Michael Sheppard, age 35, was last seen on May 8, 2003 in Huron County, OH

[SuzieQ]

Do we have a thread on this person? If we do will a Mod please move this over there. Thank you.


Reward offered for missing man's remains
By CARY ASHBY - Reflector Staff Writer | Wednesday May 05 2010, 12:21pm

A Texas-based mounted search and recovery team is offering a $5,000 reward for credible information leading to the discovery of a missing man's remains.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI&I) contacted Texas EquuSearch (TES) on April 19 requesting assistance in recovering the remains of Michael Sheppard, TES said on its Web site, texasequuseacrh.org. TES issued the reward Thursday.

"Michael Sheppard, age 35, was last seen on May 8, 2003 in Huron County, OH. It is not known what Michael was wearing at the time of his disappearance," the TES Web site stated Wednesday.

In an update posted Thursday, TES reported TES sonar expert Dennis Watters, founder/director Tim Miller and two officials specializing in ground-penetrating radar have been in Ohio assisting with the search "for the past week."

Two BCI&I agents and two canine handlers, as reported earlier this week by the Reflector, were seen Tuesday in the field near Rattlesnake Creek. The creek runs under U.S. 250 just inside Huron County near the Erie County line.

Also, there was a silver Chevrolet sports utility vehicle with an Ohio license plate marked "CSIK9," which was backed up to a small, bright blue collapsible tent. In the area directly behind the tent, the ground obviously had been razed by a bulldozer and the area was marked off with small orange flags, similar to ones used in archeology digs or by a street worker to mark off underground cables and pipes.

Huron County Sheriff Dane Howard, when asked about the situation Thursday, would only say there has been a joint "long-term investigation" involving his office, BCI&I and Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler's office.

Howard also said "other area agencies" were involved, but he wouldn't say what they were.

TES, on its Web site, said the Perkins Township Police Department also is involved in the investigation. Acting Chief Lt. Al Matthews couldn't be reached for comment at press time.

Howard declined to say how long the investigation had been happening, but earlier said investigators had been at Rattlesnake Creek since April 29.

"I don't want to compromise the continuity of the investigation," he said Thursday, referring further questions to Leffler.

Leffler refused to make any comments about the probe.

"No comment is no comment," the prosecutor said when asked about the length of the investigation.

Texas EquuSearch is encouraging anyone with information about the Michael Sheppard case to call one of the following agencies: TES at (281) 309-9500, the Huron County Sheriff's Office at (419) 663-2828, the Perkins Township Police Department at (419) 627-0824 or BCI&I at (419) 353-5601 ext. 306.

 
http://www.norwalkreflector.com/articles/2010/05/07/front/iq_980381.txt

[SuzieQ]

MyStory: A Mother's Plea For Answers
"No matter what has happened to him, I need to know. If he is dead, I want to bring him home for burial. Then I'll have a place to take him flowers and a marker that will say he was here, he was loved, he was important to me, and he is sadly missed. Please help me bring Michael home."

http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/brief.cfm?id=68849

[SuzieQ]

Cold Case of Missing Man Getting Fresh Attention
12/4/2009
(PERKINS TOWNSHIP, Ohio) — While many other Ohioans are planning for holiday season gift-giving, a Milan woman says she has already received from local and state investigators the gift she’s wanted for years: the gift of hope.

“I’m being realistic; I don’t expect that my son is still alive,” said Rosalie Gottwald. “But I did want someone to help my family figure out what happened to him, so we can at least bring him home for burial. We want the mystery solved. The help brought by Attorney General Cordray’s office is answering that prayer.”

Cordray and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) have responded to requests for assistance by the Perkins Township Police Department and the Huron County Sheriff’s Office to review the cold case disappearance of 35-year-old Michael Sheppard. Sheppard was last seen by his family when he visited them in Perkins Township in late April 2003. During that same month, Sheppard spent time with acquaintances in Huron County.

“It’s a key focus of BCI to develop and offer smart crime-fighting tools to local law enforcement,” said Attorney General Cordray. “They’ve told us this is an important way we can help them with the difficult work they do. A six-year-old case of a missing adult is going to be difficult, no doubt about it. Getting information out onto the Web and in front of a national audience is one of those smart ways we can use technology to try and resolve this case.”

BCI contacted the staff of the FOX-TV program, “America’s Most Wanted,” to discuss the Sheppard case and learned about a new feature of AMW.com, called My Story.  My Story profiles on the AMW Web site are written by families nationwide who are searching for justice. A new My Story profile about Michael Sheppard’s disappearance has now been posted on AMW.com. The AMW site is visited by more than a million readers each month.

More traditional investigative work is also being actively pursued by the officers, deputies and agents involved with the case. This work includes new searches, interviews and analysis in Perkins Township, Huron County, elsewhere in Ohio and across the country.

To read the My Story profile about the Michael Sheppard disappearance, visit www.amw.com/MyStory.

Media Contacts:
 
Holly Hollingsworth: (614) 644-0508
cell: (614) 353-7576
Kim Kowalski: (614) 728-9692


http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Briefing-Room/News-Releases/December-2009/Cold-Case-of-Missing-Man-Getting-Fresh-Attention
cell: (614) 893-6018

[SuzieQ]

http://www.norwalkreflector.com/articles/2010/05/09/front/iq_980673.txt

Mom knew son was dead
By CARY ASHBY - Reflector Staff Writer | Sunday May 09 2010, 5:30pm

It wasn't mother's intuition that told Rosalie Gottwald her son was dead.

A telephone call she received in November 2008 did it.

"The person knew things about Michael no one else knew," the Milan woman said. "He didn't know (Michael). He knew of his murder. He wasn't there."

After that phone call, she said she received another one with similar information from someone else.

Michael A. Sheppard, 35, was last seen alive May 8, 2003 in Huron County.

His mother said she suspects there were "at least three people involved in his murder" in Huron County and her son was buried "very close to the Milan area." She declined to name the suspects.

"It is not known what Michael was wearing at the time of his disappearance," states the Web site of Texas EquuSearch.

The all-volunteer mounted search and recovery team is collaborating with search experts from Central Ohio, New York and Illinois as well as four area law enforcement agencies plus the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in searching for Sheppard's body. The first part of the effort started April 29 at Rattlesnake Creek inside Huron County near the Erie County line.

In 2003, Gottwald and her husband started receiving death threats involving Sheppard from suspected drug dealers.

"The death threats came from Las Vegas," Gottwald said.

"They told us he stole $20,000 from drug dealers and they called our house several times. By the time of the last phone call, they said it was $50,000," she told Fox 8 News.

Huron County Sheriff's Capt. Bob McLaughlin, the agency's lead drug investigator, declined to comment on Gottwald's statement.

"The Huron County Sheriff's Office never investigated Michael Sheppard that I know of," said McLaughlin, who has been with the agency since 1989. "If someone investigated him before that, I'm not aware of it."

There were no criminal cases listed for Sheppard in Huron County Common Pleas Court. There was a warrant issued in late October 1990 for an undisclosed criminal case filed in Norwalk Municipal Court, but the court docket says the case is no longer on file.

Sheppard lived in Las Vegas for about seven years. After his divorce, he moved back in with his parents at Perkins Township.

"We believe Michael was working (Las Vegas drug) connections for local people," Gottwald told the Reflector.

The mother said she pretty much knew her son was dead by the 2003 Mother's Day about two weeks after he was last seen.

"Michael didn't call on Mother's Day and he had never missed a Mother's Day. And I knew then," she said.

[SuzieQ]

http://www.norwalkreflector.com/articles/2010/05/09/front/iq_980606.txt


Search team director, mother remain hopeful
By CARY ASHBY - Reflector Staff Writer | Sunday May 09 2010, 5:30pm

Texas EquuSearch (TES) founder Tim Miller is hopeful the volunteer search and recovery team will find the remains of Michael A. Sheppard.

The victim's mother, Rosalie Gottwald, of Milan, said finding her son's body will give her closure in his suspected murder. The 35-year-old Perkins Township man was last seen May 8, 2003 in Huron County. "It's awful not taking care of a funeral for him. ... I won't do that until they find him," Gottwald said.

[SuzieQ]

A Mother's Plea For Answers



Rose's little baby boy, Michael A. Sheppard, Jr.

When he was two years old, Michael pulled his little rocker beside me so he could feed his new baby brother. From that time forward, he was my little helper. Then when Michael's sister was born, he informed me he was the biggest brother -- a role he took seriously. He would be the one to take her hand while crossing the street, or help her get up on her chair at dinnertime. If she couldn't find her shoes when the school bus was coming, he would come back in the house to help her look.

 

His mother, Rose, wrote to AMW, and she said that Michael was a vibrant and active boy who adored being outdoors.

 

Growing up in Erie County, Ohio, Michael loved camping and fishing with his family. As he grew older, he became a sweet and athletic young man who enjoyed baseball, car racing, football, and wrestling. But his family didn't realize that privately, Michael was struggling.

 

He later told me he started using speed to make weight for wrestling. By the time he was in his twenties he was dealing drugs.

 

Throughout the years, Michael moved back and forth between Ohio and Las Vegas. Michael's family says no matter how many times he tried to quit using and dealing, the drugs always seemed to win.

 

Despite his bad choices, Michael's loved ones say family always remained a top priority.

 

Family was very important to Michael. As a young man, barely making ends meet himself, he took on odd jobs to buy his grandmother a stove that she needed. When his brother was working on his house, Michael flew from Las Vegas to do the electrical work his brother couldn't do on his own. He drove five hours from Las Vegas to Phoenix, Ariz. see his niece in her first cross country meet. It didn't matter how big or small the need.

 

But after a brief visit between Michael and his mother toward the end of April 2003, his family stopped hearing from him.

 

He came to our home driving a red Ford truck. He said he had just bought the truck and was on his way to buy license plates. He said he'd be back in two days but he didn't come back and he didn't call.

 

Then Mother's Day came and Michael did not call or stop over. I knew something was wrong. He never forgot Mother's Day. When he was a little boy, he made me cards, drew pictures, or picked flowers from the yard. As he grew older he found other ways to make my day special and he always called me. I believe if Michael had been alive on Mother's Day of 2003 he would have called.

 

Cops believe Michael was in over his head in the drug world, and possibly owed people money. Cops think Michael may have been killed by one or several of his associates that April -- and that there are people out there who know exactly what happened to Michael. Cops are focusing their investigation in and around the Huron County, Ohio area.

 

Michael made some bad choices and we understand why others may not feel sympathy for him. But he was more than his bad choices. He didn't deserve what happened to him, and those responsible shouldn't escape accountability.

 

Cops are hoping someone in the public has information that will help them close this case. They say no one deserves to have their life taken from them, and that they will continue working to bring some semblance of closure to this family who is tormented by lingering questions.

 

No matter what has happened to him, I need to know. If he is dead, I want to bring him home for burial. Then I'll have a place to take him flowers and a marker that will say he was here, he was loved, he was important to me, and he is sadly missed. Please help me bring Michael home.


http://www2.sanduskyregister.com/forums/news/mothers-plea-answers

[MuffyBee]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/sheppard_michael.html
Michael A. Sheppard, Jr.

Last updated September 4, 2011; picture added