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Missing Woman: Karen Denise Steed - AL - 11/25/1997


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#1 Lori Davis

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Posted 13 January 2013 - 10:28 AM

https://www.findthem...g/cases/2349/6/


MISSING PERSON
Karen Denise Steed



MISSING SINCE: November 25, 1997
LAST SEEN: Piedmont, Alabama
SEX: Female
HEIGHT: 67.0 in
WEIGHT: 120.0 lbs
EYES: Green
HAIR: Blond/Strawberry

Steed was last seen at her residence in Piedmont, Alabama on November 25, 1997. Her 1982 beige Ford Fairmount with Alabama license plates 11DW289 was discovered abandoned on Interstate 20 in Cleburne County, Alabama on December 18, 1997, nearly three weeks after Steed's initial disappearance. There was no sign of her at the scene and she has never been heard from again.

Contact Calhoun County Sheriff Office at 205-236-6600 with information.
Case #: M-079263666 NamUs MP #: 2349


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#2 Lori Davis

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Posted 13 January 2013 - 10:30 AM

http://www.charleypr...teed_karen.html
Charley Project for Karen Denise Steed

http://doenetwork.or...s/1843dfal.html
Doe Network for Karen Denise Steed

http://www.calcoso.org/news/?newsID=32
Calhoun County Sheriff's Department Missing Person for Karen Denise Steed

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#3 Lori Davis

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Posted 13 January 2013 - 10:33 AM

http://annistonstar....dmont-mysteries

Cold Case Unit strives to solve Piedmont mysteries

Jan 11, 2013

Retirement wasn’t going to stop Max Kirby from investigating the cases that were never solved during his 29 years as a deputy, and later chief deputy, in the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Kirby, one of the lead investigators on the murder case of missing Piedmont woman Carla Fuqua, started working part-time for the Calhoun County Cold Case Unit when it began in 2002.

Kirby said he felt like he had unfinished business involving several missing persons cases he had worked on with Sheriff Larry Amerson over their 13 years as partners.

“These are homicides in Piedmont and it happened on my watch,” Kirby said in a meeting room at the Sheriff’s Office.

Kirby was Amerson’s mentor when Amerson began his own career as a deputy. The three missing persons in Piedmont, Patrick Burrows, Jeffery McFry and Karen Steed all disappeared in the 1990s when Kirby and Amerson were still guarding the streets of Calhoun County.

After Kirby retired in 1999, he and three other retired investigators from the Alabama Bureau of Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Anniston Police Department got together and formed what would later officially be the Calhoun County Cold Case Unit.

To date the unit has solved 12 cold cases and hopes to make Fuqua number 13.

Fuqua’s body was found Dec. 3 after a tip led investigators to a wooded area along Alabama 21 in Piedmont, near what residents refer to as “the brickyard.” The 28-year-old mother had been missing since October 2009. Investigators used dental records to identify the skeletal remains.

Kirby is the only investigator left from the original unit that was formed, and for Fuqua’s case he has help from Rachel Israel, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Office.

Kirby said he prefers to work these kinds of cases because he “feels like you’re doing something productive.”

He does it for the people who are out there wondering what has happened to their loved ones. Kirby said he still receives calls every week from the mother of one of the missing persons from Piedmont.

Starting from scratch

Kirby said there are some advantages to working cold cases; mainly it’s easier to get people to talk.

“People aren’t scared to talk about cold cases after a few years. When it first happens people are afraid of what might happen to them and they have a tendency to back off. But after a few years people are more willing to talk,” Kirby said.

Kirby recalls cases he’s helped solve throughout his career easier than some people can say what they had for breakfast that morning.

“He remembers those details and nuances,” Amerson said.

After a case goes cold, Kirby revisits those details, sometimes overlooked when a case is fresh and tips are pouring in.

“There might have been a witness that wasn’t located or a tip that wasn’t picked up on. Often that information will be turned into a lead that solves the case,” the sheriff said.

Kirby is able to look at these cold cases with fresh eyes and essentially starts the investigative process over from scratch. Kirby said being able to take his time on these cases can make all the difference.

“When this stuff happened (investigators) just didn’t have the time. Maybe something would happen that they had to drop this and go onto something else, maybe if they’d had another week on it they could have solved it. But we could take time,” Kirby said.

Israel said the Cold Case Unit was created to go back and re-analyze and re-interview witnesses, especially years later when “maybe there was something they felt threatened to tell.”

Israel said Kirby is always able to build a rapport with the people he interviews. Kirby attributes that connection to always telling the truth. Kirby says he’s never lied to a person about anything because “the first time you lie, you’ve lost credit.”

“If I say to a man I’m going to lock him up he might as well go stand at the door because eventually I’m going to lock him up,” Kirby said.

In need of information

Kirby and Israel are focusing their energy on solving Fuqua’s murder and finding out what happened to the three missing in Piedmont. Kirby said they’ve received multiple tips and continue to investigate them.

“We certainly need information. Any information would be handled exclusively in private,” Kirby said.

Amerson said people are still reluctant to speak about the Piedmont cases; an element of fear continues to surround the three that are missing.

“It takes people to reach out to us and make that phone call, write a letter or send an email and we’ll follow up on it,” he said.

Kirby said he believes every person that does someone harm wants to tell someone, but they just don’t know how.

“I think everybody really honestly has a conscience,” Kirby said.

Kirby said he won’t quit until he solves the cases he’s been on for the last 20 years.

“I know somebody in that area knows,” Kirby said. “I have faith eventually I’m going to get that call.”

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#4 Lori Davis

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Posted 13 December 2014 - 07:41 PM

http://www.myfoxal.c...-2009-cold-case

 

Piedmont man charged with murder in 2009 cold case

Posted: Aug 16, 2013 7:26 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 23, 2013 7:33 PM EDT

By WBRC Staff

PIEDMONT, AL (WBRC) - Calhoun County officials announced a major development in the murder of 28-year-old Carla Fuqua of Piedmont.

 

Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson said Jimmy Ray Steed was indicted by a grand jury for Fuqua's murder. Fuqua went missing in 2009 and her body was found in December 2012 in a wooded area of Highway 21 south of Piedmont.

 

Steed, also from Piedmont, is already in custody of the Calhoun County jail on several charges of manufacturing meth after officials found 15 meth labs in his home, which caught on fire after he was jailed.

 

In today's conference, Sheriff Amerson said he couldn't talk about the evidence in the Fuqua murder case, but said they received several tips after Fuqua disappeared. Amerson noted that Fuqua knew Jimmy Steed.

 

Amerson said Steed is also a suspect in three missing persons cases in Piedmont: his wife, Karen Steed, Patrick Burrows and Jeffrey McFry. Karen Steed and Patrick Burrows both went missing in the same geographical area, the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office said on their Facebook page.

 

Steed has not been charged in any of the missing persons cases, but Sheriff Amerson said he is pleased to have the indictment against Steed in Fuqua's murder case.

 

Fuqua's family says they do not have closure today. Her mother, Darlene Cook, said she doesn't believe Steed acted alone.

 

"I'm happy that they got him. I feel like there's more. If they had them all, maybe I would feel better," Cook said.

 

Calhoun County's DA says there is "direct evidence" against Steed in this case as well as circumstantial evidence. Steed will remain in the Calhoun County Jail until his court date.

 

In the meantime, the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help with any information in the disappearances of Karen Steed, Patrick Burrows and Jeffrey McFry. Anyone with information is asked to contact Calhoun County Sheriff Office at 205-236-6600 with information.


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#5 Lori Davis

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Posted 01 March 2015 - 06:16 PM

http://www.al.com/ne...d_to_105_y.html

 

Jimmy Steed sentenced to 105 years in prison for 2009 Carla Fuqua murder

By William Thornton 

on February 17, 2015 at 1:08 PM, updated February 17, 2015 at 2:05 PM

 

A Calhoun County judge today sentenced a Piedmont man to 105 years in prison in a six-year-old murder case.

 

Jimmy Ray Steed, 55, was sentenced this morning by Circuit Judge Brian Howell.

 

Steed entered a guilty plea in December to murder charges in the 2009 disappearance and death of Carla Michelle Fuqua.

 

He also pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and manufacturing methamphetamine. Steed received 75 years for Fuqua's death and 30 years for drug charges.

 

"This came about because of a lot of hard work by the sheriff's office and the cold case unit," said Assistant District Attorney Tim Burgess. "They just continued to work it and kept going to get the evidence needed."

 

Sheriff Larry Amerson said he was pleased with the sentence, feeling "justice was served."

 

"This is another success for our cold case unit, and an example of the support and partnership we've had with the district attorney's office," Amerson said.

 

Steed was indicted in August 2013 in the death of Fuqua, who was last seen Oct. 29, 2009. Her remains were found on Dec. 4, 2012 in a wooded area south of Piedmont near Alabama 21 at the old Piedmont Brickyard.

 

Authorities said the last outgoing call made from Fuqua's cell phone that night was at 9:21 p.m. She was living on Piedmont Springs Road at the time of her disappearance, and told her roommate the night she vanished that was going to meet someone. A friend dropped her off at Steed's home, but Steed denied seeing her that night.

 

Fuqua's roommate was later charged with fraudulent use of a credit card after she used Carla's vehicle and debit card at several locations.

 

Steed was already in the Calhoun County Jail in the fall of 2013, on charges stemming from his arrest earlier that August, when he was indicted for Fuqua's murder. Investigators caught Steed manufacturing methamphetamine at his home on Hughes Road in Piedmont. Burgess said investigators found 14 meth labs on Steed's property.

 

Two days after his arrest, his house burned. Authorities said it wasn't the first time one of Steed's homes had burned during an investigation.

 

Amerson said investigators hope Steed's conviction will mean breaks in three long-running missing persons cases. Because Steed remains a suspect in them, prosecutors kept details of Fuqua's death "close to the vest," Burgess said.

 

Calhoun County authorities have long suspected Steed in the disappearances of James Patrick Burrows, Jeffrey Scott McFry and Steed's wife, Karen Steed.

 

All of them went missing within a geographic mile of Steed's home.

 

"We certainly feel anyone who knows anything would be encouraged to come forward, as there's no danger of him getting out," Amerson said. "Someone may have been afraid to do so before."

 

On Aug. 21, 1990, Burrows was reported missing. His motorcycle was found sunken in a bog near a friend's house more than a year after his disappearance.

 

McFry went missing less than a month after Burrows, with evidence he was forcibly taken.

 

Karen Steed, 29, disappeared on Nov. 23, 1997, and was last seen at her home in Piedmont. Her car was found on Interstate 20 a month later in Cleburne County.

 

Steed had never been ruled out as a suspect in any of the killings, and he was known by all of the victims.


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#6 Deborah

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Posted 09 October 2015 - 05:39 PM

Karen is still missing.

 

Calhoun County Sheriff Office at 205-236-6600 with information.
Case #: M-079263666 NamUs MP #: 2349


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