Original Post: 08/23/04.
Re: Missing Child: ADRIANNA NIKOL WIX
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.gallatinnewsexaminer.com/.../missing.shtml Mother of missing woman asks public to help
Cheryl Tatum
Senior Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The family of a missing Robertson County woman made a cry for help from the public yesterday at the White House Police Department.
The last time a family member of Jennifer Wix heard from the 2000 White House High School graduate was Friday, March 26, 2004.
Jennifer, 22, and her 2-year-old daughter, Adrianna, are now among the 1,440 persons nationwide who are listed as missing every day.
In the last five months, Jennifer’s Robertson County family has spent most of their waking hours looking for their missing children, posting flyers, handing out buttons, traveling the back roads of Robertson and Sumner counties and even going as far away as Missouri when rumors had to be checked out.
But, Jennifer’s mother and Adrianna’s grandmother Kathy Casey Holloway, said they can’t continue the search alone — they need help.
“We need to broaden our search. We have done what we can as a family. We need to keep the girls in the media, we need to keep their names and faces out there. We simply need help,†Holloway told a group of about 20 who gathered Sunday.
Helping to organize the meeting was Lynda Uldrich, a friend of Holloway’s when they were in high school together.
Uldrich said the first time she saw Holloway since high school was when she was being interviewed on television about Jennifer and Adrianna’s disappearance.
Since that time she has been one of a group of volunteers trying to help family members cope.
Since Jennifer was listed as missing with the Robertson County Sheriff’s Department, Holloway said there have been no leads.
The last time she was seen, according to the Robertson County Sheriff’s Department was on Thursday, March 25 in Cross Plains.
Holloway said she talked to her daughter on that Thursday while she was at the home of her boyfriend and his family.
“She was upset, and I offered to come and get her, but she felt she could handle the situation,†Holloway said.
On Friday, Jennifer talked to both her sister and father also indicating a problem. That was the last time anyone from her family has heard from the young woman.
At the time of her disappearance, Holloway said her impression is that the attitude of many people was that her daughter had just run away, and there was no real reason for concern.
“That’s just out of character for her,†Holloway said. “She spoke to a family member on a daily basis and now no one has heard from her in five months.â€
In fact, Holloway said Jennifer is dependent on family members for everything from running errands to being a sounding board.
“You don’t go from being that dependent to being independent with no contact in one day,†her mother said.
What the family is asking for is volunteers to scour Robertson County and a 20-mile radius around Jennifer’s home county and make sure her picture and Adrianna’s are everywhere.
“Our goal is to make Robertson County and the 20-mile radius a big pie and to cut that pie into sections,†said Jennifer’s sister and Adrianna’s aunt, Lisa Robertson.
For each one of those pie sections Robertson wants a team leader with volunteers to talk to their neighbors and post flyers.
“We want to make sure there is a flyer in every window, everywhere that it is legal to post them. We want people who are dedicated to making sure these children do not fall through the cracks,†she said.
“People don’t disappear,†Robertson added. “They don’t vanish. Dead or alive every missing person is somewhere and they deserve to be found.â€
Statistics show every 40 seconds someone goes missing, said Shelley Brown, a family friend and the head of the Child Seek Network in this area.
“That’s 1,440 persons a day. And while most are found quickly, some are not,†Brown said.
While the Amber alert has been a godsend when it is used, Brown said the criteria for an Amber alert hurts the search for some missing persons.
“If you don’t meet the criteria, you are simply missing,†Brown said.
Jennifer and Adrianna’s family said they will continue to search for their loved ones — and they hope others will join the effort.
Persons wanting information and contact numbers to help in the search for Jennifer and Adrianna can go to the Web site:
http://www.missingwixchildren@homestead.com.Contributions to help fund the search may be made to the Bank of America, Kathy Casey Holloway Missing Wix Children Fund.
“I’m trying to be a mother, a wife, an employee and a detective. I just can’t do it alone,†Holloway said.
