Still Missing CA - Michaela Garecht, 9, Hayward, 19 Nov 1988 *ARREST*

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Michaela Joy Garecht
Missing since November 19, 1988 from Hayward, Alameda County, California.
Classification: Non Family Abduction


Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: January 24, 1979
Age at Time of Disappearance: 9 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 4'8; 75 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde hair; blue eyes. Michaela has prominent ears and her eyes slant slightly downward.
Dentals: Her teeth are slightly mottled. Dental X-rays Available.
Clothing: White t-shirt with Metro written across the front and images of people imprinted on the midsection, pant or shorts, flesh-colored nylons, black cloth shoes with brown plastic soles.
Jewelry: 3" Pearl-colored or white earrings which resembled feathers.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Garecht was abducted by an unidentified White male on the parking lot of the Rainbow Market on Mission Boulevard in Hayward, California on November 19, 1988. Garecht had ridden her bicycle with a friend, the two blocks from her home to the store. When they came out of the store, the friend's scooter had been moved. Garecht saw the scooter in the parking lot and was lured to the kidnapper. He grabbed her and threw her, screaming, into his car while her friend watched. The friend ran into the store for help. The car sped off.

The car the kidnapper was driving was described to police as a large older model American-made sedan, gold or tan in color, in ratty condition, possibly a four-door. The car may have had cement splattered on the sides, and lights set into the rear bumper. It was last seen speeding south on Mission Boulevard toward the nearby Union City border.

The abductor is described as having long, dirty blonde hair; a slender build; and a pockmarked or pimpled face. He was approximately 18 - 24 years old at the time of Garecht's abduction. A sketch of her abductor is below:

Sketch of Abductor can be seen at below link.

Investigators

If you have any information concerning Garecht's whereabouts or the identity of her abductor, please contact:
Hayward Police Department 510-293-7272
All information may be submitted on an anonymous basis.


Agency Case Number: 88112127
NCMEC #: NCMC717172
NCIC Number: M-566376392

Please refer to these numbers when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:

The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
CA DOJ
The Doe Network: Case File 181DFCA

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/181dfca.html
 
I will never forget when this happened. I was born in Hayward and have always felt for this little girl's mother. The person who did this was so blatant and grabbed her in broad daylight. I have always hoped they would find her somehow. There was another little girl who went missing in that area around the same time named Ilene Mischeloff. She disappeared on her way home from school in Dublin, which is just east of Hayward. Many people thought the two disappearances were connected.
 
Here's more on Ilene Mischeloff and the possible connection to the Garecht case and others:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=147697775

Missing Since: January 30, 1989 from Dublin, California
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
Date Of Birth: March 12, 1975 Age: 13 years old Height and Weight: 5'3, 115 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Misheloff wore braces on her teeth at time of her disappearance. Her ears are pierced. Misheloff has freckles on her cheeks and on the bridge of her nose, and a small lump on the inside of her left ankle. Clothing/Jewelry Description: A charcoal-gray Espirit pullover polo sweater, a pink and charcoal-gray skirt with horizontal stripes, and black low-top Keds sneakers.

Details of Disappearance

Misheloff was walking home in Dublin, California on January 30, 1989 at 3:00 p.m., after her classes concluded at Wells Intermediate School. Several classmates reported seeing Misheloff walking alone on Amador Valley Boulevard near Village Parkway and the Shamrock Shopping Center in the afternoon; she vanished shortly afterwards. She was taking a shortcut home, going through a wide alley behind a shopping center, a furniture store called the Sawmill, and Gallagher's Pub, then across the boulevard and through John Mape Park along a dry creek bed.

Misheloff has never been seen again. She was carrying a dark blue backpack at the time of her disappearance. The backpack was later found abandoned in the creek bed in John Mape Park near where she was last seen. It was located after the area had already been searched; authorities believe someone may have placed it there after Misheloff's disappearance.
Authorities announced that Timothy Bindner had a possible connection to Misheloff's case, as well as the disappearances of Michaela Garecht, Amber Swartz-Garcia, Tara Cossey and Amanda Campbell. A photo of Bindner is posted below this case summary. He maintains his innocence and successfully sued Campbell's hometown of Fairfield, California in 1997 for defamation of character. Bindner, a married sewage treatment plant worker, came to authorities' attention after he began sending birthday greetings to young girls in the East Bay area. One child's parents contacted authorities and handed over a letter Bindner had written to their daughter. The note was printed backwards and could only be deciphered by holding it up to a mirror. Bindner claimed he sent the cards as a kind gesture because the girls were "lonely."

Bindner also visited the Oakmont Cemetery gravesite of Angela Bugay, a five-year-old girl girl who was abducted and murdered in Antioch, California in 1983. A photograph of Bugay is posted below this case summary. Bindner was never considered a suspect in her murder and another man has since been arrested in that case.

Bindner approached many of the mothers of missing girls from the East Bay area offering his assistance, including Amber and Garecht's families. He introduced himself to Kim three days after Amber vanished. Investigators asked her to maintain a quasi-friendship with Bindner in hope of learning if he was connected to any of the girls' cases. She and authorities agreed that Bindner appeared to playing mind games with victims' loved ones and law enforcement. Many people theorize that he enjoyed taunting families into thinking that he may have been involved in the presumed abductions. He was once arrested for annoying two little girls whom he was trying to lure into his van, but the charges were later dropped. Bindner often drove around in a light blue Dodge van with a license plate that said "Lov You." Inside the van was wallpapered with many pictures of children. A photograph of the van is posted below this case summary.

Bindner refers to himself as a "good Samaritan." He asked Linda Golston, a reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, to interview him at Oakmont Cemetery at 4:30 a.m. He played his favorite song on her car stereo, "Jesus, Here's Another Child To Hold." Bindner told Goldston that he thought of the missing girls as "his children." She asked him how he believed the abductions occurred and he said one child was submissive, but another fought back against her assailant. Bindner added that he was "guessing" about the girls' reactions.

Bindner wrote a letter to a law enforcement agency in the late 1980s, stating that he believed the next girl who would be abducted from the area would be about nine years old. Garecht disappeared shortly thereafter; she was nine at the time of her abduction. Bindner also sent a holiday card to a profiler for the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) in 1990. The card depicted an image of a young girl holding up four fingers. Campbell vanished in 1991 at the age of four.

Search dogs traced Campbell and Swartz-Garcia's scent to Bugay's grave. Authorities never had enough evidence to prove Bindner was connected to their cases, although he was known for visiting the cemetery on occasion. Bindner was given a heroism award by the California State Patrol after assisting victims in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. He has never been charged in connection with any of the cases.

James Daveggio has been considered as a possible suspect as well. He and his former girlfriend, Michelle Lyn Michaud, were charged with the 1997 abduction, rape and murder of Vanessa Lei Swanson. Swanson's remains were discovered approximately five miles from the site of Jaycee Dugard's 1991 California abduction. Photos of Daveggio and Michaud are posted below this case summary. They were also charged with additional counts of sexual assault in unrelated cases in the mid-1990s. In 2002, Michaud and Daveggio were convicted of Swanson's murder and sentenced to death. They are awaiting execution. Michaud claims that she met Daveggio in 1996 and therefore was not involved in Dugard's abduction. There are striking similarities between Michaud and the female suspect in Dugard's case, but the FBI no longer believes she and Daveggio were involved.

Daveggio is also considered a possible suspect in Swartz-Garcia and Garecht's disappearances. Neither he nor Michaud has been charged in connection with any of the cases. Misheloff remains missing and her case is unsolved. She enjoyed ice skating at the time she disappeared.
 
I ran across the MySpace page that Michaela's mom set up for her and read her blogs and it touched my heart. Michaela's mom is an amazing lady. Please read her blogs and be inspired by her faith and insight that is truly amazing! May God bring her answers to where her beautiful daughter is.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...id=150 703333
progress.gif
 
I just looked at it. It breaks my heart, she is my age. She did nothing wrong, nothing that we all didn't do when we were kids. All she did was go to a store. How can things like this happen?
 
Authorities announced that Timothy Bindner had a possible connection to Misheloff's case, as well as the disappearances of Michaela Garecht, Amber Swartz-Garcia, Tara Cossey and Amanda Campbell. A photo of Bindner is posted below this case summary. ....

No link appears at the bottom of your post. Do you have a link to a photo of Bindner? It would be interesting to compare his photo to a composite drawing of any suspects in these cases.
 
I will never forget when this happened. I was born in Hayward and have always felt for this little girl's mother. The person who did this was so blatant and grabbed her in broad daylight. I have always hoped they would find her somehow. There was another little girl who went missing in that area around the same time named Ilene Mischeloff. She disappeared on her way home from school in Dublin, which is just east of Hayward. Many people thought the two disappearances were connected.

Where in Hayweird did you grow up.?
When this one happened I was shocked. I knew right where she went missing.To this day I thing about it. Every time I drive niles canyon I look to see if maybe she was taken there.
 
Where in Hayweird did you grow up.?
When this one happened I was shocked. I knew right where she went missing.To this day I thing about it. Every time I drive niles canyon I look to see if maybe she was taken there.

Hi there,

I was born in Hayward but moved when I was a toddler, and grew up nearby.
 
I wonder if Bindner is another John Mark Karr. I remember watching this case on Unsolved Mysteries and being totally freaked out about it. The person was pretty brazen to just grab her in broad daylight, and I woudn't doubt that she and at least some of the other little girls mentioned were all taken by the same dude.
 
A lot of us believe this should be investigated further...here is what I have so far on this one...if you have info from the past when we were working on this before, please post here.

micheala.jpg
michaela3.jpg
michaela2.jpg
 
Michaela Garecht - Charley Project

MJD_ID_TawniLee.jpg

* Note: On Charley Project it states, “Garecht's eyes slant slightly downward. Her teeth were slightly mottled at the time of her 1988 disappearance.”
 
As most of you know, I have AZ Jane Doe on my UID MySpace www.myspace.com/do_u_recognize_me


Here are correspondence I rec'd and replied concerning this case:

What do you all think of this? Our correspondence, with her permission to post, newest message on top:



ect: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Arizona Jane Doe
Actually what brought my attention to it was when I found the Michaela age progressed to 17 pic.. which is why I have it as a default.. for some reason I have very strong feelings about that particular picture... I never did like her age progressed to 24 pic.. it just didn't look right to me. Looking at the age progressed to 17 really brings strong emotions to me.. I am somewhat psychic (visions, dreams, etc) but don't claim to be one.. if that makes any kind of sense.. LOL

After I found the age 17 pic, I was looking at your page and that's when I noticed a strong resemblance. I did a google search on the Jane Doe and read the ME's report and found the forensic artists sketch and that really convinced me.. One thing in particular I just noticed the other day.. see the little blemish on her nose? I always thought it was a blemish but what if it's a colorless mole.. the sketch shows something on the nose in the same exact spot..

It was right after I saw the sketch, I first contacted the Ariz ME.

Here's what I sent:

Hi,

I don’t know if anybody has mentioned this before or not, but this girl strongly resembles Michaela Garecht. As you might know, Michaela Garecht was abducted November 19, 1988 at the age of 9 years from Hayward, California. I have a MySpace page where I am currently featuring Michaela’s story. My page link is http://www.myspace.com/forthemissing

The sketch of this girl as well as the post-mortem picture strongly resembles the age-progessed to age 17 picture of Michaela. Coincidentally, this girl died on Michaela’s 20th birthday and I don’t know about you, but many twenty-year olds can look younger than they are.

Please let me know if this has already been checked out.

XXXXXX

Here's the response:
>XXXXX:
>Thank you for your information. I will check with the proper
>authorities to make sure that this tip is followed up on if it has not
>already.
>
>Sincerely,
>Suzi Dodt, Investigator
>Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office
>dodts@mail.maricopa.gov

I then called the Hayward PD as well as sending them what I sent to Arizona.. the detective seemed real excited about it. Oh and here's the link to the forensic sketch. http://www.forensicsbydiana.com/index.html It's also posted on the Doe Network.

I am not related to Michaela.. I was a very concerned parent at the time she disappeared.. I think all parents in the SF Bay Area were very scared because of all the abductions in a short period of time.. My daughter was 10 at the time and I was scared to let her out of my site!


Oh and I did realize one thing.. for some reason I thought Michaela's birthday was Jan 27, it was actually Jan 24.
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Do U Recognize Me?
Date: Jan 4 2007 5:35 PM



Excellent points, I was thinking by her picture her roots looked brown...all excellent points you make. Which leaves you at still possibly having a match. This is good and bad, as always the case.

Sooo, you have made LE aware? Did you contact both the LE on the case of Jane Doe and Michaela?

Are you personally related to Michaela?

Did you just notice this Jane Doe by viewing it on MySpace??? Or you were previously looking into this?

Sorry for the delay in my responses, I have fallen sick with a horrible cold! Haven't been online much...

Kindest regards,
Christine
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Please help find Michaela Garecht
Date: Jan 4 2007 8:24 AM


One other thing.. I think the description for the Jane Doe says possible dyed hair.. she had very long waist length hair and the roots were light brown.. If you notice even Michaela's picture at age 9 shows her hair as having a mixture of light brown and blond.. particularly underneath the top layer it looks more brown. I did mention in my other email that my own hair was sandy blond.. it was sun-bleached.. underneath the top layers it was darker as well..

Again, as I said, I'm not concerned with this difference.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Do U Recognize Me?
Date: Jan 4 2007 5:15 AM


Well, yes, the 10 yrs might make this one 'missable' for LE....they pictures are alike, however, 1 major problem, the Jane Doe had DYED blonde hair, not natural, her natural hair is brown.....what about Michaela?

Christine

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Please help find Michaela Garecht
Date: Jan 3 2007 8:25 AM


Actually yes. I have contacted both the Medical Examiner from AZ and Hayward authorities.. take a look at the sketch in my slide show asking if it's Michaela. That sketch was by an artist depicting how the AZ Jane Doe may have looked.. I think it's a real good match, don't you? Michaela would have turned 20 on the day this girl died 1/27/99. I know she was missing since 11/19/88 and I think because of the amount of time people might not have connected the dots..

I just don't want to say anything about the match to give the authorities time to check into it. I expect to hear back from them soon..

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Do U Recognize Me?
Date: Jan 2 2007 11:56 AM


Which case do you think it's related to? michaela Garecht? I'd like to investigate it further....let me know.

Christine
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Please help find Michaela Garecht
Date: Jan 1 2007 6:13 PM


Hi,

I was wondering if you've received any leads about the Arizona Jane Doe. I have a theory about her and I have sent my thoughts to the authorities. Do you see any resemblance to my case?

I am working on trying to find some connections to this. At the same time, if anyone else sees a resemblance, they are free to report that to the authorities as well.
 
MJD_ID_TawniLee.jpg


1/10/07

This is from our new MySpace friend:

I did an overlay of the Michaela age 17 age-progression on top of the morgue pic..

let me know what you think.. the eyes and mouth are from the age-progression pic

compare to her age 9 actual pic and the forensic sketch.. oh and I haven't heard from LE http://.xpt.net/html/emoticons/sad.gif I took a look at the board you are linked to and saw the other potential leads..
 
*subbing
This would be.....beyond amazing if this girl turned out to be her. I'm so glad she has her own forum, this case has bothered me for quite some time.
 
Chris,

Any updates on this? Has anyone followed up w/ Either the ME or LE to discover what their thoughts were? Would it be wrong for one of us to send off a quick email inquiring?
 

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