Missing persons in your neighborhood

“Missing persons could be just next door.” This statement by Monica Caison in a CNN Op-Ed tells the underlying theme of the three missing women found in Cleveland, Ohio by neighbors who responded to a cry for help.  

Caison says in her article “We live in a world filled with powerful technology that has enabled us to communicate faster and better, yet we seem to lack the simple face-to-face meeting that must take place when searching for clues and information in any type of investigation.”

I’ve read dozens of articles and viewed hundreds of photos to prepare this post, but Caison says it best. Other missing persons may be out there, just next door, waiting for freedom. Be proactive. Form a Neighborhood Watch in cooperation with your local law enforcement agency. 

 

Read Caison's May 10, 2013 article here:  CNN Monica Caisson 

 

Ethan rescued – Jimmy Lee Dykes is dead

This blog is dedicated to abducted or missing children. I always seem to know if the child will die and often the cause of death long before it is disclosed. So, why did I wait until Ethan was rescued, and Jimmy Lee Dykes, his kidnapper was dead before I posted this blog?

Instinct, maybe ESP, mixed with caution and common sense warned me not to blog anything that could be reblogged or commented on during this tense week. If I had told the truth—that Ethan would be rescued and Dykes would die today—no one would have believed me. What is the truth?

In prayer and meditation during this standoff, I received the answer like telepathy from Mr. Dykes (Do I believe in telepathy? I’m a skeptic, but that didn’t prevent it from happening). In spite of authorities who kept assuring Dykes that it could have happened to anyone, I understood that he preplanned the kidnapping of a young, defenseless child. When the bus driver, Charles Albert Poland, intervened, Dykes killed him—something he had also contemplated in advance.

I prayed and called on angels to surround Ethan (Were they there? We can’t see them, so unless Ethan felt their presence, we may never know). I puttered around my kitchen yesterday evening, speaking to Mr. Dykes holed up in the bunker near Midland City, Alabama. I told him I’m a lady in California, a former southerner, who has driven Highway 231 in a search for Civil War ancestors.  I suspected he could relate to that massive anti-government conflict. After asking him to let Ethan go, I felt his resistance. So I told him a secret I had kept for a week. “Mr. Dykes," I said, “If you don’t let Ethan go by tomorrow afternoon, he will be rescued. When that happens, your life will be over.”

Do I believe Jimmy Lee Dykes heard me? Maybe, maybe not, but it couldn’t be a coincidence that he died like I told him.

 

Missing Pleasanton teen found dead in Newark, California

I skimmed yesterday’s online Tri-Valley Times but didn’t read the article about two people found dead in a Newark, California hotel. Why? Not my neighborhood. Today’s online article in Contra Costa Times “Missing Pleasanton TeenFound Dead in Newark” invaded my comfort zone. This teen, thought to be an endangered Village High student in Pleasanton, was discovered along with a Livermore man. That brought this tragedy to my home turf.

Call me a futurist, a visionary, or whatever term you deem proper, but as I began this blog post, I felt the dispair from another individual who thinks suicide is the answer. It isn’t. There’s hope for you. Call the toll-free suicide help line now. 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255). Or, go online to chat at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.

 

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_21545932/two-bodies-found-inside-newark-motel-room-cause

Red Vines black licorice recall

Red Vines black licorice twists one-pound package proclaims “No preservatives and are always fat free.” These treats are certified kosher and preservative free. Perhaps American Licorice Co. in Union City, California should add “Warning: may contain lead” after batches packaged with the expiration of February 4, 2013. I suggest telling the truth on the ingredients label. “Children or pregnant women who have consumed this treat should consult their physicians” sounds good.

Although my childhood was long, long ago, one thing I remember with clarity. I hated the taste of black or red licorice. Any candies I consumed (politically correct word for gobbled) during my early years were licorice free. I tried a taste many years later when my foster children swore by Red Vines red licorice. My tastebuds held true. A taste test confirmed no licorice for me.

If you’re a Red Vines consumer, maybe it’s time to get the lead out.

Andy Griffith laid to rest

On this Independence Day, I have set aside bad news of missing children to honor a man described as a father to all.

Andrew Samuel Griffith

June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012

Andy Griffith is best known for his homespun wit and wisdom as Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry. He was a great example of a widower, a single father to Opie (Ron Howard), who lived with Aunt Bee. A sheriff who shunned guns, he tolerated his gun-toting sidekick Barney Fife (Don Knotts).  All the Mayberry characters, in jail and out, were familiar faces. Griffith made millions happy, transporting families into a make believe world of peace and contentment where he diffused situations with common sense.

But that was fiction, you say. What was he really like? I never met him, but I’ve followed his real life efforts of putting others first. On July 3, 2012 Griffith achieved another milestone in his humble journey when he departed this life about seven a.m. Before noon he was laid to rest in an undisclosed location on Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. No paparazzi, no CNN coverage, no fans walking a marked trail to say goodbye to their hometown hero. He left a legacy of letting others shine.

The life of Andy Griffith is displayed by his friend, Emmett Forrest, in the Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

http://andygriffithmuseum.com/

  

Amber Alert Canceled – Three Santa Rosa California sisters safe

June 14, 2012--Jose Albert Rojo-Bolorquez, age 25, has been apprehended and jailed for abducting his three daughters from Santa Rosa, California earlier today. Good work!

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/06/14/3-santa-rosa-kids-reportedly-taken-by-father-amber-alert-issued/

AMBER ALERT – Three Santa Rosa California sisters abducted

BOLO – Be on the lookout for Jose Albert Rojo-Bolorquez, age 25, and his three daughters he abducted today in Santa Rosa, California. Believed to be driving a 2005 black Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, California license plate 6TXA253.

Watch and pray for the safety of Alyna Rojo, 7, Maraya Rojo, 6, and Sofia Rojo, 3. All have brown hair and brown eyes. Here’s the link to News 10 that provides photos.

http://www.news10.net/rss/article/196960/2/AMBER-ALERT-issued-for-3-sisters

Best places to look: Anywhere, but maybe in a fast-food drive through or a roadside rest.

Where are the children?

More than 2,000 children are reported missing every day in the U.S., an annual estimate of more than 750,000 minors. About 200,000 are abducted by family members. Of the 58,000 abducted by strangers, 115 children are murdered, held for ransom, or held hostage with an intent to keep. The disappearance of Etan Patz, a six-year old student who vanished between his New York home and the one-block walk to the school bus stop in 1979, prompted President Ronald Regan four years later to proclaim May 25 as National Missing Children’s Day. The following year, congress designated the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization, as the main source of information.

Fast forward more than a quarter-century to March 16, 2012. Sierra LaMar, 15, disappeared on her way to a rural school bus stop in Morgan Hill, California. A tip about a red Volkswagen Jetta with black hood and Sierra's clothes in a Juicy Couture bag sparked the arrest of Antolin Garcia-Torres two months later. Volunteers still search for Sierra.

On the eve of National Missing Children’s Day, May 24, 2012, Pedro Hernandez, a former Manhattan stock clerk who once lived in the same neighborhood as Etan Patz, confessed and was arrested.  

In all the positive results from Ethan’s disappearance, from his face on milk cartons to a 24-hour toll free number to report missing children, to an arrest more than three decades after he went missing, one vital deterrent remains untouched—unsupervised bus stops. If parents or neighbors had formed a volunteer watch group to watch for Etan Patz, he might have been found. If Sierra LaMar’s bus stop had a monitor, her morning absence would have been questioned and an amber alert issued. The red Volkswagen Jetta with a black hood would have been traced sooner. Volunteers wouldn't be searching for her today. 

We cannot turn back the clock, but we can change the future.

Chowchilla Kidnapped Bus Driver Dies

Chowchilla Memorial

Ed Ray, 91, died almost 36 years after he assisted twenty six children to safety from a quarry in Livermore, kidnapped by James and Richard Schoenfield and Fred Woods. The kidnap occurred when Ray stopped on a country road near Chowchilla, California for a disabled vehicle. That event propelled him into the limelight which he refused.

Sure, I knew him—or at least I knew of him. Chowchilla was a small town when I lived there when Ed Ray was younger, years before this incident. Students in town walked to school. Country kids rode the bus. At school, at church, at parades and fairs, around town, everybody knew everybody. All by sight. Most by name. Some by reputation. A few by character.

Goodbye Mr. Ray. May your humble character shine through the ages.

Here are great photos from the Huffington Post. 

A Real Mother

My annual protest the second Sunday in May began the day after my wedding when some unknowing person wished me “Happy Mother’s Day.” Someday, I thought, but thankfully not today. Every year since then, I’ve dodged questions and declined the single long-stem rose handed to mothers during Sunday worship service. I’ve shunned the long lines at restaurants for a quick lunch at home. If I skipped church, my friends asked “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not a real mother,” I replied. “I’ve never birthed a child.”

A Chicken Soup for the Soul call for devotional stories made me reconsider my motherhood role.  Five years of foster parenting when I was old enough to be a grandmother plus seven years as a devotional writer signaled the right combination to submit to the contest.  The result, “A Real Mother,” was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Mothers (Simon & Schuster, 2010).  Click here to read it in Chicken Soup online newsletter.

To all real mothers, Happy Mother’s Day.

©Copyright Violet Carr Moore 2010

Not a betting woman

May 5, 2012. Curiosity made me do it—check out the horses for the 138^th Kentucky Derby. I clicked “Meet the Horses” and scrolled down the list. We’ve had a couple of horses. One beautiful, but high strung palomino and one sorrel, but not at the same time.  I stayed out of the palomino’s way, but I feed the sorrel. With that little experience, I’m no judge of horseflesh, so I chose a different route to the pick the winner--the distinctive jokey shirts.

Pink? No way! I skipped red and green and other clashing colors. Turquoise? Nope. I threw out the whites, yellows and blues. Then I trashed the checkerboard aqua and yellow. Wait! That’s Bodemeister, #6 with 4-1 odds. Nah. Maybe second place, but definitely not first with that ugly look on jockey Mike Smith’s face.  Then I saw an omen—jockey Mario Gutierrez wearing a purple and white shirt, the saddle atop a yellow horse blanket. A tee-totaler, the name I’ll have Another made me take a second look. Determination on the jockey’s face and the “don’t worry” look in the horse’s eyes made me choose #19.

Couldn’t make it to the Derby, but I watched the replay as Gutierrez overtook Smith in the last seconds of the fastest two minutes on horse’s hooves. I won! I won!

If I’d been a betting woman, I’d be raking in my windfall right now. Instead I can only say my hunch was right. Watch the purple shirt. That jockey rides a winner.

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/horses

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/news/videos/kentucky-derby-2012-replay

Chowchilla Kidnapper vs. Parole Board

I awoke this morning, a Leap Day post for my writer’s blog twirling in my head. Then I read that Richard Schoenfeld, the youngest of the Chowchilla kidnappers must be paroled. Leap Day thoughts took thirty-six giant steps backwards to the 1976 summer kidnapping of bus driver Ed Ray and the school children. I can’t imagine their fear as they were transported from the quiet atmosphere of their hometown—and mine—to a rock quarry in Livermore, now my hometown.

The Parole Board made a mistake adding to his sentence, says Justice Robert Dondero writing for the First Court of Appeals in San Francisco. We all make mistakes, but this is a big one. They should have released him in 2008. Not that I wanted him paroled then or now. A life-sentence would have been my choice. But, rules are rules. Since the Board stepped over the line, those twenty-six children, now adults, who escaped without physical harm, will face another round of emotional trauma upon his release.

When Schoenfeld files—and wins—a lawsuit for emotional distress while receiving an additional four years of free medical and educational benefits during this unlawful extension, we will all become his victims.


Click here to view my writer's blog.

Anniversary Shadows

Time doesn't erase the sorrow from the kidnapping of Juliani Cardenas by Jose Esteban Rodriguez. The first anniversary of this tragedy, an adult suicide and a child murdered, when the vehicle plunged into the Delta-Mendota Canal, is a tragic reminder that Juliani was denied the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.   

 I've deleted Amber Alerts posts more than a year old with the click of computer keys.  Death of innocents leaves anniversary shadows that haunt family and friends.

Taylor Vo safe - abductor dead

To the individual San Jose Swat team member who killed Tri Truong Le, although not your first choice of action, your expertise released Taylor Vo from her captor. To the San Jose Swat Team, Police Department and others who assisted in the safe return of Taylor Vo, THANK YOU!


http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/01/20/amber-alert-issued-for-missing-11-year-old-san-jose-girl/

Taylor Vo Amber Alert San Jose California

No matter how often I say this is my last post to blogger, don’t believe me! Something stirs a wave of fear for the endangered child and a near-hated for the abductor with each new local Amber alert. It’s been hours since Tri Le abducted Taylor Vo from her San Jose home. This South Bay city of more than a million people is an easy freeway commute to Nevada, Oregon, Arizona—maybe on to Mexico. Part premonition, part mystery-writer syndrome, I feel an overwhelming fear for this child I’ve never met. The abductor is also a stranger to me, but somehow I visualize him pumping gas at a quick stop with this twelve-year old girl partially hidden or buying fast food from a smiling, unsuspecting drive-through attendant.

Look at the website pictures. If you’re driving, don’t be afraid to report a look-alike driver who’s staying within the posted speed limits when everyone else is speeding. When you gas up this weekend, focus on the vehicles near you. Help find Taylor before it’s too late.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/20/BA4L1MS7KU.DTL&feed=rss.news

Jhessye Shockley, where are you?

I am saddened that Jhessye Shockley, a five-year old child, has been missing since October 11. To learn that she suffered abuse from her mother who pleaded for her safe return makes me resurrect this blog—at least for one more post.

Jerice Hunter, the mother of Jhessye Shockley, has been arrested for child abuse of her missing five-year old daughter. That’s step one, but Jhessye is still missing. No clues to what happened to her.

Jerice Hunter was incarcerated for four years after pleading no contest to corporal punishment for an October 5, 2005 arrest in California (Hooray for California!). She was released in May 2010 and eventually reunited with her children. Thanks to Glendale Police, a newborn and the older children have been placed in protective care.

Thirty days is a long time for a child to be missing. Authorities have little hope that Jhessye is alive. I offer prayers that she, or her abused body, will be found and the perpetrator(s) brought to justice.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57329009-504083/mother-of-missing-ariz-girl-jhessye-shockley-arrested-on-child-abuse-charges/

http://www.kpho.com/story/16004337/missing-girls-mom-gives-first-sit-down-interview

Deadlines and decisions

On a “real” job—employer/employee status—the hired worker makes every effort to perform daily chores and take on additional assigned duties. In my writing world, multiple daily deadlines leave the balance decisions to me based on audience, exposure, and followers.  For now, I’ve taken a leave of absence from this blog. Please visit my Wordpress writer’s niche, the other Violet’s Vibes and become a follower.

http://violetsvibes.wordpress.com/

Amber Alert canceled for Cristina Ramirez

GOOD NEWS! Not all Amber Alert cancellation end in death like the search for Madeline Samman Fay, the toddler abducted by her father and Juliani Cardenas kidnapped by his father, Jose Esteban Rodriguez. Original news articles proclaim that Christina Ramirez, 13, abducted from Hollister by her father, Marcelo Ramirez, was found safe when the white Honda van was stopped near San Bernadino, almost 400 miles away. But was she safe? No. She was endangered by her father who allegedly assaulted her four days before the August 30 kidnapping.

Grateful thanks to the unnamed witness who spotted the van after she had read the Amber Alert sign in San Bernadino, San Benito County, four hundred miles south of Hollister. Keep your eyes open. You could save a child’s life.

http://www.kcra.com/news/29034812/detail.html

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8336429

Madeline Samaan Fay Autopsy

Autopsy results for Madeline Samaan Fay, two-year old toddler abducted by her father, Mourad Samaan, gives mixed cause of death as two gunshot wounds to her head and carbon monoxide poisoning.

What causes a man described as a “loving father” to become an executioner?  Rage? Revenge? Retaliation? We’ll never know. All we know is that he killed his innocent daughter near Grizzly Flats, California after her mother received full custody.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8314798&rss=rss-kgo-article-8314798

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8309526

Madeline Samaan Fay and father found dead in 4Runner

Madeline Samaan Fay, a two-year old, and her father who abducted her were found dead as I knew they would be. Chalk it up to instinct from following Amber Alerts or from reading too many mystery novels. No matter how I knew, the results are the same. The FBI hasn’t released the cause of death, but common sense says this was a murder-suicide event.

Someday I’ll write about the dark side of this crime. For now, it’s better to go on with life and hope we don’t see a copycat performance by others struggling with custody battles.

AMBER ALERT for Madeline Samaan-Fay

I can’t shake the thought that I’ve seen this abductor—the shaved clean-cut version—walking alone through an East Bay Wal-Mart parking lot several weeks ago. I hope I’m mistaken.

Click the link below to see his picture. Maybe you’ve seen Madline or her father, Mourad "Moni" Samaan or his green Toyota 4Runner, California license plate No. 3XRM111.

 
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8303972

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/12/BAJJ1KN2AT.DTL

Fremont Teen found safe

No details, but good news! ABC KGO reports that Meloshi Mehta, 15-year old girl missing from Fremont, is home safe.

Next step: When will California become the leader in adding endangered runaways to the highway alert system?

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=8296949

Missing Fremont Teen-Where’s the Amber Alert?

Miloshi Mehta, 15-year old Mission San Jose high school junior went missing on Sunday, August 7, 2011. She was last seen about 8:30 p.m. when she went for a walk around Lake Elizabeth.
 

Miloshi’s family said they suspected she may have walked away to meet a man whom she had corresponded with on the internet. If they had lied, feigned ignorance, or shrugged their shoulders to questions about circumstances surrounding her absence, hinting that she could have been abducted while walking, perhaps an Amber Alert would be flashing on nearby freeway signs. You might be scanning faces of every dark-haired, black eyed teen on the BART, looking for Miloshi, worrying, maybe praying that she would be found unharmed. Since her family told the truth—that she could have been lured away by an internet sexual predator—Amber Alert does not apply.

I hope she’s found unharmed. If not, will a California lawmaker propose a Miloshi Alert to assist in locating teens lured away by internet sexual predators?

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_18639474?source=rss

http://www.chp.ca.gov/amber/index.html

False Amber Alert kidnapped teen from Antioch, California

Did you notice that I didn’t post this Amber Alert as I have others? Why? Because my sleuthing skills whirled a clue in front of my eyes that the fictional crime-solving Jessica Fletcher would have noticed immediately.

“The robber [Eric Lerone Walker] ordered him [16-year old] at gunpoint to drive the Yukon, police and Holmes said.” You say, so what? Lots of 16-year olds drive. Here’s a second look. Robber takes car keys from barbershop owner, then points sawed-off shotgun at a young man entering the shop and demands the youth drive the owner’s 1996 Yukon as a get-away vehicle. Duh? The Jessica Fletcher question: How did the robber know the young man he “abducted” could drive? As sure as 1+1=two, I knew Jessica Fletcher would spot this pair as friends who partnered this robbery.

I could have posted this blog within minutes of the Amber Alert, but then the police might suspect I knew something about the robbery instead of being an avid mystery fan. Even though I like to think I’m a super sleuth, this was a faked kidnapping so clear that even Jessica Fletcher’s nephew could have figured it out while she was off in Cabot Cove writing another mystery book.

Amber Alert: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2011/08/amber-alert-act.html

Amber Alert Canceled: http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktxl-an-amber-alert-has-been-issued-for-a-16yearold-boy-from-antioch-20110801,0,5387657.story?track=rss

Teen charged in holdup:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/03/BA5Q1KIT2Q.DTL#ixzz1U29bvYtu

Chowchilla schoolbus kidnap 35th anniversary 1976-2011

Two weeks after twenty-six summer school children and their bus driver from my hometown of Chowchilla, California had celebrated Independence day, they lost that freedom. The terrifying July 15, 1976 event was not a random act, but a premeditated crime. Three affluent young men, James "Jim" Schoenfeld, Richard Schoenfeld and  Fred Woods had planned the kidnapping for eighteen months. They executed it when they drove their captives to Livermore after wandering for hours to conceal the 100-mile journey to imprisonment in a moving van in a rock quarry. Like a heavy San Joaquin valley fog that refuses to allow sunshine, this event hovers over the survivors.  A few made their way toward a measure of normalcy. For others, the trauma became an impenetrable barrier that altered their destinies. Thirty-five years after that indelible day, I applaud those who’ve soared above the struggles. I offer prayers for those whose happily-ever-after dreams have turned to endless nightmares.

Chowchilla children 1976 bus kidnappers seek parole

A bus full of summer school children from Dairyland, near Chowchilla, California were abducted in 1976 by three men who planned the detailed hijack kidnap for eighteen months. They drove their captives to Livermore, first wandering for hours, then sealed them in a moving van buried in a cave at a rock quarry. All three men were sentenced to life in prison. Today, more than thirty years later, they want to be set free.

News archives confirm that Richard (Rick) Schoenfeld and his brother James (Jim) were sons of a wealthy Atherton podiatrist. The third abductor, Fred Woods, was from a wealthy Woodside family. These three men, all in their twenties, planned the imprisonment of twenty-six innocent children and an adult bus driver for the purpose of demanding five million dollars ransom for safe exchange. Case files mention the bravery of bus driver Ed Ray who helped students escape. 


Would there have been fatalities without that escape? We don’t know. We do know that July 15, 1976 is indelibly stamped in the minds of these children, their parents, guardians and other relatives, school mates and staff, and the community. The sentencing judge and Dale Fore, former chief investigator, say these prisoners should be released after serving more than thirty years of a life-time sentence. Thirty years confinement is a long time, but is it long enough to compensate for emotional damage to the children? Yes, say the imprisoned men and supporters. For the children and their families, what do they say?

No! No! No! A thousand times NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Related articles:


http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_17463289?source=rss


http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/notorious-76-chowchilla-kidnappers-up-for-parole/


http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/judge-lawyers-urge-parole-in-chowchilla-school-bus-kidnap/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110224/ap_on_re_us/us_chowchilla_busnapping_parole_2

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/chowchilla_kidnap/9.html

Good news – Amber Alert victim Elijah Rivas found safe

With all the sadness related to the Rodriguez-Cardinas kidnapping and murder-suicide near Patterson, California, here’s today’s good news for a baby kidnapped by an estranged father in Fresno County, California.

The abduction of Elijah Rivas, a nine-month old baby boy, occurred Saturday during a visit by his father, nineteen-year old Edgar Ramos. Elijah has been found, safe and in good condition, near the father's home about an hour’s drive south of the Wasco abduction site. 

Click HERE for CBS report details.

Nancy Grace enters search for Juliani Cardenas

Nancy Grace, noted television crime commentator, enters the hunt for missing Juliani Cardenas, 4, allegedly kidnapped from his grandmother’s arms by Jose Esteban Rodriguez, 27, near Patterson, California. Nancy Grace’s tenacity and fervor equals a southern hunting dog following a scent and brings global attention to this missing boy.


Mr. Rodriguez, authorities are searching the Delta-Mendota canal for your Toyota Corolla. If you’re alive, somewhere far away from this canal, please listen to Tabitha, Juliani’s mother, and drop him off at the nearest fire station. If you want the world to know your side of this story, call Nancy Grace.


UPDATE: Friday, January 21, 2011


Authorities say a third car has been pulled from Delta-Mendota canal, but it's red. This canal is beginning to look like a repository for stolen vehicles.

Amber Alert

Praying for Juliani

My blog is informative or humorous, or both. Not today. The sign on I-580 between Livermore Boulevard and First Street exits, usually dark, is bright yellow with an AMBER ALERT. I’d read about the abduction yesterday, but reading the sign sent cold chills down my spine on this sunny 60-degree day.

Jose Esteban Rodriguez, 27, allegedly kidnapped Juliani Cardenas, 4, from his home near Patterson. Snatched him from his grandmother’s arms, the news said. Rodriguez was last seen driving a silver Toyota Corolla with license plate number 6HBW445. The vehicle had oversized wheels and a "donut" spare tire on the front passenger side. So how many cars fit this description? Maybe none. Perhaps the plates have been switched. Perhaps the tire has been repaired. Perhaps the car is hidden in a garage. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. All I know is that the Amber Alert sign sends the chilling message that a little boy who should be home with his mother and grandmother is missing.

Unbelievable Plot

Writing nonfiction requires impeccable research. A fiction novel should mimic truth. The plot needs a beginning, middle and end. Conflict and offshoots of that conflict should be woven around the protagonist (good guy) and the antagonist (bad guy). These two main characters will interact with other lesser characters to advance the story to an arc that brings a resolution or conclusion. These hard facts and requirements pummeled me like an ancient stoning and stifled my imagination. I read online news to ignite fresh ideas. That’s when I stumbled upon this local story.

A quick arrest followed a mid-afternoon bank robbery after the “alleged” (who forced us to use that word?) robber, the antagonist, ran away with an undisclosed amount of cash. A trained canine becomes the hero, the protagonist, by following the scent from the bank to a nearby apartment where the missing cash was stashed. Witnesses and video surveillance identified the alleged robber. So far, a humdrum story. Bank robbery. Quick catch. Cash recovered. Alleged perpetrator apprehended and in custody. All mundane facts; nothing to hold the reader’s interest.

Suppose this were a novel synopsis, not a news article. At this point, the agent would drop the pages onto a desk-high slush pile and sip a caramel latte before moving to the next submission. I imagine hearing, “Hey, wait a minute,” as her read-ahead abilities recalled an incredible twist in the next line. The robber, make that alleged robber, was a bank customer with account records available at that branch! Now that’s an unbelievable plot, a fact from the news article, that could generate a blunder-book detective series contract. A book series could prompt a comedy movie and make me famous.

Bookmarkers

I have a handful of bookmarkers. Tall, thin, wide, fat, half-fold with magnets. Famous names burst from the magazine-finish markers. Debbie Macomber from Mira Books http://www.debbiemacomber.com/. Or, Dana Mentink published by Barbour in mass marketing http://www.heartsongmysteries.com/. Silver Rush Historical Mysteries Series by Ann Parker http://www.annparker.net/ published by Poison Pen Press is an inch or two taller than the others. All are magazine slick finish, mixed color schemes from deep browns sprinkled with azure to buttercup with pastel flowers. Annette Langer, a local writer, http://www.annettelanger.com/, hands out matte-finish bookmarks for both her books self-published through WingSpan Press.

See that holly and pinecone bookmarker to the upper right? A gift from Lani Longshore http://lanilongshore.wordpress.com/, it’s crafted from holiday cloth, backed with green plaid and bound with machine stitched edges. It lays flat in large books, and the top button and beads guide me to my place. Lani isn’t famous yet, but she will be! Her unnamed sci-fi novel whets the skills of our California Writers Club http://www.trivalleywriters.org/ novel critique group. If an agent doesn’t pick up Lani’s manuscript, I have permission to borrow her name for one of the good-guys in my mystery novel. My bookmarkers? I’ll link them to one of my characters, an avid reader who is a craftsperson when not solving crimes.

Sullenberger, Peanut Butter and Me

I’m an avid reader and an infrequent flyer. These two facts meshed together not long after I flipped up the footrest on my Lazy Boy chair and buried my head in HIGHEST DUTY, My Search for What Really Matters by Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III (Harper Collins Publishers, 2009). I read slowly and savored every moment of his childhood quest to fly. I marveled that he had been licensed as a private pilot at an age when I didn’t have a learner’s permit to drive a car.