PA PA - Lauren Pico Jackson, 5, Spring City, 4 Oct 1988

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Hello,
I live in the town that Lauren disappeared from. There are many rumors about her disappearance. She lived in what everyone calls the projects. I was only about Laurens age when she disappeared but heard that her mother had an alcohol and/or drug problem. Her father and mother were separated and her father now lives in Philadelphia and I think is remarried. He seemed to be the only one truly upset over her disappearance at the time and I believe he is still looking for her. About her teeth. Since she was so young when she disappeared she may now have a gap in her teeth since some teeth may have still be coming in (molars and wisdom teeth). Also the police here in Spring City now couldn't find their tooshies from a hole in the ground. Back then they were more together but now they are a mess. I have tried to contact them on several occasions and when I mention Laurens name they act like they don't even know who she is. If you could somehow get a hold of the officer that handled the case in the beginning it might be your best shot.
 
Bump

Next month will mark 22 years that Lauren has been missing. Come home soon sweetie.
 
I was 7 when Lauren went missing, living in Royersford right across the river there...and it is upsetting to feel like she and many many more missing children are left forgotten about, lost in time, so I think it is great to continue to try to keep these threads going and people aware and minds turning...

I've been thinking about Lauren's case for awhile now, because when I was around 7 or 8 I can't remember my age, but I specifically remember a man who may have been in his early 30's approached me in his car and asked me to help him find his dog. At the time that this occurred I remember playing outside with my brother and sister, selling lemonade in my front yard, and for the brief moment I was alone is when he pulled over to ask me. I went running for my house, where I stayed for awhile, however, I also remember not telling my mom, because I thought she'd be upset and not let me play outside anymore...

Why I'm saying all of this is because, children don't understand the importance of sharing these things with their families at the moment it occurs...and I also wonder if anything like this occurred around Spring City during the time before and after Lauren went missing and children never mentioned anything to their parents.

I'm not saying it's connected in any way, shape, or form, but I just sometimes get angry that I never told my mom when it actually happened.

Anyway, I'm also wondering with all of the social networks we have now, if it is best to create a page for these forgotten children and send around the "add me" request, and if so, how to go about doing that?...Are there legalities to it??? I don't know?

I keep thinking that if Lauren is still alive, she may not know or remember who she is. I highly doubt that she'd be going by the same name. Many adults have vague memories of their childhood, and she may have memories that were explained away to her by someone else...I don't know, I'm just thinking...I only imagine a young woman looking at an "Add Me" request of a picture of a little girl who looks just like she did when she was younger and then putting pieces together that seemed to not make sense to her.

I also wonder, if her mother and sister are even worried anymore, if they've given up hope and moved on? I, myself, believe if this happened in my family, that no matter the amount of time that has gone by, I'd be trying to take advantage of reaching out to a whole wide world through these social networking sites in hopes of finding her!

My mother was friends with a woman who lived a block away from where Lauren went missing and who's children knew of Lauren...

That area was full of crap and in my opinion still is...many people had made up their mind that Lauren was given away for drugs and that's why her scent was last picked up on 724 because people believed that's where the exchange occurred...I also think that this notion is what caused everyone in that local area to give up...even including the law enforcement as the years went by and by!

I continue to have hope that maybe she's still alive, somewhere out there not knowing that she's someone else's daughter and that a miracle will occur.
 
Charley project says her sent was tracked to the Vincent Hotel. Did they search the hotel and question those there? Dose this hotel still exist? Can they go back and investigate this further?
 
bumping for Lauren - this girl pulls at my heartstrings. There has to be someone, somewhere who knows what became of her.
 
Julespa said:
Hello,
I live in the town that Lauren disappeared from. There are many rumors about her disappearance. She lived in what everyone calls the projects. I was only about Laurens age when she disappeared but heard that her mother had an alcohol and/or drug problem. Her father and mother were separated and her father now lives in Philadelphia and I think is remarried. He seemed to be the only one truly upset over her disappearance at the time and I believe he is still looking for her. About her teeth. Since she was so young when she disappeared she may now have a gap in her teeth since some teeth may have still be coming in (molars and wisdom teeth). Also the police here in Spring City now couldn't find their tooshies from a hole in the ground. Back then they were more together but now they are a mess. I have tried to contact them on several occasions and when I mention Laurens name they act like they don't even know who she is. If you could somehow get a hold of the officer that handled the case in the beginning it might be your best shot.
Click to expand...

Hey Jules do you still live in the area? I would love to see what we can do about this. I was thinking about starting a Facebook page.. but wasn't sure if it was a bad idea or not. If we could get people to pass around the age progression photo maybe it would help!?
 
I was the Footprint Tracker on this case. At the time I was with Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue. I remember most of the case and what information the team and myself gathered, and I have most of the newspaper clippings including "year later" articles. I worked with the FBI agents on the case as well. Feel free to send me a message if interested. Perhaps you may see something we did not at the time. It was a rather intense case and I worked it 24 hours a day for two days, most of the time on my hands and knees following her little footprints along the side of the road (later confirmed by bloodhounds).
 
I don't live in the area anymore. I moved in 2010 but most of my family still lives there. The area has changed so much over the past few years. The elementary school behind where she used to live has been remodeled and built onto, at the time she disapeared there used to be a little cement shed that we would use as home base while playing tag at recess and a few feet away a manhole cover to what I guess was a sewer. That area always gave me the creeps for some reason. Also there used to be an underground pipe we used to dare each other to crawl trough nearby at a small park below the highview gardens apartments. It headed off in the direction of where she lived and the elementary school. There is also a public pool nearby. I sometimes wonder if those areas were ever checked.
 
I can say 99% those particular spots were checked. I was called to crawl through that underground pipe when one grid searcher found what looked like a small footprint on one side. The Fire Chief and the Chief of GPSR both had maps with specific features checked off. It would have been great to have Google Earth in those days with a sky view of the area. I think it was the Fire Company that checked the manhole due to the potential for sewer gas. Not sure if the just shined a light down there or put a ladder down. I remember the shed being X'd out on the map and I think they put yellow tape around it. I was also called to check a farm with a barn and a number of covered over cars sitting outside of it. I did not find any prints or "push downs" in the tall grass surrounding the barn or cars. I am not sure about the interior of the barn. I can't remember if the owner would let us into it or not, or if the grid searchers checked it. Nothing around the outside suggested anyone had been in it for a while. I used a pair of Laurens shoes to verify the prints I found in the little sandbox area, and the ones going up the side of the road to where the hotel was. Later Jim Hosgood and his bloodhound "Esmerelda" double checked and verified the trail using a scent article. High probability that she walked up to the main road, and at least two larger prints suggest she was not alone. I got the impression from the spacing she was holding someones hand.

I would like to see the area walked again and some discussion of what was known at the time to see if anything obvious (or not so obvious) was missed. "Fresh set of eyes" as it were.
 
Was the mother ever polygraphed or considered a suspect in Lauren's disappearance? Why I am asking is because it was stated that she was involved in drugs and could have been sold for drugs?

I also wonder if Lauren's dad is still actively looking for her.

It would be nice if the local newspaper would run an article to see if now almost 25 years later someone will come forward with information about her disappearance. Someone knows something...
 
I lived in Spring City for a short time a couple years after this occured.

My brother, sister-in-law, and I liked to investigate abandoned houses back then. I remember an abandoned house on 724 that had a barn behind it. We went into the barn and there was an actual full-size homemade helicopter in it! I wonder if that's the barn that you all looked into.

Trackergd, the hotel that she was tracked to, was it occupied then? Were the people questioned there that you know of?
 
The mother was questioned all to heck and back. Not sure if there was a polygraph. The suggestion Lauren was sold for drugs was floated a number of times during the search. I did not get the impression either the police or the FBI thought that was the situation.

I did not go into the barn, so I did not get to see the helicopter (if that was the barn). Would have loved to. At the time, they had Valery Morrison following me around talking about what she was "seeing".

The last I knew, the dad was still looking for her.

There was some conjecture about what happened to her, but without any evidence or newspaper article to that point, I would rather not put it into print and risk a website rule infraction. Being new and all....
 
The hotel was searched and double checked by the bloodhound. No scent was detected in the hotel. The police did talk to the hotel staff and call people who had stayed there when Lauren went missing.

Jim Hosgood and I got the feeling Lauren and an unknown individual walked to the hotel parking lot and left from there.

No sign of struggle in her prints or attempt to pull away. Almost like she knew the person she was with.

Funny note, while on my hands and knees, tired as heck tracking for something like 10 hours without break, Channel 10 decided to stick a camera in my face..all the while tromping on the tracks I was trying to read...when the guy stuck the mic in my face and started to ask a question, I stuck my finger in my nose....they shut the camera light off and walked away. The Police came and put the media in a taped off area after that.
 
Trackergd, What do you honestly think happened to her? You are allowed to state your opinion, we all do here... LOL


I am on the other side of the state, close to Pittsburgh. What got me looking for missing people is the disappearance of Cherrie Mahan who went missing from Cabot PA in Feb 1985. (North of Pittsburgh) She was 8 years old at the time and was last seen getting off her school bus. It has haunted me for years since we were the same age and it was plastered all over the local news stations about her going missing...
 
I am hesitant being so close to the case.

Given I have requested to be vetted as an expert/insider, I would need moderator approval to list my two theories as one could be construed as an accusation having first hand knowledge of evidence gathered.

Side note. An expert "listener" was provided to the mother as a "personal aid" during the search. All conversations and remarks were noted and later transcribed if I remember correctly.
 
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