TX TX - Deanna Merryfield, 13, Killeen, 22 July 1990 - #1

[Luce2842]

Anyone with information in this case is asked to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Killeen Police Department at 254-501-8830.

Bumping for Deanna! Xxxx

 

[theshadow45]

Deanna has been missing for 34 years today.

 

[mlhenn]

MISSING - Deanna Michelle Merryfield | Solve the Case

Deanna went missing on 07-22-1990 and was initially reported as a runaway.

www.solvethecase.org

 

[theshadow45]

Today is Deanna’s birthday.

 

[MissieMt]

Hello Everyone. I hope this post is okay, there is some new stuff going on for Deanna lately. There is a new website up for Deanna at FindingDeanna.com and new social media pages under the same name (predominantly posting on facebook and instagram so far).
Deanna also had media coverage last summer that can be found here:

Gone Cold | The 1990 disappearance of Deanna Merryfield

Deanna Merryfield was 13 years old when she was last seen in Killeen on July 22, 1990.

www.kcentv.com

Snipped from the article: "This week marks 34 years since 13-year-old Deanna Merryfield disappeared in the middle of the night in Killeen in 1990. For her family, that's 34 years of living with unanswered questions."

 

[buyerninety]

@FindingDeanna
Thanks for your post above, interesting bit of info in
the link you posted stating;
"In an interview with police, Becky discussed her brief
conversation with Deanna. Deanna reportedly told her
that one of the two older teens in the vehicle was
'Tony' and the other was Tony's little brother."
[Becky being Rebecca Merryfield].

----------

...Also, it's been nearly 10 years since MissieMt last
visited Websleuths, so I'll ask you instead - what does
Killeen Police Department say about the UID found in
year 2000 about 8km down the road in Nolanville, TX,
the details don't conclusively rule that UID out if you
ignore the opinion that that UID had been 'deceased
2-5 years';
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
(unknown if DNA has been done and entered for that UID).

 

[MissieMt]

@FindingDeanna
Thanks for your post above, interesting bit of info in
the link you posted stating;
"In an interview with police, Becky discussed her brief
conversation with Deanna. Deanna reportedly told her
that one of the two older teens in the vehicle was
'Tony' and the other was Tony's little brother."
[Becky being Rebecca Merryfield].

----------

...Also, it's been nearly 10 years since MissieMt last
visited Websleuths, so I'll ask you instead - what does
Killeen Police Department say about the UID found in
year 2000 about 8km down the road in Nolanville, TX,
the details don't conclusively rule that UID out if you
ignore the opinion that that UID had been 'deceased
2-5 years';
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
(unknown if DNA has been done and entered for that UID).

Hello BuyerNinety. The name Tony was mentioned in an article in 2010 from Det. Reese Davis was working on the case. Since Davis stopped working on the case there has been minimal communication from LE. I'm not sure if they have looked into the UID from Nolanville.

Sisters seeking sibling missing 20 years

By Victor O'Brien

kdhnews.com

"His current approach is to recreate Deanna's life by locating friends, neighbors, Manor Middle School classmates and anyone, he said, who might have known her.
Working off lists provided by her sisters, Davis has found all but three teenage friends: Rudy Longoria, Tony Longoria and Sylvia Martinez."

 

[buyerninety]

@FindingDeanna
I was surprized as I had seen no discussion or mention
of those names in the thread posts previously.
The Killeen Daily Herald article you cited was also
cited back in Jun 27, 2010 by MissieMt, but MissieMt
used a different URL (probably that URL was active
way back then but MissieMt's URL no longer works
and possibly hasn't for years, apparently your URL
which works has surplanted that URL).
Please inform us if you ever find out if the Killeen
Police Department is still seeking information about
those people (named), and from your own knowledge
anything else that was known about them e.g. were
they Deanna Merryfield's classmates or from a
different school or were they just some casual
acquantances... anything.

 

[buyerninety]

The Doe Network information from 2007 regarding
the 'Identifiers' of Deanna Merryfield is reposted below
(although the information may not be up to date);
2195DFTX - Deanna Michelle Merryfield
"Identifiers:
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not available
DNA: mtDNA available"

(i.e. Mitochondrial DNA available).
Human mitochondrial genetics - Wikipedia

 

[MissieMt]

As far as I know, LE never spoke to the Longoria's.
Deanna's case went cold again after Detective Davis was taken off of it and communication with LE has been minimal, at best. I've spoken to LE maybe four times since 2011. I felt helpless, and decided to take a break for my mental health and to focus on my immediate family. Now that the nest is empty, and my mental health is the best it's ever been, I am picking up the fight again. My husband and I have created the website findingdeanna.com and are posting on instagram and facebook. We are going to a conference at the end of this month to learn how to better advocate for Deanna. Last year we reached out to private investigators and managed to find a firm that us working on Deanna's case Pro Bono. There is mitochondrial DNA on file, but this week I sent a sample to ancestry.com to see if there are any links that way. There are other things in the works, and I will keep you all posted as I can.

 

[buyerninety]

Thanks MissieMt ( aka FindingDeanna ).

 

[MissieMt]

Officially verified now, yay!!
The new facebook that I run is here-

Finding Deanna

Finding Deanna is on Facebook. Join Facebook to connect with Finding Deanna and others you may know. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.

www.facebook.com

I also have the Deanna Merryfield page on facebook, but I'm trying to pull away from that one because when it's just a page anyone can send me messages and I'm tired of the random creepy messages.
I also have an instagram page for her at-

https://www.instagram.com/findingdeanna/

My husband is a saint and built her a website-
www.FindingDeanna.com

I paid the extra $20 to expedite, so my DNA should be ready on April 5th on ancestry. I'm very curious about any links there. I will upload to GEDMatch too.

Sgt. Holtzclaw is the person over Deanna's case with KilleenPD now. He reached out to me last summer to do the news segment with KCENTV. He has not returned phone calls since then. I think it's interesting that the news segment shows a different Detective (Laudensack?) with a super thick file of Deanna's case.

My next goal is to get more media coverage for Deanna's case. I feel like at this point it is the only thing that will get the case moving again.

 

[MissieMt]

Just a quick update:

I spoke with someone yesterday from a news station in Houston yesterday! She didn't say when the article will be posted, but I will post here once it is.
I received my dna results late last week. So far there is nothing linked to Deanna or any children she might have had. I wasn't holding out much hope for that, but it needed to be done in order to "leave no stone unturned".
Interesting sidenote - For the first time in my life I know my biological father's name.....Completely unrelated to Deanna's case, but that's one less family secret.

 

[MissieMt]

I have been working on getting more media attention for Deanna's case, and debunking what is now known to be misinformation.
The original source for the supposed tattoos has spoken up again, and their story is completely different now. This information is extremely harmful to Deanna's case. I don't even want to think about how many times she might have been eliminated from a potential Doe match because the Doe didn't have those tattoos.
I spoke to a reporter with KPRC2 and the article is out now-

‘Time is slipping away’: Killeen family still searching for Deanna Merryfield almost 35 years later

Deanna Merryfield disappeared at age 13 from her grandmother's home in Killeen, Texas, in 1990

www.click2houston.com

"“At this point, I don’t really know what else to do as far as convincing everyone that she’s still worth looking for.”"

 

[MissieMt]

I also spoke to Megan Storm at A Simpler Time True Crime Podcast. Megan was amazing to work with. I felt like she really cared and listened and helped to debunk the misinformation surrounding Deanna's case.

 

[MissieMt]

This past week the Killeen Police Department held a town hall. I am terrified of public speaking, but I knew I would regret it if I didn't show up and say something.
I posted a reel on Facebook of the full conversation.

17 reactions · 9 comments | I’m absolutely NOT a public speaker. But we did it anyway. We had a great conversation with @killeenpolice and reminded everyone that Deanna is still missing and it’s not okay to just sit and wait for something to happen i

I’m absolutely NOT a public speaker. But we did it anyway. We had a great conversation with @killeenpolice and reminded everyone that Deanna is still missing and it’s not okay to just sit and wait...

www.facebook.com

The next morning, Killeen Daily Herald wrote an article. I'm so thankful that we are starting to gain traction with the media because the more eyes we have on this, the better.

KPD town hall brings light to ’90s cold case​

KPD town hall brings light to ’90s cold case

The Killeen Police Department held a town hall Thursday where one resident drove in from Austin to talk about her sister’s disappearance, a Killeen cold case from the 1990s.

kdhnews.com

 

[MissieMt]

Tim and Lance from Missingcsm invited me on their show to talk about Deanna. I’m taking every opportunity I can to get media attention on her case.

 

[MissieMt]

I’m planning a candlelight vigil to mark the 35th year since Deanna went missing. We are gaining momentum. I fully believe Deanna’s case is solve able, it just needs the manpower to get it done.