Found Deceased PA - Dakota James, 23, Pittsburgh, 25 Jan 2017 #1

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SomeoneElse333 said:
How awful. :+(

Do we know for sure DJ was using that app the night he went missing? What is hard is that the public has been so pulled into this case, yet we have very little info...either officially or otherwise, via the family.
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I believe he did have Grindr, one of his missing photos is the photo from the app.

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I've been following this story since he went missing, largely because I was one who used to go overboard from time to time in the same vicinity only a few years ago before I "grew out of it" and also because he lives near where I work.

So many believe this is the work of something more nefarious. I personally think it was a hookup or robbery gone wrong. A few white males have ended up in the river over the past few years, but so have people of different types in Pittsburghs history. Even a family member ended up in the river after an assault 18 years ago. I am hoping and praying he is found safe and I'm wrong in my theory!

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Just for a moment, imagine that there are no rivers near the city. Where would you look for a missing person with DJ's circumstances? I would have to assume he got in a car perhaps in the garage that is near Katz Plaza. If he did that, it must have been a hook-up, a bad one. It's looking like foul play to me so where would they go? Someone's house or apartment? The woods? An abandoned building where nobody would notice? I guess there are endless places where you could take someone if you want to do them harm. I guess it's wishful thinking on my part. I'm hoping he is still alive somewhere and not in the river. But the river is being searched over and over again so LE must know something that we don't know. Camera footage of him being put in the river? A witness? So many unanswered questions. This is just so horrible for the family.
 
Could anyone find anything social media wise? I cant find his personal facebook, instagram, twitter, nothing. I found it odd a 23 year old doesn't have more of a social media presents.
 
I keep thinking he got in a car too. It was said somewhere he never made it to the bridge. I am really leaning to him not being in the water at all. I think they are searching because it seems logical that that is where he would be. Unless like a few have said they know something.
In the article below however, it said they are searching the river randomly -
“We have no information that led us to believe that there is anything in this area,” said Larry Forletta, a private investigator. “We’re randomly doing this.”

I feel like if something bad happened it had to have happened in that 1-2 block walk between Katz and the bridge.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017...for-missing-duquesne-university-grad-student/
 
Bab24 said:
Could anyone find anything social media wise? I cant find his personal facebook, instagram, twitter, nothing. I found it odd a 23 year old doesn't have more of a social media presents.
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He could have made at least Facebook and Instagram private. Or he useds nicknames on them. My full name isn't on my Twitter.

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I follow his mom on FB and she has made several comments about there being a person or persons who know something and to be brave and step up. It leads me to believe that they may know his disappearance was at the hands of someone else, not that he wandered and fell in the river.
 
Bab24 said:
Could anyone find anything social media wise? I cant find his personal facebook, instagram, twitter, nothing. I found it odd a 23 year old doesn't have more of a social media presents.
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I think I read somewhere he did not have a FB account. The only one I heard of was the Grindr and the Linkedin.
 
BA1973 said:
I follow his mom on FB and she has made several comments about there being a person or persons who know something and to be brave and step up. It leads me to believe that they may know his disappearance was at the hands of someone else, not that he wandered and fell in the river.
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I've seen those comments too. They're very vague. I wish the family would share more if they could.

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SomeoneElse333 said:
I've seen those comments too. They're very vague. I wish the family would share more if they could.

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If the police have information that the family is also aware of, releasing it to the public could tip off any suspects or persons of interest.

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markymark86 said:
If the police have information that the family is also aware of, releasing it to the public could tip off any suspects or persons of interest.

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Good point. I hadn't thought of that.

For a long time when the mother was appealing for people to say something, I thought she was referring to people on the streets who might have noticed him. And I used to take issue with that because as a person who walks around in the evenings and in the dark a lot, I intentionally stay aware of my surroundings yet don't make eye contact with people or make it look like I'm noticing people.

Now I'm realizing that she probably has information perhaps based on Grindr and is appealing to whomever it is that hooked up with him. Just a theory.

Thanks for your note.


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bbm

BA1973 said:
I follow his mom on FB and she has made several comments about there being a person or persons who know something and to be brave and step up. It leads me to believe that they may know his disappearance was at the hands of someone else, not that he wandered and fell in the river.
Click to expand...

If that were the case, and if that information was determined via video surveillance I suspect LE would have released at least a screen capture and / or a BOLO of the person or persons involved.

Although it has been reported LE "does not know what happened" to DJ, it sure seems like they know 'something' or at a minimum have made an assumption that DJ is in the river.

Regarding the recent river search around Neville Island: the James family's hired private investigator stated, paraphrase, they had no evidence that led them to search in that area. Keep in mind: that statement was made by the PI, not by LE. That distinction might be meaningless but the cost in resources (river rescue, divers risk, etc.) is real. I find it interesting LE is conducting (a number of) river searches without having any evidence... at least claiming there is no evidence.

It is possible LE knows more than what has been released to the family and public. If DJ did enter the river and LE has evidence of that, the issue becomes: will DJ ever be found? I wonder if LE believes it best not to inform family there is evidence of DJ having entered the river because of the real possibility his body might never be recovered. Is it better for a family to not 'know' what happened or is it better to know a loved one entered the river but is never found? The former leaves false hope, the latter is finite.

An additional point: LE might have evidence DJ is in the river but they might not have evidence of how and / or why.
 
I've also been following updates on this case since it began. Some thoughts:

As previously mentioned, it is kind of odd that his employer would file a missing person's report the day after the night out, knowing that he could very well be sleeping off a hangover. So, I wonder if his phone rang or not if they tried to reach him. Did the woman he was with at the T station try to reach him later that night to see if he got home? Did the phone ring or go straight to voicemail? Obviously it could have been turned off because it was out of battery power. Or, did someone turn it off or was it in the river?

I've been walking the path he is assumed to have taken. The spot the cadaver dogs picked up on is on the outbound side of the Clemente bridge. The stairs leading down to the trail are on the inbound side. If he had gone down there, why would he head to the other side? Did he drop his phone from the bridge and went down to try and find it?

Then again, there hasn't been any confirmed information he made it to the bridge in the first place. There are several cameras on Ft. Duquesne Blvd that could have spotted him, provided he made it that far.

Which takes me back to Katz Plaza. After that camera saw him, the next spot he had to have been seen on camera would have been at the entrance to the parking garage. There would have been no where else to go between the two cameras. The camera is right above the attendant both at the entrance/exit. He easily could have been hit by a speeding car leaving the garage, but that would have been on camera. So, after that camera, he would have made a decision to continue through Scott Place (I didn't see additional cameras until Ft. Duquesne Blvd) or go through the pass through to Barkers Place (where there are a few cameras on the way to Ft. Duquesne Blvd.). Maybe there are cameras in the pass through?

Here's where I have more questions. As mentioned before, there's really no reason to cut through Katz Plaza. Walking down 7th until Ft. Duquesne Blvd isn't much further and it would have been well lit with cars and probably people. It doesn't make any sense for him to go that way unless he was meeting someone. Let's not forget the Encore on 7th apartment tower that's right there...and connected to that parking garage. There is a door in the Scott/Barkers pass through. I haven't tried to open the door, but I'm assuming it leads to a stairwell that'll go to a door that leads to a skybridge into the apartment building. Was he meeting someone at that apartment building and/or in the garage?

Also, between Scott and Barker, and on Ft. Duquesne Blvd. is an abandoned building (an old PPG building?). Has that building been searched?

If there is no confirmed footage of DJ on Ft. Duquesne Blvd, then there are very few places he could have went and not been seen on camera.
 
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