Lauren Maria Pico Jackson pa

[smile22]

does anyone know anything about this case i saw it on unsolved and pulled up her doe flyer.. and nothing new was listed on doe. was she ever found? did they have any solid leads

[lisag]

Seeing that she is still listed with the Doe Network, Charlie Project and the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, I do not think she has ever been found.

[Paradise]

I don't think she's ever been found. She looks like such a pretty girl, I wish she would turn up or at least some clues about what happened.

Here's her doenetwork page...
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/270dfpa.html

[Gen Toll]

Lauren is my cousin and no, she has not been found yet nor is there any recent information on the case. We're all still waiting and praying.

[Rle7]

In June of 2006, I came up with the idea of writing a series of articles on cold cases in and around Phoenixville. Three came to mind, the still unsolved 1954 murder of Marguerite Keota, the murder of a Boy Scout in East Pikeland in the 1970s and the 1988 disappearance of Lauren Jackson in East Vincent Township.
Being the most recent of the three, I opted to start working first on Lauren's story. Although it began as the first in a series of three different cases, it began to take on a life of its own.
I started my quest for information by poring through dozens, if not hundreds, of old newspaper articles, and for anyone who has ever done so in the offices of The Phoenix, you understand it's a grimy, dusty job. I don't think I stopped sneezing for a week.
Many of those articles were written by Lynn Berry, who up until last year was the editor of the Moscow Times in Russia, and provided me with the basic information I needed to be able to start a search.
The first person I was able to find, with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was Retired Agent David Richter, the lead investigator on Lauren's case. Agent Richter - who now has a PI business in West Chester (Cloud, Feheery and Richter) - was most helpful in providing me with background information about the case and about the family.
My goals were to find Lauren's father, Mickey - which I did - and find her mother, Christina - which I did not.

http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17773522&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17918&rfi=6

[Rle7]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/j/jackson_lauren.html

[Mr. E]

From the Phoenixville News article:
He took me for a driving tour of the area, and introduced me to John French, who owns a barn where Lauren was said to be - something you'll read more about in this series. He took me inside the barn, which looks much the same today as it did in 1988.
Anybody know what the story is behind this barn? I'd never heard anything like this before.

[Rle7]

She was just 100 feet away from her front door when she disappeared in October of 1988, and in the nearly 19 years since, not a single trace of Lauren Maria Pico Jackson has been found.
On Oct. 4, 1988, the tiny 5-year-old girl, clad in a white long-sleeved shirt with a California Raisin on the front and iron-stained pants, had been playing with another child, digging in the dirt with spoons. When her mother, Christina O'Donnell, went to check on her - she was gone.
Christina called the police, who organized search teams. Less than two hours later, more than 50 men from four police departments and six fire departments fanned out across the area to begin looking for the brown-haired, brown-eyed little girl who lived in the Park Springs apartment complex in East Vincent Township.
Even as the search teams were preparing their plan of action, then-Sgt. James Cote of the East Vincent Police Department said there was an influx of calls from people offering assistance in the hunt for Lauren.
"There were a lot of areas that needed to be searched," Cote said. "Every Dumpster, every parked car, ponds in the area had to be checked."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17777257&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6

[Rle7]

By 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 1988, hundreds of volunteers had offered their help in the search for little Lauren Jackson, who had been missing from her home for 12 hours.
The last time anyone had seen the 5-year-old girl was around 7:30 p.m. the night before, when she was playing with another child in the Park Springs apartment complex in East Vincent Township where she lived. Lauren's mother, Christina O'Donnell, had called police around 9:15 p.m. to report Lauren missing.
People were turning out in droves to help search for Lauren over an eight-mile radius surrounding the apartment complex. The search area stretched from the defunct Pennhurst State Hospital in Spring City to an abandoned garage at the intersection of routes 23 and 724 in East Pikeland.
Several former patients from the state hospital had moved into Park Springs after the facility was shut down.
In checking all possible leads, the Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue (GPSAR) team took their dogs to the grounds of the former state-run mental facility, which also houses the Southeast Pa. Veterans Center. Their mission was to check the utility tunnels beneath the buildings.
Irvin Lichtenstein is the founder of GPSAR and is a member of, among other emergency service organizations, the International Society of Professional Trackers. Lauren's case was the first emergency call for GPSAR, and Lichtenstein was among those who came to aid in the search.
Initially, GPSAR responded to the parking lot of the abandoned garage at routes 23 and 724 around 3 a.m. on Oct. 5. Members spent the wee hours of the morning jumping from location to location searching for Lauren.
"The search shifted to what is now the ... Veterans home," Lichtenstein wrote in an August 2006 e-mail to The Phoenix. "Crews checked and sealed the utility tunnels and sewers under the complex; we checked the surface and there were boats in the river."
The search continued, as it would for the next two weeks, sun up to sun down, with hundreds of people from various organizations, as well as individuals, who volunteered to join the search. Many people who were not able to assist in the hunt for Lauren provided coffee and refreshments for search teams.
After days of searches by hundreds of people, Philadelphia psychic Valerie Morrison provided what many hoped might be a pivotal break in the case.
The psychic claimed to have had a vision of where the little girl had been just days before. The description Morrison provided of the location she "saw" matched what investigators discovered on the property of John French.
Morrison spoke of seeing a red barn, something orange and a sequence of numbers. She also heard dogs barking.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17781519&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6

[Rle7]

When Lauren Jackson was reported missing from her East Vincent Township home on Oct. 4, 1988, several Philadelphia-area news outlets, including KYW-1060 AM radio, picked up her story.
David Richter, an agent with the Newtown Square office of the FBI, was in the midst of a trial in Philadelphia and heard the news of Lauren's disappearance broadcast on the radio.
"I heard about it on KYW, and I talked to the boss in Newtown Square and told him what I had heard," Richter said in an interview last week. "He then sent some other agents to see if they could assist."
East Vincent Township police officers had been working together with neighboring police departments, firefighters, Chester County Detectives and other volunteers in the hunt for little Lauren.
The search for the 5-year-old girl had been ongoing since the previous Wednesday, when her mother, Christina O'Donnell, had reported her missing. Police said Lauren had been digging in the dirt with spoons in front of the home of another child in the Park Springs Apartment Complex in East Vincent Township.
Christina and her eldest daughter, Diana Severns, were located by The Phoenix for the first time on Tuesday, following exhaustive efforts.
Both women said on Tuesday that Lauren was not prone to wandering away alone, as neighbors had told police in the past.
Christina said Lauren had been reprimanded two weeks before she went missing for walking to a nearby store with older children in the development.
"That was the first time she had ever done that, but she wasn't by herself, she was with older girls," she said.
Diana said Lauren would not have willingly gone with someone she did not know.
"She was outgoing, she was friendly - she was like me," Diana said. "They say she may have gotten into a car with a stranger, but she wouldn't have done that."
Using Lauren's bed sheets as a guide, search dogs had followed her scent along Route 724 near the Vincent Motel - where it seemed to end. Information provided by a Philadelphia psychic led search teams to a barn about a mile from Lauren's home in Park Springs.
Several local dive teams, including Spring Ford Rescue and the Spring City and Phoenixville fire departments, volunteered time and equipment to search 19 area ponds, creeks and other bodies of water for the little girl.
Even the National Guard out of Spring City aided in the hunt for the little girl, but nothing turned up.
On Monday, Oct. 10, 1988, Richter was officially assigned to the Jackson case and jumped in with both feet.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17787035&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6

[Rle7]

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)."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17793066&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6

[Rle7]

Investigators, members of the search parties and local residents alike say they have all been haunted by Lauren Jackson's disappearance almost two decades ago.
Some feel guilt at not being able to find the little girl, and her mother and father both feel guilt for not protecting her, but it is Lauren's older sister who feels exceptionally culpable.
Diana Severns was 12 when Lauren went missing.
Her baby sister's disappearance has taken a heavy toll on her, and for the last 19 years, she has been racked with guilt over that night.
On Oct. 4, 1988, Diana left her house to take care of a neighbor's children in another part of the complex. As she was going out the door, she said, Lauren begged to come along.
"I feel so guilty because she wanted to come with me, and you know, I didn't want my little sister hanging around," Diana said on Wednesday. "You know how big sisters and little sisters are."
Shortly after Diana left, Lauren disappeared.
"I haven't dealt with it this whole time because I don't know how to," Diana said.
She staunchly maintains that Lauren would not have wandered off by herself.
"Lauren wouldn't have done that," Diana said. "Someone took her. Someone out there knows something."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17798858&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6

[Rle7]

Lauren Maria Pico Jackson was born to Christina O'Donnell and Michael "Mickey" Jackson, on Sept. 27, 1988, in Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia.
She was born premature and had a host of birth defects and problems, one of which was hydroencephalitis, or fluid on the brain.
"The doctors told me not to have a lot of hope for her." Christina said.
Among the problems Lauren had were a club foot, a double hernia and a cleft palate, according to Diana Severns, Lauren's older sister. She had casts on her legs from the age of one month, and every Sunday, Christina said she had to soak the casts off so they could be replaced on Monday.
Christina said that, when Lauren began walking, she had to buy two left shoes for the little girl. Doctors also tried to correct Lauren's problems with the use of metal braces.
At the age of seven months, the baby girl underwent the first of many surgeries to correct the double hernia. At age 2, Lauren - who Christina said was so tiny she was still wearing infant layette gowns - began having the surgeries to correct both her club foot and cleft palate.
Lauren was also born with eye problems, which doctors tried to correct by having the little girl wear child-sized glasses fitted with rubber hooks to keep them on her face. She needed four surgeries on her right eye, but she disappeared before they were scheduled.
Christina said Lauren's brain function was affected by the hydroencephalitis, but that did not stop her from being "the happiest little thing."

http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17798861&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=15

[Rle7]

Lauren's mother Christina O'Donnell said there is not a day that goes by that she doesn't think about, or talk to her missing daughter.
Michael "Mickey" Jackson, Lauren's father, said the same.
"I can't believe so much time has gone by," he said. "It's been almost 19 years, it doesn't feel like it."
Mickey and Christina have not spoken to each other since the night Lauren disappeared, but they share the feeling, the hope, that someday, their daughter will return to them.
Each has an idea of what may have happened. Mickey feels Christina is responsible - something she has adamantly denied - and Christina feels it was a random abduction.
Investigators do not know what happened, and in 19 years, no one has come forward with any promising leads.
For years after Lauren's disappearance, Mickey called the East Vincent Police Department daily.
Sgt. Thomas Goggin, who is the head of the Phoenixville Police Department's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, was working for the East Vincent Township Police Department around the time of Lauren's disappearance.
"What will always stand out in my mind is Mickey Jackson calling almost every day at 4 p.m.," Goggin said in an interview last week. "You could sense the pain in his voice when he called and asked for the chief."
Mickey also stayed in touch with the FBI in Newtown Square.
"I called them every single day for eight or nine months until the point when I got into an argument with the secretary of the FBI in Newtown Square who used to get tired of me calling every day," Mickey said.
While Mickey took an active role in the investigation, Christina stayed quiet, brooding to herself about Lauren's disappearance. It severely affected both she and her older daughter Diana Severns, and, as Christina describes it, they sunk "into a slow downward spiral."
Christina wrote about Lauren and her disappearance in the following handwritten letter, which she provided exclusively to The Phoenix on Wednesday.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17804868&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=17915&rfi=6

[Rle7]

bumping...

[Gina_M]

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=601776&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/270dfpa.html

[Julespa]

I lived and still live very close to where Lauren disappeared in 1988. I contacted Dateline to see if they could do a story on her disappearance. I think of her everytime I drive past her apartment complex (Park Springs) the area has changed a lot since then, a new gas station/covenience store a CVS pharmacy but the general area that she disappeared from remains strangely untouched. Maybe if there is enough interest generated in her case they will reopen it. I would gladly be of service to research the area. I couldn't when she first vanished because I am not much older than her.

[Gina_M]

I frequently drive through this area and have a friend that lives in Phoenixville. I would love to help out too.

[Blackwatch]

I'm very close to the area and have discussed this case with people who remember it well. The consensus was she traded/sold the child for drugs. However, most of these people just knew what they read in the papers and weren't cognizant of the myraid possibilities these cases hold.

If you need any help I have free time and I'm close. It's better to use the PM system here as I seldom check email.

[OilPainter]

This is one of those missing persons stories that always stays with you. I remember seeing this for the first time on Unsolved Mysteries.

For those near that area, I have a few quick questions...

1. What was the area like at the time? Was the apartment building conducive to illegal activity? Or was it a "homey" atmosphere where everyone felt safe?

2. Were there any abductions around that time? I hesitate to say any "other" abductions because I'm not completely convinced that Lauren was abducted. I'm not saying anyone sold her for drugs or cattle but there's always the possibility that Lauren wandered away. Just taking that idea a bit farther - suppose she had wandered away, someone accidentally hit her, panicked and buried the body. As farfetched at it sounds...it has happened before.

3. What about the people living in the complex at that time? Was there an extensive check on the occupants? Their visitors? Again, just wondering because that too has happened in the past. You really don't know who your neighbors are and perhaps one of them had a past that would coincide with the disappearance of a young child.

4. And how reliable was the woman who 'swore' she saw Lauren's mother pass the child into another car at the time of Lauren's disappearance? She didn't sound like a crackpot but then again, going back to my third question I guess you never know.

Well, that's just a few questions I have about this case. As much as I'd like to have an optimistic outlook - I have a feeling we'll never know about Lauren.

Oh, and I once had a reading with Valerie Morrison - I know a lot of people don't cotton to the psychic experience but she was quite accurate in her statements to me - and unlike most people who visit psychics - I really did keep my mouth shut. Maybe contacting her again would spark some interest. Just a thought.

[meggilyweggily]

The neighborhood was not safe. There was a lot of drug activity and Lauren's mother herself was involved with drugs.

[Julespa]

Since I lived and still live less than a mile from where Lauren disappeared I can say that no the apartment complex was not a safe place and still to this day is not. Park Springs and the Vincent Motel (which is where the bloodhounds traced Laurens scent to) have always been a place of illegal activity. There were no abductions or attempted abductions around the time of Laurens disappearance. A little more about the area is that there used to be a mental hospital facility in Spring City, it was called Pennhurst. In the 80's it shut down and let many of the patients out on the streets to fend for themselves. As a kid I remember waiting at the bus stop and they would walk by and talk to us. Some kids were scared of them and there were a few that gave me the creeps but I have chalked it up to not understanding what those people had gone through in their lives. I very vividly remember an elderly man who would walk his dog (one of those small dogs with the smashed in looking faces) I was a safety in 5th grade and he would make the rounds talking to all of us.
I am still waiting for LE to get back to me on this case. I know the chief of police so I think I will try and give her a call this week just to see if she knows anything that wasn't publicly released. I'll keep you all updated.

[may]

Would the hydrocephalic forehead have gone way down with age?
Did she have a space between her 2 front teeth?
Is the cleft palate genetic?
Was the brain functioning normal? IQ
Would she have stood with rather splayed legs?
Would there be noticable difference in the eyes?
Were the eyes brownish?
Was one foot a slight smaller size?
Did spinal bifida run in the family?
Did she have any funny things she did?
Was she afraid of ovens?
How tall were the parents?
Was she very fair complexion?

[may]

Please tell me about Lauren

[Sleuthster]

Here is her doenetwork page

www.doenetwork.org/cases/270dfpa.html

[Sleuthster]

Please tell me about Lauren

Hi,

We only have the same info that is on the doenetworks website about Lauren. There was someone who posted a message on this thread back sometime ago that claims they are her cousin. Maybe they can answer your questions.

Do you know Lauren?

[may]

Is there someone to compare a photo?
Unable to find younger ones at this time but have one from 4 years ago.
I can send fax.
There was no facial scar on the cleft?
Is the cleft genetic?

[may]

The artist drawing really does not look like the one we are thinking of.
The little girl does though.
This womans(now age 26) birth cert. has her name crossed out 3 times.
The woman looks nothing like her mother.
The woman is smart.
Around the missing time there is a weight problem that shows up with DHS, girl weighs signifigantly less in a short time.
The womans son has cleft.

[Sleuthster]

Name crossed out on birth certificate can indicate that the person was adopted. Can the names that where crossed out be read? This does not indicate however that she is Lauren. But if there is a strong resemblance we can compare the two pictures. Do you have a scanner? If not I believe office depot or kinkos will do it for a small amount.

Genetics can play a factor in aproximately 22% of cases where someone has a cleft palate according to my research on line. I have a cleft palate (minor) and one of my cousins has one also, hers required several surgeries and she has a terrible scar on her lip up to her nose.

[may]

It is only the first names that have been crossed out on the birth cert.
It has been a long time since I saw it.
The mother(drunk) told me a werid story once about her baby dying.
Other times the mother has stated she could only have 1 child.
There have been odd statements through out the years.

Printed off the Lauren poster pic and her pic.
I do not know if it means anything but the faces match up when put on the light table.

I vaguely remember when the daughter was pregnant something about a previous lower abdomen sugery?

It could be that family is just so dysfunctional and I do not like them that I think the worst easily about them.So I hope nobody takes this too serious.
I am sure there are a lot of people with the same resemblance.

Also I do not wish to post the picture of this daughter online and be wrong
and cause harm.

Just wishing someone with training could peek at the pics.

[may]

This is exhausting for me it is such a delicate situation as it is,but
I would really like more info.
Did Lauren have a space between the 2 front teeth?
Does any of the rest of the family have photos online?

Maybe this is just a can of worms that should not be opened.
There is so much to lose.
Is Laurens real family dysfunctional? What will they want?
Maybe it not even her.

[Julespa]

Hello,
I live in the town that Lauren disappeared from. There are many rumors about her disappearance. She lived in what everyone calls the projects. I was only about Laurens age when she disappeared but heard that her mother had an alcohol and/or drug problem. Her father and mother were separated and her father now lives in Philadelphia and I think is remarried. He seemed to be the only one truly upset over her disappearance at the time and I believe he is still looking for her. About her teeth. Since she was so young when she disappeared she may now have a gap in her teeth since some teeth may have still be coming in (molars and wisdom teeth). Also the police here in Spring City now couldn't find their tooshies from a hole in the ground. Back then they were more together but now they are a mess. I have tried to contact them on several occasions and when I mention Laurens name they act like they don't even know who she is. If you could somehow get a hold of the officer that handled the case in the beginning it might be your best shot.

[UMfanforever]

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