yet to confirm that the body is Miss Lehrer.

Her husband, Steven Acuna, was last seen arguing with his wife outside her place of work on the day she disappeared. The couple’s 11-month-old daughter has also not been seen since then.

Miss Lehrer was reported missing five days later by her husband.

Police said Acuna has been uncooperative with the investigation.

He has refused to be interviewed with the presence of a lawyer, they said.

Earlier police chief Tom Comey described the gruesome discovery in a 55-gallon drum as a ‘significant development in the case.’

Earlier this month a cadaver dog was used to search the family’s home, but no evidence of foul play was found, nj.com reports.

Mrs Moncarz, from Montreal, said police initially identified her daughter by her tattoos.

She told CBC News: ‘I’m not doing good. How can a mother lose a child?

‘How can a mother bury her own child? No mother goes before her kids.’

Paul Watroba witnessed the argument outside Tommie’s Diner in Jersey City where Miss Lehrer worked.

He told NBC New York: ‘Her husband was waiting for her on the corner with their baby. He just left the kid and the stroller here and went chasing after her.

‘I didn’t see what happened but he came back, got the baby and left.’

Miss Lehrer’s boss, Andreas Diakos, said Acuna called the restaurant three days after the argument to say she went to visit her sick mother in Canada, and would not be coming to work.

But Mr Diakos said Miss Lehrer’s sister later told him their mother wasn’t sick.

‘He lied to me,’ said Diakos.

No charges have so far been brought in the case.

Jersey City police could not be immediately reached for comment.

The body of a woman who has been missing for a month has been found encased in concrete in a drum in her basement

Original Article

MYSTERY - English-Speaking Boy Emerges From German Woods (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

(David Rising , Associated Press) - Berlin police are investigating the story of an English-speaking teenager who appeared in the German capital last week saying he had lived the previous five years in the woods with his father, a spokesman said Friday.

Michael Maass said the approximately 17-year-old boy appeared Sept. 5 at Berlin’s city hall and was then taken in by a youth emergency center.

The boy told authorities that after his mother had died in a car accident about five years ago, his father had taken him to live in the forest, Maass said. The two lived in a tent, and in earthen dugouts according to his story.

“He said that he had lived for the last five years wandering around with his father,” Maass said. “We don’t know where.”

The boy — who says he doesn’t remember where the family came from — claims he followed his compass north after his father recently died following a fall in the woods, hitting Berlin after walking two weeks, Maass said.

The boy told authorities he only remembered the name his father called him by — Ray, according to media reports — and not his last name, Maass said. He speaks fluent English and only a few words of German, Maass said. He did not have any information about what accent the boy has.

The boy appears to be in good health and police have issued a Europe-wide appeal to try and determine his identity. However, police said they were not immediately releasing any photos of the boy.

“The missing persons bureau is investigating,” Maass said, noting that at the moment, they only had the boy’s story to go on.

Original Article

165 People Missing From Cruise Ships Since 1995 - Parents of Missing Girl Demand ‘WHY?’ (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Emily Moore

(Caroline Graham, Daily Mail) — The parents of a British cruise ship worker who disappeared from a Disney liner earlier this year are to meet Government Ministers tomorrow to call for tougher laws to protect UK citizens from crimes at sea.

Mike and Ann Coriam, whose 24-year-old daughter Rebecca vanished from the £580 million Disney Wonder in March, will meet Shipping Minister Mike Penning to demand that the multi-billion-pound cruise industry ‘properly regulates’ safety at sea.

Mr Coriam, from Chester, said: ‘Our daughter vanished off a ship six months ago and we are no closer to finding out what happened to her.

‘People go on ships and are lulled into a false sense of security because they are happy places full of holidaymakers.

‘In fact, scores of people have gone missing from cruise ships and it seems the cruise companies themselves don’t want to investigate properly for fear of bad publicity.

‘Crimes are swept under the carpet and incidents are not investigated properly.’

Miss Coriam was employed as a youth worker on the Disney Wonder during a week-long cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico when she disappeared.

She was last seen early on March 22 by a colleague who said she appeared to be upset.

The alarm was raised when she failed to report for work the following day.

Mr Coriam said he was ‘not prepared to speculate’ on rumours on the internet that his daughter had committed suicide by jumping off the ship after a row with a friend.

John Halford, 63, went missing earlier this year on a Red Sea cruise aboard Thomson ship Spirit.

He disappeared between 11.45pm on April 6 and 7.30am on April 7 and was last seen drinking cocktails in the bar.

Mr Halford’s wife Ruth, who had not accompanied him on the trip, said her husband ‘was happy, certainly not depressed and enjoying his cruise .  .  . but looking forward to getting home again to be with me and the children’.

The father of three disappeared shortly before his silver wedding anniversary.

His wife said: ‘It’s terrible for the children. We are trying to cope together and not to give up hope but it is so difficult.’

He said: ‘I have my own theory about what happened but I am not sure we will ever know for sure. My mission now is to bring in laws to protect others. I would like to see British police authorised to carry out a thorough investigation on board a ship if a British citizen vanishes.’

Campaigners complain that there is no international police organisation for crimes at sea, leaving investigations to the police force of the country where the ship is registered, often places such as Panama, Bermuda or, in the case of the Disney Wonder, the Bahamas.

Mr Coriam said: ‘When I have called the Bahamas asking how the investigation is going I just get told it is “ongoing”.

‘Just one police officer from the Bahamas is investigating my daughter’s case. This is despite the fact there were 2,400 passengers on board and 945 staff. It is impossible for one man to do a thorough investigation. It has been a farce since the start.’

According to campaign group the International Cruise Victims Association (ICV) – set up by US businessman Kendall Carver after his daughter disappeared on a cruise – 165 people have gone missing at sea since 1995, with 12 this year alone.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Original Article

Missing Boy Scout Found Four Miles Away From Where He Was Last Seen (WIDK)

(Hannah Roberts, DAILY MAIL) - A 12-year-old boy scout who disappeared during a camping trip in Utah has been found safe and well four miles away from where he was last seen.

Rescue volunteers came across Jared Ropelato, the youngest of five brothers who are all scouting enthusiasts, in the forest during a massive search operation.

He was none the worse for his adventure, having built himself a lean-to shelter in which to spend the night.

The schoolboy had been missing for 24 hours, after disappearing while hiking near Daggett Lake in eastern Utah with his scout troop.

Jared, whose four elder brothers are now all eagle scouts, had gone fishing and had apparently wandered off.

He was wearing only a shirt and some Levis, and was carrying a fishing rod.

Daggett County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Karen Peterson said the boy was spotted by searchers on ATVs in the Long’s Park canal area, about 4-5 miles from where Ropelato was last seen.

“He had done some hiking but was in good condition. He told us that when night fell Friday he made himself a lean-to and settled in for the night. One of our (sheriff’s) EMTs checked him out and he’s fine,” Peterson said.

“He’s now with family at the Spirit Lake Trailhead command post. As you can imagine, there were a lot of tears when he was brought in,” she added.

The terrain where Ropelato was very rough and accessible only on foot or by horse, which had hampered the search operation.

His family had been desperately worried about the boy. Father Larry Ropelato told ABC News: ‘We don’t go very much with him into the outdoors so he’s not real familiar with it.

But mother Dawn Ropelato said: ‘I know he knows all the scout laws so I hope that as he realized he was lost he was smart enough to stop and think about the things that he’s been taught.’

At least 20 people combed the forest with dogs on Friday night, looking for any sign of the boy.

A helicopter with infra-red heat-seeking capability was also deployed.

Rescuers faced a challenge because the terrain is very wild and the area around the lake is heavily forested.

Original Article

Police Arrest Suspect After Three-Year-Old Girl Disappears From Front Yard (WIDK)

(John Stevens & Katie Silver, DAILY MAIL) - Authorities in southeast Missouri said a suspect was in custody today in connection with the disappearance of a toddler last seen riding her bicycle in front of her home last weekend.

The unidentified suspect was from the local area but unrelated to the family of 3-year-old Breeann Rodriguez of Senath, Mo., said Dunklin County Sheriff Bob Holder and Senath Police Chief Omar Karnes in a statement.

County and state authorities are searching for the girl’s body and bicycle in an undisclosed area of the county, according to the statement.

The man, whose name was not yet being released, was being held at the Dunklin County Justice Center, pending formal charges.

The Dunklin County prosecutor’s office said it would release more information after the suspect is charged.

The small town of Senath is about 90 miles north of Memphis, Tennessee.

The arrest comes after the girl’s parents Edgar Rodriguez revealed that he and his wife Claudia Ramos failed lie detector tests taken as part of the search.

Speaking as police revealed they had found training wheels believed to from the bicycle Breeann was last seen riding outside her Missouri house on Saturday, Rodriguez said he did not know why they had not passed the tests.

‘I don’t know, honestly, honestly. When my wife went in there first to do the polygraph and she failed it, I mean, of course as a father when someone tells you they failed a polygraph, it automatically raises doubt,’ he told Nancy Grace on HLN.

‘I don’t know. To be completely honest with you, I don’t believe we really did fail it. It may be some kind of tool they use to squeeze every bit of information out of us…I don’t really know. But they said we did fail it.’

Police said yesterday that they had found two training wheels similar to those on the pink bike ridden by Breeann before she went missing.

Chief Omar Karnes said the training wheels are ‘items of interest’. The bike itself has not been found.

The wheels were found in a wooded lot about 2.5 miles southeast of Senath.

The FBI said that Rodriguez believes they were from his daughter’s bike because of the way he had adjusted the for his daughters height.

‘I one hundred per cent know [the wheels came from Breeann’s bike],’ Rodriguez told HLN. ‘[There isn’t] even a hint of a doubt.’

Breeann Rodriguez was left alone for just moments while the five-year-old boy went inside to get a drink on Saturday at around 12pm.

When he returned, she was gone, sparking a frantic search of the area.

Her parents Claudia Ramos and Edgar Rodriguez have made a desperate appeal for her safe return.

‘I just want to hold her and tell her she’s my princess,’ Ms Ramos said.

‘My daughter never hurt anybody- anything that would help us get to her would mean the world to us,’ her father told KFVS.

‘She’s friendly. She’d go with anybody. I really do appreciate everybody that’s helping,’ he said. ‘I just want my little girl back.’

Both the police and the FBI are working to find her. They have put forward a joint reward of $45,000.

‘For the FBI, there’s a presumption for us that there’s been an abduction as far as how we go about the investigation,’ said Special Agent in Charge, Dennis Baker. ‘

We don’t have evidence of that but we want to get out in front of the case.’

‘We’re working 24 hours a day until we find her,’ said Matt Brummund, Acting Assistant Special FBI Agent with the St. Louis Division.

Police are scouring farmland, going door-to-door and using a Highway Patrol in their search. But there is not much to go on.

‘To me the worst part is there’s no trail,’ said Chief of Police, Omar Karnes.

‘It’s hard to believe no one saw anything, but so far no one’s come forward.’

Senath, a small town, two hours north of Memphis is not considered dangerous.

As neighbor Estelle Floyd said: ‘I would think this is one of the safest place there was because everyone knows everybody on this street nearly’

‘Senath is about the safest place in the world.’

The little girl is Hispanic and is described as 34 inches tall and weighs around 30lbs with black hair and brown eyes.

She was wearing a pink top with pink and purple pants and was riding a small bike with training wheels when she vanished.

Police say neighbors did not see anyone suspicious.

Karnes said the girl lives on a dead-end street and that none of her neighbors saw any suspicious vehicles.

‘She was there [then] she was gone,’ Karnes said. ‘There is nothing. No trace. We don’t have any trail.’

Police questioned a person of interest Saturday, but that person has been ruled out as a suspect, Karnes said.

‘We’re working 24 hours a day until we find her,’ FBI agent Matt Brummund told KFVS-TV.

Original Article

Sandals, Pink Shirt Found in Aruba as ‘Friend’ is Linked to Robyn Gardner’s Disappearance (WIDK)

(Daily Mail By MARK DUELL) — Police and firefighters have searched an abandoned phosphate mine in Aruba as investigators seek clues in the disappearance of an American tourist and evidence against the man who accompanied her to the Caribbean.

Journalists saw a firefighter leave the mine with a pink shirt and sandals, but it was unclear if they were connected to the investigation of missing person Robyn Gardner.

Officials declined to say why the mine at the rocky, cactus-studded southern tip of the island was being searched and the effort was ended late Friday because of darkness. No body or other evidence was seen being taken from the small mine, which is within view of the sea.

Earlier on Friday, Aruban authorities said they believe Ms Gardner, 35, is no longer alive and are seeking to extend a detention order for her travel companion, Gary V Giordano, as they seek witnesses who will help them build a case against him, said Taco Stein, solicitor general on the Dutch Caribbean island.

Investigators have few witnesses who saw Ms Gardner and Giordano together in Aruba before he reported her missing, Mr Stein said. Giordano has told police she was apparently pulled away by the ocean current as they snorkeled off the southern tip of the island on August 2.

After so many days, authorities no longer believe the Maryland woman could be alive, so they are holding Giordano on suspicion of involvement in her death. Her remains have not been recovered despite a search in the sea and on the coastline in the area where she was reported missing.

‘As long as we don’t have a body, you can question whether or not she is dead,’ Mr Stein said. ‘On the other hand, with all the publicity on the case, if she were still alive she would have made herself known.’

Other factors also lead to the conclusion she is dead, Mr Stein told reporters. Police have recovered her passport from her belongings and don’t believe she could have left the island by air with a false identity. They have also found no evidence that she left Aruba by boat.

He also said if Ms Gardner had drowned where Giordano had said she did, then the body should have surfaced by now, reported Fox News.

‘We know the spot where he said she must have drowned,’ he said. ‘We have searched there extensively and in view of the weather situation we are almost certain that the body would have come to the surface.’

Giordano, a 50-year-old business owner, has denied any wrongdoing through his attorney, Michael Lopez.

Original Article

Woman Missing from Same Aruba Town as Natalee Holloway (WIDK)

(Aol News) - A 35-year-old Maryland woman has disappeared from Oranjestad, Aruba, the same resort town where Natalee Holloway went missing in May 2005.

Fox News reports that Robyn Gardner has not been seen since she went snorkeling with Gary Giordano last week.

According to NBC Washington, Gardner told Forester that she was traveling with her family to Florida, and instead went to Aruba with Giordano. Giordano is now in custody in Aruba.

Giordano has told investigators that Gardner simply did not return to shore. Yet Richard Forester, Gardner’s boyfriend, says he doesn’t find the story believable. According to Fox, Giordano has changed his story several times.

Forester told Fox, “I want to let people know this is going on. She’s been missing six days, and every day she’s gone raises fear that she won’t be coming back.”

Gardner was staying at the Marriott’s Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino according to the Natalee Holloway Resource Center, which helps families locate missing loved ones immediately after they disappear. Gardner, a petite blond with distinctive tattoos, has been missing for nearly a week.

Joran van der Sloot, the man widely believed to have killed Holloway, is currently in a Peruvian prison. He was convicted last year of killing a woman on the fifth anniversary of Holloway’s disappearance. Holloway is still listed, along with six others, as missing people on Aruba’s official tourism website.

Original Article

Female Body Found at Dam Near Missing 11-Year-Old Girl’s Home (WIDK)

STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. (Chicago Sun-Times) — Investigators searching for an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl missing for almost a week found a female’s body, but authorities didn’t immediately identify it, a Vermont prosecutor said Monday.

The body was found near a hydroelectric dam that spans the Connecticut River between Stewartstown and Canaan, Vt., Essex County state attorney Vincent Illuzzi said.

Celina Cass was last seen in her Stewartstown, N.H., home on July 25.

A dive team searched the river Monday. They surfaced, and investigators blocked off the area and asked reporters to leave.

Cass, who lived with her older sister, mother and stepfather a mile from the Canadian border, was last seen at a computer around 9 p.m. and was gone the next morning, authorities said. Police said there was no sign of a struggle, and there was no indication she ran away or that someone took her.

No one was more baffled than friends and family, who described Cass as studious and reliable, shy and timid, not the type to run away from home.

State police and FBI agents from as far away as New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia turned the local school into a bustling command post. Because of its remote location, law enforcement officers went so far as to have a cellphone tower erected to assist in communications.

At the peak, more than 100 federal, state and local law enforcement officers descended upon the town of 800 residents, searching a mile-wide area around her home, including woods and ponds. The FBI brought in a special team specializing in child abductions.

Original Article

Massive Search Is On For Missing New Hampshire Girl

(Larry McShane, NY Daily News) - The only sign of Celina Cass since Monday was her framed picture at a candlelight vigil held for the missing New Hampshire girl.

Cass, 11, remained the subject of a massive search Thursday after a sudden disappearance that terrified the 800 residents of her town about a mile from the Canadian border.

“We are still desperately looking for her,” said state Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young as the search stretched into its third day.

The fifth-grader was last seen sitting in front of a computer inside her Stewartstown, N.H., home. Local residents described her as a shy, responsible kid who wouldn’t run away.

“She never went anywhere without her mom and sister,” family friend Rebecca Goodrum, 30, told The Associated Press.

The fruitless search for the gap-toothed little girl included state police from Vermont and New Hampshire, the U.S. Border Patrol and various local law enforcement agencies.

A helicopter went up after officials opened a dam to lower the Connecticut River water level in case the girl had fallen into the water.

Police K-9 teams joined the search at one point, scouring the woods around the girl’s town.

Officials were poring over computer and telephone records from the Cass home in an effort to stir up some leads. Police found no signs of a struggle or any indication that the girl was forcibly taken from the home.

Fliers asking for help in finding the missing girl were everywhere in Stewartstown, where locals hoped for the best but braced for the worst.

A candlelight vigil held Wednesday drew about 80 people, where Cass’ picture sat on a picnic table as teary friends and strangers gathered to support her family.

Shannon Towle, owner of a store in town, said her 13-year-old daughter asked whether Celina was still alive.

“How do I answer that question?” Towle said. “And do I want to? I don’t want to think about it, but I pray that she is.”

Original Article

Police: Grandmother Ordered to Remove Fliers of Missing Teen

(WKRC) — It’s been almost a year since Paige Johnson went missing and her family is not giving up hope that she will be found. Ever since the 17 year old disappeared on September 23, 2010, the city of Covington has been plastered with fliers but now, some of those fliers have been torn down.  Local 12’s Angela Ingram talked to Paige’s grandmother about the order to remove the fliers.

Johnson’s grandmother, Jenny Roderick, spends a lot of time putting up fliers in Northern Kentucky cities. but the city manager of Covington says they’ll have to come down off his city’s utility poles, because they’re illegal.

In the heat of summer, Jenny Roderick is putting up flayers.  On Monday, she was at work in Independence. “I do this, unless my daughter needs me at home.”

She hopes the fliers remind the public that her granddaughter is still missing. “We still want people to know that that she’s not found. And that, you know, there’s tons of people that love her.”

But last week, while Roderick was putting up the fliers in Covington, a police officer stopped her. “He wasn’t mean or anything, he was just insistent that I had to take them down. And by the time I was walking back after he left,  I was crying.”

The officer suggested put them up in legal spots like store windows, and bulletin boards. “Some businesses will let us put them up in the windows but not very many.”

Jenny chose utility poles because of their high visibility. “It has affected our whole family. We miss her something fierce. And  we want her home, you know, even if it is the other way. We still want her home and this is what keeps me going.”

A spokesperson for Covington Police said the officer only stopped and confronted Paige’s grandmother because the city received a complaint. The city manager says, that regardless of what the posters say, they have to come down, and he says, although he must enforce the current ordinance, the city has no intention of being insensitive to her family.

Jacob Bumpus is the last person known to see Paige Johnson alive.  He is locked up on a parole violation.

Original Article

Woman Missing – Relatives Ask Police to Locate Man Who Responded to Her Craigslist Roommate Ad

(FoxNews.com) – Relatives of a missing Denver woman have reportedly asked investigators to locate a man who contacted her after she posted an ad looking for a roommate on Craigslist.

Amy Ahonen’s sister, Andrea Ahonen, and a friend who flew to Colorado from Florida told KDVR that the man “scared Amy” so much that she immediately took the ad down.

The woman’s Jeep was later found abandoned on Highway 6 in Clear Creek Canyon, near mile marker 264, on July 8. Her purse, credit cards, cell phone and car keys were found inside the unlocked vehicle.

“It indicates to me she only meant to be away from that car for five minutes or less,” Andrea Ahonen told the station. “We’re from Detroit. We lock our doors.”

The missing woman’s parents and two of her four siblings flew from Detroit to meet with Denver detectives on Wednesday. They held a news conference outside police headquarters on Friday — one week after Amy went missing — to ask for the public’s help.

“She would never walk away. So, something happened to her,” Annette Ahonen told reporters. The woman’s friends initially thought she may have gone hiking in Clear Creek Canyon, but that theory changed when her backpack was found inside her Denver apartment. Search and rescue teams combed the canyon on Sunday and Monday, but no signs of Ahonen were found.

Original Article

(By Reuven Fenton, Danny Gold, Daniel Edward, Rebecca Rosenberg and Larry Celona, New York Post)- The dismembered body of a missing 9-year-old Hasidic boy was found at two locations in Brooklyn and police this morning arrested a suspect in the slaying who had the child’s severed feet in his freezer, sources told The Post.

Police made the gruesome discovery after raiding a Kensington home and arresting the 35-year-old suspect, who led them to parts of missing boy Leibby Kletsky’s body, stuffed in a red suitcase and hidden in a Dumpster outside an auto repair shop about two miles away, sources said.

Police said they also found three knives in a butcher block inside the suspect’s apartment.

It was a tragic end to the “angelic” boy, who disappeared Monday afternoon after getting lost while walking alone for the first time from his Borough Park day camp and following a man down a busy street, sparking a massive search.

“There are no words, just no words, to describe the sense of what happened here,” said State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn).

“Everybody’s shocked. You can see it on the faces of everyone you see here. We’ve had tragedies, people getting hit by cars, but nothing like this. This is a 9-year-old. Some stranger took this child and murdered him in the most brutal way possible.”

Police did not release the name of the suspect, but sources said they tracked him down by tracing credit card transactions and video surveillance that showed the boy walking behind a bearded man on 45th Street and Dahill Road and possibly getting into a gold-colored car.

Police had observed the suspect in a video recorded at 5:30 p.m. on Monday where he was seen entering a dentist’s office on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Detectives located one of the dentists who worked there at his home in New Jersey last night and established that the suspect had been in the dentists’ office on Monday to pay a bill.

With the assistance of a receptionist and another dentist associated with the practice, detectives at 2 a.m. found records at the dentists’ office that established the suspect’s name and address. The suspect was taken into custody about 40 minutes later.

Witnesses who saw police raid the suspect’s home at E. 2nd St. and Avenue C recognized the handcuffed, bearded man from surveillance videos.

A gold-colored car was also found at the residence, and investigators were seen going over the vehicle inch by inch.

Neighbors of the suspect said he regularly attended the local shul.

“You could tell he was mentally unstable,” one unidentified neighbor said. “He would be calm but then would flare up. The whole family is strange.”

“I’m shocked,” said Rosso Safia, 23, owner of the Park Slope Auto Center. “There’s a little kid in the Dumpster we use. I have a little girl of my own. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to us.”

Kletsky was last seen on surveillance video around 45th Street and Dahill Road walking behind a bearded man in a white shirt and dark pants.

“The boy is standing alone at some point. The male crosses the street in his direction, and the boy follows him on Dahill Road,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, adding that it’s unclear whether the pair exchanged words.

Leibby’s distraught dad, Nachman, a passenger-van driver with five daughters, reviewed the earlier footage, “He had tears in his eyes,” said Moishe Lefkovitz, the manager of the locksmith shop at 44th Street and 15th Avenue where the surveillance footage was taken.

“He kept shaking his head, saying, ‘Where are you going? Where are you going? What are you doing?’ “

Authorities say the boy was caught on video walking alone from the Boyan Day Camp at a school on 44th Street near 12th Avenue at 4:50 p.m. Monday after returning from a class trip to Manhattan Beach Park.

Leibby — who usually takes the bus — was allowed to leave camp on foot so he could meet his mom and dad just seven blocks away, where they had a doctor’s appointment.

The couple even took special pains to repeatedly go over the boy’s walking route with him, a pal said.

The child had instructions to walk up 44th Street to 13th Avenue and then turn right on 13th Avenue and walk straight across to 50th Street, said a family friend, Rabbi Bernard Freilich.

“It sounded like he wasn’t an expert on the streets,” Freilich said.

Surveillance shows the boy walking out the front door on 44th Street toward 13th Avenue, as instructed, but instead of turning right toward the meeting spot, he kept going.

Video footage from the locksmith shop shows him on that corner at around 5:20 p.m. The last known footage of him with the man was recorded between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m.

His parents waited until 7 p.m. before contacting the Shomrim, the local civil-patrol group. Shomrim contacted the NYPD at 8 p.m.

Officers and search dogs, aided by the scent of Leibby’s personal belongings  flooded the school looking for clues. An estimated 3,000 volunteers — including busloads from Hasidic communities in Lakewood, NJ, and upstate Monsey — joined the search.

Original Article

Police, Hundreds of Volunteers Search for Missing 9-Year-Old Brooklyn Boy

(NY Post By REUVEN FENTON, DANNY GOLD and LORENA MONGELLI) — Anguished family members and hundreds of volunteers have launched a massive search for a missing Hasidic boy who vanished on his way home from a Brooklyn day camp on Monday.

Leiby Kletzky, 9, was last spotted leaving the Boyan Day Camp on 44th Street near 12th Avenue at 4:50 p.m., police said.

He was supposed to meet his mother on 13th Avenue and 50th Street but mysteriously failed to show up.

“Volunteers have been out there all night searching backyards, front yards, anywhere where a child could possibly be” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn).

Buses loaded with volunteers have come from New Jersey to aid in the search.

“Usually, these things are solved in a few hours,” said Jacob Daskal, a member of the Shomrin volunteer civilian patrol. “It might be an abduction, but we’re still hoping it’s not.”

Daskal said the boy was caught on surveillance camera leaving the school. He walked eight blocks to meet his mother. He disappeared during that short walk.

Boro Park Shomrim chief Simcha Bernath said the family confirmed the boy walked by himself, but normally he took the bus. He was supposed to walk from 12th and 44th to 13th and 50th.

“Because they had an appointment, they decided he could meet them,” he said. “Everybody knew it was OK to walk by himself. But his regular routine was to go on the bus and go home.”

“They’re distraught. They can’t figure out what happened,” Bernath added.

Hikind’s office, along with the boy’s family and friends, is offering a $100,000 reward for any information on his whereabouts.

“It’s quite amazing. Money’s just coming in from people who just want to express their concern and want to do something,” Hikind said.

“The amount has grown on the part of business people throughout the community. We started out this morning with just $5,000,” Hikind said.

“We’re hoping for a good outcome but this is becoming very scary,” Hikind said.

Kletzky, the second youngest of five kids, was last seen wearing a blue shirt with green and white stripes, blue pants and black sneakers.

Police also ask anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Original Article

Missing Boy Watches 9 Day Search Effort From Under His PORCH

(By Paul Thompson, Daily Mail) —A massive search for a missing boy was called off - after he was found hiding in a tiny crawl space under his own house.

Josh Miller, 12, had been missing for nine days as more than 100 volunteers scoured the countryside surrounding his home in Pike County, Indiana.

Police said Josh sneaked back into his house to get food and a change of clothing while his parents were out, and even took snacks from neighbours’ homes.

He had also listened in as dozens of volunteers assembled outside his home to begin round-the-clock searches of nearby scrubland.

When seachers eventually found Josh, ‘he actually had a smile on his face,’ according to Chris Richardson, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

A FBI helicopter with an heat-seeking camera had joined local volunteers on quad bikes and on horseback to search for Josh, after he was reported missing on June 23.

The vast search involved Homeland Security and police from 12 counties, who used dog units and all-terrain vehicles to search for the boy.

They were drafted in after local searches became ‘exhausted’, a police spokesman said.

Police set up a 24-hour command post and looked into sightings of Josh as far away as New Jersey.

He was last seen in a nearby cornfield by relatives, and police began to suspect he was still in the area after food went missing from neighbouring houses.

They even left notes for Josh to find, encouraging him to return home.

The 12-year-old has a history of running away from home, and has done so four times before.

The youngster was eventually found on Saturday afternoon after his parents Dan and Sabrina heard a noise coming from a crawl space under their home.

They called police, and members of the search team went to the house to persuade Josh to come out.

Sheriff Jeremy Britton said the Millers’ house sits on a concrete block foundation, and the little boy had managed to squeeze into a crawl space vent.

Josh was barefoot, and said he didn’t know what had happened to his shoes.

Sheriff Britton said the boy appeared to be in good condition, but he was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.

‘He was dirty and had not had a bath for nine days,’ the sheriff said.

‘He had some insect bites and ticks on him, but I think overall for nine days, he looked pretty good.’

After he was evaluated by doctors, he was taken into state custody while child protection services carry out an investigation.

He said Miller had obtained food from the family home during the nine days when no one was home and changed some clothing during the period.

He said: ‘We’re obviously relieved this is the way it turned out.’

‘We spent a lot of time and resources trying to find him.We’ll continue our investigation into reasons he ran away.’

Original Article