SC SC - Viridiana Maldonado, 22, North Charleston, 11 Oct 2007

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http://www.wcbd.com/midatlantic/cbd/news.apx.-content-articles-CBD-2007-10-25-0021.html

Oct 25, 2007

North Charleston Police is asking for the public's help in locating 22 year old Viridiana Maldonado.

According to family members Maldonado returned home from work on October 11th, changed clothes and then left with friends.

Family members say Maldonado made contact with them on several occasions during the night but hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Maldonando is described as a Hispanic female, 5'6", 120 pounds, with brown eyes and hair. She was last seen in the company of a young Hispanic male.

Anyone with information on Maldonado's whereabouts should contact North Charleston Police at 554-5700 or Crimestoppers at 554-1111.

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The family of a missing woman hopes a $1,000 dollar reward can help bring her back. Viridiana Maldonado's, 21, has been missing since October.

She was last seen at her North Charleston apartment.

Police said at a news conference Thursday morning they don't think she left home on her own free will. They're hoping someone will know where she is.

http://www.live5news.com/news/state/13007617.html
 
http://coalitionofcrimebloggers.ning.com/

Viridiana Vanished

Viridiana Maldonado was a young mother. She had her first child at age 15 or 16. She married and had another child four years later. Her husband, Jorge, was in the Army stationed at Ft. Lewis near Tacoma, WA.

According to news accounts they had trouble in their marriage which led "Viri" to take out an Order of Protection against Jorge. Apparently she had had enough and moved back to her family in North Charleston, SC with her 2 children, leaving Jorge in WA.

She lived with her mother and sister in an apartment on Dunbar Ave., along with her children. She held a postition with a local restaurant, La Nortena, and her boss was a friend of the family. From all accounts she was making a go of it with the support of her family.

On the evening of Oct. 11, 2007 she came home, changed her clothes and said she was going out with her sister in law, Vicky Roberts, for the evening. Nothing unusual was said to her family, nothing unusual about her demeanor that night. Just a night out with friends.

Her family reports that approximately 2am they received text messages from her cell phone. This was odd, because Viridiana did not usually text message them. One said she was in downtown Charleston, drinking with a man named Miguel. The next message said she was on her way home to Mexico. That was the last activity on her cell phone....ever.

Six days later her bank account, with a balance of about $1000, was closed by telephone and a cashiers check was sent to Tacoma, WA. It has not been reported who made that phone call, who closed that account, and who received the money.

There are a slew of strange circumstances surrounding this disappearance.

Vicky Roberts, her sister in law, says she was not with her and had not seen her for 2 weeks prior to Oct. 11.

Viridiana's estranged husband, Jorge, left the Army, moved back to North Charleston and claimed his child. He is reported to have been cooperative with police in the investigation.

Who is Miguel? Her family states they never heard Viri speak about any man named Miguel. Did she just meet him somewhere that night, or did she know him beforehand?

What is happening in this case now? Are these questions being answered for her mother and family? Apparently, they don't think enough is being put into the investigation and it looks like a lot of clues are getting cold as time goes by.

We have 2 small children who don't know what happened to their Mommy, a young, beautiful woman who was loved and cared for by her family in her times of trouble. Viridiana, just as so many others, is being forgotten. The longer we let these questions go unanswered, the colder the trail gets, and it happens all too often.

Another missing Mother vanishes in the night. Where do they go?
 
Hmmm. *Scratching head* Let's see. A woman disappears after telling people that she was going out with her ex-sister in law. Her checking account is cleared out and closed, and the money is sent to a city where her abusive ex-husband just HAPPENS to be living. Gee, I wonder if the husband and SIL happen to be involved in any way! I don't think this case can ever be solved! She just vanished into thin air!

Hmph. (Sorry for the sarcasm, just wish LE would pull their heads out of their *advertiser censored*. I'm from SC, so I can say this with some impunity.)
 
and if she didn't usually text message but made phone calls it seems to be logical that she was already in troublle at teh time of those text messages and they were not from her.

I find the sister in law thing rather suspicious too - why would she lie to her family about going out with her sister in law?
 
Oh, I don't think there was any man named Miguel. I think it was a ruse that the SIL devised to make people think she was abandoning her family and throw them off the trail. And I think the SIL is lying through her teeth about her whereabouts---UNLESS i'm wrong in assuming in the SIL is her husband's sister and not Viri's brother's wife. In that case, I'll let her off the hook, and maybe there was a man named Miguel, but who knows.
 
Oh, I don't think there was any man named Miguel. I think it was a ruse that the SIL devised to make people think she was abandoning her family and throw them off the trail. And I think the SIL is lying through her teeth about her whereabouts---UNLESS i'm wrong in assuming in the SIL is her husband's sister and not Viri's brother's wife. In that case, I'll let her off the hook, and maybe there was a man named Miguel, but who knows.


Aphra...that's the point, there are just too many hinky things going on with this case. I'm from SC too so I know how things work, like you!

My first feeling was she was separated from her husband, he is pissed because he can't get his hands on the child, he quits the Army when she goes missing and comes back to SC to claim the child. She had another child by another man, but now the siblings are separated. Could be they had argued over children? Could be issue of DV back in WA?

Anyway, lots of questions that don't make any sense. Hopefully we can get some answers for the family.
 
and if she didn't usually text message but made phone calls it seems to be logical that she was already in troublle at teh time of those text messages and they were not from her.

I find the sister in law thing rather suspicious too - why would she lie to her family about going out with her sister in law?


Beth...at this point I am trying to figure out which one could be lying! Viridiana or her sister in law. Too early to tell, but the gut tells me that if this Vicky is sister to Jorge then there is probably a coverup of something. Of course, no one knows who Miguel is, so the picture is still pretty foggy.
 
North Charleston, SC - North Charleston Police are still searching for a missing mother a year after she disappeared. Investigators now suspect foul play in the disappearance of Viridiana Maldonado, and have identified her husband as a suspect. Maldonado has been missing since last October after she went out one night and never returned. She left behind two young children and the youngest is living with her estranged husband. If you have any information on this case, please call Crime Stoppers at 554-1111.

http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/1008/560893.html
 
Where's Viri? Woman's disappearance remains cold as custody battle, suspicions heat up
By Noah Haglund (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, October 11, 2008


The family stays composed until conversation turns to Viridiana Maldonado, their beloved daughter and sister, who has been missing for a year.

Then tears flow. They describe Viridiana, a young woman with dark, wavy hair and deep-brown eyes who left two children behind.

Her mother and sister care for her 7-year-old-son, Alex —her spitting image, they say— who continually asks about his mother, "Viri." Meanwhile, they're fighting Viridiana's estranged husband in court for custody of her 3-year-old son, now living with his father in another country.

Is she alive? Is she dead? What should they tell the children?

"We're not complete because my sister isn't here," said Jenne Cuevas, Viridiana's older sister, in Spanish. "I sleep, but it isn't easy because I'm always thinking of her."

A year ago today, it became apparent that the 21-year-old was not coming home from a night on the town. Since then, the family's fears about foul play have grown. Now police are convinced, too. Though no arrests have been made, investigators last week identified a suspect publicly for the first time: her husband, Jorge Maldonado.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2008/oct/11/wheres_viri_womans_disappearance_remains57433/
 
One year later, family still grieves for missing woman

Police now identify husband as a possible suspect
By Noah Haglund (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Sunday, October 12, 2008

The family stays composed until conversation turns to Viridiana Maldonado, their beloved daughter and sister, who has been missing for a year.

Then tears flow. They describe Viridiana, a young woman with dark, wavy hair and deep-brown eyes who left two children behind.

Her mother and sister care for her 7-year-old-son, Alex — her spitting image, they say — who continually asks about his mother.

Meanwhile, they're fighting Viridiana's estranged husband in court for custody of her 3-year-old son, now living with his father in another country.

Is she alive? Is she dead? What should they tell the children?

"We're not complete because my sister isn't here," said Jenne Cuevas, Viridiana's older sister, in Spanish. "I sleep, but it isn't easy because I'm always thinking of her."

A year ago today it became apparent that the 21-year-old was not coming home from a night on the town. Since then, the family's fears about

foul play have grown. Now police are convinced too.

Their focus, they say, is her husband.

Viridiana finished an evening waitress shift at La Nortena, a restaurant on Rivers Avenue in North Charleston. She stopped by the Dunlap Street apartment she shared with her mother, sister and two sons. Then she left around 11 p.m., to go out with friends.

Cuevas received text messages from her sister's phone between 1 and 2 a.m.

The family doesn't think she sent them. It was out of character for her to text, rather than to call, and the messages didn't make much sense.

One mentioned a friend named Miguel, a name they didn't recognize, and the next one, six minutes later, stated that she had problems and was headed to Mexico, her native country.

They never saw her again.

While relatives suspected foul play from the beginning, police initially considered it a missing-persons case. Though no arrests have been made, police investigators last week identified a suspect publicly for the first time: her husband, Jorge.

"We've gotten phone records, we've gotten bank records," said Detective David Watson, a North Charleston police investigator. "We've got a lot of circumstantial evidence against the husband."

But no charge.

During a phone interview last year, Jorge Maldonado said he resented implications that he had something to do with his wife's disappearance. He said he too was worried about her.

Jorge Moldonado, 22, could not be reached for comment last week. Previous phone numbers were disconnected or out of service. Attorneys in the child-custody case said he moved in August to the Dominican Republic, his native country.

His parents and his 3-year-old son also moved there from the Charleston area this year.

Viridiana had grown up in Santiago, Colima, on Mexico's Pacific coast. She arrived in the U.S. about eight years ago and stayed briefly in Los Angeles before joining family in South Carolina.

Her family said she met her future husband in North Charleston about five years ago. They appreciated his intelligence and quick wit. They also liked the fact that he didn't drink.

Together, the couple had a son, Jorge Luis Maldonado Jr. She had another son, Alex, from a previous relationship.

The couple moved with the children to Washington state while he was stationed with the Army at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma. While out West, their relationship deteriorated.

Her family described her husband as controlling. They said he wouldn't give her money to buy groceries. Things got so bad that she went to stay in a women's shelter for three months last year.

Each made domestic-violence complaints against the other, though both cases were dismissed.

In September she returned to South Carolina to live with her sister and mother in North Charleston. The following month, she disappeared.

Two weeks later, Jorge Maldonado took his son from Viridiana's mother. They went back to Washington until his discharge from the Army in November. Then he moved back across the country, to Goose Creek.

In December he told police he was in Washington state when his wife disappeared, but police said they had evidence that he drove to South Carolina at that very time. When confronted, they said, his demeanor changed.

"He didn't have any good answers for our questions," said Watson, the North Charleston investigator. "Once we presented him with that information, he became very scared. He actually ended the interview, saying he had to be at work."

Police in Fairview Heights, Ill., reported questioning him in a motel parking lot on Oct. 11. He told them he was traveling to Washington state from his home in South Carolina.

Cell phone records showed calls progressing in the other direction, south from Chicago to Charleston, through Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Detectives also learned that the couple spoke by phone the same day she disappeared, Watson said. Jorge Maldonado told detectives that someone else must have had his car and cellular phone. He said he could not remember whether he loaned them to anyone.

After Viridiana's disappearance, police found the car Jorge had been driving at an Olympia, Wash., car dealership, where he had traded it in. Authorities searched it but didn't find anything out of the ordinary, Watson said.

Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said her office has offered police guidance on the case, but declined to comment on specifics.

Howie Comen, a local private investigator working with Viridiana's family, said he's positive that members of the public have information that could help solve the case.

"Somebody has to come forward at this point," Comen said. "If they're afraid, they need to come forward. Just tell us where to go, and we'll go there."

The custody battle over the 3-year-old son continues in Berkeley County Family Court. A Nov. 7 hearing in Moncks Corner could determine whether Viridiana's mother gets visitation or full custody of her younger grandson.

Jorge Maldonado's attorney said his client will be there.

"He has to come up because he's been ordered to produce the child," Tommy Bolus said. "He told me he would."

He said his client isn't trying to hide and that he is a naturalized U.S. citizen who receives veterans' disability benefits. His parents own several houses in the Caribbean nation, he said, and he lives with them on a family compound.

Outwardly, Viri's mother, Lilia Michel Guerrero, appears focused when talking about the custody battle. But she's always thinking about her missing daughter. The ordeal has turned her into two separate people — calm on the outside, but suffering inside.

Michel points at her head and says, through sobs, "In every moment, she's here."
 
http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/1008/561734.html

Cold Case: Police Name Suspect in Case of Missing Mother

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North Charleston, SC - North Charleston Police identify a suspect in a year long cold case. They have identified Viridiana Maldonado’s estranged husband as a suspect in her disappearance. Maldonado vanished last October and it has been a year full of emotion, worry and fear for her family.

“I remember her every minute, every second,” Viridiana’s mother, Lilia Michel, said. “There is not a minute I don’t think of her. She is always in my heart and it hurts to think about how she is or if she is ok.” Her family is still clinging to hope, but they’re losing faith. Viridiana’s sister says they thought her estranged husband had something to do with Viridiana’s disappearance. “She didn’t have any enemies other than him. He was the only person who would do any harm to her.” Viridiana and Jorge Maldonado had their differences including three cases of criminal domestic violence. Those cases and a three month stint in a shelter made Viridiana leave Washington state and head to the Lowcountry. Jorge Maldonado was not far behind. Police tracked Jorge Maldonado from Washington to Charleston using his cell phone records. Investigators say he made that trip just days before Viridiana disappeared. “He made phone calls in Nebraska, Tennessee, Spartanburg, Greenville and North Charleston,” Detective David Watson said. Watson has been working the case since last year. Investigators say Maldonado spoke to his wife on the phone the night she disappeared and six days later he took his son and headed back to Washington. Watson says Maldonado used Viridiana’s debit card at a North Platt, Nebraska ATM machine and then closed her account. Police then interviewed Maldonado last November. “His foot just started tapping like a rabbit. He became very nervous,” Watson described. “We’re thinking, he’s definitely lying to us and that’s when he became a person of interest.” Lilia Michel says she knew her son-in-law had something to do with her daughter’s disappearance. The family now hopes Jorge Maldonado will speak up. “I want them to interrogate him and make him talk and tell us everything he knows because he knows more than he says,” Viridiana’s sister, Jenne Michel said. Jorge Maldonado is now in the Dominican Republic with his son. He has not been charged with any crime. He is due in family court next month because Viridiana’s mother is trying to get custody of her grandson. Authorities hope to catch up with him then.
 
Darlin gal, thank you for bringing more of this story here. I guess just because you are a suspect or person of interest in a murder you are still able to leave the country! I am surprised. I will also be surprised if he shows up for the hearing unless his conscience is calling him to do the right thing, give up the child, confess to what he has probably done, and tell this family where to find Viridiana. How he could live with himself for a year knowing he took the mother of 2 little boys away from them forever is beyond my comprehension, although it seems to be an epidemic right now. Of course, everything I just said is "alleged". He has yet to be charged, but I do believe it will be coming.

If we only lived in a perfect world where victims and their families would have the same rights as the accused.
 
It will be interesting to see if the ex-husband shows up for court and if he brings their son. I'd still like to know if sil Vicki is related to the ex or another side of the family.
 
It will be interesting to see if the ex-husband shows up for court and if he brings their son. I'd still like to know if sil Vicki is related to the ex or another side of the family.

Cali,
Is is my understanding that Vicki Roberts is the sister of Jorge Maldonado. I think it might be in one of the articles posted.
 
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/nov/08/arrest_tangles_custody_case60941/


Arrest tangles custody case

Missing woman's husband intercepted at airport on his way to hearing
By Noah Haglund (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, November 8, 2008


One year later, family still grieves for missing woman; Police now identify husband as a possible suspect, published 10/12/08

Reward in disappearance; Woman last seen in N. Charleston 3 months ago, published 01/04/08

Without a trace: Missing woman's family fears worst, published 12/26/07

Jorge Maldonado flew to the United States from the Dominican Republic this week expecting to attend a custody hearing over his 3-year-old son.

Maldonado's wife, Viridiana, has been missing for more than a year. He has been battling her family for custody of the child.

When Maldonado, 22, stepped off the a plane in Atlanta on Wednesday, federal agents took him into custody. His attorney in the custody case, Tommy Bolus, explained the situation to a judge during Friday's hearing.

"He's in federal custody, he can't assert his rights today," Bolus told Judge Tommy Edwards of the 10th Judicial Circuit. "Obviously, right now, he's held up."

Bolus said that Maldonado's brother, Gregorio Maldonado, had been detained earlier in the Charleston area by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Jorge Maldonado was picked up in connection with the same investigation, he said.

The attorney said he does not represent the brothers in that situation.

The DEA in Columbia referred questions about the case to federal prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney's Office was unable to confirm or deny an investigation or pending charges against either man.

At the end of the custody hearing, the judge consented to an agreement hammered out by Bolus and Shaundra Young, the South Carolina Legal Services attorney representing the other side.

Maldonado's sister, Minorca Roberts of Goose Creek, will have custody of the child. Viridiana Maldonado's mother, Lilia Michel Guerrero, will get standard visitation, which allows her to see him on weekends and holidays.

Maldonado moved to his family's' native Dominican Republic from Goose Creek in August. But a Berkeley County Family Court Judge ordered him to return to the U.S. with the child for a custody hearing on Friday. He flew stateside with his parents and the child, Jorge Maldonado Jr., on Wednesday.

Viridiana Maldonado's family fears that she has been killed.

continue reading at link.........
 
According to the Charleston Post and Courier article of November 8, 2008, Viridiana's husband, Jorge Maldonado is now in custody on charges unrelated to her disappearance.

Mothers Are Vanishing



In this small child's little life he has been back and forth across the country, lost his mother, taken from her family, taken out of the country to live, taken from his father and has been placed with his aunt. Tell me what kind of emotional repercussions are in store for him? I have every reason to believe that he is in a loving home, and a loving environment, but what is in store for him next? May this little one find peace someday knowing that his mother is found, and may that day be soon. Viridiana Maldonado needs to be found and reunited with her family.
 
Viridiana has been missing for eight years.

Her ex-husband was arrested awhile ago on a separate charge, wondering what happened with that and what the status of this case is.


maldonado_viridiana.jpg
 

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