Jahmeshia Connor (12) R.I.P.

A Missing teen fell through the cracks of the systems in place and not being found for 15 days. There was no media coverage, no Amber Alert, nothing until she was found tossed into a dark alley, used up and dead. My sense of outrage about these cases is strong, NO child should be treated this way, no matter what!




Fifteen days after Jahmeshia Connor, age 12 was reported missing, the police discovered her lifeless body in an alley.

Site's around the Internet sent out a bulletin for Jahmeshia as an "endangered runnaway " I wondered why there was no amber alert issued for this child. She was an excellent student, responsible in her actions and never got into trouble. The family realized Jahmeshia was missing when the following day when she did not return home from school. A relative thought she was staying over someplace else the night before. And no one seemed to take responsibility in checking on her destination or having her call home once she arrived to make sure she got there safely. Which in my opinion is a crime in and of itself. In this climate of predators and criminals parents must know where their kids are at all times, period.

Also why didn't Chicago police issue an amber alert for this child? If her body was found this morning it is likely that whom ever abducted her kept the girl alive for a period of time. An autopsy is scheduled for today to determine her cause of death.
The most attention this case received appears to be today, after the discovery of her body. Guidelines must be established for all children from all neighborhoods regardless of a family's economic status in the community. At schools, libraries and in faith based organizations when a child is missing from a community and they are aware, access to mainstream communication is limited, they too, should pitch in to spread the word.
Perhaps in Mayor Daley's new budget he could provide funds to faith based organizations in the community for awareness and safety training.

http://murphymilanojournal.blogspot.com/2009/12/alarming-discovery.html

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7148627

Missing Chicago girl was strangled

December 2, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Chicago police defended their actions in the search for a missing child as the girl's autopsy results were released.

Jahmeshia Conner, 12, was found early Monday strangled.

Police said there were several sightings of Jahmeshia in the two weeks she was missing from home. They also say that they believe she was killed in the 24 hours before she was found and that her body was dumped in an alley after the fact.

Friends and family remembered Jahmeshia Tuesday night at a vigil. Her body was found near 64th and Marshfield, about a block from her home.

Those at the memorial surrounded Jahmeshia's mother, trying to comfort her. She and other family members say they tried to get the word out that Jahmeshia was missing, but they believe police and the media did not take them seriously enough.

Chicago police say they did take the case seriously, canvassing the neighborhood and passing out fliers. Police also say they forwarded a missing person's alert about Jahmeshia to the media.

Police added that they are now using surveillance footage from the area to try and retrace Jahmeshia's last steps.

A memorial was set up near the spot where a passerby found Jahmeshia's body.

"Whoever did this to her, please come out, please do, please," said Sheila Powell, cousin.

Jahmeshia's mother was surrounded Tuesday night by family and friends trying to comfort her. Among them was the mother of another young murder victim.

"It just hurts me to see that this child being reported missing, to me, wasn't taken serious enough for people to get out here and do what they had to do to prevent us from being here today," said Sabrina Harris, victim Ryan Harris' mother.

"When someone is missing, we should be more diligent about putting their faces on the TV, whether there's an Amber Alert or not," said Powell.

Congressman Bobby Rush says authorities assumed Jahmeshia had run away from home, despite word from family that she had spent the day at church before boarding a bus for home.

"The entire community should have been alerted," said Rush.

In a news conference Tuesday, police denied they failed to take the case seriously, saying they have no missing person classification for runaways.

"From the beginning, this case was given the priority attention it deserved because she was only 12 years old," said Dep. Supt. Steve Peterson, Chicago police.

ABC7 News contacted police on several occasions to ask about Jahmeshia's disappearance after the family contacted us. However, we never received an alert from police.

Congressman Rush has pledged to raise a $10,000 reward to help find the killer.

CHICAGO - The 12-year-old-girl whose body was found Monday in an Englewood alley was strangled and her death was ruled a homicide, a Cook County medical examiner's office spokesman said this afternoon.

The office formally identified the victim as Jahmeshia Conner, the spokesman said. Her family had identified her Monday as the victim after viewing photographs of the body.

Meanwhile, Chicago police were continuing to investigate the slaying, returning to the neighborhood where she lived to see if anyone had seen her since she went missing on Nov. 15.

Jahmeshia, a fifth grader at O'Toole Elementary School, spent that day with relatives at church and singing karaoke songs with her cousins.

Afterward, family members walked Jahmeshia to the bus at 63rd and Aberdeen streets. Her aunt says she watched from across the street as the girl boarded a bus headed toward her home in the 6500 block of South Marshfield Avenue.

She had less than a mile to travel but never showed up at home. She was reported missing the next day.

Police looking for answers in disappearance, slaying of 12-year-old




Little is known about where girl had been before she was strangled and dumped in alley, and who might be responsible

Like many 12-year-old girls, Jahmeshia Conner's world wasn't all that big.

Her school, a place she desperately missed when sick, was at 65th Street and Seeley Avenue. There was the nearby Family Dollar, where she bought her favorite snacks. Her Englewood home, shared with four siblings and mother, was about four blocks east at Marshfield Avenue. Her aunt's house, where she spent hours singing and watching videos with cousins, was about seven blocks farther, near 63rd and Aberdeen streets.

At the center of all this was a secluded patch of an alley behind an empty home and next to a vacant lot. It was there, in the 6400 block of South Marshfield, that Jahmeshia's body was found Monday, facedown and strangled.

Investigators now are returning to that small universe to try and unravel two mysteries -- who killed the fifth-grader and where she had been in the two weeks before her body was discovered?

Investigators are canvassing the area in a search for anyone who might have seen the girl since she vanished Nov. 15. They also are hoping surveillance footage will help retrace her steps. Investigators believe Jahmeshia was killed somewhere else, then dumped in the alley. They also suspect that she died no more than a day before she was found -- about two weeks after her family says she vanished.

Jahmeshia was last seen on the evening of Nov. 15 after spending the day at her aunt's house. The aunt, Denise Lewis, 39, said she watched her niece board a CTA bus on 63rd Street at Racine Avenue to head less than a mile to her own home.

Family members said they had not seen her since. They did not report her missing until the next day after Jahmeshia did not return home from school. Her mother, Birdie Lewis, said she discovered her daughter was not home about 3 a.m. Nov. 16 but assumed she had stayed at Lewis' home.

When Jahmeshia failed to return home from school, Birdie Lewis, 37, called police.

Chicago police said detectives promptly launched a "priority" missing persons investigation after being contacted at 5 p.m.

Still, Jahmeshia's family raised concerns Tuesday about how quickly the department moved to find the 12-year-old, saying detectives from the beginning seemed to believe she had run away. Though Jahmeshia could be mouthy, she was not the type of kid to run the streets alone, they said.

Family members said they tried to get police to canvass the neighborhood but contended that detectives never did. The family also said they passed along tips from Jahmeshia's schoolmates and asked police to knock on the doors of area registered sex offenders. They said they were told by police that children couldn't be interviewed without an adult and that probable cause was required to knock on the door of a sex offender.

"I was doing my own search," said Rita McMurray, Jahmeshia's aunt. "We've been searching them alleys. I've been digging in the trash like I'm a garbageman. I was going into abandoned buildings."

Department brass defended their efforts Tuesday, saying they worked the neighborhood hard, distributing fliers and putting out word of her disappearance to law enforcement agencies in the Chicago area.

The day after she was reported missing, police also tried to pull footage from the bus that Denise Lewis said her niece had boarded. But the camera already had recorded over that day's video, a CTA spokeswoman said.

Chicago Deputy Superintendent Steve Peterson said Jahmeshia never was classified as a "runaway."

However, Jahmeshia did somehow get listed as an "endangered runaway" with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Robert Lowery, of the center, said the information they had about Jahmeshia came from a national crime database, which typically gets details from local departments.

About 100 people, many of them wailing and distraught children, gathered Tuesday in the alley were Jahmeshia's body was discarded. The children left teddy bears, candles, poster boards and handwritten messages on the garage door of the abandoned home.

"I'm depressed, I'm real depressed," Birdie Lewis said earlier in the day. "Who would harm a 12-year-old that's never done anything to anyone?"

Tribune reporters Serena Maria Daniels and William Lee contributed to this report. asweeney@tribune.com

Girl not considered a priority?

Slain girl's family says missing-persons case should have been urgent


December 2, 2009

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter/mihejirika@suntimes.com

Jahmeshia Conner didn't make the Chicago Police Department's cutoff for a priority missing-persons investigation.

However, the little girl found strangled Monday morning in an Englewood alley behind a vacant building did make an age group the city's police typically assume are runaways.



Andrew Atchison mourns Jahmeshia Conner at the garage near where her body was found.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)



The 12-year-old's killing has turned attention to two problem areas in Chicago Police Department missing-persons investigations, problems highlighted in a 2007 Chicago Sun-Times series, "Missing in Chicago."

Reported missing Nov. 16 by her family after she boarded a westbound bus on 63rd Street and never made it to her home blocks away, Jahmeshia was three years past the cutoff to be a priority.

In Chicago, where an astounding 20,000 people go missing each year, police consider priority cases: children under 10, the elderly and those deemed "endangered," like the mentally ill.

"You mean to tell me a 12-year-old wouldn't be considered priority? A 12-year-old?" Jahmeshia's aunt, Rita McMurray, wailed on Tuesday, as the family piled into three cars to take Jahmeshia's catatonic mother to the morgue to identify her daughter's body.

The family and some elected officials are criticizing police handling of the case.

"They told us we had to wait 48 hours before they'd start investigating," McMurray said. "They said she was a runaway. We said, 'Not this girl.' She was a good girl. She never missed school, and stayed in the church. They didn't take it seriously."

In priority cases, the Sun-Times found, the police Missing Persons Unit begins an immediate investigation, or as its commander said at the time, "Those are high-risk cases, right on its face, and we ratchet up our resources accordingly."

"Beyond that, the level of follow-up is based on the circumstances," said Cmdr. Robert Hagersheimer.

That includes cases involving children as young as 10 and up to age 16, and adults 17 and over -- something officials argue is necessary because of limited resources.

The Sun-Times series also found not all missing-persons cases are investigated equally, with race and age often playing a role in the level of urgency. This was especially true in the case of urban teens, whom missing-persons advocates complain are immediately labeled runaways, prompting only cursory investigations -- an accusation that was admitted by some Chicago Police missing-persons detectives interviewed in the series.

Indeed, statistics show just 2 percent of missing juveniles had been abducted, with most being runaways. And in Chicago, 98 percent of missing-persons cases end up "cleared," the subjects found safe.

Police spokesman Roderick Drew defended the department's handling of Jahmeshia's case, saying an investigation was launched and protocol followed after the family filed a Nov. 16 report. He said detectives began distributing fliers Nov. 17.

"There was a whole day nobody in the family realized she was gone," he said, referring to the fact that the family last saw Jahmeshia on Nov. 15, when she stopped by her aunt's house after church services. Detectives filed 20 reports on the search, Drew said.

Family members saw her onto the bus at 63rd and Aberdeen, headed toward her home in the 6500 block of South Marshfield. Her mother said she didn't report her missing until the next day because she believed the girl had spent the night at the aunt's.

Her battered and beaten body was found in an alley at 6336 S. Marshfield. An autopsy Tuesday concluded she was strangled.

"Why did the Chicago Police Department classify this child as a runaway despite the pleas of the family that she did not match that profile?" Rep. Bobby Rush asked Tuesday night as he joined the family at a vigil.

"If police had taken this case more seriously, might Jahmeshia be alive today? Why wasn't an Amber Alert issued? Had her case received the same amount of publicity that missing children from other communities receive, might she be alive today?"

Meanwhile, police said Tuesday two other 12 year-old missing youths activists complained about have been found.

Missing girl, 12, found dead in alley
12-year-old's body discovered in alley 2 weeks after her disappearance
By Kristen Mack and Annie Sweeney
Tribune Reporters
December 1, 2009


Jahmeshia Conner, 12, had been missing for two weeks when she was found dead in an alley in the 6400 block of South Marshfield Avenue, about a block from her home on Monday, Nov. 30, 2009. Conner, who was last seen Nov. 15, was a fifth grader at O'Toole Elementary School. (Tribune photo by Terrence Antonio James / November 30, 2009)

Two weeks ago, 12-year-old Jahmeshia Conner left her aunt's house on the way to the bus stop. Moments later, she vanished.

On Monday, she was found dead, her body apparently dumped in a South Side alley near her home.

How she spent those final days and wound up behind an abandoned house in Englewood was among the many questions authorities were trying to answer. How she died was still a mystery, police said.

After spending Nov. 15 with relatives at church and singing karaoke songs with her cousins, family members walked Jahmeshia to the bus at 63rd and Aberdeen streets. Her aunt says she watched from across the street as the fifth-grader boarded a bus headed toward her home in the 6500 block of South Marshfield Avenue.

She had less than a mile to travel, but family members say she never made it home, and now they are in anguish, replaying those last hours.

Denise Lewis, Jahmeshia's aunt who watched her get on the bus, said she wished she had walked her home instead.

"I regret it most definitely," said Lewis, 39. "I feel like it's my fault because I usually make sure she makes it home."

Jahmeshia's family reported her missing Nov. 16, a day after she left Lewis' home in the 6300 block of South Aberdeen Street.

Family members say they did not notify police immediately because of a miscommunication -- her mother thought Jahmeshia had spent the night with her aunt. She didn't become alarmed about her absence until after school the next day when her daughter didn't return home.

It appears Jahmeshia was likely alive for most of the time she was missing. According to early reports from investigators, Jahmeshia's fully clothed body was likely in the alley -- behind an abandoned home and next to a vacant lot in the 6400 block of South Marshfield Avenue -- no more than two days.

One neighbor said he was in the alley at 3:30 p.m. Sunday and saw nothing.

"It's a blind spot," Jerome Clay said of the secluded location.

Neighbors who saw the girl's body told Clay about it Monday. "She was laying there like somebody threw her out," he said.

Her body was found by a passer-by.

Investigators also believe she was left in the alley, perhaps dying elsewhere. An autopsy scheduled for Tuesday was said to be key to figuring out what happened to Jahmeshia.

"There's a lot of unanswered questions on this one," said a police source. "We don't know how or where or why."

Authorities had not formally identified the body. But family members said they recognized Jahmeshia after viewing photos with investigators.

"Her face was bashed in," said her mother, Birdie Lewis, 37. "And there was blood and scratches over her face. Why would they do that to her? That's a baby."

Jahmeshia attended O'Toole Elementary School. She visited her aunt's house most days after school, stopping first at the Family Dollar to buy Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Jahmeshia liked to watch music videos and sing karaoke at her aunt's home.

On Nov. 15, a Sunday, Jahmeshia and her cousins were picked up by a Park Manor Christian Church van to attend services there. Jahmeshia sang in the church choir, her family said.

After dinner at the church, the family returned home to hang out a little more. About 8 p.m., two cousins walked Jahmeshia to the 63rd Street bus. Denise Lewis happened to be across the street and said she saw Jahmeshia board.

Various online missing-children sites refer to Jahmeshia as an "endangered runaway," but family members insisted she would never run away.

Birdie Lewis said her daughter could be "hard-headed and naive."

"But she didn't ask that to happen to her," she said of her death.

While passing out fliers the last two weeks, Birdie Lewis said, several people reported seeing Jahmeshia, but she thought it was a hoax.

"I just wish that if anybody knows anything, they just let us know," Denise Lewis said. "Just contact the police. That's it. That's all I want to know."

kmack@tribune.com

asweeney@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...,1743120.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...,6887316.story

Police looking for answers in disappearance, slaying of 12-year-old

Like many 12-year-old girls, Jahmeshia Conner's world wasn't all that big.

Her school, a place she desperately missed when sick, was at 65th Street and Seeley Avenue. There was the nearby Family Dollar, where she bought her favorite snacks. Her Englewood home, shared with four siblings and mother, was about four blocks east at Marshfield Avenue. Her aunt's house, where she spent hours singing and watching videos with cousins, was about seven blocks farther, near 63rd and Aberdeen streets.

At the center of all this was a secluded patch of an alley behind an empty home and next to a vacant lot. It was there, in the 6400 block of South Marshfield, that Jahmeshia's body was found Monday, facedown and strangled.

Investigators now are returning to that small universe to try and unravel two mysteries -- who killed the fifth-grader and where she had been in the two weeks before her body was discovered?

Investigators are canvassing the area in a search for anyone who might have seen the girl since she vanished Nov. 15. They also are hoping surveillance footage will help retrace her steps. Investigators believe Jahmeshia was killed somewhere else, then dumped in the alley. They also suspect that she died no more than a day before she was found -- about two weeks after her family says she vanished.

Police check 'third-hand' reports Jahmeshia Conner was seen alive after her disappearance


December 2, 9:13 AM
Chicago Crime Examiner
Deborah O'Malley


Chicago police will be out in the Englewood community today trying to find clues as to who killed 12-year-old Jahmeshia Conner, why and when.

Police said during a press conference last night they had "third hand" reports that people had seen Jahmeshia in the neighborhood between the time of her disappearance, November 15, and the time her body was found on Monday, November 30.

Jahmeshia's body was found in an alley at 64th and Marshfield. An autopsy yesterday showed the girl had been strangled. As to when she was killed or whether she was sexually assaulted, police aren't saying.

Deputy Superintendent Steve Peterson said releasing any more information on the condition of the body would jeopardize the investigation.

Which takes us back to those "third hand" reports that someone saw Jahmeshia in the neighborhood after she was reported missing. If the autopsy shows the child was already dead when someone reported seeing her alive, that someone was mistaken or lying.

Peterson quickly pointed out at the top of the news conference yesterday that police had reports Jahmeshia was seen alive over the past two weeks. This, perhaps, was to justify why the media wasn't notified there was a missing 12-year-old girl. If she was seen around the neighborhood, then she wasn't kidnapped and there would presumably, be less urgency trying to find her.

He said later during the news conference, however, police had not actually talked to the person or persons who allegedly saw Jahmeshia but rather got the information third hand, in other words, from someone who said someone else had said he or she saw the child.

Police insist Jahmeshia's case was given top priority and Peterson said detectives canvassed the neighborhood and passed out flyers designating Jahmeshia as a "missing" person and not an "endangered runaway" as was posted on two different websites for missing children. A minister working with the family verified that. Peterson also said police generated 20 reports on the case over two weeks.

As to why notification wasn't sent out to the media, people such as myself who can post a picture and a story on the Internet in a matter of minutes, that question has not been answered.The bigger questions, of course, is who killed Jahmeshia. That's the question that needs to be answered as soon as possible.


http://www.examiner.com/x-7520-Chica...-disappearance

The forgotten children of Chicago's inner city
December 1, 2009
Chicago Poverty Examiner :Lawrence Conley

Jahmeshia Conner (CBS News, Channel 2, Chicago)Jahmeshia Conner, a 12-year-old girl, went missing in Chicago two and a half weeks ago. The activities leading up to her death are very unclear. Chicago Police reported that Jahmeshia Conner was last seen standing on a bus stop on her way home from church.

On November 30, 2009, Jahmeshia’s body was found in an alley approximately one block from her home. In a recent press release, Chicago Police have no information in the details of her death. When Jahmeshia was reported missing, Chicago Police initially deemed her as a run away and did not investigate the incident as a possible abduction.

So, the question must now be, what basis did the Chicago Police have to make this determination? The facts about Jahmeshia when she was alive are clear. She was: 12 years old, she was on her way home from church, she was in fifth grade, she was loved, and she will be missed. In terms of a missing child, one would only assume that a police investigation in a missing child case would be much more comprehensive. So often in the news people hear of missing children. There is in-depth coverage, amber alerts, neighborhood sweeps, flyers being passed out, and most importantly, police spokespersons pleading on television for information on a missing child. Jahmeshia Conner did not get that attention.

Oftentimes in impoverished areas, specifically in Chicago, child death becomes part of the arrangement. With the highest murder rate in the nation, mostly minority, mostly impoverished areas, numbness to death has set in and complacency by the police has become the norm.

The slogan that is written on Chicago Police cars is “To Serve and Protect.” This outward pledge, assuming that it is sincere, requires quite a bit more urgency, especially in the situation of a missing child; moreover, especially when more children die in Chicago than anywhere else in the nation. The location that Jahmeshia’s body was found in was virtually footsteps from her Englewood home. And for two weeks, she could not be found. This raw reality of inattention cannot be underplayed by the Chicago Police Department.

Living in an economically strapped and a predominately black neighborhood should not equate to a death sentence. If the city of Chicago can take so much pride in Michigan Avenue shopping district and protect it with unlimited resources, why can the city not apply the same resources into saving lives off of The Magnificent Mile? Is there a value on the human life in poor areas of the city, or does the city only value its revenue return areas?

Did the Chicago Police “serve and protect” Jahmeshia Conner? Are they proactively, sincerely serving and protecting Chicago’s inner city?

http://www.examiner.com/x-31536-Chicago-Poverty-Examiner~y2009m12d1-The-Forgotten-Children-of-Chicagos-Inner-City

Nancy Grace Blog
December 7, 2009
12-year-old girl murdered
Posted: 06:30 PM ET
Too little, Too late: A mistake that caused a little girl her life

http://nancygrace.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/07/12-year-old-girl-murdered/

Chicago Police are promising a thorough review to determine why the department did not alert the news media about a missing girl who turned up murdered two weeks later. They are deciding whether it was a computer glitch or human error that cause the lack of media coverage….and mishandling that resulted in death for 12 year old Jahmeshia Connor. No matter what the answer is, it will not bring this child back to her family.

Jahmeshia was last seen getting on a bus on the south side Englewood neighborhood in Chicago. Her mother reported her missing the next day when she did not return home from school. The reason for the delay is that she thought her daughter was staying her Aunt that evening. But that was clearly not the case.

A flier was drawn up and allegedly sent through all the proper channels, but somehow it never reached the media….not until it was too late. Jahmeshia’s body was found two weeks later in an alley, one block from her mother’s home. She was strangled to death. Cops reportedly say she was probably dead less than two days before discovered by a passer-by.

Translation: had anyone known to look for her during the two weeks she was missing, she could be alive today.

This is a tragic story with a tragic ending. Chicago police have come under fire but now they say they are focusing on who committed this crime and they are determined to bring this person to justice. This was not the kind of justice Jahmeshia’s family was hoping for when they reported their little girl missing. But it seems it’s all they have left at this point.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2...sing-girl.html


Top cop promises answers about media alert on missing girl

Police Supt. Jody Weis promised today that his department will conduct a "thorough" review of why the media did not receive an alert about a missing 12-year-old girl who turned up dead two weeks later.

Acknowledging the crucial role media can play in such cases, Weis said the department is trying to determine whether computer or human error was responsible for the failure to get out a media alert on Jahmeshia Conner.

"There's no excuse for that," Weis said. "News affairs is very conscientious about getting this type of information out, especially when it could possibly lead to saving someone's life.

"Our hearts are broken that we were not able to find this child alive."

Weis said officers in the information services division will be checking computers used by the department's news affairs office.

Jahmeshia was strangled and dumped in an alley near her Englewood home. Her slaying remains under investigation.

The family has raised concerns about how the department investigated the fifth-grader's disappearance, which they reported to police Nov. 16, a day after they last saw her.

"We made an all-out effort for this young girl,'' Weis said Thursday. "The most important time when a child is abducted is three hours from that point.''

Police officials have said the case was considered a high priority from the start because of Jahmeshia's age and other factors.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., has offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who helps bring Jahmeshia's killer to justice. Rush also said services were set for 11 a.m. Saturday at New Covenant Baptist Church, 754 W. 77th St.

-- Annie Sweeney