GUILTY CA - Joanna 'Asha' Veil, 28, Ben Lomond, 9 Sept 2006 - Pregnant

Rle7

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Authorities are looking for a six-and-a-half-month pregnant Ben Lomond woman who went missing Saturday and has since failed to show up for work and appointments, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office reported Thursday.

Joanna "Asha" Veil, 28, was last seen Saturday evening when she left her job at the Ben Lomond Market, according to the Sheriff's Office. She was reported missing on Tuesday after she failed to show up for work on both Sunday and Monday and missed appointments.

Veil has not been in contact with friends or family members since her disappearance, according to authorities. Police later found her unoccupied car about a quarter-mile from the market, located at 9440 Mill St.

"The unusual circumstance of (Veil's) disappearance and her late stage of pregnancy has given cause for concern," the Sheriff's Office stated, noting that Veil is known for being reliable.

Veil is described as white and visibly pregnant. She stands 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 140 pounds. She has brown shoulder-length hair often worn in a ponytail, a decorative tattoo around her left upper arm and a nose ring in her left nostril. Veil speaks with a European accent and was last seen wearing her market employee outfit, including a white polo shirt, tan pants and possibly a red sweatshirt.

http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_257200657.html
 
Oh no! Praying for a swift and positive resolution to this latest missing person. When will this madness end??
 
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/September/15/local/stories/01local.htm

Dead body found in Ben Lomond

By Jennifer Squires
Sentinel Staff Writer
BEN LOMOND — Deputies blocked access to the end of Love Creek Road after a body was found face-down near the dirt road Thursday evening.

An emergency dispatcher told deputies around 6 p.m. that the caller had described the body as a possibly pregnant woman wearing a Ben Lomond Market apron.

Authorities would release no information about the body.

The community continues to search for 28-year-old Joanna "Asha" Veil of Ben Lomond, who was reported missing Tuesday. Veil is 61/2 months pregnant and worked at the market.

Sheriff's investigators declined to comment Thursday night.

"The investigation is sensitive at this point in time," Sgt. Mario Sulay said.
 
According to our NBC station in Salinas, the body of a missing woman from the Santa Cruz mountains has been discovered.



KSBW reported Joanna "Asha" Veil's body was found near a dirt road Thursday night.

http://www.nbc11.com/news/9857464/detail.html

I was hoping for a better outcome:( This reminds me of Laci Peterson because it's in the same general area. I'm interested in hearing the estranged husband's alibi for the night his pregnant wife disappeared.
 
Why? Is this another husband or ex something that has decided "if I can't have her no one will?" Whoever did this will be charged with 2 murders because that baby might have lived if it would have had the chance to be born now. S.O.B.
 
Bobbisangel said:
Why? Is this another husband or ex something that has decided "if I can't have her no one will?" Whoever did this will be charged with 2 murders because that baby might have lived if it would have had the chance to be born now. S.O.B.
Or another I don't want to pay child support story...
 
Police have arrested the former co-worker of a pregnant woman found dead near a hiking trail in the Santa Cruz mountain town of Ben Lomond.

A 37-year-old man was arrested Friday night on suspicion that he sexually assaulted and threatened to kill another woman, and authorities say he has not been ruled out as a suspect in the death of Joanna "Asha" Veil.

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=5418840&nav=9qrx
 
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/September/20/local/stories/02local.htm
Complicating the story is a short relationship with a man that those close to her say she had, and an unborn baby whose father investigators are trying to identify.

In March, Asha told Veil she was pregnant, he said.

Next, Asha revealed she'd had a short relationship with another man, and didn't know who had fathered the child, he said.

She never told Veil who the other man was, he said, only that he was out of the picture and that Veil didn't know the man.

Sheriff's investigators now await results of a paternity test to determine who fathered the unborn girl.
 
Elberethe said:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14851416/

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - Police are investigating the discovery of a woman's body found in an abandoned storefront. Officers are trying to determine how the woman died and her identity.

-----------

Could this be Joanna Veil? =*(

http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/9852458/detail.html?subid=10101103

Authorities said 28-year-old Joanna Veil was last seen Saturday night leaving the Ben Lomond Market, where she works. Veil is 6 months pregnant.
Joanna Veil's body has been found on a trail last week on Thursday
http://www.nbc11.com/news/9857464/detail.html
 
Gmommy said:
Joanna Veil's body has been found on a trail last week on Thursday
http://www.nbc11.com/news/9857464/detail.html

Thankyou Gmommy. I totally missed that update. I had a feeling it was going to turn out that way. /sigh Maybe I hang out here too much. Don't have much hope anymore.

Shouldn't speculate, but the timing of these. Maybe Santa Cruz isn't a safe place for women atm. Wonder if they are connected. Sure hope to hear something soon.
 
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/15748543.htm

DESPAIR PERVADES REDWOODS
Mystery in the mountains
By Linda Goldston
Mercury News

It was a lot to happen in a small mountain town.

Joanna Asha Veil disappeared after leaving work at the Ben Lomond Market on Sept. 9. The popular 28-year-old cashier was 6 1/2 months pregnant and everybody hoped for the best.

Despair quickly seeped through the redwoods when her body was found Sept. 14, near the end of Love Creek Road, but it still wasn't over for the residents of Ben Lomond. The next day, Michael Patrick McClish, 37, a manager at the market and a friend and co-worker of Veil's, was arrested on suspicion of raping and threatening to kill another employee at the store. Late that night, somebody burned down the library of San Lorenzo Valley High School.
 
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/November/08/local/stories/17local.htm

McClish to stand trial, judge rules

By Jennifer Squires
Sentinel staff writer
A judge has ruled there is enough evidence for Ben Lomond resident Michael McClish to stand trial on charges that he sexually assaulted two women.

McClish initially was jailed in September on suspicion he raped, sodomized and threatened the life of a 29-year-old female former co-worker with whom he allegedly had an 18-month affair. In early October, the District Attorney's Office filed six additional counts of forcible rape that stem from a relationship prosecutors say McClish had with a teenage girl between 1989 and 1991.

McClish's defense attorney, Mark Garver, said he plans to challenge Superior Court Judge William Kelsay's ruling on Tuesday. The defense could file a motion asking that another judge review the transcripts from the court proceedings and reconsider Kelsay's decision, Garver said.

At issue is whether the statue of limitations applies in the six counts of forcible rape that allegedly occurred when McClish was in his early 20s and dating the teenage girl. In court, Kelsay acknowledged that the evidence for those charges was thin, but said investigators had met the burden of proof required for a preliminary hearing.

The victim of those alleged crimes, who is now 34 years old, e-mailed the Sheriff's Office after McClish was arrested this fall, sheriff's Sgt. Mario Sulay testified Tuesday. She told investigators she had never reported the alleged rapes to law enforcement officials, Sulay said.

Garver also disputes whether threats McClish allegedly made with a hatchet prior to allegedly sexually assaulting the 29-year-old contributed to the rape.
 
I've been following this case from the beginning, because I have a close friend who worked w/ MM at Ben Lomond Market.

Here are some interesting articles from Santa Cruz Sentinel (most recent I could find):

8/23/2010: Pregnant Ben Lomond Market cashier found slain 4 years ago was strangled with a rope, deputies testify during murder hearing

8/24/2010: Ben Lomond murder victim intended to confront man who may have fathered her child, friend says

8/26/2010: Former Ben Lomond man will stand trial for pregnant woman's death

Allegedly, MM (who is married) had numerous affairs, often with coworkers / subordinates. He also has a history of violence towards women (convicted in 2007 of rape/sodomy). I think Asha might still be alive today had she not gotten pregnant. I think a possible child would've really messed with his life and marriage, so he took care of the "problem". :steamed:
 
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_18722569
Michael Patrick McClish, the 42-year-old convicted rapist charged with killing a woman in 2006, will go to trial on the charge on Oct. 11.

McClish, a former manager at a supermarket in Ben Lomond, is accused of beating and strangling pregnant Polish immigrant Joanna "Asha" Veil in September 2006.

McClish and Veil worked together at the supermarket and had a personal relationship outside work, but he was not the father of her 7-month-old child, prosecutors said.

In 2007, McClish was convicted of raping and sodomizing another woman and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. McClish is due in court Aug. 23 for motions on the homicide case and on Oct. 6 for a trial readiness conference, according to records.

McClish is being held in Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad.

This is the first time I've read that MM was NOT the father of Asha's unborn child.
 
Trial begins for former Ben Lomond man accused of killing pregnant woman in 2006

Opening statements in the trial of a former Ben Lomond man charged with killing a woman and her unborn child began late this morning following more than a week of jury selection.

Michael McClish, 42, is charged with murder for the 2006 death of Joanna "Asha" Veil, a 28-year-old Polish immigrant who had worked with him at the Ben Lomond Market, and her unborn child. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

"Asha Veil was a loving, caring, wonderful person," said prosecutor Jeff Rosell to the jury Wednesday. "Asha was seven months pregnant with a baby girl but Asha would never get to have that baby or be a mother."

The prosecution alleges that McClish, who was married with three children, was having a personal relationship with Asha and was concerned that he might be the father of her child.
 
Jury convicts Ben Lomond's Michael McClish in death of Joanna 'Asha' Veil, her unborn child:

SANTA CRUZ - After deliberating for more than a week, jurors Tuesday found Michael Patrick McClish guilty of two counts of murder for the slayings more than five years ago of Joanna "Asha" Veil and her unborn baby.

The conviction carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

<snip>

The jury of eight women and four men found McClish guilty of first-degree murder for Veil's death and second-degree for the death of the fetus, and found true allegations that he committed multiple murders and used a deadly weapon, a rope.
 
Ben Lomond Market murderer McClish to be sentenced:

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - On Thursday, a Santa Cruz judge is expected to hand a former Ben Lomond Market manager, Michael Patrick McClish, a life prison sentence.

It will be another chapter in a long saga that all began on Sept. 9, 2006.

That night, 28-year-old Joanna Asha Veil finished her shift as the Ben Lomond Market's cashier at 7 p.m. and braced herself before confronting her manager.

At the time, she was having an extramarital affair with McClish. Veil discovered she was pregnant, and was wrongly convinced that her boss was the unborn baby's father, not her estranged husband, prosecutors said.

She walked to the the market's parking lot, called her friend and rehearsed what she wanted to tell McClish.

Her friend said Veil's last words were, "Here he comes, I have to go."
 
Former Ben Lomond man gets life without the possibility of parole in pregnant woman's murder:

SANTA CRUZ - A former Ben Lomond man maintained his innocence Thursday just moments before he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2006 murder of his 28-year-old pregnant co-worker.

<snip>

"I did not kill my friend Asha Veil or her daughter," McClish told the court adamantly. "I did not kill her."

McClish, who wore orange and white jail clothing, said that he was not perfect, but that his infidelities and drinking problems didn't mean he was a monster. He asserted that rumor and speculation led to him being fingered as the killer. He called the case "an embarrassing injustice for all of us." Several members of his family sat in the courtroom for the sentencing, as they had throughout both trials.

Judge Paul Burdick was firm and unwavering as he told McClish that his statements to the court were "demonstrative as to why it's necessary to impose the maximum sentence."

"I have every confidence in their (the jury's) verdict, and after hearing all of the evidence, I was left with no doubt that you committed these crimes," said Burdick, who appeared appalled by McClish's statements.
 

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