Posted on 09/16/2008 8:19:31 AM PDT by murdoog
When 20-year-old Irina "Ira" Yarmolenko was found dead on the banks of the Catawba River in Mount Holly four months ago, members of the Gaston County Police Department were among the first on the scene.
For one, Gaston County Police thought Yarmolenko's body might be in their jurisdiction and, second, the description of her body matched the description of another young woman that disappeared from Gastonia on April 8 - Jamie Michelle Fraley.
Gaston County Police Sgt. Christie Rhoney said investigators searching for Fraley have compared notes with Mount Holly investigators looking for Yarmolenko's killer and Gastonia detectives searching for Jennifer Rivkin, a Kings Mountain woman who disappeared May 4.
However, there is no evidence that would suggest a connection between those three cases, Rhoney said.
"We've discussed our case with both investigating agencies and there is not a substantial or a direct link to either one of them," Rhoney said.
Speculation about possible connections between the three cases has been the subject of at least one popular online forum. Information and speculation posted by bloggers and Web surfers interested in these three cases might not be well informed or accurate, but Rhoney said detectives pay attention to the online dialogue just in case.
"We look at everything that comes our way," Rhoney said. "You have to keep an open mind on everything or you'll end up unprepared for whatever the outcome is."
Pavel Yarmolenko, brother of the slain UNC Charlotte student, frequents a popular online forum at www.topix.com. There is almost daily dialogue on the Web site regarding the three unsolved cases.
Yarmolenko said he has been e-mailing Jennifer Rivkin's sister since making contact with her on the online forum. And even though he doesn't put much stock in theories and speculation posted at the Web site, Yarmolenko said there is some value to the dialogue.
The forum offers another opportunity for people to share information that could assist investigators. And it's a place where distraught family members and friends can offer each other support. Yarmolenko said he's tried to use the forum to provoke a response from his sister's unknown killer, who could be following the dialogue online as well.
"I'm not going to talk nice to him," Yarmolenko said. "We want to know why this happened to Ira."
Because of the forum, Yarmolenko said he has learned a lot about the search for Fraley and Rivkin. And he is hoping to meet with their families in person in a show of support, he said.
Kim Fraley, who is still hopeful that her daughter will be found alive, said she doesn't see any connection between her daughter's disappearance and the other cases. Kim Fraley said she is aware of the other unsolved cases, but she hasn't spent much time on the Internet searching for information.
While blogs and chatrooms might produce some useful information, Kim Fraley said some of the posts display so much ignorance that it's almost too upsetting for her to read them. Yarmolenko said he's also had to ignore certain posts that try to make these forums a platform for misinformation and even racism.
"If they've got information to help us, then it's a great tool," Kim Fraley said, "but if they get on there and insult people that they don't know - don't know the facts, don't know the family and don't know Jamie - I don't see the value in it ... We can't let stuff like that get to us."
I had hoped there was progress on the case and I’d just missed it. I guess not.
(NC Ping)
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