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

[VeryVeritas]

If Onuma and Lampo are involved (which I think they are, just my opinion) I would have to say they got lucky as not being named suspects yet, just only remaining as a POI . They are only tied to one case of a missing and presumed dead person, that of course being KM and I can't see them being the type to those couples who go around murdering people. What I always wondered was IF Jon and JL are involved, what made KM different and why would Onuma (under the presumption) murder her?

Also when you said did LE do a really bad job, I'd say they did not do the best job but not horrible. It didn't help that she was reported missing three days after she was last seen, then the 48 hour wait period to begin a missing adult persons case, then it becomes Friday and the lead investigators on the case go home for the weekend. It became a whole week before investigation fully starts AND the family had to convince LE that KM was some typical runaway. If I had to grade LE and the work they did on this I would say D+.

My apologies for delayed response. Did not receive notification. If you go back and read from the beginning of this thread, you will learn many interesting details. There are details about JO which do connect him to human trafficking. (just one link is the now deceased Dubey). The problem with JO is he was a shady person with even shadier associations making anything not just possible, but his involvement extremely likely. Some of the key things are the pages torn from JL’s diary for those days few days around Kristen’s disappearance. Wish that JL was public about what was on those pages and why they were torn out. Her co-worker was also tied to JL and JO. That is too much to be a random coincidence. Nonetheless, LE to date has not found sufficient evidence to charge anyone.
These cases where the person may have been trafficked and/or murdered where there is no trace of a body, indicate planning. The fact that she did not clock out, and always had done so before is a red flag. We can take each one of these known facts and put them i to a theory, or remove any combination of facts as just coincidence. Some of them might be coincidence, but all of them? Whomever did this seems to have planned something, maybe murder was not the goal, maybe it was. But they knew how to cover it up, and that should narrow the profile. It doesn’t rule out her roommates, or halfway house neighbors. Yet, it is most likely, that she knew the person(s) responsible. Someone directly and/or peripheral.

 

[VeryVeritas]

So in 2012, Jill Lampo makes a confession to a family member on how she "got involved with a controlling man who convinced her to assist in an unspeakable kidnap and murder" now that right there is quite a confession, but she never names Jon Onuma as the controlling or Kristen as the abducted/murder victim. There is a possibility that Jill is lying but I can't see why she would risk lying? For being a person of interest in the investigation for 23 years you'd have to be really ******* stupid to just randomly make up a false confession. I shouldn't by too much into a confession with no names mentioned in it but there has to be something to it. Also from what I have gathered reading into this case the past month, Jill Lampo has always told different stories to Dennis Mahon (she only talked to him once in 1998 I believe that was the year) The Modafferi family and law enforcement. If you are telling three different stories it may not automatically make one a suspect, but sure makes you think what do they really know?

I feel like there is the chance that JL does have some remorse and guilt but also is afraid of the consequence that she would have to face if she were to ever tell the whole truth. She seems like the type that just cannot truly face the music and while wanting to "clear her conscience" but can't fully come forward.

Do you have a link for the confession to a family member? I also think Mahon has been in contact with her after I found her on facebook and gave him the link. He has never responded to me. But I recall him saying something about locating JL.

 

[VeryVeritas]

Agreed. The Bay area attracted “Extreme Freedom loving people” for at least the past 60 years. Thing is, in an anything goes kind of place, there is no safety. And that means it the law of the jungle. In other words, the predators rule. So the most unfortunate thing is innocent naive liberal minded people, flock there with hippy fantasies.... who often are served up on a platter. Its not just the bay area where this liberal naivety kills young girls. It happens all over the country, especially in the larger cities. It is truly shocking how many horrific things go on, that could be stopped or prevented if there were public outrage, depoliticization, and a return to morality. Unfortunately, the bay area reeks as a dense cesspool of crime and mecca for sociopaths and depravity. Statistically it is only topped by Washington D.C. and Connecticut for sociopaths.

 

[austinhazel]

The sighting with the blonde woman and the newspaper ad about "a female looking for friends" makes me wonder if it was a trafficking attempt. I think I've heard sometimes women can be used to lure other females into trafficking situations (since they might seem more trustworthy to be around). I'm from the Bay Area and Oakland is also a dangerous place to live (I think that's where she was renting her room at) and there is a lot of crime, kidnappings, etc. that happens out there. Such a sad situation though and I get a sick feeling about this.

The situation with the blonde woman is either one of these two things

1. She is involved and has managed to keep her mouth shut for this long. As to what her role is, who knows? Could be possible it was a trafficking situation it just has to be proven.

2. The blonde woman could nothing to do with KM vanishing and has somehow been oblivious to everything that has gone on and managed to miss it in the news. Now you may be thinking how could she miss this? Well as we all know social media did not exist in 1997, the closest thing to it back then was message boards like this so it could be easy for people she met in SF to miss it if they do not watch the news and there are people who either watch the news or don't at all. So the blonde woman managing to miss this case is possible.

Another thing to note is that the blonde woman and KM they were said to be walking really close to each other, giving the hint that maybe they know each other. The mall was also dead that day so it's not like they would be cramped together and have to be close. So this gives me the indication that they did know each other.

 

[austinhazel]

Do you have a link for the confession to a family member? I also think Mahon has been in contact with her after I found her on facebook and gave him the link. He has never responded to me. But I recall him saying something about locating JL.

If you go on FindKristen.com it is on the website! Dennis even has a podcast about it, he actually met her in 1998 and talked to her. 12: Jill Lampo

 

[austinhazel]

My apologies for delayed response. Did not receive notification. If you go back and read from the beginning of this thread, you will learn many interesting details. There are details about JO which do connect him to human trafficking. (just one link is the now deceased Dubey). The problem with JO is he was a shady person with even shadier associations making anything not just possible, but his involvement extremely likely. Some of the key things are the pages torn from JL’s diary for those days few days around Kristen’s disappearance. Wish that JL was public about what was on those pages and why they were torn out. Her co-worker was also tied to JL and JO. That is too much to be a random coincidence. Nonetheless, LE to date has not found sufficient evidence to charge anyone.
These cases where the person may have been trafficked and/or murdered where there is no trace of a body, indicate planning. The fact that she did not clock out, and always had done so before is a red flag. We can take each one of these known facts and put them i to a theory, or remove any combination of facts as just coincidence. Some of them might be coincidence, but all of them? Whomever did this seems to have planned something, maybe murder was not the goal, maybe it was. But they knew how to cover it up, and that should narrow the profile. It doesn’t rule out her roommates, or halfway house neighbors. Yet, it is most likely, that she knew the person(s) responsible. Someone directly and/or peripheral.

Hello! I just saw this, I last checked the site a day before you posted this but I am gonna check more often now that I see activity has picked up on this! I have read from the very beginning of this thread and when it comes to the human trafficking I have some issues or rather speculation of JO having any involvement in it. Now I am no expert in the issue of human trafficking but I could imagine if he was apart of a organized criminal ring the last thing he would want to do is brag or be loose lips about having any involvement, and from what I could gather he has been braggadocious about a lot of things, including Kristen's disappearance. Anyone who is in trafficking regardless of it being the drug trade or human trade or any type of trade knows that loose lips sinks ships, so with that I could imagine JO would of been killed by higher ups for not keeping his code of silence intact. Also when it comes to the Dubey angle, that one took me back because it's a whole new aspect of this case. LE took a look at the possibility of Dubie having an involvement or at least having information around 2007-2008 and they could not find anything that proves they were in San Francisco in 1997. I think LE looked at Dubie and his group as possibly having information due to their association and connection to JO and not them having an actual role and participation. As for a cult involvement overall, I see it hard to believe that being the case. KM had her life together, loved her family and loved what she had going for her. Cults will go after people who are usually confused about life and feel lost, not sure where they are going and not happy with themselves and it takes weeks, even months to finally get them to join a cult. KM was there for only 3 weeks so I can't see how her life of 18 years could be manipulated to join a cult just after 3 weeks.

You mentioned whoever did this most likely knew her and at least planned this out to some degree. An FBI statistic says that when a woman meets with foul play, 99% of the time she knows her assailant. So it is very likely that KM knows whoever determined her fate whatever it may be. I feel like it wasn't at the hands of a mastermind criminal, but someone who at least has enough common sense to cover tracks. All the person has to do is stay one step ahead of LE and they will most likely never get caught. JO isn't a mastermind criminal as he was dumb enough to insert himself into the case with that false phone call, but probably has enough common sense to dispose of any physical evidence if he is involved.

As for the halfway house. I don't know what type of offenders were there or if they committed violent acts so I can't really say if they'd be capable. But my guess is they would have to know Kristen's daily habits, which did differ. Sometimes she would come home right after work and sometimes she would come home at midnight, so she never really had a steady time habit. So it would probably have to be a moment of opportunity for it to happen. My only question is if anyone at the halfway house was involved, how could nobody hear or see something? this isn't a desolate neighborhood so I'd imagine somebody would of seen or heard a struggle and there would of been evidence of a struggle most likely.

 

[ekardh]

Funny, I was thinking about the blonde women the other day. True, these were the days before social media, and Kristen's case is not as high-profile as others, but are we to believe she never heard about her disappearance in the past 20 years? That in itself raises red flags. Unless she was a paranoid person and feared that coming forward would put herself in the frame. I'm sure as the years went by, it became harder to speak up. Just to clarify, the last confirmed sighting of Kristen was at the ATM on her own, right? Perhaps they made plans to meet up later or she was waiting in a car, or maybe the blonde woman was simply a passing acquaintance and nothing more?

I've postulated that Jon Onuma might be a red herring, but the one thing that gives me pause is that he inserted himself into the investigation. The reason he gave for trying to pin Kristen's disappearance on a lesbian love-triangle was ridiculous, and could've been an attempt to throw off the cops or find out how much they actually knew.

And what about the remains at the house? It doesn't sound like the police were impressed by the findings. It's possible there is cross-contamination there which might have given back a false-positive. I would actually be surprised if it turned out Kristen was buried there. It doesn't sound like she made it back home that day.

 

[austinhazel]

Funny, I was thinking about the blonde women the other day. True, these were the days before social media, and Kristen's case is not as high-profile as others, but are we to believe she never heard about her disappearance in the past 20 years? That in itself raises red flags. Unless she was a paranoid person and feared that coming forward would put herself in the frame. I'm sure as the years went by, it became harder to speak up. Just to clarify, the last confirmed sighting of Kristen was at the ATM on her own, right? Perhaps they made plans to meet up later or she was waiting in a car, or maybe the blonde woman was simply a passing acquaintance and nothing more?

I've postulated that Jon Onuma might be a red herring, but the one thing that gives me pause is that he inserted himself into the investigation. The reason he gave for trying to pin Kristen's disappearance on a lesbian love-triangle was ridiculous, and could've been an attempt to throw off the cops or find out how much they actually knew.

And what about the remains at the house? It doesn't sound like the police were impressed by the findings. It's possible there is cross-contamination there which might have given back a false-positive. I would actually be surprised if it turned out Kristen was buried there. It doesn't sound like she made it back home that day.[/QUOTE

As hard as it would be for the blonde woman to not know anything about Kristen vanishing if she is not involved, it's possible. Some people can be blissfully unaware of their surroundings and what is all going on around them ( I have a a lot of co workers like this sadly LOL) but what I find hard to see how this blonde woman could miss all this when you take these things into account
-missing persons flyers were posted in and around SF and Oakland
-a mass public appeal was placed for this woman to come forward, but she clearly never did
-this case was featured on America's most wanted in 1999, Unsolved Mysteries in 2001 and on Dateline and
Reader's Digest in 2003. All within that six year span is in my opinion enough coverage for this blonde woman to have to see something and have it retrigger her memory and go "hey I knew that girl, I was at the mall with her that day. It is hard for anyone to miss this case if you were around at the time, but it's somehow possible.

When it comes to JO, the one thing that has always remained the same is he has never been able to prove he is innocent. He has never shown his lie detector results that he claims he passed, but then turns around and says "nobody will take me up on my offer to take a lie detector test" Like dude which one is it? either you took one and passed or you didn't. LE has found inconsistencies in his story when they first questioned him in this case regarding the false phone call. Sergeant John Bradley was quoted as saying on AMW "But he is connected, and we need to nail down his connection to this case" Now what he exactly means by that, I don't know but I do know that LE has not publicly released all the information regarding JO and his involvement in Kristen's presumable abduction. So with that being known, we can assume LE knowns something that has not been publicly revealed about JO and his involvement and that would be the reasoning behind Sgt John Bradley making that statement.

Oakland police were actually interested in the findings but they didn't really know how the test that Dr. Arpad Vass works, as he scanned the house with proprietary device that he developed that detects human decomposition chemicals. However Vass has stated that his device works almost the same as how the Oakland PD dose it with there devices. And from what I know Oakland PD says he never sent forward his findings so they had nothing to work with. Also Paul Dostie, a retired SGT said that the area and interest points are more of an indication of a crime scene and not a burial, as the hard compact floor in the basement would be extremely difficult to dig up with a shovel.

Lastly you should know, she wasn't seen at an ATM or caught on CCTV the day she vanished. The cameras at the mall were not working that day and KM never took money out of her account that day. The last verifiable sighting of her was at 3:45 pm with the blonde woman.

 

[ekardh]

I could've sworn I've seen the pic/video of Kristen at the ATM. I can't seem to find it anymore but it exists right?

 

[austinhazel]

I could've sworn I've seen the pic/video of Kristen at the ATM. I can't seem to find it anymore but it exists right?[/QUOTE

I know for certain that the last credible sighting was at 3:45 pm with the blonde woman, however if she did use an ATM it must of been before 3:45 pm OR it could of been after 3:45 pm which would change the last credible sighting of her of being on an ATM on her own like you said.

I'm gonna go look as much as I can for this ATM image because I have never seen one before but there is reason for her to be at an ATM if she did indeed go to one. On Friday June 20th, Kristen took out $500 to pay the monthly rent to the head of the household Griffin Cherry. But he told her that he could not take cash and needed it as a money order because the money wasn't even going to the landlord as the landlord was not even paying the mortgage anymore as the house was in foreclosure and the money order would go to the general living expenses. So Kristen said she would redeposit the money back into her account (as to if it would be Saturday or Sunday or Monday I'm not sure) but nonetheless she would do so and that she would bring the money order on Monday, however Kristen never put the $500 back to her account and it was never found. I'd assume it either vanished with her or it was stolen by someone.

So that could be why she would go to an ATM machine if she did indeed go to one. I am just gonna add on that I don't know how a money order works or if it is something that can be done simply at an ATM machine or if she would have to take the $500 to the bank and then they would handle the money order that way.

Lastly if you go to the FindKristen.com podcast, the latest episode is about the last known photo of Kristen. It is basically her in the far off corner looking up at some artwork at an art exhibit they went to, the photo was taken by her coworker Joanna Sondheim and Joanna didn't really plan on Kristen being in the photo but she came out in the frame. Dennis did not say what day this photo was taken but it was not on June 23rd. so that's why I think the ATM sighting might be false. Best case is to ask Dennis because outside of law enforcement, he knows the most about this case.

 

[geojeffrey]

I don't recall ever seeing that pic...but will look around for it!

 

[geojeffrey]

I could've sworn I've seen the pic/video of Kristen at the ATM. I can't seem to find it anymore but it exists right?

I don't recall ever seeing that pic...but will look around for it!

 

[ekardh]

Just a word to the wise, @austinhazel, you need to put your post outside of the quote tags. I almost missed your posts until I went back to check.

 

[austinhazel]

Just a word to the wise, @austinhazel, you need to put your post outside of the quote tags. I almost missed your posts until I went back to check.

Whoops! my bad, I don't know why I did that the last few messages. But as far as KM at the ATM I still cannot find anything, however I did find something! It is a 20 second video on the 20 year anniversary and at the 3 second mark to the 10 second mark it shows two CCTV still shots of who I assume is KM. However the bottom date looks like it reads 3-20-97 and the time reads 15:35 I believe so I don't know if this is the right footage at all especially considering the cameras at the mall were not working that day. The footage is grainy but it's CCTV from 1997 so I'm not really surprised. I will post the video link and let me know if this is what you saw! Log into Facebook

 

[austinhazel]

Also I think you should be able to watch it even if you do not have a Facebook page but if for some reason you can't ill try to do a screenshot of the clip

 

[ekardh]

Whoops! my bad, I don't know why I did that the last few messages. But as far as KM at the ATM I still cannot find anything, however I did find something! It is a 20 second video on the 20 year anniversary and at the 3 second mark to the 10 second mark it shows two CCTV still shots of who I assume is KM. However the bottom date looks like it reads 3-20-97 and the time reads 15:35 I believe so I don't know if this is the right footage at all especially considering the cameras at the mall were not working that day. The footage is grainy but it's CCTV from 1997 so I'm not really surprised. I will post the video link and let me know if this is what you saw! Log into Facebook

Yup that's the one. Thanks!

Yeah, each of the two frames has a different date. The first is the 20 June 1997, but the second is 23 June 1997 (the day Kristen disappeared). Not sure the significance of the first one. I guess they just wanted to include the last known shots of Kristen before she vanished.

 

[austinhazel]

Yup that's the one. Thanks!

Yeah, each of the two frames has a different date. The first is the 20 June 1997, but the second is 23 June 1997 (the day Kristen disappeared). Not sure the significance of the first one. I guess they just wanted to include the last known shots of Kristen before she vanished.

I would have to say that the first one is significance because her hair is in a ponytail and in the second one her hair is down so they would want to show what her hair looks like in different hairstyles incase anyone has seen her an recognizes her. One thing I just noticed now looking closer at the second frame is the time looks like it reads 15:54 0r 57 or 55 but it is past 15:45. Now I have no way of knowing if this changes the significance of her last verified sighting at 3:45, but maybe someone saw her after 15:45 and seeing this would jog there memory and they would come forward with whatever they saw or wherever they may have seen her after the last verified sighting. Now of course it would be a long shot and like I said I really don't know if it changes the importance but it's just a though.

 

[ekardh]

I would have to say that the first one is significance because her hair is in a ponytail and in the second one her hair is down so they would want to show what her hair looks like in different hairstyles incase anyone has seen her an recognizes her.

That's a good point that I hadn't considered. I wonder how widely those snapshots were publicized, though?

One thing I just noticed now looking closer at the second frame is the time looks like it reads 15:54 0r 57 or 55 but it is past 15:45.

Looks like 15:55 to me. How come Kristen and the blonde woman had separated? Perhaps she was just a passing acquaintance. Someone who was travelling through SF? The only problem with that theory is that apparently the two of them looked quite close. Although some people do have that instant rapport.

Now I have no way of knowing if this changes the significance of her last verified sighting at 3:45, but maybe someone saw her after 15:45 and seeing this would jog there memory and they would come forward with whatever they saw or wherever they may have seen her after the last verified sighting. Now of course it would be a long shot and like I said I really don't know if it changes the importance but it's just a though.

After nearly 25 years? I know some people have freakishly good memories but that's a tall order. Just my two cents.

 

[austinhazel]

That's a good point that I hadn't considered. I wonder how widely those snapshots were publicized, though?



Looks like 15:55 to me. How come Kristen and the blonde woman had separated? Perhaps she was just a passing acquaintance. Someone who was travelling through SF? The only problem with that theory is that apparently the two of them looked quite close. Although some people do have that instant rapport.



After nearly 25 years? I know some people have freakishly good memories but that's a tall order. Just my two cents.

Well every old archive I could find on the internet of this case from years like 1997-98 and 99 did not have them so I would have to guess not widely, who knows what difference it could make if they were in the early days of the investigation. But anything is possible. My guess would be it could be a passing acquaintance, perhaps if KM placed any online adds looking for friends that we are not aware of, I know of the Bay guardian ad looking for friends found in her room we just don't know if she placed it or saw it and then responded to it. But back to me mentioning her possibly using the the internet to look for friends. So we know she used Craigslist back in NC to find the place that she would eventually wind up staying at, she could of possibly used Craigslist as well to look for friends and maybe this is where the blonde woman comes into the picture. Now I have no way of proving this beyond it just being a though, and I'm sure LE looked at this being a possibility but it is something I have never seen mentioned before so that's why I decided to mention it. I still have to believe KM knew this girl because as I have previously mentioned the mall was dead that day and it is possible it was just a passing acquaintance. And ill be honest it's more of wishful thinking on my part to say that someone seeing the CCTV of KM after 24 years would remember something and it's pretty improbable, but not impossible! That would have to be one hell of a memory retrigger though lol!

 

[Sonny Crockett]

I just became aware of this JM cold case due to it being mentioned in the KS thread. Wow. Incredibly sad & disturbing, and especially unfortunate that the family hasn't gotten closure - due to no remains being found. And, unlike the KS case (where it's not that difficult to piece together what happened, even in the beginning), in this JM case it's very unclear what occurred. It's also too bad that this disappearance hasn't gotten nearly as much exposure as some other more well-known cases.

I haven't read all of these posts & have only read a handful of articles about this. But, I completely agree that JM was almost certainly either kidnapped and/or killed. Unfortunately, there are a lot of predators out there - especially in the larger cities. She was a young woman living in the big city for the first time, away from her family & people she grew up with. She may have trusted the wrong person/people and died as a result. Possibly JO was involved. But, if so - I don't know why he would have exposed himself to unnecessary scrutiny by calling the authorities, etc.

Maybe RD was involved, as has been mentioned.

I am curious as to whether she placed the personal ad that was mentioned, or was just responding to this. We may never know the answer.

The other slim possibility (as has been mentioned) is that she either killed herself by jumping in the ocean - or slipped & fell, and was swept away. I don't give much credence to the suicide angle, since she seemed like someone whose life was going well. She was only 18, starting college, and had her whole life ahead of her. So, if her death wasn't because of a murder - then I do see the possibility of her somehow walking near the water, accidentally falling in, and unfortunately dying as a result.

Without a body, there's always the extremely slim chance she's still alive somewhere. But, it's very doubtful because if that were the case, she would almost certainly have gotten in contact with her family at some point in the past 24 years.