6 replies to this topic

[Kelly]

Project Jason Profile:

 

Name: David Bird
 

Date of Birth: 09/06/1958

Date Missing: 01/11/2014

Age at time of disappearance: 55

City Missing From: Millington

State Missing From: NJ

Gender: Male

Race: White

Height: 6 ft 1 in

Weight: 200 lbs

Hair Color: Gray

Eye Color: Blue

Complexion: Fair

Identifying Characteristics: David wears glasses, has a scar on his abdomen from a liver transplant, and a hammer toe on his left foot.

Clothing: He was last seen wearing jeans, a checkered fleece shirt, a red raincoat, and sneakers.

Jewelry: He wears a watch and wedding ring. A medalion worn around his neck includes the following: a medic alert tag, whales tale, angel charm and religious charm.

Circumstances of Disappearance: David was last seen between 4 - 4:30pm on the front porch of his home. He decided to take a quick walk before it got dark and before a pending storm came. He had his wallet with him.

Medical Conditions: He was recovering from a gastrointestinal virus. He also had a liver transplant in 2004.

Investigative Agency: Long Hill Township Police Dept.

Agency Phone: (908) 647-1800

 

Link To Poster:  http://projectjason....N_DavidBird.pdf

[Kelly]

New Jersey State Police Profile:

 

https://www20.state....d=52022&type=mp

 

NamUs Profile: https://www.findthem.../cases/23482/0/

[Kelly]

http://www.foxnews.c...es-public-plea/

Family of missing Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird issues televised plea for his return

Published January 27, 2014
FoxNews.com

Family searching for clues in disappearance of WSJ reporter

More than two weeks after Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird disappeared without a trace, the New Jersey man's sister-in-law issued a televised plea for his return.

Bird, a 55-year-old avid walker and scout leader, was last seen leaving his home in Long Hill Township, N.J., on Jan. 11. Bird told his wife he was going on a short walk before an expected rain storm. He left his cellphone at home, charging, as well as daily medication he takes following his liver transplant.

"I just hope that somebody somewhere knows something, remembers something, saw something," Bird's sister-in-law, Chris Fleming, told Fox News on Monday. "We have no clues. It's just like he vanished."

Morris County was hit with heavy rain that day, after Bird set out for a walk, and portions of the surrounding Passaic River flooded area swamps. Bird, a father of two who had a liver transplant nearly 10 years ago, was recovering from a gastrointestinal virus when he left for the walk wearing a red rain jacket, according to authorities. He took medication twice a day for his liver transplant, but was not carrying it when he left the house.

The FBI as well as K-9 teams are assisting in the search, but so far no clues have been recovered. Expansive searches of the surrounding land -- including swamps and portions of the Passaic River -- have yielded no sign of Bird.

A law enforcement source told FoxNews.com last week that there is no evidence to indicate foul play, but that "it hasn't been ruled out."

"Anything is possible," said the source, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Bird works as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, covering OPEC, a collection of oil-rich countries. He also worked for Dow Jones & Co., the newspaper's publisher, for more than 20 years.

Bird is described as white, 6 foot, 1 inch tall and weighing approximately 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a distinct bright red jacket with two yellow zippers.

Anyone with information on Bird's whereabouts is being urged to call The Long Hill Township Police Department at 908-647-1800.


 

[Kelly]

http://online.wsj.co...bird-1402437808

Reward Offered For Missing WSJ Reporter
Investigators Have Found No Trace of David Bird As Search Continues

By Jennifer Maloney
Updated June 10, 2014 8:42 p.m. ET

Investigators have found no trace of a Wall Street Journal reporter who went missing in January, and a $10,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to his location.

David Bird was last seen leaving his home for a short walk on Jan. 11 in the Millington section of Long Hill Township, N.J. Officials conducted a ground, water and air search involving hundreds of volunteers, and then turned to other investigative methods, combing through Mr. Bird's financial records, cellphone records and emails, said Long Hill Township Police Chief Michael Mazzeo.

So far, investigators have turned up nothing to suggest how or why he disappeared, Mr. Mazzeo said.

"There's been thousands of work hours that have been put into this," he said. "I've never seen anything like it before. There are so many different avenues that you could possibly take because there's nothing leading us in a specific direction."

Mr. Bird's wife, Nancy Bird, described the reward as "really kind of our last tool."

"We're heartbroken and devastated that we still have no answers," she said. "I have to do everything I possibly can to find my husband.…Maybe there's somebody who knows something."

According to Ms. Bird, Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal, provided the reward money. A spokeswoman for Dow Jones, which is owned by News Corp, confirmed that the company contributed funds for the reward but declined to say if it was the full amount.

Mr. Bird, 55 years old, was putting away Christmas decorations with his wife on that Saturday afternoon in January when he said he wanted to take a quick walk before an expected rainstorm. He didn't take his phone or the twice-daily medication he needs as a liver-transplant recipient.

The couple have two children, now ages 13 and 16.

Mr. Bird is a scout troop leader and an avid hiker. In 2013, he ran the New York City Marathon.

"We're still so hopeful that he's going to walk through the door," said Ms. Bird, who praised law-enforcement officials for their continuing efforts. "I've imagined every scenario possible, but there's no evidence to support any of those theories. That's maybe the worst part, that there's just nothing—not a single clue."

"I'm just getting used to this new reality," she added.

Small groups of volunteers are still searching the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge near the family's home, she said.

Last June, Mr. and Ms. Bird, on bicycles, led an annual 5K run/walk held by the NJ Sharing Network, a nonprofit organ-donation group. On Sunday, Ms. Bird and her children participated again, this time with about 50 friends.

It was a difficult day, she said, but "it felt right to be there, walking in honor of David and having the support of so many people who were walking with us."

They called their team "Save David."

Anyone with information on Mr. Bird's disappearance can call the Long Hill Township Police Department at 908-647-1800.

[Kelly]

http://www.dailyreco...rsons/17599065/

Wife of missing Long Hill man to speak at concert for missing persons

Michael Izzo, Daily Record 7:48 a.m. EDT October 20, 2014

Nancy Bird felt a need to connect with others who have a loved one missing.

“It was something I had been avoiding but I really wanted to talk with someone who truly understood the emotions my family and I are dealing with,” said Bird, whose husband David Bird left his Long Hill home for a walk at 4 p.m. Jan. 11 and never returned.

Members of the Long Hill Township Police Department, who have been investigating her husband’s disappearance, introduced her to ViRAGO, a musician featured on the Squeaky Wheel Tour, a series of concerts designed to bring attention to missing persons.

Bird learned more about the Squeaky Wheel Tour and the organization that runs it, the GINA Foundation for Missing Persons. She also spoke with the creator of the tour, Jannel Rap, whose sister Gina has been missing since 2000. She was last seen attending a concert in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“I had no idea so many families were suffering like ours,” Bird said. “It’s given me strength and hope to learn there are others who have somehow learned to live with the terrible uncertainty my family faces every day.”

Rap told Bird about how the tour helps raise awareness and reignite public interest for unsolved missing persons cases.

“She helped me realize it was time for me to lend my voice to this cause,” Bird said. “I struggle daily, wondering what else I can be doing to find my husband. I'm hoping that speaking about him and raising awareness of the number of missing people may help find him and help me heal in some way.”

The first year Rap held the tour in 2001, they ended up finding a missing 17-year-old boy in New York City alive three days after a flier was passed out at a concert. In 2006, the annual tour changed to the “Squeaky Wheel” title, named after the saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

Bird agreed to attend and speak at the tour’s New Jersey stop, Oct. 28, at McLoone’s Supper Club in Asbury Park.

“I will have an opportunity to speak briefly about David in the hopes of raising awareness of his disappearance,” Bird said. “He can only be found if people know he is missing.”

The missing persons highlighted at the Asbury Park concert will be David Bird, Gina Bos, Jan Cotta Elizabeth Gill, Mark Himebaugh, Charles Horvath-Allan, Charlotte Loomis, Suzanne Lyall, Jackson Miller, Diana Moreno-Acevedo, Anastasia Ovetsky, Jamie Seymour, and William Smolinski.

“Meeting the families of the missing has been a profound experience as missing is no respecter of persons. It happens to all ages, all religions, all races and all socioeconomic groups,” Rap said. “I have met people that I never would have met otherwise and I have become family with them all. It's an instant family. It's not a family that you would ever choose, but it is family nonetheless. And it's a family you don't have to explain yourself to. They just know.”

Past contributors to the Squeaky Wheel Tour include Maroon 5, Meatloaf, pitcher Barry Zito, the Los Angeles Sparks basketball team, and Elizabeth Smart. The Asbury Park headliners include musicians Rap, Virago, and Pat Guadagno.

Bird said those attending the concert will learn more about missing persons throughout the country — specifically people missing in New Jersey at the Asbury Park concert — but also enjoy a great night of rock and roll, food, and laughter.

“It’s a celebration because it's a place where people can gather to make a difference just by being there and hearing the stories of families with a missing loved one,” said Bird, adding she’s happy to have a network of people to connect with and act as a support group.

“I have searched everywhere for a support group specifically for families of missing persons. They don't exist, and if they do, I wish someone would tell me about it. We are in a terribly unique situation and it is very difficult for others to understand or comfort us.”

Smith’s Ace Hardware in Chatham recently committed 10 percent of their sales for a day to the Bird family.

“I'm very grateful for their support and for the generosity of many other local groups and families who have kept us in their hearts and minds and continue to surprise us with random acts of kindness,” Bird said. “These large and small gifts mean so much to us as we struggle with our new day-to-day reality.”

Donations to help support the Bird family can still be sent to 'The Bird Family Trust' and mailed to PO Box 234, Millington, NJ 07946.

“It's impossible for us to settle back into a normal life, there is nothing normal about our situation,” Bird said. “We are doing the best we can and trying to adjust while continuing to question what could possibly have happened to David Bird on January 11. We pray and hope the answer to that question comes before the snow begins to fall.”

The Long Hill Township Police Department continue to search for David Bird. A $10,000 reward has been offered by his employer, Dow Jones & Co. Anyone with information about his disappearance should call the Long Hill Township Police Department at 908-647-1800.

[Kelly]

http://www.nj.com/mo...nniversary.html

Missing for a year: Reporter David Bird left his home and vanished

By Louis C. Hochman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
January 05, 2015 at 12:50 PM, updated January 05, 2015 at 2:42 PM

LONG HILL — On Sunday, it'll be a year since Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird walked out of his Millington home and never came back. It's been a year without answers.

He was suppose to come back put away the Christmas decorations. He needs to take medication for a liver transplant twice a day, but he left the medication at home. He left his cell phone in his charger.

“It’s hard to express in words how difficult and strange our family’s new reality is,” David Bird’s wife of 23 years, Nancy, said in a statement provided to the media through a family friend Monday. “There’s no roadmap for navigating a situation like ours, so we take it day by day."

Even after a lengthy, massive sweep of Long Hill and surrounding towns, authorities found no trace of David Bird. Long Hill police said today the case is still open, and Journal owner Dow Jones and Co. has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his discovery.

Hundreds of people became involved in the search last year. Rescuers from several area agencies made their way through fields and checked the banks of the Passaic River. They knocked on doors throughout Millington and other nearby neighborhoods. State Police flew overhead. County Park police were out on horseback and on ATVs.

The outward search died down as the weather grew colder, though picked up again in March. Still, nothing.

Early on, there were false starts, and apparent clues that didn't pan out. In January of last year, an NBC News report quoted a "source close to (David Bird's) family" saying his credit card was used in Mexico a few days after he went missing. That report prompted national and international media attention to his case.

But a family members and authorities both downplayed the significance of that report , and other reports that speculated on David Bird's whereabouts.

The NBC report also had said his family "does not believe he simply wandered away and has suspected that his disappearance might be rooted in his work, which includes coverage of OPEC, a collection of oil-rich countries" — but David Bird's reporting on those topics wasn't controversial, focusing on markets and economic impacts of policies. Authorities and people close to the family reached by NJ.com said that wasn't considered likely — that it was just an idea floated by a family member desperate for answers.

"There are a lot of theories going around," family friend Carolyn Buscarino said at the time.

Long Hill Lt. Ahmed Naga told NJ Advance Media just before Christmas there's been no recent update on David Bird's case, though it remains open. Police have investigated occasional reports of people matching his description, but none of panned out, Naga said.

"I wish I had something to tell you," he said.

Community members and David Bird's former coworkers have rallied around his family. Nancy Bird had been a stay-at-home mother and was left without David Bird's income to pay for expenses.

The Wall Street Journal continued to pay David Bird's salary through the end of July. However, effective Aug. 1, his status was changed to unpaid leave of absence.

In December, the union representing Wall Street Journal reporters gave $10,000 to the Bird family, and promised a matching award of up to another $10,000 if more people contribute. That is unrelated to the $10,000 offer Dow Jones has made for information about David Bird.

A fundraiser posted to YouCaring.org has raised more than $30,000 to date, with several donations made as recently as December. Family members and authorities have confirmed the fundraiser is legitimate, although another had fraudulently been posted in David Bird's name.

Nancy Bird wrote in the message today that "in spite of our misfortune, I am inspired by and so grateful for the hard work of the Long Hill Police and the unceasing outpouring of love and support from friends, neighbors, and even strangers. As we learned when David was waiting for his liver transplant 10 years ago and are reminded every day now, Long Hill is a remarkably close-knit, good-hearted, and generous community."

Sunday, friends, co-workers, and local law enforcement will gather to raise more funds.

From 7 to 11 a.m. at the Long Hill Community Center on South Warren Avenue in Stirling, the Long Hill Township P.B.A. Local 322 will host a pancake breakfast with all proceeds benefiting The Bird Family Trust. There will be pancakes, eggs, bacon, juice, and coffee. Prices will be $12 for adults and $8 for children.

Those who cannot attend may also send contributions to The Bird Family Trust, P.O. Box 234, Millington, NJ 07946.

At 3:45 p.m. that day will be a service at All Saints Episcopal Church, 15 Basking Ridge Road in Millington. After a brief invocation by the Rev. Vicki McGrath, participants will be led by the Boy Scouts of Troop 56 to Hicks Tract, where they will light a bonfire to mark the anniversary of David Bird's disappearance, the Bird family said in Monday's statement.

It'll remind the community to "to keep a light on" for David Bird, the statement said.

David Bird had been a Scoutmaster for Troop 56. Scoutmaster and family friend Jim Caparoso said in the statement "We feel his absence deeply, and we want to commemorate this day in order to keep awareness of David's case top-of-mind for everyone in the area."

Police say David Bird's case remains open. Leads can be reported to police at 908-647-1800, ext. 8221;

David Bird is 6-foot-1 and weighed approximately 200 pounds at the time of his disappearance, the family has said. He has gray hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a red rain jacket with two yellow zippers, blue jeans and sneakers.

David Bird has a distinctive scar, a large inverted Y, on his chest and abdomen, the result of the liver transplant.

[Lori Davis]

http://newyork.cbslo...er-he-vanished/

 

Family Of WSJ Reporter David Bird Holds Out Hope, One Year After He Vanished

 

January 9, 2015 11:20 PM

 

LONG HILL, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird vanished nearly a year ago, but his family continued to hold out hope Friday that he was still alive.

 

Bird, 56, was last seen leaving his home on Long Hill Road in Long Hill, New Jersey at 4 p.m. Jan. 11 of last year. He left to go for a walk in Millington, and never came back.

 

For the first time Friday, his wife talked with CBS2’s Jessica Schneider as the one-year anniversary of his disappearance drew near.

 

“As January 11 gets a little closer, I find myself unraveling a little more,” said Nancy Bird.

 

Nancy Bird spends her days with scenarios racing through her head. What happened to her husband?

 

“I relive January 11 every day,” she said. “I’m hopeful that my community will also relive that day, and something will jog their memory.”

 

David Bird had only intended to go on a short walk. At the time, Long Hill Township Police Chief Michael Mazzeo told 1010 WINS that Bird left his cellphone and charger.

 

When Bird did not return that night, police launched what turned into a year-long search. They went through e-mails and his computer, but never found anything to show he wanted to disappear.

 

“He’s a smart guy. He’s not a risk take,” Nancy Bird said. “He’s a family man, and this is completely out of the ordinary of his character to just vanish.”

 

Nancy Bird said it is possible that her husband walked through an area called Hicks Tract, with hiking and walking trails. Police and search crews have combed through nearly every inch.

 

“They searched the river. They had divers. They followed every single lead,” Nancy Bird said.

 

The missing posters were still up around their own town in New Jersey nearly a year later. But the Bird family – Nancy and her two teenage children – still had no credible leads.

 

“They’re devastated. They’re sad,” she said. “Their dad’s missing, and he’s a big part of their lives.”

 

David Bird was a longtime member of the Dow Jones newsroom at the Wall Street Journal. He had just celebrated the nine-year anniversary of a liver transplant at the time he disappeared, family members told 1010 WINS at the time.

 

Bird was last seen wearing a distinct, bright red jacket with two yellow zippers, blue jeans, sneakers and glasses.

 

David Bird’s family will hold a vigil for him alongside friends on Sunday.