Missing Donna Jou, 19 , San Diego State U Student 6/23/07

[IBE]

In about seven more weeks, it will be a year!

Please go to the donnajou.com site and sign the petition. Think you will find the comments quite interesting from all over the world... it seems the comments follow the showing of the Dr. Phil show. I learned they get him in Egypt too.

Let's start writing, emailing LAPD, Orange Country Sheriffs and Ms. Alred to find out what is being done on finding her.

Thank you and God Bless

[IBE]

Monday, June 23 will be a year.

Is there a rally or memorial vigil?

Has anyone heard any updates? What has the Orange County Sheriff's Dept where the case was filed done or are doing?

What has the Los Angeles Police Dept. done where she went missing?

Is this going to be another Natalee Holloway type of case??

[Bearlyhere]

Monday, June 23 will be a year.

Is there a rally or memorial vigil?

Has anyone heard any updates? What has the Orange County Sheriff's Dept where the case was filed done or are doing?

What has the Los Angeles Police Dept. done where she went missing?

Is this going to be another Natalee Holloway type of case??

IBE

I have been searching all over the web for stories about Donna every day and can't find a thing, even on her myspace and her 'Find Donna Jou' website.  I just wanted you to know that I haven't forgotten her and neither have others at SM who look for information about her.

It's my understanding that they know 'who' knows what happened to her, he is just waiting for the best deal he can get.  That is what the petition is about.

I feel so sorry for her friends and family.

[IBE]

Bearlyhere and Good Monkeys

Thank you for keeping up on a daily basis and in other ways, known and not known.

How can her family and friends make it??? I get so angry and frustrated.

As Tim Miller says the unknowing is the worse.

[klaasend]

The family of Donna Jou would like to invite everyone to the:

PRAYER VIGIL - MONDAY, JUNE 23 - 6PM

3617 FARIS DRIVE
LOS ANGELES, CA 90034

From IBE - a map to 3617 Faris Drive
http://tinyurl.com/4543uu

[IBE]

The family of Donna Jou would like to invite everyone to the:

PRAYER VIGIL - MONDAY, JUNE 23 - 6PM

3617 FARIS DRIVE
LOS ANGELES, CA 90034

From IBE - a map to 3617 Faris Drive
http://tinyurl.com/4543uu

I goofed on the url I gave to Klass to which to make the tiny url

Try page 13 of this thread for more maps than you will even need... shows the nearby freeways too.

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=1337.240

Hope this is better and that the vigil and media coverage will give more info, clues and actions to help find Donna and help her family and friends.

God Bless

[Bearlyhere]

Vigil today!

Donna Jou's family and friends will be gathering in front of Donna's abductor's rental home in Los Angeles, California to observe the First Anniversary of her disappearance. Your support of this cause will be greatly appreciated.

                                                                Many thanks in advanced,
                                                             Reza Jou (Donna Jou's dad)

                                Date:       June 23, 2008   Time:  6:00 PM
                                Location:  3617 Faris Drive, Los Angeles California, 90034 (Palms Area)

[Bearlyhere]

Vigil today!

Donna Jou's family and friends will be gathering in front of Donna's abductor's rental home in Los Angeles, California to observe the First Anniversary of her disappearance. Your support of this cause will be greatly appreciated.

                                                                Many thanks in advanced,
                                                             Reza Jou (Donna Jou's dad)

                      Date:       June 23, 2008   Time:  6:00 PM
                      Location:  3617 Faris Drive, Los Angeles California, 90034 (Palms Area)

http://www.donnajou.com/

[Nut44x4]

The Houston Chronicle
 
June 23, 2008 Monday
 
A year later, family hopes for the best;
Area grad was last seen with sex offender
 
The family of a Clear Lake High School graduate missing for a year is still hopeful someone will provide information on the honor student's whereabouts.

A year ago today was the last time Donna Jou's family saw the 19-year-old, as she left her mother's Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., home with a man she had met on the Internet.

Since then, her family in California and in the Clear Lake area have continued to search for her and pleaded with John Steven Burgess - the man with whom she was last seen - to come forward with information on her case.

This evening, Jou's family and supporters plan to gather in front of Burgess' Los Angeles home for a candlelight vigil.

"We are hoping for a good turnout and also hoping someone in that neighborhood will come forward with a good lead," Jou's father, Reza Jou, an engineer who works with the international space station program, said in an e-mail to the Houston Chronicle. "My unimaginable pain, grief, rage, and searching continues. If it takes my entire life, so be it. I will hold on til I take my last breath. I will persist and stop at nothing to find Donna, reunite with her or find closure."

Burgess, 35, a convicted sex offender, remains in a California prison. He received a three-year sentence in October for failing to register as a sex offender. Burgess was labeled a sex offender after being convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child and for sending harmful material to a minor over the Internet.

Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said the case is being treated as a "critical missing person."

"There is not a lot new in the case. I hate to say it, but the chances of a return are slim," he said.

Burgess has not cooperated with investigators.

"He remains a suspect," Amormino said. "We believe he knows what happened to her."

After graduating from Clear Lake High School in 2006 with a 4.4 grade-point average, Donna Jou enrolled at San Diego State University to major in pre-med. She chose the school to be near her older sister, an attorney in San Diego, her father said.

Jou, who had a 4.0 GPA her freshman year, hoped to graduate in three years and attend medical school at Harvard or Johns Hopkins to become a neurosurgeon.

Instead of returning to her father's Nassau Bay home for the summer, she stayed in Rancho Santa Margarita, where her mother lives.

Her summer plans included taking a physics class at a community college and enlisting her 21-year-old brother's help. Her brother at the time was a senior at Harvard, majoring in physics.

Investigators say Jou met Burgess through Craigslist. Jou offered her services on the Web site as a math tutor, and Burgess advertised rooms for rent at his Los Angeles home.

Authorities say Jou received phone calls from Burgess on June 23, 2007. He picked her up near her mother's home on his motorcycle that evening. From there, the two went to Burgess' home for a party, police said.

Jou has not been seen since. There has been no activity on her bank account or her cell phone with the exception of a text message sent to her mother about 6 a.m. June 24, 2007.

The text message said, "Mommy, I love you" and "I'll see you later." Her family is questioning the text because Jou never used capital letters while texting and did not call her mother "Mommy."

Days after Jou's disappearance, Amormino said Burgess painted his truck from blue to black and fled.

Burgess was eventually arrested in Florida and later extradited to California.

Jou's family has set up www.donnajou.com to update supporters on the case and in the hopes that someone will provide information on her whereabouts. The family also is offering a $15,000 reward.

"The abduction of my child is tragic," Reza Jou said. "My life has been torn apart, the heartbreak does not lessen much with time. It is a horrible thing to happen to any family." 
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:811519008&start=5

[klaasend]

Not the vigil but a local (Los Angeles) channel report of the one year anniversary.  Click on the picture below to watch the video - it's in photobucket:

[IBE]

Someone told me when they googled "Donna Jou" that two video segments came up (not on local TV, we think) of some of those at the vigil crying and the prayer given. Can those be found please?

Channel 4 KNBC showaed part of the prayer; Channel KABC did OK coverage too. KLCal above is good but KCAL and then its partner KCBS covered it but said Burgess was in prison in FLA.

[klaasend]

Someone told me when they googled "Donna Jou" that two video segments came up (not on local TV, we think) of some of those at the vigil crying and the prayer given. Can those be found please?

Channel 4 KNBC showaed part of the prayer; Channel KABC did OK coverage too. KLCal above is good but KCAL and then its partner KCBS covered it but said Burgess was in prison in FLA.

Here is one.  Click on the picture below to watch the video:




http://www.fox6.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=e8f193a9-411c-4ef2-ade1-c4b2b45ba6ec&rss=tick


Vigil Held on Anniversary of Disappearance of Donna Jou

Last Update: 6/24 12:48 am 

Print Story | Email Story     

 Relatives and friends pleaded Monday for information about San Diego State University college student Donna Jou at a vigil marking the first anniversary of the young woman's disappearance.

Standing outside the former West Los Angeles home of convicted sex offender John Steven Burgess, where she was last seen, relatives and friends held signs, some with her photo and others saying "Ask Burgess Where is Donna?"

"If we keep her face in the media, in front of the public, we'll get some information to lead us to her," said Jou's father, Reza Jou.

His 19-year-old daughter went missing on June 23, 2007. The Orange County woman was last seen on the back of a motorcycle driven by Burgess, a 35-year-old convicted sex offender she met through the Craigslist online message board.

Text messages sent from her cell phone indicated that at one point, Jou had locked herself in a bathroom and felt in danger at Burgess' house in West Los Angeles, according to her family, who live in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Burgess is a suspect -- but has not been charged -- in Jou's disappearance. He is serving a three-year prison sentence for failing to register as a sex offender.

After being questioned by local authorities regarding Jou's disappearance, he went to Florida, where he was arrested last July 24 for possession of cocaine, pleaded guilty, was sentenced to time served and extradited to Los Angeles for failing to register as a sex offender.

Burgess was released on $250,000 bail, returned to Florida and last Sept. 20 was arrested on suspicion of stealing DVDs. On Oct. 10 of last year, he pleaded no contest to two counts of failing to register as a sex offender and was sentenced to the three-year prison term.

Burgess has not given any hints about Jou's whereabouts.

A search was conducted last Dec. 29-30 in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, but did not turn up any evidence of Jou's whereabouts.

"It is very difficult to say goodbye to my beautiful daughter in the absence of conclusive evidence that she is gone," her father said. "The whole family's life has been turned upside down, but I have to do this. I have no other choice." 

[IBE]

Klass,

Thank you posting these videos.

What I have always been confused on, is the timing and places of calls and text messages.

I may be wrong and do wish to be corrected, if I am.

I understand the calls from the bathroom were cell phone calls and the last "call" was a text message (the one in caps saying "I love you mommy" et al) was placed at 6:30 PM

This (text message at 6:30 PM rather than 6:30 AM had been confirmed the time by the family.

What I still don't know is where the text message came from??? Help Monkeys!!!

[IBE]

Sorry, meant "Klaas" but then again, Klaas is a "Class Act!

[klaasend]

Sorry, meant "Klaas" but then again, Klaas is a "Class Act!

IBE - thanks!

Carpe is in the process of downloading and putting together a link to view I think 4 of the recent vigil videos.  Just wanted to let you know he's working on it.

[carpe noctem]

Hi IBE

Hi Klaas...

I got 3 of them on video during this pass. The 4th just turned out to be

a web article. I will gladly do any more of them that you would like me to

capture. Just give me the 'heads up' and send me the links to them.

----

Donna Jou Vigil

STILL MISSING NEWS MONTAGE

04:15

Added: June 26, 2008, 12:47 PM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0syJOOfp3oM

[IBE]

carpe noctem


Thank you so much. Can you locate the video(s) in LA when the announcement was made by either Orange County Sheriff's or LAPD that Burgess was a person of interest?

This would be July 5, Thursday, for his toolbox was seen at least by 11 AM that day (though not reported to police, I think, until the following Sunday) and he was seen, I believe, that day by neighbors who said he was flying down the street in his truck with boxes following off the back.

I need to know how it was announced and the time... time is very important. Thanks.

I'd like to know if he heard it on TV or was tipped off. Thanks.

[IBE]

Someone told me that there is a video clip that was found under Google News that showed an older lady crying hysterically, sort of, on the shoulder of another lady after the vigil... one of the lady's had on a black dress with big flowers. Thanks and would be on the right of the vigil group.

[IBE]

Announced at the vigil, Burgess will be let out of prison in March, 2009. Ironically, this is before the 2 yr. anniversary of Donna Jou being missing and not the whole 3 yrs. of his prison time... something about good behavior and time served.

Any Monkeys figure this one out?

In the Natalee Holloway Thread we keep saying we can't understand Aruba's system. I just can't understand ours in this particular case.

[Bearlyhere]

July  15 - 2008

In this week's edition of "The Missing," we revisit the mysterious disappearance of Donna Jou, a 19-year-old resident of
Rancho Santa Margarita, California, who went missing on June 23, 2007.

"We as a family are devastated, and our life has been torn apart," Donna's father, Reza Jou, said in a telephone
interview with Investigation Discovery. "Every single day we hope and pray that we will find her."

On the day of her disappearance, Donna told her mother, Nili Jou, that one of her friend's boyfriends was going to pick
her up and take her to a house party in Santa Monica. At about 5:30 p.m., a man on a motorcycle pulled up in front of
the house, and Donna ran out to meet him. Moments later, she was on the back of his bike, and they were on their way
down the street.

"When he came here, he had a helmet on, and nobody saw his face," Reza said, adding, "Donna didn't even see his face."

Later that night, Donna called a friend in San Diego and said that she was calling from a bathroom inside the house
where the man had taken her.

"She said her friend was not there and that the guy who had picked her up was really freaking her out," Reza said. "She
said he was acting odd and would not get the hint that she was not interested in him. She did not ask for help, so I think
she thought that the man would take her back home."

<snip>

http://www.donnajou.com/Media.html