Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/25/grace.coldcase.pockett/

Girl, 7, vanished while looking for a butterfly
By Rupa Mikkilineni, Nancy Grace Producer
January 25, 2010 8:01 a.m. EST

(http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/CRIME/01/25/grace.coldcase.pockett/story.janice.pockett.courtesy.jpg)

*state of CT not NY
adding photo too

Missing: Janice Pockett from Tolland, CT since July 1973
On July 23, 1973 seven-year-old Janice Pockett set off on her bike alone for the first time to find a butterfly she had hid by a rock earlier. She has not been seen since.

Her mother and sister found her bike, parked with its kickstand up, later that day. It was immediately apparent that Pockett had been abducted, somehow lured off her bike just minutes from her home.

Pockett was not the first child to be abducted from the area-- five years earlier in 1968 thirteen-year-old Debra Sprikler disappeared under similar circumstances from the neighboring town of Vernon. From 1975-1977, three more girls went missing from Vernon, two of them were later found dead. The third, Lisa White, remains an unsolved missing persons case.  This has bred speculation that the same individual is responsible for all five abductions.

Two suspects have emerged prominently in this case.  Charles Pierce, a pedophile from Haverhill, Massachusetts, confessed to killing Janice Pockett on his deathbed and burying her in Lawrence, Massachusetts over 100 miles from Tolland.  Law enforcement doubts his confession though since Pierce claims the girl he abducted was killed in the 1950s and other details appear inconsistent. Pierce also admitted to killing nine-year-old Andy Puglisi of Lawrence and burying him in the same spot as Pockett. Neither child has been found in the spot that Pierce described.

Another promising lead occurred in 2000 when the bones of an unidentified child were found in the garage of Nathan Bar-Jonah, a known child molester, who is suspected of killing a number of people. Bar-Jonah lived twenty miles from Tolland in Webster, Massachusetts at the time of Pocket's disappearance. The DNA tested against the bone proved that it was not Pockett. Bar-Jonah was awaiting further interviews regarding his potential involvement in the Pockett case when he died in a Montana prison in April 2008.

To this date, no one has been charged with Pockett's disappearance.

When she disappeared Pockett was seven-years-old, she would now be forty-four. She had blond hair and blue eyes. She had a slight gap between her teeth but no other major identifying markers. She was wearing navy shorts and blue and white striped shirt when she was last seen. If you have any information on the disappearance of Janice Pockett please contact the Connecticut State Police at 860-685-8000.
http://newenglandunsolved.blogspot.com/2008/12/missing-janice-pockett-7231973-from.html

http://www.ct.gov/dps/cwp/view.asp?a=2143&q=294128

Information Wanted - Disappearance of 8 Year Old Female Janice Pockett

(http://www.ct.gov/dps/lib/dps/DPS/pockett.gif)

The Connecticut State Police Eastern District Major Crime Squad is seeking information concerning the 1973 disappearance of an 8 year old female child in Tolland Connecticut.

Victim: Janice Pockett, a white female with blond hair and blue eyes was born in 1965 (age 8 in 1973). She was last seen wearing Navy Blue shorts with a design, and a blue and white striped jersey.

Circumstances: Janice left her home by bicycle in the afternoon of July 26, 1973 and was never seen again. Her bicycle was found on nearby Rhodes Road adjacent to a wooded area. An extensive search effort failed to locate her.

Contact: Any person with information about this crime is requested to contact the CSP at (860) 886-6603 during regular business hours EST or via the State Police message Center at (860) 685-8190, 24 hours a day.
(http://www.ct.gov/dps/lib/dps/DPS/tolland.gif)

She was one of six missing girls in the area. I found that 3 were found and three still missing in 1980, Pockett, Lisa White and Miss Spickler. Has White and Spickler been found?

LISA JOY WHITE -- still missing
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=1008498&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US


DEBRA LEE SPICKLER -- still missing
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=1101866&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US