A Virginia woman who hasn’t been heard from since Sept. 1 is likely in danger, police said Saturday.

Kathleen Haley, 37, spoke to her family on the phone that day, but hasn’t actually been seen since Aug. 22, according to a Newport News Police press release on Facebook. A missing persons report was filed on Sept. 7. Her home was empty and her car was parked in the driveway.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Haley’s family members are afraid for her safety.

“Worried, nervous, just hoping to find out where she is,” her sister, Diane Roman, told WAVY.

Some items in her home are missing, leading police to believe that she’s in danger, according to the press release.

Haley is described as 5-feet-tall, 110 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair. Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts should call Newport News Police Communications at 757-247-2500 or the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

HAMILTON CITY — After a weeklong search that drew thousands of online followers, the body of Lafayette student Brett Olson, an Acalanes High School graduate, was found Sunday morning in the Sacramento River, authorities said.

Olson, 20, a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, had been missing since he disappeared Sept. 2 during a Labor Day weekend river-tubing event that draws thousands of young people. He was with several friends in an area known as “Beer Can Beach” when his friends lost track of him about 4 p.m.; he was reported missing the next day.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

“Brett … has been such a bright light in all of our lives,” said Juliana del Beccaro, 20, who had been friends with Brett since first grade. “The fact that he’s not going to be with us anymore doesn’t mean that he’s gone to any of us.

“We know that whether he is physically here or not, his light is going to be shining. He personally affected everyone he came into contact with.”

Del Beccaro recalled “the guy who I used to run around on the playground with in the third grade,” saying he had grown into an “outgoing, creative amazing person.”

Olson’s parents, Michael and Elizabeth, identified his body after a fisherman spotted it a mile or two downriver from where he disappeared and alerted a search and rescue team. The couple had been joined by dozens of their son’s friends and other well-wishers in searching for him all week in the Chico area.

After identifying the body,
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Olson’s parents hugged and wept as they stood near the river. They could not be reached for comment later in the day.

A statement attributed to Michael and Elizabeth Olson on a Facebook page dedicated to finding Brett told well-wishers that “there are not words to describe how moved we have been by everything all of you have done for us. You filled us with hope and love this week which we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.”

The search for Brett Olson had been largely aided by social media sites, with almost 100,000 people joining the Facebook group and others using Twitter to draw attention to the search. After his body was found, condolences and remembrances poured in on both sites.

That strength of response was both a reflection of Olson’s character and a source of strength for his family, del Beccaro said.

“So many people just lit a fire up under this story and made sure that Brett’s name was not going unheard,” she said. “It really meant a lot to (his family) that so many people were backing them up.”

Sunday morning, Olson’s parents had met with more than 100 volunteers who planned to spread out across Chico to look for Olson and respond to reported sightings.

Since the stretch of the river north and south of where Olson was found had been searched again and again for a week, it was thought that he might be found in Chico or elsewhere.

Before the volunteers left for the day, Olson’s parents thanked them for their efforts. A local woman said a prayer. It was apparently about the time that the search was starting that Olson’s body was found in the river.

When searchers learned that Olson’s body had been found, some of his friends returned to the parking lot where they had met earlier in the morning. About 25 young people could be seen in small groups, talking to each other.

“I’m in a state of shock,” one young woman said.

A vigil is planned to remember Olson at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Acalanes High in Lafayette. Funeral plans have not been announced.

RIDGEFIELD (AP) — Police and volunteer searchers say they’ve found a body in Ridgefield and believe it is that of a 44-year-old local man who went missing during a routine run on Saturday.

Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi says a group of citizens found what appeared to be the body of David Riek about eight feet below a rock ledge in a wooded area Sunday afternoon. Authorities are working to identify the body and the cause of death.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Police say Riek’s wife reported him missing on Saturday after becoming concerned that he had not returned from a morning run after strong storms moved through the area. Police and dozens of volunteers including his relatives searched Saturday until it got dark, then resumed the effort Sunday morning.

Riek and his wife have three children.

The Chico Police Department will begin involvement in the missing person case of Brett Olson, who was last seen Sept. 2.

Chico Police Chief Kirk Trostle announced in a press conference tonight that the department would be sharing any leads or information with the Glenn County Sheriff’s department.

Search and rescue officials have used boats, helicopters and under-water cameras on the Sacramento River in the search of Olson, Trostle said. Searches will continue in the Chico community and on the river.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

“I don’t want to give any false hope and say that he isn’t in the river,” Trostle said.

Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones described the dangers of taking divers underwater.

“We are using other technology to look under the water, he said. “Bringing in dive teams is something we contemplate due to the dangerous snag and deep pools in the Sacramento River.”

Search and rescue have not stopped their pursuit and are scheduled to continue their search Sunday using watercraft, Jones said.

Chico police stated that they will follow up on any credible leads via social media and tips that come into the police station.

Olson’s iPhone, which has been missing since the day he disappeared, was discovered by a family friend in an undisclosed area, Trostle said. Chico police will conduct a forensic test and hope to have the results tonight.

Volunteers have set up an email address for information at findbrett@ci.chico.ca.us and continue to help authorities in the search for Olson.

Earlier today, Olson’s friends handed out fliers on the corner of Broadway and Third streets.

There are groups spread out through the town of Chico, said Shane Wright, the volunteer search group organizer. The search groups canvassed Nord and Mangrove avenues, and went to homeless camps to get any information.

“We are getting information out to every spot here in Chico,” Wright said.

Any additional information or tips should be reported to the Chico Police Department at 530-897-4900.

A body found in a pond Saturday morning is believed to be that of Nathan Tracy, a 19-year-old Trenton man who disappeared Wednesday night after crashing his car at a nearby condo complex, Pittsfield Township police said.

Director of Public Safety Matt Harshberger said police received a call at 10:38 a.m. from a maintenance worker at the Weatherstone Condos on Oak Valley Road about a body in a retaining pond. When police arrived, the body had similar clothes to what Tracy was last seen wearing, Harshberger said.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Dental records will have to be used to confirm the identification, Harshberger said, but “we do believe that it is him.”

About 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, witnesses told police a driver in a Ford Focus crashed into a carport and a parked Ford truck, heavily damaging both. Witnesses saw a man matching Tracy’s description get out of the car, come over to talk to them, then return to the car to remove some items before wandering off, Harshberger said. It’s unclear what he and the witnesses talked about.

“By the time we got there, he was nowhere to be seen,” Harshberger said of the incident. “How, or why, he got into the pond, we’re not sure.”

Based on witness statements and items found in the car, Harshberger said police believe that Tracy was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Before the crash, Tracy had been with a friend from Ann Arbor, police said.

An autopsy is scheduled for today in Washtenaw County.

Tracy was a 2011 graduate of Trenton High School and was studying engineering at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, said his uncle John McKay of Del Rio, Texas.

McKay, reached Saturday night at the home of Tracy’s parents, said the teen had lived there along with his older brother and younger sister. After graduating from college, Tracy hoped to become an engineer like his father, McKay said.

“He was a very outgoing young man, very involved with sports and the church — so, a pretty good kid,” McKay said.