CA-Amber Leeanne Dubois (14 YO)- Escondido #1

Groovygrl--I sent you a PM. A tracking trick that we've read about in other cases, that they might not have tried.

I will be unavailable again all day tomorrow so am unable to help at all. Here is the phone number to my Vons (Safeway) 760-747-5910.

Also, command center is right across the street from Lowe's Home Improvement Center on Mission. I think they sell cases of water.

One of my close friends is joining the search tomorrow and some other friends of hers are, also. If I get any info I will be back to share.

Salem, thank you for everything you are doing.

At this point, the only thing I can offer is prayer, but I will be sending a lot of it.

Searchers, stay safe. Volunteers, stay sane.

I forgot to say thank you to Salem for all the great work coordinating things. I feel like I should be doing it since I am right here.
Currently I am having to cut hair on the military base on the weekends, so my weekend days are not available at all, can't even make phone calls.

Thanks again, Salem, for doing all of this.

I came across this site by accident, and I'm sorry to hear about all the people that are either missing, or murdered. As for this case, I was wondering, is this the type of area police usually patrol? Is this area known for crime? If this area isn't patroled by police, then maybe it should be.

ESCONDIDO: Volunteers join search for missing teen
Sat, Mar 7, 2009

ESCONDIDO ---- Some 200 volunteers showed up in walking shoes Saturday to join one of 25 search teams that fanned out around Escondido looking for 14-year-old Amber Dubois.

Teams of between six and 20 people spent the day scouring swaths of rural terrain and going door to door, hoping to turn up some clue about the Escondido teen's disappearance.

While searchers found nothing conclusive Saturday, Amber's father, Maurice Dubois, said the effort helped narrow the possibilities of where his daughter could be.

"The more volunteers we get, the more areas we can exclude that she's in," said Dubois, who lives in Orange County but who has been helping head the search for his daughter in Escondido since she went missing more than three weeks ago.

A second search is planned for Sunday.

(see more at link)
http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/03/07/news/inland/escondido/z8150e83d5ef191d3882575720067ac89.txt

Videos about search efforts and request for volunteers:

"Search Resumes..." video:
http://www.cbs8.com/Global/story.asp?S=9965120

Another video:
http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local...Passes-Three-Week/glZVEOPuJU6Tpv0R0QtFMw.cspx

Thanks everyone for the kind words but it is cloudja that deserves the acclamations! She scored good water and food for the searchers in the field! Bravo for cloudja!

Also, thanks for the update on yesterday's search. I looked through goolge news last night and couldn't find anything.

Salem

Salem

Salem said:

Thanks everyone for the kind words but it is cloudja that deserves the acclamations! She scored good water and food for the searchers in the field! Bravo for cloudja!

Also, thanks for the update on yesterday's search. I looked through goolge news last night and couldn't find anything.

Salem

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Everyone chipped in with ideas, places, prayers, and searching.

I just spoke to Rebecca at the search center. She said they are good with food and water for today.

I wish Amber could be found...

cloudajo said:

Everyone chipped in with ideas, places, prayers, and searching.

I just spoke to Rebecca at the search center. She said they are good with food and water for today.

I wish Amber could be found...

Click to expand...

Me too! I want her to be found so bad....
i want to hear a miricle story...
that she's found safe and alive!!!
I keep coming on here to see if there's anything new...

Hi everybody and thank you to everyone who has helped search for Amber. I live right in the middle of all this. I live about 1/2 mile from Escondido High School and right up the street from the middle school she was supposedly seen at. I have 5 acres of land and quite a few out buildings. A few weeks ago someone came by and dropped off flyers for us, but no one has asked to search our property. There is a HUGE problem with the LE in this area. My house is considered "county". When I call 911 I get the Escondido LE, but then they look at the address and say they have to connect me to the county sheriff. There have been times when I've been shoved back and forth several times between the two. My gut feeling is that this might be causing some of the problems with finding Amber. As far as the houses near where she disappeared having security cameras, I highly doubt that they do and if they did I don't think they could see anything. The high school and it's grounds dominate one side of the road for probably 1/2 mile or more. Across the street there is some empty lots and then they houses that are there are all older and spaced out pretty good.

I do have a really hard time believing that no one saw anything. My daughter attended that school for one year (freshmen, she was going downhill fast so I pulled her out) and we would drop her off around 7:20 and the road would have tons of kids walking. I would say that the majority of the kids that go to that school walk. Where Amber would turn off to go to the farm is not a major entrance and might be pretty desolate. If she actually turned in there then there is a possibility that no one saw what happened.

If anyone has any questions for me I'd be more than happy to answer them. Right now I'm listening to the helicopters circling again. They have been doing that a few times a day since she disappeared. The reason I'm not out searching is because I have two toddlers to take care off.

Prayers go out to Amber and all the searchers. We just want you home Amber.

Any news on today's search?

cloudajo said:

Everyone chipped in with ideas, places, prayers, and searching.

I just spoke to Rebecca at the search center. She said they are good with food and water for today.

I wish Amber could be found...

Click to expand...

You are absolutely right, cloudaja - thank you to everyone! I'm glad they were taken care of today. I was occupied most of the day with g-children and errands.

I hope something was found that will give LE a clue as to where Amber is and that they can find her soon.

Salem

snowflakeinorlando said:

I came across this site by accident, and I'm sorry to hear about all the people that are either missing, or murdered. As for this case, I was wondering, is this the type of area police usually patrol? Is this area known for crime? If this area isn't patroled by police, then maybe it should be.

Click to expand...

Yes, police do actually patrol this area regularly. There is often a police car parked waiting for speeders or drivers doing u-turns in the middle of a busy street (I have been guilty of doing that because it is so much easier than the alternative of taking 10 minutes longer and taking the legal route.) There is sometimes a policeman at the busy intersection where lots of kids are crossing the street. There are often fights among students at the school in the mornings and after school, so police do make themselves known. Also, there is noticeable security on foot and in golf carts on the school grounds.

This area is very busy and there would be no quick escape because of the traffic gridlock, unless someone was waiting in the bus parking area and got a lucky break in traffic and tore out the driveway and headed back north on Broadway. Broadway turns into a rural road pretty quickly heading north. It is also very close to I-15, should someone want to take that route north. Going south is going to be tough because of traffic on both Broadway and I-15, so I feel that an abductor would head north out of the area.

A previous comittment kept me from searching this weekend, but God forbid, if Amber is not found this week and there is another search next weekend, I will be joining in.

cloudajo said:

ESCONDIDO: Volunteers join search for missing teen
Sat, Mar 7, 2009

ESCONDIDO ---- Some 200 volunteers showed up in walking shoes Saturday to join one of 25 search teams that fanned out around Escondido looking for 14-year-old Amber Dubois.

Teams of between six and 20 people spent the day scouring swaths of rural terrain and going door to door, hoping to turn up some clue about the Escondido teen's disappearance.

While searchers found nothing conclusive Saturday, Amber's father, Maurice Dubois, said the effort helped narrow the possibilities of where his daughter could be.

"The more volunteers we get, the more areas we can exclude that she's in," said Dubois, who lives in Orange County but who has been helping head the search for his daughter in Escondido since she went missing more than three weeks ago.
]

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Can someone explain how the going door to door rules anything out in these cases? What do the searchers do when they go door to door? It's not like they are searching these people's houses are they?
I remember a case a long time ago where the dad kidnapped the daughter's friend, a teen or pre- teen and had her the whole time just a few doors away. The police had already checked this home and others.
For months he kept her in this space, can't remember if it was attached to the garage or underground but it was part of the property, which was not large. It was in a suburban area. He raped her everyday. I can't remember how they found her but she was alive. I couldn't find the link, it was in British Columbia.
How can stuff like that be ruled out by searchers? The thought of what she might be going thru is enough to drive someone crazy. Praying that Amber will be found and alive and come home..soon

DewSeeker and Invisible, thanks for the info/descriptions.

Brwnigirl said:

Can someone explain how the going door to door rules anything out in these cases? What do the searchers do when they go door to door? It's not like they are searching these people's houses are they? [snipped]

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I can't explain how going door to door rules anything out.

I think this is a different case than the one you are referring to, but it made me think of this one from Sep 2006. It's so revolting and scary, but the young girl was so brave during the ordeal. This 14 year old girl was held in an underground bunker by this creep and was able to send a text message to her mother from his phone.

(Sorry for the length):

Sep, 2006
LUGOFF, S.C. — Sharon Turner said she was worried when a 14-year-old girl who lived about a mile away disappeared. She hadn't seen the man living across the street — who was charged last year with criminal sexual conduct on a 12-year-old girl — for months. "I told my husband, 'He went underground,"' Turner said. Authorities say she was right.

Vinson Filyaw had eluded police since November with an elaborate system of bunkers hidden in the woods around his home, Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said. Filyaw not only hid from authorities there, they allege, he also raped and held captive the 14-year-old girl.

The girl was rescued Saturday after she sent her mother a text message on Filyaw's phone while he was asleep Wednesday. She was resting and recovering from her ordeal.

[snipped]

Police say Filyaw, 36, abducted the girl as she walked home from a school bus stop on Sept. 6.

Investigators used cell towers to determine a general location of the phone and deputies began searching for Filyaw on Friday night. McCaskill said the girl cried out as searchers approached the bunker.

"This little lady getting that message out was really the break in the case," the sheriff said. "She helped herself as much as we helped her."

[snipped]
The teen was found in a booby-trapped, 15-foot-deep hole carved out of the side of a hill and covered with plywood. The bunker had a hand-dug privy with toilet paper, a camp stove and shelves made with cut branches and canvas.

"You think you've seen it all and when you see something like this, it's hard to describe, it's hard to imagine," Capt. David Thomlee told "The Early Show" on Monday.

McCaskill said it looked like Filyaw was trying to dig another bunker under that one as a possible backup, but had to abandon it when it filled with water. Filyaw had dug two bunkers in his own yard and two in the woods and had used them to hide out since he was charged in the earlier case.

His girlfriend, Cynthia Hall, has been charged as an accessory and with neglect in that case, McCaskill said. Investigators say she allowed the assault to take place in her home and provided Filyaw with supplies to live in the bunker.

[snipped]

Authorities said Filyaw was wearing a shirt that had the image of a sheriff's badge on it when he met the 14-year-old girl and the teen was walked around in the woods by her captor until she became disoriented. He used handmade grenades and a flare gun to threaten her while she was in the bunker, McCaskill said.

[snipped]

Deputies had been searching for months for the unemployed construction worker. Officers tried to arrest him at his home earlier this week, but he escaped using a hole in the floor of his bedroom that allowed him to hide under his mobile home, McCaskill said. The sheriff said Filyaw had a prior conviction for burglary and has been charged several times with public drunkenness and driving under the influence.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214302,00.html

March 8, 2009
North County Times
ESCONDIDO: Weekend search turns up no trace of teen

ESCONDIDO ---- Despite the help of hundreds of volunteers, a second large-scale search for Amber Dubois turned up no trace of the missing teen this weekend, Dubois's family and police said.

Search teams set out Saturday and Sunday across brush-covered ravines and boulder-studded hillsides, scouring a roughly 5-mile-radius around the city for the bookish 14-year-old girl.

"We've had a huge turnout all weekend," said Amber's father, Maurice Dubois, exhausted but still upbeat Sunday afternoon. He estimated up to 350 people participated Sunday, up from roughly 250 Saturday, he said.

[snipped]
http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/03/08/news/inland/escondido/z6ac52380775f112088257573007ff5a5.txt


March 9, 2009
SignOnSanDiego
Awful uncertainty about missing teen drags on

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/09/1m9jenkins2180-awful-uncertainty-about-missing-tee/

Does anyone know, when searches for a missing person are conducted, is there a printed detailed list of clothing, other items, jewelry that the person wore/had, with actual/sample pictures if possible, given to each searcher and made available to the public? Since people are very visual and in case any item was dropped or something?

See attached example of what I mean. I sent an email with the suggestion to the email address on the family website. Just trying to think of any ideas that might help.

I meant to mention this before, but there is also a construction site right next to the school. There is a development of what looks like townhomes to me; they don't really look like apartments. This project has been going on for at least a year and Amber would have walked right by the site on her way to school.