Volunteers are leaving no stone unturned in their search for a young woman who disappeared more than two weeks ago.

Heather Elvis, 20, of Carolina Forest, still had not been found as of this posting.

Elvis was last seen entering her River Oaks apartment sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. Dec. 18, according to an Horry County police report.

Her vehicle, a 2001 Dodge Intrepid last seen in her driveway at White River Drive at that time, was found Dec. 19 at the Socastee boat landing off Peachtree Road, the report said.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Banners bearing Elvis’ likeness now hang by the train tracks at River Oaks Drive. Several businesses continue to pass out missing persons fliers and a Facebook page – “Findheatherelvis” – remains active.

A tent will be set up at River City Café by the Socastee swing bridge from 5 p.m. Jan. 3 to 11 p.m. Jan. 5 for the purpose of accepting anonymous, no-questions asked leads. Flyers will be available for pickup.

Volunteers were busy scouring the vicinity of Tidewater Road as of this posting, and additional searches were planned over the weekend.

The Center for Missing Persons (CUE) still needs volunteers, but anyone wishing to help find Elvis must first register with CUE. Click here to register online.

Meantime, an email address to submit tips remains active. Citizens can email any information to crimetips@horrycounty.org or by calling 915-TIPS (8477).

“Any information, as minute as people think it may be, might be what we need,” said Lt. Robert Kegler, spokesman for Horry County police.

Elvis is one of several women who were reported missing in the final weeks of 2013. The other missing women have since been found.

Most recently, Horry County police verified that Jamie Lynn Cross, 24, had been located and was safe. Detectives determined that no crime occurred, according to a post to the HCPD Facebook page.

Kegler said officers made contact with Cross by telephone on Jan. 2. Kegler said an officer then met with Cross in person to verify that she was safe.

Cross had been missing since Dec. 23. Kegler said she didn’t know people were looking for her and noted that she isn’t facing any charges.

“She obviously being 24 [years old] can leave as she chooses to and was unaware of what was going on,” Kegler said.

A police report filed Christmas Day said Cross, 24, was last seen two days before Christmas at her home on Ronald McNair Boulevard near Myrtle Beach.

She told an acquaintance she was going to dinner with a third person identified in the report as 31-year-old Conway man.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in finding a missing woman.

Kimberly Joyce Smith, 30, has not been heard from since November 27. She is described as a white female, 5-foot 4-inches tall, 150 pounds with green eyes and blond hair. She has multiple tattoos, including one of a lizard on her right hand.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

She was last seen in October wearing jeans and a blue jean shirt. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9426 or (850) 436-9620.

A week-long undercover investigation by the Sebring Police Department has led to the arrest of a man who allegedly tried to meet an 11-year-old girl for sex.

Police have arrested Dustin Rowley, 25, of Sebring on charges of importuning after contacting an 11-year-old Alliance girl on Facebook and trying to set up a meeting to have sex with her.

According to police reports, the victim’s father notified police on Dec. 22 that a man was messaging his daughter on Facebook asking her to meet with him. The girl told Rowley she was 11 years old and Rowley allegedly replied that he was 25.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

The father told police he then began messaging the man, pretending to be his daughter, and the conversation turned sexual.

Police opened an investigation and began messaging Rowley for several days. On Dec. 30, Rowley asked to meet with the girl at his 1005 Lake Park Drive mobile home for sex.

Police sent a decoy to the home. When Rowley came to the door, he was arrested without incident.

According to the police report, officers asked Rowley if he knew why he was being arrested and he said no. The officer advised Rowley he was being arrested because, “You tried to ask an 11-year-old to come over and have sex.” Rowley then hung his head and did not say anything, the report stated.

Rowley’s mother allowed police to search the home where they confiscated a computer in a back bedroom.

Rowley appeared in Sebring Municipal Court on Thursday. His bond was set at $75,000 and he is to be placed on house arrest if he posts bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9.

Additional charges have been filed against a Pike County man already arrested for his involvement in a New Year’s morning assault that left one man dead and two others injured in Letcher County.

27-year-old Patrick Smith, of Marrowbone in Pike County, is now being charged with one count of complicity to commit murder, and one count of criminal mischief first degree.

Patrick Smith was involved in a fight on Hayes Street after leaving Street Side Bar and Grill in Whitesburg around 2 a.m. Wednesday, which resulted in the death of 25-year-old Michael Hogg, of Whitesburg.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

The Letcher County coroner said Hogg was stabbed multiple times.

David Christopher Puckett, 23, of Jenkins, was flown to Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, TN. His condition is unknown.

Stacy Phillips, 23, of Thornton, was treated and released at the Whitesburg ARH.

James R. Huffman, 24, of Potsville, was charged with murder and two counts of assault.

Both Smith and Huffman remain in the Letcher County Detention Center.

Human remains were fund inside a water pump house Monday about 8-10 miles from Inez in the Pilgrim area, Martin County Sheriff’s Deputies said.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

The remains have been taken to Frankfort for an autopsy, but Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Tipton said they believe they know who the remains belong to, because a person had been living in the pump house.

No other details were immediately available.

A Christian County man has pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography.

47-year-old Robert Walker, Jr. pleaded guilty in Christian Circuit Court to four counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor and eight counts of distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, according to the Commonwealth of Kentucky Attorney’s office.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

The Commonwealth recommended Walker serve six years in prison without probation and complete a sex offender treatment program.

Walker’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 11.

Walker was indicted by a Christian County grand jury in June 2013 following an undercover investigation by Attorney General’s Cybercrimes Unit that began in August 2012. A search warrant was executed in January 2013 at Walker’s Hopkinsville residence with assistance from Kentucky State Police.

Client asked how someone knew they read their email without sending a “confirmation”. We discovered very quickly is was “Bananatag”. Here is how Bananatag Works

Think of Bananatag like iMessage or BBM for your email: when you send someone a message, you can track it to see if and when they read it, and if they click the links you put inside. It’s actually nothing new: email marketers have been using the same tracking techniques for a long time, to tell how many people open their newsletters, click the links inside, and so on.

So how does it work? Bananatag embeds a small, 1 pixel by 1 pixel transparent image in each email, hosted on their servers. When you open the email, Bananatag knows that unique image has been accessed, and can then tell the sender their email has been opened. Similarly, it turns links into short links that head back to its server so they know when they’re accessed (but keeping the original text of the link intact).

Bananatag is available as a Chrome or Firefox extension for Gmail, a plugin for Outlook, or use it with any other web client using a simple tweak to your contact’s addresses. It’s free for 5 messages a day, but $5 a month gives you unlimited tracking.
How to Avoid Being Tracked

http://liarcatchers.com/email_tracing.html

How to Track the Emails You Send (and Avoid Being Tracked Yourself)Expand

Using a service like Bananatag could be useful for a number of reasons, but it’s also creepy to think that your friends could be tracking the emails they send you this very same way. Luckily, there’s an easy way around it: if you get an email that asks you to display images, just reject your mail client’s request to display them. Obviously you can’t do this for every email (since some will have pictures you want to open), but if you get an email that makes no mention of images but asks you to display them, that’s a hint that the sender may be using a service like Bananatag.

How to Track the Emails You Send (and Avoid Being Tracked Yourself)Expand

More importantly, don’t ever click a link in an email if you don’t know where it goes. Hover over the link and check its destination in the bottom left corner of your window first. If the link text doesn’t match the link that shows up in the bottom corner, that link is going somewhere else. Bananatag isn’t out to get you; they just want to track your clicks, but other evildoers can use this same trick to get into your bank account, PayPal account, or something similar, so it’s a good rule to follow. If the link text goes somewhere you trust, copy and paste it into your browser’s address bar instead of clicking on it.

Bananatag is an interesting service with some worthwhile uses, but we could understand why one might find it creepy, too, so the techniques it uses are good to be aware of. You can’t protect yourself fully (unless you never open images in emails), but it’s good to be on the lookout should a service like this become more popular with, say, increasingly nosy friends. Hit the link to see more about the service.

A local teenager, who left home last week returned home Wednesday evening, according to San Antonio Police.

The mother of Moriah Miracle, 17, confirmed the reunion in a text message to KENS 5 reporter Dillon Collier.

“We are thankful and now moving onto the next phase of this long journey,” Laurie Miracle, Moriah’s mother wrote.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Miracle left her northeast-side home around 3:15 p.m. on December 26, 2013 and had not been seen since.   Her parents feared she met up with a person she had been communicating with online.

“As she walked out the door, I was on the porch and I told her I loved her. And I began praying over her as she walked down the driveway,” Laurie Miracle, Moriah’s mother, said.

Moriah Miracle is a high-school junior on a full scholarship at St. Mary’s Hall.

Her parents said she is an award-winning artist and a cheerleader, who was recently struggling with “teenager issues.”

Miracle’s disappearance was being investigated by the Special Victims Unit of the San Antonio Police Department and the Heidi Search Center.

Area residents interested in volunteering to search for one of two missing women in the Myrtle Beach area will have the opportunity to do so Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to the woman’s family.

Members of Heather Elvis’ family posted Thursday on Facebook that they will be actively searching starting at 9 a.m. each day and welcome volunteers to help. Volunteers must register with members of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Person or CUE Center by using an online application at www.ncmissingperson.org/volunteer-online-2/.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Searchers, who must have photo identification, will meet at 9 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Tidewater Road, which is located off Waccamaw Boulevard near U.S. 501 in Myrtle Beach.

Elvis was last seen about 2:30 a.m. Dec. 17, according to police. In a report filed late Dec. 19, a police officer on patrol saw the 20-year-old’s vehicle parked at Peachtree boat landing and called her father, who is the owner, to inquire why it was parked there.

Her father said he last heard from Elvis about 10:43 p.m. Dec. 17 when she sent him a text message. There is a $20,000 reward for information about her whereabouts.

Then on Dec. 25, Jamie Lynn Cross, 24, of Myrtle Beach was reported missing after she was last seen two days earlier getting into a vehicle to go to dinner with a 31-year-old man, according to a police report. Cross had borrowed $35 from her brother and left about 4:30 p.m. that day.

In the report, police were told Cross had “done this before, but usually contacts someone within 24 hours” after she leaves.

In the posting on the Facebook page “Find Heather Elvis,” those wanting to search are asked not to do so independently, but instead register with CUE Center organizers and check-in with them when you arrive at the site. Searchers also should dress appropriately in boots for hiking, long pants and bring rain gear.

Volunteers will receive instructions regarding safety, evidence and possible crime scenes, according to the post. Those who want to donate food or water should bring it to the staging location along Tidewater Road.

During previous searches, volunteers have twice found human remains that are being examined, according to authorities. The bones were identified as being from a male at least 20 years old, Horry County Coroner Robert Edge previously said.

The bones are believed to belong to the same person and Edge said they may have been scattered around the area by an animal because none of the remains were together in skeleton form.

Pieces of a hip, the skull, and a couple longer bones were found strewn about the area, according to a police report. No clothing was found in the area and officials said in the report the bones appeared to have been in that area for a while.

Edge expects a report of the anthropologist’s findings in a week to 10 days. The bones will be sent to the University of Texas for DNA testing, which could take several weeks.

Elvis is 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighs about 118 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.

Cross stands about 5-foot 11-inches tall, weighs more than 200 pounds and her hair was most recently neon pink.

Anyone with information about the women can call Horry County police at 915-TIPS.