VA - Anjelica "AJ" Hadsell, 18, Norfolk, 3 March 2015 #2

[Ontario Mom]

Thoughts about the neighbor...

In the first thread HelpAJ, a WS member who is new, and local, and says she knows AJ personally and lives just down the road, says the neighbor who saw her just after 2 is a reliable source and that his statement was given to LE along with a description. That's here:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-Norfolk-3-March-2015&p=11588743#post11588743

The follow up reply by Mountain_Kat asks if the neighbor also described the other clothing AJ had on and HelpAJ responds and says no, the neighbor only saw her as she was driving and described the shirt she had on. That's here:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-Norfolk-3-March-2015&p=11588824#post11588824

In WAVY's article we have:

Mr. Hadsell told 10 On Your Side police have recovered pieces of his daughter’s debit card and her jacket, which a neighbor said he saw Anjelica wearing the day of her disappearance. The Norfolk Police Department has not confirmed that information, but they did tell WAVY.com they are vetting all leads. Police say they have had detectives assigned to this case every day since it was reported.

http://wavy.com/2015/03/13/is-anjelica-hadsell-in-danger/

The reason this stands out to me is that it's been reported AJ had on a bright pink top and a blue jacket. Even if you're color blind you can't mistake those two colors. The member here who knows AJ said the neighbor described her shirt. WH says the neighbor described her jacket. The article goes on to say LE has NOT confirmed that neighbor/jacket sighting but is vetting all leads.

There are so so so so many inconsistencies in this case

 

[katydid23]

I would love to know more about this alert neighbor. Sounds like he might sit on his porch or his front room. My Mom used to see everything that went on from the kitchen window. One window was by the sink, the other by the kitchen table. She could see who was coming or going all day. You would hear the car coming and look out just in time to see who it was.

This guy must have a similar set up. Maybe he is gardening or something. But I wish he had a look at who was driving the white car.

 

[hey-Debbie]

Start watching the Wavy Video at 1:15 into it. The father is saying that he believe he knows at least one of the persons involved. So from that I would believe that there is more than POI if there are POI's.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Okay - my last addition. If you only pay attention to one of my comments, please let it be this one. This is all IMO of course.

The text message story is absolutely, completely some sort of weird grasp at straws to find anything else to place the blame on. There is pure journalistic manipulation going on and it scares me.

In the WAVY 10 article that reveals the new information about an apparent predator, this is what her family says about the text messages:

• "This person supposedly said that he wanted to hang out, and she said she didn’t think it was a good idea." - cousin
• "She was more worried that this person would maybe do something." - cousin
• "I’d say she’s screaming 'help!'" - stepdad
• "She was scared of a situation." -stepdad

This is a quote from the article:


Wow. Those texts sound terrifying, right? Clearly a logical person would think that whoever kidnapped her is the same person who she was apparently terrified of and being threatened by.

Hm, well. Wait a second. Let's take a look at THE ACTUAL TEXT MESSAGES. They were shown on the WAVY 10 TV news. I screencapped them.
View attachment 71102
View attachment 71103

Okay - I really don't mean to be patronizing at all, but I get the feeling that I'm much younger than a lot of my fellow WSers. I'm going to talk a bit about the contents of those text messages, in case some of you aren't familiar with iMessage or emoji. I did my BA in Media Studies, so this is my area of expertise. Emoji is becoming its own language. The more common emojis have pretty specific emotions attached to them. They are used in place of things like "lol" now.

The screencaps of the text messages clearly came from her cousin's cell phone. AJ is the white on the left, her cousin is the blue on the right. Her cousin must have screencapped her conversation and given it to LE/family/media, whatever.

Let's dissect. The cousin sends AJ two "information desk" emojis. It may not be clear in the capture, but it is basically a smiling woman with her hand raised up and off to the side as if to say "oh well!" It is also called the "sassy girl emoji." This is NOT something you send to a person in distress. This is NOT something you send if you're genuinely concerned about a person's well being. This emoji is used when you're teasing someone. People use it to accompany sarcastic remarks.

AJ says


This indicates that AJ was fine with texting whoever "this person" was. She was engaging in a conversation with him/her until her cousin told her she should "probably" stop. I imagine this was very basic advice. If I told my friends someone was annoying me via text, they would tell me that I should probably stop texting that person. If I told my friends I feared for my life and someone was scaring me via text, they would tell me I should definitely stop texting that person, block them, and tell someone about it.

AJ says


The emoji she sends at the end of that sentence says everything. It is a laughing emoji. Emojipedia (see? this is the future of communication) says "A laughing emoji which at small sizes is often mistaken for being tears of sadness. In fact , this emoji is laughing so much that it is crying tears of joy." That emoji is used when a situation is SO crazy/funny/ridiculous that you're laughing until you're crying. Not exactly the kind of thing that someone who is scared for her life would use.

AJ says


Texts that are sent in that format (all caps, short word/phrase, new text for each one) are meant to redirect or round-out a conversation. Also, using the word "HELP" or exaggerating your emotions is a very common thing. A big part of humor now is irony: the more you pretend that your situation is far more dire than it is, the better. Everyone loves this moment on TV when Paris Hilton sighs "I'm gonna kill myself" when she gets to her hotel and the hot water isn't working. I literally just today got a text from my friend that said "OMG HELP" and then she said "TACOS ARE 3 FOR A DOLLAR." The tone of the conversation was very clearly casual and normal.

You can hear it for yourself in the WAVY video. Listen to her cousin at 0:45. I can feel in her voice that she knows she's misrepresenting the conversation.

Family, media, LE... SOMEONE is desperate for SOMETHING to go on. This tiny bit of one normal conversation had been opportunistically blown out of proportion. I would truly bet my money on these texts being absolutely irrelevant to what has happened.

Brilliant breakdown!! I don't have a degree in emoji but even I was unimpressed with the screen shot of that conversation. Between my husband, myself and all 7 kids, half of our text chats look like we've all been kidnapped and/or are about to die from such things as not having any chips in the house, or running out of milk, AGAIN or are planning to kill someone (I assure you, none of us are) because someone used the last of the toilet paper and didn't tell anyone we're out.

I could easily take a screen shot on any given day, blow it out of proportion, show it to the media and LE would be assigning detectives to my house. Or assigning us to a mental health facility. (Not to mention, taking a peek through my internet history - as all long time WS members will nod in agreement, might cast us all under a watchful LE eye, lol).

 

[pittie_mcclure]

If this guy was texting her would her BF be angry she was talking to someone?

Possibility I have thought of but BF is silent and I'm assuming the family would have already spoken out about him if they felt sketchy? I know we can't sleuth boyfriend though so.. just one more question to add to the list.

 

[pittie_mcclure]

Brilliant breakdown!! I don't have a degree in emoji but even I was unimpressed with the screen shot of that conversation. Between my husband, myself and all 7 kids, half of our text chats look like we've all been kidnapped and/or are about to die from such things as not having any chips in the house, or running out of milk, AGAIN or are planning to kill someone (I assure you, none of us are) because someone used the last of the toilet paper and didn't tell anyone we're out.

I could easily take a screen shot on any given day, blow it out of proportion, show it to the media and LE would be assigning detectives to my house. Or assigning us to a mental health facility. (Not to mention, taking a peek through my internet history - as all long time WS members will nod in agreement, might cast us all under a watchful LE eye, lol).

Exactly!! I don't ever want to make light of a situation like this ever but my girlfriends and I joke about our SO's all the time. I'm pretty sure I've sent help me texts because I'm annoyed or if you don't hear from him in a few days you know what happened texts.. If a stranger looked at my phone OMG especially without any context.. YIKES! To me the texts were normal. But just my opinion.

 

[Mother_of_dragons]

Possibility I have thought of but BF is silent and I'm assuming the family would have already spoken out about him if they felt sketchy? I wonder why they are keeping him so under wraps. I'm assuming he plays football in college so either they know he was away (alibi) or they're protecting his rep? I know we can't sleuth boyfriend though so.. just one more question to add to the list.

He is around and was involved with search teams. I can confirm this, as I've seen him on several occasions.

 

[Eileen730]

Possibility I have thought of but BF is silent and I'm assuming the family would have already spoken out about him if they felt sketchy? I wonder why they are keeping him so under wraps. I'm assuming he plays football in college so either they know he was away (alibi) or they're protecting his rep? I know we can't sleuth boyfriend though so.. just one more question to add to the list.

I don't think the Bf is involved at all.
But it came to mind.

 

[pittie_mcclure]

I don't think the Bf is involved at all.
But it came to mind.

I don't think so either. Not at all. I'll stop mentioning him

 

[Eileen730]

I don't think so either. Not at all. I'll stop mentioning him

LOL I was the one that brought it up sorry It wasn't you!

 

[turquoiseharmonicas]

Local here and WS lurker for a couple of years. This case is really hurts and scares the people that live here. No one wants to think poorly of people in AJ's life, but it's hard for some of us not to be confused and angered by what can be seen as the misleading and calculating way that her family is providing information. We all just want her home and safe.

I want to also say that I went to the same high school as AJ and have roamed the same neighborhood she lives in, and never for once felt unsafe.

 

[Eileen730]

Have they searched the house?

 

[granola]

Okay - my last addition. If you only pay attention to one of my comments, please let it be this one. This is all IMO of course.

The text message story is absolutely, completely some sort of weird grasp at straws to find anything else to place the blame on. There is pure journalistic manipulation going on and it scares me.

RSBM I hadn't seen this until now but I 100% cosign as another younger member of this forum. Nothing in these texts worries me, that was a bogus story

 

[turquoiseharmonicas]

Agreed. When I saw the screenshot of these texts, I saw nothing alarming.

If anything was alarming, it was the fact that the cousin was just now coming forward with such information if she really believed the person in question was dangerous!

 

[Eileen730]

Where did they think she was the night she didn't come home?
Did they try to call her?
Text?

(modsnip)

 

[turquoiseharmonicas]

Where did they think she was the night she didn't come home?
Did they try to call her?
Text?

I keep thinking that too. I am a bit older than AJ, but my parents still expect to know whether or not I will be home for the night when I am at their house.

 

[Eileen730]

I keep thinking that too. I am a bit older than AJ, but my parents still expect to know whether or not I will be home for the night when I am at their house.

My kids are 19 and 26 and yes they have to tell me If they wont be home and where they are.

 

[katydid23]

Local here and WS lurker for a couple of years. This case is really hurts and scares the people that live here. No one wants to think poorly of people in AJ's life, but it's hard for some of us not to be confused and angered by what can be seen as the misleading and calculating way that her family is providing information. We all just want her home and safe.

I want to also say that I went to the same high school as AJ and have roamed the same neighborhood she lives in, and never for once felt unsafe.

Thank you for the local insights. Jumping off your post, I will agree about the misleading inconsistencies. I just went to the family FB and saw this from March 5th:

https://www.facebook.com/bringajhome/posts/793063400781890

I can't paste it but I will paraphrase:

For clarity sake we want to update timeline. Aj was last SEEN at home Monday around lunchtime. Last received text )530 am Tues but do not believe it was her....




But today we get a tweet from a local reporter [ posted upthread] saying she was last seen at a gas station at 12:45 by her stepdad, who met her there.

That ^^^ is what I don't understand. Didn't they work out the exact time and place they last saw her way before they began posting info on the Missing poster and the site? { the MISSING POSTER still has the erroneous time of 7 am on it.]

 

[granola]

If she said she was going to VCU/friend's house/wherever "for the night" or something (IMO!!! I don't know that she said this), maybe they just assumed she'd sleep there.

 

[turquoiseharmonicas]

Thank you for the local insights. Jumping off your post, I will agree about the misleading inconsistencies. I just went to the family FB and saw this from March 5th:

https://www.facebook.com/bringajhome/posts/793063400781890

I can't paste it but I will paraphrase:

For clarity sake we want to update timeline. Aj was last SEEN at home Monday around lunchtime. Last received text )530 am Tues but do not believe it was her....




But today we get a tweet from a local reporter [ posted upthread] saying she was last seen at a gas station at 12:45 by her stepdad, who met her there.

That ^^^ is what I don't understand. Didn't they work out the exact time and place they last saw her way before they began posting info on the Missing poster and the site? { the MISSING POSTER still has the erroneous time of 7 am on it.]

Another thing that I don't understand is the tone of the very first flyer I saw very early on made it seem like whoever made the flyer thought that AJ left on her own. I will try to go to one of the places I saw it tomorrow and take a photo if it is still posted. I've seen slightly different flyers recently.