CA CA - Kristen Modafferi, 18, San Francisco, 23 June 1997

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Is there any new information about Kristen? Even any new speculation?

Also, I saw a youtube clip about a WDC lead..does anyone know what this is about?
 
The blonde haired woman that Kristen was seen with after work must be involved in some way. I know this seems obvious, but could she have been a girlfriend of one of Kristen's roommates? Or, could she have been in the course that Kristen was taking that summer? Does anyone have any ideas about the blonde womans identity?
 
Kristen's case just drives me nuts! I went to SF the year after she disappeared and saw the billboards her parents put up. It was very haunting...

I guess the blonde woman could have been part of Jon Onuma's gang. OR, maybe she had some other connection to Kristen...

I have hope that the investigators checked into the possible ways that she may have gotten to know Kristen. But, now that more than ten years have passed, who knows.

I certainly hope the FBI continues to work the case, since it appears to be way too much for the local LE to handle.
 
Kristen's case is one of those that really drives me nuts too Geoffrey along with Maura Murray's.

Kristen just, poof, disappeared. No sign of her has been found. It is almost enough to make you wonder if aliens didn't just beam her up. It is so frustrating. I am still surprised that Onuma was formally cleared. There certainly wasn't anything there to arrest him for but I think there is enough circumstantial things to at least keep him on the list of suspects.
 
Thanks Gaia!

I couldn't agree more. Many notable circumstantial links for Jon Onuma to Kristen. His being cleared is surprising, I just hope the decision was based on solid facts known only by police. Wthout a a known crime scene there is so little to go on, since like you said, she just poof, disappeared. San Francisco is so densely populated, somebody (whether they are aware of not) must have relevant information, but so much time has passed....

Do you think that the FBI's involvement signals there are some soilid clues or leads, or could it be another decision based upon an absence of information?

I keep thinking about Lands End /Sutro Baths and her walk there. When i was there, there were so many people around such as tourists with cameras. I cannot imagine her disappearance took place there--or someone would have witnessed it, she must have gone somplace else, perhaps at the request of the blonde woman.

Also, Kristen did not clock out form work at Spinelli's that day...to me that signals an unexpected distraction? The classic story about the small town girl in the big city being approached by someone (maybe the blonde woman) about a modeling job or photo opportunity comes to mind.
 
Onuma's involvement reeks of Mr. Binder, in the cases in Hayward with the missing girls. Another person who thrusts themselves into the investigation and gets the police to take their eye off the real investigation.

Its extremely sad that people do this because it could have cost the victim her life.
 
Her disappearance has haunted me for years too. The only sign of her was her scent picked up by sniffer dogs at the bus stop on Geary near the Cliff House or maybe the parking lot of Golden Gate Rec. & the Sutro Baths (these places are within a block of each other).

I've climbed all over the rocks & skirted the dirty, filthy Sutro bath (that looks like a huge swimming pool full of black water) hiked the trail from the parking lot to the golf course, gone up & down the stairs that lead down to the ocean - hiked to Baker Beach and taken many different trails. The only place I haven't been is beyond the sign that says "danger - sharp drop off". There are many places that are dangerous at every turn if you go off the trails.

When I moved to SF in 2003, I found that SF wasn't what I thought it was. There wasn't a minute outside my apartment that I wasn't hyper-vigilant. Maybe that's just me. Kristen was much more trusting & probably naive.

If she was seen at 4pm talking to a blond girl outside Spinellis and then took the 38 Geary to Land's End, she wouldn't arrive till 5 or 5:30pm. Sunset was at 8:30. No one has ever come forward to say they saw her either on the bus or at Land's End or walking a trail. I looked at tide tables and it was a high tide at about 5pm.

Could she have been swept out to sea with no one to witness the event? Did she lose her footing & slip of a rock or down a hill? I find that hard to believe on a June evening with people out and about. I would love to know what happened to her.
 
Kristen doesn't strike me as a person who would have ventured off alone along treacherous terrain. Thank you for the insight Paulette. I have never been to SanFran so obviously not familar with the city. It is interesting to note that the Land's End area is populated with tourists and no one recalled seeing her there and no one saw anyone falling or anything like that. I think the possibility she fell is one that is likely but it bothers me her body never washed up.

Personally I have always wanted more information about her room-mates and what they were doing and what they were like.
 
The Sutro Baths area is fairly dangerous due to the rough terrain--especially where noted by signs--like Paulette mentioned. It seems to me that if she did slip and fall into the water--that either someone would have seen the fall or she would have left some evidence behind. We know that she was carrying her backpack (probably full) with camera, books and other items. I really hope that the area was scoured for clues. I also hope divers looked around for anything she was carrying.

Too bad there is no way to solicit photos from tourists that were there that day.

I suppose the FBI must not believe she was lost at sea--or they wouldn't have re-classified the missing person case as a criminal abduction.

I also agree with Paulette about the hyper-vigilant thing. SF is not really a city to let down your guard, I can't imagine that Kristen would have talked to strangers. The complete lack of witnesses or evidence seems to increase the odds that her abduction was planned. Unless of course, there were some incredibly lucky criminals invovled.

Does anyone know anything about her roommates?? I keep going back to the blonde woman being in some way conntected to them...
 
The Sutro Baths area is fairly dangerous due to the rough terrain--especially where noted by signs--like Paulette mentioned. It seems to me that if she did slip and fall into the water--that either someone would have seen the fall or she would have left some evidence behind. We know that she was carrying her backpack (probably full) with camera, books and other items. I really hope that the area was scoured for clues. I also hope divers looked around for anything she was carrying.

Too bad there is no way to solicit photos from tourists that were there that day.

I suppose the FBI must not believe she was lost at sea--or they wouldn't have re-classified the missing person case as a criminal abduction.

I also agree with Paulette about the hyper-vigilant thing. SF is not really a city to let down your guard, I can't imagine that Kristen would have talked to strangers. The complete lack of witnesses or evidence seems to increase the odds that her abduction was planned. Unless of course, there were some incredibly lucky criminals invovled.

Does anyone know anything about her roommates?? I keep going back to the blonde woman being in some way conntected to them...[/QUOTE]

I don't think she could be classified a drowning unless someone witnessed her being swept out to sea.

Why would the blonde woman be connected to the roommates?

Kristen has a 10 degree Gemini Sun, the same as my daughter. They also share a Taurus Mars. I know a little about Kristen because I know my daughter, Kristen was a risk taker. She flew out to Oakland on her 18th birthday, moved to a shared apt. she found on-line & got a job. She went to at least one concert in Mountainview & spent the night at Tristan"s house (BART probably wasn't running after the concert). Tristan has never been found.

At 17 my daughter went to the WTO in Seattle, flew to Martha's Vineyard & worked on a farm at 18, drove cross country all by herself at 19, narrowly avoided being raped on the ferry from Calais to Dover, thought nothing of leaving her dad in London & making her way to Paris...etc. These are things that Geminis do. They don't consider their behavior risky.

I've always thought she either fell or a rogue wave swept her out to sea or she took a ride. The sniffer dogs found her scent at the bus stop. That proves to me the last know place Kristen was, was Land's end. The bus ride from Land's End to a BART station is about an hour,. Would she take a ride from someone she met at Land's End?

Whatever the roommates told police is private, I don't think we'll ever be privy to that info. The info on her case is very sparse. I hate to think about her case - it's so frustrating!! Haunts me for days...
 
Yikes! The quote thing didn't work. How to fix it?
 
The shoreline around Sutro baths is covered with sharp rocks and boulders. If she lost her footing and fell, she could have wound up in the water--but surely would have skidded across at least a few large rocks before entering the water. Many opportunities to drop her backpack and its contents. This should have been noticeable to some of the swarming tourists, hikers and site see-ers, at least in my mind.

Then, the sniffer dogs are highly reliable, and from all accounts Kristen was interested in seeing this beautiful location. But, the dogs cannot tell what day she was there, it could have been a previous day. And the dogs provide no insight into who she came there with (the blonde woman--Maybe) or who she met there, or where she went from there. If she got into someone's car, that might explain why her scent seems to stop there, since when exiting a bus and walking we have a lot more opportunities to shed skin cells (the scent source) than when riding in a personal vehicle.

Plus, the whole mystery of the blond woman is really odd. I just cannot imagine why this woman would remain hidden and unidentified if she is not connected to the disappearance. It seems unlikely that this woman would walk and talk with Kristen one day, and then be so disconnected from the media, the numerous large billboards and posters about Kristen that she did not know anyone was looking for her. The billboards and posters were placed in and around the areas that Kristen worked and traveled. SF is very compact (not a large sprawling city), people tend to travel the same streets and routes.

If Kristen fell, it is likely that someone would have seen her falling into the ocean--consider this in TANDEM with the mysterious blond woman--who after 11 years has not been concerned about her friend or acquaintance who disapeared, and it really seems like no accident.

Dennis Mahon stated that the FBI believes more than 76% of all abductions are conducted by someone who is known to the victim. I have read some comments posted on other sites about the roommates; some speculate that the roommates might know more than they are admitting OR a friend of the roommates could be connected. I only mention this because a thorough police investigation might be able to find the blonde womans identity by tracking friends and contacts of the roommates.
 
I wish I knew what happened to her, it wasnt until I came on this site that I ever heard of this case, and its So sad. I have a 22 year old daughter and can not imagine what her parents are going through. After reading about this case I was sure Mr. Onuma was the prime suspect and the man who had the answers. But I also get the feeling that someone involved knows more than they are telling. Roomates maybe!

I have never been to the baths even though I have lived in the bay area all my life. Oakland and SF are both highly dangerous places and they have been for a long time. When walking in SF even during the day, its alot like New York city in the fact you need to be street smart. I girl from the south would probably be amazed at the everyday life in San Francisco and I could see her being duped by the wrong person.

There have been a few missing person cases in Sf that have baffled me. Kevin Collins is one that comes to mind. Seen at a bus stop one minute, never seen again the next. After cruising this site for awhile it is very apparent that Northern California has a few predators that have yet to be caught. In a case like this you end up hoping that this girl got stressed out from college and work and decided to dissapear for awhile. I truly hope the family gets some answers.
 
One other thing.

Its too bad the cops didnt use the sniffer dogs to try and track the scent from the roomates or Mr. Onuma. If their scent went the same path as she did then maybe they could have got someone to crack, and this case would have been solved.

I think some of the best detectives are ones that think outside the box........like most of the people I have seen on this site.
 
I will try to fnd a source to confirm, but if I recall correctly, she met the roommates through a classified ad of some sort.

Until I find supporting information though, take this as a grain of salt.

I am not even sure if websites like Craigslist were even around back in 1997.

I hope the roommates (and their contacts) were fully investigated...
 

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