Missing / Located Persons > Located Adults and Children
Located Safe: Georgina Lynn DeJesus -- OH -- 04/02/2004
Dan:
Originally posted on 06/05/04
Update: Despair drives Felix DeJesus to keep looking for his daughter update
Despair drives Felix DeJesus to keep looking for his daughter update
In the days after 14-year-old Gina DeJesus disappeared, her family's modest home on West 71st Street became a media hot spot: TV trucks parked outside. Mayor Jane Campbell visited. Visitors stopped to offer prayers.
"We have one goal, and that is to bring Gina home," Campbell said.
Today two months later the home is quiet, the trucks are gone, and Gina is still missing.
Inside, family members are sinking into despair. Gina's father, Felix, is "beyond desperate" to bring her home, Gina's cousin Sylvia Colon said.
Police and FBI agents continue to investigate, but no new information has surfaced. Authorities are offering a $20,000 reward for details that lead to Gina or missing teen Amanda Berry, another girl who disappeared on the West Side more than a year ago.
"We're still committed, most definitely," FBI Special Agent Bob Hawk said, "but we have nothing of any value right now."
Felix DeJesus is frustrated and worries that authorities are giving up on his daughter. He looks for Gina every evening after work, sometimes accompanied by relatives or community activists.
"I will not give up," he said recently, sitting in his living room. "As long as she's out there missing, I'm going to be out there with her."
DeJesus said police have asked him to stop going out at night to search. But Gina's sister Mayra said the searches are crucial. Searchers meet different people at night, Mayra DeJesus said, and are approached by some who have tips. Family members pass them along to the FBI.
Often, the family reviews Gina's case, leafing through a booklet of sexual offenders living in the area and hunting for missed clues that might bring Gina home.
But the volunteer efforts can lead to trouble. On May 3, Felix DeJesus was accused with other men of breaking down the apartment door of a sexual offender living near West 104th Street and Lorain Avenue. Gina disappeared a block away on April 2.
DeJesus denies he had anything to do with the broken door. Authorities say it is unlikely he will be charged, but the possibility concerns and angers him. He said police told him they plan to watch him.
"I'm not a bad person," he said. "I'm not a vigilante. I'm desperate to find my daughter. It hurts so much."
Desperation is familiar to other parents of missing children.
Marc Klaas' 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was abducted in October 1993 from her northern California home and later was found dead. Klaas, like DeJesus, went out regularly in the evenings to look for his daughter. One night he went to a nearby property with volunteer searchers even though the owner had refused to allow Klaas on the grounds. The owner came out with a shotgun.
"He could have blown us away and justified it," Klaas says. "But I couldn't see that then. I was exhausted and desperate. The cops' job is to find your child, but that's not in the mind of a father looking for his child. You just want to bring her home."
In Cleveland, Alisa Randle, the mother of Shakira Johnson, stayed by the phone when her 11-year-old daughter disappeared last September. Shakira's body was found a month later.
Randle, who had a leg injury, waited for any word about Shakira. Community activists were her legs and looked nightly while Randle prayed, desperately hoping her faith was strong enough to bring her daughter home.
"I know what he [DeJesus] is going through," she said. "The pain of not knowing, that's the hardest thing."
http://www.teamamberalert.net/news/m...ticle&sid=1791
Dan:
Originally posted on 06/21/04
Weekend rape of West Side girl builds on parents' fears
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Joe Guillen
Plain Dealer Reporter
With the weekend kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old girl not far from her home, DiRuggiero says her 8-year-old daughter won't be allowed out of her sight. The rape follows more than a year of heightened concern on the West Side over the highly publicized disappearances of two teenage girls.
Though police are not connecting Saturday's rape to the disappearances, it's not easy for nearby residents to do the same.
"There's a lot of kids that walk by here," DiRuggiero said. "A lot of them walk by themselves."
"Here" is Wakefield Avenue, where the 12-year-old was abducted about 5:30 p.m. Saturday. She told police the man with "devil" tattooed on his neck drove her to two separate locations, raped her at least three times and dropped her off seven hours later near Joseph Gallagher Middle School on Franklin Boulevard.
The Cleveland Police Sex Crimes Unit is investigating but has no suspects, said Lt. Wayne Drummond, a police spokesman.
Karen Hodges, DiRuggiero's neighbor on Wakefield Avenue, said she has been concerned for her 12-year-old daughter's safety since Amanda Berry's disappearance in April 2003.
Berry, then 16, disappeared about 2½ miles away from where Saturday's abduction took place. She left work at a Burger King and was last seen at West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue.
On April 2, five blocks from where Berry was last seen, Georgina DeJesus, 14, disappeared while walking home from Wilbur Wright Middle School.
The disappearances have forced many parents to turn to an age-old safety net - nearly constant supervision of their children.
When Ian Birks' 7-year-old daughter visits, her every movement is watched by Birks or his mother, who lives in the same house.
Birks, 27, also said he occasionally checks the Internet for sexual predators near his home at West 65th Street and Wakefield Avenue.
The Cuyahoga County sheriff's Web site lists 132 sexual offenders living in the ZIP code that includes Birks' home.
Drummond said officers assigned to that neighborhood will try to patrol the area more often. That's a tough task in the summer, he said, because officers are usually busy responding to calls.
The victim described her attacker to police as a black man, about 6 feet tall and 190 pounds. In addition to the "devil" tattoo, he has a scar on the left side of his face from his nose to his ear.
Anyone with information about the man should call 216-623-5630.
Dan:
Originally posted on 07/31/04.
$25,000 Reward Offered For Information On Missing Girls
Family Continues Weekly Vigil
www.newsnet5.com
UPDATED: 9:01 AM EDT July 28, 2004
CLEVELAND -- Cleveland police say they're increasing the reward to $25,000 for information about two missing
Nearly four months ago, 14-year-old Gina DeJesus disappeared, near Lorain Avenue and West 105th Street.
"When it starts to hurt bad, I pray and ask God to hold my strength. It's the not knowing that hurt the most," Nancy Ruis, Gina's mom, said.
Faithfully, every Friday night since Gina disappeared her family holds a vigil.
And a year before Gina went missing, 17-year-old Amanda Berry also disappeared from nearly the same spot.
Family members said authorities are also planning on putting up new billboards with Gina's and Amanda's pictures on them, hoping for any new information.
If you have any information about either of the missing teens, call Crime Stoppers at (216) 252-7463.
Dan:
Originally posted on 08/28/04.
by Kelly
Gina is on Project Jason's Adopt a Missing Person program. You can play a part in possibly reuniting her family by wearing her photo button and telling others about her. For more information about this program, and how you can help, please see:
http://www.projectjason.org/adopt.html
Thank you and God bless!
Kelly
Dan:
Originally posted on 09/11/04
by Kelly
A website has been created for Georgina DeJesus, missing without a trace since 4/2/2004.
Her mother, Nancy, will be sending us via snail mail new photos, poems, and other writings about Georgina soon and we'll keep it updated.
There will also be printable labels and business cards added. In the meantime, please come and sign her guestbook to let the family know that we care.
http://findgeorgina.com/index.htm
Thank you.
Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version