Latoyia Figueroa
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09.27.05
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
– Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man”
This month’s issue of Philadelphia magazine contains an ill-begotten screed by Noel Weyrich that slanders my friend and fellow Philly blogger Richard Cranium. Weyrich accuses Richard of race-baiting and using the Latoyia Figueroa case to garner publicity for himself and for his blog:
By raising the issue of race, members of the Dick Brain Trust managed to provide their own entertainment for a little while. They briefly got as much media attention as the missing-person case they were trumpeting. In the meantime, poor obscure LaToyia’s name finally crossed the lips of Nancy Grace and other cable news demi-gods. Not that it accomplished anything. It didn’t help solve LaToyia’s murder. But it felt good to the bloggers because the blogosphere is a great big cyberspace circle-jerk.
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09.05.05
One of the small bits of good to come out of Latoyia Figueroa’s disappearance was that it engaged bloggers both here and abroad, and made many of us acutely aware that Latoyia was only one of many missing persons whose stories needed to be publicized.
Philly blogger Pax Romano, along with British bloggers Taz and Piggy, came up with the idea to have bloggers set aside one post on the first Monday of every month in order to publicize a missing persons case in their area. It’s called Missing Monday. Other Philly bloggers participating in Missing Monday can be found here.
Blogs are perfect vehicles for spreading the word on missing persons cases. All it takes for one of these cases to be solved is for the right pair of eyes to catch sight of a familiar face.
If you blog, please consider joining us.
I’d like to focus on two cases today. The first is a Pennsylvania case:
Alfred Yersevich
DOB: Jan 30, 1990
Missing: May 2, 2005
Height: 5′9″ (175 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: White/Hisp
Age Now: 15
Sex: Male
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From:
ALLENTOWN
PA
United States
Alfred was last seen on May 2, 2005. He may be traveling with a male companion and an adult female companion. They may still be in the local area, or they may have traveled to Reading, Pennsylvania. They may be traveling in a white Honda Civic with Florida license plates X66JVU. Alfred may use the alias first names Christian or Cris, or the alias last name Campos.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Allentown Police Department (Pennsylvania) 1-610-437-7753
The second case involves children who were separated from their caretakers in the New Orleans airport after Hurricane Katrina:
Lyndell and Demarco Robinson
Lyndell:
DOB: Sep 3, 1993
Found: Sep 4, 2005
Age Now: 12
Sex: Male
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: Unknown
Weight: 43 kg (95 lbs)
Found:
NEW ORLEANS
LA
United States
Demarco:
DOB:
Found: Sep 4, 2005
Age Now: 4
Sex: Male
Race: Black
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 91 cm (3′0″)
Weight: 27 kg (60 lbs)
Found:
NEW ORLEANS
LA
United States
These are pictures of children who became separated from their caretakers by Hurricane Katrina. They were picked up from the New Orleans airport on September 4, 2005. They were in the company of their cousin, Johnny Robinson, who is also featured on www.missingkids.com. Lyndell has scars on both his knees.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or contact NCMEC Cold Case Review Unit at 1-877-446-2632, ext. 6235 or 6295
Louisiana Missing Childrens Clearinghouse - 1-225-342-8631
I found all of these cases on the website of The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which has a page devoted to connecting children missing after Hurricane Katrina.
More Katrina-related missing persons links (via Disenchanted Forest):
Again, if you blog, take a good look at those faces, and please consider joining Missing Monday.
One post on one day a month. Surely, that’s not too much to ask.
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08.20.05
The search for Latoyia Figueroa is over, and the news is not good.
Police officers found Latoyia this morning in Chester after following her former boyfriend, Stephen Poaches. He and a friend, unaware that they were under surveillance, attempted to move Latoyia’s body. Poaches was the father of her unborn child; when the police apprehended him, he was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying a .45 caliber gun. (update: here’s how it went down)
All-Spin Zone has further details, as does The AP.
In his comments to reporters this morning, Latoyia’s father said that this brings closure to the family. He also emphasized that the search for Latoyia built a movement that was not just about her, but also about the thousands of minority women currently missing in the United States.
With news like this, concentrating on that larger picture seems like the only way to find a silver lining. Latoyia’s story has affected many of us, and has helped bring attention to the mainstream media’s skewed coverage of missing persons cases.
At Philly Future, we’re working to build a Missing Persons Ad network that will enable bloggers to publicize local cases on their blogs. If this story has affected you the way it has affected so many of us, please consider donating some of your time to help bring this network into being.
May Latoyia find in death the peace that escaped her in life, and may her family find solace as they grieve.
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08.07.05
The New York Times has published a story on the Latoyia Figueroa case, and the role of the Philly blogosphere in promoting it:
After weeks of frustrating obscurity, the case of Mr. Figueroa’s daughter, Latoyia Figueroa, 25, has finally captured the national news media’s attention, spurred by the persistent nudging of Philadelphia-based Web logs and a city councilman distantly related to the Figueroas.
In the process, the case has become a flashpoint for the growing unease in minority communities across the country about the way they believe many national news outlets focus relentlessly on missing white women, while giving little attention to equally compelling stories involving poorer minority women.
“Certainly, everybody hopes that they find out what happened to Natalee Holloway in Aruba and to all the other missing young women,” said Juan F. Ramos, the city councilman, as he handed out leaflets on the teeming corner of 52nd and Market Streets. “But for a while there, you had to wonder: why not Latoyia?”
[snip]
You just had to listen to the simple facts of the story to realize that there was something seriously wrong here,” said Richard Blair, who runs a Philadelphia-based political blog, allspinzone.com, writing under the name Richard Cranium.
“The fact is, this issue of news organizations’ obsessive coverage of missing white women has been simmering in the blogosphere for a while now,” Mr. Blair said.
What the Figueroa case has done, he said, is give people something on which to focus their attention.
“When black women disappear, the media silence can be deafening,” began an article in the June issue of Essence magazine, which chronicled cases of eight missing black women.
While we continue to hope and wait for Latoyia’s safe return, we can take some measure of solace in the national attention that her case has received — thanks, in large part, to the efforts of Philadelphia bloggers.
This story highlights the fact that all of us — from the smallest bloggers to the largest — can have a real effect on the world we spend so much time documenting. Freed from the demands of commercial pressures, freed from the false imperative of objectivity, we can help point to the stories that matter, the stories that need to be told.
As Sam Cooke wrote:
It’s been a long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will
And if it doesn’t come soon enough, you can bet that they’ll be hearing from us.
(cross-posted on Philly Future)
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08.03.05
Wired News has published a story on the Latoyia Figueroa case. I spoke with the reporter, Cyrus Farivar, on the phone over the weekend; my quote appears at the end of the story.
During our conversation, Cyrus asked me where things were going to go from here. It was a good question; unfortunately, Latoyia is not the only woman missing in our area.
In the comment thread of a post written by ol cranky of Disenchanted Forest, bloggers at Philly Future have begun to organize an ad network to publicize missing persons cases.
Ol cranky wrote:
I suggest blog PSAs (public service announcements) for missing persons; yes, I’m suggesting blogs become today’s milk cartons. My ultimate goal (with which I need help, since I have no idea how to do this myself) is for bloggers to be able to register somewhere so they can place missing person PSAs on their blog that will be generated randomly to rotate those currently on police/FBI blotters as missing persons. Yep, I’m thinking national: a blogger can input a zipcode that will autogenerate 2 or 3 local/regional missing persons + one from outside their region to maximize coverage. This way, my blog could have PSAs like the one for Latoyia, one for Khalid (if you’re in South Philly, check him out, he’s right below my profile at The Disenchanted Forest), one for Richard Petrone & Danielle Imbo who are from the Philly metro area, and one for someone like Tamika Huston or any one of the whole host of other folks listed here.
We’re working on making this network a reality. Until then, please consider the idea that two British bloggers, Tazzy and Piggy, have had: Missing Mondays. Pax Romano summarized the idea:
Taking this further, the boys have proposed that bloggers everywhere designate the first Monday of the month as “Missing Monday” where bloggers the world over are invited to post the picture and information of someone who is missing from their state or country. I think this is a great idea and plan to follow through with it. If you are interested in details go HERE for information.
One post, one day a month: that’s not asking too much, is it?
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07.29.05
Finding Latoyia: Your Actions Can Make a Difference
The blogswarm is having a noticeable effect: Latoyia’s picture was all over the place today. Please help us keep up the pressure.
The reward fund for Latoyia continues to grow, but it remains far short of the goal. If you’ve thought about giving, but haven’t done so yet, please consider doing so. Every contribution, no matter how small, will help.
If you’re a blogger, please consider putting one of the following ads on your site, and linking it to this ASZ post. (ad 1 | ad 2). Remember: our best chance for finding this young woman is to bring her image before as many eyes as possible. Please do your part.
A detail I’ve just read about, and that could be a good identifier, is that she has the word “Angel” tattooed on her wrist.
SpinDentist Drills Tucker Carlson
Even as he has received accolades for his role in pushing the MSM to cover Latoyia’s disappearance, Richard Cranium has received accusations of political bias. He deals with them effectively in this post:
. . . on an issue like Latoyia Figueroa’s disappearance, the lines of politics disappear completely. Latoyia could be any one of us, our children, or other family members. So, keep this in mind as you peruse articles on ASZ other than those relating to Latoyia.
Some people, unfortunately, refuse to hear that message. During an interview last night on MSNBC with All-Spin Zone’s own SpinDentist, Tucker Carlson had this to say:
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07.28.05
Today will be remembered as the day the Philly blogosphere made good.
Philly bloggers have certainly done good before, but it’s hard to remember another time when a group of bloggers in this city had such an immediate and powerful impact on the mass media. Today’s efforts on behalf of Latoyia Figueroa — the pregnant, missing woman from West Philadelphia whose case had received little publicity since she disappeared nine days ago — demonstrated the power of blogs to bring important local stories to the attention of the entire country.
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07.27.05
Richard Cranium at All-Spin Zone is publicizing the story of Latoyia Figueroa, a pregnant Philadelphia woman who went missing eight days ago. Richard’s campaign, as I understand it, has two goals: first, and most importantly, he wants her story to get out into the press so that she will be found; second, and almost as importantly, he wants to criticize the MSM for providing wall-to-wall coverage of missing people when they are white, and ignoring them when they are not.
Thanks to Richard’s posts and fundraising efforts, Left Blogistan is moving behind the story, and it looks like the MSM is beginning to follow suit. And that is a good thing, because it increases the chances that she will be found.
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