As Joe Friday demonstrated with the Flickr picture, there is a walkway along the side of the Julien Dubuque bridge, and you can walk across the bridge quite handily to a local HyVee store and into downtown Dubuque. I have done it several times myself and Chyenne was taller than I am, so it would have been an easier walk. She didn't live right near the bridge entrance, but it wasn't that far away either considering this young lady always walked around downtown near the bridge entrance.
I did not know Chyenne well, but I had spoken with her before, especially when she was younger (about 10-11) and still would say "Hi" to her when I saw her around East Dubuque or at the library.
I believe the "social butterfly" comment is a bit misleading for those not familiar with this girl. Chyenne roamed around town, sometimes until and after dark, and would stop and talk with a lot of people from the first time I saw when she was, again, probably around nine or ten. She sometimes walked around with other girls, but they rarely seemed to be "besties."
Chyenne always had a way of exagerrating a little bit. It was kind of cute when she was little, and you would say "Hi Chyenne, what a cute puppy" and she would tell you a "mutt" was a very expensive dog someone got her, but as she got older, it was a little more concerning but still nothing really harmful. I never felt like she was ultra-close to any of the kids she hung out with because she still walked alone a good bit. It was like they would take her when no one else was available to chat it up with.
I always worried about Chyenne because she was always downtown around the bars, which are almost the entire downtown of East Dubuque, and I once saw her around the age of 12 walking around the main part of town in a swimsuit without a wrap or anything. She was often in clothes that were the wrong size (either comically too big or way too small) and it looked like she had lopped off her own hair the last time I saw her at the library (she was there a lot). It was basically the same hair she has in the picture above, so that was probably the fall shot at school for the year. I know from my own high school experiences that anyone who went to school dressed and groomed as she did would not have an easy time of it despite her bold personality.
I will not comment on her family, but I see that there is no harm in mentioning facts, but I will not name names. I do not know her family, but I know from discussing this case in town that she has a mother and a step-father. I know she has a full brother and a half brother. I don't think her father was in the picture anymore as he never entered into her fanciful recounts. She also never mentioned her step-father, but I know that he exists, again, because of a conversation I had with a person with a position in the community who knew Chyenne better than I did and would know.
In terms of hobbies, based on the times I saw her around town, Chyenne seemed to enjoy sporting around on bikes. When she was younger she rode a chopper style bike of her brothers. She always frequently had one mutt dog or another following along behind her. She had no difficult maintaining a conversation with adults from a young age.
The first time I talked to her was when I was watching the fourth of July fireworks and she walked by and initiated a conversation and stayed and chatted for quite a while as we watched the show. After that we talked a few more times off and on that summer/early fall. As she got older she still would say hi, but rarely tried to chat very much as she always seemed ready to walk along to somewhere else. I didn't mind much because I worried about her and felt like there was little I could do about it not being a teacher or family member.
I want to end this by saying Diane Brown is not my real name. I live in East Dubuque and have for a long time, but I have never really become part of the community. This is a very wet town (the Wikipedia page for the community used to say as much), and I don't drink and have never visited any of the bars except once to have a hamburger because somebody gave me a gift certificate to it. Without drinking, a higher income, or athletic children, I think it is hard for most people to fit in here, and I have none of those. I don't want to risk further alienation by speaking out a little bit about this situation. If a site administrator would like to verify my real identity in order to allow this comment to appear, I could do that, but I don't want the name published on here.
I know I said I was ending this above, but I would offer this about the investigation. I'm sure the police have done everything they could. If someone from East Dubuque had seen Chyenne, they would recognize her, both from the pictures that are still up all over town and from having seen her around town for years.
My personal belief is that she had help and skipped off with someone (someone in town might know who the person she left with was). I don't see how she could have stayed out of sight locally well enough without literally being a shut-in. For the longest time I thought she would pop back up any day and be happy to come back to town as a sort-of returning hero, but the more time has went by the more I worry that she is either living in a bad situation or not living at all. I look her name up every few weeks hoping that I can find something but I have never seen anything that would have been started after she left home.
I can hardly see anyone her age not using the internet at all without someone else advising them not to or creating her a totally different identity and having her communicate with a totally new group of friends -- but then I think the temptation to say "Hi, I'm out here" to someone she knew would be too great.
It is a very sad, strange situation. For myself, I always look at faces when I'm walking around town or a grocery store hoping to spot her just in case she dyed her hair and lost a few pounds. She always had darker hair, so a lighter hue might would help her go unnoticed to those who didn't look. Losing her perpetual tan (because she was always outside) would do the same. In fact, I would say if she let her skin lighten, lost a little weight, dyed her hair, and wore nicer clothing, someone might be able to pass her off as older and let her walk about over in Dubuque (not here in E. Dubuque) without worrying about her being spotted by people who had only seen her picture in newscasts. Again, those of us on this side of the river saw her all the time and most of us might spot her if we were looking at faces instead of passing through life without eye contact. Also, if she saw someone she knew, she probably wouldn't be able to hide her recognition of them. That would take a lot of practice.
All and all though, for someone to go to the trouble above - of helping her blend in - would be extraordinary, especially since this person would be committing several different types of crime. I feel like she has probably left the area or has entrenched herself indoors if she remains in this region. I hope that this is the case and that she is still with us.
My apologies if I create work for a moderator because I said something I shouldn't have. I read the rules and tried to stay within them when commenting. I just wanted to say my piece so maybe some of these talented and devoted members could find something I have not.
Oh, one more thing. I think one paper or a "Find Chyenne" thing I saw on facebook had another picture, but she was a bit younger in it. Someone also posted a picture on WordPress alongside a tribute poem. I'll see if I have that bookmarked. Again, she was a lot younger in this picture as well. Otherwise, the same photo shared in this thread is the one around town and on all media releases.
Tribute Post on Wordpress dedicated to Chyenne Kircher (also contains a plea for her to return)
Also,
here is something a news station did on the anniversary. Again, no alternative photographs are shown.