Missing Persons Segments You're Split 50/50 On

[TheCars1986]

I rarely make new threads, and if there is one similar to this I apologize, but after watching the Judith Himes segment today I got to thinking: what missing persons segments are there were people are split 50/50 on whether or not the person is alive or deceased? I had never seen the full Judith Himes segment before, and never saw the part with the radio host who someone used his identity to call the Coral Gables PD and act as if they had information on the Judith Himes case. Due to the passage of time on most of the missing persons segments featured on UM, I honestly feel that the majority of them are deceased, unfortunately. But, IMO, I do think a select few have a 50% chance of being alive:

Selena Edon - the main reason I believe she has a chance of being alive and well is the fact that there was no hints of foul play hinted at in the segment. Selena's mother had said that her mental state had deteriorated since her accident, and that Selena felt a move to San Francisco would help her regain her ground. She even told her mother that if she didn't hear from her in a month or two not to worry, and that she was ok. Her mother also described her as evasive on the phone. I think it's entirely possible that she simply forgot who she was, and wound up in a group home somewhere shortly after she was last heard from. It tends to be more likely than her meeting with foul play, considering her deteriorating mental state at the time.

Judith Hyams (Himes) - I had only seen this segment on the Farina hosted episodes, so I was under the impression that Judith simply died from an illegal abortion and that her death was covered up. It was only until I saw the full Robert Stack segment that my mind began to wonder whether or not she indeed did die or simply wanted to start a new life. The segment mentions blood being found on the back seat of her rental car, but doesn't go into specifics like whether or not the amount was traces, or enough to assume she was dead. The segment also has three different mysterious callers call the Coral Gables PD (25 full years after she vanished, and after the Coral Gables PD pretty much wrote the case off) to claim that they either had information on the case or that they knew Judith was alive and living in Omaha. Considering the fact that the Coral Gables captain, Chuck Scherer, had traveled to Omaha to give a lecture, and then began to receive phone calls related to the case adds a big WTF moment in my mind. Scherer admits that he knew nothing of the case, never once brought it up to anyone during his stay in Omaha, and had never even heard the name before he began receiving the phone calls. I find the odds that these phone calls (3 of them) were all crank calls (considering the distance from Coral Gables to Omaha and the passage of time of the disappearance) to be astronomical. What are the odds that three people (in the pre-internet age) are going to conspire to mess with a 25 year old missing persons case with which they have no connection? The phone calls alone makes me wonder whether or not Judith was alive at the time, or if she did indeed reside in Omaha before Scherer was there to give his lecture. I'd say the odds of her living after her disappearance are 50/50.

Pam Page - I know her husband Rob did some very, very suspicious things after her disappearance. However, there are certain aspects to the story that make me think there's a 50% chance she simply left him to start a new life. Not only was she missing, but several family photos as well as one of the family dogs was missing as well. Most guys who decide to knock off their wife and make it seem like they disappeared usually aren't smart enough to also knock off a dog and discard several photos to make their story more believable. Not to mention that the segment specifically mentioned that police could never find any evidence of wrongdoing on Rob Page's part, is enough to make me question the belief that she was murdered by Rob.

Star Palumbo - the reason I'm 50/50 on this one is because of the fact that Star never contacted her family since her disappearance. It seems plausible that she got caught up in a world of drugs and prostitution, and was either ashamed of what she had become or had forgotten who she used to be, which would account for her not contacting anyone. But then again, there was a flimsy eyewitness account of someone looking like Star being frightened of a man peering through a window of a bar, which seemed to play up the foul play theory more. Also, the fact that it was hinted that she was into prostitution would open up a world of dangerous possibilities as to what had happened to her. The Charley Project page on Star says she had gotten involved with meth before her disappearance. Knowing how meth significantly alters someone's appearance after repeated abuse, this could be a reason why no one has come forward with sightings of Star. If alive, she probably would look nothing like what she used to. And there was evidence found in her abandoned car that seemed to indicate Star was researching how to change her identity.

[isotope]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I
Pam Page - I know her husband Rob did some very, very suspicious things after her disappearance. .

.

No kidding - forging a letter by his wife and lying about his movements during the period she first went missing - its really hard to see how that's consistent with innocence.

Yet, apparently he was cleared as being a suspect by the cops after a thorough investigation. Like Timothy McClure, I'm not sure what to make of him. In any event, he died 5 years ago, so its unlikely we'll ever find out what happened.

[RobinW]

For many of the cases involving missing infants (Jacqueline Castenada, Marlene Santana, etc.), I think there's a better than 50/50 chance they're alive since they may have been abducted by people who wanted to raise a child of their own. In fact, the ensuing years may be interesting for the Jacqueline Castenada case since she will soon reaching the age where she might be required to provide a birth certificate for certain things. As we've seen with cases like Carlina White, abducted children often become suspicious when they ask for their birth certificate and the person raising them inexplicably doesn't have it.

I've also always been 50/50 on Dub and Chance Wackerhagen. Since it's been 20 years, it seems less likely they're still alive yet no murder theory has ever made complete sense to me. I don't know why an unknown third party would murder everyone yet dispose of Dub and Chance's bodies while leaving Leticia behind. However, I still have problems with the murder-suicide theory. I know Dub was a hot-tempered guy who would be capable of murdering his girlfriend in a crime of passion, yet he never struck me as someone evil enough to kill his own son. I don't entirely discount the possibility that they've somehow managed to stay hidden all this time.

You make some good points about the Himes case. The whole part with the radio host was the true WTF moment for me since the caller impersonating him provided the police with his home number. Yet the host claims that he had an unlisted phone number which only a handful of people knew and he doesn't think any of them would have pulled a bizarre stunt like this. But even if he's wrong, what kind of connection would they have to Judith Himes ?! Truly baffling!

[wonderwall]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Judith Hyams (Himes) - I had only seen this segment on the Farina hosted episodes, so I was under the impression that Judith simply died from an illegal abortion and that her death was covered up. It was only until I saw the full Robert Stack segment that my mind began to wonder whether or not she indeed did die or simply wanted to start a new life. The segment mentions blood being found on the back seat of her rental car, but doesn't go into specifics like whether or not the amount was traces, or enough to assume she was dead. The segment also has three different mysterious callers call the Coral Gables PD (25 full years after she vanished, and after the Coral Gables PD pretty much wrote the case off) to claim that they either had information on the case or that they knew Judith was alive and living in Omaha. Considering the fact that the Coral Gables captain, Chuck Scherer, had traveled to Omaha to give a lecture, and then began to receive phone calls related to the case adds a big WTF moment in my mind. Scherer admits that he knew nothing of the case, never once brought it up to anyone during his stay in Omaha, and had never even heard the name before he began receiving the phone calls. I find the odds that these phone calls (3 of them) were all crank calls (considering the distance from Coral Gables to Omaha and the passage of time of the disappearance) to be astronomical. What are the odds that three people (in the pre-internet age) are going to conspire to mess with a 25 year old missing persons case with which they have no connection? The phone calls alone makes me wonder whether or not Judith was alive at the time, or if she did indeed reside in Omaha before Scherer was there to give his lecture. I'd say the odds of her living after her disappearance are 50/50.

I always thought the Judth Hyams segment was so intriguing and pretty creepy due to the voice in the re-enactment of the calls. Interesting theory--in terms of the update from the anonymous nurse who wrote a letter saying Judith died from complications during an illegal abortion, do you think (if she were alive) it was a false letter written by Judith or somebody who has helped her start a new life to throw them off her trail?

I always figured she had died due to complications with the abortion, but as I said, very interesting to think about the other part of it!

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I've also always been 50/50 on Dub and Chance Wackerhagen. Since it's been 20 years, it seems less likely they're still alive yet no murder theory has ever made complete sense to me. I don't know why an unknown third party would murder everyone yet dispose of Dub and Chance's bodies while leaving Leticia behind. However, I still have problems with the murder-suicide theory. I know Dub was a hot-tempered guy who would be capable of murdering his girlfriend in a crime of passion, yet he never struck me as someone evil enough to kill his own son. I don't entirely discount the possibility that they've somehow managed to stay hidden all this time.

I used to think that Dub and Chance were on the lam, but after I thought about it it would be extremely difficult for a truck driver to have the means to disappear and stay disappeared, especially with a young child.

[MegtheEgg86]

Good thread topic.

Selena Edon is the one that stands out for me the most. I think it's very possible she lived for quite some time or is still living today as a transient somewhere in the U.S.

I go back and forth on Dub and Chance Wackerhagen, which is probably why it's one of my favorite segments. I've gone from thinking Chance, Dub, and Letricia were all murdered by a third party to the theory that Dub and Chance perished in a murder-suicide shortly after the disappearance to the notion that at least Chance is alive and might even be living under a different name in the U.S. Dub's father's repeated insistence that he was never helping his son out financially and his later suicide have always kind of troubled me and do add an element of doubt to the idea that the two are dead (or at least were dead throughout that time). I don't know what I think about the disappearance, but I do think there is a possibility that they could both still be alive--now whether I'd bump that possibility up to 50%, I'm not sure.

[Necco]

Michael Hughes.

I know I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I really think anything is possible in this one.

[RobinW]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

Dub's father's repeated insistence that he was never helping his son out financially and his later suicide have always kind of troubled me and do add an element of doubt to the idea that the two are dead (or at least were dead throughout that time).

Yeah, that revelation about Dub's father's suicide is certainly interesting and makes me think that Dub and Chance may have at least been on the run initially until something bad happened which prompted him to kill himself. I haven't discounted the possibility of a Christophe Day-type situation where Dub or Chance might have died of some non-murder-related reason while on the run.

If Dub's family has been complicit in helping him while he's on the run, I wonder what they do about Chance if, say, Dub dies of a heart attack or commits suicide. If Chance returns, there's always a risk of the family being charged with aiding a fugitive.

[soilentgreen]

I think that James Kimball, the mentally ill young man who left his family's home after a dispute, might have been alive for some time after his disappearance, and could be living today.

[TheCars1986]

Patricia Meehan is another missing person who could have lived (and very well may still be alive under a different name) after her disappearance. For one, the authorities believed she was hitching rides with truckers to make it across country. So there seems to be some sort of eyewitness accounts of truckers giving rides to women who acted and/or resembled her. There was also mention of how she may have suffered from some sort of memory loss due to the head on collision she was in right before she disappeared. Half of me believes she could have met with foul play (if she was hitching rides with truckers, this would be a very dangerous thing to do, especially with her deteriorating mental state), while the other half believes that she could have been spotted and taken to a group home somewhere, or even worse living homeless and lost without knowing who she is.

[Necco]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Patricia Meehan is another missing person who could have lived (and very well may still be alive under a different name) after her disappearance. For one, the authorities believed she was hitching rides with truckers to make it across country. So there seems to be some sort of eyewitness accounts of truckers giving rides to women who acted and/or resembled her. There was also mention of how she may have suffered from some sort of memory loss due to the head on collision she was in right before she disappeared. Half of me believes she could have met with foul play (if she was hitching rides with truckers, this would be a very dangerous thing to do, especially with her deteriorating mental state), while the other half believes that she could have been spotted and taken to a group home somewhere, or even worse living homeless and lost without knowing who she is.

There's some talk that Patricia may have ended up a victim of the evil pig farmer guy. (ok, fine, I'll google his name so he doesn't end up like "the fish guy") Robert Pickton

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by soilentgreen

I think that James Kimball, the mentally ill young man who left his family's home after a dispute, might have been alive for some time after his disappearance, and could be living today.

Oo, didn't even think of Jim Kimball. Totally in agreement with you.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I haven't discounted the possibility of a Christophe Day-type situation where Dub or Chance might have died of some non-murder-related reason while on the run.

Especially in light of the fact that many people who go on the run often don't seek medical attention, and if they do, it's often when the circumstances are dire (a la Leo Koury).

If Dub's family has been complicit in helping him while he's on the run, I wonder what they do about Chance if, say, Dub dies of a heart attack or commits suicide. If Chance returns, there's always a risk of the family being charged with aiding a fugitive.

That's a great question. Chance's return would undoubtedly entail hours of police interviews, and unless he had a really, really good story crafted to avoid implicating any family members (provided he in fact was on the lam with his father the entire time), I could also see that being a very real possibility--although I'm unsure what the implications of Dub being deceased would be. Would there even be any prosecution at that point? I really have no actual idea.

[Janel "Jaycee" Miller]

Originally Posted by Necco

Michael Hughes.

I know I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I really think anything is possible in this one.

Is there a particular reason you think that he could still be alive? I'm always interested in hearing folks opinions on cases.

[Allierain]

Originally Posted by wonderwall

I always thought the Judth Hyams segment was so intriguing and pretty creepy due to the voice in the re-enactment of the calls. Interesting theory--in terms of the update from the anonymous nurse who wrote a letter saying Judith died from complications during an illegal abortion, do you think (if she were alive) it was a false letter written by Judith or somebody who has helped her start a new life to throw them off her trail?

I always figured she had died due to complications with the abortion, but as I said, very interesting to think about the other part of it!

Very intriguing and very creepy indeed. Although personally I don't believe what happened to Judith is a mystery. I think it happened just as the letter stated it did. And one detail that stands out to me is how the letter is written. I quote line one from the letter:

"She came in for an abortion and was given an injection of anesthetic...."

The line illustrates that Judith came to the clinic. I would have thought that if it was a prank letter, that someone would have said "she WENT to." CAME indicates someone came to where the letter writer was. In other words, whoever wrote the letter was there in the clinic when Judith was there, and probably witnessed whatever happened. She might have been an assistant working there (we cannot judge from the segment how many people were in the clinic, that was a set with actors and not a real representation) or a witness who was also there for the procedure. This letter, I believe, is the key. I do not believe Judith Hymes is alive for one moment.

But as for the prank calls and Omaha? I have no clue. But this case sure has provided some laughs over the years.