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

[vms]

Search continues after missing woman's car found

<snipped>

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons, Mary Owen and Angela Rozas Tribune staff reporters
11:19 AM CDT, September 22, 2007

Divers searched a pond at River Oaks Golf Course near the Bishop Ford Freeway and 159th Street in Calumet City Saturday morning as part of their efforts to find Nailah Franklin, a drug company pharmaceutical sales representative, after police located her car a short distance away in Hammond, Indiana, on Friday night.

Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, said some of Franklin's personal items have been recovered from the vehicle.

The search of the pond was called off at about 10:30 a.m. when no trace of the woman was found, officials and family said.

Link

[klaasend]

Search continues after missing woman's car found

<snipped>

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons, Mary Owen and Angela Rozas Tribune staff reporters
11:19 AM CDT, September 22, 2007

Divers searched a pond at River Oaks Golf Course near the Bishop Ford Freeway and 159th Street in Calumet City Saturday morning as part of their efforts to find Nailah Franklin, a drug company pharmaceutical sales representative, after police located her car a short distance away in Hammond, Indiana, on Friday night.

Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, said some of Franklin's personal items have been recovered from the vehicle.

The search of the pond was called off at about 10:30 a.m. when no trace of the woman was found, officials and family said.

Link

I wonder what items they found? 

[SuzieQ]

Klaas,

Was just going to post that they had found the car, but of course you beat me, LOL.
It doesn't sound good at all. She is such a beautiful girl and had so much going for her. So sad. Will keep praying that I am wrong and they will find her.

[klaasend]

[klaasend]

[vms]

Thanks, Klaas. I was too lazy to look for a map but was wondering how far away it was...

[klaasend]

Thanks, Klaas. I was too lazy to look for a map but was wondering how far away it was...

Looks like her apartment was in a new very nice area, next to the University:

http://universityvillagechicago.com/Chapa/UV.nsf/neighborhood?openform

[vms]

Thanks, Klaas. I was too lazy to look for a map but was wondering how far away it was...

Looks like her apartment was in a new very nice area, next to the University:

I gathered that she was very successful from reading the myspace comments.
Just hope she has the chance to continue to pursue her goals...

[pdh3]

I don't think this one's gonna have a happy ending. But boy, do I hope I'm wrong.
This young woman had no reason to disappear on her own, so I have that bad feeling that she was a victim of foul play.

[SuzieQ]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/570921,CST-NWS-MISSING23.article

MISSING WOMAN | Car, personal effects found in Hammond; divers search pond

September 23, 2007
BY DAVE NEWBART, MITCH DUDEK, AND MONIFA THOMAS Staff Reporters
There was still no sign of a 28-year-old University Village woman, missing since Tuesday, after police found her abandoned car in Indiana, police said Saturday.

The woman's car -- a 2005 Chevy Impala -- was found Friday night, outside an abandoned building in Hammond, Chicago Police said. Inside the company car assigned to Nailah Franklin, police found some of her "personal effects,'' spokeswoman Monique Bond said.

Franklin's last contact with friends and family was through text messages allegedly sent Tuesday


A Hammond man who regularly walks past the place where the car was found said he first noticed the car Tuesday night. But it wasn't until Friday, while watching an evening newscast, that Jim Neveau began to suspect the vehicle was Franklin's.
"I memorized the plate numbers and walked back to the car to check it out, and they were the same," Neveau said Saturday. He said he had a friend call the news station, which then contacted police.

Police towed the car to Chicago to process it for "forensics and evidence processing," Bond said.

Police divers spent several hours Saturday morning searching a retention pond at the Cook County Forest Preserve River Oaks golf course near 159th Street in Calumet City, which abuts Hammond.

Police would not say what if any specific piece of evidence led them there, but authorities stopped searching the pond by late morning.

What happened to Franklin, an Eli Lilly & Co. pharmaceutical representative, remains a mystery. Her boyfriend, Andre Wright, said she visited him in Milwaukee last weekend, returning home Sunday.

"She was fine," Wright said.

On Tuesday, she allegedly sent text messages to Wright, her boss and one of her sisters, simply saying she was at dinner and would call them later. She never did, and after she missed a business meeting Wednesday, her family got worried.

Adding to their concern was that she had recently told police a man she once dated had left her threatening phone messages. Wright, who was helping to canvass Franklin's neighborhood, said she had told him the man "was a dangerous guy."

Police would not say whether they'd interviewed the man.

Asked if he had been questioned by police in connection with her disappearance, Wright said, "I've been cooperating with authorities."

A Saturday evening prayer vigil in front of Franklin's apartment building drew more than 100 people, many of whom left in tears.

"We are waiting with bated breath," Franklin's sister Lehia Franklin Acox said.

[klaasend]

Benjamin has changed his photo on Myspace:



9/28/07 - EDIT - he was a friend of Nailah's and nothing more.  He was not the person threatening Nailah and is not a suspect. (klaasend)

[klaasend]

I pray this isn't Nailah.   

http://www.nbc5.com/news/14185232/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

Woman Found Near Riverbank Cause Of Death Known

POSTED: 4:14 pm CDT September 23, 2007
UPDATED: 4:52 pm CDT September 23, 2007


CHICAGO -- A woman found on the South Side near the Chicago River Saturday was strangled to death, an autopsy determined Sunday.

The woman was found in the 2800 block of South Eleanor Street about 9 a.m. Saturday, police News Affairs said.

A passerby was walking near the riverbank of the Chicago River when they noticed a woman’s body near a concrete barrier, police said.

The person notified police immediately, and officers arrived on the scene to find the woman, who is believed to be in her 20s.

The woman, who remained unidentified as of 4 p.m. Sunday, was pronounced dead on the scene at 10:46 a.m. Saturday, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said.

An autopsy performed by the medical examiner's office determined she died from strangulation and ruled her death a homicide.

It is not yet known how long the woman's body had been on the riverbank. Wentworth-area detectives continue to investigate.

[sleddogs]

Might be a coincidence but I bet its her.

Check out this map

 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=159th+street+calumet+city&daddr=2800+south+eleanor+chicago,+il+to:university+village&mrcr=1&mra=pi&sll=41.7228,-87.610285&sspn=0.460213,0.925598&ie=UTF8&z=10&om=1&pw=2

Oarnge pin: is her home

Green pin: is where body was found

Yellow pin: is where her car was found

My guess is she was abducted and killed near home and they used her car to dispose of her body and then drive back to their own vehicle or residence.

[klaasend]

Might be a coincidence but I bet its her.

Check out this map

 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=159th+street+calumet+city&daddr=2800+south+eleanor+chicago,+il+to:university+village&mrcr=1&mra=pi&sll=41.7228,-87.610285&sspn=0.460213,0.925598&ie=UTF8&z=10&om=1&pw=2

Oarnge pin: is her home

Green pin: is where body was found

Yellow pin: is where her car was found

My guess is she was abducted and killed near home and they used her car to dispose of her body and then drive back to their own vehicle or residence.

I know, my fear is it's her too.  You would think they would have been able to identify her by now though?

[klaasend]

http://www.wbbm780.com/Marine-Unit-Searches-Shoreline-For-Missing-Woman/992142

Posted: Monday, 24 September 2007 8:05AM

Marine Unit Searches Shoreline For Missing Woman

 
CHICAGO (STNG)  -- The Chicago Police Marine Unit has been performing "surface searches" on all 27 miles of local shoreline for a missing Chicago woman whose car was found in Hammond, Ind. over the weekend.

The police Marine Unit has been using boats to perform "surface searches" from Evanston to Calumet Harbor, Ind. on and near the Lake Michigan shoreline, about 27 miles, according to Marine Unit Sgt. Robert Fitzsimmons on Monday morning.

"With the boat we run a couple hundred yards off shore, by the bricks and boulders, where you can’t see," according to the sergeant. "We haven’t done actual dives."

The process has been made "a little harder" because searchers don’t have an exact address of where the woman was last seen. Fitzsimmons could not confirm a report the woman’s purse was found in Chicago.

Following the recovery of 28-year-old Nailah Franklin's car Saturday morning, Chicago police sent divers into a golf course's pond in south suburban Calumet City.

For about three hours, divers searched River Oaks Golf Course pond, but had "negative results," according to a Calumet City police lieutenant.

Franklin’s car, a 2005 Chevrolet Impala, has been returned to Chicago for forensic and evidence processing. The search and investigation are ongoing, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.

Chicago police were assisted by Cook County Forest Preserve police and Calumet City police, according to Cook County Forest Preserve police spokesman Steve Mayberry.

The search occurred after Franklin's car was found in Hammond, Ind.

Franklin, a pharmaceutical representative for Eli Lilly & Co., was last heard from Tuesday night when she text-messaged her boyfriend to say she was at dinner and would call when she was done, Chicago police said.

Franklin text-messaged her boyfriend, a Milwaukee resident, about 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, police said. She spoke to friends on her cell phone Sunday.

Her family called police after Franklin didn't show up for a work meeting.

Last week, Franklin, who lives in a condo in the 1500 block of South Sangamon, filed a police report saying she received phone threats, but she did not obtain a protection order. Police are looking at credit card and cell phone records and at two laptop computers found in her condo for any evidence of her whereabouts. Police said they have interviewed the boyfriend.
 

[pdh3]

Oh No. 

I'd be surprised if that young woman they found isn't Nialah. For her familiy's sake, I hope the ME can identify the body ASAP.

 Someone, somewhere, has lost a family member, and I feel for them.

[vms]

Oh No. 

I'd be surprised if that young woman they found isn't Nialah. For her familiy's sake, I hope the ME can identify the body ASAP.

 Someone, somewhere, has lost a family member, and I feel for them.

I hope it isn't Nailah but as you said it is a sad outcome for someone's family one way or another.
 

[klaasend]

http://www.wbbm780.com/FBI-Joins-In-Search-For-Missing-Woman/991708

Posted: Monday, 24 September 2007 5:10PM

FBI Joins In Search For Missing Woman

Steve Miller Reporting
 
CHICAGO (WBBM)  -- Chicago police say they have asked the FBI to join the investigation into the disappearance of a South Side woman, missing since last Tuesday.

WBBM's Steve Miller reports.

As the family of 28-year-old Nailah Franklin tries to keep the story of her disappearance in the public mind, Chicago police are keeping developments close at hand, not releasing much information to the media.

"Police have talked to a number of people," says police spokeswoman Monique Bond.

On Friday, Franklin's car was found in Hammond.  Inside: personal belongings.  A search of a nearby retention pond found nothing.

Franklin's sister Lehia Acox says friends and family have been passing out fliers downtown - to try to find someone who might know something to lead to Nailah.

"We're fanning out from the Leo Burnett building at 35 West Wacker because my sister launched her career straight out of college as an employee of Leo Burnett.  And her former colleagues and her former bosses reached out to us and offered space as a base for operations."

Lehia Acox says she believes her sister is still alive - and will be found, safe. 

[klaasend]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5673869

Search continues for missing woman
Police question woman's ex-boyfriend
 
September 25, 2007 - As the search continues for a Chicago woman who disappeared one week ago today, police question a man in connection to her disappearance.

Chicago police say they brought Franklin's ex-boyfriend in for questioning Monday night and sent him home following that interview. Police are not calling him a suspect.

A few days before she disappeared, Franklin filed a police report saying she had been receiving threatening phone calls from a man she used to date.

"Not knowing what happened to her is killing us but we have to be strong because when she needs that energy and when it is important to continue to be hopeful," said Lehia Franklin Acox, Sister.

For several days now, Nailah Franklin's friends and loved ones have been passing out flyers asking for help in finding her.

"We are turning over every rock we can internally to assist in the investigation," said Acox.

Monday, they distributed flyers to motorists on the city's South Side and her friends at her old job helped hand out flyers to pedestrians in the Loop.

"You feel anything you could do could make a difference. Handing out one flyer could make a difference," said Cindy Blikre, Leo Burnett.

This weekend, divers searched a pond at the River Oaks Golf Course after some of her personal belongings were found nearby.

Franklin's car was found in Hammond, Indiana. Detectives continue to search it for clues.

[Jennifer34]

so does that mean the body they found is not her, or maybe still not known?