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Walker, Shane Anthony Aug 10 1989; New York 19 Mos old
Topic Started: Dec 14 2006, 01:34 PM (757 Views)
monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/135dmny.html

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricte...DAB0894DB494D81

METROPOLITAN DESK


Tracking Leads When the Young Disappear; In Many Missing-Children Cases, the Danger Is Often Close to Home



By FELICIA R. LEE (NYT) 1646 words
Published: February 9, 1993


Rosa Glover, a cook at Columbia University, took her son, Shane Anthony Walker, to the playground of a Harlem housing project late in the afternoon on Aug. 10, 1989, and looked away for a few minutes. Shane was 19 months old. It was the last time Ms. Glover saw her son.

The police traced several leads. They say that calls still trickle in about the case, but they are stumped.

"They haven't come up with any clues," Ms. Glover said recently, her voice slow with weariness. "I keep hoping and praying. That's what keeps me going, that one of these days I will find him. I just hope wherever he is, someone is taking good care of him." Spouses Snatching Children

The incidence of missing children has appeared to rise sharply in the last 10 years, as symbolized by the ubiquitous photographs of young faces on milk cartons and on fliers.

Some of the increase is because of better reporting of the problem, but part of the rise, experts say, is because of a whirl of social changes, including the high rate of divorce that may lead a parent to take a child to hurt a spouse or an ex-spouse. As custody battles ensue, the number of parents willing to use their children as pawns has grown.

Experts also say that families are more mobile and children are more often left unsupervised and vulnerable to exploitation. The danger to children, according to experts, is not from the stranger but from the engaging family friend who is a pedophile, or the parent who just does not care.

In all, about 800,000 children under the age of 18 were reported missing in the nation in 1992, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- eight times as many as 10 years ago: a swath of misery dissecting lines of race, income, gender and geography.

Like Katie Beers, who was recently pulled from an underground box on Long Island after 16 days in captivity, the vast majority of the missing children were found. But several thousand were not. Some of the children were located within a few days. Some were teen-age runaways who came home voluntarily. Others were victims of rape and molestation. About 150 a year are known to have been murdered after being kidnapped.

From 200 to 300 children each year fit the stereotypical kidnapping profile in which they are taken by total strangers and kept, murdered or held for ransom, according to a $1.6 million survey that was ordered by Congress in the late 1980's. Lost, Hurt or Can't Go Home

Besides the kidnapping victims, the study, a random telephone sampling of 10,367 households with children from July 1988 to January 1989, estimated that in the course of a year about 350,000 children are abducted by family members; from 3,200 to 4,600 children are lured away, often in a sexual assault; 450,700 run away, 133,500 of them lacking a secure and familiar place to stay during part of the episode, and 127,100 are told to get out of their homes by parents who offer the children no alternative care.

In addition, at any given point in the year 438,200 children are lost, usually for less than a day, are injured and unable to get home or are missing for some other reason. The study, released in May 1990, was conducted by the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire.

Some missing children, like Etan Patz, seem to have vanished without a trace and have become symbols of the terror felt by parents in a time when holding a family together, literally and figuratively, seems tougher than ever.

On May 25, 1979, 6-year-old Etan left his home in SoHo to catch a school bus and has not been seen since. There have been few leads. The publicity surrounding the search by his parents, Stanley and Julie Patz, created a national consciousness of the missing-children problem.

But as Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, points out, "A case like Etan Patz will scare parents to death, but the missing-children problem is really complex.

"Far more common," Mr. Allen explained, "are children taken against their will or seduced or persuaded away for short periods of time for sexual exploitation. Or their parents take them." Abductor Not a Stranger

The survey found that of the more than 350,000 children abducted each year by a family member, 1 percent, or 3,500, are not returned. Most were taken in violation of a custody agreement or decree.

Experts say that what happened to Katie Beers is typical of the experience of thousands of children who are abducted each year and sexually molested, most often by someone they know.

"In two-thirds of nonfamily abduction cases, the abductor has not been a stranger in the eye and the mind of the child," Mr. Allen said. The center he presides over, in Arlington, Va., was established by Congress in 1984. The private, nonprofit organization works with the United States Department of Justice in coordinating the efforts of law-enforcement and social-service agencies and others in reducing crimes against children.

The kind of detailed information about missing children that Mr. Allen has at his fingertips has been available on a national scale only in the last decade. In 1982 Congress passed the Missing Children's Act, allowing the entry of information about missing children into a data base at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as opposed to only the blotters of local police departments. That year, 115,000 people were reported missing. Ninety percent were under age 18.

By 1992 there were more than 800,000 missing-person entries, 90 to 95 percent of which were children under 18. Currently, 42 states, the District of Columbia and Canada have agencies, known as clearinghouses to train police departments in tracking missing children, disseminating leads, photographs and other information.

Most missing children are found within hours or days. Those parents whose children have been missing longer -- in some instances considerably longer -- describe an agony that they say is in some ways worse than death.

Maria Stewart, who lives on Long Island and works in the computer software industry, understands Ms. Glover's grief. Her son, Bryan James Matelyan, has been missing since Sept. 16, 1990, when his mother's ex-husband, Francis Howard Hatmaker, failed to show up with Bryan for a scheduled custody hearing. The boy had been visiting Mr. Hatmaker who had been fighting with Mrs. Stewart over details of their divorce settlement and his right to visit Bryan.

"I don't even suspect that he's with Frank," Mrs. Stewart said of her son. She said she believed Mr. Hatmaker has "pawned Bryan off on some unsuspecting female." Mr. Hatmaker has an F.B.I. warrant against him for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on a charge of abducting Bryan.

Mrs. Stewart, who lived in New Jersey at the time, has peppered New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, with fliers and posters with pictures of the blond, blue-eyed Bryan, who was 4 when she last saw him. And she has sent information about the boy and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance to places ranging from pediatricians' offices to schools. All leads have turned cold, but like the case of Shane Walker, it remains open. Annual Memorial Service

"I miss my son," Mrs. Stewart said. "I don't even know what he looks like. I feel so strange, but I can't fall apart because no one is going to look for my son for me."

Shane's mother, Ms. Glover, continues to hold a memorial service for him on the anniversary of his disappearance and she is always searching for someone who may have seen her son or his abductors.

James Stanco, chief of Criminal History Operations and Special Programs for the New York State clearinghouse for missing children, said that when parents ask him what they can do to protect their children, he fires back with what seems a simple question: what was your child wearing that morning? When parents give the standard answer of jeans, T-shirt and a baseball cap, Mr. Stanco tells them that both they and their children must be more observant. What type of jeans? What was the logo on the baseball cap?

In the same vein, Mr. Allen said that parents must do much more than warn their children against strangers. He said that they must teach them that their bodies are private and that if anyone touches them or approaches them in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable they should tell their parents. Parents should also always know their children's whereabouts and be acquainted with their friends and their friends' families.

"Personally, I think society is degenerating," said Sgt. Raymond Pyka of the Connecticut missing-children clearing house. "Kids today don't communicate with their parents and the parents don't worry about their kids until something drastic happens. You would be surprised by the number of cases we have where the parents don't know very much about their child's habits or their friends."

David Finkelhor, a sociologist at New Hampshire University who was a co-author of the 1990 Congressional survey of missing children, said the media attention to missing children and the horror such stories inspire reflect both society's ambivalence about children and its sense of living among hostile strangers.

"Bringing kids up is hard and mobilizes some hostile feelings toward kids," Mr. Finkelhor said. "You wish that you didn't have them sometimes. The way people project some that ambivalence is onto some malevolent kidnapper.

"Also, every parent can identify with losing a child," he continued. "In the kind of dangerous world we live in, when people have to live cheek to jowl with people who don't share their values, all the insecurity about living in chaotic and urban environments can easily get projected onto the people out there I don't know me, who don't like me, who have malevolent intentions toward my children."



Photos: While most missing-children cases are resolved, the ones left open tell stories of special agony. Rosa Glover, whose son has been missing for more three years, said, "I just hope wherever he is, someone is taking good care of him." (Nancy Siesel/The New York Times); Rosa Glover's son, Shane Anthony Walker, vanished when he was 19 months old. A computer likeness portrays him now at 5. (pg. B1); The grief of parents whose missing children have never returned is a shared pain. Maria Stewart has not seen her son, Bryan James Matelyan, since 1990, but her scrapbook of him is always close at hand. "I don't even know what he looks like," she said. With her is her son, Kirk, and her husband, Thomas. (Steve Berman for The New York Times) (pg. B2)

Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Posted Image

Shane Anthony Walker
Non-Family Abduction
Age at Disappearance: 1 yr
Date of Birth: 12/7/1987
Date of Last Contact: 8/10/1989
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Height: 3'00"
Weight: 23 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Missing From: New York, New York
Notes: Child last seen playing in park on Lenox Ave between West 112th and West 113th Streets in NYC
Investigating Police Agency: New York City Police Department

http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/missing/info/1849.htm
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Shane Anthony Walker


Left: Walker, circa 1989;
Right: Age-progression at age 18 (circa 2005)


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: August 10, 1989 from New York City, New York
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
Date Of Birth: December 7, 1987
Age: 1 year old
Height and Weight: 3'0, 23 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: African-American male. Black hair, brown eyes. Walker's hair was braided and pulled back into a ponytail at the time he disappeared; he frequently wore that style in 1989. He has a small scar under his chin.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A blue and white shirt, light blue pants and white LA Gear sneakers.


Details of Disappearance

Walker was last seen at the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers playground located at 113th Street and Lenox Avenue in New York City, New York on August 10, 1989. He was accompanied by his mother, who was approached by a man and distracted by his conversation for a brief moment. When she turned back to find her son, Walker had vanished. Walker was last seen wearing playing with two older children.
Investigators do not believe that Walker's case is related to the case of Christopher Dansby, who vanished from the same playground in May 1989, three months before Walker disappeared. Authorities investigated the possibility that the cases were connected to a black market baby-ring operation and that Andre Bryant, who was abducted from Brooklyn in March 1989, and Carlina White, who was abducted from Harlem in 1987, were other victims. All of the children are African-American. Police have since concluded that Dansby and Walker were most likely abducted by unrelated suspects, but all four cases remain unsolved and it is unclear what happened to any of the missing children.



Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
New York City Police Department
646-610-6914
OR
New York Housing Police Department
212-410-8500



Source Information
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education Of America
New York City Police Department
America's Most Wanted
The New York Daily News
Newsday



Updated 2 times since October 12, 2004.

Last updated January 18, 2006; age-progression updated.

Charley Project Home
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/walker_shane.html
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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Age-progression at age 18 (circa 2005)
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Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The City's Top 10
Unsolved Crimes
No justice yet for victims
and their loved ones

By MICHELE McPHEE and PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
Daily News Staff Writers

stunning cover girl. An elderly Brooklyn lawyer. A struggling immigrant child. An off-duty cop. A jogger in Central Park. Two toddlers at play.

They are victims of the unsolved mysteries of the city, crimes with trails long gone cold or lacking evidence or witnesses.

Some vanished without a trace; others disappeared, only to turn up dead. Some were killed in their homes and neighborhoods, where they felt safest.

Two of these 10 unsolved cases involve serial predators who attacked repeatedly on the Upper East Side and in Prospect Park.

Together, these mysteries have persisted through a changing city, years of declining crime and dozens of investigators. In each case, justice has been elusive for the victims and their loved ones.

The NYPD asks anyone with information on these crimes to call (800) 577-TIPS.

1. Knife Slaying of Star Model

Victim: Marie Josee St. Antoine
When: June 1982
Crime: Murder

Marie Josee Saint Antoine, a raven-haired beauty with striking blue eyes, arrived in New York from Montreal in 1979 and quickly became a fixture on the city's glamour scene.

At age 21, she signed with the Ford Model Agency, and before long, her impish smile and high cheekbones were gracing the covers of European and American fashion magazines such as Chatelaine and Femme.

In 1982, Saint Antoine jumped to John Casablanca's Elite Modeling Management.

Soon she was living the supermodel's life, earning nearly $100,000 per photo shoot, living near Gramercy Park and partying at the hottest night spots.

On June 17, 1982, Saint Antoine attended an A-list affair hosted by Casablanca at Xenon. John F. Kennedy Jr., actress Valerie Perrine, singer Grace Jones and boxer Jerry Cooney were among the guests.


Model Marie Josee St. Antoine was murdered in 1982.
The night seemed to represent the realization of all Saint Antoine's dreams, but it would be the beginning of an enduring murder mystery.

Shortly after midnight June 18, Saint Antoine was found dead in her fourth-floor apartment at 246 E. 23rd St. She had been stabbed through the heart, and her face was battered.

There was no sign of a struggle. Detectives were perplexed that the victim's white high heels were found on the first-floor landing.

The homicide has long since faded from the headlines, but detectives have been actively pursuing the killer.

"Everyone who was in her life at the time can be a suspect. We've talked to boyfriends and ex-boyfriends," said Capt. Vincent Ferrara, commanding officer of the cold case squad. "We know the killer is someone that she knew."

He added: "There is someone we are looking at a little stronger than others."

Last month, detectives flew to California to interview actress Kim Delaney, who plays "NYPD Blue" Detective Diane Russell.

Delaney, who was Saint Antoine's neighbor, remembered seeing the model walking with a man hours before her body was found, police sources said.

"She was a very sweet girl," Casablanca said last week. "It's a shame that the person who did this to her hasn't been caught."

2. East Side Rapist Still Eludes Police

Victims: 15 women
When: Past seven years
Crime: Rape and stalking

It's been more than three years since the predator known as the upper East Side rapist last struck, but police believe he still stalks the streets.

"We are still actively looking for him," said NYPD spokesman Lt. Steve Biegel. "We know he is still out there."


A police sketch of the East Side Rapist
Between Sept. 18, 1994, and March 24, 1998, 15 women were attacked by the same man in an area ranging from 75th St. to 90th St., as far east as York Ave. and once as far west as Amsterdam Ave.

Police said the attacks usually occurred Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between midnight and 5 a.m., near or at midblock buildings with no doormen.

Most of the victims have been slim blond women who appeared to be in their 20s.

The last victim, 24, escaped after she was grabbed from behind on E. 90th St. The others were sexually assaulted and robbed in some cases.

3. & 4. Toddlers Kidnapped From City Park

Victims: Christopher Dansby & Shane Walker
When: May & August 1989
Crime: Kipnapping


Shane Walker in 1989
At Lenox Ave. and W. 114th St., children scampered around the sprinkler and the colorful slides and jungle gyms on a hot morning last week. But 12 years ago, two toddler boys vanished from this playground on separate balmy evenings.

"They remodeled the swings, but the bench is the same," said Rosa Lee Glover, whose only child, Shane Walker, 20 months old, was taken Aug. 10, 1989, as she sat on a bench in the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers playground.

She last saw her son playing with two older children.


A computer-aged presentation of what Walker would look like today.
"That day never leaves my mind," Glover said.

Three months earlier, on May 18, the same bench was the last place anyone saw Christopher Dansby, a 26-month-old who lived in the same building as Shane.

Detectives checked leads on drug-related motives, cults, baby-selling rings and any other theories that came up.

"There has been not a word about them," said Detective Cameron Brown, who inherited the case in 1999. "We've had false sightings as far as California.


Christopher Dansby in 1989
"We believe they were kidnapped, but we don't believe they're linked." Glover, 47, remains hopeful.

"It's hard. ... I'm still hoping and praying. Maybe when he gets older, whoever has him will feel sorry for what they did and confess," she said. "Maybe it will be like one of those cases where someone raised him, and he'll come back."

Christopher was in the park with his aunt and mother, Allison, when he disappeared. Christopher was in the park with his aunt and mother, Allison, when he disappeared. Later, a 7-year-old neighbor told cops he saw Christopher walking on W. 111th St. with a man with braids.


A computer-aged depiction of what Dansby would look like today.
Police checked out leads that filled nine file folders. They investigated drug-related motives, cults, baby-selling rings and any other theories that came up.

"There has been not a word about them," said Detective Cameron Brown, who inherited the case in 1999. "We've had false sightings as far as California.

"We believe they were kidnapped, but we don't believe they're linked."

Glover, 47, and Dansby, 37, remain hopeful.

"Maybe when he gets older, whoever has him will feel sorry for what they did and confess," Glover said. "Maybe it will be like one of those cases where someone raised him, and he'll come back."

"I feel he's out there somewhere," Dansby said. "I never get any feelings as far as ... (her son being dead.)"


Rosa Glover still hopes for the safe return of her son, Shane Walker.
Glover and Dansby were not close neighbors but became bonded by loss.

Their sons were cute, chubby-faced boys who now — according to computer-generated imagig — would be angular-faced teens.

Both women moved from the King projects, and both call Brown every so often. Brown reinterviewed Dansby's son, Levon, who was 3 when his brother disappeared, but Levon can't remember much.

Glover appealed to whoever took Shane, and to anyone who might know something about his whereabouts: "Please return him. He's the only son I ever had."


5. Who Killed Lawyer Sanford Silver?

Victim: Sanford Silver
When: Feb. 5
Crime: Murder


Sanford Silver
He lived his life in one corner of Brooklyn, a creature of habit who had a mom-and-pop law business. He wasn't known much beyond Borough Park, where he tended his garden and his ailing wife.

When Sanford Silver, 73, disappeared from his blood-spattered storefront office Feb. 5, police at first thought it was a case of an injured and disoriented elderly man. But five days later, his body was found wrapped in plastic trash bags, hands bound, in a reedy lot at the edge of Coney Island Creek.

He had been strangled in what appeared to be an act of rage, not a premeditated murder, a police source said.

Silver was attacked in his office on 48th St. between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. and carried out as heavy, wet snowflakes fell. Police have no witnesses.

"The day he was reported missing was the day we believe he was moved. But how did they carry him out of the office? And how did they dump in that area of Coney Island?" one investigator wondered.


Mourners pay their respects at Silver's funeral.
Cops are pursuing several avenues related to Silver's professional dealings, sources said. Aside from his law business, Silver owned a building with his cousin Brooklyn state Supreme Court Justice Edward Rappaport. Silver and a tenant of the building had been in contentious negotiations over the lease.

Detectives have sent Silver's clothing and other evidence recovered from the crime scene to the FBI lab for further tests, because "there was nothing — not a print," said a police source.

Silver was born and raised in the house he shared with his wife, Saralyn, and an extended family. He never ventured far from the neighborhood, except to visit his cherished granddaughter, Elizabeth, in Philadelphia.

Saralyn Silver, whom he was supposed to take to a doctor's appointment the day he vanished, is in failing health.

"Here's a guy who led a very quiet life. Everyone loved him. The postman that delivered the mail loved him. His neighbors loved him. His family loved him," Rappaport said.

"He was a wonderful man. The list of things that he did for people went on and on and on. Then somebody ends up killing him. Why? It's terrible."

6. Schoolgirl Vanishes

Victim: Quin Rong Wu
When: May 13, 1997
Crime: Murder

The smiling face of Quin Rong Wu on the "missing child" posters plastering the lower East side belied how hard her life had sometimes been.


Quin Rong Wu was murdered in 1997.
To circumvent China's family planning laws, she did not live with her parents for the first eight years of her life. She finally joined them to emigrate the Guandong province to a tiny apartment on Henry St. Her parents worked long hours in factories.

Then, on May 13, 1997, 11-year-old Quin Rong was reported missing. She never arrived at Public School 2, down the block from her home.

A massive search was launched. The family burned incense and prayed.

She was found May 28, strangled, in the East River.

The case became clouded by language barriers and a clash of cultures. Police were surprised that her parents never inquired about developments. The Chinatown community raised $100,000 for the family and was puzzled that the Wus closeted themselves.

Police talked to scores of homeless people after a caller said she saw Quin Rong on a subway train with a vagrant, but they never verified that report.


Family and friends grieve with Quin Rong Wu's parents at the 11-year-old's funeral.
They also have not confirmed reports that the Wus had an infant daughter who died in China.

"We did an extensive investigation, and the answer lies with someone close to her," said a police source.

The girl's father, Qun Sheng, moved his family to another apartment in Chinatown. His youngest child, Jia Rong, now 11, still attends Public School 2.

Reached at home last week, the father said, "Thank you for your concern, but I don't want to talk about it."

7. What Happened to Kristine Kupka?

Victim: Kristine Kupka
When: Oct. 24, 1999
Crime: Missing

During the lingering Indian summer of October 1999, Kristine Kupka was consumed by her pregnancy and the promise of motherhood.

"Today I went swimming," Kupka, 29, scribbled Oct. 22 in a spiral-bound journal.

"Now I know that I'll do this regularly," she wrote. "It relaxes me and it makes me feel like a good mom."


Kristine Kupka has been missing since October 1999.
On Oct. 24, Kupka left her Brooklyn home with her lover, Darshanand (Rudy) Persaud, a Baruch College lab instructor and a devout Hindu. Persaud picked Kupka up at her Kensington apartment, telling her roommate they were going for brunch in Queens.

But by the next morning, Kupka had not returned. Her worried roommate called the missing woman's sister, Kathy, saying: "Kristine never came home. I think something terrible has happened."

Detectives and Kupka's loved ones believe the Baruch student was murdered. Persaud, who is married, has refused to cooperate with detectives.


Kristine Kupka's sister, Kathy (r.) is comforted by a friend near billboard in Williamsburg about her sister's disappearance.
"It's still incredibly painful," Kathy Kupka said Thursday — which would have been her sister's 30th birthday.

"I still get depressed all the time. I can't get over it. I'll never get over it until someone goes to jail," she said. "Her birthday passes, and what would have been the baby's birthday passes, and it gets worse."

This year, Kupka's case was assigned to Detective Daniel D'Allessandro of the cold case squad.

8. Jogger Is Slain

Victim: Maria Isabel Monteiro Alves
When: Sept. 17, 1995
Crime: Murder

It was a murder in "the crown jewel of the city," according to then-Police Commissioner William Bratton, so he formed a huge task force of cops to hunt for the person who bludgeoned and sexually assaulted Maria Isabel Monteiro Alves as she ran through the northern end of Central Park on a Sunday morning.


Maria Isabel Monteiro Alves
Alves was dragged into a ravine and brutally beaten, then dumped in a stream. There was also a rainstorm that day. Any forensic evidence was washed away, police said.

Alves, 44, an avid runner, came from Brazil and worked in a trendy Manhattan shoe store. Her slaying, on Sept. 17, 1995, came just as crime rates began to drop.

A total of $63,000 in rewards was offered. Park habitues were questioned. Thousands of posters were tacked up and handed out to joggers. Alves' life was scrutinized. Police ran down hundreds of leads.

Within two weeks, cops had arrested a can scavenger who said he witnessed the attack on Alves. They questioned him for 36 hours and released him. The man he named was cleared.


Lidia Pinto-Machado (c.), mother of Alves, mourns over her daughter's coffin at her funeral in Brazil.
Detectives said last week that they believe Alves was assaulted by homeless people still living in the vicinity of the park.

"We continue to look in that direction," said Lt. Antonio Collazo of the cold case squad.

Alves was buried in her hometown of Marcia, Brazil, a seaside resort.

Her mother, Lidia Pinto-Machado, visits her daughter's grave every day.

"Justice didn't work very well," Alves' brother, Antonio Monteiro Alves, said last week. "I'm very sad. ... I think justice could have done better."

But he added that he and his mother "still have hope they will find the person who did it."

9. Gay Men Attacked

Victims: Five gay men
When: In the past year
Crime: Slashing

He moves silently and strikes without warning.

He swaths his muscular frame in black clothes and covers his face with a mask.

And he has attacked five gay men in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, slashing at them with a long serrated knife or beating them with his fists, detectives said.


Five gay men have been attacked in Prospect Park over the past year.
Last summer, he struck four times between June 28 and July 7 in a section of the park called the Vale of Cashmere, a heavily wooded area known as a gay cruising spot. Police believe the man also attacked a Brooklyn social worker near Grand Army Plaza on Jan. 15.

One victim called the assailant the ninja because he slashed at the air with his hands.

"This guy comes out of nowhere," said Detective Larry Menniti of the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force. "He's truly a mystery. We feel he's a loner, and we know he lurks in the park."

10. Cop Felled in B'klyn Ambush

Victim: Ralph Dols
Date: Aug. 25, 1997
Crime: Murder


Police officer Ralph Dols was murdered in 1997.
Every time Maria Dols shops for food, she walks past her late son's Brooklyn apartment and her heart races with the terrible memory of his violent end.

Two gunmen ambushed off-duty cop Ralph Dols outside his home at E. 19th St. and Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay as he left his car Aug. 25, 1997.

Dols, 28, was shot seven times and died of his wounds the following morning.

His parents, Maria and Eddie, live two blocks from the murder scene and shop at Key Food, directly across the street.

"Every time I pass his house, it brings it all back. It's terrible," said his mother. "Every day it's hard, and there's no escape from it."

"There are days that seem as dreary as the night he was killed. It's always the same," added Dols' sister, Anna.

Dols, a bodybuilding four-year NYPD veteran, was nicknamed Gentle Giant by the children in the Coney Island housing projects he patrolled.


Flowers left in doorway of slain off-duty cop Dols' home
Detectives believe his death is linked to organized crime.

Dols' widow, Kim Kennaugh Dols, 41, has been married to three reputed Colombo crime family figures: Thomas Capelli; Enrico Carini, who was shot dead, gangland-style, in 1987, and Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, a capo who survived a 1992 shooting, police sources said.

"We're looking into all leads and associations with Russian and Italian organized crime figures," said Brooklyn homicide Detective Anthony Angotti.

"This case is the homicide of a cop," he said. "You take particular interest because it's one of your own."


Original Publication Date: 5/6/01

Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/...opic=2349&st=0&
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/grace.coldcase.walker/
Cold case: Toddlers vanish from parkBy Philip Rosenbaum, Nancy Grace ProducerNovember 30, 2009 9:45 a.m. EST
Shane Walker vanished 20 years ago. Click on the next photo to see what he might look like now.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Shane Walker disappeared from a New York City playground in August of 1989
Christopher Dansby vanished in the same playground three months earlier
Both boys were playing in the same area of the park and disappeared on a Thursday
Both lived in the same apartment building in a nearby housing project
RELATED TOPICS
Missing Children
Nancy Grace
New York City Police Department
(CNN) -- When Rosa Glover brought her 19-month-old son to a New York City playground in 1989, she had no idea tragedy was about to strike a second time in the same place.

In May 1989, 2-year-old Christopher Dansby disappeared from his grandmother's sight on that playground.

Not quite three months later, on a hot August day, Glover's son, Shane Walker, vanished.

As an intense search for both children generated media and public interest across the city, the New York Police Department pointed out other eerie similarities in the cases:

The boys were playing in the same area of the park when they disappeared -- Walker at 5 p.m. on a Thursday, Dansby at 7 p.m. on a Thursday.

Moments before they went missing, the boys were playing with the same children -- a 10-year-old girl and her 5-year-old brother, according to news reports.

In addition, Walker and Dansby lived in the same apartment building in a nearby housing project in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood.
"That's a hell of a coincidence,'' says Ron Jones, a senior case manager with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nationwide clearinghouse and advocacy group.

Jones, assigned to the Walker and Dansby cases from the start, says leads still come into his office fairly often and he relays them to the New York City police.

"People who think they might have seen Shane call us up with a tip,'' he says. "They might be going with the age-enhanced photo.''

According to his mother, Shane was sitting on a bench with her and eating potato chips when the children approached and asked if he could play.

"So I said, 'He's young.' And they said, 'We don't mind,' '' Glover recalls.

While the three children played near the slide, Glover says, a man sat near her and started talking about crime, about how things happen to children. He even mentioned kidnapping. He showed Glover scars he said he had gotten in fights.

"I turned my head to look at all the scars on his body," she says. "When I turned back, I didn't see my son.''

The children Shane was playing with were not around, either. "I started walking around the park, hollering and screaming.''

The next thing Glover remembers is seeing the same two children re-enter the park through a hole in a wire fence.

"I said, 'Where's my son?' " The boy and girl said they left him in the park. Glover took the children to the police station. They were let go after extensive questioning.

Police searched and questioned Glover and her relatives. "They thought maybe a family member took him out of the park,'' Glover said, adding that police also interviewed the man with the scars and released him.

Abduction by a stranger is rare, says Sarah White, a case manager with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, a state-run law enforcement support agency.

By far, most missing people cases are non-custodial parental kidnappings and runaways, White says.

Like Shane Walker, Christopher Dansby has never been found.

The Walker case is still active, according to Detective Cheryl Crispin, a New York Police Department spokesperson. The NYPD declined repeated requests for an interview or more details.

One lead in the days after Shane's disappearance was especially unnerving. Glover says she received a phone call saying her son was buried in an abandoned building. Police investigated and found nothing. To this day, Glover, 57, believes Shane, her only child, is alive. He would be 21.

"I just hope and pray that one day I see him,'' she says, speculating that by now he might have kids of his own.

"I would give him a hug and kiss and we'd go somewhere -- to Florida, anywhere -- just to get away, just to be with him.''

Glover and Shane's father still live in the neighborhood but left the apartment building years ago. Glover avoids walking past the playground.

"Every time I come in the area I start crying and feel depressed,'' she says. Police initially speculated, she says, that Shane might have been kidnapped and sold on the black market.

Some years ago, Glover appeared on "The Montel Williams Show," where a psychic told her Shane was being raised by a wealthy family. Glover brought a photograph of Shane and some of his toys to the show so the psychic could touch them. She said he ''was well taken care of and he was learning the piano,'' Glover recalls.

Though her time with him was short, Glover is comforted by memories of her young son. "He smiled all the time. He only laughed when tickled. ''He liked teddy bears and monkeys."

For a short time, Shane and his parents had a pet chimpanzee named James. The toddler enjoyed sticking bananas in the cage for James to eat.

Glover also recalls a trip they took to Disney World in Florida shortly before Shane went missing. He loved the rides, she says, but was afraid of Mickey Mouse. "He would just holler and scream. I had to carry him all around the park.''

Shane's recollections of her might be dim because he was so young when he disappeared, she says. Still, when she became ill a few years ago, Glover felt driven to hang on.

"I was praying that I survive so I could see him when they find him.''

If you have any tips about this case, please call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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