The search continues for a San Antonio mother who vanished before her work day began last week. Chrissy Powell called into the law office where she works as a paralegal last Tuesday to let them know she was running late, but she never arrived to begin her duties. Now her family and law enforcement have reason to believe that Chrissy may be in danger.
The family was able to obtain a vital clue for law enforcement early on in the investigation by virtue of Chrissy’s front door camera. The video shows Chrissy leaving the house in a rush that Tuesday morning, confirming that she did make it out of the house before vanishing. However, Powell also left her cell phone behind in the home, which the family believes was due to her rushing out around 10:30 that morning. The San Antonio Police Department has put out a BOLO (‘Be on the lookout’) for her black Nissan Rogue that she would have driven to her job.
The uncharacteristic radio silence and failure to appear has family and friends extremely concerned about Chrissy Powell’s whereabouts and well-being. Powell’s close friend, Lauren Leal, told KENS5 that their unanswered questions were terrifying, “The unknown is the scariest part. The fear in my mind right now. It is hard to wrap our minds around where she might be, what could have happened. My fear is not ever knowing anything.”
The San Antonio Police Department has distributed flyers with the name and face of Chrissy Powell to make the public aware of the search. Law enforcement are also gravely concerned, as Powell has a medical condition that requires care by a doctor, and have labeled her a ‘missing endangered adult’ as a result.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Chrissy Powell is encouraged to call SAPD’s Missing Person’s Unit at 210-207-7660
Ohio investigators were embroiled for weeks this June in a search for a 23-year-old Loveland woman who never came back from a walk. According to police, Alicia Kenny was listed as a critically missing person, indicating that investigators believe her to be in danger.
According to Alicia’s family, she is a creative sort who often goes on walks to draw or write in the area’s local parks. Alicia’s mother, Marcy Kenny, told WLWT that the unanswered questions in her daughter’s disappearance were troubling, “It’s just really hard to think about what could happen. She’s just gone.” Prior to her being reported missing, Alicia’s backpack was discovered by a delivery driver in a subdivision in Loveland. The delivery driver turned the backpack over to the police who then returned it to Kenny’s home where she lived with her grandparents. “And that’s when everybody realized she wasn’t there, that when she left on Saturday night, she had never come home,” said Kenny. “In the backpack was her phone, her ID, her wallet, everything.”
The fact that Alicia Kenny was not in possession of her most important personal belongings has only heightened the anxiety for her family. Among the belongings in her backpack was also Alicia’s personal Bible, which her family insists she would never have discarded. “All she has is literally the clothes on her back. Without that backpack, she has absolutely nothing. And honestly…we can’t think of any scenario where she would have put the backpack down and walked away willingly,” claimed Marcy Kenny.
However, in a rare happy ending to a missing person search, police confirmed that they had found Alicia Kenny safe following her disappearance with the explanation that the 23-year-old just needed “a couple days to clear her head.” According to the statement from police, “Alicia Kenny was found this afternoon safe and unharmed and is currently in the care of her family members.”
Following an investigation into his wife’s disappearance, a Boone County man is facing murder charges after a grisly discovery. Andrew Wilhoite has been taken into custody on charges of murder, booked in the Boone County Jail.
On Friday, March 25, the Boone County Sheriff’s Department initiated a welfare check at the home of Elizabeth Wilhoite, Andrew’s wife, following a report from a coworker saying that she failed to show up to work. Tragically, the missing person search rapidly became a homicide investigation, which led to the Boone County Sheriff’s office calling an audible with regards to the investigating agency. “When our investigators realized this could be a possible homicide investigation, we wanted to do discuss the best way to move forward with the investigation since the mother of Andrew Wilhoite is a County Councilwoman, another county elected official,” said Sheriff Mike Nielsen. “To avoid any conflict of interest, it was decided to contact the Indiana State Police and ask them to lead the investigation and we would assist them.”
The investigation lead to Indiana State Police concluding that Elizabeth Wilhoite was the victim of a homicide at the hands of her husband, Andrew Wilhoite. Allegedly, Wilhoite struck his wife in the head with a “blunt object,” then put her body in his vehicle and drove to a nearby creek where he disposed of her in the creek. Elizabeth’s body was found partially submerged in the water and recovered from the creek.
“This is another prime example of working with our law enforcement partners to solve a horrendous crime,” said Sheriff Nelson. “I cannot be prouder of our Investigations team, Crime Scene Investigations team, the entire Sheriff’s Office staff, the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office and the Indiana State Police Investigators. Please keep all families and first responders in your thoughts and prayers.”
The search for a missing Indiana woman has gone national this week. Authorities in Johns Creek, Georgia have joined the search for missing Carmel resident Ciera Breland, following reports that she may have been in Johns Creek a week before she was reported missing. Ciera has been described as five feet tall, 120lbs, with blonde hair, and was last seen wearing a black top with purple shorts. Despite the fact that she was allegedly last seen in Hamilton County, family members have reported that they had not seen her after she returned from that trip to Georgia.
When she was originally reported missing, the alert indicated that Ciera Breland was last seen on February 25, 2022 in the 14400 block of Baldwin Lane, near the intersection of Ditch Road and 146th St. However, family members later said that Ciera was in Johns Creek the week prior to her disappearance, and no one had seen her since she allegedly returned from the peach state.
According to the Johns Creek Police, Ciera’s husband, Xavier Breland Jr., 37, has been named a person of interest in her disappearance, but has not bee charged in connection with the case. He’s been arrested in Hamilton County, Indiana on an unrelated charge connected to Coweta County in Georgia. He’s currently awaiting extradition to Georgia.
In speaking to Ciera’s family, WishTV was able to ascertain that her loved ones were concerned about her relationship with Breland Jr. Ciera moved to Indiana after marrying Breland Jr. “After she moved there, it just all went downhill and stuff started happening and then she disappeared. She wasn’t communicating with everyone like she used to and it was kind of like he was brainwashing her,” said Luke Locklair, Ciera’s cousin.
Anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Ciera Breland is asked to call the Carmel Police Department at 317-571-2580 or Corporal Rozier with the Johns Creek Police Department at 678-372-8046.
After weeks of piecing together the last moments of the life of Gabby Petito, her family and her supporters finally have a crucial answer in her case. A Wyoming coroner disclosed on Tuesday that after examining Gabby’s remains—located on September 19 in the Bridger-Teton National Forest—that Gabby had died as a direct result of strangulation. The Teton County Coroner, Dr. Brent Blue, had previously ruled her death as a homicide with the manner of homicide undetermined. No further details have been released at this time. The Petito cause of death likely comes as little comfort to the country at large, which is currently in the grips of a wide-scale man-hunt for Gabby’s fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who has been named a person of interest in her murder.
The Petito cause of death is just one more piece in composing the 1000-piece puzzle of Gabby’s last days. Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie were on a cross-country trip in a repurposed Ford Transit van, documenting their travels and experiences through social media. Before Gabby fell completely out of contact with her family in late August, her family was unable to determine if the scant few text messages they received were even authored by Gabby. Even more disturbing, Brian Laundrie returned to his home in North Port, Florida alone on September 1, 2021. Gabby wasn’t reported missing until her family finally filed a missing person report on September 11, 2021. However, when authorities went to question Brian Laundrie on his knowledge of Gabby’s whereabouts, his parents shielded him from police. Not long after that, Brian Laundrie was nowhere to be found, leaving even more questions about what his exact role was in the Petito cause of death. He told his family on September 14 that he was going out for a hike and has not been seen since.
In addition to determining cause of death, Blue was also able to determine that Gabby’s remains had been in the wilderness for approximately 3-4 weeks before she was found by authorities, placing her time of death in mid to late August. While Laundrie has only been named a ‘person of interest’ by law enforcement, there is still a warrant out for his arrest after authorities determined Laundrie used Gabby’s debit card without her permission. While the internet has speculated highly about the relationship dynamic between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie, one of the only hard pieces of evidence available to the public is a police body-cam video that captured the aftermath of an argument between them following a report to 911 that a man in Utah had witnessed Laundrie slap Gabby. When the responding officer pulled the Ford Transit over with Gabby in the passenger seat, the couple was separated for the evening to avoid domestic violence charges.
While the search for Brian Laundrie continues throughout the United States—even with the help of Dog the Bounty Hunter—missing person experts like Thomas Lauth suspect that Brian had evaded police through a combination of survival knowledge and help from third parties, “I have never thought he would stay in Florida very long,” Lauth said. “I believe he had some outside resources available to him early on, but those outside resources have likely cut him off because he’s a fugitive…He’s been a savvy traveler for many years. When I say ‘savvy,’ he’s able to live off the land and he knows how to travel alone and lightly.”
When a drone enthusiast set out to capture the Palm Bay scenery from above, little did he know that he was about to be plunged into a twelve-year-old missing person case. Dan Osterhout had flown his drone above the Bayside Lakes neighborhood in Palm Bay, central Florida, many times before. However, within his drone’s destined route on Thursday 27th May, unusually dry weather had triggered a unique set of circumstances that would yield unexpected results in the drone flight.
The water level of a nearby retention pond was lower than ever, and the water was particularly clear. As Osterhout examined his captured footage of the depths below, he realized that he could see a vehicle submerged in the water, and he quickly reported it to the authorities. The silver 2002 Ford Mustang in question was connected to a 2009 missing person case that had long gone cold.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Philippe Desir
Philippe Desir vanished from Palm Bay on February 7th, 2009, just around the corner from the pond in question. In a disappearance shrouded in mystery, Police Lieutenant Chris Imel shared that “his wife reported him missing during the middle of the night.” He reported that Desir’s wife had said that “he just got up and left the house and that was pretty much the end of it.” The missing man was 38 years old at the time when he vanished, and would be 50 years old today.
The Missing Endangered Persons Alert issued by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement described Desir as an African-American male, last seen wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. With no indication of suspicious circumstances and no trail to follow, the case of Desir’s disappearance soon went cold. Fast forward to 2021, following Osterhout’s discovery, it was Desir’s distinctive 2002 silver Ford Mustang that would signal the connection between the 2009 case and the tragic discovery of human remains within the Palm Bay pond.
Arrival of the Underwater Recovery Team
Upon investigation, members of the Palm Bay Police Underwater Recovery Team were able to locate the metallic two-door Mustang seen by the drone that would later be confirmed as registered to Desir. The car was found upside-down, with the windows rolled down. Its tires were reportedly mangled, and the windshield damaged, leading to speculation as to how the vehicle may have arrived in its submerged state.
After the recovery team slowly pulled the sediment-filled vehicle from the water, investigators confirmed that skeletal remains were found within it—including an intact skull. While it may seem logical to conclude that the remains are that of Philippe Desir, absolute certainty will remain out of reach until the medical examiner’s investigation is finalized.
Possible Closure on A Long-Unsolved Case
Speaking to Florida Today about the Philippe Desir missing person case, Police Lieutenant Jeff Spears of the Palm Bay Police Department explained, “this was a cold case. But it’s one of those situations where we do what we do. We always follow up on missing person cases every year to validate that the person is still missing.”
Following these most recent developments, Lieutenant Imel is reported to have added, “at this point, there does not appear to be any indication of foul play, but yet again it is still under investigation. As far as suicide goes, that is something else that is under investigation.”
There has been no media mention of Desir’s friends and family over the course of recent coverage but, whenever a person’s disappearance remains unexplained, there is likely to be those who carry the burden of not knowing what happened to their loved one. While it is true that the sad loss of a life—far too young—has been revealed under the strangest of circumstances, there may be some small comfort to find in answers to those questions that remained unresolved for so many years.
