Found Deceased Va - Denise Martin, 22, Virginia Beach, 19 June 2018

[Elainera]

BRING DENISE HOME Retweeted miri
#BringDeniseHome
BRING DENISE HOME added

Update on description: black shorts, bight colored short sleeve t'shirt (possibly red or orange), high top black shoes with some sort of bright colored accent (maybe shoe laces), carrying a light brown over the shoulder bag.…
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This begs the question: what was in the bag? Why would she take the bag but not her phone, id and bank cards? As she just moved back there, nobody is probably in the position to say whether any of her clothes or other personal items are missing.

To me this smells of self harm, obviously I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Vail]

If anyone followed the AJ Hadsell case, this is the same university.

Do you happen to know if Denise had joined a sorority and if all these girlfriends looking for her are also members? Is anyone able to share where she was on Monday and Monday evening?

General thinking:

Dad first said she was in the shower when he left for work and her brother was sleeping, which would mean no one actually saw her. Then he said they had a conversation before he left. Are these two parts of the same story (they spoke, then she got in the shower and he left) or is the story changing?
If the neighbor sighting is true, the image it brought up for me was Denise sitting on the curb waiting for a ride. She has plenty of friends who haven't spoken up about her missing, and could easily have contacts that no one knows about. If sh was picked up by someone and that someone did her harm, they obviously wont be coming forward.

To me this smells of self harm, obviously I hope I'm wrong.

I lean toward self harm as well and believe that is what s driving her friends to search wooded areas. They aren't doing that because they think she is lost. Losing a mom is incredibly hard, especially with her boyfriend out of state and if she has struggled with depression or has other stresses.

 

[drama_farmer]

Have they scoured every inch of her property? Garage, basement, crawlspace, attic, shed, etc.? It's far-fetched but possible that she got "stuck" or locked in somewhere close by. Especially considering she left her phone and money behind.

 

[Elainera]

Have they scoured every inch of her property? Garage, basement, crawlspace, attic, shed, etc.? It's far-fetched but possible that she got "stuck" or locked in somewhere close by. Especially considering she left her phone and money behind.

Good point! How large is the house/property?

 

[whitelilac]

Looking the map again, there's quite a lot of water, and all that marshland along the coast.
If Denise was thinking self harm, I wonder why she wouldn't have taken her car. I don't know.
Is her mom buried in a local cemetery? Has that been checked? Being home again, and having a new transition after graduating, focus on studies being over....it's possible she felt lost or ungrounded. But she seems like she has such close friends to reach out to. I don't know..

Google Maps

 

[wendy44]

Do you happen to know if Denise had joined a sorority and if all these girlfriends looking for her are also members? Is anyone able to share where she was on Monday and Monday evening?

She was in the theatre fraternity and yes, a lot of the people out looking are in it as well. It's a small department at Longwood and they're very close.

I lean toward self harm as well and believe that is what s driving her friends to search wooded areas. They aren't doing that because they think she is lost. Losing a mom is incredibly hard, especially with her boyfriend out of state and if she has struggled with depression or has other stresses.

Unfortunately, I lean that way as well. No solid information why, it's just more likely than a stranger abduction.

 

[wendy44]

Looking the map again, there's quite a lot of water, and all that marshland along the coast.
If Denise was thinking self harm, I wonder why she wouldn't have taken her car. I don't know.
Is her mom buried in a local cemetery? Has that been checked? Being home again, and having a new transition after graduating, focus on studies being over....it's possible she felt lost or ungrounded. But she seems like she has such close friends to reach out to. I don't know..

Google Maps

I was thinking along the same lines about the cemetery so I searched in find a grave. It looks like they held a memorial service for her mom but there doesn't seem to be a grave so I'm gathering she was cremated.

 

[Truth Prevails]

I prayed all day that when I got home there would be an update beginning with "Found Safe".

Right now I don't know what to think.

I think I remember reading that she couldn't wait to get back home--she had missed "home" and her family. How could it all have soured so seriously in approximately 4 weeks?

If I remember correctly, her girl friend returned to their former apartment to pick-up some things on Monday evening. I wonder why she didn't go with her? It sounded like they moved out quickly--could there have been problems there?

I wonder why she didn't answer her phone when her friend called on Monday evening?

So many questions and now it's been more than 72 hours since anyone saw her.

 

[Pseudonymph]

Are any of the parks or wooded areas, or any areas around the shopping center particularly iffy to be wandering around in? Gosh, it was daylight...the morning.....

Not really. It’s a big-box store type area with lots of suburban developments. It’s considered a nice area to live, about a 15-minute drive to the beach. It has developed rapidly in the last 15 years. You could walk down a main, busy road or any number of neighborhood, or even into the country (such as it is) from there. It’s not especially walkable however.

I am a local theater person and there’s only one new theater coming that I know of, the Zeider’s American Dream theater that’s under construction in Town Center, about 30 minutes from Red Mill.

Virginia Beach is mostly suburban but it is geographically huge.

 

[wendy44]

If I remember correctly, her girl friend returned to their former apartment to pick-up some things on Monday evening. I wonder why she didn't go with her? It sounded like they moved out quickly--could there have been problems there?

I wonder why she didn't answer her phone when her friend called on Monday evening?

So many questions and now it's been more than 72 hours since anyone saw her.

Most leases will run beginning of August through end of July. So a lot of kids will take home what they can at graduation and go back to get the rest later in the summer. My guess is that's what Miriam was doing. If they're keeping an eye on the apartment to see if Denise shows up there, they must have time left on the lease.

 

[?mysterian?]

She was in the theatre fraternity and yes, a lot of the people out looking are in it as well. It's a small department at Longwood and they're very close.


Unfortunately, I lean that way as well. No solid information why, it's just more likely than a stranger abduction.

It's also possible she met up/reconnected with someone from her home neighborhood, but why leave phone/wallet, etc. behind?

 

[wendy44]

It's also possible she met up/reconnected with someone from her home neighborhood, but why leave phone/wallet, etc. behind?

It's looking like she was probably on foot, based on the social media postings in the past day. To answer the earlier question about the family being involved in the search, I saw a post that was public from a woman who was at the Mount Pleasant Methodist Church, about 10 or 12 miles south of Denise's house. She said Denise's father and several friends came into the church hoping to see surveillance video because tracking dogs had tracked her to the intersection of Mount Pleasant and Doolittle (she didn't say if there was video or not).

Another public post from friends said they were searching Northwest River Park, which is about 10 miles south of the church, with a ranger's permission and coordination. I don't know if dogs tracked her there or why they were focusing on that park, but they felt they'd found clues and were getting closer to finding her. It does give me hope that's she's still out there and that they will find her.

 

[whitelilac]

Is the Mt Pleasant and Doolittle intersection close to that church, also 10 to 2 miles south? How would Denise have gotten there....and then a further 10 miles south to that park? If the dogs are correct and it's a recent scent....it's hopeful. I wonder then whether she walked all that way, or went by vehicle with someone.
This reminds me of a colleague, way back when, who disappeared with no hint of anything wrong, and with no wallet, money etc. He was found after 2 weeks, about 60 miles away, with no idea how he got there. He had had a bipolar break, out of the blue, for the first time, was subsequently treated with meds and was fine. He was 25 at the time.
I wonder.....Denise is a creative, bright etc......plus she's in a life transition.
Could it be such an event?

 

[asmi106082]

I'm not familiar with that area at all, hopefully a local can weigh in on that.

There is a theater near the oceanfront that was recently renamed and is under new management. Formerly called Beach Movie Bistro it’s now Beach Cinema Alehouse. Might be the one they’re referring to.

 

[margarita25]

I just pulled up the address on the sex offender registry site. There are several that live around the address. One as close as .12 miles away.
https://www.familywatchdog.us/ShowList.asp#

(Catching up, just wanted to say unfortunately this seems to be the case in many cases, RSO map always seems to light up like a Christmas tree...)

 

[margarita25]

If anyone followed the AJ Hadsell case, this is the same university.

(Omggg I was just thinking of AJ literally 2 seconds before you posted this.......weird....)

Anyway, still catching up, anyone else missing from the area? What about reports of attempted abductions? Did she have a romantic partner...some initial thoughts and questions...back to reading)

 

[whitelilac]

(Omggg I was just thinking of AJ literally 2 seconds before you posted this.......weird....)

Anyway, still catching up, anyone else missing from the area? What about reports of attempted abductions? Did she have a romantic partner...some initial thoughts and questions...back to reading)

Denise does have a boyfriend. He is in Ohio (?) and he came down to help search for her.

 

[wendy44]

Is the Mt Pleasant and Doolittle intersection close to that church, also 10 to 2 miles south? How would Denise have gotten there....and then a further 10 miles south to that park? If the dogs are correct and it's a recent scent....it's hopeful. I wonder then whether she walked all that way, or went by vehicle with someone.
This reminds me of a colleague, way back when, who disappeared with no hint of anything wrong, and with no wallet, money etc. He was found after 2 weeks, about 60 miles away, with no idea how he got there. He had had a bipolar break, out of the blue, for the first time, was subsequently treated with meds and was fine. He was 25 at the time.
I wonder.....Denise is a creative, bright etc......plus she's in a life transition.
Could it be such an event?

Yes, the intersection is right by the church and then the park is another 12 or so miles south. I think they were at the church Thursday and then searching the park Friday. I looked up the distances on google maps so these would be driving distances if she was walking along the roadways. It would be shorter if she was cutting through other wooded areas.

I could see, with her personality, that she might have kept things bottled up inside her and maybe didn't get some help that she needed.

 

[wendy44]

Denise does have a boyfriend. He is in Ohio (?) and he came down to help search for her.

Yes--he was interning in Ohio for the summer and drove down Wednesday to help search.

 

[wendy44]

(Omggg I was just thinking of AJ literally 2 seconds before you posted this.......weird....)

I think of her every time I'm there. When I was moving my daughter out of the dorm freshman year (she lived two floors below AJ) I was on the elevator with AJ's roommate. Felt like a creeper knowing who she was, but, nope, just a websleuther.