This article was written and submitted by our member Ladyeridan – thanks, and welcome to the front page!

http://www.myspace.com/starry_eyes_hates_you

Jacksonville, FL – On November 5th, two men were hiking in Jennings State Forest, a patch of land near the Clay/Duval county border.  They were originally scouting out hunting spots, but they found more than they bargained for.  About two miles in from Normandy Road, near the Cecil air field, they spotted circling buzzards.  As they got closer, they saw what the buzzards had found.  The nude body of a woman was lying in a ditch in just a few inches of water, near a bike path.  They called the police, and the area was quickly turned into a crime scene.

A week later, on November 12th, the body was identified as 17-year-old Meghan Runkle, who had been living with some friends in Jacksonville.  She would have been 18 just two days later.  Police for Duval County are investigating this as a homicide at this time, saying the death is ’suspicious’, but not elaborating.

In an odd parallel, Meghan’s younger brother Jonathan Hackett died in care at Children’s Hospital on November 2nd.    He would have been 15 just a few days later, on the 6th.  Meghan never knew her brother died, nor did he know she was gone.  She had only recently reestablished contact with her family in Pennsylvania, keeping in touch with her stepmother (Jonathan’s mother, Rebecca Jaegacks) through Myspace.  Her last login was on October 2nd, though… and it’s possible that she had been dead since then.  When her remains were found she was in such an advanced state of decomposition, it was impossible to pinpoint her time, or even date of death.

It is supremely difficult for me, as a mother, to imagine what could have happened to Meghan Runkle.  I can’t help but look at it from a mother’s perspective.  What if it had been my daughter in that drainage ditch?  How would I be able to pick up and go on, having lost a son and a daughter so close together?

Here’s where I lose it, though.  Where were the adults in her life?  You have a 17 year old girl, in Florida, whose Myspace shows her having gone to school in California, whose family seems to all be in New York and Pennsylvania.  There are no anchors, nothing that seems permanent.  She drifted too far, and ended up in a drainage ditch, and they still don’t know how, why, or even WHEN.

That same Myspace shows pictures of a very pretty girl, in that spot midway between beautiful child and striking adult, trying to find an identity.  The few blogs are dramatic in the way only a 17 year old who wants to be loved can be dramatic.  Romeo and Juliet style poetry, ’stand by your friends’ stuff… all the things a 15-16-17 year old writes.

I hope Meghan has some measure of peace now that she was unable to find in life.

San Antonio, TX - Eternity Diamond Gonzales turned three two weeks ago.  She loved her parents and siblings, riding on a dirt bike, and the song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”.  She still wore pullups sometimes.  She still slept in bed with her mommy.  And early Sunday morning, Eternity was hit in the heart by a bullet which was probably meant for her father.  Little Eternity never woke up.  She died in her father’s arms, her pacifier still in her mouth. 

It was about 3:00 on Sunday morning when a man knocked on the bedroom window where Eternity was asleep in bed with her parents, Joshua and Crystal Gonzales. As Joshua Gonzales walked toward the front door of the small home, two men opened fire.   They shot four bullets into the home, then fled the scene in a gold Chevrolet Caprice.  One of the bullets pierced the bedroom wall where the family was sleeping.  Eternity, sleeping, was struck in the chest.

“She didn’t cry or anything,”  Crystal Gonzales said.  “I was handing her to my husband, and we just saw a big bullet hole straight through her heart. We laid her on the couch, and she took her last breath.”

It was only later that Crystal Gonzales realized a bullet had ripped through the mattress and grazed her shoulder. Investigators say that Joshua Gonzales, her husband and Eternity’s father, was the apparent target.

Crystal Gonzales, 22, told reporters that her husband was so upset at Eternity’s death that he left the family home, and that may be true.  It may also be that Joshua Gonzales knows more than he’s telling about the men who tried to kill him and succeeded in killing his little girl.  Is he hiding out, knowing they’ll be coming back?  Or is Eternity’s father planning a little revenge of his own?

Crystal Gonzales thinks the shooting is related to her husband’s former life as a gang member.  She says that Joshua “straightened out” in 2005, after their marriage and the birth of their five year old daughter, Alezay.  Joshua Gonzales started a construction job and began taking care of his family by the time Eternity was born, she said.  In addition to Alezay and Eternity, the couple has two other little girls:  Crystalene, 2, and Margarita, 10 months.

“If anything, it might be something from the past. Way in the past,” she said.

Police have no immediate suspects, but did recover some evidence from the scene, including beer cans left in the front yard of the family home.

Since Eternity’s Sunday morning murder, another San Antonio toddler has been shot.  On Monday, an unidentified 22-month-old boy was hit in the hand during a shooting at his home across town from Eternity’s house.  That child will be okay, but police say it’s rare for two similar shootings to happen so close together.  At this time, they don’t think the two incidents are related.

As always, I’ll update as the investigation continues.  Someone knows who killed Eternity Gonzales.

It has been verified, Joann Cisneros Perez IS the Waller County Jane Doe. Unamused Cat has spoken with Teresa Becker, a research specialist at TXDPS, who confirmed the information.

Waller County, TX – On March 18, 2007, the nude and mutilated body of a woman was discovered dumped near US Highway 290 in Prairie View, Waller County, Texas. She’d only been dead for about two hours. The young woman appeared to be white or Hispanic, and looked to be approximately thirty years old. She stood 5′4″, and weighed about 150 pounds. For over a year, she’s been known as the Waller County Jane Doe, her body unclaimed. Now, with the help of our member Unamused Cat, Jane Doe is undergoing DNA testing to determine whether she is actually missing person Joann Cisneros Perez. Note: There is a postmortem headshot of Jane Doe after the jump. Skip it if you’re easily squicked.

Joann Cisneros Perez, missing since October 2007

When Jane Doe was found last year, the hair on her head and pubic area had been shaved off, and her hands had been removed to deter identification. Plastic bags had been placed over the woman’s head and arm stumps, and secured with duct tape. An autopsy revealed cause of death to be strangulation – the victim’s hyoid bone was broken, a sure sign of compression to the neck which would result in death.

Investigators believe that Jane Doe was killed elsewhere, partially dismembered, and dumped within two hours of her discovery. She was meant to be found – but not meant to be easily identified. No physical evidence produced CODIS hits, and without fingerprints or a local missing persons report, there wasn’t much to go on.

The FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, called ViCAP, released this bulletin to law enforcement in an attempt to identify Waller County’s Jane Doe. They retouched her postmortem identification picture and placed the retouched photo, with opened eyes and added hair, next to the shorn head of Jane Doe, taken shortly after she was discovered:

Jane Doe remained unindentified, her body lay unclaimed in the Harris County Morgue for well over a year. On July 7, 2008, she was buried in a privately owned cemetery, just off of Mathis Road, a rural area surrounded by horse ranches and cow pastures.

On October 19, 2008, Dreamin’ Demon contributor Unamused Cat began a computer search to find the identity of Jane Doe. On Oct 19th, she logged her search here, in our forums. Working from the morgue photo and seaching through missing women in Texas, she started at The Charley Project website and looked at nearly 500 photos before a probable match was found.

When she got to photo #488, Unamused Cat knew right away that she had her Jane Doe. The eyebrows, the mole above the right upper lip, the age, everything was a match except body weight. Joann Cisneros Perez, 31, had been reported missing from Nixon, Texas on October 30, 2007, but might actually have been gone for much longer. Few details were available, but investigators believed Joann had been taken against her will. At the time she went missing, Joann weighed about 200 pounds. By the time Jane Doe was murdered she weighed 151 pounds – which made sense, if Joann was indeed missing for so long before being reported.

Unamused Cat immediately contacted authorities at several agencies, along with a side by side photo comparison of Jane Doe and Joann Cisneros Perez, like this one:

Sgt. Brian Taylor of the Texas Department of Public Safety responded to UCat’s query on Wednesday, October 22nd. At that time, he agreed that the photos were “real close”. All the features appear to be a perfect match, as do the victim’s age and height. That day, Sgt. Taylor told UCat that a Texas Ranger was en route to Waller County.

Unamused Cat waited. And waited. And waited some more. But just yesterday, after nearly two weeks, Sgt. Taylor notified UCat that DNA is currently being processed to verify that Joann Cisneros Perez is indeed the Waller County Jane Doe.

Is Joann Cisneros Perez Jane Doe? Looks like a match to me. But whether she is or she isn’t, we’re proud of our UCat. She took her own time to help an unidentified murder victim get her name back. If Jane Doe is Joann Cisneros Perez, Unamused Cat will have been instrumental in helping to find her and get her some much-needed justice. Once Jane Doe has a name, the search for her killer can begin.

Note to UCat – I know you didn’t really want your name used, but you deserve credit , so there. – imp

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Update 10/13/2008 – Break in the case with three arrests. Luther Bonds, 26, Jerry Williams and Steven Brown, both 24 years old. Bonds told police he was Tate’s boyfriend. More info at bottom of article.

Luther Bonds, Jerry Williams, Steven Brown

At Dreamin’ Demon, sometimes we get a story that hits close to home because it involves one of our own.  This is such a case.   Our member Zibarro emailed us with this story today, and much of the information comes from her.   Words really don’t express our sadness for Zibarro and her family – you are in our thoughts.  Thank you for sharing Brittany’s story with us. – Imp and Morbid

http://www.myspace.com/lil_britt_20_0206

Indianapolis, IN - On Friday evening, just before 6:00, a man and his son were fishing on the White River just off 10th Street in Indianapolis.  They saw what they thought was a mannequin, clad only in underwear, floating just offshore.  On closer inspection, though, the mannequin turned out to be the body of a young woman – and she’d been in the water for awhile.  Today, that body was identified as Brittany Tate, 21.  She’d been murdered and dumped in the river.

Brittany was a cute redhead with stunning blue eyes.  She had a number of tattoos, many of which were applied or touched up by her cousin Bryan. Those tattoos, along with her fingerprints, helped to identify her body.  Cause of death has not yet been released – police will say only that she was a victim of homicide.  Brittany was found only in her panties, and some of her personal effects were found scattered along the shore.

Brittany’s family tells me that she was a sweet, sometimes gullible girl who got caught up in a romantic relationship that might not have been good for her.  Certainly after getting involved with her boyfriend, Brittany quickly got a criminal record to go with her new man, and ended up doing prison time for nonviolent offenses like fraud and theft.

But recently, Brittany seemed to be getting her life together.  She had gotten out of prison, gone home, and had recently bought a car.  But something clearly wasn’t right.  A witness reported seeing a girl matching Brittany’s description standing outside a car like Brittany’s sometime in the last week or so.  The witness said that Brittany appeared to be arguing with a man next to the 10th Street river entrance – just where Brittany’s body was found on Friday.  The car has not been recovered, and the man who was seen arguing with Brittany has not been located.

As of today, there are still more questions than answers.  We know that Brittany Tate was likely murdered.  We don’t know how, or when, or by whom.  All we really know, now, is that Brittany Tate is gone, leaving behind her family and friends.  I’ll keep this article updated as information comes in.

Update 10/13/2008 - Bonds told detectives that he, Williams, Brown and Tate were riding in a car together and that Williams was messing with a gun in the rear driver seat. Tate, the passenger, told Williams not to play with the gun and WIlliams replied by shooting her in the head. The three then took Brittany’s body to the White River and dumped her in.

UPDATE 10/01/08 – Valentino Vasquez Miranda, 19, has been charged with first-degree felony murder in connection with the disappearance and death of Jennifer Lee Hampton. Hotel key card records showed that Miranda, a Days Inn employee, used his passkey to enter Jennifer’s room, where he then sexually assaulted and strangled her. Both Miranda and Rogelio Melchor, 38, are illegal immigrants who were arrested on forgery charges earlier in the investigation. Melchor has not been charged, but is considered a person of interest in Jennifer Hampton’s murder.  Authorities say more charges for both men may be forthcoming.  I’ll update as more details become available.

http://www.myspace.com/jenniferhamp

Knoxville, TN and Florence, AL – Jennifer Lee Hampton was only in town for a business trip. On Friday night, the 21-year-old woman disappeared from the Days Inn in Farragut, Tennessee, a suburb of Knoxville.  Hampton was last seen at about 9:00 p.m. Friday closing the door to Room 146.   Now police say they have evidence of foul play.  As I write, Jennifer Hampton has not been found.

Hampton and three other employees of Mama Blues Buffet were on a four-day trip to Farragut to train new employees of the restaurant.  On Friday evening, Jennifer and another employee left the restaurant at about 8:30 p.m. and went by a McDonald’s.  By about 9:00 to 9:15, Jennifer told her co-worker goodnight and closed the door to her hotel room.  Saturday morning, Jennifer Hampton didn’t show up for breakfast and hasn’t been seen since.

The three other Mama Blues employees staying at the Days Inn told police that it wouldn’t be like Jennifer to leave the room to go out later that evening. That sentiment has been echoed by nearly everyone who has spoken to the press since Friday night.  Jennifer is not known to drink, smoke, or stay out late. The Days Inn was heavily booked Friday night with football fans, but so far nobody has offered any tangible leads.

So what happened to Jennifer Lee Hampton?

Investigators aren’t saying much beyond the “we have reason to believe foul play is involved” statement issued today.  The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has agents on the case, processing evidence and working to locate Hampton.  On Monday, about fifty officers and agents formed a grid search through some nearby wetlands and trails.  Some possible evidence was flagged, but nothing so far has conclusively led to any information about Jennifer’s whereabouts.

Two Days Inn employees, Valentino Miranda and Rogelio Melchor, were arrested on unrelated forgery charges on Saturday. They are being held without bond on immigration holds pending verification of their identities.

Jennifer Lee Hampton is twenty-one years old, 5′3″ and slender at about 110 pounds.  She has longer dark hair and brown eyes.  If you have seen Hampton, or have any information on her condition and whereabouts, please call (865) 215-7014.

UPDATE 9/29/08 – Police have confirmed that a body found in Melton Hill Lake near Knoxville last weekend is that of Jennifer “Jenny” Hampton.   The cause of death is not being released at this time, but is being investigated as a homicide.  A fisherman found Hampton’s nude body near shore at the lake on Saturday.  Based on the description, the family believed then that the body was Jennifer’s, but the identification was confirmed on Monday.  An autopsy is being done and funeral arrangements are pending.   Hampton told a boyfriend that two men were outside her room bothering her just before she went missing, and the hotel room showed signs of a struggle.

UPDATE 9/30/08 - Knoxville police have at least one suspect in custody in the murder of Jennifer Hampton. Two room cleaners for the Days Inn where Jennifer was staying have been in custody on immigration holds since the morning after Jennifer’s disappearance.  Now that her body has been identified and forensic tests are being run, police have said that Valentino Miranda and Rogelio Melchor may both face charges in connection with Jennifer’s murder, but only one of the men is the actual murder suspect.  At this time, police have not said which man is the possible perpetrator.  I’ll update as more details become available.

Unamused Cat is sleuthing in our forums.

UPDATE – Leslie Morales and Daniel Pataki were caught today in Bland, Virginia. The pair is currently in custody.  More updates will be posted as we get them.

Charlotte, NC – Alexandria Salem’s body was found in the trash.  At about 5:00 yesterday morning, a woman opened her Charlotte dry cleaners and noticed a large bag next to the dumpster.  Inside were the remains of the 46-year-old Salem.  She’d been brutally murdered and hastily dumped.  Now, police are looking for Salem’s daughter Leslie Michelle Morales, 21, and Morales’ boyfriend Daniel Francis Pataki, 22. 

L to R: Leslie Morales, Daniel Pataki, and Leslie’s mother Alexandria Salem

The Myspaces: Leslie, Daniel, the Happy Couple, and Mom

After going to Carolina Cleaners on South Boulevard to process the dump scene, Charlotte investigators headed to a Motel 6 on Red Roof Drive to investigate a possible murder site.  Room 317 at the motel had been vacated and all the sheets stolen – sheets that appeared to be wrapped around the body of Alexandria Salem.  Within a few hours, police believed that Alexandria Salem had been the victim of matricide, killed by her own daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend.

Leslie Michelle Morales doesn’t like her name or her mother.  Her Myspaces, linked above, use the names “Lisa” and “Lilly”.  In a blog entry, Morales airs her grievances at her family:

MY FAMILY HATES MY MAN AND I DONT EVEN KNONW WHY BUT I HAD TO JUST TELL THEM ALL OFF AND I HAD TO GET AWAY FROM THEM……..I LOVE MY MAN MORE THEN THEY WILL EVER KNOW AND I WILL NEVER LEAVE HIM NO MATTER WHAT……..I AM JUST SICK AND TIRED OF THESE DAMN PEOPLE TRYING TO BREAK US UP…….”

Alexandria Salem, for her part, seems to have been a caring, loving mother.  Looking at the Myspaces, Salem was on her daughter’s friends list, but also seemed to have a little talent for subtle guilt, like this comment:

well i guess u dont have time like i do to come online …..i guess there is no need to have a profile on here anymore….i hope to hear from ya soon on here too……i am very proud of u in ur acheivement at work….luv ya sweety…..

It seems clear that there’s been a little bit of tension in the mother-daughter relationship for awhile.  It appears that Salem was trying to be supportive and that Leslie was pulling away, making excuses not to contact her mother for weeks at a time.

At one point in 2007, it appears that Leslie Morales was pregnant with Daniel Pataki’s baby – or thought she was.  However, there’s no further mention of a child except in one of his Myspace photos, in which he is holding a newborn little sister last year.  The caption reads, “My little sister.  I wish it was my daughter though.”

In other Myspaces, Pataki and Morales refer to each other as husband and wife, although they never married.  There’s a sense of immaturity to the couple’s relationship, at least as it appears on Myspace – lots of unrealistic thinking, drama, and fantasy rather than reality.  Combined with a vocal sense of injustice about family reaction to their love affair, it’s easy to see how police zeroed in on Leslie and Daniel as suspects.  The biggest motives for murder are love and money, and I’m willing to bet that both are involved in this case.

By yesterday afternoon, the CMPD were staking out two apartment buildings near the crime scenes in southwest Charlotte.  So far, though, Morales and Pataki have not been found.  Alexandria Salem’s cause of death has not yet been released, and details remain sketchy as the CMPD continues to investigate.

Warrants for murder have been issued for Leslie Morales and Daniel Pataki. Police believe the couple is traveling in a red Chevrolet Cobalt with North Carolina tag number XKY-6459.   The pair is thought to be armed and dangerous.  Police are asking anyone who sees Morales, Pataki or the car not to approach them, but to call 911 immediately.

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UPDATE 8/24/08 – Police have issued a warrant for Luis Gonzalez, 22, on a charge of leaving the scene of a vehicle accident involving a fatality. He has not been charged with murder in Tia Poklemba’s death but was seen leaving the bar with her on the night of her death.  Gonzalez also owned the tan Cadillac CTS that is believed to have hit Poklemba.  That vehicle has been towed from Gonzalez’ address and taken for forensic analysis.  Gonzalez is believed to have fled the area.

Tia Poklemba (L) and Luis Gonzalez (R)

San Carlos Park, FL – According to her friends and acquaintances, Tia Marie Poklemba was funny, and happy, and energetic. The 25-year-old also was strong-willed and tough (one friend says she carried a knife), which makes her murder at the hands of an as-yet-unknown assailant–and the circumstances surrounding her death–even more shocking.

Her last minutes were witnessed by Frank Roberts and his nephew Jessie Livermon. The two were driving down a quiet residential street delivering papers about 2:30 this morning when they came upon Tia, sitting upright in the middle of the street. While Livermon called 911, Roberts jumped out and went to the young woman’s side. Her condition, as described by Roberts, was gruesome. He reported her dress was pulled up around her waist and her top pulled down. She was covered in scrapes, blood, and bruises and missing an ear. There was a hole in her shoulder, and there were clumps of her hair on her clothing and the pavement. It looked to Roberts like she may had been thrown from a car then run over. He kept talking to her, asking her what happened and who she was with. “With friends,” are the only words she said to him. When Tia jerked, gasped for air, and began to fall over, Roberts lowered her to the street. Her eyes remained on his. Tia Poklemba died shortly after medics arrived.

Police are releasing little information at this time, but one of Tia’s friends said Tia was at the Tiki Bar at the Best Western Springs Resort. Apparently Tia met an ex-boyfriend there, argued with him, and then stayed at the bar after he left. When Tia left–possibly to walk to a friend’s mother’s house near the bar–she may have been followed.

Tia’s family released a statement today:

Thank you for anyone who has come forward so far with information. We wish the community would continue to assist us and the police department in finding out who did this. We aren’t emotionally ready to appear at this time. Anyone who met Tia couldn’t help but fall in love with her. She was always filled with so much life and energy. If anyone has any information please contact the police department. We appreciate all of your help. Thank you.

Investigators are looking for a person of interest in the case. The man is described as Hispanic, having black hair, between 5′7″ and 5′9″ tall, and between 170 and 180 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black t-shirt with logos on the back and front left side.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at 477-1000 or Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS.

Unamused Cat is keeping an eye on this in our forums.

Boulder, CO and Atlanta, GA – Well, denizens, I never thought this day would come. In a letter released today, Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy issued a formal apology to John Ramsey, father of murder victim JonBenet Ramsey. The letter states that new DNA evidence has cleared the entire Ramsey family of any suspicion in the December 26, 1996 death of six-year-old JonBenet.

I KNOW! I’m shocked. Well, partly shocked. Mostly, even. For years, I was sure Patsy did it. Then I decided maybe Burke did it and John and Patsy covered it up. And then I decided that probably an intruder did it – maybe not John Mark Karr, but someone who knew the family, knew the routine, knew JonBenet. Maybe the Christmas party Santa, or some random party guest, or even a family friend. I really didn’t know.

JonBenet in life was a pageant princess, a dress-up doll for her mother, a bleached blonde, contact-lensed little girl who wore Pull-ups to hide her bedwetting and curlers to hide her naturally straight hair. Her eyes weren’t really green or blue, her hair wasn’t really blonde, and maybe she liked pageants, maybe she didn’t, but she was very good at doing what she was told. Her father John ran a successful business. Her mother Patsy, John’s second, younger wife, had been a pageant princess herself.

The Christmas-night murder of JonBenet inside the family home was a cluster from the beginning. From the ransom note on the stairs to John Ramsey finding his daughter’s stiff body in the basement and bringing it upstairs, placing her under the Christmas tree, the whole thing was an evidentiary nightmare. None of the fiber evidence was viable due to compromise. Half the neighborhood was in the huge Ramsey house while JonBenet’s body was in the basement. The timelines were a mess, and the parents lawyered up. Frankly, few people on the planet have looked as guilty as the Ramseys.

The problem was motive.  Motive and that pesky, degraded DNA on JonBenet’s underwear and under her fingernails. Some people thought Patsy had killed JonBenet out of rage over toileting or possible molestation. Some accused John Ramsey of abusing his daughter. Some thought Burke did it out of jealousy.  For twelve years, the crime has remained unsolved – through countless books, some civil suits, the advent of internet true crime message boards, Patsy’s cancer, a few movies, and one screamo band, The JonBenet.

Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June 2006. At the time of her death, she remained under the “umbrella of suspicion” that clouded the family after JonBenet’s death. Burke spent most of his teen years in private school, and the Ramseys lit out for their hometown of Atlanta as soon as they could get out of Colorado – but the suspicion followed them, even after weirdo John Mark Karr’s false confession in August 2006.

The new DNA was taken in March of this year from the waistband of the long thermal underwear JonBenet was wearing over her panties when her body was found. Because JonBenet was sexually assaulted, it has been thought that the long johns were taken off and put back on by her killer.  That DNA matches the earlier DNA from JonBenet’s panties, and excludes every member of the Ramsey family, including John’s adult son.  Instead, it points to an “unknown male”.

JonBenet was found dead, in full rigor, in the basement of the family home in a little-used room on December 26, 1996.  She had been garroted with a cord and sexually assaulted with finger or possibly a broken paintbrush of her mother’s which, broken, became the handle of the garrote used to strangle her. She had an eight-inch skull fracture, and the bleeding in her brain indicated that she had probably been hit as or after she was strangled, certainly not long before. And marks on her body could have come from a Taser. Her mouth was duct-taped, and she had eaten some pineapple shortly before her death.

So if none of the Ramseys killed JonBenet, who did? That, as always, remains the question. The floor is yours, demons. I know some of you have followed this case from the beginning, and I’ve wanted to toss it out there for awhile now. This is your shot. Got a theory? Let’s hear it. Whose DNA is it? Could the Ramseys have done it anyway? What really happened in the Ramsey house on Christmas, 1996?

Huntington, West Virginia - Thought I should go ahead and get this story up. It’s not looking too good. Leah Hickman, a broadcast journalism major at Marshall University, was reported missing Sunday after she failed to show up for her shift at a local Dress Barn on Saturday, Dec. 15. The last anyone has heard from her was when she used her cell phone the day before and told a friend she was going to McDonald’s to get something to eat. In the apartment she shares with her sister, her coat, keys, and McDonald’s wrappings were found. Her cellphone was not there. Family members report that Leah’s cell phone voicemail is full. She hasn’t logged on to her MySpace page since the day she disappeared. The store where Leah works, The Dress Barn, is offering a $10,000 reward for information about her location. Hickman is a 5-foot-4 white female, about 125 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Looks as if she has been located. Her body was found in the crawlspace of her apartment building. She lived on the second floor and it is being reported that there were numerous entry points to the crawlspace. No official word has been made in regards to the body, but I am guessing it is pretty safe to say it is her. If not, that apartment building has some big issues.

Update and a request for more information – 9/14/2009

Because of the Annie Le case, the student whose body was found hidden behind a wall in the basement of a Yale building, I was reminded of this case (thanks to LeeMouse and Ryli Morgan for the specifics). I decided to see if there were any updates and was surprised to see that there have been very few. Here are the official updates since we first reported on this story, thanks to WSAZ:

3/13/08 – Huntington Police say Marshall student Leah Hickman was strangled and there are no signs that she was sexually assaulted. They do not believe Leah’s murder was a random act and they believe the person or people responsible for the crime was/were “familiar with” Leah and the layout of her apartment building. Police say they are not going to release the results of the DNA tests at this point in their investigation.

7/11/08 – Sergeant Williams tells WSAZ.com’s Carrie Cline that they’re still awaiting results from DNA testing. They’re having some intricate tests run that just finished one stage at an FBI lab in Arizona and are now headed to the next stage.

8/28/08 – Captain Steve Hall with the Huntington Police Department says they have a “person of interest,” but are awaiting the results of DNA tests. Detectives continue to await the outcome of those tests which typically takes a minimum of six months, although they’re not giving any timeline for when they expect to receive the results. “We believe we have the right “person of interest”, but won’t know until we receive the DNA results. That test could either lead to an arrest or clear the individual,” said Capt. Hall.

And that’s seems to be about it. What I was able to find in some older articles is that Leah did not have a boyfriend, but had gone on one or two dates with Ian Hardesty, a Marshall student whom she had met through a friend. Some comments I have found have residents feeling police bungled the case (starting from the length of time it took them to find her body) and other comments allude to Hardesty being the person of interest mentioned by police. But to be clear, Hardesty has never publicly been named as a POI, I am just merely pointing out what I found. So please, if anyone has any further information on this, post it.

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