NE NE - Jason Jolkowski, 19, Omaha, 13 June 2001 - #2

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Thanks for bumping this up, Gabby.

Kelly, I'm not on here a lot right now because a couple of IRL things keep me quite occupied, and I did not see this new thread until now.
You and your family are in my prayers every day, but I still wished I could have prayed over this specifically.

Just wanted to send you my continued support and some hugs. {{{{Kelly}}}}

JE
 
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/16432931.html

Missing Person Photos Posted On Bus Benches
Project Jason kicks off awareness campaign, contest

Posted: 5:11 PM Mar 9, 2008

MAT bus stop benches around the metro will feature the faces of local missing people. It's all part of an effort to raise awareness and maybe help find them.

In conjunction with the bench photos, Project Jason also started a contest Sunday called "Where in Omaha?" You can look for certain landmarks around the city and for a $10 entry fee, win $500.

"It's really all about awareness," says Kelly Jolkowski of Project Jason. "Do we notice those things, would you notice if Jason walked by you, would you see him because we are so busy in today's world."

Project Jason helps the families of missing persons and was started after Kelly's son Jason disappeared in 2001.


Project Jason: http://www.projectjason.org/


Where In Omaha?: http://whereinomaha.com/
 
Kelly said:
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/16432931.html

Missing Person Photos Posted On Bus Benches
Project Jason kicks off awareness campaign, contest

Posted: 5:11 PM Mar 9, 2008

MAT bus stop benches around the metro will feature the faces of local missing people. It's all part of an effort to raise awareness and maybe help find them.

In conjunction with the bench photos, Project Jason also started a contest Sunday called "Where in Omaha?" You can look for certain landmarks around the city and for a $10 entry fee, win $500.

"It's really all about awareness," says Kelly Jolkowski of Project Jason. "Do we notice those things, would you notice if Jason walked by you, would you see him because we are so busy in today's world."

Project Jason helps the families of missing persons and was started after Kelly's son Jason disappeared in 2001.


Project Jason: http://www.projectjason.org/


Where In Omaha?: http://whereinomaha.com/
Click to expand...


"Where in Omaha" sounds like a great idea. I hope it helps.
 
Here’s your chance to win $500, help a local nonprofit organization, and potentially solve a mystery, all at the same time!

How often do we really see what is all around us? We drive by beautiful buildings with unique or interesting architecture, stately trees, and unusual settings. Life goes rushing by us, often taking our senses and powers of observation with it. Where in Omaha? encourages awareness of our surroundings and appreciation for beauty, both man-made, and natural.

There is another, much more important reason to encourage awareness, and that is in the cases of missing persons. Generally, when the investigation winds down and media has nothing to report, the family then must rely on the public to be their eyes and ears. They need others to see and be aware of the faces of our missing loved ones in order to have a chance to find those persons.

Where In Omaha reminds us to “see” beyond our own hectic lives and potentially unlock a mystery. It is not just a contest, but the launching pad for Project Jason’s new local awareness program for missing persons, which utilizes area MAT bus bench advertising to display information and photos of local missing persons.

Each bench, strategically placed near the area where the person was last seen or was known to frequent, includes a photo, pertinent physical data, and the phone number to call with information about that missing person. Four different Omaha missing persons cases will be featured in the initial program launch, and more will be added if the program is supported by the public and corporate sponsors.

We need your help to be able to continue the program. Your entry in the WhereInOmaha? contest is one way you can support the program and help us continue these efforts.

This is one of the most unique contests in Omaha’s history. You’ll pay an entry fee of $10.00 and then guess the location of photos of landmarks, buildings, public places, and other outdoor places of interest within the Omaha city limits.

45 photos plus 4 tiebreaker photos are displayed in the gallery. You can either mail in your entry form or submit it online with your payment of the $10.00 entry fee. The entrant with the most correct guesses wins the $500.00 Grand Prize.

There will be special tie-breaker photos included. If there is still a tie, the prize money will be distributed evenly among the winners. The contest will begin on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 and ends on Saturday, April 12th, 2008. All entries must be received by 6:00pm CDT on Saturday, April 12th, 2008. The winner will be announced at Westroads Mall at 3:00pm on Saturday, April 19th, 2008.

Thank you for your consideration of this unique fundraiser and for sending this information on to your friends and family. We hope that you will play an important part in helping us to fulfill our mission statement.

Project Jason is an Omaha-based nonprofit organization which offers assistance to families of missing persons nationwide, plus provides educational materials, such as personal id kits, free of charge. Through their guidance, 5 states, with several more in progress, have passed laws which help facilitate recoveries of missing persons. Since their inception in 2003, they have played a vital role in the location of many missing persons, including a sister missing for seven years, and a son missing for twelve. They have created several unique awareness programs, have monthly features in national trucking magazines, and have the only free online counseling service for families of the missing in the US.

Help us by copying the above text and sending it in an email to your family and friends along with the link to our site - http://whereinomaha.com.
 
http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=7989743&nav=menu550_2

Project Jason Contest Aims to Help Find More Missing People

Posted: March 9, 2008 10:50 PM CDT


Omaha, NE - If you could win $500 and help find missing adults and children, would you do it? Project Jason is launching "Where in Omaha," a contest to test your knowledge of Omaha with photos. Each entry will cost $10. Project Jason will then use that money to put photos of missing people on bus benches around the city.

"it's a fact that one out of every six missing person cases is solved by some kind of visual awareness," Kelly Jolkowski, founder of Project Jason and mother of a missing man says.

The deadline to enter is April 12th.
 
Just wanted to let you know I was thinking of you Kelly.
 
This is the only boy who's story makes me cry. Seriously. The girl was Samantha Runion.

I think because I have a son who looks like Jason, and my daughter looked like Samantha and they were the same age.

I really feel so sad for you Kelly. I am not in your shoes, but I think if my son Jordan disappeared like Jason did, I would never have the strength and determination to do what you do. I would hide under my bed forever.

I do admire you.
 
I just don't understand how people can vanish into thin air without a clue anywhere. How does this happen? One minute Kelly's son was there and the next he was gone. No enemys...didn't have a car...just gone when he was going to work. I don't think I could survive a missing child either. I have a lot of respect for Kelly and what she is doing. You have more strength then I could have ever had Kelly.
 
Bumping this tread for Jason and those who love and continue to pray for his return.
 
Thanks for the kind words of support. There is nothing more we can do but go on and never forget him. I feel that when faced with adversity, we are given the strength we need to carry on.

Here’s your chance to win $500, help a local nonprofit organization, and potentially solve a mystery, all at the same time!

How often do we really see what is all around us? We drive by beautiful buildings with unique or interesting architecture, stately trees, and unusual settings. Life goes rushing by us, often taking our senses and powers of observation with it. Where in Omaha? encourages awareness of our surroundings and appreciation for beauty, both man-made, and natural.

There is another, much more important reason to encourage awareness, and that is in the cases of missing persons. Generally, when the investigation winds down and media has nothing to report, the family then must rely on the public to be their eyes and ears. They need others to see and be aware of the faces of our missing loved ones in order to have a chance to find those persons.

Where In Omaha reminds us to “see” beyond our own hectic lives and potentially unlock a mystery. It is not just a contest, but the launching pad for Project Jason’s new local awareness program for missing persons, which utilizes area MAT bus bench advertising to display information and photos of local missing persons.

Each bench, strategically placed near the area where the person was last seen or was known to frequent, includes a photo, pertinent physical data, and the phone number to call with information about that missing person. Four different Omaha missing persons cases will be featured in the initial program launch, and more will be added if the program is supported by the public and corporate sponsors.

We need your help to be able to continue the program. Your entry in the WhereInOmaha? contest is one way you can support the program and help us continue these efforts.

This is one of the most unique contests in Omaha’s history. You’ll pay an entry fee of $10.00 and then guess the location of photos of landmarks, buildings, public places, and other outdoor places of interest within the Omaha city limits.

45 photos plus 4 tiebreaker photos are displayed in the gallery. You can either mail in your entry form or submit it online with your payment of the $10.00 entry fee. The entrant with the most correct guesses wins the $500.00 Grand Prize.

There will be special tie-breaker photos included. If there is still a tie, the prize money will be distributed evenly among the winners. The contest will begin on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 and ends on Saturday, April 12th, 2008. All entries must be received by 6:00pm CDT on Saturday, April 12th, 2008. The winner will be announced at Westroads Mall at 3:00pm on Saturday, April 19th, 2008.

Thank you for your consideration of this unique fundraiser and for sending this information on to your friends and family. We hope that you will play an important part in helping us to fulfill our mission statement.

Project Jason is an Omaha-based nonprofit organization which offers assistance to families of missing persons nationwide, plus provides educational materials, such as personal id kits, free of charge. Through their guidance, 5 states, with several more in progress, have passed laws which help facilitate recoveries of missing persons. Since their inception in 2003, they have played a vital role in the location of many missing persons, including a sister missing for seven years, and a son missing for twelve. They have created several unique awareness programs, have monthly features in national trucking magazines, and have the only free online counseling service for families of the missing in the US.

Help us by copying the above text and sending it in an email to your family and friends along with the link to our site - http://whereinomaha.com.

It is imperative that we have a good response to this request for support. If we do not, we will not be able to continue this program in Omaha or begin it in other cities as is our goal.

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Help us for free when you shop online or do a websearch:
http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=857029

All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
 
From our friends at the Center for Human Identification: (DNA lab)

http://www.hsc.unt.edu/news/Connections/20080321Connect/Links/TopStory02.html

New Jersey signs law requiring use of Health Science Center DNA Lab services

A new law in the State of New Jersey aims to identify missing persons through a partnership between New Jersey law enforcement agencies and the UNT Center for Human Identification here on the UNTHSC campus. Patricia’s Law, which passed in January, requires New Jersey law enforcement agencies to submit reference DNA samples from family members of people missing more than 30 days to the UNT Center for Human Identification’s DNA lab for analysis and uploading into CODIS. Patricia’s Law is the first of its kind in the country to offer a comprehensive plan for collecting DNA evidence.

The law was signed by New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine at a press conference on Wednesday. Also in attendance were several New Jersey lawmakers, law enforcement representatives and the family of Patricia Viola, for whom the law is named.

Viola was a 42-year-old New Jersey wife and mother who disappeared Feb. 13, 2001. She left her home between 1 and 2:30 pm without identification, keys, credit cards, or her medication. No one knows what happened to her, and she has not yet been found.

Patricia’s Law was born from model legislation designed in 2005 at the first National Strategy Meeting on Identifying the Missing, which brought together federal, state and local law enforcement, medical examiners and coroners, victim's advocates, forensic scientists, key policymakers, and families who have lived through this tragic experience.

ProjectJason.org, a not-for-profit missing persons organization, then called for volunteers in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to retain a sponsor to support the model missing persons' legislation at the state level. Patricia’s husband, Jim, took on New Jersey, and State Sen. Loretta Weinberg immediately embraced the new proposed legislation, making New Jersey the first state to obtain sponsorship.
 
A Project Jason News Brief

Project Jason's Kelly Jolkowski on International Broadcast Radio Show

In her role as one of the nation's most outspoken advocates against the use of psychics in missing persons' cases, Kelly Jolkowski will be a guest on this Friday's Catholic Answers Live call-in radio program. Kelly will share the hour with Angelo Stagnaro, a magician/mentalist who investigates and exposes fraudulent spiritualists and psychics. Kelly will cover the emotional angle and how psychics harm, and Angelo will demonstrate how psychics are able to fool so many. Both will emphasize the Church teachings in respect to this typically forgotten issue.

The first part of the show will feature interviews with Kelly and Angelo, and then listeners will be able to call in with their questions.

Angelo Stagnaro is the editor of Smoke & Mirrors, the Internet’s largest electronic magazine for professional stage card and coin magicians. He has also published three textbooks on stage magic, including Conspiracy, Something from Nothing and The Other Side.

Catholic Answers Live, one of the most popular Christian radio shows, is carried on hundreds of stations nationwide. It is also a part of EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network, can be heard on the Sirius Satellte Network, as well as numerous shortwave radio stations. The show airs at 4pm PST (6pm CST), and can be listened to online at http://www.kvss.com/ , http://www.ewtn.com/radio/index.asp , or http://www.catholic.com/radio/catholic_answers_live.ram .

Kelly Jolkowski, President and Founder, Project Jason a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization

Kelly's son, Jason Jolkowski, disappeared on June 13, 2001, at age 19, from the driveway of their home in Omaha, NE. Over 6 years later, the Jolkowski family lives with no leads or clues in Jason's disappearance. Since then Kelly has become an active advocate for families of the missing. She created several unique awareness programs for Project Jason to help locate the missing, including the 18 Wheel Angels, Adopt a Missing Person, and Come Home. Kelly is currently spearheading the Campaign for the Missing, a 50 state grassroots effort to pass the missing person legislation developed by the DOJ. Several states have now passed this legislation with her guidance, and several more are in progress. She also developed Healing Harbor, a free online counseling benefit for families of the missing, the only service of its kind in the U.S. She also speaks at conferences across the country about issues pertaining to missing persons, and has been a guest on several national radio shows, and FOX News.

Kelly, a lifelong Catholic, not only faced a life-changing tragedy with the mysterious disappearance of her son, but came face-to-face with persons claiming to have psychic abilities who victimized the family with horrid tales of Jason's death and suffering. Although surrounded by a society accepting of persons claiming pyschic abilities, Kelly came to publically embrace the Catholic position on psychics and truly place her faith in God and His Will for her family. Through her work with Project Jason, Kelly educates the families of the missing so they can feel at peace with the decision not to pursue use of pychics in their own missing loved one's case. Thousands worldwide have read her Psychics and Missing People blog series, located at http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/2006/03/30606-pmp-introduction-to-psychics-and.html

Project Jason Policy Regarding Psychics

There is not one proven case in which a psychic, using special powers or abilities not given to the typical person, has located a missing person, whether dead or alive. It may be possible that some persons have an ability that defies science and logic, but there is no known scientific evidence of this. These persons re-victimize families by taking away hope where it should stand, and giving hope where there is none. No person has the right to do this to another.

Psychics and other users of purported paranormal phenomena, cause unnecessary and damaging pain and anguish to families of the missing. They can also add to financial stress if they charge fees. We're already on a roller coaster ride of events and emotions, and we should have no desire to add to it.

Understanding what goes on behind the scenes should decrease any guilt feelings for not accepting offers of "help" from these persons, whether it is fee-based or not. We want to lessen the pain already present in our every breath, and arm families with the information to defend themselves against these persons. The evidence that psychics are not helpful and in some cases even harmful, is overwhelming.

In our mission to provide support and assistance to the families of the missing, we stand firm that it is not in their best interest to pursue the use of psychics in their case. We won't ride the status quo train of popular belief that it's ok and is not harmful.

Project Jason stands firm in their policies that since psychics play no proven part in solving a missing person’s case, we will not refer them to family members, family members to them, nor “advertise” their claimed services.

Additional Information: http://projectjason.org/interviews.html#psychics
 
FYI: We have extended the contest to go to May 10, 2008. I know we have many Omaha area readers here. Please do consider taking a look at the www.whereinomaha.com site and helping out.

Thank you.

Kelly

PS: What if it was your son, daughter, brother, or sister?
 
Bumping for Jason and those who continue to pray for his return. Kelly you are remarkable.
 
For anyone living in the Omaha area this could be a great way to help make a difference and take action concerning what most of care deeply about--the missing.

Kelly, I would help you if only I could. But, I am in Texas.

Lion
 
LionRun said:
For anyone living in the Omaha area this could be a great way to help make a difference and take action concerning what most of care deeply about--the missing.

Kelly, I would help you if only I could. But, I am in Texas.

Lion
Click to expand...

Kelly, fellow unwilling club member to "loving someone that was missing"
Thread #1 http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60192&page=27

Thread #2 http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63214&page=7

As brutal and devastating as it is, I promise you, brininging your loved one home vs. the unknown is better for the family and I pray for yours.
 
http://www.nptelegraph.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19500695&BRD=377&PAG=461&dept_id=601696&rfi=6

Anguish of not knowing lasts decades for families

04/19/2008

The worst part is not knowing.

In the nearly 43 years since Jacqueline Rains Kracman and Melvin Uphoff disappeared from their Nebraska homes, their families have been seeking answers.


Where are they? Did they leave willingly? Did they leave together? Are they still alive?

The missing Nebraskans, their families and their ordeal are the subject of a new documentary film, “Closure: Can It Really Be Possible?”

Family members recently attended a private screening to see the results of months of interviews, research and editing by filmmaker Stacy Heatherly of Papillion.

Heatherly’s film takes viewers through the questions the families have been facing for years.

Michele Sells, Uphoff’s daughter, was just 2 years old when her father disappeared in the fall of 1965. In the film, her mother, Myrna Dey, details the last day they spent with him.

The Rising City, Neb., man treated his children to a family day filled with pheasant hunting, roller skating and lunch in nearby Shelby, Neb. Dinner that evening was at the home of Uphoff’s parents.

That night, when Dey was getting the children ready for bed, Uphoff told her he was going to Shelby for beer.
He was 31. His family never saw him again.

Kracman, 18, disappeared around the same time as Uphoff — after telling her family that she was going to Glenwood, Iowa, for a weekend with her roommate.

Kracman, who was separated from her husband, left her children with her family. As far as the family can tell, she never went to Glenwood.

They never saw her again. Kracman’s car was found outside her home in Columbus, Neb.

In the film, Leo Meister, who was Butler County sheriff in

1965, is the first one to mention rumors that Kracman and Uphoff had been having an affair.

At the time, people thought they had left together. Uphoff took only his coin collection and his car; Kracman took most of her clothes. Uphoff’s 1954 Oldsmobile was never recovered. He was declared legally dead in the 1970s.
For years, the disappearances weren’t discussed within the Rains and Uphoff families.

But Sells has spent much of her adult life compiling information on the disappearances and trying to find Uphoff and Kracman.

There is no consensus among family members about what happened. Some think the couple ran off together; others think they were harmed. They all say answers would have been easier to come by if the disappearances had been thoroughly investigated in 1965.

“I really don’t think there was an investigation,” said Sharon Henggeler, Kracman’s sister. “If there was, it didn’t amount to much.”

The film has two goals, Heatherly said: to tell the story of Uphoff and Kracman, and to bring awareness to the (Project Jason's) Campaign for the Missing, an effort to establish protocols for dealing with adult missing persons cases.

The campaign has been spearheaded by Kelly Jolkowski, an Omaha woman whose 19-year-old son, Jason, disappeared almost seven years ago.

The protocols being promoted were drafted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

States need step-by-step instructions on handling missing persons cases involving adults, Jolkowski said, because they aren’t always taken as seriously as missing children cases.

Such laws have been adopted in at least 11 states. Jolkowski hopes to see one passed in Nebraska.

Also, law enforcement agencies sometimes overlook available resources, such as the Center for Human Identification, a federally funded lab in Texas that processes DNA of family members of the missing and enters the results in a national database for free.
The Nebraska State Patrol’s cold case unit investigated the Uphoff and Kracman cases a few years ago at the urging of Sells and others. The patrol has now turned the matter back to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, Sells said.
State Patrol Sgt. Robert Frank, who investigated the disappearances and who appears in the documentary, did not return calls requesting comment.

“There’s nothing anywhere to show that a homicide occurred,” Frank says in the film.

According to the documentary, law enforcement officials did not interview Kracman’s husband, Dennis Kracman, or her roommate, Sally Fisher, in 1965. Melvin Uphoff was Dennis Kracman’s boss at a service station in Rising City.
It wasn’t until years later, when the State Patrol did its cold case investigation, that Dennis Kracman and Fisher were questioned. Those interviews weren’t fruitful.

Frank urged the families to accept the idea that Uphoff and Jacqueline Kracman left.

“They need to come to terms with it and accept it,” he said.
 
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