SC SC - Jessica Gutierrez, 4, Lexington, 6 June 1986

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That's appalling about the sheriff. :furious:

His name sounded familiar to me so I googled it. Now I know where I'd heard it before.

As sheriff, Metts earned national recognition in 1985, when he led the largest manhunt in South Carolina history. He coordinated a law enforcement taskforce that included three state agencies and the FBI in the search for serial killer Larry Gene Bell, who kidnapped and later killed two girls in Lexington and Richland counties. Bell was captured after a two-month manhunt. Bell was later convicted of murder and received a death sentence, which was carried out in 1996. The case was the subject of a made-for-television movie, “Nightmare in Columbia County,” which first aired in 1991. The case was also featured in the book “Mindhunter,” written by former FBI agent John Douglas who pioneered psychological profiling in the United States.
http://www.lex-co.com/sheriff/Sheriff.aspx
 
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Jessica's disappearance.


-------------------------
Jessica Suzanne Gutierrez
Missing since June 5, 1986 from Lexington, Lexington County, South Carolina.
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: December 3, 1981
Age at Time of Disappearance: 4 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 3'0; 32 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown curly hair; brown eyes.
Marks, Scars: Gutierrez has a scar on the top of her forehead and scars on her earlobes from piercings. She has a brown-colored birthmark on her right buttock. She had a wart on her left hand at the time of her disappearance.
Clothing: Pink and white T-shirt, white panties
DNA: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance

Gutierrez was placed in a bedroom with her sisters at approximately 11:30 PM on June 5, 1986 in her family's Lexington, South Carolina home. An intruder broke through the living room window of the house sometime before 9:00 AM the following morning; the screen and the curtains from the window had been removed when her family awoke and searched the house.

Gutierrez had been taken from her room by the unknown intruder, who then proceeded to leave with the child through the front door.

A West Columbia man, now a convicted sex offender who did time, told a cell mate that he killed a little girl in Lexington County. Authorities found his fingerprint at the scene and have suspected him from the beginning. He also raped a women days after Jessie disappeared.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning Gutierrez's abduction, please contact:

Lexington County Sheriff's Office
Missing Persons Unit
Lt. Scottie Fry
803-359-8230

Email: sfrier@lex-co.com

All information may be submitted anonymously.

Agency Case Number: 8614106

NCMEC #: NCMC601626

NCIC Number: M-237601733

Please refer to these numbers when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:

The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
NamUs
The Doe Network: Case File 173DFSC


LINK:


\http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/173dfsc.html
 
meggilyweggily said:
Found the text of that conversation:

Sheriff Metts: "What do you want me to do? Someone's got to hold your hand, or out working?"
Gutierrez Garnsey: "Listen here. I don't need you to hold me hand. I - and I don't need you to get smart with me either."
Sheriff Metts: "I'm not going to get smart with you but you're not going to get smart with me either lady. I've been up all night long working on your case and I don't need your smart mouth."
Gutierrez Garnsey: "Oh really?"
Sheriff Metts: "No."
Gutierrez Garnsey: "When I ask you questions I need answers."
Sheriff Metts: "We'll give you answers when we got answers to give. Now you mess with me, I'll pull all my people off and we'll go home and go to bed and forget about your case."
Gutierrez Garnsey: "What could the president do about that? You mean to tell me that if I mess with you - you would pull all your people off this case, and go home and forget about my child?"
Sheriff Metts: "That's right."

And later on:

Gutierrez Garnsey: "And what about the public that elected you to be in that office?"
Sheriff Metts: "They can elect me or not elect me because I don't really give a darn what they do."
Click to expand...

Wow. Sheriff Metts has a great reputation here in SC. I don't believe the above is typical for him.
 
s_finch said:
Wow. Sheriff Metts has a great reputation here in SC. I don't believe the above is typical for him.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me like he just got caught at a bad time after a long night. It's easy to forget that these cases weigh on LE too, and they're human too. Sometimes things get said that they don't mean.
 
s_finch said:
Wow. Sheriff Metts has a great reputation here in SC. I don't believe the above is typical for him.
Click to expand...

http://www.wistv.com/video?clipid=10276878&autoStart=true

yeah, Metts HAD a great reputation, most of it, his own making. Now, 28 years and a month after Jesse's abduction, Metts is facing Federal indictments for a laundry list of offenses, has been removed from office, and quite possibly will do some time. I am ever hopeful that new blood in the sheriff's department, from the top down, will inject some much needed enthusiasm into this case where justice is way too long overdue.
 
I spoke with a member of the family yesterday and they have been expecting to hear something from the new Lexington County sheriff since July. They were promised earlier this year that they would hear something by July. July and August have come and gone and no word at all. It is my understanding that the Attorney General's office has picked the case up for investigation and are going to make some efforts to contact the particulars to see if they can be located. The person the family suspects of having committed this crime was tried and convicted of rape in NC, told a fellow inmate that he had killed a little girl in Lexington, SC, he served about 10 years, and was released to probation.
I am so hopeful that the new sheriff will be able to provide some resolution to this case for the family. Twenty-nine years is too long to wait....
 
Bumping for Jessica. Reading through this thread, it seems like there has been a strong suspect since the beginning, but it's never moved much past that. My heart aches for Jessica, her mom, and all who loved and miss her. She deserves justice. Why has nothing happened in this case? Have Jessica's parents heard anything new?
 
Just heard about this case today. I find it so odd that the suspects name has never been out there. Legally, is the mother not allowed to say it?

Is he still in prison or just out living life??
 
‘The man with the magic hat’ who took SC girl from her bed might never be charged
On a cold, rainy afternoon in the Red Bank area, the calendar says Dec. 7, 2017. But for Debra Gutierrez, it’s still June 6, 1986.

That was the day an intruder entered her Lexington County home in the dead of night while Gutierrez and her children slept, picked up 4-year-old Jessica Gutierrez from her bed and carried her out of the Edmund-area mobile home. She was never seen again.

After more than 30 years of investigating and reviewing multiple leads – including an alleged confession by one suspect – prosecutors still say there is not enough evidence to file charges and get a conviction.
For Gutierrez, the past three decades have been wrought with grief, disappointment and anger, compounded by what she said was a lack of action by authorities when they had a stronger case against a suspect.
“I need to find my daughter,” said Gutierrez, now 60. “I don’t know how much time I have left.”
Click to expand...
‘Everything was normal’

June 5, 1986, was an uneventful spring day for the Gutierrez family.
After working in the yard, the family ate bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for dinner. “Everything was normal,” Gutierrez said. “I painted (Jessie’s) nails that night. She asked to sleep with me.”

Jessie had slept with her mother the night before, and her older brother had an ear infection at the time, so Gutierrez said she let her son sleep in her bed. Jessie went to sleep around midnight in the double bed she shared with her then-6-year-old sister, Becky.

‘Where is your sister?’

The next morning, Gutierrez said she awoke to Becky calling out and asking if they could have cereal for breakfast.
A chaotic scene greeted Gutierrez as she walked into her children’s bedroom. The floor was littered with what appeared to be school papers. The front door was open. The family’s dog was in the house and the curtains had been ripped off one of the windows.
“Where is your sister?” Gutierrez asked Becky.
“She’s gone,” Becky responded. “The man with the magic hat and the beard took her last night.”
Click to expand...
 
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Jessica Suzanne Gutierrez – The Charley Project
Jessica Suzanne Gutierrez
  • jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_1.jpg
  • jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_2.jpg
  • jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_3.jpg
  • jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_4.jpg
Jessica, circa 1986; Age-progression at age 32 (circa 2013)

  • Missing Since06/05/1986
  • Missing FromLexington, South Carolina
  • ClassificationNon-Family Abduction
  • Date of Birth12/03/1981 (37)
  • Age4 years old
  • Height and Weight3'0, 32 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry DescriptionA pink and white t-shirt and white panties.
  • Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Jessica has a small scar on her upper forehead, ear-piercing scars on both of her earlobes and a small brown birthmark on her right buttock. She had a wart on her left hand at the time of her 1986 disappearance, and her fingernails were painted. Jessica's nickname is Jessie.
Details of Disappearance
Jessica was sleeping in a bedroom with her two sisters in her family's Lexington, South Carolina mobile home during the evening hours of June 5, 1986.

An unknown intruder or intruders entered into the house sometime between 11:30 p.m. that evening and 9:00 a.m. on June 6, the following morning. The intruder(s) apparently broke in through the living room window and removed the screen and curtains. The abductor(s) then removed Jessica from the bedroom and left the residence through the front door.

Jessica's mother discovered the crime scene and her disappearance on the morning of June 6; her six-year-old sister, Rebecca, stated she had been taken by "the man with the magic hat and the beard." She has never been heard from again.

Rebecca, now an adult, remembers seeing a man lift Jessica out of the bed and carry her away. She stated the man was able to do this without waking Jessica. Rebecca had been too frightened by what she saw to tell anyone until the next morning, when Jessica was discovered missing.

Just a few days before Jessica disappeared, her mother, Debra, had broken up with her boyfriend and kicked him out of the house for alcohol use and what she described as possessive behavior. Debra accused her ex-boyfriend of abducting Jessica, but he said he had no idea where she was. The man was questioned repeatedly by police, but never charged. Jessica's father was ruled out as a suspect in the case, as he had been living in California at the time of her abduction.

Debra believes a family friend may have kidnapped the child. Debra found fibers in an abandoned car that she says were linked to her daughter. The vehicle belonged to a 27-year-old friend of the family, who has served time in a North Carolina prison for rape.

In 1987, the man told a cellmate that he had kidnapped a girl in Lexington County and buried her body in a landfill there. He mentioned that he was wearing a tall cowboy hat at the time of the kidnapping. The man's cellmate told authorities about his statements, and when police confronted the suspect, he offered to confess if he got immunity from prosecution for the crime. Immunity was denied and the man did not speak any further on the subject.

Investigators have not publicly identified the man or charged him with any wrongdoing in connection with her abduction due to lack of evidence, but he is considered the prime suspect in her disappearance. His fingerprint was found on the window of Jessica's bedroom.

Debra still believes her ex-boyfriend is somehow involved in the case. The ex-boyfriend and the prime suspect denied knowing each other, but Debra says they met each other at a gathering several months before Jessica disappeared.

Jessica's case remains unsolved. Foul play is suspected.

I wonder who that man is?
 
097 - The Abduction of Jessica Gutierrez — Trace Evidence

Another episode of the podcast about her case

There is a suspect, a family friend previosuly surved time for rape with matching fingerprints on the scene and a confession but they never pressed charges. I Believe this case is solvable but it needs attention and to be viewed by fresh eyes.

And there is just 2 pages of it here and she was a 4 year old child being abducted from her bed...
 
Video at link
Community searches for evidence in 34-year-old cold case
Saturday, October 10th 2020

CAYCE, S.C. (WACH) – On Saturday, the community came together to search for evidence on the 34-year-old cold case involving 4-year-old, Jessica Gutierrez.

“I want my daughter and then I’m coming after who took my daughter, then I’m coming after everybody who knew who took my daughter,” said Gutierrez’s mother, D. G.

For the group of over 50 people searching in the woods beside Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church...Investigators tell us the man would frequently go to that wooded area and so loved ones are doing everything they can to bring Gutierrez home.
#more at link
 
Investigators obviously have someone in mind as a possible suspect or suspects. It would help if they released a name or description.

And what does his "magic hat" look like?? It is mentioned in passing.

There has to be a special place in hell...
 
Last edited:
Jessica Suzanne Gutierrez
jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_1.jpg
jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_2.jpg
jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_3.jpg
jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_4.jpg

Jessica, circa 1986; Age-progression at age 32 (circa 2013)

  • Missing Since 06/05/1986
  • Missing From Lexington, South Carolina
  • Classification Non-Family Abduction
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 12/03/1981 (38)
  • Age 4 years old
  • Height and Weight 3'0, 32 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A pink and white t-shirt and white panties.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Jessica has a small scar on her upper forehead, ear-piercing scars on both of her earlobes and a small brown birthmark on her right buttock. She had a wart on her left hand at the time of her 1986 disappearance, and her fingernails were painted. Jessica's nickname is Jessie.
Details of Disappearance

Jessica was sleeping in a bedroom with her two sisters in her family's Lexington, South Carolina mobile home during the evening hours of June 5, 1986.

An unknown intruder or intruders entered into the house sometime between 11:30 p.m. that evening and 9:00 a.m. on June 6, the following morning. The intruder(s) apparently broke in through the living room window and removed the screen and curtains. The abductor(s) then removed Jessica from the bedroom and left the residence through the front door.

Jessica's mother discovered the crime scene and her disappearance on the morning of June 6; her six-year-old sister, Rebecca, stated she had been taken by "the man with the magic hat and the beard." She has never been heard from again.

Rebecca, now an adult, remembers seeing a man lift Jessica out of the bed and carry her away. She stated the man was able to do this without waking Jessica. Rebecca had been too frightened by what she saw to tell anyone until the next morning, when Jessica was discovered missing.

Just a few days before Jessica disappeared, her mother, Debra, had broken up with her boyfriend and kicked him out of the house for alcohol use and what she described as possessive behavior. Debra accused her ex-boyfriend of abducting Jessica, but he said he had no idea where she was. The man was questioned repeatedly by police, but never charged. Jessica's father was ruled out as a suspect in the case, as he had been living in California at the time of her abduction.

Debra believes a family friend may have kidnapped the child. Debra found fibers in an abandoned car that she says were linked to her daughter. The vehicle belonged to a 27-year-old friend of the family, who has served time in a North Carolina prison for rape.

In 1987, the man told a cellmate that he had kidnapped a girl in Lexington County and buried her body in a landfill there. He mentioned that he was wearing a tall cowboy hat at the time of the kidnapping. The man's cellmate told authorities about his statements, and when police confronted the suspect, he offered to confess if he got immunity from prosecution for the crime. Immunity was denied and the man did not speak any further on the subject.

Investigators have not publicly identified the man or charged him with any wrongdoing in connection with her abduction due to lack of evidence, but he is considered the prime suspect in her disappearance. His fingerprint was found on the window of Jessica's bedroom.

Debra still believes her ex-boyfriend is somehow involved in the case. The ex-boyfriend and the prime suspect denied knowing each other, but Debra says they met each other at a gathering several months before Jessica disappeared.

Jessica's case remains unsolved. Foul play is suspected.

Investigating Agency
  • Lexington County Sheriff's Office 803-359-8230
Source Information
 
This Year marks the 35 year anniversary of her disappearance...

jessica_suzanne_gutierrez_2.jpg

Jessica Suzanne Gutierrez
Missing since 6 June 1986
 
4-year-old goes missing from her home 35 years ago-police still hoping you can help

June 6 is a day the Gutierrez family can't forget.

It's the day that they found their 4-year-old was missing from her room.

The Lexington community turned out and frantically searched for little Jessica Gutierrez who vanished from her bed in the middle of the night.

Thirty-five years later, investigators are still working on a case that many wouldn't just consider cold, but frozen.
 
LEXINGTON, S.C. — Lexington County Sheriff's deputies are getting help from the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division and the FBI as they continue their investigation into the disappearance of Jessica Gutierrez, who's been missing for 35 years.

On June 6, 1986, the four-year-old was reported missing from her home on South Lake Drive in Lexington.

More at Lexington Sheriff, FBI look into Jessica Gutierrez kidnapping | wltx.com
 
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