CRIME REPORT

Nancy Cooper loves her children

All a person needs to do to understand the bond between Nancy Cooper and her two precious daughters is to look at the  pictures of them together.   Just look at that big kiss! I cry when I think of how much my wife loves our son. Seriously, my eyes tear up and when I look at the picture of Nancy Cooper on the beach with her new baby girl Katie, full of life, confident, proud. You know something, I see the same love in that picture that I see at home. How can anyone intentionally do anything to interfere with that love, the love a mother has for her child? Whether it is infidelity or some equally horrible act of betrayal or allowing drugs or alcohol into the home, men/husbands seemingly produce more harm than good. Well, some men.

Some men, men who kill their children's mother for instance, men who bring other women into the marriage, men who dominate and control every inch of space by breaking the will and perhaps spirit of someone able to deliver into the world a new life, reproducing the population in order to guarantee us a chance at the survival of the species. But men like Brad Cooper and a long list of other men stole what doesn't belong to them and in some cases never be able to restore what went missing.

As someone who has made a professional effort at understanding crime and those who perpetrate the crimes, I am deeply concerned for the safety of those two angels, Bella, 4 yrs old and Katie, 2 next week. Law enforcement consider the children's father to be an unofficial suspect. They have taken his DNA by court order, have seized many items from the house, wrapped crime scene tape around the house, have announced that this murder was not a random act and have been following him from the get-go. Yet the children are being tucked in at night by him. 

We need to look at parental rights and how they are effected by such circumstances. What can you do? What should you do?

Am I the only one this bothers?

UPDATE

Mandy Locke of the News & Observer has reported that the family of Nancy Cooper has petitioned with the court and received immediate temporary custody of the two daughters.

A FEW GOOD MEN

A "death threat" was received by a woman who started a myspace webpage dedicated t memorializing the memory of Maria Lauterbach. The threat said "shut up or get cut up" at the end of it's critical post. The rest of the post was typical Marine Corps bullshit. The person(s) posting was (were) also your typical bullshit internet trolls.

Lindell Kay reports in the Jacksonville Daily News that, "Shut up or get cut up," a post made in the name of Ron Parikh appeared on the MySpace memorial for Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach on Feb. 5.

Marine Corps officials confirmed that Lance Cpl. Parikh, a personnel clerk currently assigned to a training command in California, was under investigation for several MySpace.com postings.

"Parikh is being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division for information posted on the Internet about Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach," said Capt. Neal Fisher, public affairs director for Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twenty-nine Palms, Calif.

Another Marine, Lance Cpl. Jonathan Cole, is also under investigation for comments he made on the internet, Marine officials said.

Cole is assigned to a unit in the 2nd Marine Division which is based at Camp Lejeune, said Lt. Col. Curtis Hill, public affairs officer for II Marine Expeditionary Force.

The message posted on the myspace memorial site was posted as a threat, no doubt. Either as a sick, sadistic joke or as an attempt at shutting the site down.

im very sorry she lost her life but she doomed herself. she got what she deserved. she tried to ruin laurean's life and force him to leave his wife.

don't listen to a damn thing that bitch may have told you..she wasn't raped. you should be slapped you in the face for talkin about things that should be left alone. im not gonna sit here and watch you talk shit. i will do you like laurean did if you dont take this page off.

alot of girls in the marine corps sleep around..all of them in fact. it's the sluts they are. lauterbach is just like every other slut i've known. she willing slept with this dude in hope he would leave his wife for her and after she got pregnant she thought they were gonna be together but he decided he didn't want the baby and he didn't want to leave his wife for her. she was heartbroken and killed herself and her baby. alot of female marines shouldnt be marines.

shut up or get cut up

semper fi

LCpl Parikh, Ron S.-USMC"

Now there is no evidence that Parikh posted this but whoever did failed at convincing me that he is certain that Maria killed herself and that his friend Cesar Laruean is innocent when he said, "don't listen to a damn thing that bitch may have told you..she wasn't raped. you should be slapped you in the face for talkin about things that should be left alone. im not gonna sit here and watch you talk shit. i will do you like laurean did if you dont take this page off.

Now if Laurean didn't do anything, as he claims, then what is it that he is threatening?

i will do you like laurean did if you dont take this page off.

If I was that woman who had that post show up on her myspace page, I believe I would be a little scared too...until I read the rest of his post...

shut up or get cut up

Just like an idiot to bring a knife to a gun fight. He would get about 2 steps before he had his chest and head opened up with 6 or 7 big holes.

I really am losing faith in our Marines. Where are you finding these killers? Laurean buries his victim in his own backyard when there are 30 square miles of nothing but woodland and swamp with logging roads and trails running thru it like a spider web only half a mile north of him. And now this guy, "shut up before you get cut up..." Gimme a freakin break!

An example of a "Few good men" ... my ass.

TRIPPING OVER LOOSE ENDS

So many loose ends to tie up and complaints to go over, it is no wonder Sheriff Ed "the diviner" Brown has gone into hiding, for Christ sake even I am having chest pains and fits of anger because of this case. Recently I have begun to work with a woman that was also raped by man while serving in the Marines, was pregnant and suffered similar harassment with her rape complaint that Maria complained about. This woman I am working with said that the Marines told her that, "She is not the victim of the rape, she is only a witness, the Marine Corps is the victim."

You take into consideration that the Marines offered up a detailed counterintelligence briefing to national and international reporters that took up 32 pages of notes. Everything was covered, Maria said she had no longer felt threatened, the baby did not belong to Laurean and she would like to drop the rape charges. The Marines did everything they could for her, including pressing for a hearing just in case she was lying. So taking everything into concideration, according to the Marine Command, Maria couldn't be helped.

When the Sheriff was told that America's Most Wanted would cover this manhunt for fugitive Cesar Armando Laurean if, and only if, the Sheriff would give them an exclusive. The Sheriff apparently agreed to their demands and withheld video footage of Laurean, or a look-a-like, withdrawing $400 from Maria Lauterbach's account at an ATM on Christmas Eve and buying items at the Lowes Home Improvement store. Never mind that the person at the ATM was sans-tattoo and the person at Lowes was misidentified in the original release as the friend that accompanied him in Cesar's home improvement shopping.

Before the first press conference, when Sheriff Brown asked for the media's help in locating a missing pregnant Marine, word was already out to us that this missing Marine was a rape victim. A rape that happened on base by another Marine, one of superior rank. Shortly after that an email began circulating that went into detail about the rape and identified Laurean (the email spelled it Lauren and so later did the Sheriff in his first release looking for the suspect) specifically as the rapist. When I asked the Sheriff about this rape allegation he said that there was nothing to it. I even suggested that he get a copy of the email to track the IP address since the person had obvious knowledge of the situation. He claimed it wasn't necessary. He believed Maria to be alive and hiding out, I was convinced he knew what he was talking about..."off the record."

But as we all know the story took a dramatic, made for TV, twist and a woman and her innocent, soon to be born child were said to be both dead and buried and that a manhunt had begun for a man, the same man, Maria accused of raping her twice last spring. that man, Cesar Armando Laurean, had at least a 6 hour head start on the posse'.

The night Maria Lauterbach was said to have been murdered, Christina Smith Laurean, wife of suspected murderer Cesar Laurean, was at a December 14th Christmas Party on the base. Maria Lauterbach had told her mother that she was going to the same party even though she said she knew Cesar Laurean would be there. This is also the same day that Maria and her mother Mary had an argument about whether it was a good idea for Maria to keep the baby she had been carrying for the prior 8 1/2 months. The mother asked Maria to call her when she got home from the party. She never heard from her again.

Lauterbach had accused Laurean of two separate rapes in May, claiming they occurred in March and April of 2007. Since there was a delay in reporting the rapes, the military was unwilling to take her word for it and file immediate charges against Laurean, the best they could do was to separate them into different work areas, but even so, when meetings were called both Maria and Cesar were put back together in the same room. Both worked the same job. Maria was scheduled to testify at an upcoming military hearing about her accusations and she was extremely nervous about doing that. Since the Marines were unwilling to believe her, they wanted to test the baby's DNA to prove the rape since Maria claimed the father of the baby was her rapist. In November, the Marine's claim Maria said that the baby's father was not Cesar Laurean but friends and family dispute that claim by the military. Even if Maria did make a statement to that effect to the Marines, this was a period of time in her life where she had felt as if the military had abandoned her. She left the base and moved in with her friend Sgt. Daniel Durham who was scheduled to be shipped to Iraq after the first of the year and offered his house to Maria as a place of refuge and support. She was looking forward to raising her child there once he was born. (ABC News is reporting the child was a girl) Maria had several threatening experiences just prior to leaving the base, she suffered a physical attack when a stranger walked up to her, called out her name and slugged her in the face. Maria also had her car vandalized. However, the most difficult situation involved an encounter with Christina Laurean outside a store, when Ms. Laurean confronted Maria calling her a "bitch" and demanding to know, "What are you doing to us?"

However, that didn't prevent Maria Lautenbach from encounters with Laurean at mandatory meetings, her mother said.

"Maria, this is ridiculous. You have a restraining order on this guy," Mary Lauterbach said she told her daughter during one conversation. "I said you need to complain to somebody and tell them you're just not going to go."

Maria was still so frightened in the late fall, that according to an unnamed friend, she had asked to extend the Military Protective Order (MPO) that was taken out against Marine Cesar Laurean back in May. The friend claimed she was the one who encouraged Maria to take it out and filled the forms out for her to submit to command.

The 14th of December is the last anyone heard from Maria, the mom hung up with her at 2:30, at 4:20 Maria withdraws $700 from her bank's ATM.

On the night of the 14th Maria's roommate David Durham finds a note at the house saying, "I could not take this Marine Corps life anymore. So I'm going away. Sorry for the inconvenience, Maria." Several personal items were missing, toothbrush, clothing etc. Durham phones Maria's family to let them know and pleads with them to not alert the Marines about her leaving so that Maria would not get into trouble.

On the 15th someone purchases a one-way bus ticket in Jacksonville for a trip to El Paso, Texas. The approximate cost for that ticket would have been less than $200. The ticket was in the name of Maria Lauterbach.

December 24th a man looking a lot like Cesar Laurean makes a withdraw from Maria's bank account. The withdrawal is captured on video at the ATM. The person attempts to block the camera by holding a rag up to the camera's lens. He withdraws $400. Also a man matching the description of Cesar Laurean enters the Lowes Home Improvement Center with another man and purchases shovels, cement blocks and a wheelbarrow. The Laureans hold a cookout that night for friends and neighbors and create a bonfire in their backyard.

January 7th Maria's blue 2006 Hyundai Sonata was found parked in the bus station parking lot by a Jacksonville Police officer. The car with a large stuffed bear sitting in the back seat and her luggage in the trunk was said to have been there since December 15th. Onslow County Sheriff issues a concern at a press conference for Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach of Midway Park in Jacksonville, saying he has reason to consider this more than a walkaway.

Jan. 8 - Deputies meet with Laurean in the afternoon to question him as a witness, not a suspect. He declines to speak and requests time off from his job at Camp Lejeune to meet with his attorneys. He hires 3 attorneys and returns to the Sheriff's Office and does not answer any questions.

January 9th the Sheriff is notified by NCIS (military investigators) that Cesar Armando Laurean was accused by Maria to have been a person who raped her on two occasions and was the recipient of a MPO.

January 9th Laurean does not report to work and requests more time off to meet with his civilian attorneys. On the way to the lawyers office he tells his wife that Maria came to the house on the 14th demanding money and in a fit of rage slit her own throat with a knife she had carried with her into the house. He apparently tells the same story to the lawyers.

January 10th at approximate 4AM Laurean high tails it out of town. Christina Laurean comes into the Sheriff's Office around 10 with a note she says was left behind by her husband claiming he had buried Maria in the woods near their house. By the end of the day the sheriffs deputies and SBI had located the remains of Maria and her unborn baby in a backyard firepit behind the Laurean home.

Authorities investigating the crime scene discover a bloody mess that had been carefully cleaned and painted over. Blood splatters on the ceiling and stains on the cement floor and walls in the garage. Preliminary autopsy reports show Maria died as a result of a blunt force trauma. The murder weapon is said to be a crowbar.

Laurean's truck, registered to Salvador Laurean and not Cesar, is located behind a Microtel Hotel across the interstate from the Raleigh Durham Airport. The truck was parked nose in and the license tag was not removed. Earlier the prior morning a jogger discovered the military ID and bank card belonging to Maria Lauterbach on top of some vegetation at the Durham Bus Station, locate across the street from the Durham Police Department.

A manhunt is called out by the state authorities and FBI to find and arrest Cesar Laurean for the death of 20 year old Maria Lauterbach. Searchers claim Laurean may have made it to his Mexican homeland, estimating he had as much as $5,000 in cash with him when he fled.

QUESTIONS

Why would Maria withdraw $700?

Why would she leave a note to her friend instead of calling him saying she was "leaving"

What time was the Christmas party on base?

What time was it over?

What time does Cesar allege that Maria came over and killed herself?

How did her car get to the bus station the next day if she drove it to the Laurean's?

What reason did Cesar give to his wife to excuse himself from the party?

Why would Christina go without him?

Where was their 18th month old daughter when Maria is said to have come over?

What time was the bus ticket purchased?

Where was Cesar at 4:20, the time Maria withdrew $700 from the ATM?

Were the clothes seen in the ATM video of Maria making her withdrawal found at her house or in her suitcase or were they supposed to on her when she died?

When do authorities believe Maria was buried? When do they think Laurean attempted to burn her?

What reason did the note left behind by Cesar and delivered to authorities give as to why Maria came over?

Both Maria and Cesar had Myspace accounts, both were set to private. Is there any evidence that the two of them communicated by computer?

In the search of Laurean and Lauterbach's phone records is there any evidence that the two of them had any conversations with each other in December?

Who on Maria Lauterbach's phone records were contacted by authorities regarding her missing status?

Why weren't neighbors of Maria's contacted between the first report of her being missing on December 19th and the 9th of January?

Why would an attorney say "you're facing the death penalty" if you tell him that Maria killed herself?

Where did the money come from to retain 3 lawyers from 3 different law firms come from?

Why did it take until January 9th for the military to confirm the rape allegations to the Sheriff?

Was the baby delivered during the brutal attack on Maria?

Why was there such a crumb trail leading investigators towards Mexico if the subject wanted to escape detection? ID and bank card left in open at bus station, truck parked nose in so license plate was visible, bus ticket to El Paso, letters from Houston.

Why was Cesar Laurean NOT a flight risk prior to January 11th if he was seen on the ATM machine using Maria's bank card?

Why does it appear that there is no tattoo on the shoulder of the man making reported to be Laurean making the withdrawal in the ATM video?

SORROWFUL TIMES

I thought back to how my grandmother would have reacted to the news of a pregnant woman being killed, intentionally, by a man who had raped her 8 and a half months earlier in order to conceal his crime. "Impossible, don't say such things!" she would have said.

Without knowing it Mary Lauterbach may have played into the hands of her stepdaughter's killer by telling the world Maria is mentally ill, a compulsive liar, and had intended to keep the baby after months of talk about giving the baby up. "You can't raise this baby," the mother told her raped and terrorized daughter, right before Maria hung up the phone and bought a bus ticket out of town.

The murderer has left behind a note that at this time I believe said that Maria killed herself in his house and he panicked. If Cesar Laurean were to be captured alive (which I believe he won't) and brought to justice the capital defenders, Kevin Peters and Rick Miller will once again face off with Ernie Lee in court with a defense based on the documented testimony of the young pregnant Marine's own mother. "She was insane, came into the house ranting and raving about all kinds of things, waving a knife about, first shoving it at Mr. Laurean, a man on trial for his life, a man that was fixated upon by this QUOTE BIPOLAR COMPULSIVE LIAR who then finally as my grabbed at the knife, defending his own life, Ms. Lauterbach fell and fatally stabbed herself. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that sort of scene triggered the post traumatic stress disorder my client has been suffering since he was molested after his parents divorced...."

Laurean then cleaned up the house, hid the death from his wife, burned Maria's remains and after borrowing his neighbors shovel buried what was left of the once proud mother to be in his backyard before cracking under pressure and driving to the middle of the woods and blowing his brains out hoping his wife and child left behind will believe his fucked up lie.

"Impossible, don't say such things!"

All of these women died

Michelle Marie Young, murdered 4 months pregnant, unsolved
Jennifer Nielsen, murdered 9 months pregnant, unsolved
Janet Christiansen Abaroa, murdered first trimester, unsolved
Ebony Chatell Robinson, murdered 9 months pregnant, arrest of best friend's father
Kiawana Grace, murdered 8 months pregnant, cold case, arrest made in December
Then there is Cherica Adams, 7 months pregnant when pro-football player had her killed to avoid child support. Rae Carruth is currently in prison serving 18-24 years for the murder.

About 17 percent of pregnant women are victims of domestic violence

* Less than 7 percent of spouse abuse cases are adjudicated by court-marital. -Symposium on DV Prevention Research, 2002

* Rates of marital aggression are considerably higher than civilian rates, double, three to five times. -The War At Home, 60 Minutes, January 17, 1999; Heyman and Neidig. (1999).

* Recent estimates suggest that sexual assault in the military is experienced by 9 to 4 percent of female service members, depending upon the service branch. An earlier study conducted by the Defense Manpower Center indicated that 5 percent of female respondents and 1 percent of male respondents were victims of actual or attempted rape. -Department of Defense Sexual Harassment Survey, 1995

-Initial Report of the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence, DoD, 2001

* 8 percent of female Persian Gulf War veterans in a survey reported being sexually abused during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

* 30 percent of female veterans in a recent survey reported rape or attempted rape during active duty.

* 37 percent of women who reported a rape or attempted rape had been raped more than once; 14 percent of the victims reported having been gang raped.

* The number of cases treated at VA Sexual Trauma Centers include over 22,000 male victims and over 19,000 female victims of sexual trauma. -Veterans' Millennium Health Care Act, Preliminary Findings

* 3/4ths of the female veterans who were raped did not report the incident to a ranking officer. 1/3rd didn't know how to; and 1/5th believed that rape was to be expected in the military. Women who served in Gulf War I were the only group that did not consider rape to be an expected part of military life.

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.

SAYING GOODBYE

I do not know if I have ever met Michelle Bullard before. I have had many meals at the Dairy Bar where she worked so perhaps I did meet her before. Even still I know her. I know her from her lovely family and friends.

I know her from pictures on leaflets and flyers, I know her from the news and from internet websites.

I know Michelle, we all do. She is who we admire, trust and love. She is each of us and all of us. She is loved because of it.

And she is missed because of it.

My heart gasps thinking of her family and how they must be suffering.

But Michelle has given each of us who know her spirit something important, she has given us a sliver of a reason why everyday is so important.

Michelle's mother said something Friday night on the Nancy Grace Show that spoke to the heart of all who know the love of a parent. Karen said she had a regret and Nancy Grace asked what the regret was Karen Riojas, Michelle's mother said, " I regret I can't have one more day with her."

As the father, the parent of a six month old I know what it is to love a child. As a friend of Karen I know what it is to want one more day.

"One more day" How important that is when we are in love with a child.

God has blessed this family by giving them back Michelle for one more day. I am sure we will all be asked to join them, and I would hope to see you there.

STORY OF BETRAYAL

"Authorities in Cumberland County believe they may have found the remains of Julie "Michelle" Bullard in a remote section of Cumberland County.

Michelle's mother, Karen Riojas, confirmed to Eyewitness News that authorities contacted her Wednesday night, saying they may have identified Bullard's remains.

Sources close to Eyewitness News say they are waiting for SBI, and DNA lab tests to confirm her identification. " Greg Barnes, Reporter WTVD.

On Wednesday hunters in an isolated area of Cedar Creek, NC came upon what appeared to be human remains and immediately reported the discovery to authorities. Hours later the Lee County Sheriff's Office called the family of Michelle Bullard to inform them of the find.

Michelle was abducted in the early morning hours of January 2nd as she and three friends watched a popular movie in a darkened trailer home in Broadway.

The call from the Sheriff's Detective was a courtesy call to inform them of the find and to assure them that as things developed the family would be briefed with updates.

The first update was a request for some medical records, and answers to a couple of brief questions. No word on identification. Nothing of certain yet.

Imagine knowing strangers are combing a spec in the woods, gathering evidence necessary to make a positive or negative identification on your daughter that has been missing for the past 10 months. How long could it take? How hard can the identification be?

Night comes with no new developments, no phone calls the next day. What can a parent do?

Then the phone rings, "Hi Greg Barnes with WTVD, Cumberland County Sheriff's Office told me that someone found remains in Cedar Creek and they think they have found your daughter, I am calling to get a confirmation."

Then the phone rings again, it's the Fayetteville Observer, then WRAL, NBC 17, the News & Observer. The phone was red hot for all of 30 minutes before it got unplugged. All with the same questions, is it true? How could she know, no one has said a thing to her. WTVD actually brags on air that they broke the story around 3:30PM.  Now I can understand the importance in being the first to alert their viewers of an impending tornado or an escaped felon on the loose.

The anxious woman who gave birth to Michelle is sitting alone in her house Thursday afternoon awaiting word, when the phone rang she had to answer and instead of it being official news from law enforcement it was the news searching for something official to report. Even lying about where they heard the initial report.

Michelle's mother, Karen Riojas, has stood strong in the face of the cameras and microphones. She has bitten her tongue more than a few times to hide her frustrations and annoyances. Karen became the national face for the missing as she appeared on not only local news but on many national news programs, Greta, Nancy Grace, Maury, and many others. She held back the grief to spread the word that her daughter could be anywhere and that someday yours could be too.

Blue Line Radio's friend Monica Caison, founding director of the nationally recognized CUE Center for Missing Persons, has guided Karen and advocated for her, helping to gain the attention necessary to have at speaking in a voice that competes for time in a world filled with sex scandals and other sponge stories that soak up the nation's interest.

As Karen worked the media Michelle's father and step mother worked the woods and trails searching for anything that might point towards the whereabouts of their kidnapped daughter. Their effort was orchestrated by search organizer Jackie Cox of Cedar Creek . Their searches around Cedar Creek helped uncover items taken from the crime scene after a man called in to report his finding Michelle's wallet roadside on Dudley Road in Cedar Creek, 60 miles away from Broadway. The search teams also searched places in Lee County around the scene of the abduction and in Harnett County around Buffalo Lake.

Besides law enforcement, the only people in the world that supposedly knew of the hunters' discovery, was the family of Michelle Bullard, Ms. Cox, Monica Caison and me. All of us, including the hunters were sworn to secrecy.

Then WTVD calls.

Why would someone alert the media? In one more day or two the mystery would be solved and everyone would get their story at a press conference. Yet the media rushed in, all of them, to break the news that wasn't supposed to be broken. The news was to remain intact, sealed. But someone couldn't wait to smash an oath to pieces. To betray a trust. To possibly harm a 10 month investigation that may quite possibly be a murder and cover-up implicating more than one person. Someone other than David Wilson. Someone now with a jump start on justice.

When law enforcement interviews a suspect the element of surprise is always to the advantage of the interviewer. Potential witnesses may "lawyer up" or just leave town delaying the clues needed to put all the proper pieces together.

The intentional leak to the news outlets caused a mother, on the teetering edge of a 9 month long nightmare, to hear from a newsman that authorities believe the remains to be her daughter. When Karen last spoke with the authorities she was told they were not sure who it was in the woods.

Did law enforcement break the news to the media?

When I heard that the media knew I called the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and they did not deny they were handling the lock up of the scene but it was the SBI that was conducting the investigation. The cat was indeed out of the bag. But I called several news agencies and they say that they received an outside tip, and that is what prompted their call to the authorities and to Michelle's mother.

Sometime around midnight between January 1st and January 2nd, 4 carefree people lay about watching a movie when a man with a mask and gun burst into the room demanding obedience. Michelle instinctively ran to the back-door to escape. The gunman shouted for her to stop or he would kill her friends. She stopped, came back in and allowed herself to be bound with tape, along with all the others. Michelle was at the most, inches from freedom.

This is the person we all have been searching for the past 9 months. The only one taken that night, the only friend unaccounted for.

Michelle Bullard could not betray her friends by running to freedom, her father Julian could not betray the voice that guided him as he walked the woods and roadsides and Karen did not betray the warrior's heart so evident in the bruises and claw marks on the monster that took her daughter where no one would ever find her.

This monster, the seed of desperation and greed, took it upon himself to take Michelle as he did and perhaps he wasn't alone. Perhaps another knows of the evil that was that monster. Perhaps that person fears a power taking hold of his heart shortening his breath and sucking the light from his eyes. Each of us know that it is only the Grace of God that has given us each a life and a hope. It is our faith that carries us in that hope, and gives us the promise of life everlasting. Everyone knows that, including the man that assisted David Wilson in betraying God that night. And now that news has broke, this man has a head-start on collecting himself in order stand, renounce his sin and beg forgiveness. There is redemption to those that will not betray what is right.

Two days after the abduction, Michelle's grandmother Mrs. Brown stood beside me at the back of the home her daughter was last heard to laugh and solemnly said she knew her granddaughter had "gone on to be with the Lord", she said she wasn't being pessimistic, she just knew that God would not let her grand-baby suffer. The sun was setting and the 40 degrees seemed to be much colder as I listened to this woman of faith. The grandmother then pointed to the ground and said, "Michelle left the house with no shoes on, you know she would be cold."

A grandmother's heart is the heart of God. God's heart would never betray any of us.

EVERY TIME A PHONE RINGS

I have a child, a boy, a young man that will, one day, by the grace of God, grow-up to have children of his own. I would hope that I will live long enough to witness the smile that those children will bring to him as they remind him of his own life, the way his mother and I saw it, full of promise and potential. A smile that acknowledges the tiny spec, the genetic, the chemistry, the spirit of family, of community ... of a wholeness and belonging that is biblical in its historic relations.

How can we be given the gift of creation, procreation, if we cannot recognize it and respect it?

How can we ignore the right to the same life, the same hope, basic and yet overflowing in truth, that we are all someone's child when we learn of other children, other parents, mothers and fathers who for some reason or other tragically or not disconnect or reject or are robbed of the hope to one day see that smile of recognition to a world so linked to our own history. How can we ignore the suffering of that loss for whatever reason?

How horrible of a day must it have been to hear a judge sentence an 18 year old son to prison for 10-12 years for a crime he did not commit. How horrible it must be every single day since then to miss out on that child's life as Linda and Donnie Beck have had to endure while their son Johnnie is locked away out of their reach.

How devastating it must be to learn that your 7 year old daughter was fed poison and killed after years of warning Social Services of the danger that lay ahead for that poor child in the hands of her legal guardian. Kayla Allen's death ended a life of promise. Imagine how painful it must be to hear a judge release their Kayla's killer on bond as the accused awaits trial, knowing that this woman is enjoying a movie, a laugh with friends, a life that Kayla will never know.

But how do you cope with having your child taken away from you, how do you face the day each day not knowing where your child is? How long does it take before you stop thinking that every phone call might bring news of the whereabouts of your daughter. Michelle Bullard was taken at gunpoint from her friend's home January 1st and today May 4th, clothes found in a pond became a two helicopter news event. Everyone was hoping for a clue, anything that can lead investigators to Michelle. But as with so many of the phone calls Michelle's family and loved ones must have received since January, this one provided no answers, only a reminder of their grief.

I never thought about how painful it must be to open a newspaper or watch the evening news while you await word on your missing child's whereabouts until I did a quick search of the recent news headlines.

Missing woman found dead
Charlotte Observer, NC - Apr 29, 2006
KANNAPOLIS - The family of a Kannapolis woman who has been missing for 10 days has confirmed that it was her body found Friday in a car in Cabarrus County. ...

Body Found in Rest Stop Bathroom: Homicide Investigation
KTEN, TX - Apr 24, 2006
... County. Right now, there are two strong suspects in the case, who are wanted felons from North Carolina for larceny of a vehicle.

NC teen's body found on beach
News & Observer, NC - Apr 24, 2006
MYRTLE BEACH, SC - The body of a North Carolina teenager who disappeared while swimming in the ocean near the Myrtle Beach Pavilion has been found

Body found in car ID'd; autopsy next
Hickory Daily Record, NC - Apr 20, 2006
HICKORY - A body found in a vehicle outside a Hickory convenience store was ... Keever’s body was sent to the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office in ...

Police ID remains found at freeway
News & Observer, NC - 20 hours ago
DURHAM - Durham police say the decomposed body found in the median of the Durham Freeway last week was a Raleigh man who was last seen alive April 17. ...

Police ID body found near Point Bridge
East Grand Forks Exponent,  USA - 1 hour ago
East Grand Forks Police were alerted to a body found by a passerby last Thursday afternoon. ... Waxvik had been missing since April 12. ...

One Body Identified, Another Found
NBC 17.com, NC - 12 hours ago
Meanwhile, Wake County authorities are trying to identify the body found this morning in ... seen alive on April 17 and had not been reported missing, police said. ...

Body found in car trunk ID'ed
7Online.com, NY - May 3, 2006
... 3, 2006) - Authorities say the decomposed remains of a man found in a car trunk in the Bronx are those of a Baltimore man who had been missing since November. ...

Body found in missing women's car
Charlotte Observer, NC - Apr 29, 2006
... to a Kannapolis woman who has been missing since April 19. Shortly after 1 pm, Cabarrus County sheriff's deputies received a call from an NC Forest Service ...

Missing Man's Body Found In Swamp
NBC 17.com, NC - Apr 21, 2006
SAMPSON COUNTY, NC -- The body of an elderly man missing for two weeks was found Thursday in a swamp in southern Sampson County, authorities said. ...

Body Found In Wilson Identified
WRAL.com, NC - May 3, 2006
WILSON, NC -- Authorities have released the identity of a body discovered in Wilson this week. Police say the found the remains ...

Body Discovered Along Neuse River Near Wake-Johnston County Lines
WRAL.com, NC - Apr 30, 2006
WAKE COUNTY, NC -- Wake County authorities are investigating a human body found near the Neuse River Sunday afternoon. Two boaters ...

As a new parent I am beginning to learn just how painful it must be for Michelle's family. I am also beginning to know how cruel it is to harbor any information that could comfort the family. Someone knows something and is not saying anything.

I have never been able to watch some of those "funniest home videos" when someone falls or is injured in some way because for an instant I feel a twinge of pain shoot through me. My heart felt pain for a brief second today when I learned that today's search turned up nothing except tears for the family.

Earlier tonight as I held my son in my lap I wondered how I could ever forgive anyone that would intentionally harm my child. Perhaps what ultimately happened to Julie Michelle Bullard was an accident, but for someone to not come forward, to cause so much pain because of their silence may be unforgivable. There is no excuse for not coming forward to the family with information that can help to ease their pain. Whatever the information is, it cannot be worse than the hell they face every time the phone rings. Think about it.

ROLLING BACKWARDS

There was a press conference held by the Harnett County Sheriff Tuesday regarding the release of the Medical Examiner's autopsy of David Wilson.

Sheriff Rollins basically issued a boilerplate statement that said there is no new evidence that can conclusively link David Wilson or anyone else for that matter to the abduction of Michelle Bullard.

He opened the floor to questions and some of his answers had various interpretations by the various media representatives in attendance. You have to understand that his statement and answers were both extremely vague and carefully worded. For instance, when asked by a reporter about the 9 recent bruises found on David Wilson's thighs, Sheriff Rollins said that they could have been caused any number of ways, such as at work or as a result of the crash of Wilson's vehicle into a fence post as it rolled in reverse after Wilson shot himself. But a reporter reported that Rollins said "The autopsy report shows that Wilson died of a gunshot wound and had bruises that were consistent with having been in a wreck, the sheriff said, " Rollins said no such thing.

In fact when Michelle's mother, Karen Riojas asked the sheriff about the bruises suggesting that her daughter caused the bruises defending herself from Wilson, she stated, "... I'm baffled that you (Sheriff Rollins) can't see that." and the sheriff responded, "Yes mam we see it but like I said there is nothing conclusive to determine what caused those injuries..."

Now I take that to mean that not only could the cause of the bruises on Wilson's crotch be caused by a work related injury or when his truck went bounding thru a fence, but he said that he (actually he said we, I guess meaning law enforcement) can also see that they could have been caused just as Ms. Riojas suggested, by Michelle fighting for her life.

People sometimes differ in what they hear and see, just like they differ from me when they say there is nothing new. Well, isn't the fact that David Wilson's truck is still being held as evidence something new? Isn't it new that the gun used to shoot himself is still being held and the sheriff refused to comment saying that, "the gun is part of an ongoing investigation". And isn't it new to find out that David Wilson was in two stores, not just one, but two stores that night. Isn't it new that these two visits were recorded on surveillance cameras and were viewed by law enforcement early on January 2nd, before a BOLO was issued for David Wilson in 3 counties?

David Wilson is a suspect, has been one since early January 2nd, the autopsy confirms it.

So why can't law enforcement say anything to confirm everyone's suspicion? Most likely because they do not believe he acted alone.

Sometime back I was able to convince an FBI psychological profiler to look into this case for me. Now don't forget I suspected that Wilson accidentally shot himself waiting for the deputy to approach the truck but according to Sheriff Rollins the deputy was about 100 feet away when Wilson shot himself. So it is highly unlikely that it was an accidental shooting. But when I asked the profiler if David Wilson was the kind of person to commit suicide he said only if he did so to protect someone.

Wilson was used to confinement, tight jams, and even prison. He had a cockiness to him that would have given him hope to escape a simple possession of a firearm by a felon charge without any prison time to serve.

To suggest that Wilson was down on his luck, broke, sad and embarrassed is contrary to the reports from family and friends. Wilson had a New Years Eve party at his house, was at another house the prior night playing poker and joking around with friends, his wife Kimberly reported to authorities that the two had no marital problems the day she reported him missing. Wilson's own father-in-law owns several pieces of property in Harnett County and was so defensive of his son-in-law that on January 5th he was arrested for sticking his head into a car, stabbing a man, reportedly in defense of Wilson and his family's reputation. E. M. (Junior) Roberts faces charges in Harnett County District Court on April 20th for the assault. So how could a man so emotionally attached to Wilson allow his daughter to go bankrupt? Wouldn't have happened and David Wilson would have known that.

I guess people hear and see what they want to, but the facts are simple, all roads lead to David Wilson.

LET'S ROLL

"Authorities said that David Wilson took his own life a few hours after Michelle Bullard, 23, was allegedly kidnapped from a friend's home on Jan. 2. Both incidents happened within six miles of each other." WRAL 03/13/06  Story: Autopsy Offers No New Info About Lee County Woman's Disappearance

First of all let's get one thing straight, three eyewitnesses have said that a masked armed gunman kidnapped Michelle Bullard against her will. How can that be an alleged kidnapping?

A man sticks a gun to the head of four people and leaves with one of them.

Who was that man?

Law enforcement "alleged" that it was David Wilson on January 2nd. So says the autopsy report. since then they have denied that he is/was a suspect.

Wral's story title: Autopsy Offers No New Info About Lee County Woman's Disappearance shows why there is little support in the community about the whereabouts of Michelle Bullard.

The autopsy report says: "The deputies thought the deceased matched description of man wanted for home invasion in Lee County. They checked at the convenience store and watched video from store. The deceased matched description of wanted suspect. Clothing also matched."

This is new information that definitely links Wilson to Michelle Bullard's disappearance (abduction) .

The handgun used in the abduction was described as a large silver handgun by the victims of the home invasion. Wilson shot himself with what Dirty Harry described as the "most powerful handgun made" a .44 caliber handgun. It was also silver in color.

This information is also new information.

Something the autopsy also shows is that several recent bruises were in his groin area. I can only imagine one thing that could cause such bruises, Michelle fighting for her life. I say this because in the numerous violent experiences of my life, from a dirt bike wreck to being bucked off of a horse, I have never experienced such bruises. Perhaps David Wilson accidentally bumped into something, repeatedly.

I believe David Wilson did it. Somethings in life are evident based on a string of coincidences. I don't need DNA evidence to tell me if my child is mine or not, likewise I don't need law enforcement to tell me that David Wilson abducted Michelle Bullard.

If law enforcement would at least go ahead and say that Michelle was abducted then perhaps people will join in on the search. But until they do so, until they state that there was a home invasion, that there was a robbery, that there was an abduction then the cloud of suspicion created by the initial false accusation by law enforcement that Michelle was a party in her own abduction, then this cloud will forever hinder community support.

Law enforcement also needs to come forward to verify that there was, in fact, a home invasion and abduction because there were 3 other victims besides Michelle. Three people who were unbelievably scared, three people that looked down the barrel of the "most powerful handgun made." Three people that suffer from public scrutiny and whispers and rumors. Three people that if given half the chance would love to tell their story about what they witnessed that night.

Don't forget that not only did they identify the gun used as Wilson's but they identified Wilson as the man that entered the house that night. And also don't forget, his clothes matched.

What more do you need? DNA? Was there any DNA evidence collected in the rubble of  the World Trade Center on September 11th that told us who hijacked the planes that crashed into the twin towers? Come on, say something!

I am curious about what you think. Email me or make a comment on this blog.