Archive for the ‘local area’ tag
KS Endangered Missing: Isuara Rios-Rodriguez
07.13.09: This case is now considered a family abduction
Original Post: July 11, 2009Last Update: August 3, 2009View Sources
There isn’t anything in the news about this little girl’s disappearance. The missing poster issued by The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children does not shed much more light on the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
Bare in mind, the child is 2-years-old. Here is what the missing poster has to say about Isuara Rodriguez’ disappearance:
Isuara was last seen on July 10, 2009. She may still be in the local area or she may travel to Mexico.1
The NCMEC usually reserves the above type narrative for runaway teens not toddlers. I am trying to picture this toddler just ‘hanging out’ in the local area or traveling on her own to Mexico. It would be helpful to mention if the girl was taken by a relative or non-custodial parent or a stranger or just simply wandered off.
Isuara Rodriguez was last seen on July 10, 2009. She is a two-year-old Hispanic female with blonde hair and hazel eyes. She is 3’0″ tall and weighs 30lbs.
Should you have information about this case please call the Louisburg Police Department (Kansas) at 1-913-837-2300.
Updates
July 12, 2009
The NCMEC issued a corrected missing poster for Isuara. Her name has been updated to Isuara Rios-Rodriguez. Apparently she is still a free-spirited 2-year-old wandering about by herself.
July 13, 2009: 12 Noon PST
The NCMEC has issued another update to the original missing poster for Isaura Rios-Rodriguez. The case type has been changed from Endangered Missing to Family Abduction. It is alleged that Isaura’s mother, Verionica Rios Rodriguez, abducted her daughter. A felony warrant for kidnapping was issued today for Rodriguez. According to the missing poster the Rodriguez may have fled with her daughter to Minnesota or Mexico. If you have information about this case you are asked to call the Louisburg Police Department (Kansas) at 1-913-837-2300.
August 3, 2009
The missing poster for Isuara Rios-Rodriguez is no longer available on the NCMEC site. This could be for a number of reasons, i.e., updates to the poster, the case has been resolved and a confirmation e-mail has not been sent by the Poster Partner program.
- NCMEC Missing Poster: Isuara Rios-Rodriguez, NCMEC, Last Accessed: July 11, 2009. [↩]
CA Murdered Teen – Brenda Sierra
Original Post: January 16, 2006No UpdatesView Sources
Around 7:00 a.m. the morning of October 18, 2002, 15-year-old Brenda Sierra set out to walk to her friend’s house so she could catch a ride to school from her friend’s mother. Her friend is quoted in news accounts saying that Brenda always arrived at her home between 7:15 and 7:20 a.m., but Brenda never arrived that morning. Apparently the school did not contact Brenda’s parents to let them know she was absent that day.
Brenda’s family members knew that she had a hair appointment scheduled after school that day so they did not become concerned when she did not arrive home. They began to become concerned at approximately 6:00 p.m. They contacted the hair salon and found that Brenda never arrived for her appointment. They contacted Brenda’s friend and that is when they learned that Brenda had never made it to her friend’s home for the regular ride to school.
They immediately called police but it took deputies three hours to come to their home and take the report. Even at that point officers told her family that it was not uncommon for 15-year-olds to disappear and then come back home soon; they considered her a runaway. Officers explained to the distraught the family that they could not issue an Amber Alert because they did not have a vehicle description and they did not have evidence that Brenda had in fact been kidnapped. Members of Brenda’s family printed out over a thousand fliers and distributed them in the area of the school as well as in the local area. Her disappearance received very little media coverage until her body was discovered 2 days later.
Brenda’s body was discovered underneath a tree by people taking a walk in the San Bernardino, California Mountains in an area known as Land of Enchantment. I mapped the distance from the city of Montebello, California to the Land of Enchantment using MapQuest. The drive is one hour and eleven minutes. If Brenda was kidnapped and later murdered at the mountain location she most likely had a terrible last hour of her life. If she was murdered close to where she was abducted then her murderer went to great lengths to hide her body.
The autopsy revealed that Brenda died from blunt force trauma to her head. Other details of her murder are being kept quiet to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
Because the alleged abduction took place in an area other than where the body was recovered two law enforcement jurisdictions are investigating Brenda’s murder; the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Brenda’s family demanded answers from Los Angeles County officials about why the sheriff’s department expressed a lack of interest in Brenda’s disappearance. The family received some recognition from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on October 25, 2002 according to the following news advisory:
County of Los Angeles
Contact: Judy Hammond, Director of Public Affairs, (213) 974-1363
Victoria Pipkin, Assistant Director, (213) 974-1652
Live videofeed, English and Spanish, Telco #948075
Audio (213) 974-4700
October 25, 2002
OCT. 29 AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
9:30 A.M.
Sheriff asked to report on the handling of the Oct. 18 missing persons case involving Brenda Sierra, including why no Amber Alert was issued. The teenager’s body was found Oct. 21 in San Bernardino County. A $5,000 reward for information is recommended.1
The family was not happy with the recommended reward amount and through further efforts of Supervisor Gloria Molina the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has increased the reward amount to $150,000.
New information came to light during the on-going investigation into Brenda’s murder. Law enforcement officials feel confident that Brenda was murdered by members of a street gang known as the LOTT gang.
“…The LOTT (Living On The Top) gang is based in Los Angeles and East Los Angeles. It started in the 1970s as a group of friends who got together at a vacant lot to get stoned on hard drugs, according to the Web site streetgangs.com, published by USC doctoral student Alejandro Alonso.
As members went to prison and the drug trade grew, the gang grew more violent and evolved into a traditional street gang, complete with tattoos, organized drug dealing and killing, according to the site…”2
The code of silence is strong among the gang members as well as the parents of the gang members. According to one detective:
“…We even interviewed some of these little gangsters, who told us they know and said they are not going to tell us,’ he said.
On one occasion, a young man was about to tell detectives what he knew, but then his parents told him not to talk, Bradford said.
“We have parents running interference. I’ve never seen anything like it,’ he said…”3
In doing research for this story I came across a few message boards and a couple of blogs that mentioned Brenda Sierra. All spoke lovingly of her. According to her friends and family she was a friendly girl and a good student. The students at her former high school, Schurr High School in Montebello, California still hold vigils on the anniversary of her death. She was loved and she is missed.
The reward is out there, perhaps someone will decide having $150,000 is more important than loyalty and letting a murderer walk free.
I will leave you with this quote from the detective:
“…There is no doubt in my mind they did it,’ Bradford said. ‘I have been a deputy a long time, and not a lot of things bother me. But this one does. I know in my heart these people know what happened. This little girl did not deserve this. She was truly an innocent kid.’…”4
