cartman
02-21-2008, 08:57 AM
This is definitely a strange one:
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=286289
Raeford search saga takes more twists
RAEFORD — The search for a woman who claimed to be lost in the woods of Hoke County is still on, but by this time searchers aren’t too concerned about trying to save her.
Capt. John Kivett, the county’s chief of detectives, said deputies are looking for the woman who sparked a daylong search by federal, state and local agencies. The woman is believed to be safe, but she may be in trouble with the authorities, Kivett said.
On Tuesday, based on bad information, Sheriff Hubert Peterkin told a reporter that the woman had been found in a Bragg Boulevard motel.
That turned out not to be true, and the story of Jollyn Sue Silver’s questionable disappearance has grown stranger since.
Kivett said the story began Tuesday about 9 a.m. when Randall Deabbs, a 28-year-old soldier fresh off the plane from Iraq, called the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office in a panic. Silver, a 28-year-old woman from Oregon who he said was his fiancee, was lost somewhere in the woods.
Deabbs told deputies Silver had called him on her cell phone: She was coming in from Oregon for his homecoming when she crashed her rental car somewhere in Hoke County.
Silver had just called Deabbs from her cell phone and told him the wreck had happened about 3 a.m., but that she been unconscious for several hours. When she came to, she began wandering through the woods, presumably looking for help.
But Silver got lost. She told Deabbs she was disoriented and scared.
The last thing she remembered, she said, was seeing a sign for the Raeford Inn and Silver Street, both located in Hoke County.
After Deabbs called, deputies began scouring the county, looking for a car wrecked on a road, but nothing turned up.
They talked to Silver directly a few times. Each time she was crying and scared, Kivett said.
“We were making an all-out effort on this thing,” Kivett said.
The Sheriff’s Office soon enlisted the help of Raeford Aviation, which volunteered a private plane so a detective could search the woods and roads from the sky.
Fort Bragg and the Highway Patrol also got in on the action, offering up helicopters for the search.
In the meantime, Silver was still in contact, mostly with her fiance, but also with lawmen.
Once, she said she heard the sound of traffic. Deputies immediately advised her to walk toward the noise, thinking she’d find a road or at least a landmark. But she never did.
That’s when it started feeling weird, Kivett said.
“Everything we told her to do didn’t work,” he said. “Nothing worked.”
So deputies tried to find the location of the cell phone, but calls to Verizon, Silver’s service provider, and the 911 dispatch office that Silver had called resulted in nothing. Silver’s phone was too old and didn’t have the technology to allow police to trace its location.
There was something else that was strange, as well, Kivett said.
Enterprise, the company from which Silver had supposedly rented her car, had never heard of her. Neither had the employees at Knight’s Inn, the hotel where Deabbs believed she had been staying.
Kivett continued to dig and found that the calls Silver was making from her cell phone were hitting off a tower in Oregon.
So Kivett called police in Grisham, Ore., where Deabbs said Silver was from. Kivett asked them to go to the address Silver had given Deabbs to see who answered the door.
That’s when police met the other Jollyn Sue Silver. They described an overweight, 38-year-old, balding woman who didn’t look anything like the picture of Deabbs’ fiancee.
The woman said she knew nothing about the other woman using her name. The information the woman had given Deabbs matched the woman in the home in Grisham in every respect — name, address, phone number, even birthday.
A check of state files showed no record of the woman Deabbs’ knew having attended high schools or college where she told him she had. There was no record of her owning a business, though she told him she had owned and sold one.
“Everything I checked out came to a roadblock,” Kivett said. “It all came back to this woman in Oregon.”
So Kivett continued to dig. He spoke with a person identified as a friend of the younger Silver. She told deputies that Silver had left Oregon four days earlier and was on her way to North Carolina to see her fiance.
Kivett wondered whether the soldier had been taken for a ride.
But Deabbs was adamant: Silver was his fiance. He saw her several months ago when she surprised him with a visit during his leave. She was beautiful. She had never asked for any money from him.
At 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Kivett heard from the missing woman for the last time.
She called, crying. She was cold and lost, she said. Even though she had found a pay phone and was only 75 yards from an open convenience store, she didn’t know where she was or even the name of the business.
“I told her to go into the convenience store and call 911,” Kivett said. “Ask the clerk where you are.”
But Kivett never heard from her again.
He’s not surprised.
Since then, her cell phone has been disconnected. So has the one belonging to the friend in Oregon. And the other Silver isn’t answering her door or phone back in Grisham.
“Basically, right now we don’t know what we’ve got,” he said.
He’s hoping that someone who knows more, someone who recognizes the missing woman’s picture, will call the Sheriff’s Office.
It’s time, he believes, to end this weird tale.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=286289
Raeford search saga takes more twists
RAEFORD — The search for a woman who claimed to be lost in the woods of Hoke County is still on, but by this time searchers aren’t too concerned about trying to save her.
Capt. John Kivett, the county’s chief of detectives, said deputies are looking for the woman who sparked a daylong search by federal, state and local agencies. The woman is believed to be safe, but she may be in trouble with the authorities, Kivett said.
On Tuesday, based on bad information, Sheriff Hubert Peterkin told a reporter that the woman had been found in a Bragg Boulevard motel.
That turned out not to be true, and the story of Jollyn Sue Silver’s questionable disappearance has grown stranger since.
Kivett said the story began Tuesday about 9 a.m. when Randall Deabbs, a 28-year-old soldier fresh off the plane from Iraq, called the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office in a panic. Silver, a 28-year-old woman from Oregon who he said was his fiancee, was lost somewhere in the woods.
Deabbs told deputies Silver had called him on her cell phone: She was coming in from Oregon for his homecoming when she crashed her rental car somewhere in Hoke County.
Silver had just called Deabbs from her cell phone and told him the wreck had happened about 3 a.m., but that she been unconscious for several hours. When she came to, she began wandering through the woods, presumably looking for help.
But Silver got lost. She told Deabbs she was disoriented and scared.
The last thing she remembered, she said, was seeing a sign for the Raeford Inn and Silver Street, both located in Hoke County.
After Deabbs called, deputies began scouring the county, looking for a car wrecked on a road, but nothing turned up.
They talked to Silver directly a few times. Each time she was crying and scared, Kivett said.
“We were making an all-out effort on this thing,” Kivett said.
The Sheriff’s Office soon enlisted the help of Raeford Aviation, which volunteered a private plane so a detective could search the woods and roads from the sky.
Fort Bragg and the Highway Patrol also got in on the action, offering up helicopters for the search.
In the meantime, Silver was still in contact, mostly with her fiance, but also with lawmen.
Once, she said she heard the sound of traffic. Deputies immediately advised her to walk toward the noise, thinking she’d find a road or at least a landmark. But she never did.
That’s when it started feeling weird, Kivett said.
“Everything we told her to do didn’t work,” he said. “Nothing worked.”
So deputies tried to find the location of the cell phone, but calls to Verizon, Silver’s service provider, and the 911 dispatch office that Silver had called resulted in nothing. Silver’s phone was too old and didn’t have the technology to allow police to trace its location.
There was something else that was strange, as well, Kivett said.
Enterprise, the company from which Silver had supposedly rented her car, had never heard of her. Neither had the employees at Knight’s Inn, the hotel where Deabbs believed she had been staying.
Kivett continued to dig and found that the calls Silver was making from her cell phone were hitting off a tower in Oregon.
So Kivett called police in Grisham, Ore., where Deabbs said Silver was from. Kivett asked them to go to the address Silver had given Deabbs to see who answered the door.
That’s when police met the other Jollyn Sue Silver. They described an overweight, 38-year-old, balding woman who didn’t look anything like the picture of Deabbs’ fiancee.
The woman said she knew nothing about the other woman using her name. The information the woman had given Deabbs matched the woman in the home in Grisham in every respect — name, address, phone number, even birthday.
A check of state files showed no record of the woman Deabbs’ knew having attended high schools or college where she told him she had. There was no record of her owning a business, though she told him she had owned and sold one.
“Everything I checked out came to a roadblock,” Kivett said. “It all came back to this woman in Oregon.”
So Kivett continued to dig. He spoke with a person identified as a friend of the younger Silver. She told deputies that Silver had left Oregon four days earlier and was on her way to North Carolina to see her fiance.
Kivett wondered whether the soldier had been taken for a ride.
But Deabbs was adamant: Silver was his fiance. He saw her several months ago when she surprised him with a visit during his leave. She was beautiful. She had never asked for any money from him.
At 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Kivett heard from the missing woman for the last time.
She called, crying. She was cold and lost, she said. Even though she had found a pay phone and was only 75 yards from an open convenience store, she didn’t know where she was or even the name of the business.
“I told her to go into the convenience store and call 911,” Kivett said. “Ask the clerk where you are.”
But Kivett never heard from her again.
He’s not surprised.
Since then, her cell phone has been disconnected. So has the one belonging to the friend in Oregon. And the other Silver isn’t answering her door or phone back in Grisham.
“Basically, right now we don’t know what we’ve got,” he said.
He’s hoping that someone who knows more, someone who recognizes the missing woman’s picture, will call the Sheriff’s Office.
It’s time, he believes, to end this weird tale.