“We strongly believe that somebody out there knows something, saw something, heard something or was told something about what happened to Josh,” said Private Investigator Patrick Anastasi.

On December 22nd, Josh Szostak went out to hit the Albany bars with some friends. He parked outside the Elbo Room on Delaware and Morton. The group later went to the Bayou café downtown. After midnight, he separated from his friends - and vanished.
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A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the rare crime of cyberstalking involving threats made to other teenagers on the Myspace Web site.
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The Aruban public prosecution department on Monday told Dutch student Joran van der Sloot that it was closing its case on the disappearance of US student Natalee Holloway because of lack of evidence.
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Ray Michalko, retired RCMP officer and private investigator, has been spending about 40 hours a week over the past 18 months investigating the disappearance of women along the infamous “highway of tears” in British Columbia, Canada. Michalko has found some leads he has been able to pass onto the RCMP. Since 1974, nine women have either turned up dead or have disappeared between Prince George and Prince Rupert on Highway 16, a section now known as the “highway of tears.” A group of women have founded a trust to provide funding for Michalko’s investigation.

There are more 40,000 unidentified human bodies at any given time in the US.

For the families and friends of the 100,000 people missing in the United States each day, DNA testing offers hope in the quest to finding answers. Unfortunately, the process of DNA testing, often used to match the DNA of a missing person to DNA from unidentified human remains, is not utilized to its fullest potential.

There are more than 40,000 unidentified human bodies at any given time in the US, but DNA samples are taken from only 15 percent of these human remains. The rest are burned or buried by medical examiners and coroners.

A massive search ended in sadness Saturday when authorities announced they found a body believed to be a pregnant woman who vanished from her home a week earlier. A police officer believed to be the father of the unborn child was arrested on two counts of murder. Jessie Davis, 26, who was due to deliver a baby girl on July 3, was reported missing after her mother found Davis’ 2-year-old son home alone, bedroom furniture toppled and bleach spilled on the floor.

The boy gave investigators their first clues. “Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in rug,” the boy said.

Thousands of volunteers had searched for Davis over several days, while investigators continued to question Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, who is the father of Davis’ son but is married to another woman.

The creator of a new Internet-based repository aims to reunite American Indians with missing and unidentified loved ones.

Missing from the Circle is being offered as a public service by Lamar Associates, a national firm that specializes in consulting for law enforcement and security in Indian Country.

President Walter Lamar said the hope is that through Missing from the Circle people will be able to complete their spiritual journey by reconnecting families.

“There has been quite a bit of interest and kind of a heartbreaking response from Indian Country,” Lamar said. “What it tells us is there are a significant number of missing Native Americans that are not reported through official channels and their families don’t have any mechanism to help locate their loved ones.”

They are questions Cathy Gardner has asked herself constantly since her stepdaughter disappeared two years ago: Could she be one of the 57 bodies yet to be identified in the state of Maryland? Is it possible she is one of thousands of unidentified bodies in morgues throughout the country?

Next week, the family of Tracey Gardner will finally get a chance to see if their DNA matches that of a Jane Doe currently logged into the National Crime Information Center’s DNA database. And dozens of other families will have the same opportunity.

More than 1,000 volunteers spread out Thursday in a search of rural areas around the home of a missing woman who was 9 months pregnant when she disappeared.

“I think every single rock will be turned over on this search,” said organizer Tim Miller, who runs the internationally active search team Texas EquuSearch.

Miller had expected about 200 volunteers Thursday and said he was a bit overwhelmed by the turnout. His team also brought in sonar equipment to check ponds and a remote-control airplane equipped with a camera to look for any sign of the missing woman, Jessie Davis.

Davis’ younger sister, Whitney Davis, who wore a T-shirt with her sister’s picture and the word “Missing” in red letters.

“They’re going to help us find Jessie, hopefully, bring her back safe,” she said.

It could prove to be a massive break in the mysterious disappearance of a Red Deer woman on B.C.’s infamous Highway of Tears.

Ray Michalko, a Vancouver-based private investigator probing the baffling missing-persons case of Nicole Hoar, is turning his attention to an area of mostly bush just south of Highway 16 and west of Prince George.

“I’ve got three independent sources of information that are pointing to that direction,” Michalko, 59, told Sun Media Sunday.

Among the clues he will be looking for, Michalko hopes to find “clothing and human remains.”

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