IL IL - Erica Thompson, 53, Brookfield, 25 Sep 2019 *endangered*

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Track where the ex bfs phone pinged. He's an OTR truck driver? Does he have a regular route? Has that route been searched for areas he might ditch her car?

It's a lot easier to hide a person than to hide a person and their vehicle. Is the nearby quarry filled with water or is it still in use?

As far as where her cell phone pinged, I agree it could be a red herring. All that had to be done was for the ex to toss the phone in the back from another vehicles trailer.......

I pray that I am wrong, but I don't see this ending well. Has LE processed Erica's home to rule it out as a crime scene?

Keeping Erica, her family and friends in my prayers. Praying she is found soon.
 
If her BF were indeed a truck driver, it would definitely make sense that he would be in communities like Hodgkins, McCook, Forest View, Summit and Bridgeview - they have some large trucking firms located in those places (I worked at one in Bridgeview that had around 800 tractor/trailers that came and went every day). My father worked in McCook at Reynold's Aluminum (before it went out of business and was torn down), but the quarry there and businesses certainly require a lot of truck deliveries...
 
If Erica was taken from her home, in her car, how did the perp get to her home and then back to his/her own vehicle ? I'm just trying to figure out if I think her phone pings were in her own car or someone else's vehicle, and of course, why travel to those communities?
If trucking-related, that certainly could make sense. That makes me wonder even more if her car is closer to home than anyone thinks. It's such a puzzle.
 
Tripod said:
If Erica was taken from her home, in her car, how did the perp get to her home and then back to his/her own vehicle ? I'm just trying to figure out if I think her phone pings were in her own car or someone else's vehicle, and of course, why travel to those communities?
If trucking-related, that certainly could make sense. That makes me wonder even more if her car is closer to home than anyone thinks. It's such a puzzle.
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Unless she went somewhere to pick someone up and her car returned home with or without her. Then - that would beg the question of who had access to her video security codes. I wonder if LE has used their techy people to try to retrieve the missing video segments.

Also, if trucking related, where other than a trucking company near Brookfield would someone park a big truck ? Could be there's some helpful video elsewhere around Brookfield. All JMOO
 
KatzEye said:
Unless she went somewhere to pick someone up and her car returned home with or without her. Then - that would beg the question of who had access to her video security codes. I wonder if LE has used their techy people to try to retrieve the missing video segments.

Also, if trucking related, where other than a trucking company near Brookfield would someone park a big truck ? Could be there's some helpful video elsewhere around Brookfield. All JMOO
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Those thoughts crossed my mind, too, Katz. Good questions! Often you see semis drop their trailers and drive elsewhere with just the cabs, so that's also a possibility for ease of parking- if trucking-related.
 
SpanishMossAntiques said:
If her BF were indeed a truck driver, it would definitely make sense that he would be in communities like Hodgkins, McCook, Forest View, Summit and Bridgeview - they have some large trucking firms located in those places (I worked at one in Bridgeview that had around 800 tractor/trailers that came and went every day). My father worked in McCook at Reynold's Aluminum (before it went out of business and was torn down), but the quarry there and businesses certainly require a lot of truck deliveries...
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O/T I work at electromotive diesel not too far from where your father worked. Definitely a lot of trucks in this area
 
KatzEye said:
Unless she went somewhere to pick someone up and her car returned home with or without her. Then - that would beg the question of who had access to her video security codes. I wonder if LE has used their techy people to try to retrieve the missing video segments.

Also, if trucking related, where other than a trucking company near Brookfield would someone park a big truck ? Could be there's some helpful video elsewhere around Brookfield. All JMOO
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Brookfield is composed of mostly very narrow streets, most-restricted to exclude commercial truck traffic. The exception is Ogden which runs through the village running West to East (Route 66). There is a fair bit of semi truck traffic on it, but no areas in which to park a truck, even overnight. There are a few trucking companies south of the Village, but I don't know if they offer general truck parking other than their own vehicles.
 
I'm somewhat familiar with the Brookfield area. For what it's worth, there are some industrial areas in Forest Park, not at all far from Brookfield. My best guess is that these areas are between the north south streets of Des Plaines Road and Circle Ave and between the east west streets of 15th st. and Industrial Drive. The only reason I know these areas exist is because in 2015, someone from a nearby suburb was missing for four days and she and her car were found in this industrial area. This particular person took her own life, but she and her car did go unnoticed for four days. I'm not sure how secluded these areas are, but they might be worth checking out. Just an idea.
 
SpanishMossAntiques said:
According to police, Thompson was last seen on video at about 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 25, making a bank deposit in Brookfield. Cellular data indicates that during the early morning hours of the following day, Sept. 26, the cellphone travels from Brookfield to other communities, including Countryside, Hodgkins, McCook, Forest View, Summit and the Bridgeview area.

I live in Berwyn, which is literally right by Brookfield; I am intimately familiar with all of the towns listed above, through which her cellphone pinged. It's very, very strange - I mean, some of those areas (like Summit, McCook, Forest View, and Bridgeview) leave me quite confused - other than having a friend in those places or specific business they'd kind of be odd destinations... The things that concern me are that Forest View and Summit border the Sanitary and Ship Canal (a massive, filthy waterway used by barges transporting iron ore and coal; it's sometimes used as an overflow for sewerage when the Deep Tunnels are full). McCook borders the DesPlaines River, and in general has a lot of abandoned industrial structures and prairie, along with a major -huge- quarry. Hodgkins also backs up to the DesPlaines River, has a huge strip mall, and has a number of heavily forested areas... Bridgeview is a working-class community, very, very populated - houses next to one another, and a diverse population ethnically. I mean, I grew up here and other than going to Summit for a burrito as big as your head at one of the Mexican restaurants there and going to Walmart in Hodgkins I've seldom had reason to visit those other areas.

Sanitary and Ship Canal (roughly 30' deep-50' deep in places)
images
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GraceG said:
I'm posting this as this woman lives in my village and she went missing under suspicious circumstances (I do not know her or what street she lives on). Erica Thompson left work on Sept 25. When her family didn't hear from her, her son went to her home. The back door was open, the A.C. was on full blast, there were dirty dishes in the sink and by the bed, and the pet cats had been left unattended. Security footage from the home had been erased. Her car was missing and her phone last pinged in Missouri. Here's an article from a local paper. Police investigate Brookfield woman's disappearance as well as CBS. Police investigate Brookfield woman's disappearance Brookfield is approximately 20 miles west of downtown Chicago and is in Cook County. Being bordered on 3 sides by large Metroparks and (including a river) it has a very small-town feel to it and very low crime/no obvious gang activity.
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SAMS said:
What is the relationship like between the mother & son? I can only imagine LE is looking at all possible angles. Someone else in the neighborhood must’ve seen something. MOO
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SAMS said:
What is the relationship like between the mother & son? I can only imagine LE is looking at all possible angles. Someone else in the neighborhood must’ve seen something. MOO
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Gut instincts don’t mean much from my extremely distant perspective on this case... but for some reason I do get the feeling her son knows more than he’s saying.. I do hope they are looking at ALL angles indeed!
 
I live in Brookfield, very near I-55, and I also drive almost daily through almost all the locations pinged. Of course this is MOO but it seems likely to me that she could have met up with person X in Bridgeview, and they, or the phone, could have traveled north on Harlem to I-55 which passes through all of the locations named by LE, and also goes directly to St. Louis.

It doesn't feel to me that work has gone out much about her, as I only hear about this today. A local newsletter just published an article stating that someone has paid to put her photo and a phone number for information up on local digital billboards through the end of the year to help get the word out.
 
moons said:
I live in Brookfield, very near I-55, and I also drive almost daily through almost all the locations pinged. Of course this is MOO but it seems likely to me that she could have met up with person X in Bridgeview, and they, or the phone, could have traveled north on Harlem to I-55 which passes through all of the locations named by LE, and also goes directly to St. Louis.

It doesn't feel to me that work has gone out much about her, as I only hear about this today. A local newsletter just published an article stating that someone has paid to put her photo and a phone number for information up on local digital billboards through the end of the year to help get the word out.
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Yep!

Tuesday, November 5th, 2019 12:38 PM
“[SBM]

Ed Marcin, who lived in the Hollywood section of Brookfield for 63 years before moving to northwest Indiana two years ago, reached out to Police Chief Edward Petrak recently, offering to place a missing person display featuring Thompson's photo and a phone number to report information on billboards along expressways and major streets throughout the Chicago suburbs.

‘We created something very simple, so it will be easy to understand as people pass the digital signs,’ said Marcin. ‘We hope this helps the Brookfield Police Department find Erica.’
[SBM]

According to police, the last time the 53-year-old Thompson was definitively seen in Brookfield was on Sept. 25. Police also say her phone traveled from Brookfield to other communities, including Countryside, Hodgkins, McCook, Forest View, Summit and the Bridgeview area during the early morning hours of Sept. 26.
[SBM]

According to Marcin, the missing person messages will be displayed at varying times when advertising space is available on billboards as far northwest as Wadsworth, near the Wisconsin border, as far west as Villa Park, as far southwest as Joliet and as far south as Lynwood.

‘These can run system-wide where there's availability,’ said Marcin.

The message was already in rotation as of Nov. 1, according to Marcin, on a billboard on the north side of I-55 just east of LaGrange Road in Hodgkins, one of the places where Thompson's phone traveled to the morning after she was last seen.

[SBM]” (BBM)
57D66B3F-4F75-4F3D-909C-9524227EA4BB.jpeg
Billboards to display info on missing Brookfield woman
 
sallye818 said:
Finding the car seems key to help to break this case...

The word "quarries" scares me :(
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As a few others have said, these quarries are VERY busy - they're huge, very very well-managed, and employ a lot of people. In addition they are heavily patrolled by the police. I know this because I am a rock/fossil collector, and the one time I managed to sneak in to the quarry on a Saturday (most quarries cease operations on Saturdays) I was collecting for like, 10 minutes, before the police found me and made me leave. I then went and took a bunch of safety classes, etc and got certified so now I can go collect there with certain rock/fossil groups (and we have to wear steel-toed boots, a hard hat, safety glasses, a reflective vest, etc just like their regular workers). Anyway, these quarries are busy places, and they've been around for decades (when I was young they'd blast and my entire house would shake, sometimes knocking the clock off the wall)! Not long ago they were blasting and actually dislodged rocks along a fault line and we had a small earthquake here... So no, I wouldn't worry about these quarries... Things like the Sanitary and Ship Canal and some of the industrial sites around Forest View and Summit make me a lot -a lot- more nervous.
 
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