CRIME REPORT

THREE YOUNG WOMEN MISSED

Robert Beau Garcia was 16 years old when his daughter Pamela was born. Pam was raised by her maternal grandparents. When Pam was around 12 Beau began spending a good deal of time with her on the phone and by making periodic visits to Washington State where Pam lived with the Waldher's. Soon Pam was asking to live with her father in Fayetteville, NC. After an extended visit Pam moved in with her dad Beau. Eighteen months later she is missing.

Pam excelled in school, she was an honor student, 4.0 grade point average. Was popular. Enjoyed debating. Pam had a boyfriend that her dad called, "the classic example of a girl seeking a boy just like her dad"

The night Pam disappeared she had an argument with her father. According to Beau Garcia, Pam's father, he had promised to come home early to do her hair prior to her date and failed to do so. Pam returned from her date and the two fought. According to Pam's boyfriend, Pam called him around 7:30 PM and talked briefly about the argument and other things they normally discuss and he said she did not seem depressed or did not speak of running away or even leaving the house. She told him she would call back at 10 later that night. He never heard from her again.

The next morning Beau Garcia had to force his way into his daughter's locked bedroom and found her gone. She had emptied her backpack that was missing and had apparently packed it with clothing. No note or any explanation of her leaving was left behind.

Pam had earlier attempted suicide, had lost weight and had experienced a personality change according to her grandparents and her father.

Few people other than her father believe she just packed up and left.

The month before Pam's disappearance an-ex girlfriend of Beau's reports to officials that Beau had been mistreating his daughter. He denies the allegations and no charges were filed against him. In an interview with NC Wanted Garcia claims that, "those people who would consider those allegations viable let alone reasonable, should themselves seek counseling, because those speakers of such utterances of such drivel are both torrid, or languished at best, yeah I'm a little terse."

Garcia has refused to cooperate with authorities and take a polygraph exam.

A friend of Mr. Garcia and someone who had seen Pamela just prior to her disappearance said, " Based on the interaction I witnessed between the two I saw no evidence of her being uncomfortable around him or of her indicating any signs of abuse."

The missing backpack taken from Pam's room was found 3 days after she vanished on wooded military land just off an isolated section of Nursery Road in Harnett County, 20 miles from home.

On January 23, 2005, 16 year old Pamela Waldher left her home under mysterious circumstances and her belongings were found in a different county off Nursery Road.

On January 2, 2006, 23 year old Michelle Bullard was abducted from a friend's home at gunpoint and her belongings were found in a different county. A person suspected of her murder claimed to have spent time hiding out off Nursery Road. Michelle's decomposed body was found hidden in the woods of the Cedar Creek community in Cumberland County. The last known documented place Michelle's cell phone was active was in the Bonnie Doone area of Fayetteville near Glen Canyon Drive, the street Pamela lived on the year before.

On January 5, 2006, 19 year old Susan Anderson left home telling her mother that she would be home late because after work she would be going bowling. Susan Anderson never came back home to her mother's house in rural Harnett County which is a couple of miles away from Nursery Road. Natalie Anderson reported her daughter missing on the 8th of January to the Harnett County Sheriff's Office which was during the time of the Michelle Bullard case. In May of 2006 Detective Martin closed the missing person case on Susan Anderson stating that even though no one in law enforcement had seen her face to face, he said had spoken with her by phone and that was proof enough for him. The Anderson family has yet to hear from their daughter. She would have had to have left the place she has lived all her life with just the clothes on her back.

Three disappearances. All within a footprint of the same area of the State. All with a link to Nursery Road. All vanished in January.

WHEN ROAD RAGE WEARS A BADGE

Jeffrey L. Cook ran from the Sheriff's undercover narcs in a high speed, 100 mile per hour chase down Market Street at 8 o'clock at night as tourists and families look right and left for parking places, turns and restaurants without a line waiting out front. Glad they saw the unmarked SUV's trailing after him with their Starsky and Hutch lights stuck to the roof and avoided a certain tragedy.

The chase, just like the chase the summer of 2005 that resulted in a near death experience for driver Tiffany Pridgen when her car she was trying to race away from the County drug agents, this risk of human life is over a hand to hand drug deal, crashed her car into a church causing it to catch fire. Cook crashed his car into a series of parked cars at a Hooters restaurant.

I have been told by several sources that the chase ended and the suspect was apprehended by WPD K9 officer Pellegrino, Cook was cuffed behind his back and searched for any weapons or contraband. The suspect was led down a flight of stairs at the Days Inn Motel on Market. At the bottom of the stairs a large plain clothed deputy with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office hastily approached the suspect and surrounding officers, gun waving as he yelled and cursed the suspect Cook. The deputy then proceeded to yank down the suspects pants and pick him up into the air and slam his handcuffed body down to the pavement.

Is everyone on steroids at the Sheriff's department? Why all this overreaction?

Chase adrenaline rush, deputies all pumped up and ready to tear the head off of the fleeing suspect. We have seen it in youtube videos where an officer just looses it and knocks the suspect senseless. Then some video tape shows up and the country views the extremely violent act that betrays the 99% of those serving and protecting us day after day and believe it is typical. The good cops living under the shameful light left behind by those who betrayed the community trust by committing violent, criminal acts.

This act of brutality was witnessed by 50 to 100 citizens as they left their seats in the restaurants and stopped their cars to watch the foot chase and arrest of Jeffrey Cook, a drunk driver who led a group of more than 10 blue lighted Highway Patrol and Sheriff cars with sirens blaring down Market Street at 100 MPH and finally crashing into the parking lot next to Sticky Fingers. What these citizens may have erroneously believed to have witnessed, was a cop doing his "job" by beating a man down to teach him to submit. Witnesses have become immune, desensitized, by the media's images of similar acts. I mean my God didn't the deputy who shot and killed an unarmed teenager, here in Wilmington, get heralded recently as a hero? How petty this professional wrestling move must have seemed in comparison to those who curiously stood and watched law enforcement in action. And sadly what they saw was the blatant use of excessive force, a cold slap to the face of the good men and women of law enforcement who know better than use excessive force. I am shocked that he hasn't been fired yet.

Shame on the New Hanover County Sheriff's deputy that did that. We know your name. Seek some professional help!

REWARDS OF KEEPING QUIET

People sometimes get overrun when the shit hits the fan. Panic hits and effects personal judgment and the hanger-on's, lookie-lous and stress junkies pile on top of you offering advice and sympathy when all they actually want is a front row seat to the train wreck, or money. It takes a firm sense of self confidence to handle that storm and to wade your way through it, intact. Not many can do it, Chris Long never really tried.

I have worked in enough situations to know when someone gets steamrolled and when someone looses control of their own situation.

The best and most popular way to deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed is to let someone else tell you what to do. Sit back and just deal with the "me" issues.

In Chris Long's case it is let his father take over. Let Mike McGuinness take over. Let his pastor take over. Chris Long had so many people pulling at him he missed his real opportunity to be a stand up guy and take his medicine like a man.

Now I can understand the desire to avoid conflict. I am a professional pain dodger. But this is something inherently different. This is the taking of a life. Job or no job a life was taken, an innocent life. Chris Long knows that. All cops know that.

How many times have we seen suspects get "lawyered up" when they can afford to do so? How many mothers, fathers, preachers stand in front of microphones to defend and protect a defendant? But what do real men do? If it was a mistake they admit it, in humility. They don't fear civil suits, suspended sentences, misdemeanor convictions. They say, I'm sorry and mean it.

Of course it is extremely possible that Long may have been legally within his rights to have killed the unarmed 18 year old, Peyton Strickland. The latest Grand Jury said he was. But what gets me is that Long purports himself to be a Christian and a family man with children of his own. How then can he not do the right thing and say "I'm sorry!"?

Long froze up under the pressure and the worldwind took him and his sensibility and blew it into the laps of his counsel. And because of a perverse sense of loyalty and obedience Long submitted and was advised to keep his mouth shut, sign on the dotted line and don't question the direction and strategy that would turn his life into a living hell because they pumped fear into him to get him to cooperate. Afterwards, they assured him, it would all be worth it.

Sure Chris Long escaped what would most likely have been a conviction of involuntary manslaughter for his killing of Peyton Strickland. Sure by his keeping his mouth shut about not only his actions but the actions of those who sent him to the door that night, Long has successfully worked to have saved the sheriff and the county money by letting the system work and by being obedient patsy, the fall guy.

Don't you know his heart aches? I mean his spokesman did say that Long fell down in the yard of 533 Long Leaf Acres Drive and cry out to Jesus, and yes I do know that Deputy Long did not write that in his affidavit filed with the court that was supposedly used as a script in his discussions with the Grand Jury but someone thought by saying such a thing about Long that people would believe it so there must be some truth to it right? Heart aches or not I am sure he has placed a good deal of his guilty conscious to rest as he puts in his 70 hours every week at his new business enterprise he shares with his father. In February, Chris Long's father, Harry Long started Southside Chrome at 6132 Carolina Beach Rd. which I believe is one of those places that you see on those "pimp your ride" TV shows by making things on your motorcycle or car shine like "bling-bling". I'm sure they will be very successful pimping up stuff.

It's not impossible to repent publicly. To say you are sorry for damaging the faith and trust built up by dedicated officers who have fought hard to counter the majority of the public's perception that law enforcement officers all stick together behind the "blue line" and lie, cheat and kill knowing they have a privileged fraternal immunity.

A real man will admit his mistake and say he is sorry. When Arkansas State Police Trooper Larry Norman shot and killed Joseph Erin Hamley last year in a case of mistaken identity he took full responsibility. A judge this month sentenced him to 90 days in the county jail, 30 days of community service, a $1,000 fine and a year's probation.

His lawyer, John Everett, asked him why he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor negligent homicide in the death.

"I made a mistake, and I try to take responsibility for my mistakes and teach my children the same," he replied.

Our number on the show is 910-332-6390, we are on from noon till two. If you want to get something off your chest Mr. Long we would encourage you to call in this Saturday.

I sat behind the parents of Chris Long, while we all awaited the deliberation of the Grand Jury, his mother sobbed for 30 minutes straight as Harry Long, the father patted her shoulder. But I noticed Mr. Harry Long was hard and unemotional, even looked angry when Chris Long couldn't control himself immediately after the words, "No Bill" were uttered by Judge Beale. I imagine Long to be more like his mother, and that's a good thing. She knows Chris should say he is sorry. Give us a call, aproximately 16,000 people will hear you say it and I doubt you will ever have to say it again. 332-6390.

FATHERS & SONS

I know the love a father has for his son. I feel it every single day I breathe. I know what it is like to treasure the memories and moments kept in frozen animation on Kodak paper. To touch them is to feel the moment suspended, captured. A walk, a first walk, blowing out birthday candles and tickled pink Cheshire grins. I can go back and see the eyes of spark and flame and project my own desires, wishes, dreams and hopes of a passionate life, fruitful and full of rich ambitions. I know the love of a father for his son is kept in a box, the first thing saved when all looks lost. I know the love of a father and son, one for another it lives under your coat, held close, squeezed so tightly you never miss a beat. I know what love a father has for his son, only though for this past 15 months.

I saw Don Strickland carry this box of evidence with him as he entered the Grand Jury room to testify to the spirit and nature of his 18 year old son whose blood was shed by what the court of justice said was an act of self defense. The killer of this son, our son of primal communal parenting, is said to have felt his life in dangerous peril as he studied and watched in slow motion the son make his way forward. Deputy Chris Long watched over the top of a .45 caliber fully automatic submachine gun, watched through a window set in the front door as his target moved through the light as if the son were a hologram inching his way. Chris Long, Deputy Chris Long was doing what he was instructed to do, even if it was to kill the loved son of a father now holding tightly to a box until he can join in rhythm and sync to a familiar heart beat, feel a smile begin, and touch the taste of a spirit which roams free inches from his grasp. A box exactly like each of us who love our sons carry always and close, a box we open expecting others to capture the life contained within. A box, this slain son's father's box was placed in front of 18 human beings, at least 12 of which saw only that it had two bullet holes in it, nothing inside. They then made a judgement based upon what they think they saw or were told what they saw. A hologram. A target. A suspect. A threat.

Mr. and Mrs. Strickland meet my son Ben. There are a lot of us out here who know or are getting to know Peyton, your son, and Ben will be another.

THEY DID IT

One look at the December press conference seating and it was evident that Sid Causey was having nothing to do with the prosecution of his man Chris Long. You could fit a suitcase full of ill-gotten proceeds from Tampa between them and maybe have room left over for sack of raffle tickets. Causey who said he would take the heat should anything come down because of the shooting had just earlier fired the triggerman who was soon to be formally charged with Second Degree Murder. Body Language tells me Causey can't stand the heat. No wonder Causey often times complaints about his back.

Body Language. Causey has attempted to distance himself from Long by dumping money in Chris Long's lap and encouraging others to follow suit. Deputy Chris Long is a witness, potentially a witness against Causey and those supporting him and his family after he was fired.

Body language tells me differently.

Intimidation or interference by giving gifts, money and support to a government witness is a serious violation of the law. Article 30 14-226 is a Class H Felony.

I noticed the body language of triggerman Chris Long today as he made his way into court. He was anything but comfortable.

When the Grand Jury Foreman released the Jury members without the Judge's permission and perhaps more importantly without the Judge's instructions I noticed the entire court's body language.

Interesting how a body can betray a lie and illuminate the truth. For instance Peyton Strickland's body, tells us that he was shot thru an unopened door. That he was close enough to the door to have gunshot residue and glass particles imbedded in his chest. His body would also show that he was not drunk or under the influence of any drug. He held no weapon. And that he died facing his killer.

Body language convicts us all. Ben David knew back in December that Chris Long had committed a crime, Sid Causey knew it, and paranoid Chris Long's body hasn't stopped talking since he knelt down in the yard of 533 Long Leaf Acres Drive on the Friday evening of December the first.

When Marc met with Peyton Strickland's father the following morning in front of Peyton's house, Don Strickland said, "They murdered my son". Judging by the way Mr. Donald Strickland held his body erect and steady left little doubt that Peyton's dad knew the truth. They murdered his son. They did. They!