Human Remains found in a Houston Pasture are those of a 17 Year Old Jessica Cain who disappeared in 1997 … Convicted Felon William Reece Pointed Authorities to the Location

The remains of 17 year old Jessica Cain who disappeared in 1997 have been positively identified according to the Harris County medical examiner’s office on Friday. Forensic experts used DNA to identify her. The remaining of the missing teen girl were found in a Houston area pasture. According to reports, William Reece, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a 1997 kidnapping, assisted authorities in the search and pointed authorities to the location. Investigators zeroed in on the field on East Orem Dr. thanks to a tip from an inmate named William Reece.

Tim Miller with Texas Equusearch assisted in the search for Jessica’s remains said the following, “I was there the day she disappeared on the original search, and this is not the news her family wanted to hear, but not knowing is usually worse.” Miller further went on to say, “They now have the opportunity to go through that grieving process. And realize that Jessica’s not coming back and get into that healing process.”

Human remains found in a Houston pasture are those of a 17-year-old girl who disappeared in 1997, the Harris County medical examiner’s office said Friday.

The remains of Jessica Cain, who disappeared after dining with friends, were identified through DNA analysis, said Audrey Carter, an investigator with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

A convicted kidnapper who might be linked to other violent crimes pointed investigators to the location of the remains. Investigators dug for more than three weeks in a rural pasture on the edge of Houston before finding the remains on March 18.

William Reece, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a 1997 kidnapping, assisted authorities in the search. Reece, 56, also recently led authorities to remains identified as those of 20-year-old college student Kelli Cox, who had been missing from Denton in North Texas since 1997.

Reece’s attorney, Anthony Osso, has said his client ultimately hopes to avoid the death penalty by cooperating with authorities.

UPDATE I: Human remains found in SE Houston field confirmed to be Jessica Cain.

Cain disappeared in 1997; her truck found abandoned on the side of I-45 near the exit to her home. Her case remained unsolved until detectives began searching a southeast Houston field in February of this year. After nearly three weeks of searching, skeletal remains were found.

The man who led investigators to the site is William Reece, who has been the prime suspect in Cain’s disappearance. A handcuffed Reece was spotted in the field over the few weeks the search took place, walking around with investigators.

After Cain’s remains were found in southeast Houston, Reece led investigators to a field in Brazoria County near Angleton. After a week of digging, investigators found what were later identified as the remains of Kelli Ann Cox.

Cox disappeared from the town of Denton in 1997.

Rosemary Diaz Has been Missing for 25 Years … Her Remains Have Been Found in Matagorda County, TX by Texas Equusearch

25 year old mystery may finally be over … Kudos to Texas Equusearch!!!

Rosemary Diaz disappeared on November 24, 1990 after leaving work at a country food store near her home in Danevang, Texas. Investigators in Wharton County have found bone fragments at a house belonging to a suspect that are believed to be that of the then missing 15 year old girl. The remains were found in grassy field off County Road 403 in Matagorda County, along the Brazoria County border. According to reports, the suspect in the kidnapping and murder is deceased. The tip that came to authorities that solved this 25 year mystery came from the family of the suspect. Really, the family only came forward after the evil bastard who committed this crime was dead? Maybe some of them need to be arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and concealing a crime.  Authorities were lead to a property in Matagorda County, where there in a shallow grave Tim Miller and members of Texas Equusearch found bone fragments and a ring. In the press conference following the discovery, EquuSearch founder Tim Miller stated, ”We got lucky.  We found a ring. We all cried.”

The remains of a 15-year-old girl were possibly found in Texas, 25 years after she went missing.

Rosemary Diaz disappeared on Nov. 24, 1990, after leaving work at a country food store near her home in Danevang.

Investigators believe they have now cracked the mystery in their search for the missing teenager when they found bone fragments at a house belonging to a suspect.

Wharton County law enforcement authorities called in Texas EquuSearch to assist when the remarkable breakthrough was made.

“We got lucky. We found a ring. We all cried,” said EquuSearch founder Tim Miller, reported KHOU.com.

After an excavation of the site the following day, more remains were found.

Although investigators and a forensic anthropologist still need to make a positive identification, Diaz’s devastated family believe it is Rosemary’s remains.

10 Years Later: Searching in Aruba for Natalee Holloway … The Search of the Aruba Landfill in 2005 for Missing Natalee Holloway (PICS)

THE LANDFILL SEARCH FOR NATALEE HOLLOWAY … PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST AND WORST THINGS I HAVE EVER DONE …

On July 23, 2005 Scared Monkeys conducted an interactive, town hall style  on-line interview with Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch, the non-profit search team that had been searching for Natalee Holloway in Aruba since she had gone missing on May 30, 2005.  Texas Equusearch had been flooded with emails of encouragement and tips from the many followers and readers at Scared Monkeys that Tim granted the interview. Interactive web interviews are commonplace today, needless to say they were not in 2005 and the logistics to make it happen was nothing short of a miracle. Following the interview as I thanked Tim Miller on the phone and for TES’s great work in their search for Natalee Holloway, Mr. Miller did an amazing thing … he asked if I wanted to go to Aruba and help search for Natalee. Once we cleared up some logistics and made sure that we could pay for the ticket to Aruba ourselves so not to impose on TES or have them divert any funds from the search on our account, we let it be known that Red was going to Aruba to search with Texas Equusearch.

Returning to Aruba, a place where my family had vacationed since the 1970′s, long before the many high-rise hotels and wining vacations there on game shows. Aruba, a place where I got to know so many families, who treated us as one of their own and a place where I had even dated an Aruban girl, who’s family was pretty well connected. Talk about your long distance relationship, before the days of social media and Facetime or Skype. A place where I hung out with more locals than tourists. Aruba, a place where I lived and worked as well. Now I was going back to help find Natalee Holloway.

I have to admit i was not sure what I was getting into and was not sure which searches I would be doing, land, water, both? I had told Tim that I was going to be a member of the search team first and reporting on the story second. Little did I realize than just a couple days before going to Aruba that that I would be helping search in the Aruba landfill as The witness claimed he saw the men dumping the body on the afternoon of June 1. The following article discusses the landfill search on such a generic and antiseptic way. Let me just say it was far from that and maybe one of the most rewarding and disgusting thing I have ever done in my life.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

A volunteer group searching for Natalee Holloway dug through a landfill for a third day Sunday but found no clues, while the missing teen’s mother left Aruba for the first time since her daughter disappeared two months ago.

Crews equipped with trained dogs, a bulldozer and a tractor hoe dug 15 holes in a landfill where a witness claims he saw men dump and cover a female body two days after Holloway disappeared, said Robert Cook, spokesman for the volunteer Texas EquuSearch, which is coordinating the landfill effort.

Searches at the landfill Friday and Saturday also produced no sign of Holloway.

THE LANDFILL SEARCH FOR NAYALEE HOLLOWAY.

From July 30, 2005 … Red searched the landfill from 10 AM till 3 PM. He said it was one of the foulest and god awful smelling places he has ever been in. For three days we searched the landfill and for every hole that was dug to a certain level, some one then had to get into it to do a more fine search with rakes and shovels. The picture below taken by a digital camera, although it looks grainy. That would be because of the constant Aruba trade wind blowing all the sand and crap in the dump around.

During the landfill search, I not only searched for Natalee Holloway with the members of Texas Equusearch, I also was digging next to her dad, Dave Holloway. I thought to myself as we were digging in the worst filth and the most disgusting stench that I had ever experienced in my life, I so wanted to help this man and find his daughter. Then I thought to myself in the next second, it might not be the best thing to happen when he was present. It was one thing to take part in this search, another thing to find human remains in a landfill, but quite a different thing to have to see a grown man break down in uncontrollable tears and emotions if we actually found her. This was the roller-coaster of thoughts and emotions that took place ever day as we searched for Natalee Holloway.

This search will forever be seared in my mind, body and soul … as previously stated, one of the best and worst things I have ever done in my life.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Unlike most landfills in America where those in charge can locate and track what was dumped where and when, Aruba had no such tracking system. Imagine that. Instead, we had to go by the witness as to what area of the landfill he thought he saw the vehicle and where the dump site was. All the while the witness covered his face for fear of being recognized and to prevent the foulness from getting into his nose and mouth. So how did we know how far down to dig or where to dig holes? At a certain point we got in the holes and looked that the daily news papers that were thrown away to see what date they were to find the date just before May 30, 2005. That was the methodology.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

And for every hole that was dug like the one above, when we got to what we thought was close enough to the correct proximity of time, some one had to get into the hole and comb throw it to see if we made needed to dig deeper or had to use a rake, shovel and your hands to search. That would be yours truly in the blue shirt in the hole.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

And all the while Red and the members of Texas Equusearch were in the landfill in some of the most foul and hideous conditions trying to help Beth and Dave find their daughter on a witness tip we were following up on, the media was kicking their feet up from a distance trying to get a picture with their telephoto lenses.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Or better yet, a close up of the media getting a sun tan while we are in the landfill busting our butts to get some closure for the Holloway/Twitty/Reynold’s family.

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Picture via Scared Monkeys – 2005

Texas EquuSearch Sues FAA in Federal Court Challenge Agency’s Order to Stop Using Drones in Searching for Missing Persons

Since when is a non-profit considered commercial use?

Texas Equusearch has sued the Federal Aviation Administration in federal court to challenge the FAA’s order to stop using unmanned drones in the search for missing persons. Texas Equusearch,  a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has been tirelessly been searching for missing persons for years and been using unmanned planes, drones, if you will since 2006. So once again we have federal government interference in the search for missing loved ones. I am sure this is what our Founding Father’s had in mind. Sorry, but I happen to think there is a huge difference between a non-profit organization searching for missing persons as compared to Amazon delivering packages.

Click HERE or on pic to watch VIDEO – pic screen grab from Houston Chronicle video

A Texas group sued the Federal Aviation Administration in federal court to challenge the agency’s order to stop using drones in the group’s searches for missing people, the latest round in an intensifying battle over regulation of the sector.

Search-and-rescue organization Texas EquuSearch, which has used unmanned aircraft to help search for missing people since 2006, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to set aside the FAA’s order to halt its use of drones. The group argued in a five-page petition filed on Monday that the FAA’s order has no legal basis and “is unlawful, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not otherwise in accordance with law.”

The FAA said it is reviewing the suit. The agency suggested in an email that Texas EquuSearch could work with public entities that hold FAA authorizations to use drones, such as some police departments, and obtain emergency authorizations to conduct its searches.

The FAA has effectively banned the commercial use of unmanned aircraft in the continental U.S. It says the limit is needed to protect air safety, at least until the agency sets full rules for the devices—now expected by late 2015 at the earliest.

Is the federal government more concerned with its overreaching authority or helping the families of missing loved ones?

Tim Miller, founder and director of EquuSearch, said the Feb. 21 Federal Aviation Administration order prohibiting the operation of four drones has meant the nonprofit organization has not used them in three active searches for missing people in Katy, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Miller said the 4-foot-long drones have led to the discovery of 11 missing individuals and allow searchers to view large stretches of wooded areas, fenced property and bodies of water.

“I was hoping we’d get a response from them that was more positive and we didn’t have to go to this extreme,” Miller said of the FAA. “It’s time-consuming for us, and God only knows what the outcome is going to be.”

Brendan Schulman, a New York attorney representing Texas EquuSearch, said the lawsuit seeks to confirm the rights of nonprofits to use civilian drone technology for the nation’s benefit.

36 Year Old Thomas “Zachary” Bunker Missing Since 5/29/13 in Norwood, OH (Update I: Texas Equusearch Joins Search)(Update II: Found Deceased in Warren County)

36 year old Thomas “Zachary” Bunker has been missing since Wednesday, May 29, 2013 in Norwood, Ohio. Bunker was last seen at 8:30 a.m. on Ashland Avenue in Norwood, although he called his family that same day from the Ft. Ancient area, in Warren County, OH.  Zach was last seen wearing casual clothing, shorts and t-shirt and was seen driving his dark gray, 2013 Ford Explorer with Ohio license # EOC-4793. Police said Bunker is considered a “critically missing” person because of his mental state at the time of his disappearance.

Texas Equusearch was brought in at the request of Bunker’s family. Search crews spent Saturday looking for Thomas “Zachary” Bunker in the entire west side of Hamilton.  Police said they got a tip that came from that area.

Thomas “Zachary” Bunker Missing Since 5/29/13

Thomas “Zachary”Bunker Description:

• white male
• 6 feet 2 inches tall
• 185 pounds
• brown hair and green eyes
• He was operating a dark grey 2013 Ford Explorer with Ohio license EOC-4793.

Texas Equusearch will be holding a search for Zack Bunker at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 2, 2013. The Command Center will be at the Courtyard by Marriott, 1 Riverfront Plaza, Hamilton, OH.

For a downloadable poster, click here.

Your Search Coordinator is Dave Rader, and he can be reached at (513) 407-2018. Please bring snacks and water for the day, along with a picture id. No one under the age of 18 is allowed to participate in the search.

People with information about Bunker’s whereabouts are asked to call Norwood Police at 513-458-4520.

UPDATE I: Body of missing Thomas “Zachary” Bunker found deceased.

UPDATE II: The body of a missing Norwood man has been found in Warren County.

Thomas ‘Zachary’ Bunker was found dead off of South Nixon Camp Road near U.S. 350 on Tuesday, according to Dave Rader of Texas Equusearch.

Bunker had last talked to his family on Wednesday.

Volunteers and Texas Equusearch officials had spent much of the day on Monday searching for Bunker in an area near Fort Ancient, not far from where his body was found.