Bryan and Dwayne,
It sure has been a long time! I miss the both of you, and think of you often.
I hope that wherever you 2 are, you have a great Christmas, and an excellent New Year!
I still hang both of your stockings every year. Not by the fire place for Santa to fill, but near a window, just in case ... ... ...
Until we meet again,
Mom
Dwayne,
I just wanted to drop you a line, to wish you a Happy Birthday...
I didn't forget!
Until we meet again,
Mom
The link for each missing child listed here, is the direct link to a
NCMEC Printable Poster.
If you live near any of these locations, have a printer, and have the time to pass out a few flyers, you could very well save a life someday! Your help is appreciated!
Thank You.
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October 21, 2007
MAUDLYNE IHEJIRKA
It was the day before he was to return home from a mock United Nations conference he was attending in Chicago with 13 other University of Missouri-Kansas City students. And a sponsor had just promised them a trip to Costa Rica.
"Mom, aren't you excited for me?" Donna Ross' boy asked.
"Who's going to pay for this?" the Belton, Mo., mother of two wondered.
"Oh, Mom! We'll raise the money! Why aren't you happy for me?"
"OK, I'm happy," said Donna Ross, 59, an elementary school secretary. "We'll talk later."
They never got the chance. Early on Nov. 21, 2006, two days before Thanksgiving, Jesse Ross vanished while in Chicago. This past spring, the police formally suspended their search for him.
Chicago Sun Times
December 4, 2006
Brittany Lane
The 19-year-old sophomore is a well-liked student with friends across the campus and throughout Kansas City. He is looking forward to finishing up his new room in his parents' home, which was built especially for him. Ross is also counting down until his promotion from intern to paid employee at radio station 95.7 "the Vibe," where he is popular as on-air personality Opie.
"There was not any reason whatsoever or indication that he was negative about anything," said Ross' father Don Ross. "We had a room we were finishing for him downstairs. Jesse was a UMKC fan, but he liked KU basketball. So we were going to do his room in KU colors. We got the right paint colors. He was anxious to get back and set up his room. We checked his cell phone messages and he had plans with friends."
Ross has so much going for him. That's why family and friends are puzzled why he still has not made it home. Ross has been missing since early Tuesday, Nov. 21. He was in Chicago with UMKC's Model UN team for the American Model United Nations International Conference.
Search Continues for Student
Strange Coincidence
Jesse's disappearance comes almost a year after a 31-year-old Matthew Soumakis from Massachusetts disappeared from the same area, possibly the same hotel. Soumakis, who was in Chicago on business, had also been staying at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. His body was found floating in the Chicago River near Goose Island two weeks later.
Footprints At The River's Edge
March 10, 2008
Derek Simons
The benefit concert featured three different bands: Episode 4, Frat Pack and A Dead Giveaway, a band Jessie used to tour with, helping to organize the shows. A Dead Giveaway worked with Jesse's fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, to set up this second musical event at UMKC. Don Ross also thanked the university administration for its help and support.
"I know things look pretty gloomy, but I've played a little conversation in my mind," said Jesse's mother, Donna Ross. "Jesse would never forgive us. 'What do you mean?' he would say. 'How could you give up?' … We just hope and pray. Somebody's got to know something."
Bands play for missing UMKC student Jesse Ross
'Jane Doe' was located on December 20, 1976 in White Haven, Carbon County, PennsylvaniaA.E. went into premature labor and had the child early on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2004. Thurnwald learned of the birth an hour after the baby was born. When he tried to visit the mother, she wouldn't see him, court documents said.
Thurnwald contacted a lawyer but was unable to file a paternity petition until Tuesday because the courts were closed Sunday and also Monday for Labor Day.
By Tuesday, the mother had waited the requisite 24 hours and relinquished custody of the child to LDS Family Services for adoption.
At a hearing on the paternity petition, the adoption was placed on hold.
In July 2005, a state district court ruled against Thurnwald because he didn't meet the deadline for filing the paternity petition.
May 9, 2007
Utah justices modify paternity deadline
After Nikolas Thurnwald's girlfriend became pregnant and moved out of their home, he continued to date her.
(This is just a scan of first paragraph original newspaper article)
Court: Dad's rights pinched by holiday weekend birth (PDF format)
In a 4-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Thurnwald, saying that when a child is born on a weekend or holiday the deadline should be extended to the next business day.
In a dissenting opinion, Associate Chief Justice Michael J. Wilkins said the Legislature had given unmarried fathers a limited but adequate time period to assert their parental rights.
"The period begins at conception and ends at the time the biological mother executes her consent to adoption," he wrote. "Those who elect to father a child without benefit of marriage must take steps to assert their legal relationship with the child, or they risk losing it altogether."
August 3rd, 2007 @ 6:33am
FARMINGTON, Utah (AP) -- The Utah Supreme Court gave a Utah man the right to challenge the adoption of his son, which he argued was done before he could reasonably file for paternity.
But now the adoption agency says the rights of the nearly 3-year-old child would be violated if the boy was removed from the only home he's known.
Nikolas Thurnwald argued that he and the child's mother made plans to keep the child. But under pressure from her family, the woman gave the child up for adoption shortly after birth.
Thurnwald filed for paternity in 2004 on the first business day after the child was born. But that was after the 24-hour deadline set for unwed fathers because of a weekend and the Labor Day holiday.
After Thurnwald's Supreme Court victory that found the rules were unfair, a motion to dismiss the adoption was filed.
But an attorney for LDS Family Services, which handled the adoption, says the child shouldn't be removed from his adoptive home. The attorney also wants proof Thurnwald is the father and that he paid a reasonable amount of the expenses of the mother's pregnancy and childbirth.
Adoption Agency Against Giving Baby Back to Biological Father
Katherine Wilson
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Father or sperm donor? The front-page story on May 20, "Paternity case," about Nikolas Thurnwald, who wants to gain custody of his three-year-old son, made me want to scream. A quote from Thurnwald, "I don't know his name," tells it all.
How is it in the best interest of his biological child to remove him from the only home he's ever known, from the two people he calls "mommy" and "daddy," and put him in the arms of someone he doesn't know, Mr. Thurnwald?
I would fight to the death to keep my child, whether mine by birth or adoption... (blah blah blah...)
Child is not a puppy to be transferred
After reading the May 28 letter, "Case is all about Thurnwald, not child," I just couldn't take all the negative criticism Nikolas Thurnwald is receiving for trying to get his son back.
People who wrote and trashed him need to pull their heads out and read the May 20 news story again ("Paternity case"). They all think he is just barely trying to get custody of his son after three years, but he's been trying since the day his son was born!
June 3, 2007
Mark Lopez
Criticism against Thurnwald is unjustified
By JESSE FRUHWIRTH
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
SYRACUSE -- A father's quest to reunite with his son has apparently come to an end -- the Utah Court of Appeals has ruled against the man whose son was placed for adoption against his wishes four years ago.
One judge noted, however, that the law cited to terminate Nikolas Thurnwald's paternity rights is vague, illusory, highly problematic and invites fabrication.
He urged the Legislature to clarify the law.
"... (S)evering an unmarried biological father's parental rights based on such technicalities serves to reinforce traditional notions about gender and childrearing -- i.e., that women are biologically better suited for raising children," Judge James Z. Davis wrote in his concurring opinion released Thursday.
"(Those) notions are antiquated and harmful to both men and women."
Syracuse father loses fight / Court ruling in four-year-old adoption case urges Legislature to clarify law
Imagine for a moment Lighting Candles World Wide and all at the same time. Imagine your child knowing we are Lighting Candles World Wide just for them.
We have given this a lot of thought and we have come to the conclusion that everyone can light a candle at their home or in their home town at a designated place.
You can be apart of Lighting Candles World Wide to show a united front for the children and their need to have both parents and grandparents in their lives.
DOB: Jul 8, 2001
Age Progression
Circumstances
Kevin's photo is shown age-progressed to 7 years. He was last seen at home on March 31, 2004. Kevin was abducted by his non-custodial mother, Maria Lujan. A felony warrant was issued for the abductor on May 21, 2004. He has a purplish birthmark on the lower right side of his back. Kevin is Biracial. He is Black and Hispanic. The abductor may use the alias date of birth January 1, 1959.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office (California)
1-213-974-3607
NCMEC poster
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