57 replies to this topic

[Denise Harrison]

Audrey Herron is the featured person for May 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.



These advertisements are purchased by The Garden for the Missing. More information about the Garden for the Missing is available at http://www.gardenforthemissing.org. More about Project Jason’s 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...ess.html<br />

Bling ring. La gang di ragazzini che ha fregato Hollywood e sconvolto il mondo

[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.

[Kelly]

http://www.timesunio...her-1463477.php


Ride dedicated to missing woman's father
Organizers of motorcycle rally remember Audrey May Herron's late father

By CAROL DEMARE Staff writer
Published 12:02 a.m., Wednesday, July 13, 2011

ALBANY -- This month's annual motorcycle ride to benefit the children of a nurse who vanished nine years ago has taken on new meaning.

Ray Turk Sr., father of the missing woman, Audrey May Herron, died last month without knowing what happened to his daughter.

The 31-year-old mother of three finished her shift at a Catskill nursing home at 11 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2002, said good-bye to co-workers, and got into her 1994 black Jeep Grand Cherokee to head home to Freehold, about 12 miles away. She was never seen again.

Read more: http://www.timesunio...p#ixzz1S81JmT8P

[Lori Davis]

http://www.dailyfree...wmode=fullstory

Greene County bike run, benefit honors Freehold woman missing for nearly 11 years
Published: Wednesday, August 14, 2013
By ARIEL ZANGLA
Freeman staff

HANNACROIX, N.Y. -- A bike run and benefit will be held this month in honor of Audrey May Herron, who has been missing nearly 11 years.

The benefit will be held Aug. 31 at the Ravena-Coeymans Sportsman Club, located off U.S. Route 9W in New Baltimore. Herron’s family hopes to use the event to raise public awareness of her still unsolved case.

Herron was 31 years old, living in the Greenville hamlet of Freehold and working as a licensed practical nurse when she vanished. She was last seen driving a black 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee with New York license plates X23-3UV, which also has not been found. State police said Herron left work, as usual, on the evening of Aug. 29, 2002, but never arrived home to her husband, Jeff Herron, and her three children, Sonsia Court, Katie Herron and Quinn Herron.

“Audrey May Turk Herron’s family has not given up hope that answers are waiting to be found with the public’s help,” Maria Hadley, a friend, said in an email announcing the bike run and benefit. “A renewed interest in missing person’s cases has been pushed to the forefront of the media with the recent discovery of three women who had been long feared deceased, but were instead found alive having been held captive in Ohio. As horrible as that case was, it did shine a light of hope for many families of missing people.”

“You never know,” Ray Turk Jr., Audrey Herron’s brother, said Monday. He said he wants to keep his sister’s name out in the public in the hopes it will lead to information.

Audrey Herron’s mother, Shirley Olmsted, as well as Turk, his wife, Michelle, Sonsia Court and Katie Herron, will be at the bike run and benefit, Hadley said. She said they hope the event will renew interest in the case and provide some answers as to what happened to Audrey Herron. They will also be helping other families of missing people by donating the majority of proceeds from the benefit to the Center For Hope, Hadley said.

Sign-ups for the bike run will be held from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Aug. 31. The run will begin at 10:30 a.m.

The afternoon benefit will begin at noon and include food and drink, as well as a pig roast at 5:30 p.m.

The cost is $25 per bike, with an additional $10 for passengers. The cost to just attend the benefit is $15. A poker run, which costs $10, will also be held.

Herron was described at the time of her disappearance as white, 5 feet tall and 105 pounds with hazel eyes and light brown hair. She was last seen wearing green medical scrubs and a blue turtleneck top.

Anyone with information about Herron’s disappearance is asked to call state police at (518) 622-8600.

[Lori Davis]

http://albany.twcnew...rey-may-herron/

 

12 Years Have Passed Since Disappearance of Audrey May Herron

By: TWC News Staff

08/29/2014 07:52 PM

 

Friday marks 12 years since the disappearance of Audrey May Herron.

 

Audrey was last seen on this date in 2002 leaving the Columbia-Greene Long Term Health Care Facility in Catskill. She worked there as a nurse.

 

Herron's picture was included in a deck of New York "cold case" playing cards six years ago.

 

The cards are related to unsolved cases and were given to jail and prison inmates in hopes they might be able to provide police with information.

 

Herron's family says they are confident one day they will learn what happened to her.

[Lori Davis]

http://yourcliftonpa...-in-cold-cases/

 

Custom coasters are designed to provide new hope in cold cases

BY Molly Congdon
Gazette Reporter
May 29, 2015

 

CLIFTON PARK — When someone goes missing, there is initially a great deal of attention surrounding the case and the effort to find the lost person.

 

Sadly though, with the passage of time, the case drifts out of the public eye, and signs for optimism dwindle until the family of the missing person is left alone with their sadness.

 

Some are afraid to find out what happened, but for Doug and Mary Lyall of Ballston Spa, not knowing is the worst-case scenario.

 

On Monday, March 2, 1998, their daughter Suzanne — a 19-year-old sophomore at the University at Albany — vanished without a trace after exiting a CDTA bus at Collins Circle in Albany. To this day, she is listed as a missing person.

 

In 2001, the Lyalls established The Center for Hope Inc., a nonprofit organization with a mission to aid other families coping with the sadness of the loss of a loved one.

 

They teamed with Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office and DeCrescente Distributing Co. to launch a new round of Coasters for Hope.

 

More than 25,000 Coasters for Hope — drink coasters printed with pictures and information about eight local missing or murdered persons — will be printed and distributed by DeCrescente to restaurants and taverns across the Capital Region in this initial order.

 

In 2013-14, more than 50,000 coasters were distributed in the program’s debut, featuring a different set of missing people, Suzanne Lyall and six others.

 

 

“We are very proud to sponsor the second Coasters for Hope Program; these coasters provide a visible resource to raise awareness in our communities about missing people,” said C.J. DeCrescente, president of DeCrescente Distributing. “By distributing these coasters at our local retailers, our hope is to help ease the pain and uncertainty for families dealing with the disappearance of a loved one. Just one tip could possibly help solve a missing person’s case.”

 

Each coaster has a number where people can anonymously call or text a tip to law enforcement about a missing person’s case.

 

The coasters will be distributed by DeCrescente to Capital Region restaurants and taverns featuring information about the following Capital Region missing people:

 

-Agnes “Ginger” Shoe, age 37, last seen in Glenville in 1979.
-Christina White, age 19, an unsolved 2005 homicide in Milton.
-Erica Franolich, age 26, last seen in Middleburgh in 1986.
-Robert Gutkaiss, age 15, an unsolved 1983 homicide in Stephentown.
-Audrey May Herron, age 31, missing from Catskill since 2002.
-Amanda King, age 27, missing from Glenville since 2013.
-Kathleen Kolodziej, age 17, an unsolved homicide in Cobleskill from 1974.
-Robert Sanfelice, age 33, missing from Albany since 1984.

 

Jogging the memory

 

The plan was announced May 21 at a news conference at Ravenswood restaurant and tavern, 1021 Route 146, Clifton Park.

 

“It just takes one little remembrance or reminder from one of these coasters that can help jog somebody’s memory and maybe make the difference in the lives of that person or their family members,” Tedisco said.

 

The public-private partnership to create and distribute drink coasters to help find missing people is the first of its kind in the Northeast. “I think this is another great example of the private sector stepping up to help the community,” Clifton Park Town Supervisor Phil Barrett said.

 

Looking at the Lyalls, he said: “No words can ever express what you’ve gone through and continue to go through, but I hope that the support shown in this community and many across New York state provides some comfort to you and again I just want to thank everyone for being a part of this.”

 

The key to success is to continue to be innovative and to keep the information revolving around those who are missing in the public eye. “ ‘Coasters for Hope’ is a huge investigative tool for us,” Sheriff Michael Zurlo said. “The coasters will be out in all area restaurants and everything is kept anonymous. This is will help local law enforcement.”

 

Tedisco has been a longtime advocate on issues related to missing children.

 

“To not know the fate of a loved one who has gone missing can lead families to a quiet desperation of anger, frustration and deep sadness,” he said. “However improbable it might seem, one tip could help law enforcement solve a missing-persons cold case and no matter how improbable it might seem, perhaps even help a missing person come home. If someone sees one of these Coasters for Hope at their neighborhood restaurant or tavern then they may know something that could lead to a major break in a missing persons case.”

 

When the active investigation turns into a cold case, it’s heartbreaking.

 

“We are just two parents who lost their daughter 17 years ago and we are hoping that our coasters, our programs will help other families,” Mary Lyall said. “All these people are children of somebody; they all have families and these families are desperately searching for them.”

 

She continued: “They all need answers. Everybody is searching for an answer.”

[Deborah]

Audrey is still missing.

 

http://troopers.ny.g...19-b64ac26445aa