AR AR - Angela Mack, 20, & Thomas Rettew, 4, Salem, 1 Sept 2002

[MrsWatson]

What the heck was going on in that little town??

(Turned off my IPN and was able to read the articles.)

 

[heuristicsdepartment]

Welcome to Websleuths, @FultonSleuth !

 

[FultonSleuth]

Found some stuff, finally, on Thomas Michael Rettew

One of the comments says it's believed the little boy was "traded for a bus ticket". Oh boy...

It seems that the creator of the Facebook page; "Help Find Thomas Michael (Mikey) Rettew" claims that she had temporary guardship over him before he went missing? She claims he was given to a truck driver in Thayer Missouri!!! Suspicious.

Help Find Thomas Michael "Mikey" Rettew

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Thomas Rettew


Thomas, circa 2002; Age-progression to age 17 (circa 2015)

Missing since September 1, 2002 from Salem, Arkansas.
Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
He has a pea-sized dark spot on his right eye.
May go by nickname "Mikey"
Current Age: 22-years-old

He disappeared along with his mother, Angela Mack (see next post), riding a late model dark gray or blue Chevrolet or GMC extended cab pickup truck with Missouri license plates.

For unclear reasons, Angela's disappearance was not reported until August 2004, nearly two years after she and Thomas disappeared. There were reports that she was going to California and/or Iowa. Investigators believe a man Angela was involved with have vital information in her case. There are rumors that she was murdered and buried on top of a fresh grave in the Salem area, and that her son was trafficked or was murdered along with her.

Contact Salem Police Department with any information: 1-870-895-2601

Photos and information from:
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Thomas Michael Rettew – The Charley Project

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Angela Mack




Missing since September 1, 2002 from Salem, Arkansas.
Hair: blond
Eyes: blue
Current Age: 38 years old

Photos and information from:
Angela Christine Mack – The Charley Project

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Angela's nickname is Angie, and she may use the last name Mack-Cox.

Angela and Thomas disappeared from Alton, Missouri, which is forty miles northeast of Salem. They are considered missing under suspicious circumstances.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Justice for Angie | Search for missing person helped solve another case | cbs8.com

ESCONDIDO, Calif. — Tiffany Thomas has spent years searching for her childhood friend Angela Mack and Angela's son Mikey who have been missing for 18 years.

Both disappeared after they moved from Escondido to Arkansas. Just recently, as Tiffany scoured the internet, she found information that helped the family of another missing woman get some closure.

 

[JusticeForAngie]

On 10/4/20 I requested that they compare matches of Angela (MP32668) to (UP12167). We are waiting for the results....
- We do have a group Facebook page. Justice for Angie.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Bumping up for Angela and Thomas.

 

[chaddylex]

The Vanished just released a podcast about Angela and Thomas's disappearances. EPISODE 272: Angela Mack and Thomas "Mikey" Rettew — The Vanished Podcast

This is the first time I have heard about these disappearances.

 

[CTPDMom]

The Vanished just released a podcast about Angela and Thomas's disappearances. EPISODE 272: Angela Mack and Thomas "Mikey" Rettew — The Vanished Podcast

This is the first time I have heard about these disappearances.

I just came to see if there was a thread after listening to the Vanished podcast. First for me too.

What a total cluster! I'm usually the first one championing law enforcement in cases, but it sounds like there was a serious disconnect in this case, and it makes me very sad.

Justice for Angie, keep at it! I'm wondering if you've gotten the DNA comparison back yet that was submitted in 10/2020?

 

[YaYa_521]

Justice for Angie
Angela Christine Mack and her son Thomas Michael Rettew vanished under suspicious circumstances between August 2002 and September 2002 from Salem, Arkansas. Her family and friends are seeking answers and justice for Angie and Mikey.

Help Find Thomas Michael "Mikey" Rettew
Thomas Michael Rettew
Classification: Missing
Missing Since: September 1, 2002

 

[MrsWatson]

So sad that there is so little coverage of this case.

A town that size, you know someone knows something. Probably several someones know lots.

 

[mlhenn]

Thomas Michael Rettew – The Charley Project

Last updated March 16, 2021; picture added, details of disappearance updated.

• 

Thomas, circa 2002; Age-progression to age 17 (circa 2015)

• Missing Since09/01/2002
• Missing From: Alton, Missouri

Details of Disappearance
Thomas originally disappeared along with his mother, Angela Mack, from Salem, Arkansas in 2002. They left riding a late model dark gray or blue Chevrolet or GMC extended cab pickup truck with Missouri license plates.

Following her departure from Arkansas, later in the fall of 2002, Angela left her Thomas in the care of an Alton, Missouri couple who planned to adopt him. After leaving the child in their care, Angela traveled to California. She spent some time there, then changed her mind about the adoption and said she wanted Thomas back. She was instructed to return to Missouri and collect her son. Someone picked her up at the bus station in Springfield, Missouri and took her to the residence where Thomas was staying.

Angela has not been seen since, and Thomas disappeared also. For unclear reasons, their disappearances were not reported until August 2004, nearly two years later. Authorities did not learn about the proposed adoption by the Missouri couple until October 2020, sixteen years after the missing persons reports were filed.

Angela was married at the time of her disappearance, but she was in a relationship with another man, Matthew Niederbach. They have one son together, who was left behind when Angela and Thomas disappeared. Both Angela's husband and Niederbach live in Salem. Thomas is Angela's son by a previous relationship; his biological father died in Idaho in 2019.

Investigators believe the man Angela was involved with have vital information in her case. There are rumors that she was murdered and buried on top of a fresh grave in the Salem area, and that her son was trafficked or was murdered along with her. Angela and Thomas are both considered missing under suspicious circumstances.

 

[Al Ka]

On 10/4/20 I requested that they compare matches of Angela (MP32668) to (UP12167). We are waiting for the results....
- We do have a group Facebook page. Justice for Angie.

Just adding link to FB page run by her friend made for Angie -

Justice for Angie

 

[Al Ka]

Published Mar 16, 2021

A CLOSER LOOK: investigation continues for Angela Mack-Cox and son ‘Mikey’ Rettew; missing since 2002

Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Dale Weaver said he doesn’t have the original missing person’s report for Angela Mack-Cox, but the investigation is moving forward and he hopes to “have a resolution before long.”
---
Tuesday, March 16th would have been Angela “Angie” Mack-Cox’s 39th birthday, but she’s not around to celebrate it because 19 years ago she, and her four-year-old son Thomas Michael “Mikey” Rettew, disappeared from Salem, Arkansas, or Alton, Missouri. The exact date is uncertain because she wasn’t reported missing until two years after her son went missing in 2002.
---
Her NamUs case was created on February 23, 2016, but had an incorrect photo and height. Both have since been fixed. “I have no idea how the wrong photograph was put in NAMUS it was before my time with the case but I had it corrected,” said Weaver.
---
Weaver gave direct answers when asked about the case. He has answered questions for KNWA/FOX24 via phone and email at least twice regarding Mack-Cox. He’s confirmed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is involved in the investigation.
---
Justice for Angie Founder Tiffany Thomas went to grade school with “Angie,” as close friends called her, in Escondido, California. By the mid-90s Angie and her family moved to Arkansas.

Years later, when Thomas learned her friend was missing she started a search.
---

• Has any of her family’s DNA been entered into CODIS? The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is the U.S. national DNA database created and maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

• Why did National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) list Mikey as missing from Alton, Missouri, yet Alton, or Oregon County, doesn’t have any information about him being missing?

Oregon County Sheriff Eric King has not responded to an email sent by Thomas on December 27, 2020, about the missing person(s) case. KNWA/FOX24 made several calls to Sheriff King and no calls have been returned.

A CLOSER LOOK: investigation continues for Angela Mack-Cox and son "Mikey" Rettew; missing since 2002

 

[Vail]

On 10/4/20 I requested that they compare matches of Angela (MP32668) to (UP12167). We are waiting for the results....
- We do have a group Facebook page. Justice for Angie.

Here are the links:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

@JusticeForAngie have you heard more on this?

After listening to the podcast, I believe the couple with her child possibly murdered her and took Mikey, especially with their history. It seems like something the FBI should probably be interested in.

Another thing in the podcast that got my attention - Angie's father says she was working at burger king or something in CA while living with him before she left there in 2001 - was that ever verified?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

On Wednesday, April 7, around 2 p.m., FCSO Investigator Weaver contacted Angela’s dad, Phil Mack, and brother, Joe Milot, and told them he had information he wanted to share with them. And that a person confessed as to what happened to Angela and Mikey. “Weaver said the FBI could answer further questions about the case,” said Milot.
...
Joe plans to do a DNA test and get that sent to the Arkansas Crime Lab, something he said he’s requested for a long time. “Detective Weaver has emailed me the forms,” said Joe.

It still leaves questions for the family about Wednesday’s “news” from Weaver. “I would like to find her remains,” said Joe.
A CLOSER LOOK: closure for missing Angela Mack-Cox & her son Mikey

 

[PommyMommy]

APR 9, 2021
Widow confesses late husband murdered missing woman, child (kait8.com)
[...]

According to Angela’s mother, Lorna Pool, her daughter was living in Chowchilla, California when she last spoke to her in December of 2002.

“She said she seemed herself, she was happy, and had a sense of humor,” the report stated. “She told her she was going to be leaving there to go pick up Mikey from Clarence Krusen in Alton.”

A week later, Pool learned Angela had already left California. She then called Clarence Krusen who said Angela’s brother-in-law, Jeremy Cox, had picked up her and Mikey.

However, a family member told Pool that Cox could not have picked up the pair because he was in jail at the time.

Krusen reportedly told Pool that Angie was letting him and his wife adopt Mikey; however, Pool said she heard from others that Angie had sold the boy to the Krusens.

[...]

In October of 2020, Detective Weaver contacted Barbara Krusen who said she met Angela in the fall of 2002 while she was working on their farm.

Barbara Krusen also claimed she and her deceased husband kept Mikey for a while and later made arrangements to adopt him.

“She stated that an attorney had drawn up the papers, and she and Clarence signed them,” the report stated.

She claimed Angela signed the papers before she went to California.

Later Angela reportedly told Clarence Krusen she had a change of heart and did not want to go through with the adoption.

[...]

After picking Angela up at the bus station in Springfield, Missouri, Barbara Krusen said they returned to their farm in Alton.

The next morning Angela and Mikey were gone.

She claimed her husband told her that someone had come and picked them up.

[...]

On Friday, April 2, two FBI agents administered a polygraph exam on Krusen, which she reportedly failed.

During a post-polygraph interview, Roork said Krusen told the agents that Clarence “had done away with both Angela Mack Cox and Thomas Michael Rettew (Mikey) by killing them and destroying their bodies in a furnace that they had attached to their farmhouse.”

[...]

“I am glad that we were able to close this case as of April 7, 2021,” he said. “It is my hope that this will bring some closure to the friends and family of Angela and Mikey.”

He thanked Investigator Dale Weaver and the FBI for resolving the case.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

A CLOSER LOOK: Angela Mack-Cox and her son killed; bodies destroyed in a furnace, per FCSO

Fulton County, Ark. investigators solve deaths of mother, child from 2002

 

[heuristicsdepartment]

I’m glad the family was able to get closure, but the whole thing is so very sad.