AR AR - James Valdez, 47, car found with message asking for help, Booneville, 10 Jun 2021

[Sclaiborne100]

If there is no evidence of foul play, most police departments will consider it a run of the mill missing person, with the exception of severe health issues. The trick here is to find something that points at foul play or to elevate the severe health issue to the point that LE lists him as "endangered". Either one or both would garner more media attention and LE action.

He had diabetes, but was only on the oral medication. He had high blood pressure medication, but I don't think that would garner severe health.
The only thing really that can point to foul play (and even the chief said this) was the area where the last phone location was from the find my iphone on the cloud. It was in an area that was under water at the time. Phone records were never received because it was a pay as you go phone from Cricket. He had never set it up on the plan and only used wifi. Anyway, the chief said he's not sure he can trust the last phone location as actually being the last phone location.
I get frustrated cause I FEEL like there's not enough being done. It seems like we have people say they will help and they get disinterested and move on to something else. Then when we get too many people helping, others get their feelings hurt and won't help. Our thinking is the more people that help, the more brains that are together will find the key!

 

[Happypetitvieux01]

He had diabetes, but was only on the oral medication. He had high blood pressure medication, but I don't think that would garner severe health.
The only thing really that can point to foul play (and even the chief said this) was the area where the last phone location was from the find my iphone on the cloud. It was in an area that was under water at the time. Phone records were never received because it was a pay as you go phone from Cricket. He had never set it up on the plan and only used wifi. Anyway, the chief said he's not sure he can trust the last phone location as actually being the last phone location.
I get frustrated cause I FEEL like there's not enough being done. It seems like we have people say they will help and they get disinterested and move on to something else. Then when we get too many people helping, others get their feelings hurt and won't help. Our thinking is the more people that help, the more brains that are together will find the key!

I feel so deeply sorry for you and your family.
Noting suspicious at all in the house or around it?
I always have red flags in my mind when one spouse is the last person to have seen the other spouse leave the house and vanish during a messy situation.
In every thread that we read on thoses cases, there is always more to the story.
Unfortunately.
Hope that sometime soon, someone will talk.

 

[Sclaiborne100]

I feel so deeply sorry for you and your family.
Noting suspicious at all in the house or around it?
I always have red flags in my mind when one spouse is the last person to have seen the other spouse leave the house and vanish during a messy situation.
In every thread that we read on thoses cases, there is always more to the story.
Unfortunately.
Hope that sometime soon, someone will talk.

We'll likely never know if there was anything suspicious because the police did not feel they had reasonable cause to search the premise.
For them, I think reasonable cause would be a body. I'm trying as hard as I can with being in a different state to get things accomplished, but it's nearly impossible. If I didn't have family ties here, I would have already moved up there and have myself in the woods every day!

 

[Sclaiborne100]

Here is the latest news story. What do you guys think about the chief's body language and responses?

 

[Beth11311]

Yes, that is still how it is listed. I'm not sure when they'll say it's a cold case or if they even will. There's not enough evidence yet to change it to a murder case.

It's been a year and 7 months. I was trying to maintain hope at the beginning, but once his daughter's birthday came and went and nothing from him, it was a hard time for all of us cause then we knew for sure. Now two birthdays have come and gone. She had her sweet 16 a few months ago and we know he'd never miss that.

I firmly believe he would never miss his daughters birthday. The fact that Anna had a boyfriend there already just three weeks into him missing has my hinky meter going off…

This isn’t right. The LEOs handling this case are small-town LE, from what I can tell, correct? Time to get the sheriffs involved. This stinks to high heaven.

You have support, in more ways than you know. Fellow ws’ers I encourage you guys to join the FB group for Jamie as well. Let’s bring him home.

 

[jash]

Here is the latest news story. What do you guys think about the chief's body language and responses?

You're a great advocate for Jamie!

I'm not good at reading people but the chief comes across as low energy and choosing to not suspect foul play in a person's disappearance seems like the easier way out.

I don't understand why a person who willingly wanted to disappear would disable their own car - what purpose would that serve?

I hope you all find Jamie and the answers he and you all deserve.

 

[wary]

You're a great advocate for Jamie!

I'm not good at reading people but the chief comes across as low energy and choosing to not suspect foul play in a person's disappearance seems like the easier way out.

I don't understand why a person who willingly wanted to disappear would disable their own car - what purpose would that serve?

I hope you all find Jamie and the answers he and you all deserve.

I am new to this case, and have no opinions at all on what happened, but
regarding disabling his own car: I think it could happen if his mind wasn’t working the way it should have been. A relapse into some type of drugs?

For example, one morning I went out to the kitchen, and discovered that a family member had taken apart the dishwasher, as much as was possible—every removable part removed and scattered all around the kitchen. Why? Trying to fix the garbage disposal, which had, of course, nothing to do with the dishwasher. (We’d disabled the garbage disposal because we didn’t think it was safe for him to be around.)

So you can see where my thoughts go, as a possibility with the car.

 

[Happypetitvieux01]

Here is the latest news story. What do you guys think about the chief's body language and responses?

So LE believes there is no foulplay and that's it? End of the story and please move on?
A belief - not facts - is strong enough to stop search of what really happened to Jamie?

Is there any other way to go over or challenge that belief?
(I'm from Canada and not fully aware of you legal system)

 

[Sclaiborne100]

I firmly believe he would never miss his daughters birthday. The fact that Anna had a boyfriend there already just three weeks into him missing has my hinky meter going off…

This isn’t right. The LEOs handling this case are small-town LE, from what I can tell, correct? Time to get the sheriffs involved. This stinks to high heaven.

You have support, in more ways than you know. Fellow ws’ers I encourage you guys to join the FB group for Jamie as well. Let’s bring him home.

They are very small town and haven't handled a case like this where the family is pushing them to keep doing something. They've had other people come up missing and nothing was ever done. When I asked the chief about it (in the case of Thorina Watson) his reply was that he believed she absconded. Yet her family has never heard from her at all - one is recently married and another had their first baby. Mothers don't miss those sorts of things. I have tried including the sheriff on emails to the chief and he refers me back to the chief saying BPD is handling the case.
Thank you for the support. Today more than any day it means the world. Just feeling down after the news story and then a live I did was not well received when I'm trying to maintain a good relationship with LE despite what was said about my brother because of the simple fact I just want my brother found and I don't care whose ego I have to stroke to get it done. It's always a no win situation and you can't make everyone happy, but I'm just super sensitive after the news story. So just thanks!!!

 

[Beth11311]

These are very small town LEO’s in believe. The chief is quite young, which is telling. I’m actually shocked he is the chief after seeing his interview. I think it’s time to involve the sheriffs and push this forward.

 

[Sclaiborne100]

So LE believes there is no foulplay and that's it? End of the story and please move on?
A belief - not facts - is strong enough to stop search of what really happened to Jamie?

Is there any other way to go over or challenge that belief?
(I'm from Canada and not fully aware of you legal system)

I wish there was a way. I've tried so hard to get other agencies involved, but they all state they have to be invited by the agency over the case, so nothing gets done in that regard.

 

[Beth11311]

They are very small town and haven't handled a case like this where the family is pushing them to keep doing something. They've had other people come up missing and nothing was ever done. When I asked the chief about it (in the case of Thorina Watson) his reply was that he believed she absconded. Yet her family has never heard from her at all - one is recently married and another had their first baby. Mothers don't miss those sorts of things. I have tried including the sheriff on emails to the chief and he refers me back to the chief saying BPD is handling the case.
Thank you for the support. Today more than any day it means the world. Just feeling down after the news story and then a live I did was not well received when I'm trying to maintain a good relationship with LE despite what was said about my brother because of the simple fact I just want my brother found and I don't care whose ego I have to stroke to get it done. It's always a no win situation and you can't make everyone happy, but I'm just super sensitive after the news story. So just thanks!!!

I’m so sorry that it’s a rough one today. I lost my father at 12, and the pain is still so fresh. Losing a loved one, and not knowing what happened to them…I can’t imagine. I can tell you my mother did not have an autopsy done so I will never know why he died, and that has been with me ever since. Haunting. I hope you and your siblings are able to get good access to therapy etc. it really helps.

Ahh so it’s like with the FBI, they have to be invited in…I wonder if that’s the case still if you can somehow prove they haven’t fulfilled their duty as LEO. There has to be a way to get the sheriffs to take note. I completely understand that you’re walking a fine line between keeping LE happy and also pushing them to do more work. Could you schedule a call with the sheriffs and brief them on everything that has happened, especially noting the ways in which the local LE have come up short?

 

[Sclaiborne100]

I am new to this case, and have no opinions at all on what happened, but
regarding disabling his own car: I think it could happen if his mind wasn’t working the way it should have been. A relapse into some type of drugs?

For example, one morning I went out to the kitchen, and discovered that a family member had taken apart the dishwasher, as much as was possible—every removable part removed and scattered all around the kitchen. Why? Trying to fix the garbage disposal, which had, of course, nothing to do with the dishwasher. (We’d disabled the garbage disposal because we didn’t think it was safe for him to be around.)

So you can see where my thoughts go, as a possibility with the car.

Yes, I can definitely see why your thoughts would go in that direction! It's something we had thought could be a possibility as well, but with that being said, there were certain people who knew he had run off and left our mother's car running in the middle of the road because he was high and had thought there was a bomb in it. He was in touch with us the very next day though. It'll be 2 years in June and believe me when I say that Jamie was one of the most social people I know and when not one of his friends or even acquaintances have seen or heard from him, that makes me come to certain conclusions. Is it possible that he overdosed and is somewhere in the woods? Possibly, but there have been numerous searches with cadaver dogs and even individual people out searching on their own and no sign of a body. I wish I had concrete answers to share. All I have are possibilities!

 

[Sclaiborne100]

Does anyone know if there is a way to get notifications when someone has posted? Email notifications? Is there an app? I forget to check this site and don't want people having to wait for me to answer!

 

[deadfoot13]

Does anyone know if there is a way to get notifications when someone has posted? Email notifications? Is there an app? I forget to check this site and don't want people having to wait for me to answer!

If you hit the "watch" button, it gives you an option to choose to receive notifications of new posts by e-mail. If you're already "watching" the thread, if you "unwatch" and then hit "watch" again it gives you the option to select if you want notifications by e-mail or not.

 

[Sclaiborne100]

So, James went missing on the 10th, his car was found on the 17th by a group of teenagers and then on the 19th James's wife's boss and her husband came across his car and reported it to LE.

It is interesting that his car was found by someone close to his wife, were they actively searching for James or his car, or did they just happen to come across it ?

Most interesting of all is that the teenagers who found the car 7 days after James went missing reported that the car was running and someone was sitting inside it, but that person had left the vehicle when they returned to it a few hours later.

Who was sitting in the car ? If it was James he had already been missing for 7 days by that point. I haven't seen any mention of food wrappings found in or near the car. If it was James in the car on the 17th surely there would be evidence of him having had food and drink for the past 7 days. He had money with him to buy food, as he apparently took $600 cash with him.

Having diabetes and no medication with him he would be becoming very unwell by that point and probably wouldn't be far from the car if he left it. However, he has not been found nearby, so where is he ?

It seems unlikely that it was James sitting in the car given the length of time since disappearance, so who was that in the car, and why was it running.

The REAL date he went missing is the 9th. It was reported by her to the police as the 10th, but she contacted me on the 10th to let me know he had left the day before after their argument. Just wanted to clear that up!
The wife's boss' significant other was a friend of Jamie's and had known him since he was a teenager. So yes, he was on the lookout for him. I'd heard that the boss' SO has a daughter who had recently passed and the cemetery was not far from where Jamie's car was found.
I had heard from the chief of police that the young people who found the car said that it was running and someone was sitting in it. BUT when I talked to one of them, I discovered they were not minors as I had been told. The young man said that the car was not running and they hadn't even seen the car when they first got there as they entered the bluff hole from the other driveway. It's a U shaped driveway, so on the way out, they saw the vehicle. There was no one in it. They felt of the hood and it was cold. They said one of the windows was cracked, but the doors were locked. Two of the young men are the ones who wrote on the back window.
I don't know why the chief told me that there was someone sitting in the car and it was running unless it was just a miscommunication. I can understand him THINKING the people were minors as they look young, but the young man I spoke with told me the reason they were even there was one last hurrah before he went to boot camp.
None of the photos showed any food wrappings or empty drink containers whatsoever. That had been an interesting observation on my part as well.

 

[Sclaiborne100]

The combination of the seat being pulled forward and the vehicle being found by the wife's boss are the things that stick in my mind. It's probably completely innocent, but it has stuck with me.

It's always made me wonder IF MAYBE he HAD spent a night in the vehicle and pulled the seat up so he could lie comfortably in the back. It's all very bizarre that he just fell off the face of the earth. We're quickly coming up on him being gone two years. :'(

 

[Sclaiborne100]

Here is the latest news story. What do you guys think about the chief's body language and responses?

I recently spoke to the chief and he told me that he didn't say there was no foul play suspected. What he meant was that there was no hard evidence of foul play. That was the biggest thing that made our whole family very upset....

 

[Sclaiborne100]

If you hit the "watch" button, it gives you an option to choose to receive notifications of new posts by e-mail. If you're already "watching" the thread, if you "unwatch" and then hit "watch" again it gives you the option to select if you want notifications by e-mail or not.

Thank you! I followed the instructions!! Crossing my fingers that I'll get notifications now!

 

[Sclaiborne100]

Sharing the link to the 2 year anniversary news story. Booneville man still missing after two years