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Psychics and Missing People

Thanks to both!

Everyone thinks something like this could never happen to us. Who could imagine such a thing? It's good if it makes someone stop for a moment, especially to consider personal safety issues.
 
When you consider the frequency that it happens, it's staggering and heartbreaking.
If there's ever anything I can do to help on the east coast, PM me Kelly.
 
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Kelly said:
Thanks to both!

Everyone thinks something like this could never happen to us. Who could imagine such a thing? It's good if it makes someone stop for a moment, especially to consider personal safety issues.
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As a mother, it hurts unbearably simply to consider it. You have served as a reminder to continually drill safety issues into my kids (not to mention myself). That is why I applaud you so much. I cannot even fathom being able to function when one has a missing child, yet so many like you try to help--not just yourselves, but anyone going through such a nightmare.

At this point, with my kids still young, all I can do is teach about strangers and even friends, repeatedly tell them to scream and fight. My son is barely three and he can say his first and last name, as well as every member of his family. He knows the name of the street he lives on. Aside from that, the notion of raising them in lockdown seems comforting sometimes:( But in reality, I know street smarts are the way to go. It's a scary world, and I think a missing child of any age is a horrifying thing. The more tools, the more knowledge--the better.

Hugs and thanks to you.
 
My daughter has no issue with going to movies by herself and such.
We don't let her but she has no issue with that sort of thing.

I made her watch the news yesterday of that girl in Kansas who was taken in broad daylight in a Target parking lot.
I pray that the other family who lost their daughter a month ago in the same area finds some closure...if you can call it that.

When my daughter was young, I used my own experience as an abused child to determine how she would be raised. She never had a babysitter, never in harms way.
As she got a little older I vaguely described to her why I am so protective of her and she was very gracious at the sacrifices I made to ensure she didn't go through what I did.
But, as she gets older and more independent, there's little I can do but try my best to remind her and my husband how being confident is awesome, but one also must be wise to the world that we live in.
 
Sorry for the "post and run", but things are pretty nutty over here.

USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-10-unidentified-remains_N.htm

06/10/06

Bills would require DNA help in missing person cases

SALEM, Ore. — Their faces were everywhere — first on fliers passed out in their hometown, then on billboards and even on the cover of People Magazine and in constant rotation on CNN.

After months of searching, the bodies of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, classmates and fellow dance squad members from Oregon City, were found in August 2002, buried in a sadistic neighbor's backyard. They would have graduated from high school this month.

Now their mothers have joined with other families across the nation who don't know if spouses and siblings are dead or alive to press for passage of laws requiring police to expand their searches in missing person cases.

Their proposal — which is under consideration by legislators in Oregon, Connecticut, Indiana and New Jersey — centers on the nearly 50,000 unidentified bodies that are held at morgues across the country while an estimated 105,000 missing persons cases remain open.

Under the bill, police would be directed to send DNA samples from bodies that remain unidentified after 30 days to a central laboratory, where they'd be entered into a national database for comparison to missing-persons cases. Families could submit their own DNA samples for loved ones who have been missing for more than a month.

Similar legislation is already in place in Colorado, Washington state and the District of Columbia, said Kelly Jolkowski, one of the founders of the Campaign for the Missing, whose 19-year-old son Jason disappeared without a trace six years ago from their home in Nebraska. Future campaigns are being organized in Missouri, New York, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, she said.

"How do I know some body in some morgue somewhere isn't my son, and they just didn't get the DNA from his body, so I will never know?" Jolkowski asked. "Families can go for years and maybe forever without an answer because these processes are not in place, and they should be."

Lending her name to the bill has made some painful memories flood back, said Lori Pond. In the earliest days of her daughter's disappearance, police thought 12-year-old Ashley Pond might be a runaway and she had to print her own fliers and hand them out on the streets of their hometown.

"There are times it brings up the loss of my daughter, but I am hoping for good to come out of all of this," Pond said.

Michelle Duffy, mother of 13-year-old Miranda Gaddis, said that in one way she and Pond were lucky, since their daughters' cases drew the national spotlight and, when the girls' bodies were found, positive identification took less than 24 hours.

Hundreds of other families never get the same kind of resolution, she said.

"If the kids wouldn't have disappeared in the same way, from the same place, no one would have cared," Duffy said. "If it weren't for Miranda disappearing, you never would have heard Ashley's name and that's sad."

Without identification, Jolkowski said, bodies may be buried in pauper's graves, or cremated, lost to a family forever.
 
Congratulations on being mentioned in the news. The bill would benefit many people. Not to mention the Government in being able to properly dispose of many bodies and clear up many missing person cases.
 
I hope it passes, Kelly.

It brings to mind the Holly Krewson case. A DNA database would have identified Holly's body six years earlier than it was.
 
Once again, well done Kelly. I am pleased to know my state has already adopted a measure like this. However, it would be better if it were national. I hope they pass.
 
Another post and run..... I have a good excuse!

Hello,

For all Campaign for Missing Volunteers and other interested persons:

Media Alert: CNN American Morning for Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 8:40AM EST

Wednesday morning our friends Doug and Mary Lyall from the Center for Hope in central NY will be appearing live on the CNN morning show, American Morning. They are representing Project Jason's Campaign for the Missing and will be discussing DNA as it relates to the campaign legislation and missing persons. I was unable to go because of our planned event here for Jason's 6 year missing date.

I am pleased for this opportunity to further our cause and educate not only the public, but the need-to-know; LE, families of the missing, and medical examiners and coroners. At the same time, it will bring some awareness for the Lyall's missing daugher, Suzanne, and our missing son, Jason.

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
http://www.projectjason.org
Read our Voice for the Missing Blog
http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/
 
Kelly said:
As to the major TV show, I am beginning to think it will never happen. The psychic they confronted threatened me and threatened them. (off camera)

The last I heard, they were writing the script. I'll check back with them in a couple of weeks.
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One would think that would be reason to air it.
 
I share the opinion of many that this thread (along with the work of Robert Lancaster) ranks among the more important in all the JREF forums, and deserves to be kept visible and current. So I’m adding my own thoughts here. Nothing new really, it’s all stuff others have already expressed many times over. But if nothing else, it has bump value.

For me, this thread and the person behind it are all about courage. As a parent, the idea of my daughter or son going missing is literally the worst thing I can conceive. I cannot even stand to think about it for more that a few seconds before I have to do something to distract myself -- hum a song or pick up a book or go get something to eat. I don’t even have the guts to imagine it, never mind actually living it. I don’t think I could function under those circumstances, and my most fervent hope is that I never have to find out whether or not I can.

There’s another kind of courage here, one that I’ve briefly glimpsed in a small way on my own. Some time ago, psychic Carla Baron got involved in a nearby missing persons case. My local newspaper published two glowing front-page articles about it. Of course, she was no help whatsoever. So about a year later, I wrote a Letter to the Editor asking whether they would print a follow-up article, detailing Baron’s failure and mentioning how psychic predators prey on grieving victims. I later learned that the family of the missing women was upset by my letter. It depressed me to think that I may have caused these poor people further pain, and a part of me wished I had never written my letter. Then I thought of Kelly, who must face this situation all the time, criticism and resistance from those she is seeking to protect. Can you imagine how that feels? And yet she finds the strength to carry on, because she knows it is the right thing to do.

And there’s one more type of courage, one that speaks of character. My little incident left me with a deep-seating, abiding dislike for Carla Baron. Yet the injuries heaped upon Kelly by psychics are vast orders of magnitude beyond what I will ever experience. How does she avoid being consumed by sheer disgust and hatred?

I ask anyone who might be new to this thread to take a moment and consider Kelly’s situation. Every day she lives with the ongoing reality of a parent’s worst nightmare. She must deal with criticism from within the ranks of the community for whom she otherwise feels the closest affinity. And she must do all this without succumbing to hating the people who have attempted to prey on her, who magnify her pain, who drive a wedge between her and the people she cares most deeply about. And yet she has somehow turned all that around and channeled it into something positive that helps hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Quite literally, I do not know how she does it.

So if there’s anything someone like me can do or say to offer Kelly some small shred of help and encouragement, anything at all that can help her carry on for another day or hour or even a minute, then I feel ennobled.
 
nominated.
Stellafane, I couldn't agree more, and in my conversations with Kelly outside the forum, I am regularly amazed by her demeanour and fairness; her calm and balance. She works tirelessly on her mission, and has never seemed to allow the effort to bring her down or make her bitter.
 
Sorry I have been AWOL again. June is always a tough month, and more so this year with all the activities.

I don't know what happened to the Lyall's interview. CNN has not updated transcipts for that show since the 19th.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ltm.html I suspect they have placed it as a "we'll show it when we show it" situation. This will not be the first time this has happened. We were still pleased to have the AP article about our campaign picked up by numerous national media, including USA Today, LA Times, Washington Post and more.

Monday and Tuesday I will be in San Diego as day two keynote for the National Sex Offender Management conference. Marc Klaas and Mark Lunsford are on day one. It should be interesting, as this will be my first presentation at a non-missing people related conference. The original speech was to be about sex offender legislation, but I told them that was not my forte and they agreed to have me speak about our campaign. (Long story, but the original speaker had to cancel and I was recommended to cover.)

On Thursday, I have a live interview at 12:38PST on some internet-based show with an award winning journalist named Tony Seton. (the name of the show escapes me right now)

Friday, in Oregon, the bill we push for in our Campaign for the Missing was signed into law by the governor. I think that was a fantastic birthday present.

I started a new series on my blog about the gruesome discovery of a body found in CA that we were told was most likely our son. The series chronicles our waiting for the DNA results to determine if it was indeed our son, and how the system doesn't work as it should.
http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/2007/06/62107-untold-story-awaiting-dna.html

Anyway, that's my update for those interested.

Be back in a minute...............
 
Stellafane said:
I share the opinion of many that this thread (along with the work of Robert Lancaster) ranks among the more important in all the JREF forums, and deserves to be kept visible and current. So I’m adding my own thoughts here. Nothing new really, it’s all stuff others have already expressed many times over. But if nothing else, it has bump value.

For me, this thread and the person behind it are all about courage. As a parent, the idea of my daughter or son going missing is literally the worst thing I can conceive. I cannot even stand to think about it for more that a few seconds before I have to do something to distract myself -- hum a song or pick up a book or go get something to eat. I don’t even have the guts to imagine it, never mind actually living it. I don’t think I could function under those circumstances, and my most fervent hope is that I never have to find out whether or not I can.

There’s another kind of courage here, one that I’ve briefly glimpsed in a small way on my own. Some time ago, psychic Carla Baron got involved in a nearby missing persons case. My local newspaper published two glowing front-page articles about it. Of course, she was no help whatsoever. So about a year later, I wrote a Letter to the Editor asking whether they would print a follow-up article, detailing Baron’s failure and mentioning how psychic predators prey on grieving victims. I later learned that the family of the missing women was upset by my letter. It depressed me to think that I may have caused these poor people further pain, and a part of me wished I had never written my letter. Then I thought of Kelly, who must face this situation all the time, criticism and resistance from those she is seeking to protect. Can you imagine how that feels? And yet she finds the strength to carry on, because she knows it is the right thing to do.

And there’s one more type of courage, one that speaks of character. My little incident left me with a deep-seating, abiding dislike for Carla Baron. Yet the injuries heaped upon Kelly by psychics are vast orders of magnitude beyond what I will ever experience. How does she avoid being consumed by sheer disgust and hatred?

I ask anyone who might be new to this thread to take a moment and consider Kelly’s situation. Every day she lives with the ongoing reality of a parent’s worst nightmare. She must deal with criticism from within the ranks of the community for whom she otherwise feels the closest affinity. And she must do all this without succumbing to hating the people who have attempted to prey on her, who magnify her pain, who drive a wedge between her and the people she cares most deeply about. And yet she has somehow turned all that around and channeled it into something positive that helps hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Quite literally, I do not know how she does it.

So if there’s anything someone like me can do or say to offer Kelly some small shred of help and encouragement, anything at all that can help her carry on for another day or hour or even a minute, then I feel ennobled.
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Stellafane,

I was quite moved by your post. So much, in fact, that I had tears in my eyes. I could not even respond at that point, because there were no words adequate, and there still aren't, to express my thanks.

I see people read my blog and make an automatic assumption that I hate these pyschics, but you see and understand that I do not. I disdain what they do, but not them personally. Who knows how many of them are suffering from a mental illness vs the ones who know darn well they are frauds, but yet keep doing it for fame, money, or whatever reason?

I am thankful that I am of sound mind, despite what has happened to me, and that I can still step back and assess a situation using common sense. It can be difficult to leave the emotion out of it, but we must.

I really don't feel that I have any more courage or am any better than the next person. I have just chosen to do what appeared to be the only choice, to me.

Yes, it is difficult that we have lost some support because of our stance, but I know we are doing the right thing. I am saddened on a daily basis to see accounts of families going the psychic route instead of trusting in the tried and TRUE methods of good investigation and awareness campaigns.

We continually strive to try to reach the masses and help them understand what we go through, even though they don't, thankfully, have to experience this horror themselves. This is why I share the darkest of emotions and fears. How else can we move others to want to help in whatever way they are able?

It is no secret that missing persons assistance organizations (more so the ones that service missing adults) receive little public support. We have gone literally months at a time without a single donation. I greatly dislike bringing this up, but I must in order for us to survive. Stellafane mentioned help, and that is one way.

Anyway, back to his post. I know who you speak of in respect to the family who thinks they are being helped by Carla Baron. I recently engaged in dialog with their advocate, and she still won't concede that CB has been no help at all. The family, apparently, feels some need to hang on to this tattered shred of what they see as hope. They become defensive when someone tries to show them it is not hope at all.

I will still keep trying, however, to reach families like them in the hope that they can transfer their desperation to something that could bear fruit and provide them with real answers. It seems like there is a never-ending supply of new families and new perpertrators, but with the help of the wonderful people here, we can work together to help them make sense of the senseless, even in the face of such great pain.

Thank you all for your friendship and support!

Kelly
 
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Hi folks, I'm chiming in late, so sorry. This may sound like a pro-psychic post at first, please bear with me, I assure you all it isn't.

Several years ago, I started searching for a friend of mine I hadn't seen in years. My search took me to one of the one places nobody ever wants to find a friend or loved one, The Doe Network. I found out my friend had been missing for several years and I was absolutely devastated. She's missing from Florida, I live in Pennsylvania, there wasn't much looking I could really do, but I got the word out among mutual friends and classmates. I called LE in Florida, but got no response. I felt so helpless that I thought the only thing I could logically do was consult a psychic (feel free to hit me on the head right about here). I went to her, she didn't seek me out like these plague of locust psychics that seem to pop out of the woodwork every time somebody goes missing. I paid her $25, which is nowhere near the sums many people pay for crappy "advice", so I guess I'm lucky. This woman told me that my friend was dead, killed by a man she knew and they'd never find her body. She also told me not to worry because he'd be caught "trying to hurt somebody else" and that he'd be put away, but he'd never admit to killing my friend. Of course, I was more devastated by hearing that my friend died at the hands of someone she knew and that they'd never find the body, but I made my peace with it. A few weeks later, I plugged my friend's name into Google and up popped an article about my friend's ex-fiancee and his alleged murder of his new girlfriend. The article said he was a prime suspect in the death of my friend, but he wasn't talking. Well, I thought this psychic chick really knew something. After all, my friend's story was not widely publicized even in Florida much less Pennsylvania. She didn't know my friend's name because I hadn't told her and the reading was a spur of the moment thing not a pre-arranged appointment. She just had to be the real deal right? Wrong. It's taken me years and lots of pain to realize the woman made a lucky guess. My friend was missing for years, of course she's most likely deceased. Women are often killed by someone close to them, a lover or husband for example. A man who would kill or abuse one girlfriend or wife won't likely stop being an abuser. Of course, he may get caught in the future. Only the dumbest of them will confess to other killings when there's no body or no evidence. I did mention Florida to the psychic, so of course she said the body wouldn't be found. Alligators and other meat-eaters are plentiful there, so is swamp land. It was just a string of lucky guesses, no mystical power, no friend talking to her from the great beyond, no link to the other side, nothing. I only wasted $25 and about 20 minutes of my time. I'm lucky. Others have wasted much more by way of valuable time, energy they can't spare and the emotional turmoil these people put them through. My friend's family consulted a psychic too. She told them to look under a bridge in a neighboring town (yep, the water/bridge thing again) Guess what? Her body was not located. She's still missing and nobody is any closer to finding her.

Sorry, I felt a rant coming on this morning. Kelly, I've admired you greatly for some time now. I'm a constant reader of WebSleuths although I can't post there. You are an inspiration to many.
 
Eire said:
. . . This woman told me that my friend was dead, killed by a man she knew and they'd never find her body. She also told me not to worry because he'd be caught "trying to hurt somebody else" and that he'd be put away, but he'd never admit to killing my friend . . . A few weeks later, I plugged my friend's name into Google and up popped an article about my friend's ex-fiancee and his alleged murder of his new girlfriend. The article said he was a prime suspect in the death of my friend, but he wasn't talking . . . She's still missing and nobody is any closer to finding her.
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So was the psychic to whom you paid $25 wrong about any aspect of this case?
 
Rodney said:
So was the psychic to whom you paid $25 wrong about any aspect of this case?
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You need to read the rest of what Eire said. Much of what the psychic had to say could have been stated by any member of law enforcement, for free. The psychic wasn't wrong, just obvious.
 
Thank you, Roadtoad. That was my point. The only thing we would be able to verify requires a body. She said my friend is in the Everglades where are 300 miles from where she disappeared give or take. If she's ever found, we'll know if she was right on that one or not.

And don't get me wrong, I willingly paid her and it wasn't a fortune. I'm not complaining about the money I spent even though reading what I wrote may give that impression. I'm just saying what Roadtoad said, any member of Law Enforcement could have told me the same.
 
Eire said:
Thank you, Roadtoad. That was my point. The only thing we would be able to verify requires a body. She said my friend is in the Everglades where are 300 miles from where she disappeared give or take. If she's ever found, we'll know if she was right on that one or not.

And don't get me wrong, I willingly paid her and it wasn't a fortune. I'm not complaining about the money I spent even though reading what I wrote may give that impression. I'm just saying what Roadtoad said, any member of Law Enforcement could have told me the same.
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According to your account, the psychic told you: (1) your friend is dead; (2) her body would never be found; (3) she was killed by a man she knew; (4) he would be caught trying to hurt somebody else; and (5) he would never confess to killing your friend. I would submit to you that Law Enforcement would not have told you any of those things. Further, the facts that -- (a) her former fiance is now a suspect in not only her disappearance, but a new girlfriend's murder; (b) he is not talking about his former fiancee's disappearance; and (c) her body has not been found -- does nothing to suggest that the psychic was wrong about anything. Sure, she MAY have gotten lucky and perhaps one day at least one aspect of what she told you MAY be proven wrong, but so far it looks to me as if your $25 was well-spent.
 
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