Recently in Missing Persons Category

http://footprintsattheriversedge.blogspot.com/2010/02/012210-jon-lacina-21-ames-ia.html

As some of you may have heard in the past months, a student at ISU named Jon Lacina has been missing since January 22, 2010 in Ames, Iowa. He was last seen at about 9:30 that night and no traces of him were found. The police did many different investigations to try and find him, but nothing helped. There were also helicopter and local waterway searches, but still nothing was ever found.

On April 14th, Jon's body was found by an ISU police officer in the Dairy Pavilion, owned by ISU, about a mile from Central Campus. They forensics department is still looking to figure out how he died and they won't know for weeks.

This tragic circumstance is something that police and other officials should not dismiss. Lacina's family and friends knew him to be a smart, loving person with a love for music and art and he was not a person who takes risks. All of these aspects of his life make you wonder what really happened, since he seemed to be a well-rounded young man. It also makes me wonder why the police didn't check the dairy barns more extensively, since it is in a more remote location but still in range of campus. Another thing that bothers me is what if he was killed? How would we ever find the killer? Is that person still in Ames walking around campus? It is a frightening feeling and now that the police found the body, the investigators should be doing lots more research to find out what really happened.

      In a previous post I wrote about a girl who was abducted during the super bowl and later found dead after authorities delayed releasing an Amber Alert. This idea brought about many questions regarding who is allowed to release amber alerts and what is the criteria? Interestingly enough, today while I was driving back to Cedar Falls an important announcement interrupted the song playing on the radio. This announcement came from the Iowa Police issuing an Amber Alert for 14 year old, Janakaye Marie Lee, of Council Bluffs stating she had been abducted earlier today and seems to be in danger. Interestingly enough later in the day when I was on the internet trying to find more information regarding the Amber Alert  I found it had been cancelled; however the girl is still missing. The police felt this situation was important enough to issue an amber alert, yet later retracted the alert because they felt she was not longer in danger. Yet if you read on the girl is still missing, and the person who is suspected to have taken her left a suicide note. I felt this article/situation was interesting not only does it deal with law enforcement and the procedures they go through when looking at a case (more specifically an abduction case) but it also is taking place here in Iowa. From the information given we know the amber alert was released because Lee was in danger, and we know it was retracted because Lee is not said to be in danger anymore. I would be interested to know what ideas and pieces to this puzzle made police retract the amber alert. Also, for those of you who have read my post on the super bowl killing I want to highlight that for the young girl taken in that situation an Amber Alert was not issued until 18 hours later.

Below are some links referred to in this post:

News Report of Janakaye Marie Lee's abduction (KCCI, Des Moines)

http://www.kcci.com/news/22634757/detail.html

Cancelled Amber Alert for Lee:

This website shows the cancelled alert; however, you can still see the type of information police obtained and used in creating the Amber Alert.

http://www.iowaamberalert.org/app.php?pgname=alertdetails&id=6

Iowa Amber Alert Website

http://www.iowaamberalert.org/

Super bowl Killing Link:

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/carlie_brucia/1.html

In 2004 Carlie Brucia was reported missing by her mother after she never made didn't arrive home from her fiends house (a 15-20 min walk). Carlie was abducted in a car wash parking lot the night of the super bowl in 2004 and later that night was brutally murdered. The interesting thing about this case was not that she was abducted an murdered but it was how the manatee sheriffs department responded to her mothers request for an amber alert. Since the mother reported her daughter missing after approximately 10 min of her being abducted the police department had to inclination that a crime had been committed. It wasn't until 18 hours later when the police saw the video tape of her abductor via the car wash security camera was an amber alter released. Many people came forward stating they new who the guy in the video was; Joe Smith, cocaine addict. In the article below you read about Smiths addiction to cocaine, how he went into relapse and how the night of the super bowl his intentions were not to kill Carlie but to kill himself. The article takes you through the entire case from her abduction, her murder, and into the trial. In the end Smith is sentenced to execution.  It is apparent that if the manatee sheriffs department would have issued an amber alert sooner maybe she would be alive today.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/carlie_brucia/1.html