Thursday January 18, 2007
West Virginia children still missing
by Brad McElhinny
Daily Mail staff
Rather than hope, the recent discovery of a Missouri boy who had been missing four years just raised more questions for Shirley Day.
Day, a 74-year-old Wyoming County resident, has her own heartbreaking mystery. Her granddaughter, Natasha Alexandra Carter, has been missing for seven years. Alex, as she was called, is one of three West Virginia children who have long been listed as missing by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Shirley Day has been watching news reports about 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck. The boy was found this week after being abducted while riding his bike in 2002. Adding to the mystery: Hornbeck apparently hung out with friends, had a cell phone and rode his bike around alone. His abductor held down two jobs that frequently caused him to leave his apartment.
"I can't understand why he didn't get in touch with his family," Day said. "It makes you wonder, doesn't it? I know what that family has gone through. But you know something, that child will never be the same."
The story resonates with Day, who wonders all the time why her granddaughter can't or won't pick up the telephone and call her.
Alex was 10 years old when she went missing on Aug. 8, 2000. Authorities said they believe she was taken by her mother, Susan Gail Carter, after a contentious custody hearing. Susan Carter and Day's son, Ricky Lafferty, were in a brutal fight to keep Alex.
"She really got into it with the mediator," Day said. "Then she told Ricky he would never see Alex again. She got in the car with a man she later married. Alex was in the car. They had the windows rolled up. They wouldn't let Ricky talk to them."
The car rolled away, and that was the last time Alex's family saw her, although no one knew until later just how final the parting would be. There was another hearing in September. Susan didn't show up. Her lawyer told the judge he didn't know where to find her.
At first, no one but the family seemed to be alarmed.
"The authorities acted like because her mother had taken her everything was all right," said Day, who was a Wyoming County magistrate for two years in the mid-1980s and who also was a licensed practical nurse, an insurance agent and ran a beauty shop.
But by November of that year, a felony warrant for kidnapping was issued for Susan Carter.
Nobody seems to have any idea where they went. A listing for Alex at missingkids.com says only that they might have traveled out of state and might have been accompanied by an adult male.
The site shows a picture of Alex at age 10. She is smiling shyly and has blond hair and blue eyes. The same site shows a computer image of how Alex might look today, at age 17. Her looks have matured, but the blond hair and blue eyes remain. She would also have a scar on her left eyebrow, the remnant of a car wreck that she and her grandmother were in.
Her companions on the Web site are Kaitlyn Elizabeth Patrick, a 17-year-old who went missing last year, and Victor Shoemaker Jr., who was 5 years old when he went missing while playing in the woods in 1994.
Authorities believe Kaitlyn Patrick might be on the run with her adult boyfriend, David Delp. She was listed as missing from the Weirton area last May 27. Delp was the suspect in a string of ATV thefts and several house burglaries in Hancock County. According to police, Delp is wanted for jumping bond and missing a court date.
Victor Shoemaker went missing May 1, 1994, while playing with cousins behind his grandfather's mobile home in Hampshire County. The cousins told police they lost track of him and didn't see him again. At least 400 people joined a search for the boy in the days following his disappearance, but no trace was found.
The day he disappeared, Victor was wearing a red Bugs Bunny T-shirt, red shorts and a pair of white X-Men sneakers. Now he would be 17 years old. The Web site missingkids.com shows a picture of Victor smiling with blond tousled hair at age 5 and a depiction of how he might look now -- lanky and with the same blond hair and blue eyes.
The listings are horrifying to read. Even if a miracle should occur -- like the relocation of Shawn Hornbeck -- they're testaments to lost time.
"Nobody knows -- nobody but people who are in similar circumstances," said Day, Alex Carter's grandmother.
"Just not knowing if they're dead or alive or needing something or being abused. You just wonder."
There was already a lot of trouble in Alex's life before she disappeared. Day said the little girl slept with a knife for fear of being raped by one of her mother's boyfriends. The grandmother said the little girl witnessed her mother doing drugs and, at least once, an overdose.
"She never heard nothing but cussing -- the filthiest words that came out of anybody's mouth," Day said. "Susan could take the paint off the wall. And you know, I never heard one four-letter word come out of that little girl's mouth."
As Day recalled, the little girl would beg not to have to go home with her mother. The last time Alex visited her grandmother was at the end of July 2000.
"She said, ‘Mom-mom, why can't I live with you?'"
Day responded, "Honey, the court won't let you."
"When she left here she was crying: ‘Please don't make me go, please don't make me go.'"
The next month was the custody hearing when Susan Carter drove away with Alex.
Day has no idea what became of Alex. One part of her hopes the little girl is alive. Another part of her hopes the little girl is dead rather than living an existence of abuse.
She has hired lawyers, contracted bounty hunters and urged police to try to find the girl. One effort after another has ended in a brick wall.
"When they start out with, they're gung ho," she said. "It seems like just as soon as they find out how it is, they back off and you never hear another word with them."
Like Shawn Hornbeck, Alex Carter was old enough when she disappeared to know her family's telephone numbers. Day has fading hopes that the girl still might call some day.
"In the winter, when she was first gone, I would get up in the night and look out on the porch," she said. "I thought she might have come home and was lying on the porch. You think of everything in the world."
Contact staff writer Brad McElhinny at 348-5129.
http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/+/2007011819/West+Virginia+children+still+missing
NATASHA CARTER
DOB: Dec 23, 1989
Missing: Aug 8, 2000
Age Now: 16
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Height: 127 cm (4'2")
Weight: 23 kg (51 lbs)
Missing From:
PINEVILLE
WV
United States
Age Progressed
SUSAN GAIL CARTER
Mother
DOB: Mar 8, 1959
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Green
Height: 168 cm (5'6")
Weight: 52 kg (115 lbs)
Natasha Carter has been missing since August 08, 2000. Natasha's photo shown in 2000 and with an age progression to 13 years of age. Natasha has a scar on her left eyebrow. She was abducted by her non custodial mother, Susan Gail Carter. A felony warrant for kidnapping was issued for the mother on November 13, 2000. The mother may be using the alias Susan Gail Webb. They may have traveled out of state. They may be accompained by an adult male.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
West Virginia Missing Children Clearinghouse
1-800-352-0927
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
West Virginia State Police BCI Beckley F/Sgt Cliff Akers 304-256-6705
Photo's and Poster Available at: http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=carter&orgPrefix=USWV&searchLang=en_US