CA CA - Kristen Modafferi, 18, San Francisco, 23 June 1997

Missing Persons Cold Case Network file: Kristen Deborah Modaferri
Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance


Missing Since: June 23, 1997 from San Francisco, California
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: June 1, 1979
Age: 18 years old
Height and Weight: 5'8; 140 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Dark brown hair; brown eyes. Modaferri has facial dimples.
NCIC Number: M-038421722

http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/mpccn/modaferri.html
(much detail of disappearance and pictures follow)
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Kristen's Law

U.S. Department of Justice
Award Amount: $1,575,000

Award Date 07/10/02
Description of Project: Information provided by the FBI National Crime Information Center indicates that there are approximately 200,000 reports of persons over the age of eighteen during 2001. Currently, there is no organization that serves as a national clearinghouse for missing adults to assist law enforcement and the families of missing adults. Without a central clearinghouse, law enforcement is unable to share information or seek assistance in obtaining information about missing adult cases. In addition, victim assistance programs and support services for family members, loved ones, and employers have been non-existent.

To address this problem, the Nation's Missing Children Organization (NMCO) will establish The Center for Missing Adults, a national clearinghouse for missing adults cases. The Center will create a national registry of missing adults, which will serve as a central repository of information accessible to the general public, advocacy groups, law enforcement and medical examiners. The Center will also develop a curriculum and provide regional training to law enforcement agencies. NMCO will provide support for law enforcement and the families of missing adults through a toll-free hotline, a website, and an informational resource database for nationwide advocacy and referral services.


On behalf of NMCO, Kristen's family and families nationwide, thanks for your support!
http://www.nmco.org/legislation/

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KRISTEN'S LAW SIGNED
November , 2000

WASHINGTON–A national clearinghouse for information on missing adults will be established under legislation that was signed into law on Thursday.

The measure authorizes the attorney general to make grants of up to $1 million for each of the next four years to public agencies and non-profit private organizations that help find missing adults.

Senator John Edwards sponsored the Senate version of the bill. Representative Sue Myrick of Charlotte introduced the legislation in the House.

The measure was named for Kristen Modafferi, a North Carolina State University student who was last seen during the summer of 1997 in San Francisco just three weeks after her 18th birthday.

The Charlotte woman's disappearance has been the subject of nationwide publicity. Many other cases involving the disappearance of young adults are reported to authorities without generating headlines. In Mecklenburg County, for example, the sheriff's office last year received reports of 132 missing persons from 18 through 21 years old.

"We want to make sure that if a child disappears that a family has a place to go and knows where to go to get assistance in locating them. What happens oftentimes is that there is no coordination between law enforcement agencies," Senator Edwards said. "Secondly, we want parents of children who have gone away to college – my child just went away to college – to know and feel secure that if something does happen to their child there is something in place to help them."

Senator Edwards credited Kristen's parents, who pressed for enactment of a law to help other families. "I also am grateful to Representative Myrick for her tireless efforts toward ensuring that Kristen's Act becomes law," Senator Edwards said. "Our legislation will help public agencies and nonprofit organizations provide desperately needed assistance to law enforcement and families in locating involuntarily missing adults.

"Kristen's Act will not only provide some comfort to the millions of parents who send their children to college every year and worry about their safety, but it will help ensure that when an adult of any age is missing due to foul play a national effort will be mobilized to help," the senator concluded.

http://edwards.senate.gov/press/2000/nov09-pr.html

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Hey Up2theminute! I finally made it! This is what I've been meaning to post for forever. I'd love to get your thoughts on it!

Jury selection tomorrow in Scarsdale man's murder trial
By JONATHAN BANDLER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: August 25, 2003)

Suspicion in his wife's disappearance has hounded Robert Durst for more than two decades. It intensified when his best friend was shot to death in Los Angeles three years ago — and grew even more when he admitted killing a cantankerous neighbor in Texas and was accused of chopping up his body and setting it adrift in Galveston Bay.

Now, as the 60-year-old Scarsdale native and scion of a Manhattan real estate empire goes on trial in that Galveston killing, investigators in northern California are taking a close look at Durst, suspecting he might have played a role in the disappearance of two teenage girls there in 1997 — 18-year-old Kristen Modafferi in San Francisco and 16-year-old Karen Mitchell in Eureka...

...Information linking Durst to the two California cases was first reported in publicity material for the paperback edition of "A Deadly Secret," writer Matt Berkbeck's book about the Durst saga that will be published next week.

Five months before Mitchell disappeared, Modafferi vanished after leaving her waitress job at a San Francisco coffee shop, headed for Land's End Beach on San Francisco Bay in Oakland. One of the original detectives in that case, John Bradley, is now an investigator with the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and has spent the past several months investigating Durst's ties to northern California. He said information he has obtained put Durst in the area at least on the weekend before Modafferi disappeared and on the day that Mitchell went missing, although Parris said he was still looking into whether Durst was in Eureka that day.

Bradley, too, sees similarities between Durst and the sketch in the Mitchell case, but is even more intrigued by the description of the car. Although Durst had a green Ford Explorer in northern California at the time, a drug user and prostitute who reported Durst befriended her told authorities she only knew him to drive a light blue car, Bradley said...

For the entire story, go to http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/082503/a0125durst.html

Very, very interesting, Litlstar! I could definitely buy that.
I'm going to read more about it later and then it might be later tonight when I respond. I know I owe you an email too!
Talk to you soon.

From above referenced article:

Durst had developed a pattern of disguising himself, using assumed names and hanging out at homeless shelters. Parris is still investigating whether he could have met Mitchell at the Rescue Mission, a Eureka shelter where she occasionally volunteered.

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This is very interesting to me. Kristen also seems like the type of person who would get involved with volunteering for that type of thing. I wonder if this could be, assuming there is any connection, how she may have run into him too. Or he could have just been pretending he was a homeless man on the street period and played into Kristen's sympathies.

I'm going to create threads about Karen Mitchell and also Kathleen Durst from the cold case networks description, etc.

Good idea to start threads on them. I need to read up on these two cases because, I have to admit, I didn't know anything about either of them. It's all very interesting! I only hope that Kristen's parents can finally find some answers! Let me know if you find anything else!

Interesting how all three of them have the initials KM. Kathleen Durst's maiden name was McCormack.

That is strange, sort of like the weird name connection between SP's victims

I just continue to think that Kristen's case is so odd. If you were to ask me a month ago, I'd have said, without a doubt, that Onuma did it. But, now, this is such a strange possible connection between Kristen and Durst. I almost want to email Dennis Mahon and ask him if this is being looked into, if there are any ties between the two, but I'm sure he's busy with the PF civil case. There are just so many possible ways that she could have had contact with him - at Spinnelli's, on her exploring adventures, volunteering (I wonder if she ever did this), or simply walking down the street.

from http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/082503/a0125durst.html
...One of the original detectives in that case, John Bradley, is now an investigator with the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and has spent the past several months investigating Durst's ties to northern California...

I don't remember hearing this investigators name before, but I guess we're back to trusting those SF LE to do a thorough job

Originally posted by Litlstar04
That is strange, sort of like the weird name connection between SP's victims

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Yes, that was sort of tongue in cheek. But hey you never know maybe Durst was that psycho to have had some obsession with those initials after he killed his wife (I suppose I should say allegedly).

Kristen's case is bizarre to say the least and mainly just for the simple fact that there is not enough to investigate further or at least according to LE...but I personally think and I think that you agree that there is enough at least to pursue some avenue here..even if it leads nowhere in the end. I felt as if during that ABC special they were acting like they had nothing. From everything we've been able to get our hands on to read and analyze though it seems that there is enough to get the investigation revved up from being cold all this time. If this type of information is available to internet sleuths than surely LE would have access to it and be able to start building from some point. I'm glad that they are at least contemplating the connection to Kristen. I can't stand the idea that cases like this may never become solved and just be a permanent part of the cold case sites.

I've been following Kristen's case for a while, so it's "good" (in a bad way, I mean) to have some new info......
A few months ago, I emailed Dennis Mahon, and asked him a few questions. He seemed to imply that there wasn't really any new info, and the investigation seemed to focus on John Onuma and friends, but he also had some sort of hunch that the roomates might have been involved. When I heard that, I thought "no way!" It seems that Kristen had some sort of (very minor)disagreement with one of the guys regarding the length of lease- he wanted her to sign (and pay for ) a slightly longer period of time than she wanted. I really can't imagine that it would be the type of thing that anyone would harm her over.
ALSO, let's say hypothetically that the 4 of them were involved....it's pretty unlikely that 6 years later, not one of them would have a guilty conscience and come forward.....2 of them were even law students...... If only one of them was involved....it's also unlikely that he would have covered his tracks well enough that the other 3 wouldn't have picked up on it....
I don't buy it..
In the ABC special, Kristen's dad also said something that it was a little strange that the roommates didn't file a missing person's report right away. I don't think it's strange at all. I've had roommates that I haven't seen for a few days at a time- the roommates probably just assummed that Kristen was out till very late, and then would leave early in the morning--that they just kept "missing" her.
Even though there are no solid clues linking KM to Jon Onuma, it still "unsettles" me that 1) he made up such a story to the tv station and 2)he screamed at some woman, "now you know what happened to KM!"
Regarding the randall davis story, didn't dennis mahon say something along the lines of "while our tipster is very sincere, I believe he is mistaken." When I emailed, DM I asked him if there was any way to check passport records. Most people don't take their passport around with them every day, so KM would have needed a new passport, unless she got to Nicarugua stuffed in someone's suitcase or something.....DM told me that they checked,and a passport hadn't been issued for her....

I'd be interested in hearing other people's insights on this!

Why is Kristen's thread in the "Located" forum? I got so excited that maybe she had been found alive. Must be a mistake...

I was going to ask the same question.....

In the past few weeks, there has been talk of Robert Durst's possible connection with KM....I wonder if there is anything real to link them together, or just speculation? Like, he was in the Bay Area the same day she went missing....? Well, so what? So were about 4 million other people.
The article from The Journal News (Westchester County, NY) didn't seem to say anything....maybe there's something in the book that just came out? Has anyone read it?

And why is this thread in the "located" section?

I have no idea why Kristen's thread has been moved to Located. It's been residing in the Missing but not forgotten section up to this point. I'll have to alert Doyle of it.
At this point in time, everything is speculation, so for the sake of discussion, anything is a viable theory. When I asked Dennis about the roommates after Up2theminute and I had both voiced suspicions about them, he said pretty much the same thing to me as he did to you. The thing that got me was that they never spoke to the parents at all about it, which seemed a little strange to me. I've had many roommates, some of which only lived with us for the summer. But, Kristen's roommates' actions do seem strange to me. I would notice that something was odd when a roommate wasn't holding his/her normal schedule, and it seems that Kristen did have somewhat of a normal schedule - work in the morning and exploring in the afternoon and evening. Also, if one of my roommates went missing, I'd have done everything in my power to help the parents search, even to this day.
The article that I've posted previously does mention a possible connection between Durst and Kristen. When you have someone that is possibly killing people in the area, you have to look at other unsolved cases. Durst was in San Francisco the weekend before Kristen went missing. Does this mean he's connected? Maybe not, but it's worth it to check it out!

Well, regarding the roommates, this was in the guestbook on the modafferi's home page:

"I'm one of the housemates Kristen was living with in Oakland. I hardly knew her -- she'd
only been with us three weeks and spent most of that time either working or exploring
the city alone -- but I'm still haunted by the experience and the loss. And the guilt. Before
Kristen came out to CA, I spoke with Debbie on the phone about our house, the
neighborhood, the housemates. Like any mother, she was concerned about her daughter
going off to the big city. But I assured her it was really a safe place, she had nothing to
worry about, and that I'd "look out for her little girl." Obviously, I failed at that. The next
time Debbie and I spoke, it was a month later, and I'd called to let them know that Kristen
hadn't come home, and we were worried. Since then, my contact with Bob and Debbie
has been very limited. I've done everything I possibly could to help the police and
investigators and media working on the case, but I've been virtually unable to face the
family. Even to tell them how sorry I am, how much my heart goes out to them, how much
more I wish I could do, and how I wish I had taken Debbie's concerns just a little more
seriously. Happy Birthday, Kristen, wherever you are. Please call home. Please let your
mother know that her little girl is okay."

Does anyone know if the roommates were ever looked into?
just for arguments sake, I'm going to point out a scenario that happened with me and my rommies when I was in grad school:

One Monday evening, I came home from class at about 7. One of my roomates had already left for a student meeting. I went to sleep at about 10, woke up at 7, left the house at 7: 30. She was sleeping. That evening, Tuesday, I came home late after hanging out with some friends. I overslept a little, and by the time I woke up (maybe at 9 am ) my roomate had already left for work/school...by now it's wed. am, and I haven't seen my roommate since mon. am.
just a thought, especially because it says (I think on dm's web site) that Kristen left early (her job at the cafe started at 7), and spent a lot of time after work exploring. Also, in one of the first articles after the disappearance, in the oakland tribune or something, the co-workers said that she had met some people once at a concert, and more than once slept over st someone else's apt...that once one of these people had dropped her off at work. I can try to find the article on lexis-nexus.

I can only go by my own experiences. Fortunately I lived in a house with four other girls, so we all saw at least one other roommate throughout the day. I was lucky enough that nothing happened to me or any of my friends in college.
Thank you for sharing the entry by one of Kristin’s housemates – I’d never seen it before. It’s obvious that Kristen’s disappearance continues to bother him the way it would many of us. I can only go by what I’ve read on Dennis’ site and Kristen’s parents’ site, as it is hard for me to find very many articles on her with my current resources. If you come across any, that would be great of you to share.
In the meantime, none of us were there, so everything we have to go by is second and third hand information. It’s pure speculation on our parts when we discuss the roommates’ possible involvement. I tend to think Onuma or someone we haven’t even thought of yet is a more likely possibility. But, I still think it’s worth it to discuss everything. It seems to be that most of Kristen’s case remains behind closed doors, with good reason. This isn’t a situation like Paul Flores, so they have to keep most of the information private, as not to tip off anyone.

I have so much to say about this right now! But I'm at work and have to finish some things up that are due today.

I'm also so glad to see other people commenting on this case besides (or in addition to) my partner in unsolved crime sleuthing, Litlstar and me.

Litlstar, How are you? Have you started skiing yet?

I had almost completely forgotten about the website Dennis Mahon had for Kristen with an e. We had the link on the other forum I guess we forgot to post it again. Anyway, it's www.findkristen.com

Interesting article about the Onuma situation here:

Jill Lampo, aka, Jillian Suzanne,
tells me one thing, Oakland PD says otherwise!
More here: http://www.findkristen.com/LampoLying.html

If you are a person reading this thread who is not familiar with Jill Lampo then read this first, she was Jon Onuma's girlfriend at the time of Kristen's disappearance: http://www.findkristen.com/JillLampo.html

Here is the article that I was thinking of:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1997/07/06/METRO3317.dtl

(let me know if you can't see it...i'll copy and paste it...)

this is again part of my speculation that the roomies didn't think so much of it when Kristen hadn't been seen for a few days....


I originally came up with this theory: regarding robert durst: I read in one of these articles somewhere, either in the journal-tribune (westchester county, ny- his home town) or on courttv crime library about him.....that he has been known to disguise himself as a woman....wearing a wig. I thought, "that's it! he was the "blond woman" with Kristen in the mall." then I realized that no way could that be....one of the articles also said that when he disguised himself as a woman in Gavelston, TX- it was as a MUTE woman.

I also had another idea at one point: is it possible that the reason the blond woman has never come forward is because something also happened to her? then I realized that if police had gotten another missing persons report at the same time, then they would have already tried to put 2 and 2 together.... so that's also unlikely

One more point: even though there are a lot of fishy things that point to Onuma and Lampo, (ie- the phone call, his screaming at a woman, Jill lying (about something) )- I'd like to point out one thing: to permanetly "dispose" of a person (I don't even like to THINK about what could have happened to poor Kristen) without leaving a trace... you have to know what you're doing... do you know what I mean? Although Jon has a record of abuse, that's a far cry from this kind of stuff....