Three arrested after man found dead in trunk of vehicle

Three arrested after man found dead in trunk of vehicle

SUMTER, SC (WIS) - Sumter police have arrested 3 people, including a brother and sister, in connection with the murder of a Sumter man whose body was found in the trunk of his own car Wednesday night. 

Family members reported the victim, 34-year-old William Eric Robinson, missing on Wednesday afternoon after not seeing him since Tuesday night.

Robinson's family told police that while driving around looking for the victim, they discovered his 2011 Nissan Altima in the parking lot of Gionwood Apartments in the Mallwood community. Upon investigation, police found Robinson's body in the trunk of his vehicle.

Police said 26-year-old Jacob Lee Terry and his sister, 28-year-old Jacolyn Jacobus were arrested Wednesday night. Terry is charged with Murder and Jacobus is charged with Accessory after the fact of Murder. Police also arrested 28-year-old Travis Bracey and charged him with Obstruction of Justice.

The police department is not releasing a motive for the murder, but said Terry was the last person to be seen with the victim Tuesday night.

Both Terry and Jacobus made statements implicating themselves in their involvement in the crime, according to police. Investigators said Travis Bracey lied to police about what he knew about the death of Robinson.

The coroner was expected to conduct an autopsy Thursday to determine a cause of death.

All three suspects are being held at the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center awaiting bond hearings.

The investigation is ongoing. The Sumter Police Department urges anyone with additional information surrounding this incident or others to please come forward. You can contact the authorities by calling Crimestoppers at 803-436-2718 or the Sumter City Police Department's Detective Division at 803-436-2717 or 436-2790. Callers may remain anonymous.

Glendale, Peoria top missing person cases

Glendale, Peoria top missing person cases

by Lisa Halverstadt

A single tip could help Glendale and Peoria police find a person who has been missing for years. Here are details about some of the West Valley's most puzzling disappearances

Susan Cassell

Glendale resident, 35 years old at time of disappearance.

Disappeared: Jan. 4, 1991.

Details: The day before she was reported missing, Cassell went to work at what was then Boswell Memorial Hospital in Sun City. Her mother called that day and Cassell said she was too tired to chat after a 16-hour nursing shift. Her husband and 4-year-old son were reportedly on a camping trip at the time. On Jan. 4, Cassell's husband reported that she had not returned home. Other relatives reported her missing a month later. Family members told police there had been problems in Cassell's marriage but that she would not have abandoned her child. Police suspect foul play.

Who to call: Glendale police at 623-930-3000.

Kevin James Dycus

Glendale resident, 37-year-old at time of disappearance.

Disappeared: Jan. 11, 1998.

Details: Dycus left a family member's home near 52nd Avenue and Ironwood Drive with no belongings or money.

Police say Dycus has a scar in the middle of one of his eyebrows and pierced ears. The bottom of his feet may be scarred from frostbite.

Who to call: Glendale police at 623-930-3000.

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Cynthia Lupe Morales

Glendale resident, 36 years old at time of disappearance.

Disappeared: Jan. 8, 2001.

Details: Morales, who goes by the nickname "Negra," was last seen when she went to visit her two children in the 6600 block of 52nd Drive in Glendale. She left after making a phone call.

Police say Morales has scars on her left hand and lower left shin. She also has a burn scar on her chest from a childhood injury. There is also a hole in the top of the cartilage of her ear.

Who to call: Glendale police at 623-930-3000.

Timothy James McKye

Glendale resident, 50 years old at time of disappearance.

Disappeared: Oct. 13, 2006.

Details: McKye was last seen in Beaumont, Texas, during a move to Florida. An apartment security guard assisted McKye when a U-Haul trailer he was using got stuck in a ditch. McKye left the U-Haul behind. His van also vanished. Police said it was a 1999 Plymouth Voyager with AZ license 161TTM.

Police said he may have been accompanied by a German shepherd dog.

Who to call: Glendale police at 623-930-3000.

Pam Page

Peoria resident, 32 years old at time of disappearance.

Disappeared: July 21, 1989.

Details: Page went missing the day after she returned from visiting family in Arkansas. One of her two dogs also vanished. Police suspected foul play.

Who to call: Peoria police at 623-773-7045.

Drexel case prompts search

Drexel case prompts search
BY ALLYSON BIRD

GEORGETOWN -- More than two years after 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel's disappearance, investigators in her case converged on a roadside apartment complex where a man convicted of raping a child once lived.

Officials declined to say anything about what they found inside Monday. But Myrtle Beach Police Lt. Chuck Capp said he didn't expect an impending arrest of the man who had stayed in unit 22 at the Sunset Lodge just outside of Georgetown.

"We've continued to follow numerous leads, and they're doing a search warrant of a person of interest," Capp said. "We think it's getting blown out of proportion."

Drexel, a Rochester, N.Y., teen who snuck away to the Grand Strand on spring break, was last seen April 25, 2009, on a Myrtle Beach hotel security camera. She told her mother she was spending the weekend at a friend's house after her parents told her she couldn't go to Myrtle Beach because of poor grades.

They learned that she had disobeyed their wishes at the same time they learned she was missing.

Drexel's cell phone gave off its last signal near the South Santee River in Georgetown County the day after her disappearance. Searchers on horseback and with teams of dogs have concentrated on the woods near there.

A manager at Sunset Lodge said the man in unit 22 moved in the day before Drexel disappeared. He left six months ago.

The man, as identified by the manager, was convicted of kidnapping and raping a child younger than 14 in 1983 in California. He was released from prison in 2004, according to federal records. He is a registered sex offender.

When approached by a reporter at his job site, he said, "I don't know anything about it, and I don't have anything to say."

Capp said police have several such "persons of interest" in the Drexel case. A task force composed of investigators from his department, the State Law Enforcement Division and the Georgetown and Charleston county sheriff's offices are working the case.

"It is certainly not a cold case," Capp said. "It has been an active case from Day One."

Monica Caison, founder and director of the North Carolina-based CUE Center for Missing Persons, said the task force continues to work new tips in the case. She said the ongoing effort means the public might see some of the work unfolding, as with Monday's search, but that much of it stays off the radar.

Although she didn't give any extra weight to the Sunset Lodge lead, Caison said, "I think anything that happens in Brittanee's investigation gets one more step closer to the truth.
"I'm grateful that there's information still circulating," she added. "A lot of cases can fall cold, but you have to remain hopeful."

SLED investigators searched a room Monday at the Sunset Lodge near Georgetown. They were looking for clues in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel.

Search Warrant Conducted in Drexel Case

Authorities execute a new search warrant Monday in the case of missing teen Brittanee Drexel.

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Timeline

Events following Brittanee Drexel's disappearance:

April 25, 2009: Drexel last seen on Myrtle Beach hotel security camera.

April 26, 2009: Drexel's cell phone gives off last signal near South Santee River.

May 5, 2009: Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry offers a reward of as much as $1,000 for information about Drexel's disappearance.

April 16, 2010: Drexel's mother, Dawn, appears on the "Today" show.

Sept. 13, 2010: An Albany, N.Y., church offers a $5,000 reward for information leading to Drexel's whereabouts.

Jan. 29-30, 2011: At least 150 people search 3 miles of wooded road in Georgetown County looking for clues.

Aug. 1, 2011: Investigators execute search warrant at Sunset Lodge near Georgetown.

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To offer tips

Brittanee Drexel was 17 when she disappeared in 2009. She is about 5 feet tall and 103 pounds with blue eyes and blond highlights in her hair.

If you have information that may lead to her whereabouts or to the arrest of those responsible for her disappearance, contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department at (843) 918-1382.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594.

Husband Of Missing Missouri Mom Arrested

Jacque Sue Waller Case: Husband Of Missing Missouri Mom Arrested

The estranged husband of Jacque Sue Waller, the missing mother of young triplets from Missouri, has been arrested on charges unrelated to his wife's disappearance.

James "Clay" Waller, 40, was charged Friday with stealing and harassment. The charges have nothing to do with his estranged wife's disappearance, police said.

According to Laura Long Helbig, a friend of Jacque Waller's family, probable-cause documents state that Clay Waller, a former cop and construction business owner, allegedly accepted a check for $55,000 from a company in April 2010 for construction work he never did.

The harassment charge allegedly stems from a complaint made last week by Gary Hill, a former friend of Clay Waller, who told police that Waller threatened to kill him.

The probable-cause statement said that Hill's estranged wife had filed an order of protection against Waller but that it had not yet been served. Hill's wife had asked him to tell Waller to leave her alone. When Hill spoke with Waller over the phone, Waller allegedly told him he was going to kill him. Waller told police he didn't threaten anyone, Helbig said.

Waller was scheduled to appear in court Monday in front of Judge Gary Kamp for arraignment, but the hearing was delayed because Waller's attorney asked for a change of judge.

Jacque Waller, 39, of Cape Girardeau, was last seen on June 1 when she went to Clay Waller's house to pick up her son. The child was not at the home when she arrived, and what happened to her after that remains a mystery.

The estranged husband of Jacque Sue Waller has been arrested on charges unrelated to wife's disappearance.

During police questioning, Clay Waller said his wife arrived at his house around 4 p.m. He said they got into an argument and she stormed off on foot. Waller said he left and that when he returned about two hours later, her car was gone. The vehicle was later found abandoned on nearby Interstate 55 and one of its tires was flat. Jacque Waller's purse, keys and cellphone were not found inside the vehicle, police said.

Jacque Waller's Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield business cards were recently found inside a packet along Missouri Route 177, roughly 10 miles from where her car was found. Waller, according to police, is a manager at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Cape Girardeau.

Clay Waller has been named a person of interest in the case. Last month his attorney, Scott Douglas Reynolds, told The Huffington Post his client is innocent.

"Clay is not responsible for his wife's disappearance and we have substantial evidence to support that claim," Reynolds said. "We will not comment on the evidence at this point as there is an ongoing police investigation. It is sufficient to state that the police do not consider Clay a 'suspect' in Jackie's disappearance and they have repeatedly said there is no evidence that a crime was even committed here."

Celina Cass: Body Found In River Is Missing New Hampshire Girl

Celina Cass: Body Found In River Is Missing New Hampshire Girl

STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. (AP) — Authorities say the body of an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl who disappeared nearly a week ago has been found in a river less than half a mile from her home.

Divers found Celina Cass's body Monday morning near a hydroelectric dam that spans the Connecticut River between her hometown of Stewartstown, N.H., and Canaan, Vt.

Prosecutor Jane Young confirmed the identity at a news conference Monday night.

The discovery followed nearly a week of intense searching that attracted more than 100 federal, state and local law enforcement officers to the town of 800 residents a mile from the Canadian border.

Cass was last seen alive in her home on July 25. Young says her death is considered suspicious. An autopsy is planned for Tuesday.

Vigil held for 'Jane Doe'

Vigil held for 'Jane Doe'

Twenty years after a young woman's decomposed body was discovered along I-270 at the Baker Valley Road overpass, a small group gathered Sunday to remember her.

In the Worthington Farm National Park parking lot, a Maryland State Police officer and two Maryland Missing Persons Network personnel lit candles and said a silent prayer for the "Jane Doe" on the anniversary of her discovery.

"To this day -- and we're celebrating 20 years -- we have no idea who she is," Maryland State Police Sgt. Tina Becker said.

The Cold Case Unit officer said that the chance of determining what happened to the Jane Doe is zero to none; the girl, estimated to be in her late teens or early 20s at the time of her death, had no identification.

Maryland Missing Persons Network founder Kylen Johnson organized Sunday evening's vigil to make sure the victim is remembered.

"It is important that she is not forgotten," Becker said.

Johnson, Becker and Network member Suzanne McGraw participated Sunday night, holding lit candles together in a circle and saying a few words about the case.

"I ask for guidance to point me in the right direction, bring me helpful information," Becker said.

McGraw says a prayer for the family, she said.

The group wants to continue to raise awareness of the Jane Doe case and other missing persons and unidentified murder victims.

"We are here tonight to celebrate Jane," Becker said. "Unfortunately, there are lots of people missing."

Local attention to Sunday's event and similar vigils is helpful, Johnson said, because there are families who may not know what to do or who to contact when a loved one goes missing.

NamUs.gov, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, is a database open and researchable to the public, Becker said, which can cross-reference unidentified and missing people to create potential matches.

Becker said the law enforcement's biggest struggle is pairing an unidentified person with those listed as missing.

"We talk to people from all over the country, trying to (make a) match," she said. "It is a process of elimination."

The state missing persons network database holds about 350 missing Marylanders, including more than 200 unidentified victims, Johnson said.

"It is an unknown epidemic," Becker said of the number of people who go missing every day.

D.B. Cooper Suspect: FBI Investigating 'Credible Lead

D.B. Cooper Suspect: FBI Investigating 'Credible Lead' In 40-Year-Old Airline Hijacking

SEATTLE -- The FBI says it has a "credible" lead in the D.B. Cooper case, which involved the 1971 hijacking of a passenger jet over Washington state and the suspect's legendary parachute escape.

FBI spokeswoman Ayn Sandalo Dietrich tells The Seattle Times that a law enforcement member directed investigators to a person who might have helpful information on the suspect.

Dietrich says an item belonging to the man was sent to a lab in Quantico, Va., for forensic testing. She did not provide specifics about the item or the man's identity.

Federal investigators have checked more than 1,000 leads since a hijacker dubbed "D.B. Cooper" parachuted from a flight with $200,000 dollars in ransom.

His fate remains unknown, although the Seattle Post Intelligencer reports agents have previously said they believe he died the night he jumped.