GUILTY NY - Joan Diver, 45, Clarence, 29 September 2006

[ineedtoreadthenews]

First time poster! I've been reading and praying about all the missing on this site for over 2 years. I just recently became a member in order to be able to post "just in case". I wish I didn't have a reason to post, but this just happened near my house and I can't just sit by and hope someone else will post information about this missing woman! Please pray for her safe return!

Our local paper The Buffalo News had an article but no picture of Joan! Article was not even on the front page! I paraphrased so as not to infringe on any copywrite laws.

Clarence mother of four little children, Joan Diver, 45, vanished Friday, September 29 around 1:00 p.m. from the bike path where she is known to jog. SUV found near path, but no evidence of foul play or any sign of Joan Diver. They have also not found any sign of medical, mental or personal problems to make her want to run away or hurt herself. Searches have been launched, without turning up a shred of evidence.
Described as being: white, 5'5", 140lbs., shoulder length dark blonde hair and green eyes. Wearing navy blue sweatshirt, black shorts or sweatpants with a green stripe and Nike Sneakers. Call sheriff with any information: 716-667-5201.

 

[concernedperson]

We recently had a case with the exact same info in the metro Atlanta area. Unfortunately the woman was found dead. She was attacked and murdered by a sex offender who had not been out of jail very long.

LE needs to be looking for the same type of individual and looking for wounds that could have been inflicted on him by the woman. Bike trails have many places to hide for these perverts.

 

[ineedtoreadthenews]

Boy Scout Troop Master found the body of Joan Diver on Sunday afternoon. She leaves behind four little children. No news yet of what the cause of death may be. Please keep her family in your prayers.

 

[Perry]

How horrible.

My prayers are with the family and loved ones.

 

[kahskye]

That is so sad. My thoughts and prayers are w/ the family and friends.

 

[docwho3]

BODY OF MISSING MOM FOUND IN CLARENC . . .

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=41529&provider=top

 

[Paladin]

Our local paper The Buffalo News had an article but no picture of Joan! Article was not even on the front page! I paraphrased so as not to infringe on any copywrite laws.

Heh, good ol' Buffalo News. They're a terrible newspaper. I live about 5 minutes from where this happened. To think this happened on a bike path in my own area...horrible. Thanks for sharing.

 

[capps]

Many people are not too happy that the police stopped the search for her after 24 hours.That's when volunteers decided to group,and they were the ones's who found her. Why did the police give up so quickly?

I feel just awful about this ... all she wanted to do is go for a jog. Poor thing. I hope the police spend more time than 24 hrs. looking for the killer. Grrrr.

 

[Alice253]

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - Erie County Sheriff's deputies say an autopsy indicates Clarence mother Joan Diver was strangled, and suffered blunt force trauma to her head.

http://www.wben.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=05928

More at link...

And here's another article from the good ol' Buffalo News:

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061003/1023464.asp

Sheriff's Dept. faulted in search for jogger

The Erie County Sheriff's Department came under fire Monday for scaling back its search for a Clarence woman whose body was found by volunteer searchers Sunday near the bike path where she was believed to have been jogging on Friday.
"We may have missed it," acknowledged Undersheriff Richard T. Donovan at a packed news conference Monday afternoon where he was peppered with questions about the bungled search.

Snip...

But more disturbingly, authorities are looking into the possibility that Diver's death could somehow be connected to a string of unsolved rapes and murders that took place in the 1980s and early 1990s in Erie County that have been linked to the so-called "bike path rapist."

Donovan said the area where Diver's remains were found had been searched at least twice - once by people on ATVs and a second time by searchers with scent-tracking dogs.

Donovan insisted that the search was never called off, but rather scaled down.

"We felt at the time we had exhausted leads in the area," he said.

"We regrouped," he explained, after law enforcement and volunteers spent 30 hours looking for Diver and tips began to surface of possible sightings away from the bike path.

Donovan took the blame for scaling back the search and said that "there's no excuse" for failing to find the body.

Snip...

"There are similarities between some crimes that have happened in the past" and the Diver case, Donovan acknowledged.

He pointed to the fact that the bike path rapist was known to target women who were jogging or walking in remote areas. The bike path rapist is linked by DNA to six cases - four rapes and two homicides, including that of 22-year-old University at Buffalo student Linda Yalem, who went missing while jogging on the Ellicott Creek bike path near the university campus.

In what so far is only being considered an eerie coincidence, Yalem went missing 16 years to the day that Diver disappeared.

 

[Danstang]

Uh-Oh.. hope this isn't going to go where it looks like it may be going, but it would answer a few questions, like why shew didn't appear to be raped or why LE may have suspended the search so early...

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061005/1035866.asp

 

[ineedtoreadthenews]

Steve Diver was at work all morning while his wife went jogging. It doesn't mean he couldn't have hired someone. No DNA was found on her body at all. Search warrant was obtained to search vehicle that she drove to bike path. It creeps me out thinking someone capable of doing this is out on the loose. This person could live down the street from me....

 

[Alice253]

So why is hubby getting uncooperative? I haven't read anything that gives a really good time about the last time anyone saw her - only that she failed to pick up a child from day care. Did she take the child to day care? What time did the husband leave for work and what time did he leave to go home? Sorry, it just makes me suspicious when the husband starts getting uncooperative.

 

[capps]

It is strange that her husband refused to let the police search the truck ... but then again they're saying Mr. Diver is grief stricken,and leaving it all up to his lawyers.So did the husband actually not want the police to search the truck ... or is it on the advice of his lawyers that are telling him not to let the police search the truck? At any rate ... I would think they already got a search warrant to do so,although I haven't heard anything more on the news about it.

What is it about the truck I wonder?

 

[ineedtoreadthenews]

Joan Diver dropped her child off at daycare in the morning. Steve Diver was already at work and was at work when the daycare called to tell him his wife didn't pick the child up at 1:00. The LE is interested in the vehicle because some witnesses have said that they saw the vehicle parked at a different spot earlier than where it was located at 1:00. The LE wants to know if someone other than Joan drove the vehicle last. Also her keys are missing and maybe they are in the truck with someone elses finger prints? Maybe the last person to drive it was taller and moved the seat to where it wouldn't be comfortable for Joan?
We have to remember that after all the hullaballoo, four children lost a mother, Steve Diver has had to search for his wife non-stop for three days, put children to bed without knowing where their mother was for two nights and then tell those young children that mommy was killed, plan a funeral, and still try to find time to grieve. Mr. Diver probably got the attorney so he could attend to his children without all the questioning from LE. I think (I pray)that Steve Diver will be more cooperative now that the funeral is over and he can help his lawyer with questions and think maybe with a little more clear thought. Maybe I am just naive, but I do always look at things very emotionally. JMHO.

 

[nanandjim]

Isn't Steve Diver a professor at a college? If so, his schedule could be flexible enough for him to leave and commit this crime and return unnoticed. I also would think that a husband, grieving or otherwise, would be at the police station trying to get them to find his wife and to help out. This grieving spouse somehow found the time to hire lawyers, didn't he? I would think that time would be of the essence. What would be the beef with allowing police to search her vehicle which was found near the bike path? Also, it appears that the bike path was close to their home. I'd like to know what the wife's habits were. It doesn't make sense to drive to a bike path near your home, just to run on the path.

 

[capps]

Yes,a lot of questions as there aways are at a crime scene. But I'm not making any judgements about Mr. Diver or the decisions his lawyers are making at this point,until more is known.Again,I haven't heard much more about it on the news.

 

[susiebond]

I feel so sad for Joan's children and her family....

but my "hinkey meter" went off last week when I heard Mr. Diver had retained an attorney...was becoming "less cooperative"....refused to let LE search her SUV and has refused a DNA swab....she had not been sexually assulted....

I can understand he is grieving, his wife is dead...why not allow LE to search her vehicle? They have the SUV....why not give permission to search it?

susiebond

my opinion only

 

[Danstang]

The refusal for the DNA swab, the refusal to let them search the truck, the possability that the truck was moved, LE now asking people they interviewed to not talk to the media...something is up. I think they have put it out there that they don't consider him a suspect pr POI to let him relax a bit and see what he does or to get him to come in and talk to LE.

Somethin' aint right though....

 

[Wasaga]

As a resident of another suburb of Buffalo, I'm following the news on this closely. Initially the theory of the bike path rapist surfacing again sounded plausible, but now I also am becoming suspicious. Now it's hard to know what to think after the family issued that statement. Has he been cooperative or not, and if he has, why has everything to this point indicated he hadn't been?

 

[Paladin]

The family released a statement:

The family of Joan Diver - the Clarence woman whose strangled and beaten body was found Oct. 1 off a bike path where she was believed to have gone jogging - defended the slain woman's husband Monday, saying he has cooperated with investigators and "will willingly provide his DNA."
"Although our family just said goodbye to Joan this weekend, we are hurt by some of the misinformation that appears to be circulating," said the one-page statement from "the Diver family" that was faxed to news outlets Monday afternoon. "We would like to provide some information and clear up some misunderstandings."

more at...

http://buffalonews.com/editorial/20061010/1058790.asp