Free Republic

The Marion County Sheriff's Office asked the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to catch at least one large alligator in an area where crews are searching for a missing boy, according to a news release. Authorities continued their fourth day of searching near Farles Lake in the Ocala National Forest for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett. Trenton was reported missing 22 days ago by his mother, Melinda Duckett, who committed suicide more than a week ago. On Monday afternoon, a trapper will attempt to catch an 8-foot alligator spotted near Farles Lake. If alligators are captured, their stomachs will be examined...

MIAMI – Authorities were investigating the disappearance of an Ohio woman who was reported missing Monday from a Carnival Cruise Lines ship. The 37-year-old woman, whose identity was not released, had been on a four-day cruise to Key West and Mexico. The Miami-based cruise line said relatives last saw the woman Saturday night, but did not report her missing until Monday, when the ship returned to Miami. FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said, however, that she was not aware of any delay in reporting the disappearance. “It doesn't look like foul play,” said Orihuela, whose agency is investigating the case. The...

THE VILLAGES -- Nearly two weeks after toddler Trenton Duckett disappeared, his 21-year-old mother shot and killed herself Friday afternoon in her grandparents' retirement-community home, authorities said. Melinda Duckett died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said, but they provided few other details about her death. Two-year-old Trenton had not been found by early today. (snip) In the taped interview aired Friday night on the CNN Headline News program Nancy Grace, Melinda Duckett was interrogated on her whereabouts before and during Trenton's reported abduction. She was asked whether she had undergone a lie-detector test, where she was before her son's...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 -- U.S. Air Force special investigators and Kyrgyz authorities are continuing search efforts to locate an Air Force officer missing since Sept 5, officials said. Maj. Jill Metzger, personnel chief at the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing, was last seen by a group of her coworkers at the Zum shopping center in the capital city of Bishkek. “We will not rest until we find Major Metzger,” said Col. Joel “Scott” Reese, the wing’s commander. “She is an extremely valuable member of our warfighting team, and we are doing everything in our power to locate and return her...

BISHKEK, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - A female American soldier from a U.S. military air base in Kyrgyzstan went missing Tuesday in the capital, Bishkek, a spokesman for the base said Wednesday. The woman was last seen on Tuesday in a city mall after she left a group of fellow servicemen from the Manas Air Base while they were shopping. Local police said they had no information about a lost American soldier. "No one has yet notified law enforcement bodies about a lost U.S. citizen," said Sherkozi Mirzakarimov, the Central Asian's first deputy interior minister. The U.S. has been renting...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - A U.S. Air Force officer went missing while shopping in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, the U.S. air base in this Central Asian nation said Tuesday. Maj. Jill Metzger separated from a group of other service members while visiting the central department store in Bishkek on Monday afternoon and has not been seen since, the Manas air base press service said. It said a group of 22 U.S. military investigators and logistics officers were searching for Metzger, along with the U.S. Embassy and Kyrgyz security and law enforcement services. The U.S. military has maintained the air base...

ORLANDO -- A jogger missing for four days was found stuck in a waist-deep swamp near the University of Central Florida. Eddie Meadows was forced to drink swamp water to keep hydrated during the four day ordeal. The 62-year-old left to run at lunchtime Thursday but never returned to his office at a nearby university research park, authorities said. A UCF police dog found Meadows parched and covered with bug bites on Monday. "He's a strong guy. He's in good shape. He's a marathoner," said UCF Sgt. Woody Furnas, who found the jogger. "He said he slept a lot and...

DUMAS, Ark. — A Pine Bluff teenager missing for a week was found dead Saturday east of Dumas, a state police spokesman said.

There was a lot of talk during Katrina about the cops that went missing, but wasn't there an issue that some cops were on payroll that didn't actually exist. On the one year anniversary, I'm just wondering whatever happened to that story.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- The mother of a boy abducted 24 years ago said she's bewildered by two photographs left at her front door, apparently showing her son and two other children bound and gagged.

Abduction Information Date: August 28th,2006 Time: 10:00 P.M. Location : Dumas, Arkansas Child Name: Casey Crowder Details of Abduction: The Arkansas State Police has been requested by the Desha County Sheriff's Department at Dumas to issue a Level II, Morgan Nick Amber Alert in connection with the disappearance of Casey Crowder. Casey was last seen at 5:30 AM, Sunday August 27th, 2006 near 105 Wilbrun Brake in the community of Pickens, south of Dumas. A description of the clothing worn by Casey at the time of her disappearance is not available, however it is believed she had a white purse....

Austrian escapes captor after 8 years By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer An 18-year-old woman who was kidnapped eight years ago and held captive in a cellar managed to escape, and her alleged abductor committed suicide by jumping in front of a train, authorities said Thursday. Natascha Kampusch was found in a yard in a residential area northeast of Vienna on Wednesday afternoon. She was identified by a scar on one of her arms from a childhood operation, authorities said, ending one of Austria's biggest police mysteries. She had disappeared while walking to school as a 10-year-old. The alleged kidnapper...

8/17/06Person Of Interest Questioned in Missing Women Case Lubbock PD Several tips helped lead police to a person of interest in the missing women investigation. It was over a week ago when Peggy Merimon and Kay Harrelson went to lunch at the Lubbock State School. Both women were last seen getting into an old gray or white sedan with a man that looked like what police artist sketch. Police did confirm with NewsChannel 11 that the man they interviewed also matched this description. The interview lasted two hours, but the man was let go and is not yet being called a suspect. Police...

Four Russian mountaineers have gone missing in Pakistan on the world's second highest mountain, K2.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing, including astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," a NASA spokesman said on Monday.

NASA Searching For Tapes Of Original Moon LandingPOSTED: 6:37 am EDT August 15, 2006 WASHINGTON -- NASA officials are searching for the original videotapes from the first moon landing in 1969 in the hopes that they can use modern technology to produce sharper images of the event. Web Site: NASA Moon Landing History The video, including footage of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon, was transmitted from the moon to tracking stations in California and Australia. The images that were then sent to Houston -- and seen by the rest of the world --...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A nationwide search for 11 Egyptian students who failed to show up for an academic program in Montana has ended with the last two caught outside their rented apartment in Virginia, U.S. authorities said on Monday. Several of the missing Egyptian students apprehended around the United States over the past week told immigration authorities they had planned to live and work in the United States, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said. "Rather than seeking to attend the academic program in Montana, they actually were here to stay, get jobs, and earn money,"...

The original film footage of astronaut Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, one of the most important artifacts of the 20th century, has been lost. The television broadcast seen by about 600 million people in July 1969 is preserved for posterity, but the original tapes from which the footage was taken have been mislaid, most likely in NASA's vast archives at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The footage could transform our view of the moon landings, offering images far sharper than the blurred, grainy video shown around the world. It also could lay to rest the conspiracy...

08.13.2006, 11:31 PM The last two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up at their college program were apprehended Sunday in Richmond, Va., customs officials said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Mohamed Saleh Ahmed Maray, 20, and Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad El Shenawy, 17, at an apartment building in Richmond on Sunday night. Virginia State Police and the Richmond Police helped locate the students.