PA PA- Alexander Fitzgerald, 33, key left in door lock. last seen walking with 2 unknown males, W. Philadelphia, 21 June 2023

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Three months after disappearing from his West Philadelphia neighborhood, Alexander Fitzgerald is still missing

Three months after reporting her son missing, Claudia Fitzgerald still hopes for her son’s return.

www.inquirer.com

by Helen Ubiñas Sep. 14, 2023
''In the last three months, Claudia Fitzgerald has celebrated the arrival of a grandson, even as she’s agonized over the disappearance of her own son.

“It’s been bittersweet,” she said.

Claudia’s adult son, Alexander Fitzgerald, disappeared while she was at the hospital with her daughter, who was giving birth to her first grandchild.

A neighbor told police that on June 21, he spotted Alexander, 33, a Black man who is 6-foot-1 and weighs 180 pounds, walking near the 7200 block of Haverford Avenue in West Philadelphia with two Black men who the neighbor did not recognize.''

Alexander hasn’t been heard from since.''

''Fitzgerald said she had been worried the minute she got home that June day and saw that the door of the home they shared was slightly ajar with her son’s key still in the lock.''

''Alexander was on medication for mental health issues that were first diagnosed as an adolescent. He stuck to a routine that included going to a nearby gym and then coming home, and always picking up his phone when his mother called. And he was “trusting, sometimes too trusting” of strangers, she said.''

''There have been a few new developments, Singleton told me. Phone records pulled by police, who are still actively investigating the case, showed that his cell phone was last used on June 24, three days after he went missing, somewhere around Belmont Avenue near Fairmount Park.''

Claudia Fitzgerald in her son's apartment in July.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

 

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July 26 2023 rbbm

Carlee Russell’s disappearance was a hoax. Alexander Fitzgerald’s disappearance is real. | Helen Ubiñas

Media attention helps, and too many cases of missing people of color don't get enough.

www.inquirer.com

''In the days since the disappearance of a Black Alabama woman was determined to be a hoax, missing persons advocates are pleading with the public not to let one woman’s lies distract from the thousands of legitimate cases of missing people of color that never make the headlines.''

This is one of those cases.
Claudia Fitzgerald knows that her son does not fit the description of someone whose disappearance usually garners much attention.
He’s Black.
He’s a grown man.
He’s 33. And he’s someone who experiences mental health problems.''

''Fitzgerald worried that the lies told by Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who admitted Monday her kidnapping story was a hoax, might affect other families desperate for attention for their missing loved ones.

So she asked me to convey a few things to anyone reading this.

“Please,” she said, weeping, “just illustrate the fact that he is a kind, young man. And generous, and forgiving, and trusting. I mean, nobody’s perfect, right? But he was a peacemaker, not a troublemaker.”

And then she added one more thing she wanted people to know.

“This is real,” she said.''