Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Missing toddler wasn't at park, police conclude
San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 5/2/02 | Kelly Thornton and Chet Barfield

Posted on 05/02/2002 9:45:25 AM PDT by brneyedgirl

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last
To: FresnoDA
Police thought they had found and talked to the witness, whose composite sketch is being circulated by hundreds of volunteer searchers. But the woman interviewed this week turned out to have been in another area of Balboa Park, Cohen said.

Ping. Well, this really isn't a surprise. Poor kid.

21 posted on 05/02/2002 10:35:43 AM PDT by xJones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: brneyedgirl
Fry him
22 posted on 05/02/2002 10:36:15 AM PDT by MJemison
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: brneyedgirl
I am shocked. Shocked I say.

Of course, as soon as this story was posted most of us realized this PoS was lying and probably killed the little guy.

23 posted on 05/02/2002 10:38:39 AM PDT by justshutupandtakeit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wimpycat
"The alternate theory, of course, could be that he had it in for this boy from the beginning; that Step-Daddy wanted Mama all to himself and resented the presence of the boy, resented having to take care of him while Mama was on cruise, and he was going to kill the boy sooner or later, one way or another and it took every ounce of his feeble brain power to concoct the cockamamie park abduction story."

And what about the mother? I wonder what her interest is in all of this. Maybe she wanted the little boy out of the picture so that she could have her new lover all to herself and not be burdened by the child. I'd like to see her under the lie detector.

Obviously the police realize this is highly likely pointing directly at the step-father, (or mother). They seem to be looking pretty hard at the land fill.

24 posted on 05/02/2002 10:39:06 AM PDT by Badfoil
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Arthur McGowan
If the child does not carry the man's DNA, the chances of abuse or murder are vastly higher

Happens with tigers and cheetahs all the time. Some kind of ethnobiological thing.

25 posted on 05/02/2002 10:49:23 AM PDT by gridlock
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Badfoil
What about the mother? She was onboard a ship at the time the boy was reported missing, but it's entirely possible that she and he planned it all out. Have they mentioned when's the last time anyone besides the step-father saw the baby alive. I mean, he could have been dead for weeks for all we know and they planned to report him missing while she was on ship to give her an alibi.

Yes, that's entirely possible, but I still think it's highly unlikely. Usually it's the simple theory that turns out to be the right one. I'm still going for my Theory #1, the spur of the moment fit of rage resulting in the baby's death and the panicked and hastily contrived coverup story.

26 posted on 05/02/2002 10:49:32 AM PDT by wimpycat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: brneyedgirl
One poster there makes an interesting observation. The sketch of the "mystery woman" provided by the stepfather looks an awful lot like the stepfather himself...


27 posted on 05/02/2002 10:55:28 AM PDT by Redcloak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: maxwell

Tragic...we had him nailed yesterday...he had a DRUG rap sheet from the east coast...posted here...

Second Child Abduction Haunts San Diego Brenda and Damon van Dam create Web site, offer advice!

28 posted on 05/02/2002 10:57:56 AM PDT by FresnoDA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Redcloak
Tieray Jones, Tameka Jones, and Brenda van DamSTEP FATHER'S VERSION OF EVENTS UNDER SCRUTINY
The San Diego Police Department is declining this morning to confirm media reports that there are inconsistencies in Tieray Jones' account of the disappearance of his stepson. Jones told police that two-year-old Jahi Turner vanished from a Balboa Park playground last Thursday. KOGO radio quotes law enforcement sources as saying that Jones failed a polygraph test. Law enforcement sources quoted by the Union-Tribune say that police did not find the 2-year-old boy's fingerprints at the park ... which means he likely hadn't been there recently. San Diego police information officer Dave Cohen says ... and this is a quote ... ``We have not commented on details of the investigation in the past ... and we're not going to start today.''

"Ok...now....just listen to me....don't admit anything.....and act like you know the child will be fine......trust me...it will work".......(Name the person saying this!)


29 posted on 05/02/2002 11:10:12 AM PDT by FresnoDA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: FresnoDA
Brenda VD or Susan Smith
30 posted on 05/02/2002 11:23:54 AM PDT by Veggie Todd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: All
This had Susan Smith written all over it from the beginning. Baby is inconvenient. Make it disappear. Sickening.
31 posted on 05/02/2002 11:29:32 AM PDT by Inkie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Veggie Todd
ding...ding...ding....A WINNER....BVD....!!!
32 posted on 05/02/2002 11:30:49 AM PDT by FresnoDA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Badfoil
It would seem the Grandmother was taking care of the child up and until a couple of weeks ago (I read it somewhere).

I don't want to believe this, but it can't be discounted that the Mother knew her new husband didn't want to care for the child while she was onboard the ship, so they cooked it up together.

Remember that Susan Smith was dating a guy who didn't "want" her children. That's why she drowned them...even tho it wasn't a conpiracy.

They both need to be looked at.

sw

33 posted on 05/02/2002 11:34:52 AM PDT by spectre
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: brneyedgirl
How could one not miss seeing Brenda Van Dam! She's still trying to stretch her 15 minutes of fame into a hour.

I'd like to see it stretched to 5 to 10 for child abandonment/endangerment and that pathetic cookie-boy husband of her's too.

34 posted on 05/02/2002 11:42:35 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: brneyedgirl
Some 100 Marines were expected to be brought in at 7 a.m. today to assist in the landfill search

Huh?...What the heck is that about?...Marines?

FMCDH!

35 posted on 05/02/2002 11:47:43 AM PDT by nothingnew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LostThread
I missed this one. I considered that there are really people in this world stupid enough to leave a two-year-old unattended in a park for fifteen minutes, and guessed this guy was one of them . . .
36 posted on 05/02/2002 11:52:31 AM PDT by BraveMan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

Comment #37 Removed by Moderator

To: FresnoDA
Fres, thanks for yesterday's post. And excellent read, and add me to your ping list!
38 posted on 05/02/2002 12:46:54 PM PDT by brneyedgirl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: brneyedgirl
San Diego police have concluded that 2-year-old Jahi Turner and his stepfather did not visit a Balboa Park playground the day the stepfather reported the child missing.

Really!?!? Well, blow me down!

39 posted on 05/02/2002 12:55:53 PM PDT by Motherhood IS a career
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maxwell

Search at SD landfill continues

KENNETH MA
Staff Writer

5/2/02

MIRAMAR ---- Nearly 80 San Diego police detectives continued to painstakingly comb through heaps of garbage at a city landfill Wednesday in search for clues to the disappearance of a San Diego toddler.

"We don't have (many) clues or information in this case," said Dave Cohen, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department, during a late afternoon press conference. "Nothing has been found so far."


Don Boomer/Staff Photographer

San Diego police and Miramar Landfill workers search through trash looking for clues in the disappearance of 2-year-old Jahi Turner.

Two-year-old Jahi Turner, who lives in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego, was last seen by his stepfather, Tieray Jones, 23, at a Balboa Park playground. Police believe the toddler was kidnapped.

Jones told police that he had left Jahi alone for 15 minutes to purchase a soda from a vending machine several hundred yards away. An unknown woman with two other youngsters also was at the playground. When Jones returned, his stepson and everyone else was gone.

Cohen said there are no suspects in the case, but he said police are seeking the woman for questioning. Investigators had questioned another woman earlier, but it was later determined that she was not the person Jones had seen.

"We just want to tell ... the person who has our son that you can just drop him off at a safe place so that someone who is caring can bring him home to us," the boy's mother, 18-year-old Tameka Jones, said in a Tuesday press conference. "We don't care who the (abductor) is just ---- we just want him back."

Meanwhile, detectives have been sifting through mounds of rubbish continuously at the Miramar Landfill since Tuesday morning. Cohen said that detectives could spend days scouring the trash since only 20 percent of the garbage set aside for inspection has been searched.

Cohen declined to say what promoted police to comb the landfill, adding that it was not the result of a tip. One hundred Marines are expected to join the search today.

Meanwhile, hundreds of volunteer searchers have been scouring canyons and residential neighborhoods near the playground since Saturday.

A recent arrival

Jahi had moved to San Diego from Frederick, Md., five days before his disappearance to live with his mother and his stepfather.

The family lives in a housing complex on Beech Street, which rents to naval and Marine families.

Tameka Jones, a Navy sailor, was on duty abroad the USS Rushmore off the coast of San Diego the day Jahi vanished.

During the press conference, the couple pleaded for the public's help to find their son. The two have been assisted by Brenda and Damon van Dam. The van Dams' 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, was kidnapped and killed in February.

Danielle's alleged abductor, David Westerfield, 50, is awaiting trial for her murder.

Looking through rubbish

Working inside a trash pit at the 140-acre landfill, detectives, clad in protective suits, raked through tons of garbage. Home Depot has donated 100 rakes and 100 pairs of gloves for the effort.

Investigators wore surgical masks to abate the reeking air as tractors and other large earth-movers continuously unearthed trash buried in mounds of dirt and rocks.

Nicole Hall, a spokeswoman for the city's Environmental Services Department, which operates the landfill, said the trash pits or cells are filled with 5,000 tons of trash from neighborhoods throughout San Diego daily.

"It's very unusual to do this," she said of the search. "It's really finding a needle in a haystack."

A body was found at a city landfill more than 20 years ago, according an official with the Environmental Services Department, who did not wish to be identified.

Although it was not a homicide case, searchers took nine days to find the body of the independent trash hauler at the Chollas Landfill, the official said.

Volunteers organize searches

More than 100 volunteers are searching for Jahi. They have created the Jahi Search Center at a Moose lodge at 1648 30th St.

Fliers have been posted in the neighborhood, and a Web site for Jahi has been created.

"It's a community coming together and saying we have had enough," said Bill Garcia, a private investigator who is coordinating the search efforts.

The effort comes two months after Danielle van Dam's nude body was found by volunteer searchers in Dehesa.

In an all too familiar sight, Jahi search teams have donned fluorescent vests and traversed target areas seeking clues. The dawn-to-dusk searches are a daily operation.

Garcia said he believes Jahi is still alive because, unlike the Danielle case, there are little clues and no suspects.

"He is probably being held up by someone," Garcia said.

This weekend, he said, up to 500 volunteers are expected to give up their free time to find Jahi.

The toddler is described as being a light-skinned African-American who is about 30 inches tall and weighs about 30 pounds. He was last seen wearing a blue "Winnie the Pooh" shirt, blue nylon cargo pants and a pair of gray Michael Jordan tennis shoes.

To volunteer, call the search center at (619) 255-6411. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at (619) 531-2000 or Crime Stoppers at (619) 235-8477.

 

City News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Kenneth Ma at (760) 740-3524 or kma@nctimes.com.

 

40 posted on 05/02/2002 1:35:05 PM PDT by FresnoDA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson