August 30th, 2005
The following websites have set up areas to help people find friends and family who are presumed missing due to Hurricane Katrina:
Here is a good blog with all the latest on Katrina.
Here is the portal to the City of New Orleans website.
Here is the portal to the State of Louisiana website.
Frequently Asked Disaster Assistant Questions.
I plan to keep updating this as I find more. Please leave links in the comment section as you find them too.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, missing persons
August 30th, 2005
Fortunately none of my family lives in New Orleans anymore so it’s just my adopted dysfunctional family (my friends) that I have to worry about. I have now heard from or of most everyone in my old social circle that was still living in the New Orleans area.
El, PW (and English who arrived in town in time to evac), Peter, and Meg have been verified by myself as safe in Memphis — meaning I’ve spoken to them myself. It’s still impossible to contact anyone via a cell phone with a 504 area code though they aren’t actually physically in the 504 area code at the moment. Peter and Meg are in a hotel and El, PW, English, and El’s family are staying with El’s sister’s family. The current plan is that they (El, PW, English, El’s mom, & El’s beaux) will probably leave from Memphis and meet me in Atlanta on Thursday as planned — might as well since they already have the reservations and they can’t go home yet.
Email from BJ assures me that he is safe. He has heard from 2Cool who is also apparently in Memphis with his family. I was particularly worried about that because his family lives in the 9th Ward and 2Cool cannot swim, though he does live closer to the Quarter than his family.
Mickey and Minnie and offspring are with her family in an northern LA town and are safe. JB’s brother and family are safe though I don’t know their location. One of our fringe friends has checked in, but two have not been heard from as of yesterday.
The one thing I want to do before the next hurricane is set up a true plan for keeping connected, have them pick either JB or myself as the contact point so people can call in and check in and so it’s not chaos with people trying to find each other.
On a worrisome note, on my alumni mailing list, people have begun looking for family that stayed behind. It’s very disturbing and sad. I pray for everyone and their families.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, missing persons
August 20th, 2005
This really is so sad. I really feel for her family and daughter. If only there was something more we could do to stop this sort of thing from happening to begin with.
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police say they have found body of missing pregnant woman LaToiya Figueroa as her body was reportedly being discarded by her boyfriend.
Figueroa, 24, had been missing for more than a month and the subject of a police search.
Sources told NBC 10 News that police had been observing Steven Pouche, her boyfriend, and had followed him to Chester, Pa., last night as he apparently tried to dispose of Figueroa’s body in a wooded area. [“Missing Pregnant Woman Found Dead” (NBC10)]
The developing story is here.
Tags: missing persons, Latoyia Figueroa
August 3rd, 2005
After a somewhat short, if slightly passionate, discussion with my commenter Holly, I think we came to an understanding…at the very least, I understand her point-of-view. Latoyia Figueroa isn’t the only woman missing in South Philly. Heck, Natalee isn’t the only other teenage girl missing either. Certainly it’s not all about race, weath, gender, or age. Who’s to say who the media picks to focus on or why? (Though there are those of us who have our opinions.)
The truth is that people — men, women, and children — go missing everyday and so many of their stories are never told or end up in the back pages of a local paper. If they’re lucky, they have loved ones who are willing to make noise and push the press. If they’re lucky, people listen.
Another Philly woman, Taneka Daniels, 26, has been missing since May 12th. She disappeared just eleven days before her boyfriend was to appear in court for alleged domestic abuse. She too is a single mother (3 boys). (By the way, Holly pointed out that a search for information on Taneka would bring limited results and she was quite correct.)
Then there’s Jason Anthony Jolkowski, 19, missing since June 13, 2001, last seen bringing garbage cans up to the house. (Omaha, Nebraska)
And what about Pamela Thompson, of Springboro, PA, “who was last heard from last Wednesday afternoon when she called her mother and they had a brief conversation. Officials found Thompson’s car last Wednesday on a dirt path leading to a gas well in Summerhill Township. Family members later found her shoes and socks in the woods, about 500 feet from her car.”
Where is the national news coverage for these and all the people I found listed at Angels Missing? Where are their reward funds? (While I’m sure there has been coverage for some and probably there’s rewards for some, but not for all…) Where’s the outrage?
I’m glad I found Angels Missing. I think there needs to be more sites like it. They need more publicity. Maybe then we can start finding some of these missing angels.
Outrage over the media hypocricy regarding Latoyia is a good beginning, but we need to do more.
As a side note, the PhillyFuture.org, the group that began the blogswarm of awareness about Latoyia, is now working to form a missing persons network, perhaps the modern-day milk carton. Perhaps there’s hope for all of us yet if we can work together.
Tags: missing persons, Latoyia Figueroa, Taneka Daniels, Jason Anthony Jokowski, Pamela Thompson
July 30th, 2005
Found this at In Search of Utopia who found it at iFlip-Flop. As David so eloquently points out, there is hypocricy in the fact lack of coverage for this particular story of this particular pregnant missing mother of one, who, while apparently quite beautiful, is not the usual blonde, anglo-saxon type that the media likes to flash on television screens and front page newspapers. This woman deserves as much media attention as Lacy Peterson and the young woman who went missing in Aruba.
I copied Howard’s post directly from Philly Future, where he started this thread about Latoyia Figueroa last week. Please help out on your site if you can. And help find Latoyia Figueroa:When the news of Latoyia Figueroa’s disapperance first made it onto the Philly Future front page last week, she was a relatively anonymous missing person. Unfortunately, she is still both relatively anonymous and missing. That’s the continuing sad truth of the matter.
The hopeful news is that, thanks to local bloggers like Richard at All Spin Zone, and those who’ve followed his lead, her name is starting to get out, and hopefully her face has a greater chance of being seen by someone who may be able to help find her.
Richard’s post on Latoyia has been picked up by Evan Derkacz at Alternet.
Richard asks, and we echo his request, for all Philly area bloggers to put the word out on their blogs about Latoyia Figueroa, who’s been missing for over a week now. Include a picture of her. Even if you only get one visitor a day, every little bit helps raise awareness of this missing Philadelphia woman, who is not only five months pregnant, but also has a seven-year-old waiting for her at home.
Another course of action Richard has suggested is to write an email to Nancy Grace.
at CNN, who has provided wall-to-wall coverage of missing teenager
Natalee Holloway. In a world where only the white-skinned, blond-haired
young women seem to be missed by the mainstream media, these are some
ways to help bring Latoyia’s story a little attention too.
UPDATE: CNN is covering the story.
Tags: Latoyia Figueroa, missing persons, Natalee Halloway, Lacy Peterson, CNN
