Nailah Franklin missing in Chicago 9/18/07(BODY FOUND)

[SuzieQ]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5668036

Missing woman had reported harassment
 By Leah Hope
September 20, 2007 - A Chicago family is worried a loved one, missing since Tuesday, may be in danger. Nailah Franklin lives in the University Village neighborhood, near Harrison and Kedzie. She had reported threats to police before she disappeared.

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The family has set up a command center at a gymnasium at 700 W. Maxwell, as a headquarters for flyer distribution. Police held a press conference Friday afternoon to update the media on new information.
It's been three days since any of her friends or family has heard from the pharmaceutical sales representative, and they are worried.

"I do believe she's in distress. She's not the kind of person who would just leave without a trace," said Lehia Franklin Acox, sister of the missing woman.

"It defies explanation. That sounds dramatic, but she's not the type of person who just leaves," said Dana McClellan, friend.

Her family said Franklin loved her job at Eli Lilly. So when she failed to show up for an important meeting with her boss at 10 a.m. Wednesday, they got worried.

At her home, they discovered some of her computer equipment as well as her company car were missing, so they filed a missing person report with police. Police confirmed Friday that two of Franklin's laptops, the car and some of her credit cards are missing.

Franklin's corporate car, a black, four-door 2005 Chevy Impala with Illinois license plate number 1957855 was leased.

Police say Franklin had filed a report just last week about soemone she had dated who was allegedly harassing and threatening her with calls and text messages. police said. The harassment was allegedly coming from someone Franklin had a past relationship with, but they would not elaborate. After filing the report, police had advised Franklin to get an order of protection, something she did not have time to have completed before her disappearance.

Her family hopes that's just a coincidence.

"I'm just willing myself to be positive and willing myself to just believe that she is somewhere and she's alive and OK, and that we just need to find her," Franklin Acox said.

Police say Franklin is an avid text messager, and they are pouring through her texts, calls and other records. They say Franklin had recently moved to the neighborhood.

"All we hope is she is safe," said brother-in-law Erwin Acox. "We really don't have any specific information. We are hoping that the fact (that) we are getting out the word will trigger somebody's memory that they saw her this week, and maybe they can give us some information or the police some information."






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[SuzieQ]

http://www.bet.com/News/Police+AskforHelpToFindMissingChicagoWoman.htm?wbc_purpose=Basic&WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished&Referrer=%7B9624097D-F2F3-4D5C-B513-798AEAD259B7%7D

Posted Sept. 21, 2007 – Police are asking for the public’s help in locating a 28-year-old Black Chicago woman who has been missing since earlier this week.

Nailah Franklin, a pharmaceutical representative for Eli Lilly & Co., was last seen Sunday evening, according to Sgt. Virginia Zic. She lives in the 1500 block of South Sangamon Street.

She was last heard from about 8:15 p.m., Tuesday when she sent a text message to her boyfriend, in Milwaukee, Zic said.

Franklin is about 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 110 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes.


 
 

According to CBS2 in Chicago, “she is bright, beautiful and successful, living in a nice building in the trendy new neighborhood near the University of Illinois at Chicago. The last thing her family and friends expected was for her to just disappear.”

The station reported that she told police that she had been receiving phone messages from a man she once dated. "I heard it, I heard the message," said Franklin's friend Dana McClellan. She said the message contained the following: "Basically 'I could do harm to you. You haven't seen that side, of me but I do have a bad side, and I could do harm to you.'"

Police say she missed an important meeting with her boss Wednesday morning, which is definitely not like her. When contacted by her job, her sister, Leila Franklin Acox, rushed to Nailah's apartment to search and immediately noticed two computers were missing, CBS2 reported.

"The fact that she missed the meeting and the car's not there, the phone goes directly to voice mail and the voice mail's full are all signs that something bad happened to Nailah," Acox told the station.

Franklin drives a company-owned gray 2005 Chevrolet sedan with Illinois license plate 1957855.

Anyone with information is asked to call (312) 746-9259.

 
 

[klaasend]

OH no, not another lovely young girl.  I'll see if I can find anything like a myspace on her. 

[klaasend]

OH no, not another lovely young girl.  I'll see if I can find anything like a myspace on her. 

She does have a myspace but it's set to private:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=41787782

Looks like she last logged in on Thursday September 20th though, unless someone else logged into her account.

[klaasend]

http://arlingtoncardinal.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/21/3245282.html

[vms]

OH no, not another lovely young girl.  I'll see if I can find anything like a myspace on her. 

She does have a myspace but it's set to private:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=41787782

Looks like she last logged in on Thursday September 20th though, unless someone else logged into her account.

It isn't private now. 

[klaasend]

I looks like her to me

[vms]

I looks like her to me

Lol, guess that solves that.

[vms]

http://profiles.friendster.com/23056256

[klaasend]

http://profiles.friendster.com/23056256

From your link.

[vms]

TOMMORROW (Saturday, September 22, 2007) THERE WILL BE A PRAYER VIGIL IN FRONT OF NAILAH'S CONDO AT 7:30PM ON 1525 SOUTH SANGAMON. PEOPLE ARE MEETING AT THE LITTLE GYM on 704 WEST MAXWELL STREET(THE CROSS STREET IS HALSTED) AT 6:00PM AND WALKING OVER.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5376531308

[vms]

Nailah's pic from her sister's myspace page

http://www.myspace.com/marinafranklin   

[klaasend]

She is a beautiful girl

[vms]

She is a beautiful girl

Yes, she is. Just browsing through her sibling's myspace pages, you can tell they are a close family. I hope she is found safe.

[vms]

chicagotribune.com

Cops: Missing woman had complained of calls
By Mary Owen and Angela Rozas

Tribune staff reporters

11:00 PM CDT, September 21, 2007

 Nailah Franklin spent last weekend visiting her boyfriend in Milwaukee and attending a wedding in Lake Geneva before returning to Chicago Sunday night.

Her boyfriend, Andre Wright, said she arrived back home at 8 p.m. and they spoke twice that night. On Monday evening, Wright said, Franklin, 28, was relaxing at home as they chatted on the telephone about their day.

"She was fine," Wright said. "She was her normal, cheerful self."

Franklin's boyfriend was the last of her family and friends to have seen the Eli Lilly and Co. pharmaceutical representative, who has been missing since Tuesday.

Chicago police are trying to speak with many people, including a man they believe made threatening calls to Franklin within the last two weeks. A different woman filed two orders of protection against the man Sept. 12 and 18, according to a source and court records.

Franklin filed a police report last week regarding the calls. Detectives encouraged her to also file an order of protection against the man, but she didn't, said Sgt. Virginia Zic-Schlomas, head of the Special Victims Unit at the Harrison District police station.

Franklin casually dated the man before she met her current boyfriend in June, family members said. "We don't know if the [threatening calls have] anything to do with this," her sister Lehia Franklin A. Cox said.

Wright, who first met Franklin this summer at an art gallery event in Chicago, said Franklin never mentioned the man until the phone calls started. He said the man called multiple times and she did not call him back.

Two friends last spoke to her Tuesday, and three people—her boss, boyfriend and youngest sister—received a vague text message that night stating she was at dinner and would call them later, her family said.

She never called.

Wednesday morning, Franklin missed an important meeting with her boss in suburban Chicago and, soon after, her family reported her missing. Family and friends say Franklin is a happy person with a thriving career and lots of friends. They suspect foul play because she would never just drop off the radar, they said.

"This is something she would never, ever, ever do," Cox said. "She would never miss work and not be in contact with her girlfriends or boyfriend."

Her company-issued vehicle, company laptop and personal laptop are also missing, according to police, who have not named any suspects but said they have "good leads." They are checking Franklin's cell phone and credit card records, as well as police-owned street surveillance and cameras inside her condominium complex at University Village Lofts in the 1500 block of South Sangamon Street.

Before the threatening phone calls, family and friends said they had never heard Franklin express concerns for her safety.

Wright arrived in Chicago Friday morning to help dozens of volunteers distribute about 10,000 fliers in the area around University Village.

Police have said Wright is cooperating and is not believed to be involved in the disappearance.

Franklin's missing company-issued vehicle is a black, 2005 Chevrolet Impala with Illinois license plate 1957855.


Link

[vms]

Link to Pics

 http://www.myspace.com/cdiddy1 

[klaasend]

http://www.wbbm780.com/Missing-Woman-s-Car--Belongings-Found/983224

Posted: Saturday, 22 September 2007 8:35AM

Missing Woman's Car, Belongings Found

 
CHICAGO (CBS 2)  -- Family members say police have found a missing Chicago woman's car and other personal property.

Nailah Franklin, 28, of the University Village neighborhood, was last heard from on Tuesday.

Her family said her car was found near an Outback Steakhouse in the 2000 block of River Oaks Drive in Calumet City, with some of her belonging scattered. Police in Calumet City said Chicago police were conducting a search in the southern suburb, but further information from police was not available Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Franklin's family and friends, along with police, have been conducting a massive search and scrambling to get the word out.

"We, of course, are waiting with bated breath, and hoping that something breaks soon," Franklin's sister, Lehia Franklin Acox. "The bottom line for us is that we want Nailah found safe, and alive and well, and returned to us."

But there are worries that Franklin might have been the victim of foul play.

The family of the 28-year-old Eli Lilly pharmaceutical representative says she is always in constant contact, especially by text message. The last message she sent was that night, saying she was at dinner and would call later. No one has heard from her since.

Police are talking with several people with whom Franklin has had relationships. Sources say one of them has a history of making threats to other women. A week before she vanished Franklin had filed a report with police about a man she had dated, claiming he was threatening her by phone.

"She had already had contact with a detective of our agency, who was in constant contact with her giving her advice," said Sgt. Virginia Zic-Schlomas of the Harrison Area Special Victims Unit.

Among the advice was to file a restraining order against the man.

Franklin's friend Dana McClellan said the message contained the following: "Basically 'I could do harm to you. You haven't seen that side, of me but I do have a bad side and I could do harm to you.'"

Franklin's sister went to the Harrison Area police headquarters Friday morning to talk to detectives about the case. She said detectives called her and asked her to come in.

Police say they still have confidence Franklin will be found.

"I'm still hoping there's a positive outcome in the results of all this," Zic-Schlomas said.

Two computers are also missing from Franklin's home: a personal laptop and one she used for her work with Eli Lilly.

Franklin is 5-feet 2-inches, 115 pounds, with brown eyes and brown hair.

Eli Lilly is also involved in the investigation since one of their employees, and a company computer, is missing.

"This is someone who just had everything to live for; she was at the top of her game professionally; she bought two condos on her own as a single woman; she dotes on her niece, my daughter; she's just a person who is very connected with the people she cares about," Franklin's sister said. "This is so out of character."

If you have any information about the case, police ask that you call (312) 746-9259. 

[vms]

Suspecting Foul Play, Police Search Pond For Missing Woman
Golf-Course Pond Being Searched By Police

<snipped>

CHICAGO -- There has been a major development in the search for the missing 28-year-old Chicago woman, Nailah Franklin.

As NBC 5 first reported Saturday morning, Calumet city police and dive teams are searching a pond at the River Oaks Golf Course.

http://www.nbc5.com/news/14180297/detail.html

[klaasend]

I'm getting that sick feeling again.  This is so sad.

[vms]

I'm getting that sick feeling again.  This is so sad.

This does not sound good. I hope we are wrong.