After startled cry, UND senior vanishes (Dru Sjodin)

Star Tribune ^ | November 25, 2003 | Chuck Haga and Richard Meryhew

[maggief]

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Dru Sjodin finished her shift at the Victoria's Secret store at 4 p.m. Saturday, then did a little shopping at another store in the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks.

As she walked to her car, the 22-year-old University of North Dakota senior from Pequot Lakes, Minn., used her cell phone to call her boyfriend in the Twin Cities. They talked for about 10 minutes, he later told authorities, until the call ended with a startled cry from Dru:

"Oh, my God! No!"

Nobody has heard from her since.

A few hours later, there was a second brief and voiceless call to her boyfriend, and the signal from her cell phone was tracked to a rural area near Fisher, Minn., 13 miles southeast of Grand Forks.

Throughout the city Monday, people took up her disbelieving cry: "Oh, my God, No!"

(snip)

[clearvision]

Yes alot depends on exactly what was said, most articles seem to say just "OMG". Did she scream? Did it sound like she bumped into someone while backing out of parking place? Is she emotional, normally quiet? Hard to know how he would react depending on alot of things, let alone how far he would get with police.

[Poohbah]

Is she emotional, normally quiet?

With a name like "Sjodin," probably--a Norwegian is a Swede without the excessive display of emotion. Uff Da. (c8

[Ispy4u]

I doubt she just said "OMG" the title of the story characterizes it as a startled cry.

[Poohbah]

Has she been missing 24 hours? No, well then we can't take a missing persons report...

Well, in that case, they need to change the name to "Stiffs we haven't found yet" report.

[clearvision]

Could be. But that info is from reporter of what the mom said the boyfriend said she said, if the info is coming from the same places. So who knows at this point. Different stories seem to indicate she said different things.

[null and void]

Yeah. 'fraid so.

[utahagen]

The voicemail would click on and that would reister as the call being answered.

[utahagen]

I should have prefaced that by saying, if the cell phone had been left behind in Minnesota, and called from another phone, the voicemail would pick up in Minnesota and it would look like the phone had been "answered" in Minnesota.

[Ispy4u]

It would register on one phone but not on both, the phone that was called wouldn't register any airtime.

Good thinking though, I almost followed you down that path. ;)

[utahagen]

I'm not arguing with you; just trying to follow you. If a cell phone is called and the voicemail answers, that doesn't register the same way as if a live person had answered?

[Poohbah]

Nope. Air time is time ON THE AIR (i.e., phone sending and receiving because a circuit is up). Voice mail just goes to a computer server until it's checked.

[Krodg]

I would be willing to bet that the percentage would be above 80. Though it is only personal observation giving me that number.

I've given my personal outlook...how about you doing the same?

[utahagen]

Got it. Thanks.

[Catspaw]

How did the boyfriend's voicemail in the Cities call her roommate back in Grand Forks a few minutes later?

[utahagen]

I not advancing any argument; just trying to understand how cell phone calls are recorded.

[Ispy4u]

I don't get your point.

[Ispy4u]

Cell phone voice mail is not the same as an answering machine. If you don't pick up the call after so many rings, then the call is routed to your voice mail on a computer at the cell network office.

So the phone that called would show airtime, the phone with voicemail would show no airtime.

[gcruse]

-- were we objective in the least on this issue -- we'd be using pornography as a definite marker for potential perps.

Then you'd be rounding up most every 13-year old boy you could get your hands on.
Not you, Jocko, sit down.
Come to think of it, everybody is a potential perp, anyway, so there's little point.

[Eaker]

But I'm forever the cynic. I could be wrong.

Jumping!!??!!!

;<)

[af_vet_1981]

I hate perps. They should be put down like mad dogs. May G-d grant his young woman deliverance from evil.