MD MD - Judith 'Judy' O'Donnell, 19, Baltimore, 30 Nov 1980

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Mia said:
Do you know the names or locations of any of these hostels, Oriah? I have heard of them existing in the past, but was not aware that any were still around. If you know of any that were open in 1981 and which are still open, let me know. I would be more than happy to take a walk over and show the nuns/staff Judy's picture and info. Just maybe we can reawaken an old memory of what Judy was doing/who she was hanging out with before she disappeared.

I just read the LI Press article. Not sure I can mention his name here, but a man with the initials AR was mentioned in the article as someone Judy was associating with before she disappeared. Kim or Maureen: is there any more information on his and/or his and Judy's relationship that was not mentioned in the article? Where did you get his name from? was he a boyfriend Judy talked about? Did you find papers with his name on it or photos? Do you have any idea how old he was (even roughly) back in 1980 or 1981? That would at least narrow down slightly which "AR" it could be. As the LI Press article mentions, it is a very popular Puerto Rican name, and "A" can be a nickname too, which makes it even more difficult. But at least its a starting point! If we can find out how old he was back when Judy was hanging out with him, I can ask around the lower east side if anyone knows an "AR" of that age who was part of that scene in the early 80s. A lot of these 'old timers' in Tompkins Square Park and the surrounding area are friendly and happy to talk, especially stories about the past, especially if you have a dollar or a cigarette to share. I'll bring both when when I go over there this weekend; just printed out a bunch of copies of Judy's Charley Project page plus the picture of her in the blue beret. Someone HAS to know her.

For some reason Judy has really touched me. NYC is a tough city. Having grown up here and lived here my whole life (I am now 29 years old) I have seen a lot of very young people come here with dreams of succeeding in whatever their chosen profession/talent is, and those dreams getting crushed within their first year of living here. Many go back to the towns they came from, some struggle on for much longer in tiny apartments with 4 roommates, some live in Union Square and Tompkins Square Park and sleep on benches/in shelters or basements at night, and many go home in body bags. It's incredibly sad. This is a great city, but the way it lures young people in then spits them back out is heartbreaking.
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it is heartbreaking. The current project to id all the bodies in potters field will bring that to the fore.

AR was Angel Rivera. He was either a student or a parasite at SUNY-OSWEGO, I say that because I don't know if he actually was a student or not - but he was a drug dealer on campus, which I believe is how they knew each other. I am not certain but believe he may have brought her to NYC one of the times she went there before making it her "home."

Judy spent time at Covenant House. It's unfathomable to most people how harsh that city is on the youth - the youth who believe the can "make it there" and then find themselves without anything to eat, anywhere to stay. And she was spirited -- there are so many factors that made this a complicated case. Not cut and dry. Not an adorable baby "stolen" in the middle of the night, not a girl stolen by a boyfriend in a white van. She was an adult -- over 18 -- and there was embarrassment -- and then there's the whole jurisdiction thing, which was incredibly frustrating! Computers didn't exist, not for this sort of thing anyway.

Any help you can provide I would be most thankful for. She was such an amazing young woman, who simply made bad, bad, uninformed, bad decisions. And ultimately, all evidence points to it having a bad ending for her. Someone has to know SOMETHING. She didn't vanish into thin air!

Have you joined the facebook page ?? Would welcome you! :) still looking for judy. :)
 
and, he would have been about 25 in 1980 from what I understand from Judy's friend Rebecca.
 
Mia said:
You're very welcome. Am going to print out the Charley Project page as well as the picture you posted earlier in the thread, of her in the blue hat before you left to take her to the bus station (she looks so gorgeous in that picture). am going to print them out before I leave work today as we have a color printer here.

This weekend I'll go show them to the old timers in Tompkins Square Park and the surrounding area; I'll also post print outs of the Charley Project page around the Lower East Side and especially around bars etc that I know were open back in the late 70s/80s. Amazingly a lot of them are still open, especially in that area. Too bad CBGBs closed a few years ago - it seems like a place she would have hung out in, and they had a loyal clientele that had been going to shows there since the 60s.

No, I have not seen the LI Press article. I'm sorry I haven't read this whole thread yet, am only up to page 3. Is it linked somewhere in this thread? If so when I get to it I will read it.

If that really is her at the presidential inauguration (and I believe it is, as I believe you knew your sister and would recognize her) I am so curious why she was there? The obvious answer would be as somebody's date.

It sounds like Judy had a tough childhood, and that she may have been abused or at the very least treated inappropriately by the priests at her school. Combine that with parents that were in denial, and the discomfort she probably felt at that last Thanksgiving in Baltimore. I think there's a good chance she just said screw it after that and went off to start a new life without any family contact. I do believe there is a good chance Judy is still alive, living under a new identity perhaps or maybe she is wandering the very streets I walk every day here in NYC, homeless and lost in the system.

bless you for continuing to look, Maureen. I wish we could get a forensic artist to do a rendering of what Judy would look like now, at age 50-55.
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BBM

Mia and JudysSisterMaureen, you may want to try a PM to CarlK90245. I haven't been on WS even a year yet, but he appears to be very talented.

JudysSisterMaureen, you WILL find Judy because you are so determined and you haven't backed down! I would imagine it's helpful that there are so many caring, interested folks on WS who support your efforts.

HAPPY NEW YEAR: May 2012 be the year you find Judy!
 
I live in Syracuse and use to hang out in the city at that time to,do you know where she hung out here?
 
I believe the Good Shepherd Sisters operated one out of St Paul's during that time. It has since been converted to a youth hostel and I think is run by the Paulist Fathers. Leo house in Chelsea, I believe was also a sort of 'underground hostel' for young women at the time (it's a small hotel now- still run by the same nuns) but I don't know if they'll tell you that, lol. They may say that program never existed. However- they can probably point you in the direction of some of the catholic based womens services operating quietly in NYC in 1980. If you make it down there, ask to speak with Sister Maureen- I think she is still there. And if you can track down anyone at St. Paul's (they have an elementary school still running) I know they will be able to point you in a couple of directions as well- and will be sympathetic to the cause.
I don't want to post addys online, because some places still operate 'underground' for safety purposes. But they will talk to you in person. :)
 
JudyssisterMaureen I hope 2012 is the year you recieve some answers.
Your sister was very beautiful and very blessed to have someone like you who cared so much for her.
I know your parents attitude is painful but dont let it discourage you in your search.
You remember and you care that is enough.
This seems like a difficult case given the many years since her disappearence and the milieu in which she lived but answers have been found to even more dificult cases all it takes is one break or piece of info to connect with the right person.
I wil certainly add your sister's case to the ones I follow regularly.
 
SyraKelly said:
I live in Syracuse and use to hang out in the city at that time to,do you know where she hung out here?
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we went to the orthodontist at the 500 bulding -on Salina St I think? she was known to
frequent" the Hotel Syracuse, I think - my father's boss once saw her there with a John. (one of the many reasons my parents never made this case public years ago was shame, embarrassment).

she didn't really hang out *much* in Syracuse, there was enough trouble for her to get into in Oz, and then she high-tailed it for NYC once she became bored with the Oswego scene. Judy's friend Rebecca thinks that she went there, at least the first time, with Angel Rivera. I, however, simply do not remember.
 
JudysSis, have you checked out substance abuse recovery 'meeting' locations, such as AA and NA? A lot of them have looooong-term members and may remember if someone resembling your sister ever showed up? The connections a lot of AA and NA locations have with missing persons is incredible... Also, there was a lot of outreach in NYC during the late 70's and 80's to people both on the street and working the street due to the growing awareness of HIV and AIDS (especially in certain parts of the city.) I wonder if maybe we could track down some old-timers who may have encountered your sister via an outreach program?
 
Oriah said:
JudysSis, have you checked out substance abuse recovery 'meeting' locations, such as AA and NA? A lot of them have looooong-term members and may remember if someone resembling your sister ever showed up? The connections a lot of AA and NA locations have with missing persons is incredible... Also, there was a lot of outreach in NYC during the late 70's and 80's to people both on the street and working the street due to the growing awareness of HIV and AIDS (especially in certain parts of the city.) I wonder if maybe we could track down some old-timers who may have encountered your sister via an outreach program?
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To the best of my knowledge (which is limited because I was a. 10-14 for the grand finale of things going on in her life, b. sheltered from as much of it as my parents could manage, and c. Judy was an incredibly free spirit with a Devil-may-care attitude about life and danger) Judy was not a part of AA or NA. Members may remember getting high with her, but I doubt they'd remember her from a meeting. Her drugs of choice were PCP, booze, and pot - and I assume, given her propensity to hang out at Studio 54, coke.
 
Gotcha.

Was thinking perhaps older users now in recovery may recall her from their partying days. Will keep looking.
 
Oriah said:
Gotcha.

Was thinking perhaps older users now in recovery may recall her from their partying days. Will keep looking.
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Thank you!! :) that's why I've been trying so hard to get pictures from the inaugural and the strike - to see if anyone knows any of the people in any of the footage. I go in spurts with finding my sister, because I tend to let it overtake everything else; with three small kids it's hard to focus, let alone *think* some days.

I had some helpers looking at the library at Stanford for a while. I need to get back on that -- and I need to look at Vanderbilt for the footage of Judy during the Sanitation Strike.

I know I saw her on the TV. PO.SI.TIVE. And my older brother and older sister are equally positive they saw her during the sanitation strike. I have yet to get my hands on it though!

There HAS to be someone alive that remembers her from back in the day. Maybe not many, there was lots of Ian Dury's favorite things... Sex, and Drugs, and Rock and Roll ... Speaking of which, someone mentioned CBGB - that wasn't her scene at all. She was glam and disco all.the.way. Might have turned a trick or two there but doubtful. She was all about midtown, even though she lived in the Village.
 
JudysSis, have you checked c-span for their archived videos from the inaugural? They have a ton. Also, I think U Texas has an archive. Do you recall by any chance what network you think caught her on film?
 
Oriah said:
JudysSis, have you checked c-span for their archived videos from the inaugural? They have a ton. Also, I think U Texas has an archive. Do you recall by any chance what network you think caught her on film?
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yall can call me Maureen! :) I have not checked c/span. I don't think that they existed in 1981? It was ABC, but their film that old has been destroyed, which is why I've gotten footage from the Reagan Library in Sta. Barbara CA. The local station that carried it burned to the ground, including all reels. (most places don't hold on to reels and they weren't all digitized.)

She was on SEVERAL times that night -- it was outdoors and she was in a corner, not far from a short building, near an outdoor, temporary, floodlight.

I do not recall - maybe New York One or another NY local station - had Judy's mug on it -- she had some crazy outfit on and was on the front of the banner with the striking sanitation workers - My siblings claim they saw her on TV. It had to have been national because my older sister lived in Oz at the time and my brother in Alabama.
 
the footage I got from the Reagan Library did not include her, though, so perhaps she was at one of the concerts -- which is what the search at the library at Stanford is all about. :)
 
c-span seems to have an archive- I would think probably collected from many other sources over the years? Anyway- will look through the NY stations also- and there's gotta be an archive from DC stations somewhere. Georgetown?
 
Let me know what to look for and I'll help you sift online. :)
These university archives are amazing. If I were closer, I'd go in to get access.
 
I just sent an email to a friend who has worked at AU for a number of years -- I hope he's able to help me get a login. Then I can look through. (I could get in touch with the librarians, I'm sure, since that's what I've always done, but I'm hoping this makes it a smidge easier??)
 
Maybe look for a collector who collects memorabilia from Ronald Reagan/ Presidential Inauguration events. See if they have video or pictures from the concert.
 
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