NJ-MARK HIMEBAUGH- on the news tonight...

[audrey77]

KYW news (philly) reported that they added Mark's case to the list of possible victims of Jack Colin. They just searched Colin's house the other day... Colin used to drive from/to work past the spot where they believe Mark was abducted...

KYW hasn't posted the news story as of yet... it was somewhat breaking news.

Here is the earlier story (before Mark) http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_349125030.html

[audrey77]

http://www.missingkids.org/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=762514&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US

[monkalup]

Himebaugh disappearance still haunts 15 years later

By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713
(Published: November 25, 2006)
MIDDLE TOWNSHIP — Fifteen years ago today, a freckle-faced boy disappeared from his neighborhood, leaving behind only a white sneaker and the memories of an 11-year-old who has never grown up.

Nov. 25, 1991, was the last time Mark Himebaugh was seen.

Each year since has been a year without an answer.

But his mother's eyes brighten and moisten with talk of a son who wouldn't swat a bumblebee in the house, but would capture it in a glass and set it free outside.

Maureen Himebaugh uses this date to do something positive and enjoy life with the memory of her son, she said.

“I'm ready for an answer. But I've also accepted that I may go to my grave and not know,” she said Friday from her home, where marsh reeds across the street blow in the wind.

“I just want an answer. That's all.”

She isn't alone.

“We're still looking for that one piece of information that might be out there that could close this case,” said Middle Township police Capt. Scott Webster, who 15 years ago was a patrolman assigned to the juvenile division.

“It's still on everybody's mind. Of course at the time it scared a lot of people, and we went from the quiet rural town where people still didn't lock their doors and their cars,” he said.

“It kind of was a rude awakening to show that this type of thing could happen anywhere, and for several months afterward, you saw parents closer. You didn't see the kids out at the playgrounds, you didn't see them out on the streets. Parents were holding their kids closer. It took that innocence away from the area,” Webster said.

The Himebaugh case is 15 years old, but is not considered a cold case, said Jerry Nance, supervisor of the forensic assistance unit at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Cases go cold when leads dry up and generations of detectives have come and gone, he said.

In Mark's case, police are still pursuing possibilities.

Several weeks ago, a person found bones that washed up on a Del Haven beach front. Police had the bones analyzed — they belonged to an animal. All the bones reported over the years have turned out to be an animal's, Webster said.

But police still check.

On her refrigerator door, Maureen Himebaugh keeps a missing person's photo that aged her son 10 years and shows a red-headed man with the same sparkle in the eyes.

It looks about right, she said.

It was a sunny, cold and windy Monday afternoon in November 1991.

In Del Haven, a fire burned marsh reeds and the wind fanned smoke across Bayshore Drive.

Police and firefighters were on the scene, diverting traffic from the road and detouring motorists through side streets. This brought more cars and more people into the area, Webster said.

Mark came home from school, grabbed a snack and, being an inquisitive young boy, went to investigate.

His mother, driving a neighbor to pick up a car at a gas station, backed out of the driveway and reminded him of plans they had that evening.

He walked across Bayshore Road. Police believe he was walking with a girl, about 10, near Cape May County Park South, Webster said.

Authorities never positively identified that girl.

Mark was seen walking toward the playground.

And that was it.

He was reported missing at 6 p.m.

In the next six days, helicopters, dogs and hundreds of searchers scoured for signs of Mark.

All they found was footprints and his hand-me-down LA Gear sneaker above the high tide line along the bay.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of leads came in, Webster said.

Calls came in from Florida, Texas, Canada, Mexico and the Grand Cayman Islands.

“Over the years, of course, the amount of sightings and leads have dropped and that's just due to time,” Webster said. “We do still get leads, but now it's more people remembering things from years back.”

The uncertainty of what happened to a missing loved one hurts in its own special way, said Lauran Halleck.

Her sister, Jean, was abducted from a parked car 26 years ago from outside a convenience store in Miami. Halleck has been looking for her sister, then 16, ever since.

“That's the toughest part, truly,” she said. “You mourn because they're gone, but you can't mourn in the traditional way because you can't get to the happy memories. You think terrible things about what might have happened to them. And then there's always the stories. Your mind can go crazy, and that's the worst part of all.

“I think most of us learn to get on with loss to the degree we can, but then there's just a hole and there's no clue,” she said.

Halleck started a Web site — Porchlight for the Missing and Unidentified — this spring to help families of victims.

“Cases like Mark's have been around for a long time,” said Vance, who is in charge of cold cases. “If something doesn't kick start it, it will be coming here.”

When cases are considered cold, they typically get solved through either technological advances in forensics or changes in relationships, Vance said.

Critical witnesses who said nothing before may come forward as they grow older and their perspectives change. People can become more forthcoming decades later.

“You want to put a name to everything you touch and unfortunately the odds are way against you,” he said.

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:

BIanieri@pressofac.com



http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/st...p-6826061c.html

[monkalup]

Still No Trace of Mark Himebaugh 16 Years Later
mark himebaugh | 3 hours 36 min ago | Comments 0
By Al Campbell

DEL HAVEN — Since Nov. 25, 1991, millions have seen Mark Himebaugh’s photo, now age-enhanced to show a red-haired, 27-year-old, but with that same beguiling, freckled grin his mother last saw shortly before 4 p.m. that day.

The 16-year-old case, considered a “non-family abduction,” continues to perplex Middle Township Police, N.J. State Police and the FBI.

Himebaugh’s image has appeared on Fox-TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” on countless milk cartons and billboards, and his case has been entered into the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

To this day, no trace, other than Mark’s left sneaker, has been found, and that was about 75 yards from his Sun Ray Beach Road home.

On that same fateful day, there was a massive marsh fire across the street from the Himebaughs’ house.

His mother, Maureen, dropped Mark off at home and went to a garage, she wasn’t gone 15 minutes. She never saw him again.
When Mark disappeared, he was described as being a white male with red hair and blue eyes, 4 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 85 pounds. He was also taking medication.

He was last seen wearing a blue sweatshirt, gray jacket, gray pants and sneakers.

The case baffled investigators from the outset.

It has been classified in the category as other local missing person cases: Craig White, gone since 1989. William Gerald disappeared in 1978. Their bodies, likewise, have never been discovered.

How could an 11-year-old boy simply vanish from rural Del Haven?

As soon as the blackened marsh acreage cooled, over 200 volunteers fanned out in a massive search party. They swept every inch of ground for the boy.

Subsequently, trained canines were pressed into service; none found a scent.

An Essex County psychic, Dorothy Allison of Nutley, had similarly disheartening results locating Mark using a paranormal plan.

Since that chilling landmark day in 1991, Middle Township police chiefs, detectives and officers who worked the case came and went. All that remains is the thick missing person file on Mark Himebaugh.

The initial search was called off in early December 1991.

Mrs. Himebaugh never surrendered hope that her boy would come bounding up the front steps once again, and all would be well.

Himebaugh was a student at the Cape May County Special Services Alternative School. His father, Jody Himebaugh, termed him a “near genius.”

Originally, police asked that anyone with a videotape of the marsh fire contact them, in the hope that Himebaugh would be spotted on one of the frames.

He never appeared.

In a letter to the Herald on Dec. 11, 1991, Maureen Himebaugh and her family and Jody, and his family, wrote of the loss that seared their souls.

“A massive five-day air, sea, and land search uncovered nothing nor did the ensuing investigation,” they wrote.

“Some searchers were, at times, waist deep in cold, muddy water as they trudged through the meadows surrounding Mark’s home.

“The ‘not knowing’ is indeed very painful for our family to deal with. However, it is because of the sincere outpouring of concern including moral support, assurance of continuing searches, compassionate news coverage, and everyone’s earnest belief that Mark will be found, that we are able to keep up hope,” they wrote.

Also in December 1991, “Friends of Mark” was organized as a trust fund, which accepted donations in an effort to offer a reward if Mark was found. Chuck Knutson was chairman of the group.

In Atlantic City, heavyweight boxer Riddick Bowe dedicated a bout against Elijah Tillery to Mark’s return.

Bowe wore Himebaugh’s picture on his boxing robe and trunks at the Convention Hall bout watched by an estimated 17 million viewers.

Additionally, Bowe gave $15,000 to the reward fund, which brought the amount to $25,000 for Mark’s safe return.

Hopes rose in December 1991 after the FBI announced it was “aggressively” pursuing an individual in connection with Himebaugh’s disappearance. The lead led nowhere.

Mark’s brother, Matthew, 12, in 1991, took then Middle Township Juvenile Officer, now Capt. Scott Webster to various play forts where he and his brother spent time. Those searches, too, were fruitless.

At the time, the public was told that Mark’s left foot was recently healed from being broken, which may have led him to remove his sneaker, said his mother.

Temperatures during the first days of Mark’s disappearance dropped into the low 30s. Because of that, police were led to believe that if the boy was outside, it was likely he would not survive.

A State Police helicopter, equipped with infrared camera, to detect heat sources, swept over vast acres near the Himebaugh home. It found no trace of Mark.

The search included marshlands and forests in the vicinity between Del Haven and Villas and along Delaware Bay.

On the first anniversary of Mark’s disappearance, six State Troopers assisted Middle Township Police at a checkpoint on Bayshore Road near Cape May County Park South, where Himebaugh was last seen.

A composite sketch of a dark-haired man seen talking to Himebaugh prior to his disappearance was circulated, but to no avail.

In addition, on the first anniversary, a candlelight vigil was held at Cape May County Park South. Maureen cried as the Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” filled the night air.

In February 1992, Mark’s father wrote, “I’m going to venture to say that when Mark is found, Cape May County is probably going to have one of the grandest homecoming parties in its history.”

In that letter, Himebaugh asked for continued prayers for Mark’s safe return, “and for the strength I need to find him.”

“One thing positive is happening: Parents are definitely more aware of where their kids are now,” he concluded.

Anyone with information about Mark should call The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678, Middle Township Police Major Crime Unit, (609) 465-8700 or the local FBI office.

Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 Ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com

http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article...-16-years-later

[monkalup]

http://cbs3.com/local/Himebaugh.Mark.Abduction.2.591883.html

Missing N.J. Boy Still A Mystery 16 Years Later
Reporting
Cydney Long MIDDLE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS 3) ¯ The mother of a South Jersey boy is speaking out as a somber anniversary approaches.

This Sunday marks 16 years since the disappearance of Mark Himebaugh and authorities have released an age-enhanced photo, showing Himebaugh as he would look today at age 27.

Mark's family hopes this new photo will spark new leads in their son's disappearance.

Himebaugh vanished from a park just a block from his home 16 years ago.

His mother and police remain confident he could still be alive, and they want the world to see what he would look like now.

"I'm not gonna give up. He gave me the most beautiful 11 1/2 years of my life," said Maureen Himebaugh.

Maureen smiled looking at an age enhanced photo, thinking about how handsome her son would be at age 27.

"He looks like me, he would look like that I know it would important to keep it out there it gives me hope."

The curious 11-year-old asked his mom permission to check out a marsh fire while she ran a quick errand, it was the last she saw him.


"I can see him, I remember his last words, he said 'O.K. Mom.'"

Investigators found Mark's footprints and left sneaker along Sunray beach near his home, but have never been able to identify a young girl he was walking with.


"You think about it all the time, you wonder, you want to hope for the best," said Officer Webster, who has worked on the case.

Police and Mrs. Himebaugh are convinced Mark was abducted, and feel the new photo could bring new leads and perhaps closure.

If anyone has information about Mark's disappearance or whereabouts please contact authorities at 609-465-8700 for Middle Township Police Dept. or 1-800-843-5678 (Center For Missing And Exploited Children).