Post by hi224 on Feb 29, 2020 4:29:30 GMT
Shemika Cosey, 16 years old, disappeared a few days after Christmas in 2008 after spending the night at her cousin’s house watching movies. Shemika was in and out of the home several times as “there was someone fighting for her attention outside.” The next morning, Shemika disappeared. She took her coat and purse but left her overnight bag and the door cracked.
Police discovered an unlocked door, and assumed Shemika had run away so there was no search. Shemika’s mother, Paula Hill, said there were signs someone had a hold on her daughter. She once saw her inside a dark sedan with a much older man. She worries Shemika might be the victim of sex trafficking. Paula eventually moved out of their home and found three notebooks with written messages her daughter had passed to a friend in class, just a few months before her daughter’s disappearance. In them, the 16-year-old talks about a boyfriend, and that she might be pregnant. Paula avers that she did not share the information with the police since they couldn’t even be bothered to show up to check Shemika’s room when they first reported her missing so why she should share information now? Paula’s lack of faith in a police investigation further highlights the strained relationship between law enforcement and minority families that can occur when disappearances continue to be merely dismissed as that of being runaways. Police in 2019 note that calls have recently started coming in about Shemika and they are pursuing all leads.
The investigation remains ongoing and there have been no updates.
Questions:
Is there any update on the case? Friends and neighbors were reluctant to get involved.
Who was Shemika’s boyfriend? Who was the older man in the sedan?
Links:
The below ABC news article from July 2019 is one of the few highlighting Shemika’s disappearance.
abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/mom-searching-answers-daughter-vanished-trace-10-years/story?id=64471770
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome
www.cnn.com/2019/11/03/us/missing-children-of-color-trnd/index.html
Often the disappearance of a young minority girl is simply dismissed as being that of a runaway. The media continues to underreport disappearances of minority girls and women. Please consider learning more about or donating to Peas in the Pod which created the Rilya Alert that bridges the gap where the Amber Alert excludes or does not engage due to program criteria. www.peasintheirpods.com/rilya-alert-history
Police discovered an unlocked door, and assumed Shemika had run away so there was no search. Shemika’s mother, Paula Hill, said there were signs someone had a hold on her daughter. She once saw her inside a dark sedan with a much older man. She worries Shemika might be the victim of sex trafficking. Paula eventually moved out of their home and found three notebooks with written messages her daughter had passed to a friend in class, just a few months before her daughter’s disappearance. In them, the 16-year-old talks about a boyfriend, and that she might be pregnant. Paula avers that she did not share the information with the police since they couldn’t even be bothered to show up to check Shemika’s room when they first reported her missing so why she should share information now? Paula’s lack of faith in a police investigation further highlights the strained relationship between law enforcement and minority families that can occur when disappearances continue to be merely dismissed as that of being runaways. Police in 2019 note that calls have recently started coming in about Shemika and they are pursuing all leads.
The investigation remains ongoing and there have been no updates.
Questions:
Is there any update on the case? Friends and neighbors were reluctant to get involved.
Who was Shemika’s boyfriend? Who was the older man in the sedan?
Links:
The below ABC news article from July 2019 is one of the few highlighting Shemika’s disappearance.
abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/mom-searching-answers-daughter-vanished-trace-10-years/story?id=64471770
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome
www.cnn.com/2019/11/03/us/missing-children-of-color-trnd/index.html
Often the disappearance of a young minority girl is simply dismissed as being that of a runaway. The media continues to underreport disappearances of minority girls and women. Please consider learning more about or donating to Peas in the Pod which created the Rilya Alert that bridges the gap where the Amber Alert excludes or does not engage due to program criteria. www.peasintheirpods.com/rilya-alert-history