Local pair questioned in murder of 'Precious Doe'

[ariesgem]

A Muskogee woman appears to be the mother of "Precious Doe," an unidentified young girl found beaten and decapitated in Kansas City in 2001, a high ranking Muskogee police official said Wednesday night.

Michelle Johnson, aka Michelle Pierce, 30, 629 S. 21st St, was questioned late Wednesday night by Kansas City and Muskogee police after Kansas City police received a tip that Johnson had information about the grisly death of Precious Doe, whose story has been featured on television shows such as A&E's "Cold Case Files" and "America's Most Wanted."

>>>>

Precious Doe is the nickname for an unidentified 4- to 6-year-old girl who was found decapitated in Kansas City in the woods near the intersection of 59th Street and Kensington Avenue in 2001. Kansas City police investigators have tried numerous times to identify the girl since 2001, but have so far come back empty-handed.

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050505/NEWS01/505050305/1002

[AlCzervik]

1. "decapitated"

I can't deal with that.

[evlbstrd]

3. I know. And she was found in our city.

We've had so many child brutality cases here in recent years, it's frightening. And my son thinks I'm a hardass.

[blogbear]

4. I can't either deal with that.. Is it possible that it was done by Dennis

Rader?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. No it was her mom

and stepdad.

[blogbear]

7. That's worse even..

[Newsjock]

2. A fascinating LOCAL news story

in Kansas City and Muskogee. For the rest of us, why is this consuming even a second of our time? The cable news whore parade continues unabated. It's beyond vile.

[evlbstrd]

5. The police in KC tried to get it out nationally to solve it.

Now is too late. It's the circus again.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Well I would rather see this story covered

than the runaway bride.

[ariesgem]

9. There's an interesting editoral on how the media cherry picks

their coverage of victims of crime -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20050508/cm_ucas/forgetmediaattentionifyourepoorblackuglyorold/nc:1345


FORGET MEDIA ATTENTION IF YOU'RE POOR, BLACK, UGLY OR OLD

A year ago, May 7, Stacy-Ann Sappleton took a taxi to Queens, N.Y., from LaGuardia, bound for the home of her future in-laws. She had flown in from Detroit to complete a few tasks for her planned September wedding.

She never made it. Her fiance, Damion Blair, his parents and Sappleton's mother spent a frantic weekend searching before they learned of her tragic demise.

Never heard of her? Neither has most of America.

Like runaway Georgia bride Jennifer Wilbanks, Sappleton was missing for three days. Like Wilbanks, Sappleton was young (26), middle-class and planning a wedding.

Unlike Wilbanks, Sappleton's disappearance didn't receive 24-hour cable news coverage, complete with breathless speculation by celebrity pundits, or banner newspaper headlines. Unlike Wilbanks, Sappleton was black.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As American news consumers, we are discriminating about the sort of victims worthy of our concern. Pretty, middle-class, young, white -- yes; old, ugly, poor, black, brown -- apparently not.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

After Sappleton's battered, bullet-riddled body was found in a Dumpster in Queens, about five miles from the home of her future in-laws, her fiance angrily refused to talk to reporters. "When she first disappeared, we tried to contact the media, and they wouldn't help us," Blair told The New York Times.

(Print and broadcast reporters from New York City and Canada -- Sappleton lived in Ontario -- covered her disappearance, but newspapers did not display the story prominently. There was little, if any, national coverage.)

END>>>>>>>



A previous poster pointed out that it's "a LOCAL story". I hope he/she didn't really think it was not worthy of discussing here. This story was mentioned on a couple of shows that aired nationally (Cold Case Files, America's Most Wanted). That's how I found out about the story here in Cali. The breaking news was that they found her killers.

As an African American, the names of Jon Bonet Ramsey, Polly Class, Elizabeth Smart are INGRAINED in my head and I feel horrible for the families of ALL children who have been abducted and/or killed. Are any of the names of recently murdered black, brown, unattractive or poor children ingrained in anyone's head? I'm not placing blame at anyone here. My :mad::mad::mad::mad: is targeted squarely at the media.

RIP - Erica Michelle Maria Green