Read Online The Last Place You'd Look by Carole Moore - Free Book Online
Authors: Carole Moore
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suffered a heart attack. After she recovered, she says, all she could think about was reconciling with her daughter. She began looking for Angela, but every lead turned cold, and by this point, Michelle had grown suspicious of Craig.
As it turned out, she had good reason to suspect Angela’s new boyfriend. She says after she posted on classmates.com and made a MySpace page using Craig’s assumed name, the real Craig contacted her. He told Michelle that the man impersonating him was William Matthew Smolich, a former classmate.
Researching Smolich on the Internet, Michelle found something that disturbed her even more: pornographic Web sites that appeared to be Smolich’s, featuring nude photographs of Angela.
“My daughter was very modest and dressed very conservative before she met him,” Michelle says.
But that wasn’t the only thing giving Michelle pause. She also discovered that Smolich is a man with a dark and disturbing legal history: he is wanted by the Boulder, Colorado, sheriff’s department on charges of attempted sexual assault on a child and nonconsensual sexual contact.
Michelle tracked Angela down through the Web sites. When she called Angela, she says Smolich answered and put her daughter on the phone. Michelle told her what she had found out about the man and within thirty seconds the phone went dead. She called back and the call went straight to voice mail. It was the last time she or anyone she knows had any contact with her daughter.
Michelle says one police officer told her that if she was going to pursue the case on her own, then he wasn’t going to waste his own time. When police showed up at the residence Smolich was sharing with Angela, they found the place had been deserted: all of Angela’s stuff was still there, even her kitten. A stakeout of the place revealed the couple was not coming back. Michelle is heartbroken that her daughter has disappeared from her life. She fears the worst.
“It is like she has fallen off the face of the earth. Another birthday, another Christmas, another New Year’s without her. We are heartsick,” she says.
The Finger family has been unhappy with law enforcement’s response. They have dealt with several levels of bureaucracy, from local to federal, and with agencies from several different states. Many times it is this mix of agencies that frustrates families.
When David Potts of Florissant, Missouri, went missing, his parents also found themselves dealing with more than one police agency. The experience has left them perplexed, upset, and feeling as though they’ve been given the runaround.
Robin Potts says her family’s nightmare started when a then twenty-one-year-old David went out with a friend on October 28, 2006. The two men had left a club and were traveling along Highway 70 in St. Ann, Missouri, when an officer spotted the car and ordered the driver to pull over. Instead, a high-speed pursuit ensued.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol joined the chase. When they hit a bridge, they say David jumped out of the car and ran. Officers chased him and one said he jumped over the railing. No one knows if he landed on the catwalk below or fell into the water.
His family had no idea that David had vanished until October 30, when he failed to show up for work. On October 31, they contacted St. Ann’s police department and were told that David was considered a fugitive rather than a missing person. Robin asked that an officer contact her. No one did.
Frustrated, Robin called back the next day and was told that her son was “wanted,” not missing, and that the officer involved in the pursuit would contact her.
“No one has ever called me,” says Robin almost four years later.
Robin reported her son missing to the St. Louis County Police later that same day. On November 2, she says they asked the St. Ann police to launch a search for their son but never heard back. With assistance from the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation
As it turned out, she had good reason to suspect Angela’s new boyfriend. She says after she posted on classmates.com and made a MySpace page using Craig’s assumed name, the real Craig contacted her. He told Michelle that the man impersonating him was William Matthew Smolich, a former classmate.
Researching Smolich on the Internet, Michelle found something that disturbed her even more: pornographic Web sites that appeared to be Smolich’s, featuring nude photographs of Angela.
“My daughter was very modest and dressed very conservative before she met him,” Michelle says.
But that wasn’t the only thing giving Michelle pause. She also discovered that Smolich is a man with a dark and disturbing legal history: he is wanted by the Boulder, Colorado, sheriff’s department on charges of attempted sexual assault on a child and nonconsensual sexual contact.
Michelle tracked Angela down through the Web sites. When she called Angela, she says Smolich answered and put her daughter on the phone. Michelle told her what she had found out about the man and within thirty seconds the phone went dead. She called back and the call went straight to voice mail. It was the last time she or anyone she knows had any contact with her daughter.
Michelle says one police officer told her that if she was going to pursue the case on her own, then he wasn’t going to waste his own time. When police showed up at the residence Smolich was sharing with Angela, they found the place had been deserted: all of Angela’s stuff was still there, even her kitten. A stakeout of the place revealed the couple was not coming back. Michelle is heartbroken that her daughter has disappeared from her life. She fears the worst.
“It is like she has fallen off the face of the earth. Another birthday, another Christmas, another New Year’s without her. We are heartsick,” she says.
The Finger family has been unhappy with law enforcement’s response. They have dealt with several levels of bureaucracy, from local to federal, and with agencies from several different states. Many times it is this mix of agencies that frustrates families.
When David Potts of Florissant, Missouri, went missing, his parents also found themselves dealing with more than one police agency. The experience has left them perplexed, upset, and feeling as though they’ve been given the runaround.
Robin Potts says her family’s nightmare started when a then twenty-one-year-old David went out with a friend on October 28, 2006. The two men had left a club and were traveling along Highway 70 in St. Ann, Missouri, when an officer spotted the car and ordered the driver to pull over. Instead, a high-speed pursuit ensued.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol joined the chase. When they hit a bridge, they say David jumped out of the car and ran. Officers chased him and one said he jumped over the railing. No one knows if he landed on the catwalk below or fell into the water.
His family had no idea that David had vanished until October 30, when he failed to show up for work. On October 31, they contacted St. Ann’s police department and were told that David was considered a fugitive rather than a missing person. Robin asked that an officer contact her. No one did.
Frustrated, Robin called back the next day and was told that her son was “wanted,” not missing, and that the officer involved in the pursuit would contact her.
“No one has ever called me,” says Robin almost four years later.
Robin reported her son missing to the St. Louis County Police later that same day. On November 2, she says they asked the St. Ann police to launch a search for their son but never heard back. With assistance from the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation
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