Mysterious Disappearance of Morgan Harrington: Update

I received an update from a friend of the family of Morgan Harrington who disappeared on October 17, 2009 at a concert with friends. Please note that it is always important to verify any listing for donations for funds to aid in the search for a missing person with local law enforcement. Unfortunately, there are many, many scam artists who take advantage of these tragedies to commit crimes. Here is the notice I received:

Based on your past coverage, I wanted to share with you the below statement issued today by the Harrington family regarding a fund established to aid in the search for their daughter. The Find Morgan Fund will be used to support the printing and production of flyers, missing persons advertisements, and other search materials necessary to advance the search for Morgan.

I would appreciate if you could share this statement with your readers. Additionally, your readers can help raise awareness about the search for Morgan by following us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/find_morgan) or joining the “Help find Morgan Harrington” Facebook group (http://bit.ly/1K8B8).

STATEMENT BY DAN AND GIL HARRINGTON

We are deeply moved by the outpouring of support we’ve received since our daughter disappeared 16 days ago on October 17 from a concert in Charlottesville, VA.

At the request of friends and supporters, the Harrington family has established the Find Morgan Fund to help in the search for our daughter. The Harrington family will donate any unused funds to charities that assist families of missing persons and causes with which Morgan has been directly involved, including Mental Heath America of Roanoke Valley and OMNI Orphan Medical Network International.

Contributions may be sent by mail to the following address:

Find Morgan Fund

P.O. Box 7588

Roanoke, VA 24019

Contributions may also be sent via PayPal through www.FindMorgan.com.

We are truly grateful for your kindness and we thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers.

Never too late: New appeal for Madeleine McCann

The Child Explointation and On-Line Protection Center in the UK has a launched a fresh appeal in the search for missing British girl Madeleine McCann on the Internet. It’s directed towards people who may be close to those responsible for her disappearance. It contains the plea, “It’s never too late to do the right thing”. The video also includes age progression images of Madeleine who was 3 years old in May of 2007 when she disaappeared from the holiday rental in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. Let’s hope this finally provides the information needed.

VIEW NEW VIDEO

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Mysterious disappearance of Morgan Harrington

This is the kind of news story that hits hard to every parent. Police are still looking for Morgan Harrington, a 20 year old student at Virginia Tech, who disappeared on Saturday night when she was separated from her friends at a Metallica concert. To date, law enforcement say they have no evidence to suggest Morgan is a victim of foul play, but, clearly it hasn’t been ruled out. It’s encouraging to note they’ve been flooded with tips. Hopefully one of them will bring a resolution soon.

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Jaycee Dugard: Oprah, People and The View

It’s great to see everyone is talking about the amazing Jaycee Dugard case. It’s hard to believe she has reappeared after so many years. Yesterday on Oprah, she featured members of law enforcement who helped crack the disappearance. There were also parents whose children have disappeared and now, because of Dugard’s startling reappearance, have renewed hope. It was so hard to listen to mothers and fathers describing their missing child’s last words and movements. If you missed the program check out OPRAH TV for all the details on these missing children and information on who to contact if you have any information that will help solve these cases. According to missingkids.com there are 800 missing kids in the U.S. alone.

In this week’s PEOPLE MAGAZINE, Jaycee Dugard says she’s happy to be back home with her family. On THE VIEW this morning, Barbara Walters held up the magazine cover and pointed to 2 photos. One was a police sketch done shortly after Jaycee disappeared, projecting how Jaycee would look in X number of years. The other is how she looks today. As Barbara Walters astutely noted, it is amazing how close the police sketch artist came to the real thing. I applaud their expertise and hope it’s some bit of reassurance to parents struggling to survive this tragic criminal act.

Stephen King: Heart of Darkness

One of the best books I read this summer was Lisa Rogak’s autobiography of author Stephen King. I read King’s book ON WRITING which is excellent, but only provides a glimpse of the man behind the mythology. This book peels back the proverbial layers. Stephen King is very down to earth. I was fascinated to read about how he and his family have made it a point to demystify the cult of fame. King and his wife are lucky they found each other; they work together.

I empathized with Stephen King’s dislike for categorizing writing; in particular, those who esteem ‘literary’ writing and look down their noses at commercial writing. (I’ve always thought it’s ‘the emporer who wore no clothes phenomenon.’) It is reassuring to me, for some reason, to read about a writer who had the absolute epitomy of the writer’s dream come true and, despite the crazy roller coaster ride, has kept his truth intact. You’re thinking: making tons and tons of money helps! Actually, that, believe it or not, can come with its own set of problems. Having grown up in an alcoholic family and attended ACOA 12-step, I admire Stephen’s committment to sobriety. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he wrote THE GREEN MILE at that time. It’s a great book.

But the most fascinating aspect for me was this mysterious disappearance: When Stephen had just turned 2, his father casually mentioned he was heading out to the store to buy cigarettes. He walked down the street and they never saw him again.

Lisa Rogak references a theory that every fiction writer is writing to someone who is missing in their lives. It’s an interesting thought. It would mean that I’m writing to my deceased father. I’ve always said, “God can’t resist filling the black holes in children’s souls with something good.” My ‘good’ gift was and is writing. I think, after reading this book, that maybe Stephen King’s is too.

Mysterious Disappearance of Natalee Holloway

I just finished reading “Loving Natalee:The Truth Story of The Aruba Kidnapping and Its Aftermath” by Beth Holloway. Beth’s daughter, Natalee, vanished in Aruba during a senior class trip in May of 2005. I remember seeing Beth on CNN at the time and feeling such sympathy, trying to imagine the unimaginable; a parent’s worst nightmare. I can’t fathom getting that call. This book depicts Beth’s courage in never giving up the relentless search for her daughter, despite the odds, despite the lack of cooperation from the local authorities and all the roadblocks encountered. I was deeply touched by Beth Holloway’s tenacity and love for her daughter. I hope, as Oprah advocates, that some good will come out of this and other parents may learn something from this tragic kidnapping.

SHADOWS UNSOLVED DISAPPEARANCES

My fascination with unsolved disappearances was featured recently in FILMS and BOOKS, along with my new suspense novel LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU. Missing persons, crime, are a national obsession–and entertainment which is unsettling when you consider then 10 million people go missing each year.

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RCMP Baffled by Disappearance of Teenager

This missing teenager case in British Columbia is unsettling. Almost 10 days ago, Jodi Henrikson vanished after a late night party on Bowen Island. She had no cell phone, job or bank account. She carried a few dollars. When Jodi left, she told her parents that she was going camping at Cultus Lake. The search for the missing teen has only come up empty to date. I hope someone comes forward soon and that it isn’t a case of teens holding back because they’re afraid to talk to the police.

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Mysterious disappearance of gold

A gold heist at the Royal Canadian Mint? Apparently millions of dollars worth has disappeared at its high-security facility along the Ottawa River. There have been two incidents of gold theft at the mint, but nothing that compares to the current mystery involving millions of dollars in closely guarded metal.

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Mysterious disappearance of Women: Erased

I just finished reading the book “Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives” by journalist Marilee Strong. She states on page one: “The long road that led to this book began for me with the diappearance of Laci Peterson.” The book is as hypnotic as a car wreck; you can’t look away despite the horror. I had to keep reading it. The author chronicles the stories behind the headlines of women who have been erased, who seemingly vanish never to be seen again. While their deaths are attributed to suicide, drowning or random crimes, eventually investigators reveal that they’ve been murdered by their husband, boyfriend or loved one. Strong presents a thoroughly investigative report on this chilling and, until recently, relatively unheard of phenonmenon. I discovered her blog with more information on the writing of the book, advocacy for these ‘erased’ women, and a recent update on Scott Peterson.

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