Thank you! I couldn't remember this poor girl's name, but it really stuck out to me, mainly because of her dog wondering home so forlorn.
Here is an article from '99 on the case
4:00 PST MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA -- MARINA, Monterey County - The investigation into the death of Christina Marie Williams got a jolt with newly released sketches of suspects in a Petaluma kidnapping that bear a striking resemblance to the men seen near where Christina vanished.
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The identification of Christina's remains Thursday closes one chapter in the painful, grim saga of her disappearance and rivets public attention on another - finding out what happened to her.
The 13-year-old girl had been missing since June 12, when she disappeared after taking her dog out for a walk.
A plant surveyor found her skeletal remains about 3 miles from the Williams home, lying in dense brush in a nature reserve owned by the University of California. She was identified by her dental records.
Also on Thursday, the Petaluma Police Department released sketches of two men suspected of kidnapping and attempting to sexually assault a 17-year-old Petaluma teen in November.
"They look so much alike it's scary," said Jo Burleson, mother of 17-year-old Noelani Burleson, who was able to kick her abductors and run away.
Noelani had gone out jogging at 6 a.m. on Nov. 23 when two men pulled her into their car - described as an older brown four-door sedan - and took her to a remote area.
In both cases, one man was described as pudgy-faced while the other was thin and pock-marked. In Christina's case, the men were seen in a car with her in the back seat.
FBI spokesman George Grotz said the suspect sketches appear to be similar but added there was no other evidence linking the two cases. He noted the same sketch artist did the drawings in both cases and that the ages of the men are different.
In the Petaluma case, the suspects are described as being their 30s while the men sought in Williams' case were in their late teens to mid-20s.
Grotz said the FBI has been in touch with the Petaluma Police Department to discuss the two cases.
"We believe the individuals responsible for Christina's death - we have no evidence - they may have done something similar to this, either before or after," he added.
The cause of Christina's death has not been determined, but police and the FBI consider it to be a criminal investigation.
"These bad people, they are around, driving around, looking for girls like our beautiful Christina," her grief-stricken, angry mother, Alice Williams, said Thursday at a press conference near the family home, not long after being notified by the FBI that her daughter was dead.
"You know who you are, just driving around . . . " she said as she collapsed, weeping into the arms of her husband, Navy Chief Petty Officer Michael Williams.
It was her 47th birthday.
Bruce Gebhardt, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco office, broke the news Thursday afternoon that the seven-month, national hunt for Christina was over.
"It is my sad duty to announce that the body found (Tuesday) is that of Christina Williams," he said. "We were hoping that this terrible news never had to come."
Gebhardt declined to say whether forensic examination of the bones and other material found at the site revealed how the girl died or how long her body had been there.
Presidio of Monterey Police Chief Alex Kerekes said that - contrary to earlier reports - the area had been searched twice on foot, once by dogs and once by searchers riding in an all-terrain vehicle.
"Several members of the search (party) remember being there," he said.
FBI investigators wrapped up a search of the site late Thursday. Now, said Gebhardt, "we're going to conduct a roll-up-your-sleeves type of investigation."
Christina's disappearance and the search for her have drawn national and international attention.
Posters with Christina's bright smile and long dark hair have been plastered everywhere. Several celebrities, such as rock star Mariah Carey, actor Clint Eastwood and baseball great Reggie Jackson, have lent their efforts to the search.
Flags flew at half-staff Friday in the coastal towns of Marina and Seaside and at Fitch Middle School - where Christina would have been in the eighth grade - as the community tried to absorb the news that she was dead.
"Until this happened everybody was just sort of on hold," Marina City Manager John Longley said. "Now we know the worst has happened. Losing a child is the worst thing there is."
Despite the case's high profile and the offer of a $100,000 reward for information on the case, the FBI has no suspect.
Efforts initially focused on finding two men seen in the area around the time the teen vanished. A woman told authorities two men in an old-model gray Ford sedan verbally accosted her as she jogged on the former Army base. She provided the basis for the sketches.
The FBI declined to reveal items of evidence obtained in the search of the site, which lies in a valley bisected by a dirt road near the Marina Airport and below a former military housing complex now occupied by Cal State Monterey Bay students, faculty and other civilians.
Dan Alvarado, a resident of Schoonover Park, which is only about 400 yards from the site, said he was astonished by the discovery.
"I've been down there a lot of times and I never saw anything. Never thought about it," he said.
Christina's father - who has shown remarkable poise throughout the ordeal, remaining open to the media at all times and giving thoughtful answers to often brutal questions - struggled to keep his composure when he stood before television cameras after the announcement confirming his youngest child's death.
Sometimes choking back tears, Williams said the past seven months "have obviously been extremely difficult for us, but we'll pull through it. Our situation is now closed."
He acknowledged an "almost guilty" sense of relief about receiving the bad news about his daughter. "On the one hand, a lot of burden we've been carrying is gone now. So there's a closure to it."
Williams said that in the early days following Christina's disappearance, he was an angry man, but his anger dissolved when he was born again into the Christian faith.
"We have come a long way since those angry days," he said.
Williams and his wife, who have two other children, had several scares since Christina disappeared, including one in late June when a body was found near Hollister and speculation was that it was Christina.
Tips came in from people who said they saw her looking frightened in the back of a gray Ford or Mercury with two menacing looking men in the front. She was supposedly spotted as far away as North Carolina.
But in the end, the ordeal concluded in the family's own neighborhood.
The news "is not like the miracle we wanted," Williams said. "But if God was able to provide a miracle for everyone who said he wanted one, then there wouldn't be any miracles."
Maybe an end to violence against all children is the miracle waiting to happen, he added.
"Somehow we have to find it in our hearts to do something to end the violence to our children," he said. "We've got to remember my daughter, how she brought this community together. We can't let her memory die."
The Rev. Don Love, pastor of the New Life Christian Fellowship and Williams' spiritual counselor, said,
"Obviously, there's going to be some anger," particularly in Alice Williams.
"As a mother, she wants justice," he said. "You're hearing a mother's heart crying out."
Anger and apprehension abide in Christina Williams' community.
"There's closure, but no relief," said Valerie Woods of Army Community Services, a family friend. "Somebody is out there looking for children. This is a community of children; 95 percent of the homes in this area have children."
Suzy Boyle said she learned about Christina's disappearance only when she and her family moved into the area in November from Georgia.
"Now I don't let my children out of my sight," she said.
Elizabeth Fisher, a close friend of the Williams family who was among the first to visit and offer comfort after the FBI broke the news, said she believes "the reality of all this hasn't really sunk in on the community right now.
"It's kind of a blank spot, but I think people will remember what happened to Christina for a long time," she said. "The community came together because of her, and it will go on remembering her."
Kerekes, the police chief, said that despite the terrifying spectacle the abduction and Christina's murder have spread nationally, "we consider this event an anomaly. It's sad, but I believe this is a safe community."
Michael Williams said a memorial service for Christina will be held in about a week. "We want it to be a celebration of her life," he said.
Meanwhile, the FBI is asking the public for any tip, however remote, that could provide help with the case.
"We're looking for the unusual in the usual," he said.
The tip line numbers to call are 1-800-671-3343 , 1-831-722-8720 and 1-831-242-7851 .<
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...ristina+williams&sn=001&sc=1000#ixzz0XuRYPr9M
