Still Missing CA - Michaela Garecht, 9, Hayward, 19 Nov 1988 *ARREST*

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Dr. Doogie said:
One thing that I forgot to mention is that Michaela's mother told me that she believes that Bindner was not involved in her daughter's kidnapping.

She did state that when Michaela was abducted, the number of tips received overwhelmed the Hayward PD. She said that the leads actually filed a couple of filing cabinets and many of those leads were never followed up on because of the volume. Twenty years later, a retired detective comes in a couple of days a week as a volunteer to work on evaluating the leads and doing as much followup as possible at this late date, but one is left to wonder if the one clue that would solve this case has been sitting in a drawer for two decades untouched.
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After reading the book, that was the feeling I got. All of the dept's had to be overwhelmed. Binder, as I stated earlier, sure didn't help matters by taking up their time if he's in fact "innocent" which he claims. I've got to say, I read quite a lot and I can't recall any person who may have hampered an investigation as much as Binder did. Guess that made him proud of himself. Maybe one day time will pull through and there will be answers given to the Garecht family and all the others who are missing
 
"Stalemate" has both of the composite sketches. as well as several photos of Bindner. The original sketch doesn't look at all Bindner except the long hair. The second looks a lot more like him. I couldn.t find any explaination for the second sketch in the book. The description gave by the witness was sholder lenghth hair. 5' 8"-5' 11" 180 lbs early twenties. Pocked marked face. Tim was about 5' 8"' closer to 160 lbs , longish hair over his ears and 40 years old with an unremarkable face. The description hardly nails Bindner. But the witness was only 9 years old herself. The vehicle is more problematic. Tim drove a light blue Van with distinctive LUV YOU tags. The description of the vehicle was described as a large cream, gold or tan colored 4-door with a battered front bumper. Witnesses have been futher off than this but it tends to weaken any case against Bindner. But he was in Hayward that day!!! This could be a coincedence.
 
kemo said:
"Stalemate" has both of the composite sketches. as well as several photos of Bindner. The original sketch doesn't look at all Bindner except the long hair. The second looks a lot more like him. I couldn.t find any explaination for the second sketch in the book. The description gave by the witness was sholder lenghth hair. 5' 8"-5' 11" 180 lbs early twenties. Pocked marked face. Tim was about 5' 8"' closer to 160 lbs , longish hair over his ears and 40 years old with an unremarkable face. The description hardly nails Bindner. But the witness was only 9 years old herself. The vehicle is more problematic. Tim drove a light blue Van with distinctive LUV YOU tags. The description of the vehicle was described as a large cream, gold or tan colored 4-door with a battered front bumper. Witnesses have been futher off than this but it tends to weaken any case against Bindner. But he was in Hayward that day!!! This could be a coincedence.
Click to expand...

Point well made with the initial composite not really matching up, but as you said the witness was very young at the time and it had to be a very traumatic event for her as well. As with the car not matching Binder's, this guy was always thinking two steps ahead of the investigators, so for him to roll out with a different car than his own and abduct Michaela or any other children would not be improbable, but likely I would think.
 
From: Michaela's Mom, Still Missing Her
Date: Jan 24, 2009 12:10 PM

Today is Michaela's birthday


Today is Michaela's birthday. She would be thirty years old today, and yet she is forever frozen in time for me as a little girl.

Sometimes on my way home from somewhere, I drive by the house where I lived when she was born. I never do that on purpose, because it stirs up way too many feelings. Yes, there are so many sweet, tender memories hidden away in that house, so much love and joy. But I must admit, it is really difficult to just allow myself to feel that love and joy without feeling those other feelings ... the ripping of my heart as that love and joy were torn away, leaving a wound that will never really heal. And anger. Yes, still there is anger. I'm not angry at God anymore. I'm not really angry at anyone anymore. I'm just angry.... It's hard to describe, but when I think about that time I lived in that house, I only had Michaela at that time, and I think about a lifetime of sitting and holding her. I remember going to the grocery store with her cuddled safe to me in her Snugli. I remember sitting on the floor stacking up alphabet blocks. I remember her sweetness, and her joy and delight as she grew and learned new things.

All those things were sweet in their moments, and I have to learn to just focus on that, on those things as themselves, things in their moments. And yet they were more, because they were preparation for a life to come. Everything she had done in life, as much as it was wonderful in itself, was laying a groundwork for a life to come, and after all that groundwork was laid, how could someone just come and take that life to come away from her.

Yes, my friends, it is true that I don't know for certain what happened to Michaela. But I do think it is most likely that she is home, and has been home for a very, very long time. I think that the home she has come to is a lot nicer than the one I'm sitting in now. I think it is a home where she can actually still feel my love for her, only it is not tinged with the bitter sorrow of its loss, but rather with the sweet knowledge that it lives forever, and that we will see each other again. I think it is a home where there are no tears. I think it is a home where all that time spent learning how to read probably isn't worth much, but all that time spent learning to love is worth everything.
One day, probably I will go home to her instead of her coming home to me. And that will be a joyful thing. But for right now, I think Michaela is happy, and she doesn't need me. Other people here do need me.


I have to tell you, wonderful and kindhearted people are always telling me to have faith, that she will come home. I know what is behind it when people say that, that is is only love and caring. And yet I have to tell you that it kind of irritates me sometimes, because when you tell me to believe that Michaela is still alive, you are asking me to believe that my sweet, innocent little girl has spent the last twenty years living in fear and grief. Look at the composite of the man who kidnapped my daughter. Look at her age, and how beautiful she was. I can tell you that she was not kidnapped to be adopted by some nice, childless family. Her life would not have been a good one. I just want my daughter to be happy, to be enfolded in the arms of love.
What is faith? What is hope?
I do not know yet what I am going to do today for Michaela's birthday. It is all so conflicted. I came to a point awhile back where I couldn't get birthday cakes for her, because I couldn't even entertain the idea of enjoying that sweetness in the bitterness of losing her. And yet, she WAS sweetness and joy and love. In my heart, she still is, and yet she is sorrow that is so deep and so dark and so just plain unending that I can barely even skirt the edges of it. I think perhaps this will need to be the next step in my healing ... to be able to fully embrace my daughter with joy for who she was, who she will always be to me, instead of having to stand back at just a bit of a distance for fear of being sucked into a black hole of grief from which there is no escape.

And yet there is. Here is my faith, that in the darkest of my dark places, God can reach in and pull me out. I just have to have the will to grasp the hand he reaches out to me.

So I grab that hand, pull myself out with God's strength and not my own. And once again I say ...

Happy Birthday, Michaela, wherever you are. If you are home already, I will be happy for your joy and peace. If you are still here, then come home to me, PLEASE! Just know that I love you forever, for always, with all of my heart.
 
Posted: 8:01 pm PDT May 11, 2009

Updated: 7:20 am PDT May 12, 2009
HAYWARD, Calif. -- The FBI is hoping that a strong new lead and an increased reward might finally end the mystery of nine-year-old Hayward resident Michaela Garret's kidnapping over two decades ago.

She won't reveal much about it, but FBI Special Agent Marty Parker says that the Bureau and Hayward Police have a solid new lead in Garret's disappearance."This case has gone on way too long and the parents just want to know what's happened to their little girl," explained Agent Parker, a cold-case specialist.Garret's mother, Sharon Murch, is hoping for closure, no matter what the outcome. "Even though there's a possibility that I might find out things I don't want to know, I really need to know," said Murch.The kidnapping took place on the Saturday afternoon before Thanksgiving in late November of 1988."[It happened in] broad daylight in front of so many people with Michaela kicking and screaming the whole time," said Agent Parker.Just two weeks later, a television crew recreated the kidnapping for the show 'Unsolved Mysteries.' Michaela and her friend had taken their scooters to the Rainbow Market to buy candy.Witnesses say a man moved one of the scooters while the girls were inside. Police assume he was luring his victim.He moved the scooter close to him so that Michaela would walk over to recover the scooter, which of course is when he grabbed her and threw her in the car, said Murch.The cashier at the Rainbow Market called 911, a tape the FBI is releasing for the first time."My daughter's friend was very upset, she was crying and, rather than talk to her, the police talked to a checker from the grocery store," remembered Murch. "And the checker says that she thinks she saw him drive by earlier and she gave a description. And I think that was probably the biggest mistake."The clerk described the vehicle as "an old … kinda dirty, burgundy 4-door." When police eventually talked to Michaela's eight-year-old friend, she said the car was a different color altogether."It was actually a butterscotch-colored car. So in those initial few minutes, they were looking for the wrong colored car," said Murch.Police did recover evidence from the scooter according to Agent Parker: "There was a partial palm print on the scooter that was moved."That palm print could be matched if police routinely took palm prints along with fingerprints from suspects. Unfortunately, they do not."In the past, even the FBI and most local agencies would only do what's called a ten-print; just the fingers," said Agent Parker. "So we're going back and even old suspects that we have ten-prints on we'll be asking for palm prints."Witnesses described the kidnapper as a white man, age 18 to early twenties, thin with pimples or a pock-marked face and dirty blonde hair. more at link: http://www.ktvu.com/news/19434539/detail.html
 
Posted: 8:01 pm PDT May 11, 2009

Updated: 7:20 am PDT May 12, 2009
HAYWARD, Calif. -- The FBI is hoping that a strong new lead and an increased reward might finally end the mystery of nine-year-old Hayward resident Michaela Garret's kidnapping over two decades ago.

She won't reveal much about it, but FBI Special Agent Marty Parker says that the Bureau and Hayward Police have a solid new lead in Garret's disappearance."This case has gone on way too long and the parents just want to know what's happened to their little girl," explained Agent Parker, a cold-case specialist.Garret's mother, Sharon Murch, is hoping for closure, no matter what the outcome. "Even though there's a possibility that I might find out things I don't want to know, I really need to know," said Murch.The kidnapping took place on the Saturday afternoon before Thanksgiving in late November of 1988."[It happened in] broad daylight in front of so many people with Michaela kicking and screaming the whole time," said Agent Parker.Just two weeks later, a television crew recreated the kidnapping for the show 'Unsolved Mysteries.' Michaela and her friend had taken their scooters to the Rainbow Market to buy candy.Witnesses say a man moved one of the scooters while the girls were inside. Police assume he was luring his victim.He moved the scooter close to him so that Michaela would walk over to recover the scooter, which of course is when he grabbed her and threw her in the car, said Murch.The cashier at the Rainbow Market called 911, a tape the FBI is releasing for the first time."My daughter's friend was very upset, she was crying and, rather than talk to her, the police talked to a checker from the grocery store," remembered Murch. "And the checker says that she thinks she saw him drive by earlier and she gave a description. And I think that was probably the biggest mistake."The clerk described the vehicle as "an old … kinda dirty, burgundy 4-door." When police eventually talked to Michaela's eight-year-old friend, she said the car was a different color altogether."It was actually a butterscotch-colored car. So in those initial few minutes, they were looking for the wrong colored car," said Murch.Police did recover evidence from the scooter according to Agent Parker: "There was a partial palm print on the scooter that was moved."That palm print could be matched if police routinely took palm prints along with fingerprints from suspects. Unfortunately, they do not."In the past, even the FBI and most local agencies would only do what's called a ten-print; just the fingers," said Agent Parker. "So we're going back and even old suspects that we have ten-prints on we'll be asking for palm prints."Witnesses described the kidnapper as a white man, age 18 to early twenties, thin with pimples or a pock-marked face and dirty blonde hair. more at link: http://www.ktvu.com/news/19434539/detail.html
 
Posted: 8:01 pm PDT May 11, 2009

Updated: 7:20 am PDT May 12, 2009
HAYWARD, Calif. -- The FBI is hoping that a strong new lead and an increased reward might finally end the mystery of nine-year-old Hayward resident Michaela Garret's kidnapping over two decades ago.

She won't reveal much about it, but FBI Special Agent Marty Parker says that the Bureau and Hayward Police have a solid new lead in Garret's disappearance."This case has gone on way too long and the parents just want to know what's happened to their little girl," explained Agent Parker, a cold-case specialist.Garret's mother, Sharon Murch, is hoping for closure, no matter what the outcome. "Even though there's a possibility that I might find out things I don't want to know, I really need to know," said Murch.The kidnapping took place on the Saturday afternoon before Thanksgiving in late November of 1988."[It happened in] broad daylight in front of so many people with Michaela kicking and screaming the whole time," said Agent Parker.Just two weeks later, a television crew recreated the kidnapping for the show 'Unsolved Mysteries.' Michaela and her friend had taken their scooters to the Rainbow Market to buy candy.Witnesses say a man moved one of the scooters while the girls were inside. Police assume he was luring his victim.He moved the scooter close to him so that Michaela would walk over to recover the scooter, which of course is when he grabbed her and threw her in the car, said Murch.The cashier at the Rainbow Market called 911, a tape the FBI is releasing for the first time."My daughter's friend was very upset, she was crying and, rather than talk to her, the police talked to a checker from the grocery store," remembered Murch. "And the checker says that she thinks she saw him drive by earlier and she gave a description. And I think that was probably the biggest mistake."The clerk described the vehicle as "an old … kinda dirty, burgundy 4-door." When police eventually talked to Michaela's eight-year-old friend, she said the car was a different color altogether."It was actually a butterscotch-colored car. So in those initial few minutes, they were looking for the wrong colored car," said Murch.Police did recover evidence from the scooter according to Agent Parker: "There was a partial palm print on the scooter that was moved."That palm print could be matched if police routinely took palm prints along with fingerprints from suspects. Unfortunately, they do not."In the past, even the FBI and most local agencies would only do what's called a ten-print; just the fingers," said Agent Parker. "So we're going back and even old suspects that we have ten-prints on we'll be asking for palm prints."Witnesses described the kidnapper as a white man, age 18 to early twenties, thin with pimples or a pock-marked face and dirty blonde hair. more at link: http://www.ktvu.com/news/19434539/detail.html
 
Thanks for the info LinasK! I have internet chatted with Michaela's mom through MySpace a couple times and she actually tried to join WS so she could post on this thread but her email address kept getting denied :(

Michaela and I were/are the same age. I have always been interested in her case. It would awesome for it to get rolling again.
 
kevmob77 said:
Unfortunately "Stalemate" is out of print but can be found on Amazon, etc. I paid about $0.18 for it a few months back. It's a very well done book, with no overt prejudice by the author that would hinder the true and few facts that are known of the cases in question. Timothy Binder's actions and behavior portray a very sick person, and it's no wonder why he was looked at extensively by LE.

One of the frustrating things about these cases in California linked to Binder is that LE spent so much time looking at him to either eliminate or exonerate him that they, in hindsight, probably lost what few leads/clues/connections there were. What's important here is that it was Binder's own doing. This nut kept sending letters to young girls, visiting the parents of the missing, hanging out at murdered girls gravesites, and playing games with LE non-stop- and this is after he was being looked at as a potential suspect. He actually won a lawsuit in Cali for harassment! Who knows what he's doing these days. That's kind of scary to think of.
Click to expand...
Ironically, Binder just recently got himself seated as a juror on a murder trial and the conviction may be appealed because he was a juror!:eek:
 
LinasK said:
Ironically, Binder just recently got himself seated as a juror on a murder trial and the conviction may be appealed because he was a juror!:eek:
Click to expand...

Isn't that ironic. Is it known if Binder is still looked at as a viable suspect in Michaela's case?
 
Michaela's mother told me that she did not believe that Bindner had any involvement with her daughter's kidnapping.

I am trying to find out if the info that I mentioned in above posts is the basis of this new lead or if something new has developed. Either way, I pray that Sharon can finally get the answers that she deserves.
 
I didn't realize or had forgotten until reading it again that they didn't talk to Michaela's friend until way too late. That is really unfortunate because clearly her friend saw the vehicle better than the store clerk. It kind of reminds me of Samantha Runnion's kidnapping where her little friend gave such good details that led them to the perp. Can you imagine if they hadn't listened to Samantha's friend? Wow. This is definitely proof that investigators should not underestimate the power of a child's memory or intelligence during an investigation.
 
I wish we could find out what happened to this little girl. I think of Michaela so often, and am still hopeful about this apparent "new lead".
 
I received an email this week from Michaela's mother Sharon asking that I convey her thanks to everyone here at WS and their continued concern for her daughter.
 
I frequently remember Michaela in my prayers, and will certainly be praying tonight that some answers will finally come to light.
 
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