Among The Missing

The decomposing body of a light-skinned African-American woman was found in South Philadelphia.

As soon as Melvin Figueroa heard that a woman's body had been found in the Brewerytown section of the city, he was off and running. Figueroa, whose pregnant daughter, Latoyia, 24, has been missing since July 18, arrived at the scene, a desolate former warehouse district on 31st Street near Jefferson.

But it wasn't Latoya Figueroa, whose name seems to be only coming up as the result of other women gone missing or found deceased in Phiadelphia. And you have to go back to July 19 to find a serious article on Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone. There's a vigil being held on the sixth month anniversary of that disappearance.

August 19th, 2005, marks the six month anniversary of the disappearance of Richard Petrone and Danielle Imbo. There has been no sign of them. Not a shoe, handbag, lipstick or wallet has been found; nothing. Two people and a large truck just do not vanish. Whatever happened to them was organized and planned!!

We need and request your help to bring Richard and Danielle’s precious faces in view of the nation for the six month anniversary. This case is just as mysterious as the Natalie Holloway case. NO ONE SHOULD GO MISSING. And for all of the people that have gone missing over the past six months in Philadelphia, we should all stand united. More financial resources need to be dedicated to solving domestic issues, like missing persons. We are the voices of those who have gone missing. And as tax payers, we demand more resources be extended to find Richard and Danielle.

There are more journalists writing about the imbalance in coverage of cases like that above versus Natalee Holloway, than there are writing ABOUT the cases like above. Just sayin' ... it's so easy to complain.

I'm almost afraid to point out that representatives of the Aruban PD visited Philadelphia last month for a seminar ... people might start to think there's a conspiracy of some kind.

Comments

[MissAruba]

Figueroa is a common name in Aruba !!

[Gia]

Dan~
Thank you so much for bringing the Richard and Danielle missing persons case to your site. This case and so many others deserve so much in the way of media attention~and sadly they receive little to none. We have two missing persons from Birmingham, Albama besides Natalee and even though I live an hour from B'ham I knew nothing of either of them until recently. They are both African American ~Nancy Lewis, 47, was last seen at 3:45 a.m. May 18 as she left her southwest Birmingham home on her way to work at Children's Hospital and the other, Walter Moore, 48, an assistant principal at Hayes Middle School. He has not been seen or heard from since May 22. If only they could all get the media attention and resources they all deserve.

[Ashleigh]

Thank you Dan for representing the precious missing African Americans from our own country. There is such an under-representation of other races, ages, and even genders of missing people, by the MSM. It seems as if only affluent, attractive white women draw their interest. We can't say that isn't the case, when the only cases that make the front stories are just those young attractive white damsels in distress.

Your fairness and compassion is much needed.
God bless you. You're the BEST!

[frenchymom]

If we continue to focus on those that are missing, they have a much better chance of being found. Thank you for continuing to do these human interest stories Dan.

I regularly check into www.angelsmissing.com
and am amazed at two things in particular 1) the number of teenagers and adults that apparently run away even and 2)the number of people that disappear and are not found for a number of years, if ever.

I keep hoping that if I check the site, I may someday in some way be able to help one of these missing children or adults find their way home.

[!]

http://www.alighthouse.com/candle.php?Count=2866

Light a candle for all these missing people, too!

[FloridaPatty]

Devil's Advocate here:

USA TODAY yesterday, I was reading about the above story and disovery. Roughly one column was dedicated to the arrest of the friend and the remains discovered while the remaining story focused on the imbalance of news coverage because most of the missing girls have to be white and pretty. (right)

Beth Twitty flew down to another country the minute she heard her daughter was missing. (mother's instinct?) SHE is why this story is still alive.

Need I remind that all people of dark skinned color are not African-American. Natalie was not reported as a "European decent-American" which plugs my theory that the press wants to push that race card. In high ethnically diverse parts of this country, race is less of an issue until we get reminded of it by the newspapers.

[Jonis]

Dan,
Please do include yourself in the media that totally failed to balance the disaappearance of this African American woman with Natalee. It doesn't surprise me though. White male Republicans have always thought of non-White people as less than in blunt and subtle, insidious ways.

[Dan]

Jonis,

You're a fool - I linked to the web log covering the disapearance of Latoyia and following more than one case in depth would be far too mch work to do well. It's your bias you reveal, not mine.

[Maura]

Dan,

Thanks! I am glad I emailed you about this situation. It has been a month and nothing of Latoyia. I look every day. I pray that the 7 year old who dosen't know where her mommy is, finds anwers before she has to go back to school and have everyone ask what happened to her mother. Please keep this going it seems like a lot of people read your site. Again Thanks for listening to little old me :)