I had a really rough time at the Day Job today, but then someone forwarded me a news story that put everything in perspective. A man suspected of having murdered missing college student Stepha Henry was arrested today in New York.
The body of Stepha Henry has not been found, but so much of her blood was in the car that took her to a Sunrise nightclub that she could not possibly have survived, officials said Tuesday.At a news conference at the Miami-Dade Police Department, officials for the first time said Henry, 22, was brutally murdered last May, and though she remains missing, her killer, police said, has been located.
Police in Brooklyn arrested Kendrick Lincoln Williams, 32, Tuesday morning and have been questioning him much of the day, said Jim Loftus, assistant director of investigative services for the Miami-Dade Police Department. Williams is being charged with second degree murder.
Henry, a recent graduate of John Jay College who aspired to attend law school, was visiting her aunt in North Miami during the Memorial Day weekend last year when she disappeared.
Prosecutor Abbe Rifkin, of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, said the second degree murder charge against Williams could change as the investigation continues. Williams is also charged with tampering with evidence.
The body has yet to be located, but all signs seem to point to a bad ending.
I’ve had people periodically ask me why I kept posting updates about this story, when there really hasn’t been any new news since June. I guess my thought has always been that Henry could just as well be my wife, mom, aunt, sister in law, or for that matter, my son, since this phenomenon of “who cares if they’re black and missing?” is hardly gender specific. How would I feel if my loved one was missing, yet I couldn’t even get the police to search for them because they didn’t fit the typical profile of a distressed missing person?
While Henry’s case did get some low level of cable news media coverage, it is nowhere near the frenzy typically generated by a missing Jesse Davis, Natalee Holloway, or Elizabeth Smart. The case is perhaps most notable for having been famously bumped from cable news coverage when breaking news of Paris Hilton’s imprisonment pre-empted it. And that’s a damn shame, but it tells you a lil’ something about the country we still live in. Politricks of Hope™ and “A New America” aside, we still have a long way to go.
I could go off on some tangent about how that pregnant marine story is all over the news, yet I wouldn’t have heard about the break in this case unless my readers told me about it. Would more media attention to Henry’s disappearance have possibly lead to her safe return? The world will never know. Why is it that the media, and by proxy (in some cases), the police don’t seem to care about missing people of the wrong hue? If you’re a male college student like Julian McCormick, a female college student like Henry, or any age above and below, reality is, you better find your own damn self, because nobody will be looking for you. Except for your family, friends, and Black and Missing, nobody cares. There is no Laquita Alert.
What is true is that none of that matters right now.
A life is quite possibly lost, and though I don’t know anything about Ms. Henry other than what I’ve posted here for the past six months, I felt a deep and profound sense of sorrow when I was forwarded this story.
If these allegations are true, I hope there’s a sauna in West Hell waiting for Mr. Williams.
Please pray for the Henry family in this time of sorrow, and always pray for God’s hedge of protection for your loved ones.
Police: Blood evidence shows Stepha Henry was murdered [Sun-Sentinel]
Filed under: Stepha Henry
I know what you’re saying. This odd holiday disappearance from Chicago-land has few parallels with our missing sista, but think bigger.
Family members arranged a meeting at an undisclosed location between investigators and a married woman from Illinois whose disappearance on Christmas Eve prompted a costly search.Anu Solanki, 24, met with law enforcement officials at an undisclosed location Friday, said Cook County sheriff’s police spokesman Steve Mayberry.
“I don’t care why she left,” her brother, Dhiren Patel, told reporters. “Hey, she’s alive. That’s the most important thing.”
Cell phone records indicated Solanki had left voluntarily with a 23-year-old male friend from California, authorities said earlier Friday. Mayberry did not know whether the friend, Karan C. Jani, had returned with Solanki.
“As far as I’m aware her physical condition is fine,” Mayberry said. “At this time she hasn’t been charged with anything.”
Solanki’s husband, who lived with his wife near suburban Des Plaines, was not aware of her friendship with Jani, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told reporters.
Anu Solanki’s car was found Monday in a forest preserve parking lot, triggering the search by police and relatives, who distributed flyers with her picture. A sheriff’s department helicopter was also used in the search.
Authorities spent about $250,000 on the search and in investigating Solanki’s disappearance, Dart said.
Seriously, how would you like to be this woman’s husband right about now? Your wife disappears on Christmas Eve, concocts some story about suspicious folks (wanna guess which race) following her to a park where she is to dispose of a religious statue, and it turns out that she just wanted to creep with her MySpace jumpoff the whole time.
Somebody got some s’plainin’ to do.
Outside the completely triflin’ nature of this story, I do see a silver lining. This woman’s search was immediate, and very costly, darn near to the tune of a cool 1/4 mill, which she may or may not have to pay back based on prior examples (see The Runaway Bride). And lets not overlook the obvious, this is also a woman of color. The fact that law enforcement cared enough to throw those kinds of resources at looking for her (although I’m sure the suburban jurisdiction and timing had lots to do with the sense of urgency) is encouraging on some level.
Maybe there’s hope for the recovery of Stepha Henry after all.
Ill. Woman Missing on Christmas Eve Fine [AP]
A Stepha Henry Update: Family Faces Christmas Without Daughter [AP]
Filed under: Stepha Henry
I know what you’re saying. This odd holiday disappearance from Chicago-land has few parallels with our missing sista, but think bigger.
Family members arranged a meeting at an undisclosed location between investigators and a married woman from Illinois whose disappearance on Christmas Eve prompted a costly search.Anu Solanki, 24, met with law enforcement officials at an undisclosed location Friday, said Cook County sheriff’s police spokesman Steve Mayberry.
“I don’t care why she left,” her brother, Dhiren Patel, told reporters. “Hey, she’s alive. That’s the most important thing.”
Cell phone records indicated Solanki had left voluntarily with a 23-year-old male friend from California, authorities said earlier Friday. Mayberry did not know whether the friend, Karan C. Jani, had returned with Solanki.
“As far as I’m aware her physical condition is fine,” Mayberry said. “At this time she hasn’t been charged with anything.”
Solanki’s husband, who lived with his wife near suburban Des Plaines, was not aware of her friendship with Jani, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told reporters.
Anu Solanki’s car was found Monday in a forest preserve parking lot, triggering the search by police and relatives, who distributed flyers with her picture. A sheriff’s department helicopter was also used in the search.
Authorities spent about $250,000 on the search and in investigating Solanki’s disappearance, Dart said.
Seriously, how would you like to be this woman’s husband right about now? Your wife disappears on Christmas Eve, concocts some story about suspicious folks (wanna guess which race) following her to a park where she is to dispose of a religious statue, and it turns out that she just wanted to creep with her MySpace jumpoff the whole time.
Somebody got some s’plainin’ to do.
Outside the completely triflin’ nature of this story, I do see a silver lining. This woman’s search was immediate, and very costly, darn near to the tune of a cool 1/4 mill, which she may or may not have to pay back based on prior examples (see The Runaway Bride). And lets not overlook the obvious, this is also a woman of color. The fact that law enforcement cared enough to throw those kinds of resources at looking for her (although I’m sure the suburban jurisdiction and timing had lots to do with the sense of urgency) is encouraging on some level.
Maybe there’s hope for the recovery of Stepha Henry after all.
Ill. Woman Missing on Christmas Eve Fine [AP]
A Stepha Henry Update: Family Faces Christmas Without Daughter [AP]
[Racial Disparities Week Continues at AB.com]
I’m sure conservative talking heads are going to have a field day with this story of false abduction from Ohio.
A pregnant attorney who vanished for four days last week now says her tale of being kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to Georgia was fabricated, police said Tuesday. Her husband said she had “a meltdown.”Karyn McConnell Hancock, a former Toledo city councilwoman, had disappeared Wednesday and was found Saturday near Atlanta. Her husband said Monday that his 35-year-old wife, six months pregnant with her second child, claimed she was kidnapped.
Cobb County police say she claimed two white men and a black woman abducted her.
Police said at a news conference that she recanted Monday after eight hours of questioning. Hancock will likely be charged with making a false police report, said Police Chief Mike Navarre. Police would not discuss a motive, but Hancock’s husband, Lawrence Hancock, said his wife has been having psychological problems for several years.
I can’t help but notice the parallels and contrasts between this story and the ludicrous Jennifer Wilbanks: Runaway Bride, a few years back. In that story, a white Georgia woman disappeared days before her wedding, and called from the road with a Susan Smith-like story about being abducted by a Hispanic man and white woman. A media circus ensued, and Wilbanks’ disappearance was the lead news story for days.
Once Wilbanks was “found” in New Mexico, the house of cards unraveled, and it turned out that she was simply having a case of cold feet. Wilbanks was charged with felony indictment of giving false information to police, but the charges were eventually dropped. This being America and all, Wilbanks of course got a lucrative book and movie deal outta this whole debacle, and ended up suing her ex-fiance for half the cost of a home he bought with the proceeds in a very odd turn of events. And they say love is unconditional. P’shaw.
By contrast, I didn’t hear jack squat about Hancock’s disappearance until her story also unraveled. This is of course no real surprise, given the media’s “who the f**k cares?” attitude toward missing black women, and heck, missing black people in general. But it is interesting that both Wilbanks and Hancock blamed their disappearances on someone of the opposite race. Anyone care to offer an opinion on this rationale? I’m fresh outta PoV’s on that one. You know where to weigh in.
Hancock’s family seems to indicate that she’s been having some emotional problems in addition to being in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. Those are classic signs of “crying out”, and I wish her the best. I just pray nobody was unnecessarily detained for her false allegations, as in the case of Smith and Wilbanks.
That said, I’m pretty sure this will be both the first and last we hear of Hancock. She will probably get a similar sentence to that of Wilbanks, but there will absolutely be no WifeTime™ Movie of the Week.
Cause Hollywood doesn’t give a crap about missing black women either.
[Editor's Note: Just in case you were wondering, no new news on Stepha Henry. Pray for the family. I would imagine the holidays are going to be especially rough.]
Ohio Attorney Recants Abduction Story [AP]
Filed under: Stepha Henry
Yes, she’s still missing. Nope, still nobody gives a crap.
I did a Google search and got nothing new. Google News search: nothing new. Google Blog search: the first returned hit was my last post.
WTF?!!?
If somebody knows a rapper or self-aggrandizing talk show host who’d love to take the reins and turn this into a legit story, please tell em’ to holler at me.
In the meantime, if you’d like to give something to the family, here’s the info, courtesy of Crime Scene Blog.com.
If anyone would like to donate to Sylvia Henry, Stepha’s mother there is an address below to send checks. As far as I know, these monies are being used to raise the reward for information and may be used to offset the expenses she encounters traveling back and forth to Florida.
Sylvia Henry
PO Box 5083
Hollywood, Florida, 33083-5083John Jay College is also taking up a reward. Those wishing to contribute can mail a check payable to the following address:
John Jay College Foundation Inc.
Stepha Henry Reward Fund, at John Jay College Foundation
899 10th Ave., Room 623T
New York, NY 10019
I never thought I’d actually pray for Rebb’n Al and Jesse to come to the rescue, but here’s one instance in which they (or at least the publicity that comes along with them) are really needed.
Keep this family, and this young lady in your prayers.
Other Stepha Henry Posts @ AB.com
Filed under: Stepha Henry
Not only is Stepha Henry still missing after months, but she isn’t even generating fresh hits on Google News Searches anymore. WTF!?!?
Did I miss something (Deidre, where you at?) while I was preoccupied with all this Drive-By Activism, or was she actually found?
Peep the cartoon (click on photo) above. Funny, sad, and so true, all at once. Kinda like this site.
Woman Vanishes From Crowded Nightclub [America's Most Wanted]
Filed under: MLK is Crying Inside, Stepha Henry, The Evil That Men Do, White Men Gone Wild
There are bad stories, there are ugly stories, then there’s stuff like this story from West Virginia that seems like an outtake from the movie Saw II, with a bit of Deliverance mixed in for good measure.
Police have arrested Bobby R. Brewster, 24, his mother Frankie Brewster, 49, both of Big Creek; Alisha Burton, 23, her mother, Karen Burton, 46, both of Chapmanville; Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts; and George A. Messer, 27, of Chapmanville, in connection with the assault on a Charleston woman, who was raped, stabbed, scalded and forced to eat dog feces during her weeklong captivity in a Logan County trailer. The two people being sought by police are believed to have picked up 23-year-old Megan Williams from Charleston and transported her to Big Creek, where she was held captive in a home for at least a week.Police are looking for two more people in the torture, beating and sexual assault of a Charleston woman, and the Logan County prosecutor said he believes the woman first met one of her abductors over the Internet.
Besides being sexually assaulted, Williams had been stabbed four times in the left leg and beaten, said Sgt. Sonya Porter of the sheriff’s department. Both of her eyes were black and blue. Her wounds were inflicted at least a week ago, deputies said. During her captivity, the victim was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from the toilet, according to a criminal complaint filed in magistrate court. Deputies say Williams was also doused with hot water while being sexually assaulted. The woman also had been choked with a cable cord and her hair cut, the complaint said.
One of those arrested, Karen Burton, is accused of cutting the woman’s ankle with a knife. She used the word nigger in telling Williams she was victimized because she is black, according to the criminal complaint.
Other news accounts mention Megan Williams, the victim, as being “mentally challenged” which only makes this whole situation even worse. I hope the Brewsters and Burtons burn in hell for doing something so heinous to a person that it defies words. Heck, I can’t even add anymore to this story, it’s just that bad. You know when AverageBro is at a loss for words, it’s gotta be bad. Real bad.
I could start up the whole “why isn’t this story getting more attention/if the races were reversed” machine, but damn, that record’s been skippin.. skippin… skipp..
Bottom line: If you’re black in America and over the age of 16, you should catch the pattern by now. Why even bother being surprised anymore?
Thankfully, the police and prosecutors threw the book at these goons, and they will be doing some serious time. It’s a miracle that this “anonymous tip” lead to Williams’ recovery, or these people might have actually gotten away with murder. I’m sure Rebb’n Al and Co. will be fueling up their charter jets for Charleston as soon as they get wind of this next month (you know they can only follow one big story at a time), but let the record reflect that at least for now, the legal system is doing it’s part in making sure these inbred hicks get what’s coming to them.
Say a prayer for the Williams family.
James Byrd is crying inside.
Woman tortured for at least a week – FBI Enters Case of Ghastly Abuse [Charleston, WV - Daily Mail]
Filed under: Frivolous Lawsuits, Judge Joe Brown Says : "WELL DONE", Stepha Henry
Yesterday, I told you about Julian McCormick, a local college student who was reported missing, and after a week of being left for dead in a ravine, freed himself from a car, and flagged down a ride to the hospital. We’re all very happy this guy is alive, but as more details about the accident that left him stranded surface, I can only say one thing: Julian McCormick is one gully brother.
As Julian McCormick recalls it, he lay in and out of consciousness for eight days and seven nights, hot, sticky and bloody with not a clue as to what day it was or how he ended up trapped in his overturned car at the bottom of a steep embankment in Prince George’s County.To survive, he ate a fish he caught with his hands and used his high-top sneaker to drink water from the creek, the 18-year-old Bowie State University student told his parents.
As Julian McCormick recalls it, he lay in and out of consciousness for eight days and seven nights, hot, sticky and bloody with not a clue as to what day it was or how he ended up trapped in his overturned car at the bottom of a steep embankment in Prince George’s County.
To survive, he ate a fish he caught with his hands and used his high-top sneaker to drink water from the creek, the 18-year-old Bowie State University student told his parents.
When he finally was able to muster the strength, he cut his seat belt using a small knife he had in his car, forced his door open and then dragged himself by his elbows, his body racked with pain, 30 feet up to the shoulder of the road hoping that someone would see him and rescue him. Someone did.
Man, does this story have the makings of a made for TV/straight to DVD movie or what? Somebody get the BET Blackbuster Films people on the line.
As I suspected, the family is of course happy that their son was located in one piece, but now that he’s safe and sound, someone in the PG County Police department has some splainin’ to do.
As their son recovered at Washington Hospital Center yesterday, Peggy and James McCormick tried to piece together the circumstances of their son’s disappearance and recovery and questioned why police had not done more to search for him.
And why did police wait days to look for McCormick and then conduct just a 1 1/2 -hour search — at night, when visibility was limited?
Police categorized McCormick as a “non-critical missing person” because there were no signs of foul play.
“I don’t think it was a priority,” Peggy McCormick said. Added James McCormick: “He’s been there the whole time, less than one mile from home.”
Sniff, sniff. That’s the smell of a lawsuit being drawn up, and it ain’t frivolous.
The PGC Police are saying that since the accident occurred on Federal property, they aren’t culpable. I say, B.S. That incompetent squad should have done more than a 90 minute search for that kid. If he didn’t have such a strong will to live, this story might have ended quite differently.
Thanks to Julian McCormick, aka: Survivor Beltsville though, this one’s headed for a Hollywood ending. I’m already putting it in my Netflix queue.
Bowie Student Trapped 8 Days Details Pain, Survival Tactics [WaPost]
If you’ve followed this site for any period of time, you know it really pisses me off that when black people go missing, the media attention is seldom (never?) as broad as it is for missing whites. Case after case has proven this bias. Chandra Levy. Jessie Davis. Elizabeth Smart.
So what other conclusion am I to make when a black male college student goes missing on a road I travel everyday and I only hear about it when he’s found?
A college student who was missing for more than a week before he was found on the side of a Prince George’s County [MD] road Saturday is in good condition at a hospital, but his brother said yesterday that family members won’t coax him for details about what happened until he has recovered.Julian McCormick, 18, disappeared Sept. 1 after he left Bowie State University, where he is a first-year student, en route to his girlfriend’s dorm at the University of Maryland in College Park. He never showed up, and his family and friends began a massive search that ended about 6 p.m. Saturday when a passenger in a car noticed him lying next to a guardrail near Powder Mill and Soil Conservation roads, close to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Beltsville.
McCormick’s Honda Civic was found upside down in a deep creek bed that runs under the road where he was found. His father, James McCormick told reporters Saturday that it took his son more than a week to force open the driver’s side door and escape. Authorities have not revealed the extent of McCormick’s injuries, and many questions remain about how the 6-foot, 175-pound student survived last week’s potentially deadly heat without much food or water in a cramped front seat.
First and foremost, thank God that this brother didn’t give up. Being trapped in a car at the bottom of a ravine, without food for an entire week, yet freeing yourself and living to tell about it is the ultimate in gully. This brother is truly blessed. He’s the true definition of a “survivor”.
But what does it say that in an area full of affluent blacks, in the media capitol (this is DC) of the free world, that a young man from a well-to-do family, without a jail record, who is in college, trying to better himself, barely registers a blip even on local media outlets, let alone national?
For the record, the local news did report on this story, but a 2 minute featurette isn’t enough. I watch NBC-4 every evening, and read the Post daily, yet I didn’t hear a word about this story until the guy was found.
I suspect this is perhaps just as much of an issue with the police than the media. The family immediately reported his absence to the authorities, but since he is over 18 and has no history of disappearance, the police would not classify him as a “critical missing person”. What kinda bullsh*t is that? Common sense (to me at least) would dictate that such a person going missing would make this case critical. The fact that this occurred in a majority black, moderately affluent (PG County is the richest majority black enclave in the US) county makes the lack of police (and subsequent media) attention even more puzzling. PG Police Chief Melvin High was a lot of explaining to do. The family basically had to do much of the searching, and push for media attention on their own.
This whole story stinks. Considering the fact that I heard more about that missing BYU student last week than I kid lying face down in a creek just 10 miles from my house, I can’t help but feel very, very sick to my stomach.
An maybe I’ll consider getting that GPS chip implanted in AverageBaby’s neck while he’s still young. Reality is, if he turns up missing, I damn sure ain’t gettin’ any help finding him. He better find himself.
Father: Missing Student Was in Car Wreck [WaPost]
Filed under: Stepha Henry
CNN and USAToday may not give a crap about missing black women, but at least somebody does. A quick shout out to Deidra at the Black and Missing blog.
Give it a visit.
