VA VA - Claudine Gifford, 43, White Stone, 6 July 2014 *GUILTY*

[musicman]

This whole thing stinks to high heaven! If she only had a couple drinks and had to be helped out of the bar, then what in the world did she drink that would cause the need for her to have someone help her out? I don't remember reading that she was "drunk" and had to be helped...suppose something was slipped into her drink? I don't drink very often, maybe once every few months and wine is my alcohol choice, so I guess you'd call me a lightweight but even after 3 margaritas on an empty stomach I can still walk and function. And I also know that alcohol affects people differently due to stomach content, body weight, etc. If she was sitting on the rail listening to the band and possibly felt tipsy, then why didn't TK or somebody else just sit with her outside in the vehicle they came in?

And about the Xterra SUV...what year was it? An older model? A newer one? They do not all look the same. Is LE looking at the silver Xterras registered in that area? We own a blue 2007 Xterra and I tend to now notice other Xterras more since we own one and silver is the one I see the least amount of on the highways.

I'm just really bothered by this entire case which does not seem to be getting as much national coverage as it deserves!

"Sheriff Ronald D. Crockett reports that James T. "Todd" Kessler, 53 of Coxs Farm Road, is now considered "a person of interest" in the disappearance of Claudine J. Gifford, 44 of Burgess. Gifford was last seen in the early evening of July 6 at Windmill Point.

Not being released are specifics of the investigation that led to Kessler being considered "a person of interest" in the case.

According to Lt. E.T. Self, lead investigator in the case, it was information obtained from Kessley that led to the July 15 interest to speak to four white males who were reported to have assisted Gifford into a silver Nisson SUV on July 7."

 

[OkieGranny]

So the four white males were totally fictional. Surprise, surprise.

 

[mikkismom]

Link:
Midlothian man named person of interest in missing woman case
http://wtvr.com/2014/08/04/claudine-gifford-person-of-interest/

"Sheriff Ronald D. Crockett reports that James T. "Todd" Kessler, 53 of Coxs Farm Road, is now considered "a person of interest" in the disappearance of Claudine J. Gifford, 44 of Burgess. Gifford was last seen in the early evening of July 6 at Windmill Point.

Not being released are specifics of the investigation that led to Kessler being considered "a person of interest" in the case.

According to Lt. E.T. Self, lead investigator in the case, it was information obtained from Kessley that led to the July 15 interest to speak to four white males who were reported to have assisted Gifford into a silver Nisson SUV on July 7."

 

[helpfulcharlie]

Well I guess he's not cooperating.

 

[oldwindow]

She was having an affair it sounds like also so its easier to slide the blame on anybody , A very sad case overall in deed

 

[beachlvr0810]

So the four white males were totally fictional. Surprise, surprise.

Exactly what I was thinking! If the area where she disappeared from is small and anything like where we live here in Virginia, everybody knows who drives what vehicle so finding a silver Xterra would be very easy to do.

 

[TravelingBug]

Admittedly I'm wondering if TK might have tried to plant this?

It's SO contradictory of everything earlier about him carrying her out and being the last to see her (which obviously makes him look really bad...)

<<snip>>

I feel much less crazy with the new info out.

The above is what I had said as soon as the supposed 4 people bit came out.

Even trying to think it through out loud in posts, there was just no way I could see those 4 guys existing (or having existed in conjunction with the particular evening at least)

There was just no way to reconcile those 4 into the equation in my mind. And the parts TK was involved in from what we knew just smelled too highly of him being responsible.

I hope now that he's publicly a POI it'll pressure him to talk and her poor daughter will know definitively what happened to her mom.

 

[helpfulcharlie]

I feel much less crazy with the new info out.

The above is what I had said as soon as the supposed 4 people bit came out.

Even trying to think it through out loud in posts, there was just no way I could see those 4 guys existing (or having existed in conjunction with the particular evening at least)

There was just no way to reconcile those 4 into the equation in my mind. And the parts TK was involved in from what we knew just smelled too highly of him being responsible.

I hope now that he's publicly a POI it'll pressure him to talk and her poor daughter will know definitively what happened to her mom.

Absolutely. You're not crazy. It didn't fit with anything else that was released. And the timing with which they released that seemed to jibe with ruling out an element of his story, as in "OK, here's what you say happened. We don't believe you, but we're going to socialize this anyway. It's a small town. When it comes back as bs, start talking."

 

[musicman]

Well I guess he's not cooperating.

http://www.rrecord.com/-news/2014/8-7-14/news1a.asp

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.rrecord.com/-news/2014/8-7-14/news1a.asp

From your link:

Seven weeks before her disappearance, Claudine went to North Carolina for a two-week stay to help a friend recovering from surgery, Page reported. However, while returning to Virginia, her minivan broke down and she called Page for help. Page was sitting in a Kilmarnock restaurant when she took the call. When she offered to wire $100, Kessler, who was also in the restaurant, came over and interrupted the conversation, insisting he would wire her $200 and then drive down to pick up Claudine, said Page. Since the women had only met him briefly once before, they declined his offer. But he refused to listen and left for North Carolina. After Claudine returned with him, they started dating, said Page....

During the two weeks with her family, Kessler called Claudine incessantly, insisting she return to Lancaster, even &#8220;threatening to blackmail her&#8221; with her daughter in order to get her to return, Richard said. &#8220;He even started calling and texting me.&#8221;

Richard said he and Kessler got into a heated argument over the constant calls and what Richard felt was Kessler&#8217;s interference in the couple working on their marriage. &#8220;She was only with Kessler maybe a month,&#8221; said Richard. &#8220;We were married 16 years.&#8221;

 

[musicman]

From your link:

"In one sheriff&#8217;s report, Kessler said they had an argument and he dropped her off on the side of the road about a mile from the marina."

Quite a contrast.

 

[TravelingBug]

Woah!

According to sheriff&#8217;s reports, Claudine was last seen leaving Pelicans at the Point at Windmill Point with Todd Kessler around 8:30 p.m. July 6. In his own quest for information, Richard said witnesses at the tiki bar told him that after two or three drinks Claudine was so incapacitated, Kessler carried her to his car. However, the witnesses put the departure time two hours earlier, at 6:30 p.m.

Interesting about the drinking and medication bit. That would raise red flags...

Julianne said her sister wouldn&#8217;t pass out after only three drinks and expressed concern she may have been drugged without her knowledge.

They insisted Claudine never used drugs.

&#8220;She was so against drug use, she wouldn&#8217;t even take all the pills in a prescription,&#8221; said Julianne.

Page also insisted Claudine never used drugs. As a non-user and weighing only 112 pounds, drugs would have really affected her, said Page.

That is a very interesting article!

 

[TravelingBug]

And holy smokes!

She only knew him 7 weeks?

And how the heck did he even HEAR enough of the conversation to butt in and get himself involved. That is...odd.

Actually, why would the friend have even let him talk to her if they hardly knew him? I wouldn't let someone I'd met once randomly take my phone and talk to a friend when he wasn't even sitting there actually having been more apt to hear the call.

And holy red flags about him - overhears a phone conversation, insists on talking to her, insists on coming down, refuses not to, and then actually DOES show up. MAJORLY creepy!

I truly can't believe she got in a car with him :-/

Wonder if he threatened her on the car ride and that's why they started dating? So strange that she went from absolutely refusing to even go with him because she didn't know him, and plus he was all kinds of sketchy in the process, yet then ended up dating him right away.

NOT blaming her or the friend at all, I just feel like there's something missing as to how TK pulled this all off. Majorly manipulative? Super charming? Scary enough to make them feel obligated?

Even just with reading this part you'd have to think he was the one "haunting" her.

Seven weeks before her disappearance, Claudine went to North Carolina for a two-week stay to help a friend recovering from surgery, Page reported. However, while returning to Virginia, her mini van broke down and she called Page for help. Page was sitting in a Kilmarnock restaurant when she took the call. When she offered to wire $100, Kessler, who was also in the restaurant, came over and interrupted the conversation, insisting he would wire her $200 and then drive down to pick up Claudine, said Page. Since the women had only met him briefly once before, they declined his offer. But he refused to listen and left for North Carolina. After Claudine returned with him, they started dating, said Page.

&#8220;She felt obligated,&#8221; said Page.

And then this really leaves little room for doubt. Especially since her husband was the one who used that expression and it's clear what his take on the TK stuff is!

He was threatening her w/ her daughter?! Had the police been told all of this as it happened?

How the heck did he get the husband's contact info?

This is one SCARY guy! He was obsessed with her it seems like!

During the two weeks with her family, Kessler called Claudine incessantly, insisting she return to Lancaster, even &#8220;threatening to blackmail her&#8221; with her daughter in order to get her to return, Richard said. &#8220;He even started calling and texting me.&#8221;

Richard said he and Kessler got into a heated argument over the constant calls and what Richard felt was Kessler&#8217;s interference in the couple working on their marriage.

&#8220;She was only with Kessler maybe a month,&#8221; said Richard. &#8220;We were married 16 years.&#8221;

 

[TravelingBug]

What in the world could this "thing" stuff mean? She was hardly with the guy? A sex tape maybe?

But would she really go back for something like that? I mean, she could get Gabby a new phone and email address and not let her open any mail...

&#8220;I wanted to go with her, but she insisted on going on her own,&#8221; said Richard. &#8220;She returned because of his threats to send Gabrielle things. She was afraid he would.&#8221;

&#8220;Claudine indicated she was going to stay (with Kessler) only to find the &#8216;things&#8217; he could use to blackmail her,&#8221; Page said. She also told her friend of her concerns about Kessler&#8217;s behavior. But after 16 years of marriage, she was naive when it came to dating, Page added.

So TK was the first to basically raise the alarm about her being missing?! That's...REALLY odd!

No one else would have known for awhile. Why would he get them looking for her that quickly?!

And with all his creepy behavior, surely he'd realize they'd think of him as the likely one behind her being missing?

When Kessler called Page Monday morning, wondering if she knew where Claudine was, Page immediately notified the sheriff&#8217;s department. &#8220;They were great. They responded right away even though it hadn&#8217;t been 24-hours,&#8221; she said.

This is one seriously, seriously, seriously creepy guy!

He pretends he's her HUSBAND?!?! :liar:

And had the poster hiding in his shirt? You'd think they'd think it was a little odd that a husband felt the need to hide a missing persons poster about his own wife...

At a store in White Stone, employees told him Claudine&#8217;s husband had already dropped off a poster. After Richard explained he was her husband, employees played the store surveillance video for him which showed Kessler pulling out a rolled up poster he had stuffed down the front of his shirt, he said.

I think I'm most floored that it took this long to name him a person of interest!

This case is beyond bizarre!

 

[helpfulcharlie]

I was unable to locate the posts they are referring to, but I thought this was interesting.

Lancaster County Sheriff's Office
13 mins ·

The recent Facebook posts regarding Claudine Gifford being located are false. The incident in Northumberland County is unrelated. The search for Mrs. Gifford is still ongoing.

 

[beachlvr0810]

This whole thing stinks to high heaven! If she only had a couple drinks and had to be helped out of the bar, then what in the world did she drink that would cause the need for her to have someone help her out? I don't remember reading that she was "drunk" and had to be helped...suppose something was slipped into her drink? I don't drink very often, maybe once every few months and wine is my alcohol choice, so I guess you'd call me a lightweight but even after 3 margaritas on an empty stomach I can still walk and function. And I also know that alcohol affects people differently due to stomach content, body weight, etc. If she was sitting on the rail listening to the band and possibly felt tipsy, then why didn't TK or somebody else just sit with her outside in the vehicle they came in?

And about the Xterra SUV...what year was it? An older model? A newer one? They do not all look the same. Is LE looking at the silver Xterras registered in that area? We own a blue 2007 Xterra and I tend to now notice other Xterras more since we own one and silver is the one I see the least amount of on the highways.

I'm just really bothered by this entire case which does not seem to be getting as much national coverage as it deserves!

Woah!



Interesting about the drinking and medication bit. That would raise red flags...



That is a very interesting article!

That's what I said earlier! Something ain't right!

 

[TravelingBug]

That's what I said earlier! Something ain't right!

Thinking about it all day, I think the thing that surprises me most really truly is that it took as long as it did before much came out about TK or LE even mentioning him as a PoI.

I realize they can't do that prematurely, but I REALLY did not expect the extent of the "ick" and "hink" that's come out about him now. I suspect there's not only far more about him connected to this case, but probably a whole lot prior that hasn't even been reported.

I'm going to say more but put that in a separate post.

I also have to say, I wish that they had released more about Claudine earlier.

This article makes her so much more of a real person. Her relationship with her daughter, the marriage bit of it and the death not long prior to her leaving, more from her friends, etc.

So sad and so senseless.

 

[TravelingBug]

I'm thinking the people close to Claudine haven't been overly impressed with the coverage of one particular paper - especially considering the extremely lengthy and detailed update in the Record Online one (that all the last many previous posts have been about)

There's next to nothing in the Northern Neck News one, which was the one that seemed to think the accents of all involved were more important (ironically hardly mentioning TK

And there also seems to be a shift in how free those close to Claudine seem to feel to speak up now.

I'd not be shocked at all to find out later on he's been threatening them this entire time.

One of her loved ones contacted Dateline in hopes of getting more coverage. So far they've at least gotten it on Dateline's FB page.

That was a fabulous "get" as the shares on the one Dateline post are almost as many as the entire last month of shares on the Bring Claudine Home page! Her sweet daughter posted there under the thread and you can help but feel so darn heartbroken for the poor girl! Appreciate that whoever mans Dateline's FB page wrote back to her on there also.

And as a result of Dateline, it's now also on NBC's main news page as well.

I hope all this publicity - and TK now being less able to likely use some of his same tactics on others to try to silence them - will get others talking, sharing what they may know, have seen, or even just possible insight into where TK spends time, etc.

Claudine needs to be brought home.

 

[TravelingBug]

Somehow neither of these two snippets registered with me when reading this last night (the good, detailed, lengthy article from above):

Page, who first reported Claudine missing, claimed witnesses said a couple of men separately offered to help but were turned down and that they were still at the tiki bar after Claudine and Kessler left.

I wonder if the above is where TK formed the basis of the "4 guys took her out" nonsense...

Help Save the Next Girl, a national organization formed by the parents of slain Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, is making media contacts on the Giffords’ behalf, supplying posters to aid the search and posting updates on their website.

And how great to see this! Yay, Harrington family! What a gift! :blowkiss: And I'm sure along with practical help, they're able to provide some emotional support and insight that so few others can in situations like this.

I've loved seeing the way the DuBois family, especially, has done the same here in the SoCal area after their experience with Amber's disappearance and murder.

 

[TravelingBug]

I can't imagine there aren't MANY others who have had similar experiences with him, given he apparently went from ONE interaction with Claudine to basically being obsessed with her and not taking no for an answer on anything!

There's just no way this is a first time incident. Maybe first time murder, but someone like this just doesn't flip overnight to this extreme, IMO.

From a one time meeting to essentially becoming obsessed with someone, not listening to their wishes/comforts, threats and blackmail, the whole nine yards.

Just a little list of what are my big red flags from the article:

• Argument - "Kessler said they had an argument"
• Leaves her on the road - "and he dropped her off on the side of the road about a mile from the marina."
• Gives false info/lead - "Kessler was the individual who gave deputies the information that 'four white men assisted her into a silver Nissan SUV.'"
• Lying - Won't accept help yet claimed she was in such bad shape he needed to carry her (and then used this real event as the basis for his lie about that night's events - "Page, who first reported Claudine missing, claimed witnesses said a couple of men separately offered to help but were turned down and that they were still at the tiki bar after Claudine and Kessler left."
• Listens in on a conversation a separate party, elsewhere in the restaurant, was having with a person he essentially didn't know- "Kessler, who was also in the restaurant, came over and interrupted the conversation"
• Interrupts that same personal phone conversation - "Kessler, who was also in the restaurant, came over and interrupted the conversation"
• Insists on wiring her money - and more than her friend was going to - "insisting he would wire her $200"
• Insists on driving down to pick her up - "and then drive down to pick up Claudine, said Page."
• Persists and continues to insist on something despite protests - "Since the women had only met him briefly once before, they declined his offer."
• Disproportionate response and insistence given she was essentially a stranger - "Since the women had only met him briefly once before, they declined his offer."
• Refuses to listen to their wishes - "But he refused to listen and left for North Carolina.
• Convinces the person he'd only met once and who didn't want to go with him to date him in a matter of hours "After Claudine returned with him, they started dating, said Page."
• Incessant contact - "Kessler called Claudine incessantly"
• Demanding and orders her around - "insisting she return to Lancaster"
• Threatens to blackmail her - “threatening to blackmail her”
• Blackmail threats are targeted at her minor daughter - “'threatening to blackmail her' with her daughter in order to get her to return"
• Purpose of threats/blackmail to get her to return to him - “'threatening to blackmail her' with her daughter in order to get her to return"
• Calls and texts her spouse - “He even started calling and texting me.”
• Heated argument w/ victim's spouse "Richard said he and Kessler got into a heated argument"
• Constant (undesired) calls - "Richard said he and Kessler got into a heated argument over the constant calls"
• Interference in the marriage - "Kessler’s interference in the couple working on their marriage."
• Makes additional threats - “'She returned because of his threats'”
• Additional threats also include/targeted at daughter - “'She returned because of his threats to send Gabrielle things. She was afraid he would.'”
• Threats seemed to carry weight - “'She returned because of his threats to send Gabrielle things. She was afraid he would.'”
• Manipulated her into returning because of the threats - “Claudine indicated she was going to stay (with Kessler) only to find the ‘things’ he could use to blackmail her,” Page said.
• Enough concerning behavior she told others - "She also told her friend of her concerns about Kessler’s behavior.
• Impersonation / posed as her husband - "At a store in White Stone, employees told him Claudine’s husband had already dropped off a poster."
• Impersonation PLUS being sneaky / suspicious about missing persons posters - "After Richard explained he was her husband, employees played the store surveillance video for him which showed Kessler pulling out a rolled up poster he had stuffed down the front of his shirt, he said."
• Unrelated charges of malicious wounding and assault - "Kessler is being held without bond in Lancaster jail on charges of malicious wounding and assault in an unrelated case."