Yasmine Acree 15yr old missing since 1/15/08 Chicago, IL

[Sam]

I do not find where we have already posted about Yasmine.There is a picture of her listed on this site with the story. Very pretty girl.Missing in Illinois.I read a newspaper article earlier today where Yasmine's Mom is not happy because the police do not seem to be doing much.




http://blackandmissing.blogspot.com/2008/02/missing-yasmine-acree.html

Monday, February 4, 2008
Missing: Yasmine Acree



Yasmine Acree left her home in the Austin Community and headed for school Tuesday morning Jan. 15. After school she went to the local YMCA to meet with her mentor, Tiffany Moore.

The 15 year old came home Tuesday evening, washed a load of clothes and went to her room. During the midnight hours she went missing. Her mother, Rose Starnes, believes burglars entered the home, but left with something more precious than gold- her daughter.

"Yasmine and I are very close," Starnes said. "She didn't run away."

Locks were found cut off the home's outside gate, and the basement door was forced open, Starnes said. Yasmine's room, which is located in the basement, was left undisturbed.

"I'm not sure if she got up once she heard them enter the basement, and they took her or what happened. Yasmine is the only thing missing," Starnes, a mother of three, said. "I don't see anything missing downstairs. It's like whoever came, came just for Yasmine."

Yasmine is a freshman at Austin Polytechnical Academy, where, according to some friends, she joked about being "tired of life, tired of school, tired of everything."

Rev. Ira Acree, Yasmine's cousin and pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, said the freshman came to church every Sunday with her mother. The last time Acree saw Yasmine, he recalled "It didn't seem like anything was bothering her. She seemed very happy and jovial."

"Yasmine is very mild-mannered and polite, you know the type that said 'yes ma'am' and 'no ma'am,'" he added.

"She's a sharp kid, her verbiage was great for a 15 year-old. She has too much potential to be sidetracked, [has] a mother who loves her - strict or not- and a family that wants the best for her. She has a bright future and a wonderful personality."

Her mother added, "Whoever has Yasmine probably think, they've gotten away with it because the police are saying 'runaway'. Nobody in the family believes she ran away."

Pastor Acree said he hopes that she was not abducted.

"If for some reason she ran away, whatever the issue, I pledge my support to help her resolve it."

It's been a couple of days since Yasmine's family heard from police, and her mother believes, "They would've called if they had a suspect - I hope."

"They may be doing the best they can, I don't know. I'm holding on," a distressed Starnes said. "It's just physically and emotionally draining to just wonder. All kind of thoughts are going through my mind, because I don't know where she is."

The 1,300 congregation at Greater St. John Bible Church, 1256 N. Waller Ave., have held prayer visuals, and dispersed 2,000 flyers in the Austin Community. Partnering with area schools and residents, they've distributed 5,000 flyers in the shopping district on Madison and Pulaski. Acree, who's also chairman of the Leaders Network, a group of clergy activists, are sponsoring a reward of $1,000 to anyone that can lead to Yasmine's safe return.

In hopes that word reaches Yasmine, Starnes said: "I love you, I miss you and I want you back at home."

Pastor Acree added, "We're worried sick about you and your safety. Please come home, you will not be in trouble. I promise."

"I'm still holding on to hope," Acree stressed. "Because of so many caring people, I've been stunned by the support of so many. I believe God is going to use these people to bring Yasmin safely home."

The family ask that if anyone has information leading to the safe return of Yasmine Acree, call Area 5 Police at 312/746-6399, or contact Greater St. John Bible Church at 773/378-3300.

[Source]


Related articles:

15-Year-Old Girl Disappears From Home

Yasmine Acree, cousin of Austin pastor, missing

Posted by Deidra at 8:25 AM 

Labels: 2008, Found, Missing

[klaasend]

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Yasmine Acree, cousin of Austin pastor, missing

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

 

Yasmine Acree, cousin of Austin pastor Rev. Ira Acree, has been missing since Jan. 15, and family members have been canvassing the community ever since to spread word about her disappearance.

The 15-year-old girl was reported missing from her home at Congress and Cicero by family members. The family said Yasmine went to bed in the basement of the home where her room was that Tuesday night and was not seen the next day. She had done a load of laundry and later went to bed, the family said. The girl's mother indicated that her daughter would not just run away, and this was not the girl's usual behavior.

She had never run away before, family said, and they don't know what clothes she was wearing at the time of her disappearance. A family member said there's evidence that someone had broken into the basement.

Last Friday, Rev. Acree and family members hosted a press conference at the 15th District Police Station, 5701 W. Madison, and hosted another rally Sunday at Rev. Acree's Greater St. John Bible Church, 1256 N. Waller. Along with family and friends, community leaders also attended the church Sunday to lend support.

Yasmine Acree is 5-feet-1 and weighs 125 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. Family members are asking anyone with information about Yasmine to call Area 5 Missing Persons at 312/746-6399.

-Terry Dean

[klaasend]

[Bearlyhere]

How can someone see a cut locks and a door that was broken into and come to the conclusion that the woman is a runaway?

Did common sense fly out the window?

 

[bleachedblack]

Police "Don't Care" About Missing Girl

2008-07-15
CHICAGO -- The family of a teenage girl missing since January is urging the Chicago Police Department to increase their investigation into her disappearance.

The family says police believe Yasmin Acree ran away from home. But the girl's mother, Rose Starnes, says there are many reasons her daughter wouldn't run away, including her excitement about starting her first job.

During a gathering outside a police district headquarters Wednesday, the Reverend Marshall Hatch said the missing girl's case is not getting the attention it deserves because she is an African-American honor student from the West Side.

Grand-Central Commander Joseph Salemme is calling the family's criticism insulting.

Starnes said she last saw her daughter January 14 as she left to visit grandchildren in Elgin. When she returned home, she found the locks cut on two gates, and door to the basement forced open.

http://www.blackvoices.com/newsarticle/_a/yasmin-acree-missing-chicago-girl/20080715124109990001

[bleachedblack]

It is very sad to see the direction this case is taking. The focus should be on finding a missing 15 yr old.......period.

[Bearlyhere]

I wonder how long the Mom was gone and who knew she was gone.

What led the police to believe as they do?  What does the police report look like and who reported her missing?  How long was she missing before it was reported?

Does she have any lethal ex-boyfriends?  Where have the people from the church been searching?  What does her cousin think happened?

What was meant by strict?

[Bearlyhere]

I have been thinking about this a lot.  I think I may know what it is. 

Family and friends in this situation (even though it is not their job) have not made it personal.  What I mean is, what do we know about Yasmine? 

What I think happens, as with Natalee, Jaliek, Trenton, Clinton, and most recently Nancy is their family and friends have made us "get to know" the victim, made them "come alive," and sometimes feel like part of their family/friends.  They have put up websites, told us about the personality of the person, updated us each step of the way, put maps of the home of the person and pictures of his/her families and friends to name a few things.

I think if the family and friends of this woman invited us to see and get to know Yasmine, it would help a lot in her case.

Anyone else have any thoughts on what can be done to get this woman into the eyes of the world to put pressure on closing this case?

[bleachedblack]

Missing Girl's Family Files Complaint Against Police

Monday, 14 July 2008 3:34PM
CHICAGO (WBBM)  -- The family of a 15-year-old girl missing since January has filed a formal complaint, charging that police have "butchered" the investigation.

Yasmine Acree's uncle, Rev. Ira Acree, filed the complaint today with the Independent Police Review Authority. 

He notes that it took investigators two days to return to the residence to retrieve a lock that had been cut, possibly allowing someone to kick in a basement door leading to the room where the teenager slept. 

The girl was not the type to run away, her family says.  She disappeared from her family's Austin neighborhood home on January 15th.  The family says her mother noticed a cut lock and a kicked in door and that police didn't come for the lock until January 17th.

Police say they've put in over 2,000 hours on the case.  They say they're giving this case the attention that it deserves, saying they're following all leads.

The police also say some of Yasmine's friends have been less than cooperative with investigators. 

http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/2595495.php?

[bleachedblack]

Is this the same Yasmin Acree as pictured in the graduation photo? If it is the pic looks more recent IMO.
http://profiles.friendster.com/55121166

[Nut44x4]

Yes it is.
She has flixter too>
http://www.flixster.com/user/lymonaide97

and myspace which is private and shows a logon after she went missing, but hard to say who it was that logged on.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=211573507

[Nut44x4]

She is still listed as missing here..
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&LanguageCountry=en_US&searchLang=en_US&caseLang=en_US&orgPrefix=NCMC&caseNum=1088268&seqNum=1



and this is the last report I can find>>

More police attention sought in missing-teen case
Teen's family, friends urge beefed-up investigation
By Deanese Williams-Harris | Chicago Tribune reporter
11:04 PM CDT, July 9, 2008

Shaquana Holmes (left) and Krystal Wilson (center), friends of missing teenager Yasmin Acree, hold fliers about her disappearance Wednesday outside Grand-Central Area police headquarters. (Tribune photo by Alex Garcia / July 9, 2008)

Before she disappeared in January, Yasmin Acree talked excitedly about starting her first job and taking an annual summer trip with a YMCA mentoring program, which was considering her for a prominent role in a new job initiative.

"There are so many reasons why my daughter wouldn't run away," said Rose Starnes, who reported her 15-year-old daughter missing almost six months ago.

On Wednesday, family, friends and several ministers gathered in front of the Chicago Police Department's Grand-Central headquarters on the West Side to urge officials to heighten their investigation into Acree's disappearance.

"Because she's a 15-year-old African-American honor student from the West Side, this case isn't getting the attention it deserves," said Rev. Marshall Hatch of New Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church.

Acree's family wonders why it took two days for police to gather what the family considers key evidence—a lock that may have been cut from a wrought-iron gate outside the missing teen's home.

Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond said evidence technicians were at the scene in January and collected what they thought was appropriate. She said police have no suspects.

Grand-Central Cmdr. Joseph Salemme said Wednesday that the criticism was "a little insulting." He said police have spent more than 2,000 hours on the case and sent numerous items to the state crime lab.

The investigation has gone into California and Kentucky, where other family members live, Bond said.

She also said police have not gotten full cooperation from people who may have information about the missing teen.

Starnes, 51, said she last saw her daughter Jan. 14 before going to Elgin to visit her grandchildren. Starnes' boyfriend told her that Acree had washed a load of clothes and gone to bed.

When Starnes returned home, she found the locks cut on two gates, and the door was forced open to the basement, where Acree's bedroom is located.

Earlier this year, police said they found no evidence of forced entry and that Acree told friends that she planned to run away.

But others say she would never run away.

"We saw no signs that she was unhappy or that something was wrong at home," said Kimberly George, director of the youth and teen development program at the North Lawndale YMCA.

George said Acree was sociable, smart and attentive to the younger children at the YMCA, which led officials to believe she could play an important role in a summer jobs program they were starting.

"I've been working with kids for more than 30 years, and I know a good kid when I see one," said Austin Principal Bill Gerstein.

There is a $2,500 reward for information leading to Acree's whereabouts. Call 773-378-3300.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-missing-teen-web-jul10,0,1806524.story

[Nut44x4]

ok.....here is something recent>
A COMMENT BY Momof3 said @ http://blackandmissing.blogspot.com/2008/02/missing-yasmine-acree.html
(Prayer For Yasmin Acree)

Lord, there is not a day that goes by that I don't hear inquiries as to Yasmin's whereabouts,

Either from a friend, co-worker, sister, cousin or spouse.

My answer is I don't know but I pray that she is not in any pain,

No one knows the deep chasm her disappearance has left family
and friends the disappointment and hurt never wanes.

She is not a rock star, soccer mom or pop singer,

She's an inner city youth whose scent still lingers.

Lord, her case doesn't get as much media coverage as others
With wealthier profiles,

But it doesn't lessen the love from family and friends
In their quest to find this beautiful child.

If this were suburbia her disappearance would cause quite
a disturbia,
Yasmin Acree would be a household name.
Then maybe it would put pressure on an already uneasy frame.

Hey, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and BET, why isn't anyone
running a special on missing teen--Yasmin Acree?

Lord, I know that your time is not like ours,
A thousand moons in Heaven can feel like thirty earthly
painstaking minutes,

But Lord, I am praying that soon you will reveal to the
Acree family just where Yasmin is.

July 24, 2008 4:49 PM   
~~~~~~~


another comment>>
BY MICHELLE
I really wish that Yasmine Acree is back home safe and that she will never be forgotten.Even though I dont know her I still care about her.I also dont know her but I like her too.

July 31, 2008 11:17 AM   

[Nut44x4]

Where Is Yasmine Acree? One-year anniversary of teen's disappearance

Rev. Ira Acree is a man of intense faith. Now that his 15-year-old niece has been missing from her West Side home for one year he says the family is trying to cope with the fact that it will be a long time before they see the outgoing, well-mannered teen again. No one has claimed the $3,000 reward and police say all leads have dried up.

Yasmine Acre left her home in the Austin Community and headed for school Tuesday morning Jan. 15, 2008. After school she went to the local YMCA to meet with her mentor, Tiffany Moore. The 15-year-old later arrived at her home on the 4800 block of W. Congress, washed a load of clothes and went to her room. During the midnight hours she went missing. Sources say a live-in boyfriend of the mother’s may have been the last person to see the child.

Rev. Acree, Yasmine’s cousin and pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, said the freshman came to church every Sunday with her mother. The last time Acree saw Yasmine, he recalled “She was very happy and just being a typical teenager,” he told the Crusader. “We don’t believe she left that house without being forced. It’s out of character. We just want her home.”

Sources claim tips have come into the Chicago police hotline and have fuelled sightings of the teen in Indiana and Mississippi. A person who asked for anonymity said the mother’s alleged live-in boyfriend failed a polygraph test. Police would not verify such information and the boyfriend is no longer in Chicago.

The reward has increased this year by $500 and without sustained media attention people in the community rarely inquire anymore about the teen.

“I just feel helpless,” her mother Rose told the Crusader. “My daughter is out there and there’s nothing I can do to get her back. I feel like she’s being held against her will. She didn’t run away. I don’t believe Yasmine is dead and I know she didn’t vanish into thin air. Someone, somewhere knows where my child is.”

According to the U.S. Justice Department, about 800,000 children go missing each year. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has said 2,200 children are reportedly missing each day. Demographic profiles of those missing children show that 51 percent are male and 47 percent are racial minorities. While half of the missing children are male and of color, it appears that mainstream television news mostly cover cases of white missing children, especially Caucasian girls. As for missing adults (those over 18), the National Center of Missing Adults and the FBI report similar findings.

Rev. Acree said it has been hard for his family to sustain media interest. “What can we do but pray and wait?” he asked. “Yasmine isn’t Caylee Anthony. The media loses its interest when our children go missing and all we can do is hope. It’s been hard to galvanize the community for the type of efforts one might see in cases where young white girls are abducted. It’s like Yasmine has just been washed away.”

Anyone with information about Yasmine Acree should call Det. Roth at (312) 745-8365 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children?1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST).
http://www.chicagocrusader.com/PressRelease_detail2.asp?ID=269

[Nut44x4]

Missing teen's family to get meeting with top cop
9/2009

CHICAGO (WBBM) - The activist pastor of a West Side church, his extended family and fellow ministers meet next week with Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis over the department's handling of his cousin's disappearance, more than 18 months ago.

Members of missing teen Yasmin Acree's family have insisted from the beginning that she was not the type of teen who would run away, and say there was ample evidence of forced entry into the family's home that police ignored and failed to collect for three days.

By that time, charged Yasmin's cousin and minister, the Rev. Ira Acree of Greater St. John Bible Church, the broken padlocks and door frames had all been compromised as evidence by repeated handling.

Instead, Rev. Acree says, police initially treated Yasmin as a runaway. Weis said the police Internal Affairs Division, after a 13-month investigation, sustained the family's view.

"It appears that some of our officers made a mistake. We'll deal with that," Weis said, but added, "I think it's safe to say that particular incident had no impact upon the efforts of our detectives in locating that young lady."
Yasmin remains missing. Rev. Acree disputed Weis' view.

"I don't know how the superintendent can sit back and say there's police misconduct, and then in the same breath say there's no impact in the case," he said. "It makes absolutely no sense."

Acree said botched evidence collection at the scene cannot have helped.
Yasmin was a freshman at Austin High School when she disappeared, on Jan. 15, 2008.

The meeting, at Chicago Police headquarters, is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 17. Rev. Acree said he, Yasmin's mother, and other ministers from his Leaders' Network will attend.

http://www.wbbm780.com/Missing-Teen-s-Family-Demands-Meeting-With-Top-Cop/5192006

[Nut44x4]

How can someone see a cut locks and a door that was broken into and come to the conclusion that the woman is a runaway?

Did common sense fly out the window?

 

Complaint filed against 2 cops in missing teen investigation: source

Aunt says they failed to note lock cut off door

September 10, 2009

The Chicago Police Department has sustained a complaint against two officers in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl, a police source confirmed Thursday.
The department would not officially discuss the nature of the complaint or what punishment the officers might face, if any.
But a source said the complaint was filed by Rose Starnes, an aunt of the girl, Yasmin Acree, who was first reported missing from the West Side on Jan. 16, 2008.

In her complaint, Starnes said two officers responded to her home in the 4800 block of West Congress to take a missing-persons report.
Starnes said she showed them a lock that had been cut off a rear basement door. Yasmin lived in the lower level of the house.

But the officers would not inventory the lock, Starnes said in her complaint.
The family continued to call police about the lock, which Starnes considered evidence in Yasmin’s disappearance. On Jan. 17, 2008, the lock was inventoried by police. Starnes filed her complaint on Jan. 18, 2008.

The police source said the officers should have inventoried the lock at the time they first responded to the home.

Starnes and a group of ministers gathered outside police headquarters today to announce that officers were “found guilty of misconduct.”

But police Supt. Jody Weis told reporters today that “in no way did these officers’ actions impact the investigation” into Yasmin’s disappearance.
Yasmin remains missing.

“We still believe and hope that she is out there and that whoever abducted her will be apprehended,” Cy Fields, of the Leaders Network coalition of religious leaders, told reporters outside police headquarters at 35th and Michigan.

At the time of her disappearance, police told reporters there was no evidence of a break-in and that Yasmin had told friends she was planning to run away. But Starnes said she believes the Austin Polytechnic Academy freshman was kidnapped.

Police said Yasmin went to school on Jan. 15, 2008, then to a YMCA group meeting she regularly attended. Her YMCA mentor dropped her off at home at about 8 p.m., police said.

Starnes’ boyfriend told police he saw Yasmin come home. She did a load of laundry before going to her room, he told police.

Starnes adopted Yasmin after her mother died. Before she was adopted, Yasmin had spent several years in a foster home in Kentucky, police said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1764089,police-complaint-yasmin-acree-investigation-091009.article

[Nut44x4]

Chicago Tribune
 
October 16, 2009 Friday
 
A MOTHER'S HEARTBREAK;
Police admit mishandling a missing-girl investigation in the beginning. Now they say they are aggressively following leads, as Yasmin's mother holds onto a faint hope that the teen is still alive.

In the front window of a modest brick two-flat on Chicago's West Side hangs a handmade sign with fading pictures of a smiling 15-year-old Yasmin Acree that says "we miss u."

The honor student and kind of girl who made her bed every morning and hung out at the YMCA disappeared overnight on Jan. 16, 2008.

On Oct. 25, if still alive, she will be 17. Her tiny basement bedroom is kept as it was. Dozens of stuffed animals perch at the head of her bed, and her clothes are folded neatly in their drawers, although Rose Starnes, the aunt who adopted Yasmin, knows she won't fit into them when, or if, she comes home.

Nobody has heard from Yasmin, and police are aggressively investigating her disappearance. But it wasn't that way initially, family members allege, and police now admit.

"I think they saw this house, this neighborhood and our color and race," says Starnes, who is African-American, as is Yasmin. "When black girls disappear, for some reason, they think she ran away with a boy and will come home."

Starnes says she frantically told responding officers that, "It was plum out of [Yasmin's] character to run away" and that doors leading from the basement to the alleyway had been forced, and a lock was cut off with bolt cutters.

"They didn't even look at the door or go downstairs to her room," Starnes says. During that time, the family and several local pastors tried to publicize the disappearance, prompting police to return to look for fingerprints and evidence, including the lock, she says.

In a rare concession, police admitted in a letter this year that the situation was mishandled.

"All available evidence was evaluated and it has been determined that misconduct on the part of the Department member(s) has been proven," wrote Juan Rivera, chief of the Internal Affairs Division. The letter to Starnes was in response to a formal complaint she had filed in July 2008 about the initial investigation.

Chicago police spokesman Roderick Drew said officers should have taken the lock. Detectives returned the next day to retrieve it, and the mistake did not impede the investigation, he said.

No procedures for such cases have changed, Roderick added. A disappearance is classified as a missing-person case, not a runaway, if it's a youth, he said.

But Starnes says the first officers suggested Yasmin might have stayed late after school to attend an athletic event, even driving to the school to check. Then, she says, they seemed to focus on the idea she had run off.

By federal law, authorities are required to take an initial report on a missing child and enter it into the FBI national crime database, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In 75 percent of cases involving an abduction homicide, children are killed in the first three hours, he said, so time is of the essence.

"If the child didn't run away, you could be signing a death warrant," Allen said. "You have to move quickly.

"We train law enforcement to not pursue the obvious. The challenge is not to assume it's a runaway to the exclusion of anything else."

Yet, he said, thousands of children run away and come back, making it very difficult to differentiate between what's voluntary and what's foul play.

When Starnes speaks about Yasmin, whom she adopted after the girl's mother died, she switches frequently from present to past tense, as her hopes rise and fall that Yasmin is still alive.

"Yasmin was a girl who loved fun, she loved reading and she loved being busy," Starnes says. She would curl up on the living room sofa, read paperback novels like other people eat popcorn -- one after another until she finished her own books and started in on Starnes'.

"She would be bugging me to hurry up and finish whatever I would be reading," Starnes says. "To not know where this child is -- whether she is dead or alive," Starnes' voice trails off. "This is the worst thing in life I've ever dealt with."

The stress has worsened her kidney problems and raised her blood pressure. There are days, Starnes says, that she lies crying in bed, unable to get up.

"I think all kinds of crazy things," she says. "Deep down, I believe she is still alive. But I wonder."

Starnes was visiting a daughter who lived in Elgin the night Yasmin disappeared. Yasmin was in the house with Starnes' sometime-boyfriend, who rented a room. She had spent the evening at the YMCA and was dropped off at home a little after 8 p.m. by her mentor.

The only time Yasmin took public transportation, Starnes says, was to school, where she was a freshman at the newly created Austin Polytechnical Academy. And even then, Starnes says she sometimes rode the bus behind her, making sure to keep out of sight so Yasmin wouldn't know.

"People would tell me I was too overprotective," she says, "but to me, Yasmin was a little girl."

On that Jan. 15, when Yasmin seemed to be even 15 minutes late coming home from school, Starnes went down to check her room and saw the bed was unmade.

"That was how I knew something was the matter," she says.

Now, Starnes is in weekly contact with detectives who update her on the case. Police Sgt. Chris Maniates of the Grand Central Area Special Victims unit, said the department has spent thousands of hours and has traveled to several other states, including Wisconsin, Kentucky and Indiana in the search of the missing teen. "We are leaving no stone unturned," he said.

Drew emphasized the importance. "The investigation continues, as it has since detectives took over the case," he said. "It is and remains the top-priority case for Area 5 detectives, which makes it one of the top cases for the entire Police Department." But a meeting in September for family with Police Supt. Jody Weis and top department officials was unsatisfying, said Rev. Ira Acree, Yasmin's cousin and the pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, who attended the session.

"The detectives have to play the hand they were dealt," he said, "and they weren't dealt a very good hand, because evidence was compromised and the lock was not confiscated."

Relatives have urged police to cast a wide net, including to talk to a man the family knows who was charged in May with aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping and attempted first-degree murder. Allen believes that Yasmin might be one of the 115 or so children a year who are abducted by strangers and are murdered, ransomed or taken with the intent to keep. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a Web page dedicated to Yasmin and tries to keep up the visibility of her case and others.

"Someone has seen something. Someone knows something," he said.

At Austin Polytechnical Academy, a poster of Yasmin hangs near the school entrance.

"Yasmin's disappearance was devastating," said Gwyn Kram, one of Yasmin's favorite teachers. "She was a very, very happy young girl, always laughing, smiling, joking. She was very playful and would talk to me about life, her future and what she wanted to do."

In fact, she sometimes was such a chatterbox that teachers practically had to push her out of the hallways so she would get to class on time, Kram said.

"She's really a good kid," said Principal William Gerstein. "She was a friendly, smart kid, who always said hello."

Gerstein and Kram talked about how upset classmates at the 125-student school were over Yasmin's disappearance. After the family requested his help, Gerstein sent students out to post fliers and posters. They also recall the rumors from students: that Yasmin had run away, that she had been kidnapped, that she had been seen on this or that corner, which ended up misleading police.

"The students wanted to believe that they saw her," Kram said. "They were confused and scared and worried."

Torian Hughes, a classmate of Yasmin's, called her "one of the upright kids." People were drawn to her, he said, because she made everyone laugh.

"Yasmin was the spirit of the school, Torian said. "And when she disappeared, the spirit went out of us." 
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1057110264&start=3

[Nut44x4]

Serial rapist suspect says he know fate of missing teen


March 14th, 2011 4:18 pm ET
A serial rape suspect has stated on Friday, that he knows what happened to a missing teen, but won't elaborate.

Jimmie Terrell Smith is faces charges in the rapes of five girls and women between 2006 and 2009 and two allegedly kidnappings, plus attempted murder, in one of the cases.

During a jailhouse interview, Smith told Chicago Tribune reporters that he knew what happened to missing 15-year-old Yasmin Acree, but he would not elaborate. Yasmin's diary has recently been found by Tribune reporters and in the diary, Yasmin's mentioned Smith.

I miss Tyrell…," Yasmin wrote.

snipped.....................
There was a massive investigation into Yasmin's disappearance, but Yasmin has never been found. During the time of Yasmin's disappearance, Smith once lived in the same building as Yasmin, and had contact with her after he moved out.

snipping........................
Last week, Smith told the court that he wanted to defend himself during the trail. The judge, James Linn cautioned Smith against representing himself and on Monday, the judge ordered a mental health examination for Smith.

http://www.examiner.com/missing-persons-in-national/serial-rapist-suspect-says-he-know-fate-of-missing-teen

[klaasend]

Hope this guy isn't pulling a Sloot.

[Sister]

Hope this guy isn't pulling a Sloot.

Amen to that Klaas -- it does seem she knew him.