'Lost Lauren' -- Television shows give missing girl's case national exposure
By KARIN WILLIAMS,
kwilliams@phoenixvillenews.com
02/01/2007
By December 1989, Lauren Jackson had been missing for more than two years, and her case began receiving national attention.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) began distributing Lauren's photo on mailers that went out across the country.
Tips began coming in, all were investigated, but none were fruitful.
In January 1991, "America's Most Wanted" aired a 30-second spot about Lauren's case and featured a sculpture of the little girl, created by nationally-known artist Frank Bender, who has done similar work on cases such as Philadelphia's "Boy in the Box."
Lauren's case was shown at the end of the episode with a brief synopsis of facts surrounding her disappearance and her physical description.
The month after the episode aired, James Cote left his position as chief of the East Vincent Township Police Department, and William Demski, a former Philadelphia police officer, was hired as the new chief.
In May of 1991, Lauren's father, Michael "Mickey" Jackson, received a tip that his daughter could possibly have been in Florida.
According to Cote, Mickey contacted him and requested he fly to Florida to check out the information. Although he was no longer involved in law enforcement, Cote said he consulted with the FBI, and he and Mickey got on a plane.
While in Florida, the two looked at a neighborhood, some residences and a school where Lauren may have been enrolled, but - as was becoming the theme of the case - the leads turned up nothing.
Lauren's mother Christina O'Donnell said that she never understood the purpose of the Florida trip.
"They were trying to pin something on me because I had relatives in Florida, because I grew up there," she said on Wednesday. "They're cousins, and I haven't even spoken to them in years. I don't even think they knew what happened with Lauren then."
Mickey has said repeatedly - including on national television - that he believes Christina was involved in Lauren's disappearance. "I know she did it to get back at me," he said last week.
Christina scoffed at the notion that she would have harmed and/or given Lauren away for spite.
"That's my child," she said on Wednesday. "I could care less about (Mickey)."
A Grand Jury was convened in the early 1990s to determine whether or not Christina bore any responsibility for Lauren's disappearance. Christina and her oldest daughter, Diana Severns, testified before the 30-person panel.
"I was only supposed to answer yes or no, but I couldn't do that," she said on Wednesday. "Law enforcement was saying I had something to do with (the disappearance), but I knew I didn't do anything."
After four months, the grand jury declined to indict Christina.
Though the rumors had been flying for years, an April 12, 1994, episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" fueled the speculations about Christina's alleged involvement in the disappearance.
Three months after Lauren went missing, a witness came forward to report something she claimed to have seen in the parking lot of the former Jamesway - now Redner's Market - in East Pikeland Township the night Lauren disappeared.
The witness, who was reported to be an acquaintance of a former Phoenixville Police officer, came forward in December 1988 with a story about seeing a woman forcing a child into a vehicle in the parking lot.
According to the witness, the girl, who seemed to match Lauren's description, was being pushed into a vehicle by a woman matching Christina's description. Cote said the witness claimed the little girl was screaming, "No, Mommy, no!"
When Cote and Special Agent David Richter of the FBI took the witness to the Park Springs apartment complex to get a look a Christina, Cote said the witness immediately identified Christina as the woman she had seen.
The problem, however, was that, at the time the witness claimed to have seen this chilling scenario, Lauren was playing with other children in the Park Springs apartment complex, and did not actually go missing until later that night.
The television show "Unsolved Mysteries" expressed interest in taping an episode about Lauren's case based on the witness' statements. Because the show gave Lauren's case national exposure, those who were actively involved in the investigation took the opportunity to appear on television.
It was in no way an acknowledgment of the credibility, or lack thereof, of the statement.
"I don't doubt that (the witness) believes she saw a mother and her child at that mall," Demski said on "Unsolved Mysteries."
Richter, who was still working the case in 1994, also appeared on the "Unsolved Mysteries" episode entitled "Lost Lauren."
"The witness said that's what happened, and that caused the Unsolved Mysteries people to want to do the show," Richter said last week. "It was an unusual twist in a missing child matter."
Following the airing of the show, several tips came in and, in an interview last Friday, Demski said tips still trickle in from across the country when the show airs in reruns.
"We've gotten tips from people as far away as the west coast," Demski said.
Just six months ago, Demski requested the assistance of the FBI to check out a lead in Texas that, in the end, did not pan out.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has also kept up with Lauren's case.
In 2001, forensic artists created an age-enhanced photo of Lauren at what would have been her age, 18. In 2006, there was a second update - Lauren at age 23.
"The actual (age-enhancement) process involves studying the unique facial features of the missing child and any available photographs of the child's biological parents," said Barbara Petito, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "The child's face is stretched to approximate normal facial/cranial growth and merged with a photograph of his/her parent's face."
Artistic skills are also required to add details of the aging process to arrive at the correct appearance for a particular age.
Diana Severns, Lauren's older sister, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the 18-year-old age enhancement resembled Lauren's grandmother's graduation photo.
During an interview at Diana's Philadelphia home on Wednesday, the most recent age enhancement photo was given to Christina and Diana, who had not yet seen it. The women were emotional, and Diana said she felt Lauren looked a lot like her.
©The Phoenix 2007
http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17793066&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6