The True Crime Blog: The Very Strange Disappearance and Death of Loic Rogers

The True Crime Blog: The Very Strange Disappearance and Death of Loic Rogers

http://missingexploited.com/category/loic-rogers/

MYSPACE PARTNERS WITH NCMEC

Press Release


MYSPACE PARTNERS WITH THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN TO PROVIDE ADDED DISTRIBUTION FOR AMBER ALERTS

MySpace Users Mobilize to Help Law Enforcement Find Abducted Children Nationwide

Site Expands Safety Product Features to Heighten Safety and Security for Members Including Email Verification and “Over/ Under” Privacy Tool

LOS ANGELES—January 23, 2007—MySpace.com, the leading social networking and lifestyle portal, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC), announced today a partnership to distribute localized online AMBER Alerts via MySpace. In addition to its traditional distribution methods, the AMBER Alert program will now benefit from the mass distribution of the MySpace network and provide rapid, viral support to law enforcement in bringing home an abducted child. The AMBER Alerts on MySpace go live today. In addition, MySpace today announced a new set of safety features to increase online safety and privacy for its community, including email verification and an “over/ under” privacy tool for all users.

”When a child is abducted, the AMBER Alert program is a tool that allows everyone to join in the search. To date 314 children have been recovered as a result of this program,” said Ernie Allen, NCMEC president and CEO. “MySpace AMBER Alerts will allow the online community to be part of a nationwide effort to bring even more children home. We are grateful that MySpace has agreed to help us distribute these important alerts.”

The AMBER Alerts on MySpace will be updated constantly. As soon as NCMEC is notified that an AMBER Alert has been issued by law enforcement, MySpace will relay that AMBER Alert information to all users within the zip codes of where the AMBER Alert was issued. The AMBER Alert notification will appear in a small text box at the top of a profile, giving users the option to receive additional information such as the photo and description of the abducted child, suspect and vehicle. Users who have information on the abducted child or the suspect’s whereabouts should immediately call 9-1-1.

“AMBER Alerts on MySpace give users nationwide the opportunity to help in the recovery of an abducted child in their area—just by logging on,” said Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer, MySpace. “We applaud NCMEC and will continue working with industry leaders such as Ernie Allen and his team to implement creative programs that share the goal of protecting teens.”

The AMBER Alert program, named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in Arlington, Texas, is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, and transportation agencies to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of the child. Posting AMBER Alerts on MySpace uses the power of the connected community to provide rapid assistance to law enforcement in recovering an abducted child.

President Bush authorized the national AMBER Alert initiative as part of the PROTECT Act signed in 2003. The law formally established the federal government’s role in the AMBER Alert program, appointing the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the agency responsible for coordinating AMBER Alert programs on the national level. DOJ has officially partnered with NCMEC, authorizing them as the agent that coordinates and disseminates AMBER Alerts to secondary distributors such as MySpace.

"I applaud the efforts of NCMEC and MySpace to alert the public and increase awareness of AMBER Alerts," said Regina B. Schofield, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs and the National AMBER Alert Coordinator. "This partnership expands the AMBER Alert secondary distribution network, allowing even more people to serve as the extra eyes and ears of law enforcement as they work to bring abducted children home."

Today’s announcement highlights a number of new additions to MySpace’s arsenal of user protections including mandatory email verification and an “over/ under” privacy tool. Mandatory email verification requires that all MySpace users register with a valid email address and all users creating a profile on MySpace will be required to confirm their new membership via email. The “over/under” blocking tool expands on privacy features previously available only to younger users. The over/ under blocking feature prevents users under 18 from being contacted by users over 18 and it also allows users over 18 to block users under 18 from contacting them.

Other recent privacy and security features include:

Privacy Alert: MySpace safety teams recognized that many users were misrepresenting their ages to avail themselves of privacy options exclusively given to younger users. In response, MySpace has made the full range of privacy options available to the entire community and has communicated the availability of expanded privacy options to such users. MySpace deletes an average of 25,000 profiles per week due to age misrepresentation.
Instant Messaging and Chat Safety Restrictions: Users can only receive instant messages from other users on their Friend list. Users under 18 years of age cannot access romance-specific chat rooms.
Safety Suggestion Alerts: All users under the age of 18-years old receive security warnings before they post content. MySpace encourages users of all ages to recognize the public nature of the Internet and reminds younger users to use common sense before posting content throughout the community.
Age Restrictions for Communication and Content: All younger users listed on MySpace—14- or 15-years old— are tagged to be un-searchable by age on any search engine or Internet portal. Additionally on MySpace, no user can Browse for users under 16 and adults can never add users under 16-years old as a friend unless they know the user’s last name or email address. Lastly, users 19 years or older cannot search for high school students and younger users can only receive group invites from those individuals within their friend network.
Safety and Customer Care Response:
Law enforcement hotline, 24/7 both emergency and non-emergency
Streamlined abuse reporting to better differentiate between the type of abuse
CAT team development; MySpace has created a Content Assurance Team (CAT) to assume the roles of various users and view the site ‘through their eyes’
Parent Care, dedicated parent care email and downloadable guidebook
School Care Team, dedicated educator hotline and guidebook
Primary Safety Tools for Members:
All members can set profile to “private”
Users can pre-approve all comments before being posted
Users can block another user from contacting them
Age-specific blocking capabilities available to all users
Younger user birthdays only visible to friends
MySpace “profile details” limited to age-appropriate activities for younger users
Users can conceal their ‘online now’ status
Users can prevent forwarding of their images to other sites
32,000 trained school moderators oversee forums
Users have the option to make their profile public for those in their age range
# # #

About MySpace.com
MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles, video, mobile communications, instant messaging and more, MySpace has created a global connected community with a wide array of communication choices. As the world's top-ranked web domain in terms of page views*, MySpace is the most widely-used and highly-regarded site of its kind. MySpace’s international network includes localized community sites in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, and Ireland.

*Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, November 2006. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to www.comscore.com.



About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
NCMEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC’s congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 419,400 leads. Since 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 125,200 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 107,600 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com.


CONTACTS

MySpace
Dani Dudeck
(310) 969-7148
ddudeck@myspace.com

MySpace
Tracy Akselrud
(310) 969-2813
takselrud@myspace.com

NCMEC Communications Department
(703) 837-6111
media@ncmec.org

Missing by Choice

Missing by choice

Cold Cases

Cold Case File

Lockport detectives still hope for breaks in three mysterious cases

By April Amadon
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Six cardboard boxes, each filled to the brim with paperwork and evidence, sit on a top shelf in the Lockport Police Department’s Detective Division, a constant reminder of cases left unsolved.

Even as the years go by, detectives are still doing all they can to make sure the cases are eventually solved.

“You get busy,” Lockport Police Detective Capt. Larry Eggert said. “The recent cases start to take precedence over these. So it’s not that they’re neglected, but they just get to the point where there’s nothing more you can do with them. It’s very frustrating to sit here and look at them and know that there’s not a darn thing you can do.”

The six boxes are tied to three cases in particular that stand out for city detectives: One missing person and two homicides, the oldest of which goes back 16 years.

There is always hope, however, as seen in the recent arrest of a suspect in the Bike Path Rapist case — a case that stretches more than two decades.

“You just chase down every lead, and you work on it as often as you can, and if anything new comes up, review it,” said Lockport Police Detective Lt. Rick Podgers. “We’re the only people that speak for the victim. Whether or not they’re good people, bad people or what they are.”

The more exposure a case gets, the better, Eggert hopes.

“It’s nice that once in a while we can reach out to the public and maybe just jiggle somebody’s memory, or maybe just hit that right day when they’re just feeling kind of low and the conscience starts to kick in and you start to feel a little guilty,” he said. “Because that’s all it takes. Just that one little plug that’s holding all the water back, and if you pull that cork out, the whole thing comes at you and you solve it.”

Anyone with information about one of the following cases is asked to call the detectives division at 439-6722 or 439-6666.



A lack of closure

Almost nine years after she disappeared without a trace, Roger Bulmer remains optimistic that his daughter Cindy will be found.

Roger has printed out “Missing” posters with Cindy’s picture, advertising a $27,500 reward for information about her disappearance, posting them not only locally but in other states like Florida, Nevada and California.

“Someone could see it and know something,” Roger said. “I hope that something comes out of it. I hope they find something.”

Cynthia Bulmer, who would now be 40, has been missing since March 26, 1998. She’s described as 5 feet 9 inches tall with blue eyes and brown hair.

Eggert said she was last seen that night at having drinks at the Redmen’s Club in the City of Lockport, where she wrote her name in a sign-in book.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t reported missing for a few days after the fact.

“The investigation didn’t even start until the case was already starting to grow cool,” Eggert said.

Police say Cindy, a former employee at Harrison’s, had become involved in drugs and prostitution, which may have had something to do with her disappearance.

Despite her father’s optimism, police suspect the worst for Bulmer.

“She probably is not alive,” Eggert said. “We’re assuming foul play.”

Police have even begun to consider Cindy’s disappearance may be tied to the Bike Path Rapist, though there is no evidence to connect the crimes.

“Depending on how the case goes in Amherst and Erie County, we’ll probably want to touch base with them to see,” Eggert said. “You never know.”

One suspect police considered was James McPhail, a former Lockport man who was convicted of killing Robin Dye Coleman after a DNA sample connected him to the crime in 2001.

Cindy’s DNA, which investigators collected from her hairbrush, was entered into VICAP, a national database for DNA samples and other information. In the event her body is found in another state, the DNA match will be made through the database.

Roger remembers his daughter as a dancer and skater who loved her dogs. At the time of her disappearance, she was living on Ontario Street with her dog Gizmo.

“She was nice,” Roger said, smiling.

The $27,500 reward includes contributions from Roger, the UAW/CIO and Cindy’s siblings.

“The hardest thing for the families in this unsolved stuff is the lack of closure,” Eggert said. “This woman here, this is even worse because we don’t have a body.”



A mysterious killing

In the early morning hours of May 5, 1991, a visitor at 317 Washburn St. was walking to the front porch of the home when he stumbled over a dead body in the grass.

Panicked, the visitor flagged down a passing police car, and the investigation began.

The dead man was Michael Brolinski, a 36-year-old self-employed painter who lived at 321 Washburn St., just a couple of doors down from where he was found, face-up, bruised and beaten on the lawn.

There were no outward signs of trauma on the body, but it appears Brolinski was beaten to death.

“The autopsy showed he had multiple contusions and abrasions, like he was punched and kicked,” Eggert said. “He died, I think, from trauma to the neck area that caused him to suffocate.”

Blood was found on his shirt and evidence was collected from around the area.

Eggert said the Brolinski beating is probably the oldest unsolved case detectives have. The evidence has been re-examined in the past few years, but nothing conclusive has been determined.

“We had a list of people of interest, but we never came up with that little bit of evidence that put it over the top for us to make an arrest,” Eggert said.

Brolinski, who attended Newfane High School, lived on Washburn Street with his brother, Shawn Johnson. He reportedly left home just a few hours before the body was discovered. According to a May 8, 1991, article in the Union-Sun & Journal, witnesses reported seeing nothing unusual outside the house the night of Brolinski’s death.

Because there was no extreme violence involved, the fight may have not attracted a lot of attention.

City detectives were joined in the investigation by investigators from the Niagara County Sheriff’s department, as well as police from Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda.



A lack of witnesses

On a warm summer night in 2003, gunfire shattered a North End neighborhood.

In what was the city’s first homicide in over two years, Daniel G. Tomlinson, 40, was shot in the driveway of his North Transit Street home on July 29 while his wife looked on.

Neighbors described seeing a a black man, 5-foot, 10-inches tall, weighing between 150 and 160 pounds, running from the scene. He wore his hair in corn rows or dreadlocks and was wearing a short-sleeved, blue plaid collared shirt. He was seen running west on Green Street shortly after the shooting.

Eggert said police believe Tomlinson had ties with the local Jamaican community, possibly with a group of Jamaicans who were importing marijuana to the area.

Tomlinson was facing drug and weapons charges in Niagara County Court at the time of the shooting, stemming from a raid that was conducted on his home in December, 2002. Police reportedly found eight pounds of marijuana in Tomlinson’s basement during the raid, as well as a 9mm Smith and Wesson handgun that had been stolen from a Niagara Falls Police Officer.

Tomlinson was charged with second-degree criminal possession of marijuana, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He was out on $2,000 bail when he was killed, just over two weeks before his next scheduled court date.

The suspect was reportedly waiting outside Tomlinson’s home, in the shadows of a neighbor’s house, before the shooting. A neighbor told police he’d asked the man if he needed any help, and the man said no.

When Tomlinson returned home, “The guy asked him his name and shot him in the face,” Eggert said.

This case has been especially baffling for detectives, as cooperating witnesses have been hard to come by.

“The Jamaican community is very close-knit, and coming from Jamaica, they have a tendency not to trust police,” Eggert said. “Without that person or persons coming forward, it’s like screaming into the wind. You can’t do a whole lot.”

Podgers said detectives will keep working the case until it’s solved, no matter how daunting it is. In the Tomlinson case, it’s especially tough because “people of interest that we’re looking for have apparently left the country,” he said.

“It’s frustrating when specific members of the community won’t assist you, won’t give you information,” he said.

Eggert echoed that frustration.

“Usually, murders, people take them seriously, because they could be sitting in the box here,” he said, motioning to the box of paperwork and files marked with Tomlinson’s name. “A lot of people can relate to that, so they’ll talk to us. But in this case, we didn’t get all that much.”

http://www.troopers.state.ny.us/Wanted_and_Missing/Missing/

Find Kelly Wilson

Kelly Wilson vanished from Gilmer Texas after closing up a video store on Jan. 5, 1992. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance have been questionable from the start. In the months after her she went missing, several were arrested and believed to be taking part in a satanic cult who kidnapped Kelly for a religious sacrifice, including the police detective in charge of the case. Later those charges were dropped, and found to be a hoax. If anything, Kelly's case has been a high profile missing person case from the beginning. Kelly remains missing without a trace and today is the anniversary. Here is an article that came out today about the case & a link to her website.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By MAGGIE SOUZA
Kelly Wilson left her work at a Gilmer video store 15 years ago today, reportedly to drop off business receipts at a bank. Wilson, then 17, left around 8:30 p.m., and she hasn't been seen since.

Although Wilson disappeared in 1992, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is still circulating details about her case and age-progression photos of what she would look like now. After a missing person turns 18, the center releases updated photos every five years.

"It's very important when you have an anniversary like this to get the information out about this to remind the public and the community that Kelly is still missing," said Joann Donnellan, spokeswoman for the center. "They have the power to help resolve this case. There's someone that knows something."

By doing this, the center has solved cases that were more than 20 years old, Donnellan said. She added that one in six children that they send photos of are found.

"The key is for people to go back to that time period and to recall information of where she was missing from — to see maybe if they remember something or if they heard something — and to contact authorities if they have information," Donnellan said. "Many times people think, 'Oh, it was nothing and I'm not going to bother.' But that's how these cases are solved, especially after 15 years. That's when people will talk."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was created in 1984 to help abducted, endangered and sexually exploited children. It is mandated by Congress, but remains a private, nonprofit organization.

The center has been working with Gilmer police on Wilson's case for the past 15 years. Gilmer police investigator Scott Richardson is handling the case now.

"Prior to this organization, it was difficult for law enforcement to disperse this information and photographs nationwide, bringing the public's awareness to the missing children," Richardson said.

Wilson's case changed hands a number of times before Richardson took over.

"We're reviewing the case again," Richardson said. "We're looking for any leads that may have been overlooked, for physical evidence that modern science can provide us information that wasn't available then."

Waverlyn Wilson, Kelly's stepmother, isn't sure that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children can help at this point.

"Their idea is that she's missing, and we don't think she's missing," she said.

"We believe that Kelly is dead and the person that's responsible has gotten away with it."

Kelly Wilson moved to Gilmer from Natchitoches, La., about a year before she disappeared to get to know her mom, Waveryln Wilson said. She was moving back to Louisiana on Jan. 10, 1992, and had already sent a load of belongings there.

"We keep hoping that after so many years somebody will have enough decency and enough conscience about them to say something," Waverlyn Wilson said. "We keep hoping."

So does the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"(We) never give up hope on any of our cases," Donnellan said. "We will keep putting out information about (Wilson's) case until it's resolved."

http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/01052007Wilson.html

See Also:

Help Find Kelly Wilson

www.Geocities.Com/FindKellyWilson

Monica Caison
CUE Center for Missing Persons
PO Box 12714
Wilmington, NC 28405
(910) 343-1131
(910) 232-1687 24 Hour Line
Email: cuecenter@aol.com
Website: http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/