136 replies to this topic

[Denise]

WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY :: 'Squeaky Wheel' Concert Held In Madison For Missing Woman

'Squeaky Wheel' Concert Held In Madison For Missing Woman

Oct 19, 2006 11:35 AM CDT

By Jeff Tang

(MADISON, Ind.) -- Each year the FBI receives more than 100,000 missing persons reports. Most of them go largely unnoticed. But that hasn't been the case with Molly Dattilo, the 23-year- old Indiana woman who disappeared in 2004. Molly's family has done everything to keep her story in the news, and now they've joined forces with a nationwide effort to bring awareness to missing persons.

So when Molly's loved ones found out about the "Squeaky Wheel" tour -- a series of concerts created to draw attention to missing persons -- it made sense for the family that never stayed quiet to have a concert for Molly.

The Marion County Sheriff's Department is now confirming that Molly tried to make a phone call to a friend from a pay phone later that evening, but that call was disconnected before Molly was able to say anything, leaving her family to believe she may have been in danger.

[Denise]

News from the family:

"I want to let you know that on Sat. July 2, at 4:35 ET/ 3:35 CT, The Fox News Channel (not the local Fox network, but the cable station) has offered to do an interview with Kendra for Molly's year anniversary. Det. Kathryn Bryon, from the Marion County Sheriff's Dept., will also be interviewed.

We are very grateful for The Fox News Channel, because they extended the interview to us. Also, Marion County is finally going to be involved in this one. Hopefully, you will have a moment to watch. The interview will probably be pretty quick, so it won't take too much time out of the holiday weekend."

[Denise]

One year later, search for EKU student continues

FEW LEADS EMERGE AFTER 23-YEAR-OLD DISAPPEARED IN INDIANAPOLIS

By Cassondra Kirby And Peter Mathews
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITERS
Posted on Wed, Jul. 06, 2005

Kendra Skidmore remembers the last time she saw her baby sister.

Skidmore was leaving for the airport after a short visit with her family in Indiana.

"I said 'I love you, Molly' and she flashed me this big smile," she said. "I'll never forget that."

But no one has seen or heard from Molly Dattilo since she disappeared a year ago today. Skidmore said she doesn't think she'll ever see her sister's heart-warming smile.

"It's hard to have hope after this amount of time," Skidmore said. "I miss not knowing she's doing OK and things are fine. I wish I could turn back the time, but I just can't."

Dattilo, a Madison, Ind. native was scheduled to graduate last fall from Eastern Kentucky University, where she was a standout track athlete. The 23-year-old disappeared last July while attending summer classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She was reportedly last seen walking to apply for a job at a Wendy's in the city, about a quarter of a mile from her brother's apartment, where she was staying.

Detective Catherine Byron, with the Marion County Sheriff's Department in Indiana, said police are actively investigating Dattilo's disappearance as a missing person's case. But investigators don't seem to be any closer to finding Dattilo, baffling her family.

An anonymous donor has put up a $100,000 reward through March 31, 2006 for her discovery and the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

An earlier reward of $10,000 offered by Dattilo's parents, Fred and Cherie of Madison, Ind., in cooperation with the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons of Wilmington, N.C., expired last March.

Byron said the department will continue to work on the case as long as there are leads. Police receive tips regularly but none have led to a break in the case.

A sweet-spirited girl

Dattilo's teammates have described her as friendly and trusting, particularly toward strangers.

While Indiana police have spent their time poring over evidence and chasing leads, EKU students have held a walk-athon, offered prayers and kept her story alive through the university's student newspaper, The Eastern Progress. In Indiana, a 24-hour community prayer vigil is planned today at the Christ Episcopal Church in Madison.

Although more than a year has passed since members of the EKU community have seen Dattilo running around the school's track or studying in the locker room as she often did before track meets or practice, she is not forgotten, head coach Rick Erdmann said.

"It's always there," he said. "It's something that doesn't leave."

Teammate Angie Lee sent a letter to Dattilo's family, speaking of the memories of Dattilo she said she will carry with her throughout life.

Dattilo, who had plans of auditioning for American Idol, had a "beautiful singing voice," Lee wrote.

"We'd often hear that as we ran. She was likely to break out in song and dance on the track or at a meet."

Lee wrote about Dattilo's "compassionate heart" and how the team could always count on her for a laugh when they were down.

"Everyone knew her bright smile and outgoing spirit," she wrote. "She never seemed to meet a stranger and anyone who's ever met her will not easily forget it."

Still searching

Officials from the Marion County Sheriff's Department in Indiana said they have no evidence of foul play and that they haven't found any credible leads to her whereabouts.

But Dattilo's family said she wouldn't have just left without her car, cell phone, contact-lens solution and driver's license. And there hasn't been any activity on her bank account since she disappeared.

"Nothing else makes sense, she was either taken against her will or foul play was involved," Skidmore said.

Dattilo, the youngest of nine children, also attended classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis the day she disappeared, dropping one class on that day.

Byron said she believes there is "someone out there that has information about Molly's whereabouts."

"I hope that person or persons come forward," she said.

But without evidence that a crime has occurred and the mounting number of caseloads -- 3,500 people were reported missing last year in Marion County alone -- manpower devoted to Dattilo's case has been limited.

"I feel that we may not be any closer to location than when we started the search," said Celestra Hoffman, an older sister.

To aid the search, the Dattilo family has hired private investigators, placed flyers from Indianapolis to the West Coast, offered cash rewards for information leading to her whereabouts, canvassed truck stops and conducted searches at the Westside apartment complex in Indiana and two nearby ponds.

They also placed a story of her disappearance on the America's Most Wanted Web site and on Fox News.

But Dattilo's family wonders why Molly's disappearance hasn't attracted national media attention.

"It's not like the Aruba case," said Skidmore, referring to the recent disappearance in Aruba of Natalee Holloway, 18, an Alabama college student. "Sometimes we have to create that attention."

Hoping for the best

The family remains hopeful.

"Mom has a lot of faith, she has a lot of hope that something will come about," Skidmore said. "My dad is probably a little more sad. Obviously, after all of this time, you have to face the possibility that she's no longer alive."

Statistically, the chances of finding Dattilo alive are grim, said Kym Pasqualini, chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing Adults. But the family should maintain hope, she said.

"Once a person is missing for that period of time ... safety becomes more of a concern," said Pasqualini, who has been in the business for 11 years.

She said Dattilo is one of 47,000 missing people listed on the Arizona-based organization's Web site.

But no matter what the chances, Erdmann said the EKU community looks toward the day when the "high-spirited young lady" comes home.

He said professors and other EKU officials ask him regularly for updates on Dattilo, an honor student.

"I think in all of our minds we just sort of hope she's out West somewhere," he said. "We just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best."

http://www.kentucky.com/

[Denise]

http://www.madisoncourier.com

Family, friends cling to hope that Molly Dattilo will be found alive

Peggy Vlerebome
Courier Staff Writer

“We seek answers that someone has.”  The hope is that “hearts will be moved and the answers will be found.”  The Rev. Rick Draper

This evening marks one year since Molly Dattilo was last seen, a year of agony for her family and friends, a year of outpouring of care and support from strangers, a year of getting tips and following leads for the sheriff’s deputies assigned to the case just outside Indianapolis.

After a year of searching, distributing posters, posting billboards, holding vigils, gathering rallies, sponsoring run-walk events, getting the word out in newspaper and television stories, and handing out fliers, including nearly 1,000 distributed to residents at Westlake Apartments where Molly Dattilo lived with her brother Nicholas, the message is still this: Somebody knows what happened to Molly Dattilo.

“People that have information have a responsibility” to come forward for “closure and peace and also to protect others from being taken,” Kendra Skidmore, Dattilo’s sister, said Saturday on a Fox News Network program.

The Rev. Rick Draper of Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Madison voiced a similar thought during the opening of a 24-hour vigil last night at Christ Episcopal, 506 Mulberry St.

“We seek answers that someone has,” he said. The hope, he said, is that “hearts will be moved and the answers will be found.”

A year of seeking but not finding answers has been discouraging, with the public’s support a source of comfort, said Skidmore, who lives in Utah and was unable to come to Madison for the vigil.

“At first you have pain and agony to deal with all the time,” Skidmore said. Not seeing results from an effort would bring “discouragement and then despair right on top of it.”

Their spirits have been lifted “when the community has done something or we get a lot of support,” she said. “That really does help. People don’t realize it. Thank you.

“I know we wouldn’t have gotten this far without the support from family, friends, the community, CUE Center.” The CUE Center, based in North Carolina, went to Indianapolis in early June and conducted a professional search that included rounding up search dogs from the area and plotting the search area using global positioning satellite.

“It means a tremendous amount,” she said. “It really has helped.”

Skidmore said she is always looking for a new angle to pursue, because she cannot do otherwise.

I called Mom and I said, “How can I give up on somebody I love? .... What next? What do I do next?”

Even though the many ways of putting attention on the search for Molly Dattilo haven’t brought her home, “It’s all worth it,” Skidmore said.

The Marion County sheriff’s detective assigned to the Dattilo case said on the Fox program that Molly Dattilo’s disappearance is still considered a missing-persons case but that she has “not ruled out foul play.”

The detective, Catherine Byron, however, wouldn’t say whether she has any suspects. The family had been told there was a “person of interest,” but she didn’t refer to that.

The first two times the host of the Fox News program asked if there was a suspect, Byron said, “I have talked to a number of people in this case and I continue to talk to anyone with information.”

The third time the host asked, she said, “I can’t answer that question right now.”

Byron said she gets “daily tips and leads” that she follows.

Relatives and friends still express hope that Dattilo will be found alive.

“I have hope that we eventually will have answers in Molly’s case,” Skidmore told the Fox News host. “We’re still hanging on, still looking. It gets pretty discouraging at times.”

Mayor Al Huntington, who spoke at the first segment of the 24-hour vigil, said he has hope.

“When somebody is missing, it’s like we’re not whole,” Huntington said. “We have one piece missing. We have one piece missing that we want to find for the peace of the Dattilo family. I haven’t given up hope that we are going to find Molly and find her alive, and come back to her community and her family. ... We need to be praying every day for Molly and remember her family in our prayers.”

About a dozen people attended the first segment of the vigil, including Fred and Cherie Dattilo, Molly Dattilo’s parents. She is the youngest of their nine children.

A recording of “Inscription of Hope” based on words Jews wrote on a wall in Germany - was played at the vigil because it was one of Molly Dattilo’s favorite songs, said family friend Karen Modisett. The song is about having hope and includes the lyrics:

“May there someday be sunshine. May there someday be happiness. May there someday be love. May there someday be peace.”

Tonight at the 7 p.m. vigil, two more of her favorite songs also will be played, “One Moment in Time” and “I Believe I Can Fly,” Modisett said.

Publicity about Dattilo’s disappearance has been a large component of the effort to find her, and news that a 24-hour vigil had been scheduled spurred publicity. WISH-TV in Indianapolis broadcast live from Westlake Apartments from 5 to 8 a.m. today, featuring Modisett, Katianne Goins, Kathy Goins and Amy Dattilo, a cousin of Molly Dattilo. This morning, Dan Dattilo and Kathy Goins drove to Louisville to be on a 6 a.m. news show.“She doesn’t have a voice right now, so that’s why we’re here,” Amy Dattilo said in Indianapolis.

At the opening segment of the vigil, family friend Kathy Goins read an e-mail from Erin Elizabeth Blasdel, whom she said was Molly Dattilo’s best friend in high school. After writing about her shock upon learning that Dattilo was missing, Blasdel wrote late last month, “Now I want to share some of my thoughts about Molly. She taught me a lot about one of the most important elements to this pilgrimage of life and that being the importance of placing value on relationships. Molly loved all people. She reached out to them in the way I imagine Christ reaching out to all of his children. Sometimes, in my personal journey, I have gotten caught up in my studies or have allowed the most insignificant things to consume my mind and time. I admit that I often fall short of making time for the people that I love or for the person down the street without a shirt on his back or a place to call home. Real tragedy is happening abroad and on our terrain. Lives are suddenly lost, go into whirlwinds of confusion and despair, or go missing without a trace. After the news of Molly’s disappearance, I remember falling into indifference that evening when it came to the latest drink offered at Starbucks or how I was going to allocate time for this fatigued body to sleep. My attention turned to the importance of relationships.”

Blasdel, who is in graduate school in Virginia, wrote that she called her family to tell them she loved them

“I realized that evening that tomorrow will worry about itself as is stated in Matthew 6:34 and that while I do have responsibilities that come with today, I can never forget that the most important responsibility is to love God and to love my neighbors. How I spend my time and what consumes my mind is evidence as to whether I’m successfully carrying out these greatest and most precious responsibilities. This is all to say that the memories I have of Molly remind me that I must make time for people and to show them that they are lovable because they are children of the King. I believe that Molly was an epitome of how to be an instrument of God’s beautiful love.”

Churches, religion-based groups and individuals signed up for all but two of the 24 hours to have even just one person or a group at Christ Episcopal Church through midnight tonight. Some, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church the Dattilos go to, signed up for more than one time slot. Christ Episcopal opened the vigil and will close it, and in-between will have evensong at 6 p.m. and a service similar to the opening segment at 7 p.m.

Rev. Draper patterned the first hour of the vigil after “the monastic hours” in which prayers filled the days of those in a monastery. In addition to the prayers he led, there was a prayer in the program for the vigil: “Pray for Molly in all circumstances, pray for her parents, siblings, extended family and friends, pray for anyone involved in her disappearance, pray for law officials who are helping, and maybe not helping as much as we would like, in pursuit to find her. Pray for others who are missing. Pray for the volunteers who keep Molly’s absence in people’s hearts and minds, pray for the Madison community, pray for the Indianapolis community, pray for all young people of all ages: safety from those who would harm them. Pray for the conscience of our nation, pray for the value of lives, pray for peace and strength when Molly is found.

[Denise]

Eastern track star still missing, family conducts investigations

Published: Thursday, September 15, 2005
By Kelly McKinney/News writer

No news.

Hundreds of tips, $110,000 offered in rewards, and a whole lot of media coverage all add up to nothing. Molly Dattilo has not been found.

Dattilo, an Eastern student and track star, disappeared July 6, 2004, from Indianapolis, where she was taking summer classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The 23-year-old native of Madison, Ind., was reportedly last seen walking to Wendy's to apply for a summer job.

Friends and family describe Molly as warm and friendly and as a dedicated student and athlete.

Richard Erdmann, Eastern track coach, said Dattilo is "an outstanding student," who relates to a wide assortment of people.

"I think Molly had a strong desire to excel," he said.

Erdmann said Dattilo's former teammates still talk about her and maintain hope that she'll come back one day.

Detective Catherine Byron of the Marion County Sheriff's Department said the department is still investigating and will continue to do so as long as there are tips.

But the absence of evidence of a crime and the high number of missing person cases in Marion County have contributed to limited manpower being devoted to the case, according to a July 6 Lexington Herald-Leader article.

None of the tips the department received thus far have proved to be substantial.

Kendra Skidmore, Dattilo's sister, said she appreciates the work the department has done, but she still gets frustrated, especially because the department doesn't want to share information.

Karen Modisett, a friend of the family, said she thinks the department is "looking in the sexual-predator type area," but she has no specific information.

The Dattilo family has conducted their own investigations to alleviate this frustration and increase the likelihood of finding Molly.

They have hired private investigators, placed and distributed flyers, conducted their own searches, and told their story on Fox News and the America's Most Wanted Web site, according to the Herald-Leader article.

They've also placed major billboards throughout Indiana.

Skidmore said the family conducted their latest investigation this past June and July.

Though Molly's whereabouts remain a mystery, the family's efforts have raised awareness.

"Everywhere I go, people are very aware of it," Erdmann said.

And people are willing to help. "Larry King Live" had the family on the show, Eastern students have held a 5K walk-a-thon and churches have held vigils.

An anonymous donor has offered a $100,000 reward for her discovery and the arrest of whoever is responsible for her disappearance.

The reward expires March 31, 2006.

Dattilo's parents, Fred and Cherie of Madison, Ind., had offered a $10,000 reward, but it expired this past March.

Skidmore said anyone who has any information, even if it may not be pertinent, should call the Marion County Sheriff's Department at (317) 231-8702, the missing persons tip-line at (910) 232-1667 or e-mail the family at lookformolly@adelphia.net.

http://www.easternprogress.com/

[Denise]

Press Release from 411gina.com:

For Immediate Release: Oct 10, 2005

5 Year Disappearance of Lincolnite Brings Music, International Webcast and NASCAR!

In honor of: Gina Bos Missing since Oct. 2000

5th Annual "GINA Concert"

OCTOBER 16, 2005

2-4PM
Meadowlark Coffee House
1624 South Street
Lincoln, NE

Jannel Rap with Yvonne Perea

Local talent: Shawn Benjamin, Brian McDonald, Von Rap, Patty Sullivan, Leann and Tammy (Rap) Smith, Mick Damian, Mike Johnson & Steve Ekery

Profiling Midwest MISSING:

**Family members will be in attendance

**Gina Bos and **Melissa Schmidt-Lincoln, **Jason Jolkowski-Omaha, **Jackie Rains-Krachman-Columbus, **Erin Pospisil-Cedar Rapids, Molly Datillo-Indianapolis, Ashley Martinez-St Joseph, Justin Harris-Casper, Wyoming, Robert Thomas Pillsen-Rahier-Colorado Springs and April Wiss-Wichita

SPECIAL WEBCAST

Saturday Oct 22 from 10-12PM CST or 8-10 PST

Web Cast to highlight Gina and Midwest Missing. Tune in early to watch this interactive event! http://www.Kulakswoodshed.com

In Concert: Jannel Rap and the C Street Band, The Squirts and other Midwest Artists

NASCAR NOV 10, 2005

in honor of GINA Bos' Nov 4, 1959 Birthday! A larger than life image of Gina Bos on the hood of the Napa Auto Parts Chevy Monte Carlo in the NASCAR Elite Division Southwest Series #94. in front of a crowd of nearly 60,000 people.

ABOUT G.I.N.A. (Greater Information Now Available) for Missing Persons: Over 100 GINA Concerts have been held from LA to NYC and most recently have evolved to a monthly LIVE WEBCAST. These concerts feature artists and the missing from their area of the country each month.

100’s of missing children and adults have been profiled on our Web sites, CD’s America Lost and FOUND, Warrior’s for the Missing the GINA Concerts. Some of the missing have been brought home to their families.

For More Info: www.411Gina.com

[Denise]

New attention for missing woman

November 25, 2005
By Vic Ryckaert

Kendra Dattilo Skidmore hopes her appearance later today on a national talk show will help find her missing sister.

Molly Dattilo, a 23-year-old IUPUI student from Madison, Ind., was reportedly last seen in her Westside apartment building on July 6, 2004. Her family has been holding vigil ever since.

Molly Dattilo was 23 and attending summer classes at IUPUI when she disappeared July 6, 2004. A $100,000 reward is offered for information about her.

"I would like to urge the public to please come forward with information that will help this case," Skidmore said. "We don't have much hope that she's alive, but we have hope that somebody will be held accountable for her disappearance."
Skidmore will talk about her missing sister on tonight's broadcast of "Larry King Live," which airs at 9 p.m. on CNN.
Despite a $100,000 reward and steady pleas from Molly Dattilo's family, police still have few leads in the case.

Dattilo, the youngest of nine children, was living with a brother in the Westlake apartments while taking classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She planned to resume her studies at Eastern Kentucky University, where she held a track scholarship and was an honor student.

On July 6, 2004, she was seen at a Westside restaurant submitting a job application. Police think she later returned to her apartment. Then, she vanished. Left behind were her driver's license, her cell phone, her ATM card, her clothing and her car.
Marion County Sheriff's Department investigators found no evidence of foul play and have no clue what happened to her.

Dattilo's family has distributed paper fliers, posted signs on billboards across Indiana and offered a $100,000 reward, which Skidmore said is due to expire in a few months.

Skidmore believes somebody in Dattilo's apartment complex in the 6200 block of Lakeview Drive knows what happened.
"Come forward," Skidmore urged. "We want some peace, we want some closure."
Anyone with information can contact the Dattilo family at lookformolly@adelphia.net or check http://www.dattilofamily.org.

http://www.indystar.com/

[Denise]

Missing student's sister appears on 'Larry King Live'

November 26, 2005
Marion County

Kendra Dattilo Skidmore obtained national attention Friday night on CNN's "Larry King Live" show for her missing sister, 23-year-old Molly Dattilo, who disappeared in Indianapolis on July 6, 2004.
"I believe she was lured away somehow and taken," Skidmore, Salt Lake City, said on the TV show, whose topic was "Missing Persons Cold Cases." Dattilo was last seen at a Westside Indianapolis fast-food restaurant, submitting a job application.

Police believe she returned to the apartment she shared with her brother in the 6200 block of Lakeview Drive and then vanished, leaving behind her driver's license, cell phone, ATM card, clothing and car.
A student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Dattilo had "no reason to run away," her sister said.

She said police found no evidence of foul play but added she feels certain her sister "had no intention of going anywhere."

http://www.indystar.com

[Denise]

Dattilo's family offers $100,000 reward for information

By: Brittney Haynes/Managing editor
Issue date: 12/1/05 Section: News

While many people were out shopping on Black Friday, Kendra Skidmore was on national television making a plea to help find her missing sister.

Skidmore is the sister of 23-year-old Molly Dattilo, an Eastern student missing from Indianapolis since July 6, 2004.

Skidmore appeared on Larry King Live on CNN along with two other women who have missing family members and the founder of Community United Effort for Missing Persons, Monica Caison.

Skidmore announced on the program that there is a $100,000 reward for information resulting in the location of Dattilo.

Skidmore told King she believes her sister was somehow lured away and that foul play occurred.

In an August 2004 Progress article, Dattilo's other sister, Celestra Dattilo Hoffman said Dattilo disappeared with only her keys and the clothes she was wearing.

Dattilo, a native of Madison, Ind., was reportedly last seen at a Wendy's restaurant picking up an application for a summer job. Skidmore said the application was later found in her vehicle. She was spending the summer with her brother and attending classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

"You know - after this much time, for me, it is difficult to maintain hope that she's out there somewhere," Skidmore told King. "I really want a sense of closure."

Skidmore also spoke about how her family has dealt with Dattilo's disappearance. Skidmore said her parents are dealing with it the best way they can.

"You have to deal with it. You have no other choice," she said.

In the September 15 issue of the Progress, Catherin Byron, a detective with the Marion County Sheriff's Deparment in Indiana, said the department is still investigating the Dattilo case and will continue to do so as long as there are tips.

According to the September article, the Dattilo family has hired a private invesigator, distributed flyers and conducted searches.

Dattilo ran track at Eastern for three years and had only one semester left before graduation when she disappeared.

Skidmore said Dattilo was looking forward to trying out for "American Idol," and the classes she was taking at IUPUI were to help her prepare.

Dattilo is 5 feet tall and weighs approximately 100 pounds. She has light brown hair and green eyes. She also has a dime-sized birthmark on her right arm.

If you have any information related to the Dattilo case, call Capt. Chris Heffner at (317) 231-8154 or Byron at (317) 231-8150.

Reach Brittney at
brittney_haynes1@eku.edu

http://www.easternpr....com/media...pr ogress.com

[Denise]

Missing Indiana woman's family hasn't lost hope

Monday, January 9, 2006

WHAT WE KNEW
After six months with no solid leads, the Madison, Ind., family of missing 23-year-old Molly Dattilo was still hoping last January for a miracle, or an explanation. Dattilo, a scholarship runner at Eastern Kentucky University and singer with her sights set on American Idol, disappeared July 6, 2004, in Indianapolis, where she was living for the summer.

WHAT'S NEW
"Who says we've given up?" Molly's sister, Kendra Skidmore, said last week, even though there have been no new leads in the case. "Somebody stopped her in her tracks. She was trying to achieve her goals and someone stopped her in her tracks. … Who was this?"

Last March, an anonymous donor offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Dattilo's discovery and the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance. The family hopes someone will speak up before the reward offer expires March 31.

"It's very difficult to have hope that she's still alive somewhere," Skidmore said. "This is someone who has always been in touch with her mother."

The family was hit hard again Dec. 14 with the death of Dattilo's father, Fred.

"He was just about ready to go to Indianapolis himself and go searching," Skidmore said.

"Though he had been in ill health for some time, I think that, in part, he died of grief," said his son, Ben Dattilo. "At his funeral, we hung a picture of Dad holding Molly, his baby girl, when she was a little toddler."


The investigation continues. For more information, go to http://www.dattilofamily.org or call the Marion County Indiana Sheriff's Office at (317) 231-8576 or 231-8477.

http://www.courier-journal.com

[Denise]

Molly's cousin, Keri, steps forward and is working to make a difference for the missing:

http://voice4themiss....in-making.html

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
http://www.projectjason.org
Read our Voice for the Missing Blog
http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/

[Denise]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POSTED BY KELLY 1/27/06

This is a follow-up post in regards to the meeting held yesterday in Indiana. (See the prior post.)


http://voice4themiss....n-indiana.html

Kelly

[Denise]

http://www.indystar.....30/1006/NEWS01

March 26, 2006

Tips lead no closer to missing student
$100,000 reward offered in '04 disappearance is set to expire Friday

By Tammy Webber
tammy.webber@indystar.com

If someone knows what happened to college student Molly Dattilo, money hasn't motivated them to tell.

A $100,000 reward offered by an anonymous donor in March 2005, set to expire Friday, has generated only dead-end tips about the fate of the petite 23-year-old who disappeared from Indianapolis' Westside on July 6, 2004.

"Frankly, I am surprised that a $100,000 reward has not brought forward a more substantial lead," said Marion County Sheriff's Detective Catherine Byron, who receives about one tip a month, including from people who say they think they've spotted Dattilo. "But I still believe someone, somewhere, knows something; for whatever reason, money is not a motivation for that person or persons."

The Dattilo family was thrilled when Fifth Third Bank announced someone had established the reward for information leading to Dattilo and to the arrest and conviction of those involved in her disappearance.

They're disappointed it will expire and heartbroken that they don't have answers.
"We live with this extreme sorrow every single day," said Molly's sister Kendra Skidmore, 34. "We're hoping somebody comes forward (before the reward expires)."

Molly, the youngest of nine children from the Ohio River city of Madison, was living with her brother in Indianapolis during the summer of 2004 while taking music classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She planned to audition for the reality television show "American Idol" that August, Skidmore said.

She also planned to return to Eastern Kentucky University, where she was an honor student on a track scholarship.

Dattilo was last seen at a Westside restaurant submitting a job application. Police think she returned to her apartment, in the 6200 block of Lakeview Drive, before vanishing, leaving behind her driver's license, cell phone, bank card, clothing and car.

Byron said she thinks Dattilo's disappearance, which still is classified as a missing persons investigation, will be solved, even if it takes years and happens by chance, as in the case of 19-year-old Indiana University student Jill Behrman.

Behrman disappeared in May 2000 while riding her bicycle alone; her skeletal remains were found in March 2003, in a Morgan County field. Her slaying remains under investigation.

About 30,000 people are reported missing in the United States each year, and most are found, advocacy groups say.

Skidmore said her family no longer thinks Dattilo is alive. They will continue to search, however, and four billboards asking the public for answers are rotated throughout Central Indiana.

"It's complete hell," Skidmore said. "It's like taking sorrow and grief and pain and stretching it out. You can't get past it because there is no closure of any kind."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Department at (317) 231-8150 or Crime Stoppers at (317) 262-8477.

[Denise]

http://www.wave3.com....86393&nav=0RZF

Reward Fails To Generate Viable Leads For Missing Student

March 27, 2006, 09:54 AM MST

(INDIANAPOLIS) -- A $100,000 reward offered for information about missing college student Molly Dattilo has generated only dead-end tips, authorities say, and the reward is set to expire Friday.

Dattilo, 23, of Madison, an Eastern Kentucky University student who had been attending summer classes at IUPUI, was last seen the evening of July 6, 2004, walking to an Indianapolis fast-food restaurant to apply for a job.

"Frankly, I am surprised that a $100,000 reward has not brought forward a more substantial lead," said Marion County Sheriff's Detective Catherine Byron. "But I still believe someone, somewhere knows something; for whatever reason, money is not a motivation for that person or persons."

Molly's sister Kendra Skidmore, 34, says her family no longer believes Dattilo is alive. But she says they will continue to search for information and are hoping someone comes forward before the reward expires.

She said her family is living with extreme sorrow every day because they do not know what happened to Dattilo.

"It's complete hell," Skidmore said. "It's like taking sorrow and grief and pain and stretching it out. You can't get past it because there is no closure of any kind."

Fifth Third Bank announced last year that an anonymous donor had established the reward for information leading to Dattilo and to the arrest and conviction of those involved in her disappearance.

Byron said she believes Dattilo's disappearance, which still is classified as a missing persons investigation, will be solved, even if it takes years and happens by chance, as in the case of 19-year-old Indiana University student Jill Behrman.

Behrman disappeared in May 2000 while riding her bicycle alone. Her skeletal remains were found in March 2003 in a Morgan County field, and her murder remains under investigation.

[Denise]

http://www.madisonco....40&TM=67709.84

5/5/2006 3:00:00 PM

Entry deadline Saturday for Dattilo Run/Walk

Pat Whitney
Courier Staff Writer

The deadline for entering the Molly Dattilo Run/Walk on May 20 has been extended until Saturday, race committee member Karen Modisett said.

The annual run/walk, organized to promote awareness of Dattilo’s disappearance in July 2004 and raise funds to support continuing search efforts, will be joined this year with another race - one for children that until recently was sponsored by Girls Inc.

“It looked like the Girls, Inc. race, in place for the last 20 years, wasn’t going to happen this year,” race director Paul Kelly said.  “The run is such a vital event for local elementary school children. It just seemed natural to name a children’s race in honor of Molly, hold it with the Dattilo 5K Run - and keep them both going.”

On the day of the 5K Run/Walk, a one-mile run for elementary school-aged girls, as well as one for boys, will take place on the grounds of the Madison State Hospital - site of Dattilo’s first competitive run when she was only 6 years old.

“Molly’s mother was concerned about how Molly would react when the gun was fired to start the race,” Modisett said. “She expressed her concern to event coordinator Tim Hoffman at the start of the race, so he placed his hands over Molly’s ears. After the start gun was fired, he gave her a push.”

It was a push that helped build her self-esteem, according to Modisett, and built a passion for the sport that lasted until her disappearance.

Dattilo, a native of Madison was last seen July 6, 2004. A straight-A student on a track scholarship at Eastern Kentucky University, she vanished in Indianapolis where she was attending a summer college program.

The majority of the proceeds from the races on May 20 will benefit the Molly Dattilo Trust Fund to support the Dattilo family’s efforts to bring Molly home, Kelly said.

The top four runners from each school team will compete for a traveling trophy. The top three runners from each grade level will receive ribbons. A portion of the proceeds from the children’s race will help fund track and cross country programs at Madison and Shawe Memorial high schools.

“We envision funding a new scholarship in Molly’s name next year at Shawe and Madison high schools,” he said.

“Our goal is to have at least all the schools in Jefferson County represented in the elementary events,” he said.  “At this point, all but two of the schools in Jefferson County are committed to having a team.”

As few as four runners can make up a team. Entries from surrounding counties are also invited to participate. The deadline for registering teams in the children’s race is May 11. Cost is $5. Registration forms for the Molly Dattilo Children’s Run are available at the schools, the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library and online at http://www.dattilofamily.org.

“At a time when child obesity is at an all-time high, the run is a win-win situation - a win-win for Molly, a win-win for the schools, and a win-win for health,” Kelly said.

Donations will be accepted for people not able to participate in the event. Checks payable to MCHS/Annual Molly Dattilo Run can be sent to Denise Boles, 1671 S. County Road 1233-W, Lexington, IN 47138.

For more information on the races, call Kelly at (812) 265-6772.

Race packet pick-up for pre-registered participants will from 3-5 p.m. May 15. Race day pick-up and late registration will begin 7 a.m. at Crystal Beach.

The race will start and end at Crystal Beach.

Correction
The race course for elementary school girls and boys participating in a one-mile run in conjunction with the Molly Dattilo Run/Walk starts on Vaughn Drive at Crystal Beach. The location for the run on May 20 was incorrect in a story in Friday’s newspaper.

[Denise]

Dattilo case to be featured on Louisville television program

5/13/2006
Pat Whitney
Courier Staff Writer

Keri Dattilo and Paul Kelly will be featured on WAVE-3 - “Listenings” program at 10 a.m. Thursday, May 18.

Dattilo, a sister of Molly Dattilo, who has been missing since July 6, 2004, and Kelly, director of the May 20 Molly Dattilo races to benefit search efforts, will discuss the issue of missing adults as well as promote the races.

About 200 walkers and runners have registered for the 5k walk/run with a one-mile race for children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Both the adult and children’s races will begin and end at Crystal Beach on Vaughn Drive and Broadway.

The untimed 5Kwalk is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 20, with the open-timed 5K run beginning at 8:20 a.m. The elementary school girls race will start at 9:15 a.m., followed by the boys race at 9:30 a.m.

About 150 children have signed up to participate in the event.

Anyone not yet registered who wants to participate in the races can sign up the day of the race at 7 a.m. at the race starting point at Crystal Beach.

Race packets for pre-registered participants can be picked up from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, May 15. Race-day pickup will also begin at 7 a.m. at Crystal Beach.

Proceeds for the Annual Molly Dattilo Run will be used to support the continued search for Dattilo through the Molly Dattilo Trust and to support the track and cross-country programs at Shawe and Madison schools.

For more information, contact Kelly at (812) 265-6772 or e-mail prkelly@myfam.com.

http://www.madisoncourier.com/

[Denise]

Reward Extended For Missing Woman

Posted by Jim Ingalls on Friday, May 19th, 2006

(MADISON) - The family of Molly Datillo, the young woman last seen in
Indianapolis in July of 2004, has issued a notice saying a $100,000 reward for information in the case has been extended.

The reward was set to run out if Molly was not located by a set date, but the money's anonymous donor now says the offer will stand until the case is closed.


http://www.wbiw.com/

[Denise]

http://post-journal....?articleID=3201

Monday, June 12, 2006

National Missing Persons Tour Rally Dedicated To Yolanda Bindics Set For Today

By PATRICK L. FANELLI

6/12/2006 - A national tour promoting missing persons cases has scheduled a stop in Jamestown dedicated to Yolanda Bindics, the mother of four who disappeared nearly two years ago.

The goal of the effort is to feature cases that have gone unnoticed and forgotten by the public.

The Bindics case, though, doesn’t seem to fall into that criteria.

“It’s often very difficult to solve the mystery of what happened to these people after the initial interest in a missing persons case fades,” said Monica Caison, founder and director of the Community United Effort Center For Missing Persons. “We hope that by bringing these cases back up, we can refresh the details in people’s minds, which could lead to new information and could ultimately even help solve the cases.”

The “On the Road to Remember Tour,” as it’s called, is the third of its kind organized by the CUE and departed from North Carolina June 9. Jamestown will be one of its first stops, and the rally will take place at 1 p.m. today at 220 Fluvanna Ave. A number of media outlets will be present, and organizers hope law-enforcement authorities and supporters will attend as well.

“It’s sort of a huge way of getting media attention,” said Anne Chmielewski, Ms. Bindics’s sister.

According to Mrs. Chmielewski, the case can’t really be compared to many others featured by the tour that have been “forgotten.”

“It’s never gone cold, nor would it,” Mrs. Chmielewski said.  “I wouldn’t say it’s forgotten, either.”

Ironically, the rally comes immediately after Lt. Todd Isaacson of the Jamestown Police Department reported recent “activity” in the case and indicated police were narrowing the investigation down to a particular individual. Isaacson’s report followed several quiet months while evidence that had been accumulated was undergoing forensic testing by the FBI.

“What’s weird is we planned all this just before the breaking news came out,” Mrs. Chmielwski said.

She added that she has been in contact with Ms. Caison since Ms. Bindics disappeared in August 2004.

The 2006 national tour is dedicated to Molly Dattilo of Madison, Ohio, who disappeared in July 2004 after submitting an application to a restaurant. The tour will travel throughout 16 states, featuring scores of cases.

The Fluvanna Avenue site was chosen because of its close proximity to the Family Dollar, where Ms. Bindics was last seen on Aug. 10, 2004. Her vehicle was found the next day at Arby’s down the street, and several of her items were found washed up out of storm drains south of Chadakoin Park in the vicinity.

Two other missing persons from the region will also be recognized at the event, according to Sue Ceci, mother of Lori Ceci Bova - who disappeared from Lakewood without a trace nine years ago.

Ms. Bova and Damien Sharp - a Warren resident who vanished in June 2002 - will be recognized in addition to Ms. Bindics, Mrs. Ceci said.

[Denise]

http://www.indystar.....0613021/-1/RSS

June 13, 2006

Volunteers to rally for missing student

Star staff report

Volunteers from the CUE Center for Missing Persons are planning a rally today to draw attention to the Molly Dattilo case.

Dattilo, missing since July 6, 2004, was last seen at a Westside restaurant submitting a job application. It is believed that she returned to her apartment before vanishing, leaving behind her driver’s license, cell phone, bank card, clothing and car.

The youngest of nine children from the Ohio River city of Madison, Dattilo, 23 at the time of her disappearance, was living with her brother in Indianapolis while taking music classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

She planned to audition for the reality television show “American Idol” that August; she also planned to return to Eastern Kentucky University, where she was an honor student on a track scholarship.

CUE is the middle of a tour, called “On the Road to Remember,” to promote missing persons cases in 16 states.

[Denise]

http://www.theindych...755/detail.html

National Group Spotlights 2 Indiana Missing-Person Cases

POSTED: 7:41 pm EDT June 13, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS -- A national group touring the U.S. to highlight missing-person cases stopped in Indianapolis and Tipton on Tuesday to talk about two Indiana disappearances.

In Indianapolis, workers with the CUE Center for the Missing stopped at a gathering for Molly Datillo, who was living in Indianapolis when she disappeared in July 2004.

Tuesday's gathering of friends and relatives was held in the 400 block of North High School Road to celebrate what would have been Datillo's 25th birthday.

Datillo's sister, Kendra Skidmore, told attendees that she and her siblings remember the day that her father called to say Datillo disappeared.

"I still remember the tone of his voice and hearing those two words that will forever be in my memory: 'Molly is missing,'" Skidmore said.

A $100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to Datillo's discovery and the arrest and conviction of the person or people involved in her disappearance.

In Tipton, the CUE Center held a media event for Shannon Sherrill, who was 6 years old when she vanished from the Thorntown area in 1986.

Sherrill's father, Michael Sherrill, said he hasn't given up hope that the mystery of his daughter's disappearance will be solved.

"It's like Day 1. Still looking," he said. "We will continue to look until I find her."

[Denise]

http://www.indystar.....WS01/606140473

June 14, 2006


Woman missing since '04 is symbol of national tour to revive cold cases

By Aparna Balakrishnan


Twenty-five balloons were released Tuesday to celebrate the 25 years of Molly Dattilo's life.


A $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Molly Dattilo's location and the arrest and conviction of her abductor. Call the Marion County Sheriff's Department at (317) 231-8702 with any pertinent information.

All that was absent was Dattilo herself.
The Westside resident, missing since July 6, 2004, was honored by friends and family Tuesday at the Wayne Township Emergency Services Education Center.

Dattilo has been made the face of this year's "On the Road to Remember" tour, sponsored by the North Carolina-based Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, or CUE.

According to CUE founder and director Monica Caison, the purpose of the tour is to renew interest in missing-persons "cold cases, ones that have fallen out of the media."

The tour kicked off June 9 in Wilmington, N.C., and will make stops to highlight cases in 16 states.

Kendra Skidmore, one of Dattilo's sisters, was on hand to speak to the group Tuesday. Several other family members also attended. Skidmore's voice filled with emotion as she recalled the news of Dattilo's disappearance. "We always remember that phone call. . . . There's not a greater hurt than having a missing person. The pain goes on," she said. "What I want to say to the person or persons who are responsible is this: It's time to come forward. We need the answers." Skidmore also stressed the importance of events such as CUE's tour.

"Awareness is one of the most important things. This tour helps to spread that awareness," she said.

Molly, the youngest of nine children from the Ohio River city of Madison, was living with her brother in Indianapolis during the summer of 2004 while taking music classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Dattilo was last seen at a Westside restaurant, submitting a job application. Police said they think she returned to her apartment before vanishing, leaving behind her driver's license, cell phone, bank card, clothing and car.

Family members of other missing people also attended CUE's event Tuesday. Cathy Hensley, Danville, was present to remind people of her son, Harold Bradley "Brad" Hensley, 29, who went missing Jan. 12. The Plainfield man was on his way to work on Indianapolis' Eastside. "Every lead so far is dead. At this point, we just want him to come home," his mother said.

Hensley, who is married, is an Army veteran. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his whereabouts.

[Denise]

http://www.wthr.com/...y.asp?S=5025813

Local missing-person cases highlighted by 'Road to Remember'

June 13, 2006 03:33 PM CDT


Chris Proffitt/Eyewitness News

Nearly 20 years after a Thorntown child was abducted from in front of her home, a group is making sure it's a case that's not forgotten. On Tuesday they kicked off a "Road to Remember" tour.

Shannon Sherrill and Molly Dattilo represent two faces of missing people and two cases 18 years apart that confound police and their families. Shannon Sherrill was just six years old when she went missing from her front yard in Thorntown, Indiana in 1986. Molly Dattilo was an IUPUI student last seen July 6, 2004. After applying for a job at a restaurant, she left behind her ID, bank card and car.

"It's hard to imagine the type of person that could do anything to Molly. She's such a gentle person. We really miss her. We want the answers for our family. We're so tired," said Kendra Skidmore, Dattilo's sister.

Molly and Shannon are two of the people featured in a national tour by the CUE Center for the Missing, a North Carolina-based group that focuses police and media attention on cold missing person cases. The hope is that renewed interest in those victims will help solve what is normally a crime. Even a $100,000 reward hasn't cleared up Molly Dattilo's mystery.

"She pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth and God knows everybody has searched for her," said Monica Caiso, CUE Center for the Missing.

Interest in Shannon Sherrill's case renewed after a woman was charged for committing a cruel hoax. Donna Walker came forward in 2003 telling the Sherrill family she was the missing girl.

"Even though it wasn't Shannon, it brought Shannon back, you know, for a short time," said Mike Sherrill, Shannon's father.

The goal of groups like the CUE Center For The Missing is to bring resolution to families like the Sherrills and Dattilos, who, like most relatives of missing adults and children, hold on to hope that someone with information will finally come forward.

"She's out there somewhere and no one's given me any indication she's not," said Mike Sherrill, referring to his missing daughter.

[Denise]

http://www.wishtv.co...y.asp?S=5026043

CUE Center for Missing Persons On Tour

June 13, 2006 04:10 PM CDT



By Leslie Olsen
News 8 @ 5:30

Three central Indiana families are grateful that a national missing person's group is in town focusing attention on their missing loved ones. CUE and the "Road to Remember Tour" is in Indianapolis.

"Molly was such a great person."

Kendra Dattilo weeps on this, her sister Molly's 25th birthday. It was almost two years ago that Molly vanished from her west side apartment. On July 6, 2004 she had applied for a job and had attended IUPUI summer classes before disappearing. She hasn't been heard from since.

Now Molly is the focus of a multi-state missing persons road rally. 3 years ago in North Carolina, Monica Caison founded the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons also known as "CUE."

She is reluctant to tell her own story, but whatever it is, it caused her to spend her time traveling from town to town calling attention to missing persons cases.


"No matter how old they are, there's somebody somewhere who knows something. And we hope to run up on those people or at least help that where they will call the investigators and give a tip," says Monica Caison, CUE Founder:

Caison's rally also stopped in Tipton today. Twenty years ago, 6-year-old Shannon Sherrill disappeared from her front yard. Her father still clutches her baby doll.

"I want my daughter back. I'm going to find out what happened to her. I want to know where she is," said Mike Sherrill, Shannon's Father.

Shannon Sherril's family was devastated recently when a woman committed a cruel hoax by claiming to be the missing daughter. Caison says she's often criticized for giving families false hope that even after twenty years, their loved ones could still be found.


"Hope is all they have," says Caison.

Hope is what keeps Cathy Hensley going. Her 29-year-old son Brad disappeared six months ago. He left his Plainfield home for work, but never showed up. Mrs. Hensley says he was happily married and liked his job.

"It's hard when you're looking for someone. They can go right by you and you think, yeah that looks familiar but then they're gone in an instant and you're not sure if that was them or not," says Hensley.

Mrs. Hensley joins with the Dattillo family to release balloons in honor of their loved ones and the hundreds of thousands of people missing nationwide.

The Datillo family wants to remind people that someone anonymous has put up a $100,000 reward for anyone who can provide accurate information concerning Molly's whereabouts or provide information leading to an arrest and conviction if there has been foul play.

[Denise]

http://www.madisonco...n.a...icleID=30 986

7/6/2006 3:00:00 PM

Memories of Molly
Cherie Dattilo shares on the second anniversary

Molly Dattilo bought a Martina McBride T-shirt at a concert in 2000 in Louisville, Ky. She wore the shirt when her picture was taken with her two blue ribbons from that year’s Jefferson County 4-H Fair talent contest. She won first place in the senior division for singing and then first place overall. (Photo courtesy of Cherie Dattilo)

A mother is allowed to get carried away into the future, picturing her daughter on the awards stand, an Olympic gold medal around her neck as the National Anthem is played.

Cherie Dattilo laughed heartily at the recollection. She remembers having that flash-forward thought when her daughter Molly, then around the junior-high school age, was anxious about running in races with other girls because she was afraid she would stand out. Mixed-gender races and large fields of runners were OK, but not smaller groups.

Molly Dattilo soon got over her bashfulness. It probably was a good thing, because stand out she did. In fact, she had the mark of a standout runner at her first race when she was 6.

Molly Dattilo’s skills not only as a runner in high school and college but also as a singer and artist were among the memories her mother, Cherie Dattilo, shared in observance of today being the second anniversary of the disappearance of Molly Dattilo. She was last seen the evening of Tuesday, July 6, 2004, in Indianapolis at the apartment complex where she was living with her brother while she took voice classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Cherie Dattilo wrote down some of her memories and related others in interviews.

The little thinker

“When Molly was 2, she pointed to her potty and asked: “Is this the same potty Jesus had when he was a little boy?”

An effect on people

“Soon after I finished running the Madison Courier 10K in 1984, a photographer was about to take a picture of me with several other runners; just then, Molly, who was 3 years old at the time, ran up to me. I picked her up and held her.”

“Only runners in this picture!” the photographer protested. “Then, something came over him; the expression on his face changed and he took the picture with Molly in it.”

The picture shows Cherie Dattilo holding her second-place certificate against her left side and gripping Molly, the youngest of her nine children, with her right arm.

Her first race

When Molly was 6, she ran the Madison State Hospital girls one-mile run for the first time.

There wasn’t an age division for a girl that young, so she ran in the division for girls 7 and 8. She came in third.

Trophy earrings

Molly was 7. The MSH girls mile run was coming up next. Molly comes up to me - all the girls at the time had had their ears pierced and had earrings. Molly wanted to have her ears pierced.

I said, “Molly, earrings are vanity, and we didn’t have enough money.” If she wanted an art book or science materials, I would make a sacrifice for that.

I said, “Molly, this family does not like frivolous vanity things, but we like trophies. If you come in first in your age division, I will give you the earrings as a trophy.” That Saturday was the girls MSH mile run. That Monday, early, I took Molly to the earring place to have her ears pierced and buy earrings with her birthstone.

Second-grade physical test

“Wilbur came home from the second-grade physical fitness test and said boys were faster than girls. I sneered: Not any more. Two years later Molly entered second grade. At the practice for the presidential physical fitness program. She ran faster than her classmates. For the finals they separated her and put her with a fifth-grade boy who was the fastest runner in the school. His time was 7:02. Molly ran the mile in 6:46.

“I sort of had to smile about this.”

Giving thanks

After Molly had won her first or second race, I said, “Molly, who do you thank for this victory?”

Molly said, “Thank you, Mother.”

“No, Molly,” I said, “not me. Say a prayer of thanks.”

Molly understood.

Their own art show

When Molly was growing up, my husband and I tried to earn money to support our large family in many ways. Regular jobs were rarely available for us, so we had various work projects.

There was a period of time when my husband was commissioned to do several relief sculpture portraits. It occurred to me that I might be able to earn money with big-cat paintings.

For practice, I made a color sketch of a stalking tiger. Molly, who was 7 at the time, made a watercolor-marker picture of a tiger pooping on the carpet; it was a beautiful tiger.

During those years, we lived close to the Lanier Home where they have the Chautauqua in September, where artists display and sell their work. When Molly was 10, we made rainforest pictures of exotic wild cats and put them on display in our yard at Chautauqua time because a lot of people walked past our yard as they went to and from the Chautauqua.

She doesn’t recall that they sold any pictures.

Forrest Gump comes to Madison

When Molly was 13, our family saw the movie “Forrest Gump.” Several weeks later was the last track meet of the year for Molly’s junior high team, the Floyd Central Invitational.

But the evening before the day of the race, Molly became very sick with a bad virus. She was sick throughout the night. Finally, at about 6 a.m. the morning of the race, she fell asleep. At 8 a.m. I called the school and explained that Molly was too sick to attend her classes or be in the Invitational.

They told me to let Molly sleep. Her coaches said they would stop by at noon to visit Molly. When I returned upstairs, Molly was up and rushing to get ready for school. I told her that I had already called the school and she was to get back in bed and rest.

I said, “Molly, you have won a lot of races and in the future you will win races even more important than the Floyd Central Invitational. You might even win the mile or marathon in the Olympics, but you are too sick to be in the Floyd Central Invitational today. The people at school understand that you are too sick to be in the Invitational. They don’t blame you; they are not mad at you. You will have to stay home and rest.”

I could tell that in spite of what I said, Molly would be very unhappy if she missed the Floyd Central Invitational.

Molly’s coaches came at noon. When she saw them at a distance from her room, she jumped out of bed, grabbed her things and bolted toward them. As Molly got in their car, one of the coaches asked: “How do you feel, Molly?” Molly said, “I feel dizzy.” I knew Molly was trapped. If she missed the Invitational she would be unhappy; but if she was in the Invitational and didn’t do well, she would be even more heartbroken, and she was too sick to excel in any race. I prayed, “God, please do something to help our little Molly.”

Then, God “showed up” in a manner reminiscent of the “Forrest Gump” movie. Later when I called the school, they told me that because of a tornado warning, the Floyd Central Invitational had been postponed until the next day.

I said a prayer of thanks. Because of a tornado warning, Molly was able to rest and recover from the illness. That evening she ate a good dinner and was able to get a good night’s sleep. I was happy for Molly, but I knew my husband and I couldn’t watch Molly at the Invitational because our car had broken down and the Invitational was a long distance away.

Then my husband drove up in a new van. I said, “Where on earth did you get that van?” He said that his friend, a car dealer, had let him drive it in return for a small down payment. He said, “We are going to see Molly at the Floyd Central Invitational.”

Molly won all her events and was voted the most valuable athlete at the Floyd Central Invitational. I said more prayers of thanks.”

A special talent

She thought singing was her special talent. She thought running and art were adapted from the family, but music was uniquely hers.

The day she disappeared, Molly had picked up a job application at a fast-food restaurant near the apartment complex. She wanted to find a job so she would have car and gas money to go to “American Idol” as a contestant the next month.

She won ribbons at the Jefferson County 4-H Fair talent show for singing and piano, and advanced to state. For her first time on the talent show stage, when she was 15, she sang “One Moment in Time.”  She wasn’t eligible to win, though, because “She didn’t know she was supposed to wear a costume” appropriate for the song, her mother said.

“One Moment in Time” had been written for Whitney Houston - one of Molly’s favorite singers - to record for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

The lyrics include:

“Give me one moment in time
“When I’m more than I thought I could be
“When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
“And the answers are all up to me
“Give me one moment in time
“When I’m racing with destiny
“Then in that one moment of time
“I will feel
“I will feel eternity.”


It was one of Molly’s favorite songs.

“I think of it as Molly’s song.”

Trophy earrings

Molly was 7. The MSH girls mile run was coming up next. Molly comes up to me - all the girls at the time had had their ears pierced and earrings. Molly wanted to have her ears pierced.

I said, “Molly, earrings are vanity,” and we didn’t have enough money. If she wanted an art book or science materials, I would make a sacrifice for that.

I said, “Molly, this family does not like frivolous vanity things, but we like trophies. If you come in first in your age division, I will give you the earrings as a trophy. That Saturday was the girls MSH mile run. That Monday, early, I took Molly to the earring place to have her ears pierced and buy earrings with her birthstone.”

Active compassion

A lot of people know Molly because of her compassion rather than anything else.

Her freshman year there was a girl who was almost blind. She had done beautifully at all her college courses except math. She required algebra to graduate. Molly was busy with her academic and athletic activities, but she took out time to tutor her in algebra. She got a B-minus on her exam.

A race regular

Molly was a regular entrant when there were annual races on the Madison State Hospital grounds and at the Madison Courier Firecracker 10K during the Regatta. The last MSH race she ran in, when she was 12, she broke the one-mile record by running it in 5 minutes 33 seconds, four seconds faster than the old record.

In the eighth grade Molly won a 3.1-mile race for adults.

Her mother took a picture of her at one of the street races. A hand is shown holding one end of a wide pink ribbon at the finish line. Molly is nearing the finish line, and there are no runners behind her.

Her best year for running was her sophomore year in high school.

When she was 17, she ran the Madison Courier Firecracker 10K in 37 minutes and some seconds.

While in high school, she was ranked third in the state in the one-mile and fifth in the state in the two-mile.

She started college at Wichita State but transferred to Eastern Kentucky University on a full scholarship for cross country. She excelled on the team and was on the dean’s list.

After high school, her Firecracker times slipped but were still fast enough to rank her. In 2001 she came in second for women runners with a time of 40 minutes 31 seconds. The next year, she placed third in the women’s age 19-24 division.

Her Firecracker time was 40:22 in 2004, placing her second among the women runners and 27th overall. The race was on Saturday, July 3, three days before she disappeared.

Since she disappeared, there have been two annual runs in Madison named for her.

Determined to learn

A picture shows Molly outdoors, sitting on a patio chair with a guitar. A neighbor, Lee Marnett, gave her guitar lessons.

“She wanted to write her own songs,” her mother said, and was determined to learn to accompany herself to play and sing the songs she wrote.

What’s next

Cherie Dattilo and Molly’s other relatives and friends don’t think Molly Dattilo is still alive. Law enforcement in Marion County was slow to act on a missing-person’s report on the assumption that she could have left on her own. Her family has learned that the first few days a person is missing are crucial, and the longer it takes to start looking, the less likely the chances of survival.

They want to know what happened. The detective now assigned to the case said Wednesday that tips continue to come in, but she cannot comment on the nature of them or where the investigation stands.  “It is still a missing-person case,” Detective Catherine Byron said.

Molly’s family and friends are campaigning for the Indiana General Assembly to pass “Molly’s Law” during the next legislative session, which will be next year. The law would establish the steps that law enforcement would take when a missing-person report is filed, closing the gap between the filing and the start of an investigation.

Molly is featured on the CUE Center for Missing Persons site on the Web, as well as on the “America’s Most Wanted” site. Fliers continue to be distributed with her picture, and people are asked to post one in a car window so others will see it when they travel.

A $100,000 reward from an anonymous person in Indianapolis was extended shortly before it was due to expire. It will be paid to a person whose information leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever caused Molly Dattilo to disappear.

People with information can call Byron at (317) 231-8702 or the CUE Center’s 24-hour missing-persons tip line, (910) 232-1687.

[Denise]

http://www.crimelibr....y_datillo.html

Cops Still Seek Tips In Mysterious Disappearance of Molly Dattilo

By Seamus McGraw

July 27, 2006

MADISON, Ind. (Crime Library ) - It's been more than two years now since she vanished, this fresh-scrubbed young woman who by all accounts excelled at almost everything she tried and who, according to those who knew her, tried her hardest to help others excel as well. And yet, despite all the disappointments, all the false sightings and bum leads, neither the authorities nor her family are willing to give up hope that someday they will find out what became of Molly Datillo.

There is of course, no longer any real hope that Datillo, who was just 23 when she disappeared after leaving her brother's Indianapolis apartment on a warm July night in 2004, will come home alive. Her family knows it. And even though her disappearance officially remains a missing person case, the cops say they know it too.

Nor is there any question in her relatives' minds that the young woman, who just a few months before her death told her mother that she "really didn't think there were evil people in the world," found out that she was wrong. All are convinced that Molly was the victim of foul play.

But there is the hope that, even now, years after she vanished, there will come a day when the family can at least have the cold comfort of knowing how she met her end and with whom.

From the beginning family members feared the worst

Today, little more is known about Molly Dattilo's disappearance than was known when she first vanished, said Capt. Randal Taylor of the Marion County Sheriff's Department, the agency charged with investigating the case.

And that is precious little.

Authorities say the young woman, generally regarded as a gifted athlete and an aspiring singer, had completed her term at Eastern Kentucky University a few weeks earlier and had decided to move in with her brother and attend summer school at Indiana State University. Among other things, she was taking voice classes as part of her dream to one day break into show business.

On July 6, 2004, after spending the day in classes, the young woman, known as much for her down-to-earth determination as for her sunny disposition, told her brother she planned to head out to a local Wendy's restaurant to fill out an application. That was hardly surprising for a young woman who had grown up with a sense of responsibility and purpose, her family members say, that can only be learned in a household with nine children that always seemed to be trying to make frayed ends meet.

It was 7:30 p.m. when she walked out of her brother's apartment, authorities have said, leaving her cell phone and her bank card behind.

That was the last time anyone saw her.

Family members have complained that authorities in Indianapolis were at first slow to respond to the reports of her disappearance.

Law enforcement has limited options and authority in the hours immediately after an adult vanishes. Experience also teaches police that people who go missing often turn up on their own. And if they don't, it's often because they don't want to be found. In all likelihood, authorities in Indianapolis did not immediately sense the urgency in Molly Dattilo's case.

But family members, who knew full well of Molly's open, accommodating and naive manner, and who also knew of her firm devotion to her siblings, her mother, and her aging father, knew that Molly would never simply walk away.

Almost immediately, family members say, they sensed that something horrible had happened to the baby of the family.

A girl who never ran away from anything

From her earliest years, Molly was a "mommy's girl," her older sister, Celestra Hoffman, told Crime Library. And in her entire life, she never ran away from anything. On the contrary, if there was a challenge in her life, Hoffman said, Molly ran straight toward it.

The youngest of the nine children, she was always surrounded by a protective cordon of loving relatives. And yet, despite her status as the baby of the close-knit brood, Molly never took anything for granted, and was forever challenging herself.

That became evident when she was in high school. A gifted runner who excelled in track and field - she would later go on to win an athletic scholarship to Eastern Kentucky - Datillo wanted to keep in shape during the off season by swimming. But the school's swim coach tried to dissuade the diminutive Molly, telling her that she lacked the stamina and physique to compete. "What they told her is that she didn't have the body type for doing the butterfly stroke," Hoffman said.

Molly made it her mission to prove the coach wrong. "She wanted to defy all the negatives," Hoffman said. And in the end, she did, winning the admiration of her coach and a spot on the team swimming the butterfly stroke.

A few years later, Molly, a naturally pretty girl who always favored moisturizers and skin cleansers over makeup and thought other girls' preoccupation with such things as hair and clothes was frivolous, a young woman whose notion of a perfect hair-do was one that kept her hair out of her eyes while she was on the track, disregarded Hoffman's admonitions and entered a couple of beauty pageants.

"I think she did it for fun," said Tara Warner, another of Molly's sisters. But there is little question that she also entered the pageants because she had been told it was something she could not expect to succeed at.

In fact, her open manner and easy-going charm made her a formidable competitor. In one of the pageants, Hoffman recalled, Molly wowed the judges, not with her poise and bearing but with her strikingly honest answer to a seemingly innocuous question.

"She had not a lick of talent for beauty pageants whatsoever, "Hoffman recalled. "I mean she was who she was." Most of all, she was a child of tough times who had developed a Hoosier practicality. And so, when the contestants were asked what they would do with $20, Molly listened patiently as the other contenders explained how they would somehow use the price of a dinner for four at McDonald's to purchase world peace. When it came time for Molly to respond to the question, she recalled how just before she left for the pageant, her mother had expressed concern that the household supply of paper products was running precariously low.

So instead of promising to fund a college education for starving Third World children, Molly said "I'd buy my mom some toilet paper - she needed some," Hoffman recalled. “And the crowd was just roaring.”

"Some would say that she was making fun of us," Hoffman said. "No...unlike all those other girls, she was honestly telling them what she would be doing with that money. And she won Miss Congeniality."

Family fears her own kindness was her undoing

While she showed no sign of pretentiousness in her own life, she did love the idea of show business. She loved to sing, and dreamed that one day she might get a chance to appear on the hit television show "American Idol," Hoffman recalled. While that might be an idle daydream for most, Molly saw it as one more opportunity to once again prove herself, and as with everything else in her life, she threw herself into the pursuit of that dream with a passion.

That was one of the things that brought her to Indianapolis that summer: the chance to study and work on her voice. There also was the fact that the young woman who was so attached to her family could spend the summer with one of her older brothers.

But her family now fears that her belief in the essential goodness of others, and her willingness to help others, the poor, the dejected, even sometimes the athletes she competed against - in short, her kindness and naivite - may have made her vulnerable in that city.

The authorities have never found a real crime scene in the Molly Dattilo case, no pool of blood on a back stairway someplace, no errant hair in the trunk of some randomly stopped car, and in the absence of any hard evidence, authorities have no choice but to deal with the matter as a missing person case.

That doesn't mean that the police have not aggressively investigated it, Taylor told Crime Library. In the days after her disappearance, as they probed deeper into her background, police also came to suspect that the young woman would never have simply run away, and that something horrible had happened to her.

They questioned former boyfriends and acquaintances, Taylor said, "but nothing tipped the scale" or led police to label any of them as a "person of interest."

They've tracked down an array of leads, possible sightings and tips, all with the same result: nothing.

They've even met with psychics. Some four dozen of them have offered their services to the family, and several claimed to have been certain that Molly had been abducted, raped and murdered, most likely, at least some of the psychics believe, by a stranger, a predator who had stalked the young woman.

But for all their certainty, none of the psychics yet interviewed by police has been able to provide enough specific detail to be of much help.

"They're very general statements that don't point you to a specific area," Taylor said. "Most of what they say [refer to] any place in Indianapolis...It has turned up that we've found a few animal bones, but nothing else."

Family just wants to "give her...a big ol' funeral"

But at least one of the psychics has brought a measure of comfort to Molly's family, which was again shaken by loss late last year when Molly's father, Fred Dattilo, died after a long illness.

"A psychic said that Molly and my father are having a good time together," said Tara Warner, another of Molly's sisters.

And while a psychic's final prediction that Molly's body would be recovered by this September, remains as yet unproved, neither the police nor Molly's family are willing to give up.

A $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Molly's disappearance is still being offered by an anonymous donor, and the sheriff's department continues to solicit tips on the case through its tip line at (317) 231-8702.

For their part, Molly's siblings and her mother are hoping for that elusive sense of closure. "It would be so nice to find her body and bury her properly, to give her a big ol' funeral," Warner said.