‘A grass-roots effort’ to remember

6/15/2007

Monica Caison travels the country to bring missing back into media, people’s minds

Tammy Navinskey’s daughter, Ashley, disappeared from the Krug Park swimming pool three years ago, and to mark the anniversary, Ms. Navinskey joined with families of other missing people Thursday afternoon.

“Ashley loved to talk,” Ms. Navinskey said at the pool parking lot. “I can’t imagine her being missing this long without calling.”

The fun-loving teen would be 18 now, and the man she left with remains in police custody – but mum about her whereabouts.

“We’ve lost a lot of hope that she’s still alive,” said grandmother Sue Kibble, adding that the recent Kelsey Smith abduction case in Overland Park, Kan., has caused her to cry fresh tears. “We still would like to bring Ashley home, so I could take her a flower, have that closure.”

The mothers gathered at the Krug pool as part of the “On the Road to Remember Tour,” sponsored by the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons. The caravan tour began in North Carolina on Monday and will make 22 stops in 11 states to promote 75 cold cases. This is the first year the tour has stopped in Missouri, and the cases of Ashley Martinez and Branson Perry are being highlighted.

“The whole concept is we’re giving these people national attention,” said Monica Caison, while on the St. Joseph leg of the national tour. “It’s a sad story wherever you go, and this is a grass-roots effort to revive the missing cases in the communities.”

While local attention is important, she says, national coverage is key, too. She’s seen numerous cases in which somebody from several states away has been able to provide crucial information because they had been traveling through the area when an abduction occurred.

The volunteer caravan is needed most when the missing person case goes cold, fades from public radar or never snags national headlines, Mrs. Caison said. Since 1994, she has brought cold cases to CNN, People Magazine, and “America’s Most Wanted.”

Sgt. Jill Voltmer, lead missing persons investigator at the St. Joseph Police Department, says local officers take two or three missing person reports each day. The majority are cleared quickly – usually when the teen runaway overstays their welcome on a friend’s couch or the mentally ill adult or juvenile gets hungry.

Only after a year passes without any new information is the case considered “cold.” National sightings of Ashley are fairly regular to Ms. Voltmer – about twice per week. Over the years, most have come from transient communities and big cities and states such as Kansas City, California and Florida.

“Sometimes it’s as general as we saw her at the carnival, and I’ll follow-up with the local police,” Ms. Voltmer said.

A tip last month led police in Maine to Jaime Thomas, another St. Joseph endangered runaway. Unlike Ashley, Jaime had corresponded with her mother throughout her one-year disappearance.

Before the St. Joseph leg of the tour, the roving volunteers stopped in Craig, Mo., to highlight the case of Branson Perry. The now 26-year-old man went missing from his Skidmore, Mo., home in 2001.

Like Ashley, Branson’s family says it is uncharacteristic for him to be out of touch with family and friends for more than a few days.

“The thing we really took away (from the tour) was not give up hope and continue to believe he’s still out there,” said stepfather Jim Klino.