97 replies to this topic

[Kelly]

A Project Jason Brief:

In 1995, a group of 7 men rode their bicycles from Utica, New York to Washington, D.C. in order to raise awareness about the plight of missing children and to bring a message of safety to the people they met along the way. They arrived on the steps of the Capitol on May 25th, the first National Missing Children’s Day. Two years later, inspired by that first Ride, a group of 43 riders rode their bicycles 100 miles from Albany to Utica NY with the same message of safety and awareness.

There are three purposes to “The Ride”, which takes place on May 16, 2008:

To honor the memory of all missing children,
To increase public awareness of the plight of all missing and exploited children and the need for child safety education, and
To raise funds to support the missing children poster distribution and mission of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children – New York/Mohawk Valley (NCMEC-NY/Mohawk Valley).

This year marks twelve years for the Ride for Missing Children. The 43 riders have grown to an astonishing 400! The unified team of bicyclists, riding 2 x 2 for 100-miles, is escorted by the New York State Police and local law enforcement of the jurisdictions along the route. The Ride stops at schools along the way for educational Rest Stops, and “Ride-By” other schools throughout the day. At each school visited, riders and volunteers bring the message of child safety and abduction prevention.

The parents of missing Omaha, NE teen Jason Jolkowski, and founders of nonprofit organization Project Jason, Jim and Kelly Jolkowski, will be participants for a 3rd year. Jim will be riding, and Kelly will speak at both the opening and closing ceremonies. The Jolkowskis will be among several family members of missing persons, including Doug and Mary Lyall, parents of missing Suzanne Lyall, and Shirlette Green, mother of missing Ivory Green.

For additional information about the Ride for Missing Children, please see http://www.rideformi....com/index.html

For more information about Project Jason, please visit http://www.projectjason.org/

[Denise]

http://www.usatoday....isonCards_N.htm

Prison playing cards created to bring closure to forgotten cases

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — In the 10 years since Suzanne Lyall disappeared from an upstate New York college campus, her parents have clung to fading hope while trying to rally others who have lost loved ones, even after police have admitted the cases have long since gone cold.

Doug Lyall's latest attempt to learn his daughter's fate and help others locate long missing people and unravel unsolved murders lies in a deck of cards — customized poker cards that are being distributed to inmates in county jails throughout New York.

Each of the 52 cards feature a different case and come with a photo and a short narrative.

"The idea is that if you want to find out about a crime, ask a criminal," said Doug Lyall, a Ballston Spa man who started the Center for HOPE after his 19-year-old daughter disappeared from the University of Albany campus in 1998.

"Inmates like to talk," Lyall said in a telephone interview. "They have different motivations ... They are in a unique position to know, hear and see things that may not reach the eyes and ears of law enforcement."

"When they play cards, they will be looking at pictures of missing people, victims of homicides, and unidentified deceased. We hope to spark a memory or spark some conscience," said Lyall, whose daughter's case is included in the deck.

Rewards of up to $1,000 will be offered for tips that help resolve cold cases. The state Division of Criminal Justice Services is letting the program use its toll-free hot line for inmates who want to provide tips anonymously.

The approach has seen success in a handful of other states where it has been used.

In Florida, where the cards were first introduced in Polk County in 2005, authorities have already solved two cold homicide cases and arrested six fugitives as the result of tips from inmates who used the cards. Florida followed up by distributing 100,000 decks of cards in its state prisons, describing a total of 104 cold cases.

Florida authorities were inspired by the cards created in 2003 by the Pentagon featuring wanted members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle.

According to its website, Effective Playing Cards has produced more than 30 decks of its customized cards for law enforcement officials in Florida and Texas. Similar programs are underway in Indiana and San Diego and are being considered in Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, Washington and South Carolina.

"It's new to us but agencies are always looking for different ways to solves crimes and this sounds like a great idea," said Wendy Balazik, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which has more than 20,000 members in 89 countries.

In New York, the New York State Sheriff's Association is helping distribute more than 7,200 decks of the customized cards to inmates at 57 county jails, said Tom Mitchell, the association's legal counsel. The cards were paid for in part through a $10,000 state grant.

"This may seem whimsical and insignificant," said Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh, whose office has cracked a number of cold cases, including a 22-year-old murder his investigators pieced together in 2005 with the help of DNA evidence. "But one little card, one little piece of information, could help solve any of these cases."

Lyall said it was a difficult process to narrow down the cases to include in the deck. Information came from law enforcement officials around the state, as well as from the network of victims' families the Lyalls have put together over the past decade.

One major criteria, Lyall said, was that the case had gone cold and there had been little or no new recent information in the case.

The Lyalls sought and received permission from the families of the victims to use their pictures and stories on the cards.

"We had a few people who said no, that they didn't want to do it," Lyall said.

Among the oldest cases included in the deck are those of Mary Anne Wesolowski, a 13-year-old Glens Falls girl who disappeared in 1971; the 1977 disappearance of Audrey Neuremberg, who disappeared in Brooklyn when she was 18, and Agnes Shoe, a 37-year-old nun from Scotia who vanished in 1980; and Albert Somma, a 39-year-old Long Island man who was found shot to death in a Northway median in Lake George in 1982.

The freshest case is the April 2007 disappearance of 47-year-old Frank Connell of Rensselaer.

According to the National Crime Information Center, there are 3,600 open missing person cases in New York. New York authorities could not put a number on the total number of unsolved murders but say there are approximately 9,000 cold-case murders in New York City alone since 1985.

Each year in the United States, there are roughly 20,000 unsolved murders, missing persons cases or unidentified bodies found, according to FBI statistics.

After Suzanne's disappearance, Doug and Mary Lyall began helping other families searching for missing loved ones and getting laws passed to better deal with missing-persons cases.

It was through the Lyalls' efforts that Congress added a little-noticed provision in the nationwide "Amber Alert" anti-kidnapping law in 2003. The provision requires local authorities to notify the National Crime Information Center immediately if someone between the ages of 18 and 21 goes missing.

In the Lyalls' case, police did not begin investigating their daughter's disappearance until nearly two days after Suzanne disappeared. Police are investigating the case as a homicide.

Lyall said he hopes to expand the program by producing more cards, issuing cards to inmates at state prisons and developing a television show that would highlight a different missing person each week. If successful, eventually Lyall would like to make the cards available to the general public.

"How can we not do this given that it's been a proven success in other areas, and at such a minimal cost. If we solve only one case, it will be well worth the effort," Lyall said.

[Denise]

http://www.sfgate.co.../MNEF11LKLR.DTL

Cold cases get fresh look on playing cards
Decks distributed to inmates in hopes of yielding new info

William Kates, Associated Press
Sunday, July 13, 2008

In the 10 years since Suzanne Lyall disappeared from an upstate New York college campus, her parents have clung to fading hope while trying to rally others who have lost loved ones, even after police have acknowledged that the cases have long since gone cold.

Doug Lyall's latest attempt to learn his daughter's fate and help others locate long-missing people and unravel unsolved murders lies in a deck of poker cards that are being distributed to inmates in county jails throughout New York.

Each of the 52 cards features a different case and comes with a photo and a short narrative.

"The idea is that if you want to find out about a crime, ask a criminal," said Doug Lyall, who started the Center for Hope after his 19-year-old daughter disappeared from the State University of New York at Albany campus in 1998.

"Inmates like to talk," Lyall said in a telephone interview. "They have different motivations. ... They are in a unique position to know, hear and see things that may not reach the eyes and ears of law enforcement.

"When they play cards, they will be looking at pictures of missing people, victims of homicides, and unidentified deceased. We hope to spark a memory or spark some conscience," said Lyall, whose daughter's profile is included in the deck.

Rewards of up to $1,000 will be offered for tips that help resolve cold cases. The state Division of Criminal Justice Services is letting the program use its toll-free hot line for inmates who want to provide tips anonymously.

The approach has seen success in a handful of other states where it has been used.

In Florida, where the cards were first introduced in Polk County in 2005, authorities have already solved two cold homicide cases and arrested six fugitives as a result of tips from inmates who used the cards. Florida followed up by distributing 100,000 decks of cards in its state prisons, describing a total of 104 cold cases.

Florida authorities were inspired by the cards created in 2003 by the Pentagon, featuring wanted members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle.

According to its Web site, Effective Playing Cards has produced more than 30 decks of its custom cards for law enforcement officials in Florida and Texas. Similar programs are under way in Indiana and San Diego and are being considered in Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, Washington and South Carolina.

"It's new to us, but agencies are always looking for different ways to solve crimes and this sounds like a great idea," said Wendy Balazik, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which has more than 20,000 members in 89 countries.

The New York State Sheriff's Association is helping distribute more than 7,200 decks of the cards to inmates at 57 county jails, said Tom Mitchell, the association's legal counsel. The cards were paid for in part through a $10,000 state grant.

"This may seem whimsical and insignificant," said Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh, whose office has cracked a number of cold cases, including a 22-year-old murder his investigators pieced together in 2005 with the help of DNA evidence. "But one little card, one little piece of information, could help solve any of these cases."

Lyall said it was a difficult process to narrow down the cases to include in the deck. Information came from law enforcement officials around the state, as well as from the network of victims' families that Doug and Mary Lyall have put together over the past decade.

One major criterion, Lyall said, was that the case had gone cold and there had been little or no new recent information.

The Lyalls, who are from Ballston Spa, sought and received permission from the families of the victims to use their pictures and stories on the cards.

Among the oldest cases included in the deck are those of Mary Anne Wesolowski, a 13-year-old Glens Falls girl who disappeared in 1971; the 1977 disappearance of Audrey Neuremberg from Brooklyn when she was 18, and Agnes Shoe, a 37-year-old nun from Scotia who vanished in 1980; and Albert Somma, a 39-year-old Long Island man who was found shot to death in a highway median in Lake George in 1982.

The freshest case is the April 2007 disappearance of 47-year-old Frank Connell, of Rensselaer.

According to the National Crime Information Center, there are 3,600 open missing person cases in New York. New York authorities could not give the total number of unsolved murders but say there have been approximately 9,000 cold-case murders in New York City alone since 1985.

Each year in the United States, there are roughly 20,000 unsolved murders, missing persons cases or unidentified bodies found, according to FBI statistics.

After Suzanne's disappearance, Doug and Mary Lyall began helping families searching for missing loved ones and getting laws passed to better deal with missing-persons cases.

It was through the Lyalls' efforts that Congress added a little-noticed provision in the nationwide Amber Alert anti-kidnapping law in 2003. The provision requires local authorities to notify the National Crime Information Center immediately if someone between the ages of 18 and 21 goes missing.

In the Lyalls' case, police did not begin investigating their daughter's disappearance until nearly two days after Suzanne vanished. It is now considered a homicide.

Lyall said he hopes to expand the program by producing more cards, issuing them to inmates at state prisons and developing a television show that would highlight a missing person each week. If successful, eventually Lyall would like to make the cards available to the public.

"How can we not do this, given that it's been a proven success in other areas, and at such a minimal cost," he said. "If we solve only one case, it will be well worth the effort."

[Denise]

http://www.troyrecor...t_id=7021&rfi=6

Lyall's parents applaud Campus Safety Act

By: Paul Post, Special to The Record
08/16/2008
 
BALLSTON SPA - The parents of long-missing Suzanne Lyall on Friday praised President Bush's signing of a bill named after their daughter that mandates prompter response to college campus crimes.

The Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act mandates colleges and law enforcement agencies develop procedures for investigating violent crimes on campuses.

Suzanne, the daughter of Douglas and Mary Lyall, was a sophomore at the state University at Albany when she went missing on March 2, 1998. She hasn't been heard from since.

"It means that families won't have to go through what we went through," Mary Lyall said of the bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Hudson. "We waited for three days before the campus did anything about her disappearance. It requires campus police to have some kind of plan in place to find missing people and to help victims of violent crime."

The legislation is patterned after a 1999 state Campus Safety Bill.

"Kirsten Gillibrand was the driving force behind it," Lyall said. "We discussed it with her office about a year ago, and she's been working on it ever since. She really took the ball and ran with it."

Gillibrand said the bill is intended to minimize confusion and delays during the initial investigation of a violent felony.
Skidmore College safety official Larry Britt said the school already has missing person protocols and procedures in place and that city police are notified within two hours if a subject isn't located.

Last April, the Lyalls were disappointed by President Bush's refusal to sign legislation to make April 6, Suzanne's birthday, a national Missing Persons Day, which has already been established in New York. The measure passed the House and Senate, but the president said the date conflicted with another crime victims' observance.

On Tuesday, the Lyalls will be featured on a CNN newscast about their missing persons playing card program. The segment is tentatively scheduled to appear between 7 and 8 .m.

Playing cards depicting missing persons and violent crime victims have been distributed to county jails throughout New York, where they're given to inmates with hopes that they might identify someone.

It's one of many projects the Lyalls are involved with in their ongoing plight to learn about their daughter's disappearance and help families in similar situations.

"Every time we do something her name gets back out in the news," Lyall said. "That's important because people have a tendency to forget and get on with their lives."

At the state level, the couple has been trying to get legislation passed that would create assault and abduction-free school zones. The intent, from grade schools to colleges, would be to impose tougher penalties for crimes committed in school settings.

The bill has passed the state Senate, but not the Assembly. A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, could not immediately be reached for comment.

For information on missing persons programs see the Web site: www.hope4missing.org.

[Kelly]

http://www.cnn.com/2...ases/index.html

Cards could help uncover cold case clues

8/20/08

From Kelli Arena and Kevin Bohn
CNN
   
TROY, New York (CNN) -- While inmates in jails across New York pass the time by playing card games -- poker, gin rummy and solitaire -- they may also be helping crack cold cases.

The idea is simple: Each of the 52 playing cards contains information about a murder, a missing person or another unsolved crime.

Inmates know information law enforcement agents don't, and as corrections officers can attest, inmates love to talk as long as it's not about their own crimes.

The program was started by Doug and Mary Lyall whose daughter Suzanne went missing 10 years ago after she got off a bus at the State University of New York-Albany.

The Lyalls heard about a similar initiative in Florida where the cards, sent to state prisons and some county jails, resulted in eight arrests and one conviction.

Florida officials say they are close to releasing a third edition deck of cards.

Using money donated to their foundation, the Center for Hope, the Lyalls sent 7,200 decks of cards to New York's local jails.

"It just started to snowball and we got momentum, and it took a lot of hard work, lot of phone calls, lot of foot work, but it's been worth it so far because we got it off the ground," Doug Lyall recalled.

While at times painful, the Lyalls know the work is important. They are convinced some of the cases will be solved.

"The strength I find is the fact this is a missing part of my life, and I need to find my daughter, and this is our job now. If you have no other job for the rest of your life your job is to find that child that is missing," Mary Lyall said.

Most of the cases featured on the New York cards deal with missing persons, but some show unsolved murders, some dating back to the 1980s.

Inmates can provide information by calling a hotline. They're not required to provide their names.

Cindy Bloch, case manager at New York's Criminal Justice Services, said she's encouraged by the response.

"Prior to the playing card program being implemented, we had virtually no calls coming from correctional facilities," she said. "We now have 40-50 calls per month coming in."

Sheriff Jack Mahar, who runs the county jail in Rensselaer County, New York, said he replaced all the playing cards in the jail with the cold case cards.

"The people that are here live out on the streets, they grew up out on the streets, they know what's going on," Mahar said.

"Sooner or later, someone will hear, someone talks, it always happens whether it's two days from now or five years from now."

Even inmates think the cards are a good idea.  Watch how inmates have reacted to the cards »

"Murder's a big issue and kidnapping, you know, even though we're on this side of the fence, most of us don't like those things," said Patrick Devival, a prisoner in the Rensselaer County Jail.

Several inmates said the cards were disturbing to look at, especially when they were just trying to pass the time playing a game. But those CNN spoke to in the county jail all said they looked at them closely.

The Lyalls hope to get the cards in every state correctional facility as well as distribute a second deck with different cases. Right now, though, the county jails are a good start.

"We have a very high turnover which is very good cause we keep on getting different people in here all the time, that would give some fresh ideas, fresh information," Mahar explained.

"We haven't had anything to date but we have our fingers crossed everyday."

[Jenn]

A new Project Jason printable poster for Suzanne:

http://www.projectja...uzanneLyall.pdf

[Lori Davis]

http://capitalnews9....ed/Default.aspx
Lyalls react to Walsh case being resolved
Sunday, December 21, 2008 
12/17/2008 11:26 PM
By: Ken Jubie

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. -- Since his son disappeared outside a Florida mall and was later found dead in a canal, John Walsh has been tormented by one emotionally charged question.

"For 27 years, we've been asking, Who could take a six-year-old boy and murder him and decapitate him? Who?" said Walsh.

On Tuesday, police confirmed what Walsh and his wife suspected for years -- their son Adam was murdered by serial killer Ottis Toole, who died in prison in 1996 while serving five life sentences for other murders.

"The not knowing has been a torture. But that journey's over," Walsh said.

Lyalls react to Walsh case being resolved
For families of missing persons, life without answers can haunt them for years. Ken Jubie tells us how a murder case solved hundreds of miles from the Capital Region is affecting a family dealing with a cold case of their own.
 
Mary and Doug Lyall are still amidst their journey for answers to what happened to their daughter Suzanne more than 10 years ago.

The then 19-year-old UAlbany student was last seen boarding a CDTA bus from Crossgates Mall on her way back to campus.

"We hope that Suzanne walks in the door tomorrow. I mean, that's our hope. We don't know that that will ever happen," said Mary Lyall.

But she said, seeing the Walsh case solved after all these years keeps alive the belief that someday, someone will come forward with information about her daughter.

The Lyalls are also happy for Walsh, a man they call a hero for his work on behalf of the missing. Now they hope his family can begin to move on.

"One chapter of a number of things that maybe have to fall into place before you can, before any family can approach closure," said Doug Lyall.

Like Walsh, who hosts America's Most Wanted and champions other causes to protect children and find missing persons, the Lyalls have dedicated themselves to helping people cope with the disappearance of a loved one.

They run the Center for Hope which provides support, but they're also taking proactive steps to prevent abductions, including making decks of cards with missing people on them and lobbying for a DNA matching system.

But one of their latest projects is to bring a program already used in 40 other states here to New York.

It's called RAD Kids.

"Resist Aggression Defensively. It teaches children from the preschool to the age of 12 how to protect themselves against a predator," Mary Lyall said.

They've already spoken to leaders in Saratoga Springs about starting the program there.

The Lyalls said there are close to 4,000 missing persons cases in New York State alone, and anything they can do to keep that number from rising is worth a shot.

[Kelly]

AAN Annual Poster Notify Sent to AAN Subscribers  Code 51

Help us find the missing: Become an AAN Member
http://www.projectja.../awareness.html

[Kelly]

Suzanne has been placed on Project Jason's 18 Wheel Angels campaign. A special poster has been made for her and can be downloaded and printed for placement. More information about the program, and the link for the poster can be found here:

http://projectjason.org/18wheel.shtml

In addition to the campaign, Suzanne was also featured in a national trucking publications, either Independent Contractor or TruckJobSeekers. These free magazines are distributed in truck stops nationwide and have a circulation of about 150,000.

Independent Contractor and TruckJobSeekers are two of Target Media Partner's many publications. In partnership with Project Jason, they each feature two missing persons each per month. You can pick up your free copies at a local truck stop, but if it's far from you, you may want to call and ask if they carry that magazine. These are NOT with the regular for purchase magazines.

We hope this helps in the search for Suzanne. Please consider printing and placing a poster in businesses in your community.



Thank you.

Kelly, Project Jason

[Kelly]

http://www.northcoun...04/02/dna_bank/

Relatives of Missing Persons Can Bank Their DNA
Posted on Thursday, 2 of April , 2009 at 10:34 am

Relatives of missing persons will have an opportunity to “bank” their DNA, in hopes that genetic fingerprinting will provide clues in missing person and unidentified remains cases, under a new initiative sponsored by the Center for Hope and the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).

Doug and Mary Lyall, founders of the Center for Hope, (parents of missing Suzanne) announced Thursday that DCJS’ Office of Forensic Services has agreed to collect DNA from interested relatives during the 8th Annual Missing Persons Day, which will occur from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 5 at the New York State Cultural Education Center on Madison Avenue in Albany. Parents, children, siblings and other relatives will have an opportunity to submit a DNA sample, which will searched against a national database of unknown human remains and stored for future comparison as well.

“Several states are already submitting DNA from the relatives of missing persons to a national database, and their efforts have paid off as previously unidentified skeletal or biological remains have been identified,” Doug Lyall said. “I am very appreciative of DCJS, its Missing and Exploited Children Clearinghouse, its Office of Forensic Services and Commissioner Denise O’Donnell for agreeing to partner with us on this project.”

Mary Lyall said the opportunity to identify remains is crucial for law enforcement and families of missing individuals.

“If authorities know the identity of a deceased individual they have a much better chance of putting together pieces of the puzzle and solving a missing person case,” Mrs. Lyall said. “Equally important, the link brings a measure of closure to families who do not know if their one loved is living or deceased.”

Under the initiative, interested relatives who attend the Missing Persons Day ceremony will have the opportunity to submit a DNA sample through a quick and painless cheek swab. A private room will be available for sample collection and completion of necessary paperwork.

Both nuclear DNA – which comes from the cell nucleus and is inherited from both parents – and mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from the mother, will be analyzed. Mitochondrial DNA is not as powerful of an identification tool as nuclear DNA, but it is more durable and can often be detected in very small or damaged samples. The most useful family reference DNA samples are from close relatives, such as the mother, father, children and siblings. However, the DNA of other blood relatives, such as aunts and uncles, could also prove valuable.

The DNA sample will be submitted to a federal databank and used solely for investigative purposes related to a missing or unidentified person case. DCJS will make arrangements statewide to collect DNA from family members who are unable to attend the event on Sunday.

“Missing Persons Day” will provide an opportunity for families and friends to, remember and honor the nearly 3,500 missing persons in New York State and the over 100,000 missing throughout the country. Families, friends and missing person organizations from New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maryland, as well as political leaders, teachers, neighbors, police officers, and others affected by an unexplained disappearance of a loved one will be in attendance.

Among those expected to participate in the ceremony are Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco and the Lyalls, whose daughter has been missing since 1998. Todd Matthews of the Doe Network, a national organization that seeks to put names on the Jane and John Does who remain unidentified, will deliver the keynote address at approximately 2:15 p.m. U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will receive the annual HOPE (Healing Our Painful Emotions) Award, but is not able to attend.

For more information about the Center for Hope, visit its website at: www.hope4themissing.org.

DCJS is a multi-function criminal justice support agency with a variety of responsibilities, including collection and analysis of statewide crime data; operation of the DNA databank and criminal fingerprint files; administration of federal and state criminal justice funds; and support of criminal justice-related agencies across the state.  4-2-09

[Kelly]

Suzanne Lyall is the current featured person in The Garden for the Missing/Project Jason advertising program within Second Life. The posters are showcased at one of the highest traffic areas in the 3D virtual world, with 45,000 daily visitors from the U.S. and abroad.

The posters are funded by The Garden for the Missing. More information about our efforts in Second Life is available at http://www.projectja...SecondLife.html

Each person’s information is displayed for two weeks, then another person’s poster appears. The posters are provided by Project Jason’s Awareness Angels Network -- http://www.projectja.../awareness.html

[Kelly]

The human remains found as noted in the above story were not that of Suzanne, but were identified as Ernest P. Michalik.

[Kelly]

http://www.recordonl.../NEWS/902010319

Unlike Laura Garza, many missing-person cases in New York never make headlines


February 01, 2009
Oliver Mackson
Times Herald-Record

NEWBURGH — For every Laura Garza, there's at least one Laura Smith Williams among the 3,779 people officially listed as missing in New York.

For nearly two months, the disappearance of the 25-year-old Garza has sent state police searching ponds in frigid weather. Her brothers have joined volunteer firefighters to comb the woods around Bloomingburg. She's been front-page news in New York City and the topic of conversation on CNN.

Laura Smith Williams disappeared from her home in the Connelly Trailer Park in the Ulster County Town of Esopus nearly 15 years ago. She was 22. She left behind three small children.

Sheriff's deputies pursued upward of 100 leads. It took 10 years before someone came forward with a description of the two men Williams was last seen with; the three of them were spotted getting into a car near her home.

Her picture and information about the case are readily available on the Internet. Her profile is entered in state and national computer databases.

But without anyone outside law enforcement speaking forcefully on her behalf, without a compelling "hook" from which the media can hang a story, her disappearance is unlikely to generate the kind of widespread outrage, concern and sympathy that's been raised by Garza's disappearance on Dec. 3

Race, class fuel disparities

The disparity in the attention missing-person cases receive is one of the things that prompted Doug and Susan Lyall to found The Center for Hope in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County. Their daughter, Suzanne, disappeared in 1998. Suzanne Lyall was in college. She was last seen at an Albany-area mall.

Back then, the last thing that the Lyalls wanted to do was talk with reporters. They'd never organized a support vigil or lobbied Albany to change the way missing-person cases are handled. But they do all those things now. Most important, they help the families of the missing help themselves.

Most recently, their nonprofit organization provided decks of playing cards for jail inmates. The cards contain information about missing people and unsolved crimes. They've been distributed in jails across the state — including the Orange County Jail, which currently houses Michael Mele, the sex offender who was last seen with Laura Garza.

The Lyalls see the disparity in missing-person cases as a function of everything from location to race and class. Natalee Holloway, the prom queen from Alabama who disappeared in Aruba, was a prime example.

"Of course, it's big news because she's out of the country. Her mother and father have the means to maintain private investigators. You're not going to see that with a poor family that doesn't have the means to do that," Douglas Lyall observes.

Society's expectations

Shannon Wong, who directs gender-equity programs at YWCA Orange County, makes a similar observation.

"I think there are some elements of race and class, things like that. The upper-middle-class white woman seems to get more attention when violence happens in those communities than, certainly, women of color. Maybe it's because we expect it from those communities, which is a misconception," Wong says.

But she also observes that the involvement of Michael Mele, besides giving police a tangible "person of interest" and evidence trail to follow, gives the media a perfect bogeyman: a seemingly normal, squared-away suburbanite who turns out to have a dark side.

"It breaks society's expectations of what's happening in the suburbs," Wong says.

Michael Mazzariello, a former Brooklyn prosecutor who lives in the Town of Newburgh, has hosted true-crime shows on local radio and has his own syndicated TV show debuting this fall, points to parts of Laura Garza's narrative that transcend race and class.

There's the image of the small-town girl who leaves her home in McAllen, Texas, captivated by New York's size and glamor. On the day she was last seen with Mele, she was planning to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for the first time.

"It's the passions, the horrific act of what happened to a beautiful young lady like Laura Garza," Mazzariello says. "It's the emotions in the high-impact, gut-wrenching cases like that."

Urgency behind Garza case

The missing woman with the traffic-stopping eyes and the compelling story is one thing. The ominous fact that a sex offender was the last person known to be with her made it almost inevitable that the urgency of the police search would be accompanied by cameras, reporters and thousands of onlookers following each development or nondevelopment on the Internet.

No one actually knows what happened to Garza, but the same facts that cause her disappearance to resonate with so many people are the ones that have given the case so much urgency for law enforcement.

State police Capt. Wayne Olson, who supervises the investigators involved in the Garza search, recalls a case 15 years ago when he was an investigator assigned to the Kingston barracks. It's still open — the disappearance of a woman named Deborah Overbaugh. She'd had problems, some of them violent, with her family, and she had a stepson who had, as Olson puts it, a "checkered past."

"That was dealt with, right upfront, as a homicide," Olson recalls.

Fifteen years later, in talking about the disappearance of Laura Garza and the urgency and visibility of the search for her, Olson says, "We knew right upfront that this had all the potential to be a homicide."

[Kelly]

http://www.troyrecor...ce268281929.txt

Ed Smart speaks in Albany for Missing Persons Day

Published: Monday, April 12, 2010 By Dave Canfield The Record

ALBANY — Ed Smart can vividly remember the day in 2003 when he was reunited with his daughter Elizabeth, who had been kidnapped from their Salt Lake City home nine months prior.

“I said, ‘Elizabeth, is it really you?’” a teary-eyed Smart recalled of the reunion at a Utah police station. “And she said, ‘Yes, Dad.’ It was an unbelievable moment.”

The nine months she was unaccounted for had been full of fear and uncertainty for not just Ed Smart — who faced accusations of being the perpetrator in his daughter’s disappearance — but for the entire Smart family, which has five other children.

Much of the crowd Smart spoke to Sunday as the keynote speaker at the state’s ninth-annual Missing Persons Day knows that feeling well. Some wore shirts and hung posters featuring pictures of their missing loved ones, and their eyes also filled with tears as Smart described the moment they themselves await.

Doug Lyall, whose daughter Suzanne went missing from the University at Albany in 1998, said family members are left to find “a new normal” in daily life without their loved ones. Even news of a death can’t end the uncertainty, he said.

“Learning that our loved ones are not coming home answers one question, but it opens to door to several more questions,” he said. “Closure cannot be achieved.”

“No matter what the outcome, one thing is certain: our lives will never be the same,” Mary Lyall added.

The Ballston Spa couple operates the Center for Hope, which has hosted the annual event to draw attention to the missing and efforts to locate them. While Doug Lyall said there’s still much work to do, like establishing a national Missing Persons Day, he said internet technology is helping to spread photographs, videos and information about the missing.

A slideshow of the missing Sunday bore many faces familiar to those in the Capital Region, like Jaliek Rainwalker and Joshua Szostak. Rainwalker’s whereabouts remain unknown; Szostak was found dead in the Hudson River with few answers determined.

While Elizabeth Smart was from Utah, her case captured the national spotlight during the search for the girl, who was 14 at the time she was kidnapped. She was recovered at the home of Brian David Mitchell, who was initially found incompetent to stand trial. That decision was later reversed, and Mitchell’s case will be heard by a federal jury in the future.

Now 22, Elizabeth Smart is currently in France as a missionary with the Church of Latter Day Saints. She has traveled to Washington in support of legislation to bolster efforts to find missing children and keep dangerous offenders away from potential victims.

For all she’s been through — it is alleged Mitchell tied her up and raped her daily — she focuses on the positives, her father said.

“She has been able to move forward with her life and not let this one incident define who Elizabeth Smart is,” he said, “while most people define Elizabeth Smart by this one incident.”

Her story has a happy ending. But as Sunday’s missing posters and t-shirts and photograph slideshow indicate, there are many grieving families that await the day when they receive answers about where their loved ones are.

Ed Smart, who has become an advocate for missing children since his family’s ordeal, offered words of support to those individuals.

“You just never know when the next child is going to come home,” he said. “I felt so blessed to have that incredible moment happen. Miracles do happen.”

[Kelly]

http://www.saratogia...84060702516.txt


Parents of missing Saratoga County woman Suzanne Lyall to seek answers among Rush fans tonight at SPAC

Published: Friday, July 23, 2010

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Doug and Mary Lyall, whose daughter Suzanne disappeared from the University at Albany campus in 1998, will be at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center tonight during the Rush concert to hand out posters, talk with fans and search for possible answers to the disappearance.

On March 8, 1998, Suzanne Lyall went missing during her sophomore year at the university. The case remains unsolved.

Suzanne was a big fan of Rush, and Doug and Mary Lyall hope that someone within the fan community will have information.

In August 2008,  The Suzanne Lyall Campus Safety Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush. It mandates colleges and law enforcement agencies develop procedures for investigating violent crimes on campuses.

[Kelly]

http://www.thedailym...db934778490.txt


Kids turn out to support missing kids
Ride for Missing Children raises funds, awareness

By Hilary Hawke
Published: Thursday, September 30, 2010 2:23 AM EDT

SELKIRK — By the whooping of the hundreds of A.W. Becker kids lined up outside the school’s entrance Friday you would have thought Miley Cyrus was on the way.

But what had the kids cheering was the third annual Greater Capital District Ride for Missing Children bike caravan snaking southward down Rte. 9W and onto the school grounds.

Preceded by state troopers on motorcycles, police vehicles with sirens blaring and music pumping from the sound system operated by AWB teacher Benjamin Rau, the kids could barely contain themselves.

Many waved handmade signs welcoming the bikers. Rau had them stand up and perform the dance steps to the all-time elementary school favorite, “Cotton-Eyed Joe”.

But the kids were also, in their own way, honoring the children and people who have disappeared over the years.

The ride’s mission is to “raise public awareness of the plight of all missing and exploited children.”

It also provides child safety education and raises funds for the missing children poster distribution program.

The ride is associated with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC/NY) whose slogan is “Make our children safer … One child at a time.”

Since its beginning in 1995, NCMEC has distributed more than 6.6 million posters of 5,958 missing children. More than 4,000 are listed as “successfully recovered”.

AWB students attended a presentation on September 16 to learn about the purpose of the ride, safety rules for the Internet and bike riding, and how to donate to the "Pennies for Posters" fund.

Roughly 65 riders signed on for the 100-mile trek around the Capital District, starting at the University of Albany and stopping at schools in Bethlehem, Selkirk, Ravena, West Coxsackie, west to Greenville and then north to Albany, ending at the New York State Museum.

Several family members of missing persons from the area also joined the ride, accompanying the cyclists in a limousine.

Mary Lyall, mother of Suzanne Lyall, wore a badge with a picture of her missing daughter on her shirt.

“Suzanne was a 19-year-old SUNY Albany student when she went missing in 1998,”

she said.

She and her husband, Doug, founded the Center for Hope in Suzanne’s memory.

Located in Ballston Spa, the organization has been instrumental in advocating for missing persons including building the “NYS Missing Persons Remembrance”, which stands in Albany’s Empire State Plaza.

The monument features an eternal flame with the words, "As a symbol of our eternal hope may this flame light their way home” engraved on the granite base.

Shirley Olmsted, mother of Audrey May Herron, a Greene County nurse who has been missing since August 29, 2002, said events like the Ride for Missing Children are indescribable. “They provide so much hope for the families,” she said.

Herron’s oldest daughter, Sonsia Court, graduated from RCS High School in June, 2010.

Ironically, Sonsia is now studying nursing at Columbia-Greene Community College and working in the same place, the Greene County Long-Term Health Care Center in Jefferson Heights, where her mother was employed and where she was last seen.

Olmsted said she wanted to thank the riders for their continued support.

Kyle Simpson, a rider from Utica, wore a badge with a photo of Ivory Greene, a young girl who went missing roughly ten years ago.

“I didn’t know her personally but I just wanted to get involved,” Simpson said. Gesturing to the throngs of AWB kids and bikers who were boogying down to the Michael Jackson classic “Beat It”, he said, “This is what it’s all about. We want to deliver the message of safety, caution and remembrance in a fun way.”

And everyone was having a blast. Kids, riders, teachers, adults and even police officers got into the spirit, dancing and performing the movements to “YMCA”.

Frank Williams, who started the Utica Ride for Missing Kids in 1994 in response to Sara Anne Wood, who went missing on August 18, 1993, said he has seen the group expand to Rochester, Auburn, Buffalo and then to Albany.

Another rider sported a badge with the picture of Patrick Alford, a seven-year-old Brooklyn boy who went missing in January 2010.

AWB Principal Claudia Verga announced that students had raise $203.77 in contributions for the Pennies for Posters program, enough to distribute 815 posters with the names, pictures and information of missing children.

The bikers refreshed, fueling up with trail mix, gatorade, muffins, cookies, bananas, sandwiches and candy.

As they checked their bikes and got ready for the ride’s next leg, Rau encouraged students to show their appreciation.

The kids readily complied, yelling a rock-star level farewell to the departing caravan.