Sunday, March 10, 2013
Her family receives threatening phone calls after she went missing.
Amy L. Pugner chatted on the phone with her sister as she was painting her new apartment in Washington, Pa., where she had recently moved, on June 8, 2010. That was the last time Amy's sister spoke with her. Amy, a Latrobe native, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had a history of drug abuse. Her family considered the move a good thing—something that seemed to indicate that Amy, was getting her life together, leaving her demons behind and heading in the right direction. No one is sure when Amy was last seen, but likely it was June 9 or 10, 2010. Her family became alarmed when, a few days after that last phone call, a man used Amy's cell phone to make several threatening phone calls to them. He demanded money and told them otherwise…
Sunday, January 20, 2013
She has not been seen since leaving her home in Swissvale on March 28, 2008.
It's been nearly five years since 30-year-old Faime Lynette Francis left her home in Swissvale and vanished. Faime is described at 5-foot-8, 115 pounds with black hair and dark brown eyes. According to the North American Missing Persons Network, she might wear a wig or add weave to her hair. She also wore an engagement-type ring on her left hand and often dressed in all black. Her disappearance concerned family members because she suffers from mental illness. She did not have her medicine with her when she left home. She has not been heard from since. She would turn 36 years old this May. Anyone with information is asked to call Swissvale Police Department at 412-271-0430. For more information about this and other missing person cases, …
Sunday, November 25, 2012
These cases in the Pittsburgh area did not have a happy ending, but finding these missing persons might have brought closure to families.
As early as this July, people in the law enforcement community knew that the remains of Amanda Sue Myers of Pittsburgh had been identified through DNA comparison. However, it was only last week when Pittsburgh police finally released the news. In July, two separate sources told Patch that Amanda had been identified but that police wanted to hold off on releasing information until some interviews had been conducted. Amanda, who was 22 at the time of her death, was last seen in Pittsburgh at the end of 1999 but may have been in Florida and Tennessee as late as April 2000. She was not reported missing until 2007, according to the Pennsylvania Missing Persons website. Known unofficially as Homestead Jane Doe, Amanda was found deceased on Oct…
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Patch has been featuring missing persons, the unidentified dead and homicide victims with open case files, but today we are honoring the labors of those who work these cases by sharing some solved cases.
When someone goes missing, there's usually a large effort by law enforcement, family and friends to find them. When someone is murdered without a known suspect, police and relatives try to find out who did it. And when a body is discovered and no kin claim it, advocates who work on such cases push to link circumstances or DNA to bring them home. In honor of Labor Day, Patch is recognizing the efforts of all who work to solve these cases, bring the missing and unidentified home, and provide closure to the families or justice for the victims of unsolved homicides. Included are the many people who give the missing and unidentified "temporary homes" on websites like the Doe Network or NamUS until they are found or claimed. Here are 10 of the …
Sunday, June 24, 2012
The 8-year-old boy disappeared near his McKees Rocks home in 1991.
Willie Majewski was only 8 years old about 4 p.m. on Nov. 9, 1991 as he gathered his fishing gear and walked toward Chartiers Creek, which feeds into the nearby Ohio River. He wasn't reported missing for several hours after he disappeared. His mother was out playing bingo and didn't realize he hadn't come home. Willie's fishing gear was found later behind the Eat'n Park restaurant—along the banks of the creek, about 100 yards from a camp where homeless people stayed. His equipment had not been disturbed and there were no signs of a struggle at the scene. Witnesses reported seeing Majewski in the McKees Rocks Plaza. One person saw him talking to a scruffy man in a store. Another said an unkempt man pulled him into a burnt-orange Nova. The …
Sunday, June 17, 2012
The elderly woman found over a hillside in Avalon was never identified.
The woman survived about eight decades on this earth, but her death gave no dignity to those years. On June 19, 1997, the mummified body of a petite black woman with short, curly, gray-and-white hair—only 5 feet tall and weighing about 100 pounds—was found over a hillside behind the Ponderosa Restaurant at 920 Ohio River Blvd. (Route 65) in Avalon. The woman, who was found inside a blue sleeping bag, was wrapped in two black plastic trash bags—one tied over her head, one tied over her feet—then wrapped again in what authorities believe was a plastic mattress cover, according to the Pennsylvania Missing Persons website. Her head was lying on a pillow with a towel covering her face. Her body was covered with a green blanket. She was dressed …
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Sunday, May 6, 2012
Each weekend, beginning May 12-13, Patch will review a missing person, an unidentified body or a cold case homicide victim from Allegheny or Washington counties.
The Pennsylvania Missing Persons website features the somewhat-haunting sketch of "Beth Doe" on its homepage. Nancy Monahan of Penn Hills, who started and runs the website, chose the sketch because, in nearly four decades, and despite social networking and modern forensics, no one has ever been able to determine where the woman came from or who she was. Monahan was intrigued in part because the woman would have been in her own age bracket. The details of the case are rather disturbing. The young woman had been dismembered and mutilated. She and her full-term, unborn child were stuffed in three suitcases and thrown from a bridge along Interstate 80 over the Lehigh River in Carbon County, PA. Police think the killer meant for the suitcases …
