NV NV - Cary Sayegh, 6, Las Vegas, 25 Oct 1978

anthrobones

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http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/93dmnv.html

Cary Daniel Sayegh
Missing since October 25, 1978 from Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada.
Classification: Non-Family Abduction



Vital Statistics Date Of Birth: November 12, 1971
Age at Time of Disappearance: 6 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 4'2; 65 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Marks, Scars: Small scar on the right side of his forehead, near his hairline. He also has surgical scar on both feet near the little toes.
Dentals: Available. Gap in the center of his upper teeth.
<LI>Clothing: White Quicksilver brand t-shirt, brown long pants, and brown leather shoes.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Sayegh was in the playground of the Albert Einstein Hebrew School in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 25, 1978 during the school's lunch hour. He was last seen entering an unidentified vehicle and has never been seen again.
Sayegh's parents received a telephone call from an unknown person later in the day which demanded $500,000 in ransom for their son's return. The person promised to call back in two days with information concerning the payment of the ransom; he never called back. He was never seen again and suspicion quickly turned toward Jerald Howard Burgess, a former employee of the boy's father.
Burgess was later convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at the school a week before the first-grader disappeared. Burgess was identified as a suspect by children who saw their classmate abducted, and then by others who identified his voice on the telephone call making the ransom demand.
Burgess was tried in Clark County District Court on charges of kidnapping and obtaining money under false pretense, but a jury acquitted him. He was sentenced to 15 years, however, on unrelated charges involving rape and fraud. After his acquittal on the kidnapping charge, Burgess said he believed the child was still alive and living in Israel.
In October of 2000, he was arrested after allegedly selling an undercover agent a handgun equipped with a silencer, rubber gloves and bullets. During an 18-month investigation, Burgess also allegedly offered to dispose of a body within "spitting distance" of where he said the missing child was buried more than two decades ago.
Burgess allegedly said he could dispose of a body by welding it in a steel drum and dumping it in the same place where Cary Sayegh's body has remained undiscovered. Burgess is known to have rented welding equipment days prior to the child's abduction in 1978.

 
I wonder why Burgess no longer worked with Cary's father. Could he hate his former boss so much that he would kidnapp and murder his child?
 
I wonder if the rape charge that was brought against him at a later date was towards a similar age/sex victim.
 
Wow! I am so impressed with all the extra info at the Charley Project! Where do you find it all!
 
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/199...s/11041872.html

Saturday, April 24, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Once-tragic LV figure flees U.S., casino debts
Sol Sayegh, whose son was kidnapped and never found, faces arrest if he ever returns to the valley.
By Jane Ann Morrison
Review-Journal

Sol Sayegh, whose 6-year-old son was kidnapped in one of Las Vegas' more famous unsolved crimes, has fled the country, leaving gambling debts of more than $6 million.
An arrest warrant was issued for Sayegh, but his attorney is trying to negotiate a settlement with three Las Vegas resorts so he can return to the United States.
With fees and costs added, Sayegh owes a total of $7.2 million, said Daniel Ahlstrom, head of the district attorney's Bad Check Division.
Sayegh wrote a series of six worthless checks in May 1997. The Las Vegas Hilton lost nearly $2.4 million when the checks bounced; Caesars Palace and the Desert Inn accepted $2 million each in bad checks.
Those dealing with the bad check case see this as another chapter of a family tragedy, one that began more than 20 years ago with the kidnapping of Sayegh's son, Cary, who has never been found and is believed dead.
For most Las Vegans living here on Oct. 25, 1978, Cary Sayegh remains captured in time, a brown-haired, brown-eyed gap-toothed boy, grinning happily from the pages of newspaper reports telling the horrifying tale of his abduction.
Cary was kidnapped from the playground of the Albert Einstein Hebrew School at 1600 E. Oakey Blvd. He was last seen climbing into a car.
The same afternoon, his parents, Sol and Marilyn Sayegh, received a call demanding $500,000. The caller said he would call back in a couple of days to give the details of how the money would be paid.
The family waited, but the call never came.
The kidnapping resulted in the most extensive manhunt in Southern Nevada up to that time, but the boy was never found.
Law enforcement authorities said no member of the Sayegh family was ever a suspect.
Authorities suspected but never proved that the kidnapper was Henderson resident Jerald Burgess, a man with a criminal record who led them to one of the boy's shoes in the desert.
Instead, Burgess was prosecuted by federal officials on fraud charges unrelated to the kidnapping. He was sentenced to 15 years for the fraud and served a concurrent 15-year term on a state charge of raping a woman.
At the time of his son's kidnapping, Sol Sayegh was 33 and owned the Carpet Barn, a successful business he had started in 1971.
The family tragedy touched the lives of many Las Vegas notables, from the late Las Vegas Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun, who reportedly was bilked out of $154,000 when he dealt with a con man and tried to buy information in the case, to Oscar Goodman, Sayegh's attorney in a criminal case, who today is running for mayor.
Greenspun contended he and his reporters could do a better job of finding Cary Sayegh than the FBI, and he accused the bureau of bungling the investigation.
Sayegh sold his business in 1996. He and Marilyn Sayegh divorced Oct. 12, 1997, after he was alleged to have written the bad checks, but before the criminal complaint was filed Dec. 18, 1997.
Sayegh's attorney, Rex Bell, said he doesn't know where Sayegh lives today, but that he's not in the United States. He said his client calls him periodically.
Ahlstrom said he has heard Sayegh could be living in London or possibly Israel.
"I'd like to settle it," Bell said. "If Sol could get himself in the shape to do it, I believe the hotels would be willing to settle, but at this time, it doesn't appear we could settle."
About a year ago, Bell negotiated with the hotels for a partial settlement, but that never occurred.
"He feels bad about it, but it's one of those situations," Bell said. "If I can end up resolving it, I'm going to do everything I can."
One of the problems facing Sayegh is that he has to come up with the cash to settle -- a payment agreement isn't good enough.
"That takes away the criminal liability, makes it civil and then he could take out a bankruptcy," said Bell, who at the time of the kidnapping was the assistant district attorney under then-District Attorney Bob Miller.
Ahlstrom said he doesn't get involved in negotiating settlements between hotels and customers, and that there's no rule of thumb about how much resorts might accept as partial payment.
As of now, the six felony counts against Sayegh each carry a penalty of one to four years in prison.
Even if officials knew where he was, Ahlstrom said bad check violations, even if the sums are in the millions of dollars, are not covered by extradition treaties.
He, too, remembers the tragedy the Sayegh family went through.
"My heart goes out to him," the prosecutor said.
At the time of the kidnapping, Sayegh had been indicted along with two other men for trying to bribe then-Gaming Commission Chairman Harry Reid, who immediately reported the July 1978 bribe attempt and cooperated with authorities.
Because of the kidnapping nearly three months later, Sayegh's case was severed from the other two defendants -- Jack Gordon, who later married and divorced LaToya Jackson, and cemetery salesman Joe Daly.
Gordon and Daly were both convicted of conspiracy. Then-U.S. Attorney Mahlon Brown dropped the charges against Sayegh, saying his role in the conspiracy was "considerably less."
Prosecutors said that Sayegh's personal tragedy was "punishment enough."
Sayegh and Goodman always contended he was innocent and never intended to offer any bribe.
 
"Suspect Arrested Unrelated Charges "

October 13, 2000

Suspect in boy's disappearance arrested by FBI

Man at center of unsolved Vegas case nabbed on charge of trying to sell gun

By Greg Tuttle
LAS VEGAS SUN

The man at the center of one of Southern Nevada's most notorious police cases is behind bars today
on a firearms charge unrelated to the disappearance from a school playground 22 years ago of a
6-year-old boy.

Jerald Howard Burgess, 63, was arrested by the FBI Thursday morning after allegedly selling an
undercover agent a handgun equipped with a silencer, rubber gloves and bullets. Just before his
arrest, Burgess allegedly was recorded as saying he wanted to kill a former federal judge and Las
Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.


JERALD BURGESS is shown in 1981

During an 18-month investigation, Burgess also allegedly offered to dispose of a body within "spitting
distance" of where he said the missing child was buried more than two decades ago.

A federal prosecutor said Thursday Burgess described in detail how he encased the child's body in a
large metal drum and offered to do the same for the undercover agent at a cost of $250,000.

Burgess made an initial appearance Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court, where Magistrate
Phyllis Atkins ordered him detained until next week when she will hear more evidence in order to
decide whether he should be released pending trial.

A complaint filed Thursday charges Burgess with a single count of being a felon in possession of a
firearm.

FBI spokesman Joseph Dickey said the case remains under investigation and other charges could be
filed, including charges related to the boy's mysterious disappearance.

Casy Sayegh disappeared on Oct. 25, 1978. The son of wealthy Las Vegas business owner Sol
Sayegh, the 6-year-old was last seen being forced into a car near the Albert Einstein Hebrew School
on East Oakey Boulevard.

He was never seen again and suspicion quickly turned toward Burgess, a former employee of the
boy's father. Burgess was later convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at the school a week before
the first-grader disappeared.

The case riveted the Las Vegas community when a $500,000 ransom demand was made to the child's
parents. Burgess was identified as a suspect by children who saw their classmate abducted, and then
by others who identified his voice on the telephone call making the ransom demand.

But the case stalled despite a massive search, including efforts by Las Vegas Sun publisher Hank
Greenspun and Goodman, who at the time was a criminal defense attorney. Greenspun offered
Burgess a reward to return the child, and Goodman acted as a go-between, but the effort failed.

Three years later Burgess was tried in Clark County District Court on charges of kidnapping and
obtaining money under false pretense, but a jury acquitted him. He was sentenced to 15 years,
however, on unrelated charges involving rape and fraud.

After his acquittal on the kidnapping charge, Burgess said he believed the child was still alive and
living in Israel.

Burgess was released from prison in 1989, and he returned to Las Vegas.

The kidnaping case was closed for two decades until new information surfaced in April of last year,
and the FBI reopened the investigation, Dickey said. He declined to say what that new information
was.

But in court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Ko described details of the investigation that
included tape recordings of Burgess allegedly offering to "take care of people."

Ko said Burgess allegedly said he could dispose of a body by welding it in a steel drum and dumping it
in the same place where Cary Sayegh's body has remained undiscovered.

Ko said Burgess is known to have rented welding equipment days prior to the child's abduction in
1978.

Burgess allegedly agreed to dispose of a body for $250,000, and offered to sell the undercover agent
weapons and poison.

According to court records, Burgess met a female undercover agent on June 22 at the parking lot of
the Sante Fe hotel-casino. Burgess allegedly sold the agent a .22-caliber handgun equipped with a
12-inch silencer, a box of bullets and rubber gloves for $700.

On Thursday morning, the agent met Burgess at a Las Vegas storage unit where the agent was to
deliver a body in a metal drum, Ko said. During a covertly taped conversation, Burgess allegedly said
he wanted to kill former U.S. District Court Judge Harry Claiborne, Goodman and an unidentified third
person, Ko said.

Claiborne presided over the 1979 trial in which Burgess was convicted of bilking $200,000 from a
Texas couple.

Burgess appeared calm at the court hearing Thursday, often smiling at his wife and sister who were
seated in the gallery. The women declined to comment after the hearing.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/.../510900733.html

Photo page http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/.../c00021198.html
 
http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9150127

New Efforts On 30-Year-Old Missing Boy Case

Posted: Oct 9, 2008 02:57 AM EDT


The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is hoping to turn up a new lead in a cold case from 1978.

Cary Sayegh was 5-years-old when he was abducted from a Las Vegas Day School.

The center has released an image to show what he might look like today as a 36-year old man.

Cary also has surgical scars on both feet and a scar on the right side of his forehead.

If you have any information on where he might be call the Center For Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800 843-5678).
 
For a long time, I had wondered if an unidentified child found in Glendora/San Dimas could be Charles Christopher Francis, but the more I thought about it, the reconstruction looks like Cary Sayegh --
sayegh_cary.jpg
871UMCA.jpg

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9053728

I think LE looked into it, but I don't know if Mr. Sayegh was ruled out or they didn't have something compatible to compare or ??? (because this article makes reference to a missing persons case from Las Vegas, that I would assume was Cary Sayegh) --
http://www.sgvtribune.com/coldcases/ci_19019398
 
10 Cases Of Students Vanishing From Their Schools

3- Cary Sayegh

On October 25, 1978, six-year-old Cary Sayegh was enjoying lunchtime recess at Albert Einstein Hebrew Day School in Las Vegas when he suddenly went missing. According to classmates, Cary had entered a vehicle which pulled onto school property. Later that day, Cary’s parents received a ransom call demanding $500,000 for their son’s return. The caller claimed he would contact the Sayeghs in two days to provide instructions about how to deliver the money, but they never heard from him again. Suspicion quickly turned towards Jerry Burgess, a former employee of Cary’s father.

Burgess had sexually assaulted a woman at Cary’s school the week before his disappearance and was identified as the driver of the vehicle. When the Sayeghs received the ransom call, the phone was initially answered by one of their neighbors, who recognized Burgess' voice. Burgess would eventually lead authorities to one of Cary’s shoes on a nearby road, but claimed he only knew this information because he was acting as a go-between for the Sayegh family and the kidnappers. Burgess was charged with Cary’s kidnapping in 1982, but was ultimately acquitted. When he was arrested for another crime in 2000, Burgess was reportedly heard mentioning that he had disposed of Cary’s body by welding his remains inside a steel drum. Burgess also happened to have rented some welding equipment in the days prior to Cary’s disappearance. However, Burgess has always maintained his innocence and it’s believed that others may have been involved in the kidnapping. After nearly 35 years, Cary Sayegh’s disappearance is still unsolved.

http://listverse.com/2013/07/11/10-cases-of-students-vanishing-from-their-schools/
 
I'm wondering, given the time period, was this a school where kids went home for lunch? Or did Cary remain at school and in the playground the whole time? Because if it was the latter, where were the teachers/monitors?
 
Too bad someone couldn't be convicted for at least a kidnapping-related charge for "acting as a go-between" with kidnappers. He admits that, knows where the victim's shoe is, but no related conviction = tragic.
 
Where are these children? 58 from Nevada still missing.

Cary Sayegh, 6, who was kidnapped from the playground of the Albert Einstein Hebrew School at 1600 E. Oakey Blvd. He was last seen climbing into a car on Oct. 25, 1978. The same afternoon, his parents received a call demanding $500,000. The caller said he would call back in a couple of days to give the details of how the money would be paid. The family waited, but the call never came. Cary is presumed dead. Jerald Burgess, the Las Vegas man long considered a suspect in the kidnapping, was sentenced in 2002 to about 11 years in prison for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.
 
Feb 11, 2020



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