AL AL - Danniella Vian, 24, Mobile, 17 Jul 2018

[drama_farmer]

Did LE provide any information about the method used to disable GPS/OnStar?

My thoughts: If we're talking about OnStar, is it possible that the dealership "disabled" it by cancelling the OnStar subscription shortly after DV purchased her "new" car?

I'm thinking maybe she didn't want to activate the OnStar, so the car dealership notified OnStar to close the account associated with the car she bought. Maybe the request to discontinue the service didn't go through until she was at the gas station, perhaps a coincidence?
IMO

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Indeed JoJoJo. Very sad. Where is the sense of urgency? I wish her Mom would speak out again. She could provide valuable insight into DV’s normal behavior and plead for the public’s help.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

Indeed JoJoJo. Very sad. Where is the sense of urgency? I wish her Mom would speak out again. She could provide valuable insight into DV’s normal behavior and plead for the public’s help.

Based on comments from exBF mom, DV was largely estranged from her birth family. Custody of DV child appears to be with exBF mom which is interesting to say the least. Just don't see what is here to sleuth? LE seems to be looking for very specific information about what happened after the cars pulled out of the Shell station. Without CCTV footage which I would think LE would have by now we are waiting for an eyewitness to come forward 5 weeks after the fact? No details of car being recovered or seen. Overall situation isn't making much sense other than foul play at the Shell station IMO.

 

[zencompass]

Dear JoJoJo,

Your posts are very informative and insightful. Greatly appreciated!

As you've mentioned CCTV cams, I have been searching for evidence of one at the Dublin Pub and Eatery.

In one photo on their website showing a server, there appears to possibly be a surveillance cam above the green door. This would be on the outdoors patio.

So far I haven't been able to locate one at that restaurant but I will continue to search.

Since it's been mentioned that Danniella's phone was found at this establishment, was anything on the surveillance camera (if there is indeed one)?

Without evidence, how would we know for certain that her phone was found there?

Can the police confirm that someone went back and picked up her phone? Would the phone itself corroborate this when police technicians checked it?

This is a sad and puzzling case.

I think the answer may lie with whatever occurred between those "three cars".
It's strange how two of the three cars stayed there so much longer.

I wonder what witness statements the police gathered from the restaurant?

Were the police able to get in touch with customers who were there that evening? I hope the staff were all interviewed as to what they noticed that evening.

My hope is that Danniella is found safe and sound.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

Indeed JoJoJo. Very sad. Where is the sense of urgency? I wish her Mom would speak out again. She could provide valuable insight into DV’s normal behavior and plead for the public’s help.

Not sure how close DV was to mom as she has been living in Mobile for awhile now. Beyond that first interview Mom has been silent and not part of the search efforts so far as what we see online. Not sure Mom is part of the equation of DV life to tell you the truth.

 

[tlneedham]

Did LE provide any information about the method used to disable GPS/OnStar?

My thoughts: If we're talking about OnStar, is it possible that the dealership "disabled" it by cancelling the OnStar subscription shortly after DV purchased her "new" car?

I'm thinking maybe she didn't want to activate the OnStar, so the car dealership notified OnStar to close the account associated with the car she bought. Maybe the request to discontinue the service didn't go through until she was at the gas station, perhaps a coincidence?
IMO

As someone pointed out up thread, you usually get a free trial when you buy a car. But I’ve never had OnStar, so I don’t know if you still have to provide a credit card for them to charge when the trial is over.

I realize her car model come comes with OnStar capabilities. But do we know the “disabled GPS” was for sure the OnStar? If Danniella doesn’t have a credit card and operates as all cash, she wouldn’t have a card for OnStar to eventually charge.

On the other hand, the dealer she used was a buy-here-pay-here lot—and they often put GPS on to track their cars until their paid off.

The big difference IMO is anyone turning on the car would know if there was On Star to disable. But you’d have to have more car specific knowledge to look for a different type of GPS tracking device.

 

[zencompass]

Ebay and Amazon sell GPS jammer gadgets that plug into cigarette lighter in a car and will "jam" any signals. Cost as low as $12 up to $200.

I suppose these are for sale for people who do not know how to disable GPS in cars, if a tracker is enabled. Not that the average person would ever want to do this.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

As you've mentioned CCTV cams, I have been searching for evidence of one at the Dublin Pub and Eatery.

In one photo on their website showing a server, there appears to possibly be a surveillance cam above the green door. This would be on the outdoors patio.

So far I haven't been able to locate one at that restaurant but I will continue to search.

Since it's been mentioned that Danniella's phone was found at this establishment, was anything on the surveillance camera (if there is indeed one)?

Without evidence, how would we know for certain that her phone was found there?

My hope is that Danniella is found safe and sound.

The 'story' surrounding the finding of the phone is just another baffling part of this story. But if you saw CCTV and it was active at the restaurant then maybe the story being shared publically by BF about the phone recovery can be confirmed by LE. LE hasn't confirmed anything about the phone. I looked at the restaurant on google maps and it has a good sized parking lot. I would be surprised if there weren't at least one camera out there to protect the parking lot as most insurance companies give good discts for parking lot security. We also don't know if the phone had been tampered with prior to being turned into LE. LE could figure this out but we don't have that information. We have no named POI. Best Friend has said that the unknown male isn't a suspect which LE hasn't confirmed and this has me highly suspicious of him and his role in the entire situation.

I agree that the 2 cars staying longer at the station is strange. They could have been looking for phone but possibly not? IDK. Your point about onstar is an interesting one. But unfortunately we just don't know about onstar vs car GPS as my understanding is that the two systems are separate. Not sure which system (or both) was deactivated. I've always wondered if LE can track onstar vehicles even if the service isn't activated by car owner? I wonder if LE could have worked with car dealer to activate on star to find the car but I am sure the legalities or technical aspects of this might have been beyond the capabilities of local LE? FBI could have dealt with all of these issues but they aren't involved. IMO that press conference with Chief was a little bit of nothing and if the Dept were serious about finding DV they would have engaged the FBI quickly when GPS tracking was still possible. Now the trail seems cold and LE is out of leads. I don't see much here to work with and I also don't have much confidence in some of the information that we have received from the people involved. Not sure where to go from here? Any ideas?

 

[Deleted member 227095]

Ebay and Amazon sell GPS jammer gadgets that plug into cigarette lighter in a car and will "jam" any signals. Cost as low as $12 up to $200.

I suppose these are for sale for people who do not know how to disable GPS in cars, if a tracker is enabled. Not that the average person would ever want to do this.

Good info. But I guess what I am trying to figure out is what was happening at the gas station that would necessitate jamming/eliminating GPS? Was the end game to steal the car or abduct DV or both? Did someone want to eliminate DV from the picture and they did it at the gas station? Did the first car mentioned just leave the scene or were they part of the overall situation? We can go round in circles forever on ideas but until LE gives something up there isn't much here to work with so far as I can tell. I am also not convinced that going the media/poster route will make much difference in this case based on the tone of LE PC where Chief was speaking. I got zero sense of urgency and he almost seemed resigned to fact that no more leads existed. No mention of public danger. No POI. No suspects that we are aware of? My guess is LE knows what happened and is just building their case. My guess is that one of the people closely involved in the situation knows precisely what went down and is simply choosing not to say. JMO and pure speculation based on fact that little makes sense with this case!

 

[Deleted member 227095]

As someone pointed out up thread, you usually get a free trial when you buy a car. But I’ve never had OnStar, so I don’t know if you still have to provide a credit card for them to charge when the trial is over.

I realize her car model come comes with OnStar capabilities. But do we know the “disabled GPS” was for sure the OnStar? If Danniella doesn’t have a credit card and operates as all cash, she wouldn’t have a card for OnStar to eventually charge.

On the other hand, the dealer she used was a buy-here-pay-here lot—and they often put GPS on to track their cars until their paid off.

The big difference IMO is anyone turning on the car would know if there was On Star to disable. But you’d have to have more car specific knowledge to look for a different type of GPS tracking device.

No it doesn't appear that we know about which GPS was disabled. I haven't watched the video that was posted earlier about disabling GPS on the Chevy Cruze but will take a look and see if there is one integrated system or 2 separate systems. From what I know about other Chevy vehicles you don't have to subscribe to on star but your car can still have gps through the navigation system options. But this is an interesting line of inquiry and probably should be looked at on this thread for sure.

 

[tlneedham]

If her phone had a Google app on it, police should be able to find out if the friend’s story is true, b/c they’ll be able to track exactly where it went.

https://www.google.com/amp/insider.foxnews.com/amp/article/60162

I’m just guessing, but police may have told JDT the friend wasn’t a suspect because his story matched the data on his phone and hers.

 

[zencompass]

I agree that the police, especially the F.B.I., would be able to subpoena OnStar for details concerning the account on this vehicle.

I wish the State F.B.I. were involved.

 

[zencompass]

If her phone had a Google app on it, police should be able to find out if the friend’s story is true, b/c they’ll be able to track exactly where it went.

https://www.google.com/amp/insider.foxnews.com/amp/article/60162

I’m just guessing, but police may have told JDT the friend wasn’t a suspect because his story matched the data on his phone and hers.

Dear Tlneedham,

Great point!

 

[imstilla.grandma]

I agree that the police, especially the F.B.I., would be able to subpoena OnStar for details concerning the account on this vehicle.

I wish the State F.B.I. were involved.

Is the County even involved or is it just MPD?

 

[zencompass]

As far as I can tell, just MPD are involved.

 

[zencompass]

I don't understand what the Police Chief meant when he said that this case is not an ordinary missing case?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

I don't understand what the Police Chief meant when he said that this case is not an ordinary missing case?

Neither do I. I think his statement included some accidental leakage. An ordinary missing case would never made it to homicide level in an ordinary or an unordinary case. How many cases here have screamed for higher levels of LE to get involved? And why isn’t Mobile County Sheriff office involved? I want to hear more from this Police Chief. He knows the reasons why this isn’t an ordinary case. Why doesn’t the Sheriff know? County involvement would bring in new resource, tips and alerts to LE in the entire county. IMO, the Sheriff is very aware of this disappearance and there must be reasons why he hasn’t elevated the urgency.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

If her phone had a Google app on it, police should be able to find out if the friend’s story is true, b/c they’ll be able to track exactly where it went.

https://www.google.com/amp/insider.foxnews.com/amp/article/60162

I’m just guessing, but police may have told JDT the friend wasn’t a suspect because his story matched the data on his phone and hers.

I am not sure who the person was that 'found' the phone but I don't believe that he was in any way a good 'friend' to DV. The police also could have lied to JDT about not being a suspect because it suited their goals. I don't think they would have had cell phone data at the time they made the statement to JDT as that was fairly early in the investigation. I also don't believe we understand all the issues with how exactly the phone was found or what the phone itself disclosed to LE in terms of information and possible GPS trail.

Also, this so called good 'friend' has been MIA since this entire episode hit the press and has done ZERO to support efforts to find DV. Not a good person and not a good friend IMO based on how he has behaved in this case. WHO IS HE? WHO IS HIS FAMILY? IS HIS FAMILY CONNECTED TO LE OR THE POLICE CHIEF? WHY IS HE INVISIBLE? He seems to have crawled into the woodwork and stayed out of the limelight with the press. Without a lot of information and based simply on his behavior so far I believe this person HAS NOT been cleared by LE and is in fact a POI and possibly a witness to a larger crime that is of interest to Mobile LE. I also wonder if the reason he is hiding is that he is in some way tied to narcotics either buying or selling and possibly was HE the reason for the extra time spent at the gas station? I also wonder if LE are somehow protecting this person for some unknown reason? Is the family not speaking out about him because they don't know him or perhaps THEY ARE AFRAID OF HIM or HIS FAMILY OR HIS CONNECTIONS? We can't answer these questions because we don't know who he is. But I feel confident that we can say he is not a good person or good friend to DV based simply on his behavior so far.

Something is not right about how this entire situation with the return of the phone happened and the story with the double flashing lights and this person driving off and not checking back for his friend has honestly been a very weak story and hard to believe. Its one of those stories that when someone tells it to you that you scratch you head and say, "You must be kidding"! The whole crazy story just seems something that a bunch of tweekers would come up with to cover up a big mess.

If you had a friend who just got a car, wasn't super familar with roads, had maybe had a few drinks would you drive off and leave her behind when you realized she wasn't following you? No, most people would be concerned and circle back and track her down and get her home or to the next location on their party train.

This story makes little sense and I believe its just a coverup for something else that happened that none of the people involved in this sorry case want to be honest about. Do I have any degree of confidence in LE doing anything about this particular case? No I don't based on the press conference by the Chief. He had zero sense of urgency, seemed to have zero knowledge and seemed out of leads. But despite how he seemed at the PC my suspicion is that he is playing a larger game that might perhaps benefit him but that has zero to do with finding DV as she is deemed disposible to his larger game. If the car hasn't been found my guess is that it is in a container heading out of the country, sunk in the gulf or taken apart for parts at some chop shop. As to DV I am not certain LE is doing much. She might have just been the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time and totally trusted the wrong people to take care of her and watch out for her.

Auto crime and drug crime are both big issues in Mobile and could both come into play in this case. We never knew from the details available in this case how the people that were out partying that night ended up at the gas station. Allegedly it was to look for the phone. We don't know. It could be any number of things that put these people at the gas station but the idea that another car or 2 shows up and then stays for a period of time leads me to believe it was drug related activity in one way or another.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

Neither do I. I think his statement included some accidental leakage. An ordinary missing case would never made it to homicide level in an ordinary or an unordinary case. How many cases here have screamed for higher levels of LE to get involved? And why isn’t Mobile County Sheriff office involved? I want to hear more from this Police Chief. He knows the reasons why this isn’t an ordinary case. Why doesn’t the Sheriff know? County involvement would bring in new resource, tips and alerts to LE in the entire county. IMO, the Sheriff is very aware of this disappearance and there must be reasons why he hasn’t elevated the urgency.

To go a few steps further there has been no step to bring in the FBI or Alabama Bureau of Investigations either. Maybe the reason for trying to sweep this entire event under the rug is because some person or some aspect of this case ties to people in power in Mobile and maybe the Chief is AFRAID of political repercussions? The fact that so much time has passed with no POI, no named suspects and little sense of urgency leads me to believe LE is just hoping this will go away. I hope someone does leak the tape from the gas station or is able to find it on the internet via alternative means. I believe that tape will show something that is hugely embarassing to LE which is why they were so angry about its being released by the TV station to begin with. Nothing about the little we know leads me to believe that the only thing that happened at that gas station amongst the people involved was that they were looking for a phone. I think they were there for another reason and sadly I think it was drugs.

 

[Deleted member 227095]

I agree that the police, especially the F.B.I., would be able to subpoena OnStar for details concerning the account on this vehicle.

I wish the State F.B.I. were involved.

I agree. But I don't think LE want to have the FBI involved for their own reasons, whatever those reasons might be. What I don't get is that the families aren't screaming from the rafters to bring in the FBI or calling for an investigation of the Mobile PD which so far has appeared totally inept in its handling of a simple missing persons case. So far as the major stations have reported we have seen zero evidence of the basic act of simply looking for DV. For the Chief to ask for public assistance so far after the fact and to do so with no sense of urgency or caring was quite telling to me that he didn't really have any interest if DV was found or not. I hope I'm wrong but that PC was about as poor an effort by a senior LE official as I have ever seen.