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Author Topic: Joey Lynn Offutt, 33 MISSING 7-12-07 may be crime victim, PA  (Read 26044 times)
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Nut44x4
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« Reply #20 on: November 13, 2008, 09:12:40 PM »

'Most Wanted' TV show features missing Pa. woman
11/13/2008 05:25:02 AM MST


SYKESVILLE, Pa.—The case of a central Pennsylvania woman missing since the remains of her infant were found in her burned-out home will be featured on the Fox television program, "America's Most Wanted."
Thirty-three-year-old Joey Lynn Offutt hasn't been seen since a fire destroyed her home in Sykesville, Jefferson County, on July 12, 2007. The infant's remains were found in the burned ruins of her home, but were only identified as those of her 6-week-old son earlier this year. It's unclear how the child died.

Offutt's family has previously offered a $15,000 reward for information about her. Her car was later found in State College.

The TV show featuring her case will air Saturday at 9 p.m. EST.

http://**/search/ci_10972949
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« Reply #21 on: November 16, 2008, 03:34:41 PM »

Pittsburgh Tribune Review
 
November 15, 2008 Saturday 
 
Jefferson County mom believes missing daughter is dead

Sherry Hallett believes, deep in her heart, that someone is hiding the truth about her missing daughter.

Someone knows what happened to Joey Lynn Offutt on July 12, 2007, as her Sykesville home burned, leaving the charred remains of her 6-week-old son in the ruins, Hallett insists. Someone had to see the 33-year-old mother, somewhere, before she vanished without a trace.

Although state police report no leads in the case, Hallett hopes investigators will get a break in her daughter's disappearance, which will be featured at 9 tonight on the Fox television program "America's Most Wanted."

"I believe that someone in that little town knows what happened," said Hallett, who lives in Warrenton, Va. "It's taken me more than a year to run it through my mind, but I believe it's somebody that she knew. I believe that she's dead, and I want to bring her back to bury her with her son's ashes.

"Maybe this show will help."

In her pain, Hallett is not alone.

Thousands of adults are reported missing each year, according to the FBI's National Crime Information Center. The center reported that as of Dec. 31, 2007, there were 105,229 active missing persons records -- including an estimated 50,500 adults -- in its files.

Family and friends of missing adults must cope with confusion and uncertainty, according to the National Center for Missing Adults. The Arizona nonprofit estimates 400,000 family members of missing adults are living with the effects of trauma from ambiguous loss.

Founder Kym Pasqualini said each missing person leaves behind "a family that is experiencing unimaginable despair of not knowing" where a loved one is or whether they will see that person again. Experts say the uncertainty grows as time passes.

Police reports show it happens in small towns and big cities, when adults disappear with no explanation.

In Central Pennsylvania, a high-profile case has stumped investigators for three years. Police report no leads in the search for Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, 59, of Bellefonte, missing since April 15, 2005.

His friend and successor, District Attorney Michael Madeira, hoped that Kroll Ontrack, a firm that recovered data from hard drives aboard Space Shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated during re-entry in 2003, would find clues on Gricar's computer hard drive. However, the hard drive recovered from the Susquehanna River yielded nothing.

"It remains a source of frustration," Madeira said. "We're at the point now where we're following crazy leads."

Police investigating Offutt's disappearance say they're following several leads, but have discovered nothing to explain why she vanished.

Four days after the fire, Offutt's red Saturn coupe was found abandoned in State College, about 70 miles east of her Jefferson County home. Although investigators learned the fire was set with some type of accelerant, the county coroner could not determine the infant's cause of death.

"As time goes by it's looking more and more grim, but you want to hope that she's OK," said Trooper Bruce Morris, public information officer for Troop C of the Pennsylvania State Police.

"It's as if she fell off the face of the planet."

Hallett, who believes someone killed her daughter, said Offutt struggled in life.

As a 3-year-old, she was traumatized by her parents' divorce. While attending high school in Virginia, she was shy and socially unsure, with a sweet, almost childlike innocence, her mother said.

She studied journalism for a year at Shepherd University in West Virginia, but left after earning poor grades. She had trouble holding jobs, maintaining relationships and establishing roots; she preferred playing in the park with her daughters to housework.

In 1994, Offutt married and moved to Texas, but within two years she ended what her mother called a "volatile relationship" and returned to Virginia. She was unmarried when she gave birth to her children.

Offutt moved often, spending time in State College, Philadelphia and in Virginia with her mother. Then, Hallett bought the blue vinyl-sided home in Sykesville, a quiet borough of 1,100 people employed in metal manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs.

"The whole idea for the house was to give Joey a centerpoint, some stability," Hallett said.

Hallett said Offutt was a good mother to her two daughters, then 2 and 9, who were staying with relatives when the fire happened. She was planning to marry the father of her infant son, a baby named Alexis.

"She was happy there and loved her children. She never would have hurt her baby and she wouldn't have left her daughters," said Hallett, who is offering $15,000 for information that leads to her daughter's whereabouts.

Hallett said it appeared as though authorities at first blamed Offutt for the baby's death and for setting the fire.

Offutt's nephew, Jason Hungerford of Ithaca, N.Y., said his aunt's purse was found in her house after the fire. That, and the way her abandoned car was parked, led him to discount theories that she left willingly.

"She was a bad driver. That car was backed into a parking place perfectly. It stood out to me because that's something she'd never do," Hungerford said.

Looking back, Morris said police explored all options.

"This case is definitely unique," Morris said. "Usually there is some trail to follow. We're still working on it, still following different leads, but there is nothing new at all."

Law enforcement officials concede that missing adults often fall through the cracks. Many times, it is up to relatives to submit a missing person's picture and information to search organizations and Internet sites.

There is no comprehensive list of missing adults because cases fall under various law enforcement jurisdictions, according to FBI Special Agent Bill Crowley in Pittsburgh. He said the FBI focuses on missing adult fugitives and kidnapped and missing children.

Crowley said cases involving children get more attention from law enforcement authorities because they are more vulnerable.

He said many adults disappear because they are dissatisfied with their lives and want to start anew; others are cases of suicide. For those reasons, law enforcement authorities with tight budgets are reluctant to stretch thin resources, he said.

"Unless there's a crime committed, we don't get involved with missing adults," Crowley said. "We've had cases before where a guy goes missing and has a wife and three kids at home worried sick, and we find out he's living in Vegas."

Morris said it is possible that Offutt could be "alive and well, living somewhere," but no one has reported seeing her and her financial accounts haven't been used. She has not tried to contact her family.

Morris said police are open to other scenarios, such as that she committed suicide or that someone hurt her. The case will be revisited every 60 days, he said.

"There's no doubt in my mind that somebody knows something or has seen something and discounted it," Morris said. "There's something out there that could bring this to a conclusion." 
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:884892594&start=6
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« Reply #22 on: December 28, 2008, 04:04:05 PM »


The Mysterious Disappearance of Joey Lynn Offut





December 22, 2008

In this week's edition of "The Missing," we revisit the mysterious disappearance of Joey Offutt, a 33-year-old resident of Pennsylvania, who went missing in July 2007.

On July 12, 2007, firefighters were summoned to Joey Lynn Offutt's Sykesville, Pennsylvania home. Unfortunately, the fire gutted the entire house before the fire department could get the blaze under control.

During a walkthrough of the burned-out structure, firefighters and police discovered the body of a young infant inside a bathroom. Investigators were able to determine that the infant was alone inside the house when the fire started. Subsequent DNA testing identified the infant as Joey's son, Alexis "Lex" Alfred Brolin III. Joey was nowhere to be found, and it was soon discovered that her two daughters, ages two and nine, had been staying with family members.

During a subsequent search of Joey's burned out house, investigators found her purse and identification. Other items found inside the house suggested that Joey had not been there since July 5, roughly one week before the house burned to the ground.

Joey's disappearance remains a mystery to her family and friends, who claim she would have never left her children and vanish voluntarily. The mystery further deepened on July 16, when police found Joey's red Saturn coupe abandoned outside an apartment building near Penn State College. Investigators questioned residents of the apartment complex, but none of them had any information about Joey or how her car came to be parked in front of the building.

In an effort to assist investigators in the search for Joey, her family created the Web site FindJoey.org in an effort to publicize the case on a national level. Since the site's incorporation, some tips have been received, but to date none have panned out.

Joey's own Internet usage has shed some light on her life, which may or may not be relevant to her disappearance.

Joey Lynn OffutAccording to the information in an Internet profile Joey maintained, she was involved in a "long-term relationship." Under the "Latest News" section, she wrote about her love life and her newborn child.

Joey was also a member of an Internet group devoted to single mothers. From February 2005 to July 2007 she made 525 posts to the group. Many of her early posts discussed the rocky nature of her relationship with her boyfriend. In a March 2005 post, she talked about getting a protection from abuse (PFA) order against him. In subsequent posts, she alluded to the fact that there was some danger of physical harm for both her and her kids. She also discussed the fact that she was pregnant.

The following month, she wrote that her daughter had been born on May 10, 2005. She continued to posts over the next several months, and then in January 2006, she again posted about problems she was having with her boyfriend. She alleged that his son had sexually assaulted her 5-year-old daughter and that as a result, her daughter had been removed from her home, and she had to fight to get her back.

By March 2007, Joey's posts were a little more optimistic. She said she was working through the problems she had been having with her boyfriend and although she was not ready to completely trust him, she was hopeful that they could work things out because they were going to be having another child together, a boy this time. The following month, Joey wrote that her boyfriend was a former drug addict and felon, but that having children had changed him.

Joey posted again in May 2007. Again, she appeared optimistic that the relationship had taken a turn for the better and that her boyfriend was going to propose to her. Joey's last post to the group was made on June 5, 2007. In it she wrote about the birth of her son, Lex, and promised to post pictures of him in the near future. Unfortunately, that was the last time Joey Lynn Offutt was seen either online or off.

Joey's boyfriend has been questioned by the police, but has not been named a suspect or person of interest in the case. Authorities say he has been cooperative with the investigation.

Police thought they got a solid break on December 26, 2007, when a body matching Joey's description was found in Somerset County; however, is has since been determined that the victim was not Joey.

In November and December 2008, "America's Most Wanted" aired two small segments about Joey's disappearance. Following each broadcast police received several tips about possible sightings; however none of them have turned up any new information.

Joey Lynn Offutt is described as a white female, 5'3" tall, 110 lbs., with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call the Pennsylvania State Police at 814-371-4652, Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS ($2,000 reward for information) or the Find Joey Tip Line ($15,000 reward for information) at 1-877-440-JOEY (1-877-440-5639).

http://blogs.discovery.com/criminal_report/2008/12/the-missing---1.html#more
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« Reply #23 on: December 28, 2008, 04:39:18 PM »

What makes this case even more mysterious to me is what has been reported about the baby. 

In the above article, these two things stand out for me:

"investigators were able to determine that the infant was alone inside the house when the fire started."

and

"Other items found inside the house suggested that Joey had not been there since July 5, roughly one week before the house burned to the ground."

So putting these two things together, one might suppose that the baby *could have been* alone inside the house for about a week before the fire occured?  Am wondering if that means the baby was dead in the house alone for that week, or if he had been alive and alone that whole time and died in the fire?  In either case, someone came back and burned that house down, with the baby inside.   

Another thing that makes me wonder, given the boyfriends possible history (at least according to Joey as posted online over a period of time), why is he not a 'person of interest'.  Does Joey's family and friends feel the same way?  I wonder tons of things about him. 

Unfortunately, we may never know anymore than we do right now.  And that's frustrating.  I cannot even begin to imagine how Joey's family feels.   
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« Reply #24 on: January 01, 2009, 02:51:00 PM »

I have skeletal remains 20 miles s/w of the burned home of Joey. Not much info given yet on the human remains. I'll keep you posted. I know there are a lot of 'missing' in PA, but this is so close.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_365081822.html
NEW – Skeletal remains found in Indiana County

MAP
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=MARCHANd%20pa&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
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« Reply #25 on: January 01, 2009, 03:00:11 PM »

more>
http://www.indianagazette.com/articles/2008/12/30/news/indiana_county/10008397.txt
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« Reply #26 on: January 17, 2009, 01:50:33 PM »

Officials hope to match remains with other info     

Saturday, 03 January 2009 

INDIANA — Work is underway to identify skeletal remains found last week in North Mahoning Township, Indiana County, but the coroner said he feels confident that there is enough information to identify the person. Punxsutawney-based Pennsylvania State Police reported that skeletal remains were found around 10 a.m. Monday in North Mahoning Township.

Friday, Indiana County Coroner Michael Baker said the remains were found by a person walking in the woods in the Marchand area. The person noticed a portion of one of the bones protruding through the ground, he said.

Baker explained that the first thing investigators must establish is the age, sex and stature of the person, and then compare that information with records of any missing persons in the area.

“That would be the next thing we would do to see if we come up with a match on that,” he said.

If investigators have some idea who the person is, they can use DNA or dental records to solidify their theories.

However, even with the information they learn from DNA or dental records, investigators must have something to which to compare it.

Based on initial information, Baker said he feels confident that investigators can learn who the person is.

“I think we have a good amount to make a good start on that,” he said.

Learning the identity of the person could take several weeks, Baker said.

In addition to Baker and PSP-Punxsutawney, a forensic anthropologist from Mercyhurst College in Erie is investigating. 
Last Updated ( Monday, 05 January 2009 ) 
  http://www.punxsutawneyspirit.com/index2.php?page=0&id=164026&task=view&option=com_content
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« Reply #27 on: January 19, 2009, 06:30:02 PM »

Not Joey.
Investigators say they believe skeletal remains found in southwestern Pennsylvania are those of a black woman who was shot and dismembered three to 10 years ago. They think she was 30 to 40 years old.
http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/1067368.html
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« Reply #28 on: January 19, 2009, 09:53:13 PM »

Not Joey.
Investigators say they believe skeletal remains found in southwestern Pennsylvania are those of a black woman who was shot and dismembered three to 10 years ago. They think she was 30 to 40 years old.
http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/1067368.html

Not Joey... But I wonder who the woman found is.  Shot and dismembered.  Very, very sad.  I hope the authorities can find out who she is.  Someone must be missing her somewhere.  I hope she can be laid to rest with her identity  known. 
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« Reply #29 on: January 20, 2009, 12:59:22 PM »

I'm working on it Wink
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« Reply #30 on: November 04, 2011, 09:24:28 PM »

http://www.findjoey.org/


UPDATE (7/10/11): Four years ago, in the early morning of July 12, 2007, authorities responded to a fire at Joey Lynn Offutt's Sykesville, PA home. After the fire was extinguished, the remains of Offutt's six-week-old son were discovered, but Offutt and her car, a red Saturn with Virginia license plates, were missing. Police found Offutt's car four days later in State College, PA, parked at the Nittany Gardens apartment complex, where Offutt had previously lived.

Offutt's other two children, who were not in the home at the time of the fire, have been living with family members.

In the four years since Offutt has been missing, there have been no substantial leads in the case. Offutt's family believes Joey would not willingly leave her children, and they fear someone killed her and then tried to destroy evidence by burning the house down.

Offutt's family has increased the reward being offered for information on the whereabouts of Joey to $25,000.

At the time she went missing, Joey Lynn Offutt was 33 years old and is described as a petite woman, approximately 5' 3" with a thin build. She has brown eyes and brown/red brown hair. She may or may not have been wearing glasses.

Offutt's family has established a toll-free number to field tips from the public. Anyone with information is urged to call 1-877-440-JOEY (1-877-440-5639) or to contact the Pennsylvania State Police at 814 371-4652.

The family also runs this website to help bring public attention to the case. Visit FindJoey.org for additional information or to contact Offutt's family with information.
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« Reply #31 on: November 05, 2011, 01:28:59 PM »

Thanks Muffy. This is indeed a 'someone she knew' case. I agree with the family that she was killed in the house.
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One who doesn't trust is never deceived...

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