Missing Iraq Veteran Brenda Jackson Has Not Been Forgotten After Four Years

Police Renew Effort To Find Missing Park Forest Mom

WBBM
STEVE MILLER
JANUARY 08, 2020

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- It was just over four years ago when an Iraq War veteran disappeared from her home in Park Forest.

The police - and the woman's mother - are asking for help in finding out what happened.

"I miss her,” says Maria Gonzalez, the mother of Brenda Jackson.

Jackson, 31, a mother of six, disappeared four years ago.

"I know she never would've been gone this long without some way of contacting me. We had a very close relationship,” Gonzalez said. "And her children meant the world to her. Her children meant everything to her."

Gonzalez says Jackson had filed for divorce from her husband before she vanished.
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Missing veteran Jesse Conger...a billionaire wants to know where you are

update They have not given up searching for Jesse Conger!

Make that $30,000

Detroit billionaire offering $10,000 reward for missing Scottsdale marine #MissingVeteranAlert

FOX 10 Phoenix
By Justin Lum
August 25, 2019

Conger may be driving a 2015 Toyota Camry with Nevada license plate number 696G03 and is believed to possibly be in Mexico. Smith says there are many families of veterans with PTSD who just need to reach out before it's too late.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - A billionaire and philanthropist from Detroit, Michigan is offering a $10,000 reward to the person who finds a missing combat veteran from Scottsdale.

Scottsdale Police say Jesse Conger was last seen August 14 at his Scottsdale apartment. He is described as a 37-year-old white man, 6'2", 200 pounds, with brown hair, a full beard, and blue eyes. He has tattoos on his left arm and the word "rise" tattooed on his chest.

Conger is a veteran who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, according to family. Police said he reportedly made suicidal statements in the days leading up to his disappearance.

Bill Pulte, the Chief Executive Officer of Pulte Capital and Blight Authority, offered to help in the search, vowing to give $10,000 in reward money to whoever helps find Conger.
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Body of missing veteran found in ditch

Body of missing Marine veteran found in ditch in New Mexico, suspect in custody

By: The Associated Press
August 20,2019

Authorities say a body found south of Belen, New Mexico, has been identified as a Marine veteran missing since July and a suspect in his murder case is in custody.

Valencia County, New Mexico, Sheriff’s officials says detectives located a body in a ditch Friday night.

On Saturday, the Office of the Medical Investigator positively identified the body as that of 32-year-old Matthew Gurule, who was last seen on July 27 at the Isleta Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Sheriff's officials won't say what led them to the body or how Gurule died.

Belen police say 37-year-old Francisco Gomez of Los Lunas, New Mexico, was arrested Aug. 10 for allegedly using Gurule’s credit card.
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Missing veteran with PTSD found dead in Texas cemetery

Missing East Texas veteran found dead in Beaumont

CBS 19 News
Author: Matthew Copeland
July 26, 2019

Martin served abroad with the United States Army and suffered from PTSD, according to family.

BEAUMONT, Texas — A East Texas veteran who has been missing for more than two weeks was found dead Thursday afternoon in Beaumont.

Terrell Martin was first reported missing on July 11.

According to the Beaumont Police Department, officers responded Forrest Lawn Cemetery where a vehicle had been crashed in the back of the property.
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Jessie Thurston remembered for saving lives in National Guard

Veteran found dead at Natchez Trace remembered 'as the hero he was'

Jackson Sun
Cassandra Stephenson
July 18, 2019

"Jessie dismounted the vehicle and proceeded to stand in the burning fuel to drag these guys out, and he did it," Kenney said. As rounds exploded around him in the heat of the fire, Jessie "refused to stop." He saved three lives that day.

The remains of the vehicle veteran Jessie Thurston pulled three fellow servicemen from after an artillery shell struck the truck in Iraq rest on the sand on May 23, 2007. (Photo: Courtesy of Jason Kenney)

Jessie Thurston was many things: a "spitfire," a 10-year National Guard veteran, a loving father and friend, and by many accounts, a hero.

A search party recovered his body from Natchez Trace State Park the morning of July 4. (Photo: Submitted) 

Veteran Jessie Thurston was remembered by friends and family at the Tennessee State Veteran's Cemetery at Parkers Crossroads on July 12, 2019. 


He loved Harley Davidson motorcycles and turkey hunting and was always looking to lift someone's spirits.

"If you didn't laugh around him, something was wrong with you," his cousin Jeremy Thurston said.

But Jessie also struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after he returned from a tour in Iraq in 2011. Jeremy said Jessie's inner battles with mental health started before he joined the military, but the traumas he experienced overseas only exacerbated the pains of his already difficult life.

After he returned from service, Jessie was known to "go ghost every now and then," Jeremy said. He went missing in late June after deleting his social media accounts. Police found his dog uncared for in his Lexington home.

Nearly a week later, his fellow servicemen found his body during a search effort in Natchez Trace State Park on July 4. He was 35. A pending autopsy has yet to determine cause of death.
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Missing Veteran Died on Memorial Day

Missing Veteran Died on Memorial Day Just after Family Finds Him at San Joaquin General Hospital

FOX 40 News
BY KRISTI GROSS
June 1, 2019

MANTECA -- Alejandro “Alex” Yepez was a loving father of three. The 37-year-old was also a beloved son and a military veteran who served four years in the Army and more than a year in the National Guard.

“He was silly. He always would be silly with them, said the mother of Alex’s children, Desiree Yepez.

Alejandro’s mother, Mary-Elena Mello says Alex will be missed.

“He was a happy person. He was very outgoing, caring, joyful. He brought me a lot of happiness. And he's just... he's gone way too soon,” she said.

Alex’s family says he died in a hospital on Memorial Day after being involved in a crash in Manteca on May 14th.

The family tells FOX40 they have almost no information about what happened.

“The only thing I do know is that he was hit by a vehicle. Was it a truck? Was it a car? I don't even know that,” Mello said.

They say they didn't even know Alex was in the hospital until May 25th.

Mello says she was worried when Alex didn't return home on the 14th and began calling hospitals to find her son.
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Vietnam veteran with name on The Wall had to prove he was still alive

Missing and memorialized, a Vietnam veteran was found

The Augusta Chronicle
By Bill Kirby
Posted May 26, 2019

The former master sergeant went back to Hawaii and lived quietly until his death in 2007.

His name remains on the Vietnam memorial with 32 others that have been “mistakenly engraved,” a spokesman said last week in an e-mail. However, they no longer qualify for the honor, nor are they officially acknowledged.

A Vietnam soldier presumed dead and mourned by his family turned up in 1996.

As Memorial Day 1993 approached, engravers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington prepared to add the name of Master Sgt. Mateo Sabog to the wall.

A 24-year Army veteran with a spotless record, Sabog had disappeared in February 1970 while assigned to the 507th Transportation Group in Qui Nhon, South Vietnam, and was presumed dead.

For a quarter century his family in Hawaii pressed the Army for answers. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye got involved, as did U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink. Sabog’s mother wrote the president of North Vietnam asking help. President Jimmy Carter was also asked.

Nothing happened, however, and in 1993 Sabog’s name joined thousands who had died in the war. The government of Vietnam even returned remains it believed to be him.

But he wasn’t dead.

Three years after his name was placed on the memorial, the frail 73-year-old sat in Fort Gordon’s Eisenhower Army Medical Center struggling to tell both the Army and his family what he had been doing the past 26 years.
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#MissingVeteranAlert Florida

St. Petersburg police search for missing man who suffers from dementia, PTSD

Darryl Flint was last seen around Monday night near 16th Street and 21st Avenue South.

Author: 10News Staff

January 8, 2019

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The St. Petersburg Police Department is searching for a missing man who suffers from dementia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Darryl Flint, 68, was last seen around 6 p.m. Monday near 16th Street and 21st Avenue South, police said.

Flint has a black mustache. He was last seen wearing a beige plaid shirt with blue and black stripes, dark blue khaki pants and black sneakers.

Anyone who knows of Flint’s whereabouts is asked to call the police at (727)893-7780.

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#MissingVeteran Alert Wisconsin

update He has been found!

Green Alert: ‘At risk’ veteran missing in Western Wisconsin

TMJ4 News
By: Marty Hobe
Updated: 23 minutes ago

A Wisconsin veteran suffering from PTSD has been reported missing, triggering the state’s green alert system for at risk veterans.

Shaun Michael Wischmann, 36, of Altoona, Wisconsin has been missing since Monday.

In addition to PTSD, he also suffers from depression. The family thinks he might be traveling to North Dakota and may have a handgun in his possession.

Wischmann was last seen wearing a black button down shirt, jeans and a black jacket. He has a tattoo on his left arm as a memorial to veterans he served with.

He is driving a 2014 Chevy Cruze with a Minnesota license plane with the number 851DV.

Anyone with information about Wischmann’s whereabouts should call Altoona Police at 715-839-6090.
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Missing veteran's body found at Fort Hood

Body found on Fort Hood identified

KWTX News

FORT HOOD, Texas - ​Fort Hood Directorate of Emergency Services personnel discovered a body in the vicinity of Belton Lake and Outdoor Recreation Area last Tuesday.

The man has been identified as Retired Navy Seaman Craig Nobel.

Nobel was registered at the BLORA Deer Park RV Lot and was reported missing by a family member. Law enforcement officials later found Nobel’s remains in a wooded area near the park.
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Week after attempted suicide, UK veteran succeeded

My son was left to die alone

The Express UK
By SIAN HEWITT
Nov 25, 2018

A GRIEVING mother has told of a string of failures that led to her war hero son killing himself. Danny Johnston of the Special Reconnaissance, sister unit of the SAS, took his own life in May while suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

PROUD... Danny loved his career in the Army but the force he served went on to ignore his plight (Image: Mark Kehoe)

"It is only since his death that I have been made aware of the incredible work he did," Mrs Johnston said. "He was a genuine hero." But Danny's career was cut short when, on leave, he was found with non-prescription Valium. Mrs Johnston said: "He never slept well. He had seen a lot - I still don't know the depths of what he witnessed but he used the Valium to sleep, only while he was off duty at home. But he was immediately discharged.

Now his mother Viv has revealed the blunders that led to the 35-year-old elite soldier's body being found in woodland near his home in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, three days after he went missing. Mrs Johnston reveals how: ? Danny had made an attempt on his life a week before his death but doctors failed to help him. She was forced to call for help from ex-Army colleagues to form a search party after an "inadequate" police response.

A police officer falsely announced on social media that Danny had been found, a mistake which resulted in search efforts dwindling while Danny was still missing.

Family friend and Coronation Street actor Daniel Brocklebank, who plays Billy Mayhew, joined in the search and also made a missing person's appeal on Twitter.

"Danny was too special to die alone the way he did," Mrs Johnston said. "He gave his all for this country, only to be completely let down in his hour of need.
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Navy veteran Taveta Hobbs still missing

North Carolina Navy veteran Taveta Hobbs remains missing a decade after her Thanksgiving week disappearance

NBC News

Juliet Muir

November 23, 2018

Growing up, Taveta Hobbs and her younger brother Clinton Crier were very close, Clinton told Dateline.

“She was a sweetheart,” Clinton told Dateline. “We had a huge love for each other because I was her younger brother, and she really looked after me.”

As she grew older, Taveta showed an interest in serving in the United States Armed Forces and joined the Navy in 1982.

“She was moving around a lot then, so we became less close,” Clinton said about their relationship. He told Dateline the two would still speak on the phone whenever possible.

In 1992, Taveta married Phil Hobbs. The couple lived in Virginia before moving to California, and then ending up in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2004, Clinton told Dateline.

No longer in the Navy, Taveta took a job with Salesforce about 20 minutes away in Carey, while she studied to be a certified stenographer.

Clinton, who lives in California, told Dateline that at a 2007 family gathering, he and Taveta had an argument. “It was a stupid argument that blew up. And some other frustrations boiled over,” he told Dateline.
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#MissingVeteranAlert Ashley Meiss body has been found

Riley County police say body of Ashley Meiss, missing since May, found in Ogden

Topeka Capital Journal
By Tim Hrenchir
October 18, 2018

Human remains found Saturday in the 300 block of North Park Road in Ogden in Riley County have been identified as those of Ashley Elizabeth Meiss, a resident of that community who went missing in May, the Riley County Police Department said Thursday.

The woman’s cause and manner of death remained undetermined, though Riley County Police Sgt. Daniel Bortnick said an autopsy found no indication of foul play.

“A copy of the investigation will be forwarded to the county attorney for review, which is standard procedure in such cases,” Bortnick said. “No further information regarding this case is expected to be released to the public.”

Meiss, a military veteran, was 30 when she went missing from Ogden. She had been separated from her husband, with whom she had two children.
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#MissingVeteranAlert: PTSD Veteran

Hardin County veteran reported missing
Jackson Sun
Cassandra Stephenson
Sept. 24, 2018

A 30-year-old veteran suffering from PTSD has been missing for several days, according to the Hardin County Sheriff's Department.

Terry Michael Woodall was last seen in Hardin County. He recently received treatment at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Memphis, according to the Hardin County Sheriff's Department.

Officials have no vehicle description and do not know Woodall's intended direction of travel.

Woodall is described as a 6-foot-tall white male weighing approximately 195 pounds.
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Family of missing veteran lives changed

Family searches for answers after Army vet with PTSD vanishes
FOX 19 News
By Amber Jayanth, Reporter
July 24th 2018

Since his absence, the family lost their home and Isabella now has to work to help support her mother and other four children.

GREENFIELD, OH (FOX19)
A Greenfield Army veteran has been missing for nearly three months.

Now, his family is desperate for answers and hopes to bring him home.

The family tells us Harold Willis, who goes by the name Henry, lives in Greenfield but works in Hillsboro.

He never made it home May 3.

Melissa Willis just gave birth to her daughter Journey 10 days ago, but there wasn't much of a celebration because her husband and Journey's father and remains missing.

"He would have definitely been there," she said. "He never missed a birthday, never missed a holiday, He was always there. Always provided. He was a really good man."

Her husband of 18 years never would have missed the birth of their child.

Now, each day that he is gone breaks her heart a little bit more.

His oldest daughter, Isabella Willis, said he was last seen leaving his construction job in Hillsboro.

"He said he was coming home from a friend's house and he never made it home that night and he never picked up his check," she said.

Since his absence, the family lost their home and Isabella now has to work to help support her mother and other four children.
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Search ends for missing veteran Donovan Jared Crittendon

Body of Army veteran missing for nearly a week found in Cumberland River
The Tennessean
Amy Nixon
June 9, 2018

The body of a Hartsville man missing nearly a week was found in the Cumberland River this morning in Trousdale County.

The body of Donovan Jared Crittendon, 26, was recovered from the Cumberland River just west of the 141 bridge in Trousdale County around 8:30 Saturday morning, according to authorities.

Members of Crittendon's family shared a Facebook post which said that the Army veteran was last seen Sunday, June 3.
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Missing Veteran Alert: PTSD Veteran in New Jersey

Missing military vet suffering from PTSD missing for 3 days 
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com 
By Anthony G. Attrino 
June 4, 2018 

The family of a missing military veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been desperately searching for him in North Jersey since late last week. 

Thomas Podschelne 

Thomas Podschelne, 59, left his Waldwick home on Friday and failed to show up to his job the next day at the Stop and Shop on Broad Street in Clifton. 

"It's been three full days now so we're still anticipating him being around here," his daughter, Chelsea, said Monday morning. "We're still searching. Any info on his whereabouts would be a huge help." read more here

Man arrested for murder of missing veteran Stan Norman

UPDATE

Friendship, torture and murder - military veteran accused of killing another vet ABC 13 News
Those in the American Legion Riders motorcycle group are stunned by the details of Norman's murder and that a fellow veteran and rider may have done it.
The two were seen drinking together at a bar the night the murder took place.

Suspect arrested for murder of missing Vietnam veteran Stan Norman
The Union
Liz Kellar
May 27, 2018

On Sunday night, law enforcement arrested Sean Bryant — the man last seen with missing veteran Stan Norman — for his murder.

Bryant has been in custody in county jail since mid-May, when he was arrested at a residence on Sadie D Drive in Cascade Shores. At the time, Bryant, 51, was charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, threatening a crime with the intent to terrorize and inflicting corporal injury, all felonies.

After human bones were discovered in a burn pile on the property, and after interviews with witnesses, Bryant was re-booked on charges of murder and torture, and likely will be arraigned Tuesday in Nevada County Superior Court.

Norman was last seen after he went with friends to McGee's in Nevada City April 14 and was positively identified at Bonanza Market in Nevada City that night. He then reportedly went to Bryant's home in Grass Valley. No one reported seeing him since the early hours of April 15.
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Body of missing veteran Danny Johnston found

UPDATE: Police confirm body found is that of missing veteran Danny Johnston
The Portsmouth News
Tom Cotterill
May 23, 2018

Officers said Mr Johnston was found in a wooded area at Stoughton Down, near Chichester. The 35-year-old Afghanistan war hero was declared dead at the scene. Officers added his next of kin had been informed.

Inspector Roy Hodder of the missing persons team said: ‘We would like to express our condolences to the family and friends of Daniel Johnston at this difficult time. 

‘We would like to extend our thanks to family and friends of Daniel who volunteered to assist us in the search for him.’ It marks the end of a three-day ordeal for Mr Johnston’s loved ones. He disappeared from his family home in Bognor Regis on Sunday morning, at around 9am.
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Marty Nance Oregon Air National Guardsman's body found

Family searches for answers after missing Oregon Natl. Guardsman found dead
KATU 2 News
Keaton Thomas
April 1, 2018

Veber says her brother's body was found in the river near Waverly Country Club on Wednesday night by fisherman. Deputies do not suspect foul play was involved.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The body of Marty Nance, an Oregon Air National Guardsman reported missing back in January, was found Wednesday in the Willamette River, but family members are still hoping for answers in his disappearance and death.

Lisa Veber, Nance's sister, says a chaplain with the Clackamas County Sheriff's office told her about the discovery Thursday night.

If he had problems, Veber said, "Marty was a fixer, Marty was a doer."

That being said, Veber understands it's possible her brother may have committed suicide.
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