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The Search for Rachel, a father's journal |
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Sunday, December 1 I organized the large amount of flyers, newsclippings, pictures, etc. that have been collecting over the last 10 1/2 months. I should be able to find things easier now.I've been monitoring the number of people visiting rachelalert.org, and it is a relatively small number, somewhere in the order of one thousand visits. I think the information on the site is very important, and I need to get other sites to link to it. The rachelcookesearch.org site continues to get over 5,000 visits per month. Monday, December 2 I finally caught up with replying to e-mails today. I usually get around five e-mails a week from new people offering to help or giving suggestions. I think it's good to respond to every one of them. So many people have helped with the search for Rachel.Tonight I participated in an Internet chat with Jeanne Boylan, who is probably the most famous criminal sketch artist in the United States. Bill Bickel of Crime and Punishment will post the transcript of the chat soon on http://crime.about.com/mbody.htm . Tuesday, December 3 The CD manufacturer left me a voicemail saying that they received the package I sent them for the RACHEL'S SONG CDs. They should have the artwork for the cover completed and mailed to me by this Saturday. After I approve the cover design, the manufacturing and shipping will take three weeks.On December 10, 2002, People Against Violent Crime will decorate the Tree of Angels. The Tree of Angels was initiated in Austin in 1991 to recognize that the holiday season is a difficult time for victims and their families. Wednesday, December 4 I have been working recently with the Friends of Kristen Missing Persons Foundation. The organization was founded to help with the search for missing Kristen Modafferi. They do fundraisers to support the families of missing persons in their searches for them. One of their main fundraisers is a cookbook. The cookbook is currently being updated to include Rachel, and we will be selling it in Central Texas soon.Things like the cookbook, RACHEL'S SONG CDs, buttons, and bumper stickers help keep Rachel on people's minds. She is still missing and we still need to find her. I noticed KEYE will be running a segment Thursday night on how to protect your children against abductions. They will be talking about the baby kidnapping that occurred in Abilene this summer. I'm really glad to see features like this aired. Thursday, December 5 I received a forwarded e-mail today about a missing girl named Penny Brown. Six months ago I received a similar e-mail and I wrote a very long e-mail to her father. The e-mail bounced. I found out that the whole thing is fake. It is some sick person's idea of a joke.Missing children ages 17 and under may easily be verified by looking on The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children web site. Their site should contain a record for almost every missing child. There are enough legitimate missing children to concentrate on instead of forwarding fake e-mails. Friday, December 6 I changed the home page header/banner today. The new banner was designed and donated by Optical Werks. I made the first banner myself and have never been satisfied with it.I will replace the banner on the other pages on rachelalert.org this weekend. It makes the site look more professional. I also have some things I want to add to The Guidelines to Follow section. Saturday, December 7 I did not receive the CD artwork proofs today. Hopefully they will come on Monday. I am anxious to see the cover design their artist comes up with. Also, the sooner the design is approved, the sooner the manufacturing will start.I have been exchanging e-mails with Lynsie Ekelund's mom. Lynsie has been missing for over a year. We met Lynsie's mom on THE JOHN WALSH SHOW and have stayed in contact. It's so hard being members of the club that I talk about a lot. Hunter, the search dog from Texas EquuSearch, had his way with one of the neighborhood dogs. His owner Jeff offered one of the puppies to my wife Janet. The puppy is so cute. It is half golden lab and half Shar-Pei. Sunday, December 8 I updated all of the rachelalert.org pages, using the new header banner. I also made a few other minor changes to the site.I am in the process of creating a few small banners for people to download if they want to place a link to rachelcookesearch.org. I received an e-mail from a site requesting it yesterday. I've seen them on other sites, and I think they are a good thing to have. Monday, December 9 I exchanged e-mails with several people today about the January event. Hopefully I can announce it this week. The CD design did not arrive today.Several e-mails are still coming in with offers to help with the search for Rachel. I wish I could think of the one thing for them to work on that would bring her home. When I take a moment in the day and realize how long she's been gone, I get very depressed. Tuesday, December 10 The CD cover and label artwork arrived today. The cover is beautiful. I scanned both of the designs and sent them to Al White's people. They also have to approve the design.There is a man missing from the Wells Branch area of Austin. I will find out more details about this tomorrow. Texas EquuSearch has already been contacted about the missing man. Wednesday, December 11 I approved the RACHEL'S SONG CD artwork design today. The company can now start the manufacturing process. We should receive the 1,000 CD order shortly after Christmas.Next week we will announce the Music for the Missing Concert. The event will be held on Saturday, January 18, 2003. All proceeds from the concert will go to Travis County Search and Rescue and Texas EquuSearch. More details on the event will be announced next week. Volunteers to hang flyers are needed. Please e-mail rachelalert@yahoo.com if you are interested in volunteering. It has been my wife Janet's and my goal to make sure we are better prepared next time a person becomes missing. It's better to stop abductions before they happen, but if they do occur we need an alert system and trained Search and Rescue teams in place. Yesterday marked 11 months since Rachel disappeared. It has been 11 months of pure hell for us. The worst part is we seem to be no closer to finding out what happened and who took her than we were last January. Thursday, December 12 The Travis County Sheriff's Office released a statement about missing 52-year-old Henry Hill. Henry disappeared after being involved in an automobile accident near Wells Branch in Austin early Sunday morning. He left the scene of the accident and disappeared.Texas EquuSearch is here from Houston to help set up a search center at the Wells Branch Community Center in Austin. Volunteers will meet there Friday and Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. I will be joining the search Friday morning or early Friday afternoon. I have already notified several of my active searchers, asking them to help out if they can. As with any search, there are many jobs that are required other than searching. People to help with serving food and hanging flyers are needed. Donations of food, drinks, and ice are also welcome. Friday, December 13 I took a day of vacation to help with the search for missing Henry Hill. Tim Miller, the director of Texas EquuSearch, and I directed the search center.Several dog teams were working the area around where Henry's car was found early Sunday morning. We sent the first walking team to an area near them. Travis County Search and Rescue searched a creek and wooded area. After the first team returned and rested, I sent them to search an area near the car and a second search team to search another location. One of the search teams found Henry shortly after beginning their search. Unfortunately Henry was deceased. He seemed to have injured himself in the wreck or by climbing a fence. There was no sign of foul play. After meeting Henry's family, friends, and co-workers, I know Henry was loved very much. He is still loved because he is with our Lord now. Saturday, December 14 My friends Sara, Marie, and I drove to Houston this afternoon. Tomorrow is the Texas EquuSearch family dinner, and I want to attend it. Janet was not feeling up to making the trip.It is nice to get away for a day. Yesterday was a tough day. We found missing Henry Hill, but everyone wanted to find him alive and we didn't. We attended a get-together at my friend's Mary's house. Mary and Jinese brought their search dogs here to help with the search for Rachel last spring. It was good to see both Mary and Jinese. Sunday, December 15 The Texas EquuSearch family dinner began at 1:00 p.m. I was able to visit with Sarah Trusty's parents again. I first met them at the Texas EquuSearch auction in July. Sarah was still missing at that point. They found her body about a week later. There is no healing for something like this. Sarah's parents are just dealing with the pain the best they can.I met a few other family members of missing and murdered people. It both helps to talk with them and hurts at the same time. I can't really describe the feeling. I also visited with the T.E. gang. Tim, Jeff, Darrell, Jim, Doug, John, and James were all there. Monday, December 16 NEWS 8 Austin interviewed me this morning. They wanted to know how we are dealing with the holidays. I told them we are just trying to make it through them. The next month is going to be very difficult. By the time January 10 gets here, we will have gone through a full year since Rachel disappeared.I was able to give NEWS 8 a copy of the Music for the Missing flyer scheduled for January 18, 2003. There have been some complications with the location. We may have to change the date or move to another place. Tuesday, December 17 The dance hall we reserved for the concert next month has double booked January 18. Now we are trying to find a place where we can move the concert that will hold 200 people. With this short of notice it's going to be hard to do. Hopefully someone will have January 18 available.The funeral for Henry Hill is this Thursday. I will be attending the service unless something comes up. I wish we could have found Henry alive and returned him to his family. The RACHEL'S SONG CDs should arrive late next week or the following week. The large amount of holiday mail may slow things down. Wednesday, December 18 My friends Sara and JoAnne are still working on a new location for the January concert. We may have to leave the concert at Outlaws and just move it to earlier in the day. If we do that, we will try to add more items to the auction and raffle.I checked on the CDs, and the company has everything ready to start the actual duplication of the CD. The duplication, CD label, and packaging are all done in one manufacturing process. The January issue of COSMOPOLITAN magazine is out. It includes my letter to the editor about their December article "Could you be a predator's next target?". They trimmed down my letter a bit, but the contact information for both Rachel and Elizabeth Smart is still there. Rachel and Elizabeth were the only girls in the article who are still missing, and the article did not give any contact information on either girl. Thursday, December 19 I attended the funeral of Henry Hill today. He was a very loved man. Over 300 people came out to say goodbye. Tim and Jeff from Texas EquuSearch and my friends Sara and Marie also attended.Tim told me about a missing woman in Taylor. I will have to find out more details about that case. A search may have to take place. A man robbed the bank near our home today. The Sun City Branch of First Texas Bank was held up by an armed man who is still at large. Friday, December 20 I received a call today from Texas EquuSearch. They are tied up with searches for a missing person in Houston and another missing person in San Antonio. They asked me to lead a search for a missing Taylor woman.Forty-nine-year-old Valany Gonzales has been missing since Tuesday, December 17. We are setting up a search center at the Taylor Police Department on 500 S. Main in Taylor. Search volunteers may report on Saturday and Sunday beginning at 8:00 a.m. Search teams will be dispatched throughout the day for people coming later. Donations of food and water are also needed. Saturday, December 21 I spent the day in Taylor leading the search for 49-year-old Valany Gonzales. Ms. Gonzales has been missing since Monday. Around 60 volunteers worked to find her today. Nine of the volunteers are veterans of the search for Rachel. Several other volunteers were from Travis County Search and Rescue, off-duty firefighters, and police officers. A huge number of the volunteers had never taken part in a search before.We completed a 1 1/2 radius search from the point Valany was last seen. All neighbors and other people in the area were interviewed for clues. Travis County SAR concentrated on hike and bike trails, parks, locations under bridges, and other undeveloped areas. We will resume the search for Valany Gonzales at 8:00 a.m. Sunday, December 22. Volunteers should meet at the Taylor Police Department, 500 S. Main Street (Hwy 95), in Taylor. Sunday, December 22 We continued the search for Valany Gonzales today. A smaller group of volunteers worked areas out to nearly a 2-mile radius from her home. We did not find any real clues to aid in the search.Valany's family worked hard to contact a few of her friends they didn't have addresses for. All but one of her friends have been interviewed. I touched base with Jeff from Texas EquuSearch in the morning. He was back in Houston. The San Antonio search turned up nothing. Last night Tim Miller, the director of Texas EquuSearch, called me from San Antonio. The family of a missing 28-year-old woman had contacted Texas EquuSearch. Tim instructed some of his members in Houston to map out the route she took after leaving a business Christmas party on Friday. Her car was found near a warehouse she used, and inside one of the doors the woman's body was lying face down. She had been shot to death. Her 14-month-old daughter is now without a mother. Monday, December 23 I had to work today, but friends JR and Bob ran the search center in Taylor for missing Valany Gonzales. It rained in the morning, so they posted flyers. When the weather cleared, they sent out search teams.I forgot to mention on Saturday that Bob's team knocked on the door of a house that turned out to be abandoned. The team smelled gas, and they called the Taylor Fire Department. The firefighters turned the gas off at the house. Smart thinking by Team 1 probably saved that house and maybe even the houses next to it. Tuesday, December 24 This morning I helped my friends Todd and Ashley from Express Gourmets serve food at Caritas Kitchen in Austin. A group of us served over 350 turkey dinners to the homeless. I saw one man come through the line three times!My friend JR was back in Taylor for the day. Only a small number of searchers came to search for missing Valany Gonzales. It's Christmas Eve, so that can be expected. The search will resume on December 26. Wednesday, December 25 All I could do is make it through the day. This is the first Christmas without Rachel in 20 years. I miss her so much.Thursday, December 26 I worked at the Valany Gonzales search center in Taylor today. Only a small group of volunteers showed up. We contacted several television and radio stations to announce the search would continue through at least this Sunday, December 29. Hopefully we will have a big turnout of volunteers on Saturday and Sunday. We will meet at the Taylor Police Department, 500 S. Main in Taylor, from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.THE WILLIAMSON COUNTY SUN called today. They are preparing their end-of-year edition with a recap of the top stories of the year. Unfortunately, Rachel's disappearance is among the stories they will feature. I wish it had never happened. The RACHEL'S SONG CD order arrived today. We will be able to sell this batch of CDs for $5.00 each locally, $7.00 by mail. The proceeds will go to fund rachelalert.org and the search for Rachel. Friday, December 27 I relaxed a little today. It gave me time to update the Spanish reward flyer for Rachel on rachelcookesearch.org. It was about to be out of date. I also added a few more banners to the banner page.FOX 7 News called about the Valany Gonzales search this weekend. I gave them all of the information about the search. Saturday, December 28 We had a low turnout of searchers for missing Valany Gonzales. Only around 25 people came. Most of those were family members. Two Travis County Search and Rescue members and one APD Search and Rescue member came. I guess most people are too busy recovering from Christmas.KEYE News filmed the family and parts of the search. Hopefully this will generate a few more searchers tomorrow. We still have a lot of area to cover. Volunteers should meet Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. at the Taylor Police Department, 500 S. Main. Sunday, December 29 Several more volunteers came to the Valany Gonzales search center today. Many of the new people saw last night's KEYE News segment on the search.We were able to complete the area within the Taylor city limits and extend out to a four-mile radius. We had a powered parachute come to help out, but his plane was grounded due to bad weather. A fixed wing pilot was also ready to join the search. The powered parachute pilot will start an aerial search as soon as the weather clears. FOX 7 News sent out a crew to film the search. I watched the report on their 9:00 p.m. news. It was really good. Monday, December 30 Today was a "catch up" day for me. I put many things aside while I led the search for missing Valany Gonzales. My daughter JoAnn's car was backed into in a parking lot. I took the car by the body shop today. I also took my wife Janet to the airport. She is flying to California to get away for a while.The ROUND ROCK LEADER called this afternoon. The reporter wants to interview the Gonzales family about Valany. He also wants to interview me about the one year anniversary of Rachel's disappearance. We will do the interview tomorrow morning. Tuesday, December 31 Yesterday's AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN had a good article about Texas EquuSearch. It featured Rachel's disappearance and several other missing person cases. My friends Marie and Sara were also quoted in the article.Today is the last day of the worst year of my life. I have made many new friends this year, but nothing can make up for losing our beloved Rachel. I hope that 2003 will be a better year. |
