Search for Missing Teen Alexis Murphy's Uncovers Key Pieces of Evidence

dinsdag 3 september 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
by Jeanne Sager 3 hours ago

It has officially been one month since Shipman, Virginia teenager Alexis Murphy disappeared, and despite having a suspect in custody -- a man named Randy Allen Taylor was arrested on August 11 -- no one has had any clue where the missing girl might be. At least until now.

Police have made two startling discoveries in recent days -- new evidence that points to something bad having happened to the young girl who left her home to go shopping and never came back.

Over the weekend, a red sweater thought to belong to the teenager was found in the Rockfish River. Now the FBI is confirming searchers found the Nelson County teenager's cellphone -- near Taylor's house.

It's a second piece of damning evidence for Taylor. Cops placed him under arrest after allegedly finding Murphy's hair in his home, but he has maintained his innocence. Taylor claims he met Murphy at a gas station and drank and did drugs with her, but that she left his home with a drug dealer he can't identify.

Not only does Murphy's family say the story makes no sense -- Alexis neither drank nor did drugs -- she's the second teenager he's been linked to. Cops allege he was also somehow involved in the disappearance of a girl named Samantha Clarke back in 2010, but Taylor denies that as well, and there hasn't been enough evidence to convict him. 

Finding Alexis' cellphone isn't nearly as good as finding Alexis herself, alive, but as they say, something is better than nothing. The more the cops have to go on, the better chance they have of pressuring the person who took her to explain what happened to her -- to give her family answers they need, and hopefully get this girl from justice.

Do you find Taylor's story fishy? What do you make of the discovery of her cellphone?

Image via National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

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Search for Toddler Elaina Steinfurth Abruptly Switches to a Murder Investigation

donderdag 8 augustus 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
by Jeanne Sager 3 hours ago

If you've followed the search for missing Ohio toddler Elaina Steinfurth, you know things haven't looked good from the beginning. It wasn't long after the 18-month-old disappeared that her mother was arrested, and just days later, Angela Mories Steinfurth admitted her daughter was dead. Now cops are saying it's true. The search for Elaina has officially become a homicide investigation.

The heartbreaking news doesn't mean they've found the little girl's body. In fact, they seem to be just as far from it as they were when the girl's mother was arrested.

But in order to keep Angela's boyfriend, Steven King, in jail on obstruction of justice charges, prosecutors dropped the homicide bombshell. They're not looking for the girl.

They're looking for her body.

It's ... well, it's heartbreaking. We always know when a child has been missing for more than a day that things aren't likely to turn out well, but it's human to hold out hope. You don't WANT a child to be dead. You want a miracle.

But miracles have been in short supply for Elaina's family. First her disappearance, then her mom's arrest, and finally King's. Nothing has gone right.

And now things aren't looking good for King.

He is still charged only with obstruction -- the same charge levied against Elaina's mother -- but a judge decided this week to keep one of the last people to see the little girl alive in jail on $250,000 bond. Unless he can come up with the money, he'll be in jail at least until August 15, the date of his next appearance in court.

Maybe by the time that happens, there will be some real answers for Elaina's family ... maybe even some answers from King.

Did you expect this outcome or were you still holding out hope that Elaina was alive?

Image via National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

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Mother's Home Raided After Innocent Google Search for 'Pressure Cooker'

zaterdag 3 augustus 2013

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Update: Law enforcement admitted that they had been sent to the home, but they were alerted by the husband's former employer, because reportedly he (or someone else) was using a work computer to do searches on "pressure cooker BOMBS." That's quite different from "pressure cooker." Michele updated her blog post to confirm that she was later told they were alerted because of work searches, but does not clarify what the search terms were. Was it "pressure cooker" or "pressure cooker bombs"?!

Be careful what you Google! One family reportedly got a visit from police after a confluence of strange Google searches got them branded as terrorists. The family, who live in Long Island, New York, and are as far from terrorists as you and me, say they suddenly got a visit from six men in black, who rolled up to their house and demanded a search. What brought this supposed terrorism task group to this suburban family? Google searches that any one of us could have made! Check it out.

In case you were still under the illusion that your Internet searches aren't being monitored, think again!!

Michele Catalano wrote in her blog about the unannounced visit of six lawmen who showed up on their lawn while her husband was home. Michele writes:

Little did we know our seemingly innocent, if curious to a fault, Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling. Because somewhere out there, someone was watching. Someone whose job it is to piece together the things people do on the internet raised the red flag when they saw our search history.

What was going into Google? The search terms "pressure cooker" and "backpack" -- two of the items associated with the Boston Marathon bombers, who used backpacks to conceal their pressure cooker-bombs.

But Michele was just researching "pressure cooker" so she could make quinoa, and her husband was looking into buying a backpack. Top it all off with a teen son who apparently clicked on a news link about how bomb-making instructions are easily available online and pictures that the family posted on Facebook of explosives for their July 4th fireworks -- and wahlah! Terrorism Task Alert Force pegged them as criminals.

Until they showed up and found nothing in the home -- and Michele's husband mentioned "quinoa." "What the hell is quinoa?" one agent supposedly asked.

The agents peppered Michele's husband with questions, including, "Do you have any bombs?" They searched the house (their son was sleeping in his bedroom at the time) and the backyard. After apparently realizing they weren't dealing with terrorists, they left.

Scarily, at first everyone denied the family had been searched, which led people to accuse Michele of making the whole thing up. But later county police reportedly confirmed they had sent detectives to the scene of the non-crime.

I've written about this sort of thing in the past. As part of my job, I routinely Google the weirdest, most crazy shit. The other day, while trying to find a story about Alanna Gallagher, the little girl murdered and left under a tarp in the street, I Googled, "Little girl naked tied up." You don't want to know what links that suggested!

I'm truly surprised no one has banged on my door yet. Hopefully this post will get me out of any future trouble!

I've used search engines like DuckDuckGo that don't monitor your searches, but they are slow and don't have nearly the same quality of results that Google does.

How is this happening? Why are we all allowing it? And don't think it couldn't happen to you. According to Michele, the agents said they make 100 searches like this a week!

I find the whole thing disconcerting. You hope that cops will realize it's just a Google search when nothing criminal pops up in your house, but who knows? They could say you hadn't acted on your criminal intent yet!

Ugh, scary.

Do you worry about this kind of thing? Do you feel our privacy is being invaded or this is necessary prudence?

Image via Victor1558/Flickr

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