CT CT - Maria Anjiras, 14, Norwalk, 12 Feb 1976

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MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS Missing 12 Feb 1976 Norwalk, CT

MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS
DOB: Aug 10, 1961
Missing: Feb 12, 1976
Age at time: 14
Age Now: 43
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'6" (168 cm)
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Endangered Runaway
Missing From: NORWALK, CT, United States

Maria was last seen on February 12, 1976 leaving her home on a blue English race bike. The bike was later found approximately one mile from Maria's home but she has not been heard from since.

Norwalk Police Department (Connecticut) 1-203-854-3000

Link
http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...aseNum=939153&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US
 
I found out a little more about Maria's case and posted it on my own website, the Charley Project:

Anjiras was last seen leaving her home on Milwood Road on February 12, 1976. She was riding a blue English Racer bicycle. The bicycle was found abandoned near St. Mary's Lane approximately one mile from Anjiras's residence. There was no sign of her at the scene and she has never been heard from again.
Investigators are uncertain what happened to Anjiras. Her mother stated that she took some clothes and money with her when she vanished, which indicate she left of her own accord. However, it would be highly unusual for her not to contact her family for decades afterwards. There is no hard evidence that foul play was involved in her disappearance, however. Police reopened Anjiras's case in 2003, but it remains unsolved.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/anjiras_maria.html
 
Well, thirty yeard have passed since Maria disappeared. Has anyone seen any updates or anniversary articles?
 
I wonder if Maria's disappearance might be related to some of the other disappearances mentioned in other Cold Case threads? She was riding her bicycle, just like some others. The bicycle was found, but she was not.
 
I was looking through the missing persons from CT, and comparing them to the UVs on the Doe Network. Does anyone see any similarities between these two cases? Granted, the UV was found in CA, 3000 miles away, and years later, but stranger things have happened. There is just something in the face that looks familiar. Then again, I could just be seeing things! :crazy:

NCMEC:
http://tinyurl.com/m23zl

Doe Network:
http://doenetwork.us/cases/324ufca.html
 
The Doe Network:
Case File 1032DFCT

MFAnjiras.jpg
MFAnjiras1.jpg

Left: Anjiras, circa 1976; Right: Age progression to age 41 (circa 2002)

Maria Florence Anjiras
Missing since February 12, 1976 from Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Classification: Endangered Runaway




Vital Statistics
  • Date Of Birth: August 10, 1961
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 14 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5' 6" - 168 cm; 120 lbs - 54 kg
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; blue eyes.



Circumstances of Disappearance
Anjiras was last seen on February 12, 1976 leaving her home on a blue English race bike. The bike was later found approximately one mile from Anjiras' home. She has not been heard from since.



Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Norwalk Police Department
Detective Art Weisgerber
Cold Case Unit
203-854-3028
E-Mail


NCIC Number: M-412552011
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Return to the Unexplained Disappearances' Index

 
Maybe these links will work:


The Doe Network: Case File 1032DFCT
Maria Florence Anjiras Missing since February 12, 1976 from Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut. Classification: Endangered Runaway ...
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/1032dfct.html

ChildSeek Network
Name: MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS (Endangered Runaway) Missing since: Feb 12th, 1976 | Age: 44. Click or mouseover thumbnails to enlarge ...
http://www.childseeknetwork.com/?archive=380


Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - Janice Pockett-missing 7/26 ...
Check the thread on: MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS Missing 12 Feb 1976 Norwalk, CT Link
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5007

The Charley Project: Chronological Index: 1970s
http://www.charleyproject.org/chron/1970s.html

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS NCMC939153 -Endangered Runaway (View Poster) DOB: Aug 10, 1961 Age: 44 Missing: Feb 12, 1976 Race: White NORWALK, CT, US ...
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/ PubCaseSearchServlet?act=usMapSearch&missState=CT
 
wondering22 said:
Maybe these links will work:


The Doe Network: Case File 1032DFCT
Maria Florence Anjiras Missing since February 12, 1976 from Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut. Classification: Endangered Runaway ...
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/1032dfct.html

ChildSeek Network
Name: MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS (Endangered Runaway) Missing since: Feb 12th, 1976 | Age: 44. Click or mouseover thumbnails to enlarge ...
http://www.childseeknetwork.com/?archive=380


Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - Janice Pockett-missing 7/26 ...
Check the thread on: MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS Missing 12 Feb 1976 Norwalk, CT Link
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5007

The Charley Project: Chronological Index: 1970s
http://www.charleyproject.org/chron/1970s.html

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
MARIA FLORENCE ANJIRAS NCMC939153 -Endangered Runaway (View Poster) DOB: Aug 10, 1961 Age: 44 Missing: Feb 12, 1976 Race: White NORWALK, CT, US ...
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/ PubCaseSearchServlet?act=usMapSearch&missState=CT
thank-you:D
 
Anjiras was last seen leaving her home on Milwood Road on February 12, 1976. She was riding a blue English Racer bicycle. The bicycle was found abandoned near St. Mary's Lane approximately one mile from Anjiras's residence. There was no sign of her at the scene and she has never been heard from again. Investigators are uncertain what happened to Anjiras. Her mother stated that she took some clothes and money with her when she vanished, which indicates she left of her own accord. However, it would be highly unusual for her not to contact her family for decades afterwards. There is no hard evidence that foul play was involved in her disappearance, however. Police reopened Anjiras's case in 2003, but it remains unsolved.

 
Who other than her mother saw her leave? It seems odd that the bike would just be abandoned...I would think she would at least try to sell it for a few bucks if she intended to run away.

If she had grabbed some clothes and money, what was the context? Was she intended to stay the weekend at a friend's house? Did she fight with Mom and then pack up in a fit of pique? Did Mom throw her out? Was Mom violent with her?

This lacks context.
 
http://www.thehour.com/story/479291
12/12/2009

GONE TOO LONG: Hunting for Maria Anjiras

Maria disappeared from her family's Midwood Road home, a two-floor house tucked away in the Cranbury section of Norwalk among a tiny network of country streets ending in the suffix -wood, on Feb. 12, 1976.

Elsie and Constan Anjiras, Maria's mother and father, told The Hour in a 1978 interview that up until Maria's disappearance, Feb. 12 was another routine, mundane Wednesday for their family. Maria was scheduled to take a vocal lesson in the afternoon and babysit for a neighbor early in the evening. Her father was supposed to drive her to both events.

Constan Anjiras last saw his daughter at 2:15 p.m. when he was leaving for work. Maria did not return home for a ride to either of her scheduled appointments and her father reported her missing at 5:45 p.m.

According to Britland, Maria struggled to connect with her father, who was in his 50s and was very protective of his teenage daughter. Maria's relatives later told police that Maria had threatened to run away two weeks prior to her disappearance, but they talked her out of it.

Still, investigators said Maria took multiple sweaters, a pair of jeans, pajamas and some money before she left the house on the day she disappeared. Police later found Maria's bike at an undisclosed location near St. Mary's Lane.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=1159,245342&dq=maria-anjiras&hl=en
2003
 
I think Maria looks interesting but there appears to be a very strong report of her having gotten into a fight in Connecticut on August 27, 1976. If that is the case then clearly she hadn't been dead in South Carolina for three weeks.

Norwalk Police gained information that she had been seen on Aug. 27, 1976, at a Danbury bar frequented by Charter Oaks members and gotten into a fight with a girl who hung around the bikers.

That's quoted here and there's more information here which makes me pretty sure that the date, at least, is reliable.

I also think she may be a little too young - at 15 there are still skeletal and dental developments to come that might preclude her from appearing older to a medical examiner. However that assumes that the investigation was handled correctly and that Maria wasn't unusually physically mature.

Of course there is also the mole issue. I wonder whether any of the bikers, who were identified and who admitted knowing Maria would be in any position to provide information, now that they are presumably into their sixties and maybe somewhat mellowed by age.
 
Constan Anjiras last saw his daughter at 2:15 p.m. when he was leaving for work. Maria did not return home for a ride to either of her scheduled appointments and her father reported her missing at 5:45 p.m.
Anyone else think that's a little weird? I mean, Maria was gone for barely three hours before her dad called the police...just because she missed her appointments, he assumed something horrible had happened? She was 14; if she was like most other girls her age, she could easily have forgotten she was supposed to come right home, gone off with a friend, etc. That IMO suggests that perhaps there was something else going on in the family that maybe they didn't mention publicly.
 
hmmm...so Mom knew she had threatened to run away. Knew she had taken the clothes on the bike, and let her leave? I feel like i'm missing a big something here. That paired with the small window of time before she was reported missing. Something just seems way off. Not accusing anyone of anything, just feel like they aren't releasing all of the information they have on her.
 
A bump.

Despite several comments here I see little in her family's behaviour other than concern. The evidence (as laid out in Charley Project) is unequivocal that she was seen and identified by many people (including friends and police) following her disappearance and that she was associating with the Charter Oaks Motorcycle Club. This seems a case of a teenager meeting the wrong people and she may have met her end as a result (although this is uncertain). As noted in one of the comments it could be worth LE reinterviewing some of the club members now they are older. However, I suspect this was done (at least to some extent) in and after 2004, as explained in the following links to a two part story which appeared in the press in 2009; http://www.outpostforhope.org/what-...long-search-for-maria-anjiras-continues.html; http://www.thehour.com/news/norwalk...cle_b8c76979-83ae-59fd-8cea-25852c57e6b8.html.

The most worrying aspect of this case (given the solid link to the club) is the record of Charter Oaks Motorcycle Club. The following links give a flavour of their reputation;
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...IBAJ&sjid=Om4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=2655,1306611&hl=en; a report on a gang rape for which 4 members were charged in 1981.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=WQYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1927,259527&hl=en; a report on the conviction of a member for a triple murder in 1977.

I really do not know what to think about this case. A runaway who meets a bad end or a runaway who manages to disappear to a new life?
 
NPD Cold Case investigator Lt. Art Weisgerber hopes to bring closure to family of teen missing since 1976

http://www.thehour.com/news/nw-police/npd-cold-case-investigator-lt-art-weisgerber-hopes-to-bring/article_be8042e2-92cd-5cae-967e-a39646e66199.html

In the hope that someone may have information that will determine Maria's whereabouts, Weisgerber posted the details of the case on the Norwalk Police Department Facebook page:

"On February 12th, 1976 at 5:46 PM, the Norwalk Police received a Missing Person complaint from Mr. Anjiras of 2 Midwood Road that his 14 year old daughter had run away from the house at approximately 2:15 PM. It was reported that Maria left her house on a blue English racer bicycle and was wearing her Norwalk High School jacket with the # 79 and her nickname "Mia". After Maria did not return home in time for her music lesson, Mr. Anjiras checked the homes of some friends and located the bicycle at the home of Judy Altemose at 50 St. Mary's Lane. Judy and other friends of Maria reported to the Police that they had not seen Maria or heard from her."

"Over the next few days, there were reported sightings of Maria at Duchess Restaurant on Main Street and possible in an orange car and a black car in the same general area. She was never located. A list of friends were interviewed several times by the police and all reported not knowing where Maria was or hearing from her. Numerous leads were followed, even the possibility of Maria being with the Charter Oaks Motorcycle Club in Bethel, CT. After September of 1976, little information or leads came in for Maria Anjiras and none of her family or friends reported being contacted by Maria. Mr. Anjiras passed away in 1983 and Mrs. Anjiras a few years later without ever hearing from Maria again."
 
In reading the circumstances of this case, a thought occurred to me. February 12, 1976 fell on a Thursday. Did Maria attend school that day? It says that her father last saw her leaving their home at 2:15pm, I know every school is different, but 2:15 seems slightly early to already be home from school. Did school let out early that day? Or was there a teacher's meeting or something and classes were cancelled altogether that day? Or did Maria cut school completely that day?

It's obvious that, at least voluntarily, Maria left voluntarily. Were there problems at home that made her run away? I know it says that her father was very protective of her, but could there have been other family disagreements that made her want to leave? She had apparently threatened to run away a few weeks before she vanished, so she'd at least been contemplating it for a little while.

Also, were they ever able to positively identify and question the girl named Donna that Maria was said to have fought with on August 27?
 
Updating the links

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/anjiras_maria.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1032dfct.html
http://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/939153/1

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/2560/0
from the circumstances section: "Updated info in 2015 - Investigation into Maria being the young female observed at the Charter Oaks Motorcycle Club in Bethel, CT was found to be a different 17 year old female from Danbury,CT that went on to marry Pepe and live in South Carolina. This female was interviewed and it appears that the Bethel information is not viable."
 

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