taradiane
Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2014
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 3
http://abc6onyourside.com/news/loca...ut-what-he-remembers-the-night-he-disappeared
Updated article w/video and there's a little more detail here about the events that night (directly from his cousin).
Excerpt:
I went to the search effort this morning that was organized by/with BRAVO (Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization). Columbus Police were there as well. They had everyone sign in/register and fill out a form including your drivers license number and SSN - was very happy to see that, this was a professionally organized search effort. They even had boxes of rubber gloves (think thin surgical kind) for people to take with them to their assigned grid. Local businesses donated snacks and sandwiches for the volunteers. Columbus is a big city, but when something happens, we become like a small town.
Going to get a little detailed here, mainly for my own records and because, if you've never been through a search like this before (like me), it's an overwhelming experience. I'm sure this will not be the first organized search, either, so if any experienced searchers have tips for me, please let me know for the next time. We paired off in groups of 4, 6, or 8 and got assigned an area, and the officer from CPD gave explicit instructions in what to do if anything of interest was found by a searcher. Beyond his clothing, it was literally just 'anything of interest.' Short North area is very urban but as most who have looked at the maps know, we have a river that cuts through our city, and I know that the section that runs through downtown was part of today's search effort (they had asked specifically for people comfortable with rougher terrain like a river's edge). The grid maps that they had laid out probably covered 30+ areas (one person from each team got the map, CPD kept a duplicate where we wrote our names on the back - they are clearly looking at everything from an evidentiary viewpoint - but I'm not sure just how big the radius was. While we walked to our grid location (about 6-8 blocks from where the search was headquartered at Stonewall Columbus), I know that many others drove to theirs.
My group was assigned an area not very far from Union that butts up against a park and was mainly residential. One of the streets was most likely the path that Joey would have walked to get from his car at Thurber Gate apts to Union, so special attention was paid there. My group of six paired off in twos (but were always within sight of the rest of the team) and it's a little overwhelming trying to decipher what's evidence and what's just trash/litter. I know that they pulled receipts from Union but what about cash receipts with no customer info? So I was looking at anything that could be a receipt to see if it was from Union and from that night. Looking in/around dumpsters and trash cans. Any areas of freshly disturbed earth or large leaf piles. Around plants and trees for anything that might have been tossed. At one point we came across a large area of debris with a lot of clothes and so dug through that (we do not know what shoes he was wearing, so it was just the jeans/tee/flannel shirt we were focused on). Keeping not just our eyes but our ears open, because while you don't want to think the worst, at the same time you have to if you're going to be hyper-aware during a search like that. If someone had a basement window that I could see through, you can bet that I was looking in it.
Of course if any of the teams had found anything, it will take time to ascertain if it was connected to Joey so I was not expecting anything definitive to be known today. So I cannot tell you anything like that at the moment. The only thing that I learned definitively, because there has been questions about it, is that the "I'm driving" phone call did occur, but I know no other details around it (did he sound distressed, etc). I do not know why that disappeared from the news reports after that first day while they continue to repeat everything else multiple times.
I was there when they first started registering people around 8am and when my group got back around 10:30, there were still people coming in for the first time to help. I'm sure that even now at this late evening hour, there are probably people down there. News crews were there this morning and we saw one interview his parents - I'm sure the others got their chance as well after I'd left, so local readers can watch for that on this tonight's broadcasts (channels 4, 6, and 10 were all there).
Updated article w/video and there's a little more detail here about the events that night (directly from his cousin).
Excerpt:
"Reigle says he got LaBute a glass of water around midnight. He then watched him walk toward the bar and disappear into the crowd.
"I thought he was going to get another drink of water and he never came back," said Reigle.
20 minutes passed. Reigle thought LaBute either went home or to a friend's house. Worry set in when calls and texts weren't answered."
"I thought he was going to get another drink of water and he never came back," said Reigle.
20 minutes passed. Reigle thought LaBute either went home or to a friend's house. Worry set in when calls and texts weren't answered."
I went to the search effort this morning that was organized by/with BRAVO (Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization). Columbus Police were there as well. They had everyone sign in/register and fill out a form including your drivers license number and SSN - was very happy to see that, this was a professionally organized search effort. They even had boxes of rubber gloves (think thin surgical kind) for people to take with them to their assigned grid. Local businesses donated snacks and sandwiches for the volunteers. Columbus is a big city, but when something happens, we become like a small town.
Going to get a little detailed here, mainly for my own records and because, if you've never been through a search like this before (like me), it's an overwhelming experience. I'm sure this will not be the first organized search, either, so if any experienced searchers have tips for me, please let me know for the next time. We paired off in groups of 4, 6, or 8 and got assigned an area, and the officer from CPD gave explicit instructions in what to do if anything of interest was found by a searcher. Beyond his clothing, it was literally just 'anything of interest.' Short North area is very urban but as most who have looked at the maps know, we have a river that cuts through our city, and I know that the section that runs through downtown was part of today's search effort (they had asked specifically for people comfortable with rougher terrain like a river's edge). The grid maps that they had laid out probably covered 30+ areas (one person from each team got the map, CPD kept a duplicate where we wrote our names on the back - they are clearly looking at everything from an evidentiary viewpoint - but I'm not sure just how big the radius was. While we walked to our grid location (about 6-8 blocks from where the search was headquartered at Stonewall Columbus), I know that many others drove to theirs.
My group was assigned an area not very far from Union that butts up against a park and was mainly residential. One of the streets was most likely the path that Joey would have walked to get from his car at Thurber Gate apts to Union, so special attention was paid there. My group of six paired off in twos (but were always within sight of the rest of the team) and it's a little overwhelming trying to decipher what's evidence and what's just trash/litter. I know that they pulled receipts from Union but what about cash receipts with no customer info? So I was looking at anything that could be a receipt to see if it was from Union and from that night. Looking in/around dumpsters and trash cans. Any areas of freshly disturbed earth or large leaf piles. Around plants and trees for anything that might have been tossed. At one point we came across a large area of debris with a lot of clothes and so dug through that (we do not know what shoes he was wearing, so it was just the jeans/tee/flannel shirt we were focused on). Keeping not just our eyes but our ears open, because while you don't want to think the worst, at the same time you have to if you're going to be hyper-aware during a search like that. If someone had a basement window that I could see through, you can bet that I was looking in it.
Of course if any of the teams had found anything, it will take time to ascertain if it was connected to Joey so I was not expecting anything definitive to be known today. So I cannot tell you anything like that at the moment. The only thing that I learned definitively, because there has been questions about it, is that the "I'm driving" phone call did occur, but I know no other details around it (did he sound distressed, etc). I do not know why that disappeared from the news reports after that first day while they continue to repeat everything else multiple times.
I was there when they first started registering people around 8am and when my group got back around 10:30, there were still people coming in for the first time to help. I'm sure that even now at this late evening hour, there are probably people down there. News crews were there this morning and we saw one interview his parents - I'm sure the others got their chance as well after I'd left, so local readers can watch for that on this tonight's broadcasts (channels 4, 6, and 10 were all there).
