TN - Gail Nowacki Palmgren, 44, Signal Mountain, 30 April 2011 **Location Project**

BeanE

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Thanks, the feeling is mutual!

Oriah was a big help with the Prentice Cooper area, mines, etc. If she went missing (on purpose or by accident), I feel it is right under our noses. Is there a specific place we can check? :waitasec:

Well, we could take one scenario at a time. Missing by accident, let's say a car accident. I wonder if we could research and see if we could find accident rates for, say, routes going from SM to Titus AL.

We could compile a list of high accident areas, and then, we could use the magic of the intertubes. :) We could sent out tweets with hashtags focusing on those areas and maybe truckers, asking people to be on the lookout for the Jeep and provide a description of it.

Watcha think, happy?

Oriah, can you weigh in? Is this a good strategy? What would be the most useful way to provide the info on the high accident areas?
 
When I was looking at the maps not too long ago, I also thought Huntsville and Birmingham, AL would be good places to be getting the word out. You pass pretty close to these metropolitan areas when driving to/from Chattanooga and Titus or Wetumpka, AL. Could the car have been abandoned in one of these metropolitan areas (no matter which theory you buy into?)

Also, if the car had been abandoned somewhere and then towed, would the tow yard know the vehicle was the subject of an alert?
 
When I was looking at the maps not too long ago, I also thought Huntsville and Birmingham, AL would be good places to be getting the word out. You pass pretty close to these metropolitan areas when driving to/from Chattanooga and Titus or Wetumpka, AL. Could the car have been abandoned in one of these metropolitan areas (no matter which theory you buy into?)

Also, if the car had been abandoned somewhere and then towed, would the tow yard know the vehicle was the subject of an alert?

I think those are good target areas, Irish. If we can identify these areas, we can get the hashtags for news and trucker organizations in those areas and send targetted tweets asking for peeps to keep an eye out for the Jeep.

I've been tweeting out the Jeep info and asking peeps to keep a lookout for the Jeep for some time now, but other than Chattanooga, I've been targetting states rather than cities and towns. I think the states are too large, and narrowing it down would be better. Also having more people tweet the Jeep info I think would be helpful. It only takes a few minutes, and I'm happy to help anyone interested in getting started with it.

I don't know the answer about the tow yard. We could probably research what happens to abandoned vehicles. We could make lists of tow yards and email them Gail's flyer with the Jeep pic.
 
I think those are good target areas, Irish. If we can identify these areas, we can get the hashtags for news and trucker organizations in those areas and send targetted tweets asking for peeps to keep an eye out for the Jeep.

I've been tweeting out the Jeep info and asking peeps to keep a lookout for the Jeep for some time now, but other than Chattanooga, I've been targetting states rather than cities and towns. I think the states are too large, and narrowing it down would be better. Also having more people tweet the Jeep info I think would be helpful. It only takes a few minutes, and I'm happy to help anyone interested in getting started with it.

I don't know the answer about the tow yard. We could probably research what happens to abandoned vehicles. We could make lists of tow yards and email them Gail's flyer with the Jeep pic.

Good food for thought, Bean.

Locating missing persons is often very much like finding a needle in a haystack. We are fortunate to have a larger needle, and a smaller haystack (her Jeep and cell pings) in Gail's case.

Has anyone checked these types of sites:

http://www.chattanooga.gov:8080/web...sc=Abandoned/Inoperable Vehicle&href&locreq=Y

in a variety of different counties and states?
 
Well, we could take one scenario at a time. Missing by accident, let's say a car accident. I wonder if we could research and see if we could find accident rates for, say, routes going from SM to Titus AL.

We could compile a list of high accident areas, and then, we could use the magic of the intertubes. :) We could sent out tweets with hashtags focusing on those areas and maybe truckers, asking people to be on the lookout for the Jeep and provide a description of it.

Watcha think, happy?

Oriah, can you weigh in? Is this a good strategy? What would be the most useful way to provide the info on the high accident areas?

Hi Bean, sorry to be late in responding to this! I missed it in the midst of a busy day/night.

Yes- IMO, this is a good strategy. Since we do not know what happened to Gail and her vehicle, it is always a good idea to look at possible accidents- since vehicular accidents are so common.

Much info on high accident areas can be found here:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/trafficinfo/tn.htm

Other states have similar sites.

Now- looking at the two comparisons, and your hypothetical, Bean- it appears I-24W into GA is a high accident area. AL 21S also seems to have high volume, as well as the Nashville and Knoxville routes.

If one were to head the 75 route to upstate NY- 75 and 87 both appear to have areas of high accident rates.

Also- if I understand correctly- SM does not have traffic cams in town. Is that correct, locals?

Sorry for the many thoughts!

Gail, where are you?
 
Hi Bean, sorry to be late in responding to this! I missed it in the midst of a busy day/night.

Yes- IMO, this is a good strategy. Since we do not know what happened to Gail and her vehicle, it is always a good idea to look at possible accidents- since vehicular accidents are so common.

Much info on high accident areas can be found here:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/trafficinfo/tn.htm

Other states have similar sites.

Now- looking at the two comparisons, and your hypothetical, Bean- it appears I-24W into GA is a high accident area. AL 21S also seems to have high volume, as well as the Nashville and Knoxville routes.

If one were to head the 75 route to upstate NY- 75 and 87 both appear to have areas of high accident rates.

Also- if I understand correctly- SM does not have traffic cams in town. Is that correct, locals?

Sorry for the many thoughts!

Gail, where are you?

What we could do is:

- Take each scenario for what might have happened to Gail, compile a list of target areas for each.

- When that's done, put the lists of areas together to eliminate duplicates. Note that not only cities, towns, etc can be combined, but also where we tell people to keep a lookout - on the side of the road, ditches, parking lots - these cover more than one scenario. (see my example tweet below)

- Find the Twitter hashtags, trucker organizations, reporters, news organizations, etc for each of those areas

- Write up some template tweets that can just be copied and pasted, and the hashtags and reporters etc on each changed appropriately

Here's an example tweet I've been sending out:

Pls be on lookout side of road ditches parking lots #CHA dk red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4dr black top TY! #CHAnews http://t.co/3xT6LrE


The link goes to Gail's info on HCSO website which has the pic of the Jeep and the contact numbers for HCSO. The #CHA hashtag targets people in the Chattanooga area. I did another one where I changed #CHA in two different tweets to two different hashtags that each target truckers - #truckers and #trucking. Note that would go to truckers across the US, and get less attention than if we could add one area/city/town hashtag as well, to get attention from, e.g., truckers in Birmingham. The more focused a tweet is, the more a person can relate to it, the more attention they pay to it.


- Recruit a team of people to send out the tweets several times a day at varying times to hit the people coming online at different times of day and night

- Start Tweeting out the info!

- Take the info assembled above and basically repeat the process, targetting trucker groups on the net via Facebook, and making the changes to the process that Facebook specific instead of Twitter specific.


I really think the combination of the truckers, with the technology offered by twitter and facebook to reach large numbers of people, and getting people to focus on looking for the Jeep, rather than Gail herself, might bring us some results.

The flyers being posted in various towns as well as across the net with Gail's picture has people already looking for her, and I just think we could supplement that with a focus on the Jeep.

If we work out the process, and get the kinks out, we could even write up a 'how to' guide and post it for use in other cases where there's a vehicle to look for.

Anyone interested in working on this, please holler. I'm more than willing to teach people how to use Twitter, and help in any way. This is just too big of a project for me to do by myself, I just unfortunately don't have the energy.
 
Ok, BeanE. I'm strugging with this Twitter code. If I just copy and paste exactly what you have there, including the link, will that work? Or does the link have to be attached separately? Can we ask this stuff here, or do we need a twitter tutoring twead? How do I come up with a distribution list, and then when I do a tweet, does it automatically go to everybody I've clicked to "follow"?

And...if I want to attach a different link, how to I do that?

Well, I think if we can get a few people together who want to help, we should ask for a separate thread for the project, so we don't overwhelm this one with "tweep" talk and lists of cities. :)
 
Perhaps we could also go in estimated time increments for possible driving distances? Such as- if Gail were traveling for an hour before her last cell ping- or two hrs- or four- or 24, etc in each direction- where would that place her Jeep when the signal was lost? That way I can refine each radius.
 
Well, I think if we can get a few people together who want to help, we should ask for a separate thread for the project, so we don't overwhelm this one with "tweep" talk and lists of cities. :)

I really think that "if you make it, they will come." I'm game, if you'll show me how. If I understand correctly, this would get the word out to an incredible number of people with very little work involved. Just tweet and re-tweet. Right?
 
I really think that "if you make it, they will come." I'm game, if you'll show me how. If I understand correctly, this would get the word out to an incredible number of people with very little work involved. Just tweet and re-tweet. Right?

I'm in too, just tell me what we need to do.


Hey Pearl, did you do the new signature? Did you have to get permission or anything? I want to use that one too.
 
I really think that "if you make it, they will come." I'm game, if you'll show me how. If I understand correctly, this would get the word out to an incredible number of people with very little work involved. Just tweet and re-tweet. Right?

Pearl, I agree, and if I had the energy to make it so they could come, it would have been done by now. :) Unfortunately, I'm disabled, and I just don't have the energy. That's why more people are needed.

Yes, sending out the tweets would get the word out to many, many people about the Jeep, with very little work. Copy/pasting and sending a tweet takes only a minute or two.

But putting together the information in my post upthread necessary - the areas for each scenario - compiling the area lists - searching for the hashtags for all the areas - etc - in order to start sending out those tweets - that will take a lot of work. I just don't have the energy to do it alone. I wish I did.

We've got 3 now - you, me, and confused. Hopefully a few more people will volunteer, and then we can request a thread and get to work.

I think it would be a great project, that people could jump in and out of as they have a few spare hours, a project with a common goal - to find Gail's Jeep, in order to find out what happened to her, no matter what that was.

:grouphug:
 
Is anyone here in touch with the people on BGHN personally? The reason I ask is that I'm guessing they have donations/financial resources applied toward finding Gail?
Wonder if someone could suggest to them a FB ad campaign? You can make it as broad or as targeted as you want, I know how to do it, and would show them how if need be. And it doesn't have to be expensive, either.

The difference between having an FB page and an ad campaign is that with a page, you are depending on a person having interest in going to your page. With an ad, you can set it up to target people who have certain other pages liked, like the Chattahoochee National Forest, or a motorcycle club, campground, shopping mall, etc. Then the ad will run on their page.

So for an ad targeting campers you could put a picture of the Jeep with the caption "Campers - Help Find Missing Mom" If they see the ad but don't click on it, you've at least put the thought in their head that a red Jeep is connected to a missing mom and to be alert. If they do click the ad, they can be directed to a flyer that has more specific info. Thoughts?

BBM
Irish_Eyes, You have some awesome ideas here which could be very effective, thank you! Although, in response to your comment BBM, I am local and have been involved in the search for Gail and her Jeep since the day she went missing. No, I never met Gail, but I did have a sister go missing a few years back, I have lived it from the inside with was blessed with a fortunate ending. I have also personally experienced and survived a dangerous relationship and a very carefully executed exit of that realtionship (I was lucky enough though, to get one step further than it appears GP did at this point). Thus, I was deeply touched by her disappearance. Anyway, I later came into contact with LE and the BGHN folks (and others close to Gail), and have remained in touch with all of them to date. I can tell you that there are no donations or funds available to either the BGHN folks or any of the other locals other than what is pulled from individual pockets. All efforts have been by the way of personally donated time and by the volunteers paying for out of pocket expenses (flyers, gas, use of equipment, search party support, permits, event supplies, etc.). Personally, I know what I have invested, and will continue to invest in terms of money, time, administrative efforts, personal energy, etc. I can only guess at what others may also be personally funding without complaint. I know one individual held a yard sale and used those funds to help defray various costs associated with the search for Gail.

I am not trying to toot any horns here, just stating facts. I guess when I read your comment, It just struck me that maybe the general public might assume there was a "magic account" which was funding all of the efforts or providing an allowance to certain persons...not so.

Just like everyone here on WS, we are doing what we can with what various resources and support we can provide. All for the same important cause, the effort to locate Gail and her Jeep. ...as the saying goes, "nothing worthwhile in life is free". What could be more worthwhile than to locate Gail and have answers to so many questions for her family and children?

On that note, I have seen many awesome suggestions from several posters to try and get the word out about the missing Jeep and Gail. I would like to extend an invitation to any of you on WS who wish to join my ongoing "Jeep Email Blitz Campaign". Let me clearly state, that I personally contacted LE (HCSO), proposed the effort and provided them with a sample email for their approval regarding content, specific informational details and the intended scope of distribution (so as not to compromise or undermine their investigative efforts). The intention of the email is to target agencies and companies which could potentially come into contact, and be able to verify/identify the Rubicon (via the VIN) and/or Gail or any other occupants of the vehicle. Since most of us are scattered around the country, using individual local knowledge and imagination could get this out further as a group instead of just one person.

If anyone registered on WS is interested (and JBean also blesses this), I would be happy to receive a PM containing your email address. I will then, in return, forward the email with 1 small attachment (as approved by LE), to that email address, along with the simple guidelines I have been following. Just a few people sending a few emails to specific targets (NO SPAMMING) will go a lot further every day.

This has not generated much return mail to the account I am using. All case-specific contact is specifically directed to LE. I have had just a few courtesy responses from companies verifying that they have run the VIN through their systems and have nothing to report, and a couple of good luck wishes in the effort. So, basically just send them out, pray somebody gets a hit, and contacts LE.

One last note on this, as a common courtesy I have also been in contact with DN regarding this, provided her with all of the details of this project, and a copy of the sample email as well. She clearly expressed her appreciation of the efforts to help locate GP and her Jeep.

Thanks everyone for your consideration, any help is welcomed and appreciated!

I will be available for a while this evening, back on later tomorrow morning. Not pulling another all-nighter this weekend :)

P.S. Just for clarification about email addresses...I will ONLY use this email to send the sample email with instructions, or to reply to an email you send to me at the jeep email address. I do not want to bypass this site or shut anyone here "out", but it IS necessary for the email to be forwarded from the Jeep's email addy to yours for the email to remain unaltered. Obviously, if there is a communication you feel is sensitive to the case, please feel free to either PM or use jeep addy. Otherwise, I have no problem discussing any of this where we can all participate as a group. We on WS all have the same end-goal in mind!
 
Fabulous! Can we add truckers? And I don't know if there might be differences between campers and campgrounds or additional hashtags that could be used. Would rental garages fit? Or those places you rent a parking space?

Thank you so much, Irish! :blowkiss:


We have Covenant Transportation right at our doorstep!!!
www.covenanttransport.com/
Truckload carrier company operating nationally, with headquarters and main terminal in Chattanooga.

400 Birmingham Hwy
Chattanooga, TN 37419
(423) 821-1212

Does anyone have a contact here? I had a friend that drove for them for awhile (having been in real estate) but he is back in Florida.
 
Okay, looking into this a little I think this makes the most sense how to approach.

I'm going to propose a list of categories we may want to find hashtags for based on theories about where the Jeep could be. NOT GAIL. The Jeep. I would like any input if I have missed something obvious that we should be looking at. I'm new at this too, so I'm sure my list won't be all inclusive. Then we can go about trying to compile hashtags that might assist us in targeting that specific point of interest. Some of these are logical and some are just blind guesses.


Major Metropolitan Areas (not counting Chattanooga)

Birmingham
Huntsville

Venues in SE TN, N. AL and N. GA

Large airports
Hotels
Shopping Malls

(places where MP, GP, or another party might have chosen to abandon a vehicle? or where GP could still be using it?)

Hobbyists

bikers
ATV clubs
Jeep enthusiasts
campers

does this sound like a place to start?
(same idea but if the vehicle was abandoned somewhere more rural)

Hi Irish!
Yes, this sounds like a great idea!

Jeep and biker enthusiasts made me think of some friends I have who ride Harleys bi-annually along the Blue Ridge Parkway...as well as cross country.
I know both HD and Jeep have a magazine that they send out to owners. I wonder if maybe one or the other (or both) would feature Gail's Jeep in some sort of 'Spotlight' campaign?
 
Wonder if anyone in LE or others have been looking for 2010 Jeep Rubicon parts on Craig's List or EBay, etc...or the jeep intact, for that matter??

I hope so! For a while I was searching Craigslist, but I am so lost on anything vehicle-related, I don't do anyone any good with it.

That would be another great project - Craigslist, eBay, etc. There's that AutoTrader newspaper you see in 7-11 & supermarkets. I don't know if that's popular but I see it everywhere. There might be an online version of it.

Maybe somebody could grab this and start up a project with it.

We've got to find that Jeep!
 
Okay, looking into this a little I think this makes the most sense how to approach.

I'm going to propose a list of categories we may want to find hashtags for based on theories about where the Jeep could be. NOT GAIL. The Jeep. I would like any input if I have missed something obvious that we should be looking at. I'm new at this too, so I'm sure my list won't be all inclusive. Then we can go about trying to compile hashtags that might assist us in targeting that specific point of interest. Some of these are logical and some are just blind guesses.


Major Metropolitan Areas (not counting Chattanooga)

Birmingham
Huntsville

Venues in SE TN, N. AL and N. GA

Large airports
Hotels
Shopping Malls

(places where MP, GP, or another party might have chosen to abandon a vehicle? or where GP could still be using it?)

Hobbyists

bikers
ATV clubs
Jeep enthusiasts
campers

does this sound like a place to start?
(same idea but if the vehicle was abandoned somewhere more rural)

Fabulous! Can we add truckers? And I don't know if there might be differences between campers and campgrounds or additional hashtags that could be used. Would rental garages fit? Or those places you rent a parking space?

Thank you so much, Irish! :blowkiss:

We have Covenant Transportation right at our doorstep!!!
www.covenanttransport.com/
Truckload carrier company operating nationally, with headquarters and main terminal in Chattanooga.

400 Birmingham Hwy
Chattanooga, TN 37419
(423) 821-1212

Does anyone have a contact here? I had a friend that drove for them for awhile (having been in real estate) but he is back in Florida.

I think we need to concentrate on completing this and getting it all into a reference chart, because everybody working on Jeep finding projects is gonna need it.

Another target for Twitter. I noticed if you search for just Jeep, as people would do if they're looking to buy a Jeep, that my tweets on Gail's Jeep pop up. So another target audience or group for hashtags would be people looking to buy Jeeps or maybe even similar vehicles - SUVS?

I remember somebody saying Gail liked to off-road. Let me be the first to admit that I have no idea what off-roading is. :) Regardless, if this is a recreational group, maybe hashtags to target them with tweets?
 
Irish Eyes mentioned ads yesterday, and I thought about that AutoTrader magazine up above. What about all those free newspapers in 7-11 and supermarkets you see. If any of them have a section for free ads - maybe a Lost and Found section - there's another project. Place an ad with the pic of the Jeep - Have you seen this Jeep & HCSO's number?

And that brings another thought - the flyer campaign with the Jeep's picture - the supermarkets here all have bulletin boards you can post things on. I've been posting missing person flyers on them for years. I don't anymore because I'm housebound, but... I've gotten my hubby and son to always carry missing person posters with them wherever they go and keep an eye out for bulletin boards and stick up flyers on them.

And... that brings up another thing. You can have business cards made up really cheap. Much cheaper than flyers. And they're a lot easier to carry. Again, hubby and son always have a pocket full of them for missing persons. They hand them out and stick them up everywhere. Go to the mall or library or just about anywhere, and the managers never mind them leaving a handful on a counter. Many ask for more they can keep behind the counter for when the ones on the counter run out, they can replenish them.

Maybe another mini project somebody could grab - getting the flyer into business card format, contacting Diane/Kevin and/or HCSO for approval of the info on it, and posting the template online that people could either print their own business cards or have them printed up.

And now it's time for scrambled eggs and blueberry muffins. Sunday morning breakfast. :)
 
If anyone here has a local friend that works for a car dealership ask them to run a CARFAQs on the vehicle using the VIN. If memory serves me correctly, the VIN is only located on the engine and on a plate that is shown in the front bottom window. Call the junk/salvage yards in the area to see what kind of parts they have for a 2010. I'll talk to my daughter, she is an assistant manager for a parts store here in my state and she may know of other ways a person might get rid of car parts. I believe Gail's vehicle was a rag top, so if any of the salvage yards were selling a 2010 rag top then I would want to see the vehicle it came off of. A lot of salvage yards have what they call U-Pull-It where as an individiual actually pulls the part off the vehicle themselves and save a lot of money in doing so. I'll also ask my daughter if this vehicle has anything unique about it which would be telling to look for. More than likely if this vehicle has been chopped then the car parts have been sent to another state across the country to get rid off in order not to be found near TN or AL.
 
Quick thought - mini project - take the VIN and pull any/all available info about the Jeep, and put it all together in one post that everybody working on Jeep finding projects can use as a quick reference chart? Maybe make it a sticky?

Might want to talk to fireflylink about this. She has info on the VIN and Jeep and I believe is working with LE on this already. Some people are already doing some searches online, possibly real life. fireflylink has done a lot of searching on her own, if I understand correctly. Plus, I'm one of the online searchers and I'm already doing some searches on some of the places you've suggested. Just putting that out there. No need to waste time doing duplicate searches if the area of interest and search is already covered.
 

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