NY NY - Ebony Turer, 12, New York, Feb 24, 1991

[Rlnjkm]

I’ve submitted them for several UP’s and I’ve also submitted them for comparisons with some newborn babies relative to the time period. If they were trafficked it’s a possible connection. To date, only one infant had been modified but there are no listed exclusions.

 

[DS2021]

According to a victim advocate who submitted FOIL requests on the girls 3 years ago, all 10 requests were closed, because "files cannot be found"

 

[Aurora90]

According to a victim advocate who submitted FOIL requests on the girls 3 years ago, all 10 requests were closed, because "files cannot be found"

@Rlnjkm im assuming this is you given your previous post in this thread.

Did you ever get a response? Is anyone working on it? Talking with the family? Obtained DNA?

These girls have been my pet cases since I linked all of them a while back. I think about them often and it infuriates me that there is nothing available about any of them.

It is in equal parts both maddening and depressing.

At this point, I am of the opinion that this is unacceptable, and rather than sweeping it under the rug, I think it is imperative that LE take accountability.

 

[Aurora90]

Re-reading this thread continues to infuriate me. I have a lot of thoughts so bear with me.

I cant help but wonder if LE came across a bunch of handwritten mp reports from the 90s

I thought this too! And was hopeful that there would be more to come.

According to a victim advocate who submitted FOIL requests on the girls 3 years ago, all 10 requests were closed, because "files cannot be found"

Requests were made for files on 10 missing girls. You mean to tell me all of them are missing? Really?

What could have possibly happened? Also Can someone please explain how exactly is it that files that “cannot be found” were able to be entered into NamUs?

Usually we are given some sort of explanation ie. a fire/hurricane/flood to justify the lack of information. Especially in cases that start to attract public interest.

unfortunately, the response from the detective isn’t much help either.

Acosta just deflected everything I asked him. He tried to give me the runaround by saying NamUs is responsible for deciding on testing comparisons, until I challenged him then he “mansplained” everything to me. He’s well trained in deflecting.

I see what you mean about deflecting. While it is true, that Namus is responsible for testing comparisons, they cannot work with what they don’t have. Which according to FOIL is nothing.

And It is the responsibility of law-enforcement to create this file. To talk with family, obtain dna, photos, physical descriptions, circumstances of their disappearance. Etc.

So it’s super disheartening to hear that the detective deflect this responsibility in his “nothing-burger” of a response to you.

It almost seems as though something was flagged that made them realize these cases needed to be entered into NamUs, but the files cannot be found.

It feels like we are watching everyone play an invisible game of hot potato forgetting the serious issue at hand.

All these girls are missing, where are they?

 

[Aurora90]

What if the case file ended up transferred to another department?

I was looking at my notes regarding another case of a missing young vulnerable girl and found something that might explain what’s going on here.

Years ago I was speaking to a detective regarding Alisa Watson (14,missing from Tacoma WA in 1972) and she gave me some information that might be relevant here.

When I joined WS I mainly focused on advocating for black and indigenous folks of colour,especially women, and I was really upset that there appeared to be nothing on file for a 14 year old girl that originally was stated as “a troubled child” who was still missing. I wanted to ensure that this case was not being forgotten about. And that it was still being looked into even after all these years.

I emailed the detective who was kind enough to call me back and speak with me in great detail. I originally wrote a lengthy post in her thread with specifics but because the conversation with the detective was on the phone it was heresay and the mods deleted it. That’s ok.

It wasn’t really Alisa but more so her surroundings that made her a “troubled child”. Think of the movie Matilda but much worse.

She informed me that although it appeared like nothing was going on with this case, she made clear that alisa was not forgotten about despite how empty her file appeared to be on Namus.

Yes her NamUs profile was pretty bare, there was an original case file that wasn’t. And because this all happened pre-Internet, all the details were laid out in physical form on paper. Then in the 80s the green river murders started happening. Some in Washington, some in Oregon. Eventually King County created a task force to help find the serial killer.

Im not sure when exactly, but at some point during the investigations their search expanded and even though she went missing in 1972, the task force requested that her case, along with every single case in the state of Washington that fit Ridgeway’s MO (sex workers and girls in vulnerable circumstances, including underage runaways like Alisa) get transferred directly to their task force. So the physical file ended up being sent there.


She expressed frustration because even now (at the time of our call in fall of 2022) she still does not have the physical file. And many other detectives are still requesting their files back too. Shes trying to make due without it but due to neglect, poverty, drugs, etc. she was having very little luck in her investigation. She really needs the file. Folks close to Alisa (I won’t say who but I’m sure you can guess) are unable to recall even something as basic has her date of birth. She expressed that in cases like these case files are even more important, and she was optimistic that the file would eventually be returned to her. Apparently other detectives in Washington are having similar issues even now.

So maybe there is a physical file for these girls after all?

 

[Aurora90]

I did some more digging and yup, I think that we have the initial gilgo investigative team (and the FBI assisting them) to thank for these girls finally being entered into NAMUS. (I know the task force was officially created in 2022, but the same team nonetheless less)

All of these cases were entered into NAMUS at an interesting point in the Gilgo investigation.

- in January of 2020, the new Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart announced a new website to encourage tips from the community.
Source:
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/newyork/news/gilgo-beach-new-evidence/

- In May of 2020 Valerie Mack was identified. Her family attempted to report her missing 20 years prior but was unable to.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/nyregion/long-island-serial-killer-gilgo-beach.html

- June 25 2020, & October 19 2020
Harriette Hoyt (15), Jessica Soto (14), Ebony Turer(12), Elease Farmer (15), Leona Rodriquez (16), Tanya Blaerove (15),Sharmeen Smalls (14), Inez Silvero (17) Glendaliz Valentine (17) were entered into NamUs. These girls were last seen between November 1990 - July 1993.

It might have been the website or the news conference that led to this. Or maybe it was some good old fashioned elbow grease, spending hours going through forgotten boxes.

Judith Ramona Veloz is a really good example of what I’m talking about.

Gilgo investigators upload missing teen’s profile into national database​

Investigators with the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force added the profile of Judith Ramona Veloz, a Bronx teen who vanished from Manhattan in 1993, to a national missing persons database, last October.

In the case of Judith Ramona Veloz, the task force was the investigative body that finally entered Judith into NAMUS after more than 30 years. And according to @Rlnjkm previous post in Judith’s thread her family thought they did file a Missing Person’s report. (I’d wager these girls families will say the same)

And it looks like @Rlnjkm requested a FOIL for Judith’s file too. Only to receive the same answer. “not found”

although a FOIL request from NYS Troopers came back as unfounded, which I have appealed, and I am still waiting on NYPD FOIL

and in an interesting twist; there’s a possible connection to one of our 10 missing girls, Jessica Soto.

Judith had previously lived with her family in the Bronx. Her family has roots to Valentine Avenue, where 2 blocks away and 2 years earlier, 14-year-old #JessicaSoto disappeared from and still remains missing. (Both Judith and Jessica’s cases would not be entered into NamUs for nearly 30 years).

FOIL be damed! I bet their case files, if there were any to begin with, are with the Gilgo Homicide Task Force. Here’s hoping it doesn’t stay in limbo for 15+ years post task-force like in the case of Alisa Watson.

 

[Rlnjkm]

@Rlnjkm im assuming this is you given your previous post in this thread.

Did you ever get a response? Is anyone working on it? Talking with the family? Obtained DNA?

These girls have been my pet cases since I linked all of them a while back. I think about them often and it infuriates me that there is nothing available about any of them.

It is in equal parts both maddening and depressing.

At this point, I am of the opinion that this is unacceptable, and rather than sweeping it under the rug, I think it is imperative that LE take accountability.

Good morning, yes, I am RLNJKM..I came across these girls (I’ve dubbed them the BGx10), just after they were added to NamUs as I was adding them to my map. They struck a chord in me and I went down a rabbit hole that lasts to this very day. (Today is the day Jessica Soto went missing).
I filed FOIL requests that same day…each was confirmed, yet years went by and no one would give me any information until last week when they were all closed as “files not found”.
It didn’t bother me so much that they were added to NamUs decades after they vanished, NamUs has a ridiculous backlog, what bothered me most was that there were no pictures for any of them except for Tiffany Madia Dixon.
Jessica Soto’s Dad had her declared deceased in 1997, and from that I was able to determine Jessica lived two blocks away from Judith’s family in the Bronx.
I also filed for any records from the Board of Education, denied. Went through public welfare records, came close, but still nothing. I do believe I’ve located one of the girls over a year ago, reached out to her but have yet to get a reply.
Tiffany is the only one who had significant media attention when she went missing, which intensified after the arrest of LISK, as his building permit locations and his former employer lived all too close to where Tiffany was last seen.
I did a massive Twitter campaign tagging NYPD Missing Persons squad and finally got them to communicate with me, which led to an annoying and unproductive conversation with Detective Acosta, since retired. He was simultaneously aggressive and defensive, and utterly dismissive of me.
I believe the girl’s families clearly attempted to file reports, which were most likely handwritten and left in a drawer until someone retired, then got passed along until finally being given to NamUs. The atypical NYPD response back then (and often now), is that “they will come home when they’re ready”, well it’s been decades and nothing..it infuriates me but I’m happy to know these girls have impacted other people as they have me. I am CatchLISK on Twitter and from there you can reference my map and my other databases I’ve created for missing and unidentified, plus docs on LISK.
I’d be more than willing to collaborate with anyone and everyone in anyway to garner more awareness for these girls and demand a LE response. Perhaps with Acosta retired we might have a better result.

@Rlnjkm im assuming this is you given your previous post in this thread.

Did you ever get a response? Is anyone working on it? Talking with the family? Obtained DNA?

These girls have been my pet cases since I linked all of them a while back. I think about them often and it infuriates me that there is nothing available about any of them.

It is in equal parts both maddening and depressing.

At this point, I am of the opinion that this is unacceptable, and rather than sweeping it under the rug, I think it is imperative that LE take accountability.

Good morning, yes, I am RLNJKM..I came across these girls (I’ve dubbed them the BGx10), just after they were added to NamUs as I was adding them to my map. They struck a chord in me and I went down a rabbit hole that lasts to this very day. (Today is the day Jessica Soto went missing).


I filed FOIL requests that same day…each was confirmed, yet years went by and no one would give me any information until last week when they were all closed as “files not found”.


It didn’t bother me so much that they were added to NamUs decades after they vanished, NamUs has a ridiculous backlog, what bothered me most was that there were no pictures for any of them except for Tiffany Madia Dixon.


Jessica Soto’s Dad had her declared deceased in 1997, and from that I was able to determine Jessica lived two blocks away from Judith’s family in the Bronx.


I also filed for any records from the Board of Education, denied. Went through public welfare records, came close, but still nothing. I do believe I’ve located one of the girls over a year ago, reached out to her but have yet to get a reply.


Tiffany is the only one who had significant media attention when she went missing, which intensified after the arrest of LISK, as his building permit locations and his former employer lived all too close to where Tiffany was last seen.


I did a massive Twitter campaign tagging NYPD Missing Persons squad and finally got them to communicate with me, which led to an annoying and unproductive conversation with Detective Acosta, since retired. He was simultaneously aggressive and defensive, and utterly dismissive of me.


I believe the girl’s families clearly attempted to file reports, which were most likely handwritten and left in a drawer until someone retired, then got passed along until finally being given to NamUs. The atypical NYPD response back then (and often now), is that “they will come home when they’re ready”, well it’s been decades and nothing..it infuriates me but I’m happy to know these girls have impacted other people as they have me. I am CatchLISK on Twitter and from there you can reference my map and my other databases I’ve created for missing and unidentified, plus docs on LISK.


I’d be more than willing to collaborate with anyone and everyone in anyway to garner more awareness for these girls and demand a LE response. Perhaps with Acosta retired we might have a better result.