CA CA - Kristen Modafferi, 18, San Francisco, 23 June 1997

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VeryVeritas,

I can't find any link between her co-worker and Jon Onuma. Do you have a reference? That would be quite a bombshell.
Apparently Kristen had spoken to co-workers about the Lands End (which is right next to the Sutro Baths) and she had accessed a web site about the Sutro baths on her PC. Tracking dogs appeared to have picked up he sent going in the direction of the Baths. All of that would suggest that she probably did go to the Sutro Baths/Lands End area.
Two co-workers did report seeing her with a blonde woman at the Crocker Galleria mall. It is possible that they were mistaken about it being her or that she and the blonde woman were actually together, but they did seem pretty sure about it. Since Kristin's disappearance was very "high profile" in the bay area with a lot of media coverage, it is highly probable that any blonde woman she had met with that afternoon would have come forward if she did in fact have nothing to do with the disappearance. We do know that Kristin knew nobody in the Bay

Area when she arrived 3 week earlier and she did place an ad seeking a female companion. Somewhere near her workplace after she got off would be a reasonable time and place to meet.

Given the above facts, it is very possible that she met a blonde woman through the ad who was part of a plan to abduct her OR there was no blonde and Kristen proceeded in the direction of the Baths and something happened after that that led to her disappearance.
There is a lot of information out there on her case but nothing suggests that there was any "issue" from back home in NC that led to her disappearance or was any suspicions raised about the co-workers who reported seeing her.

Jon Onuma is a sleazy guy. He has been investigated very thoroughly and nothing has been found linking him to Kirsten's disappearance. From what I can tell, Law Enforcement and the family are "satisfied" that he is uninvolved.

Some mysteries are never solved. Perhaps mistakes were made in the investigation but I can't see anything obvious.

Incidentally, the Bay Area is not a particularly dangerous place; for young women or anyone else. The crime rate is typical for large urban areas but it is focused in certain an areas; areas Kristen was unlikely to go. It is Big City however any everyone needs to exercise a certain amount of caution.
 
Hi WebSleuth-ers. I've visited this site many, many times. I went to high school with Kristen in Charlotte, NC, but graduated before her. Even though we were acquaintances only, we both participated in debate club, which was a rather small group for a large school. Since her disappearance, I've followed her story, hoping something will come up. In high school I was the victim of an attempted attack/abduction in Charlotte, so her disappearance has always been a "there but for the grace of god go I" sort of thing for me.

Anyway, not sure I wanted to write other than to provide my perspective. Kristen, from my recollection (I'm 36 now, and last saw her when I was 18) was a very smart and well-grounded young woman. She wasn't silly or shallow - I was more so than her at the time, so I wish I'd known her better. She was a pretty cool chick. There were several Modafferi girls, all very talented, smart and they seemed very close. I believe there is no chance in hell she left of her own accord. Her family was too close and frankly she was not a rebel or troublemaker - unless she dramatically changed in the last year before she disappeared (and nothing indicates she did).

Maybe she met with an accident, but I think it's more likely foul play. I still hope she's found one day. Two other kids from our debate team died in the two years after Kristen disappeared, both from natural, random causes. I've always felt sick about all of them. For better or worse, I hope she's found some day. Her family deserves it.
 
Island_Chica said:
Hi WebSleuth-ers. I've visited this site many, many times. I went to high school with Kristen in Charlotte, NC, but graduated before her. Even though we were acquaintances only, we both participated in debate club, which was a rather small group for a large school. Since her disappearance, I've followed her story, hoping something will come up. In high school I was the victim of an attempted attack/abduction in Charlotte, so her disappearance has always been a "there but for the grace of god go I" sort of thing for me.

Anyway, not sure I wanted to write other than to provide my perspective. Kristen, from my recollection (I'm 36 now, and last saw her when I was 18) was a very smart and well-grounded young woman. She wasn't silly or shallow - I was more so than her at the time, so I wish I'd known her better. She was a pretty cool chick. There were several Modafferi girls, all very talented, smart and they seemed very close. I believe there is no chance in hell she left of her own accord. Her family was too close and frankly she was not a rebel or troublemaker - unless she dramatically changed in the last year before she disappeared (and nothing indicates she did).

Maybe she met with an accident, but I think it's more likely foul play. I still hope she's found one day. Two other kids from our debate team died in the two years after Kristen disappeared, both from natural, random causes. I've always felt sick about all of them. For better or worse, I hope she's found some day. Her family deserves it.
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Thank you very much. Unlike other missing persons on WS's this case has had an odd type of silence associated with defining just who Kristen was. I think it's really important to get to know Kristen, to understand who she was, how she was thinking, etc... The way FBI profiles perps, it seems useful to really get inside of mind of the missing as much as you can.

The things you have said, do help support the idea of abduction.
To me the circumstances point to that.
But I wanted to rule out other possibilities anyway.

One thing that bothers me, and hope you can help clear it up. Is Kristen's sexuality. There has been absolutely no mention of boyfriends, etc... and you are the first person, to my knowledge to come forward from her life. Oddly her co-workers from the place she was last known to be... are silent and have had no interest! Her roommates that seemed to not know her at all, also seem oddly disinterested.
Kristen being exceptionally attractive, and as you indicate, also very intelligent and talented, would certainly attract attention from guys.
She had the guts to move to the bay area at a relatively young age.
She may not have been terribly street smart, but she by all accounts does not seem to have been a fool either.

So, my gut tells me that she was tricked (if it were a total stranger).
Or it was someone that she knew (either from back home, or perhaps had just met).

Theories like her walking out into the ocean might allow LE to close the case, but seem totally inconsistent with what is known about her. So, I don't buy that at all.

Odds favor that she knew the abductor somehow. So tracking all links to people who knew her, both in the Bay area AND from back home would be very important.

So, I want to know, did she ever have a boyfriend? Was she heterosexual?
These are things that need to be discussed.
 
My guess is that her family/friends have been silent because this happened so long ago. Honestly, everyone I knew from high school had pretty much given her up for dead within a year or so after she disappeared (if not sooner). Her disappearance was so at odds with her very engaged life that no other possibility seemed likely. Not saying it couldn't be likely, but you know what I mean. This happened long before message boards like this were common, and by now her contemporaries have moved on with our lives. Sad? Yes.

Regarding her sexuality, I'm honestly not sure and not the best person to ask. Remember that in the mid to late 90s, the "grunge" style was in. I recall her wearing some flannel plaid shirts and Doc Martens (things that today might signify a female is gay), but in those days, that wasn't all that unusual for a girl. I don't remember any boyfriends, and I definitely don't remember girlfriends. She honestly stayed really busy and just didn't seem to discuss it much. Some girls are boy crazy and some aren't. She was the latter if that was her inclination.

I do have a friend who went to college with her, and she may know more, but I'm not sure how to ask. College is really when a person would start exploring that - being openly gay in high school wasn't very common back in the mid-90s. I will say that her older sister (who is my age) didn't have boyfriends and wasn't really girly in high school either, but she ended up marrying a guy.

So, I guess the answer to your question is that I have no real reason to believe she was gay. All signs in my memory point to her being heterosexual.
 
And a few other things, now that I'm thinking about it (I pulled out my yearbooks last night). Kristen was attractive, but understand that my HS was populated with done-up, cheerleader types who wore a lot of make-up, dresses, etc. Those were the girls who were considered "hot" and had guys chasing them.

K wasn't considered "hot" in HS (though I believe she would have been a very pretty woman), and really didn't wear a lot of make-up or dress up like some girls. Our school was in a very affluent area and honestly she was just fairly average. She wasn't petite either - very athletic, pretty tall but in good shape - not fat at all, just solid (I know of what I speak, that's my build too). HS guys tend to go after the waifier girls at that age.

Not sure I'm really helping here. Just trying to paint a picture. This was a girl who was rather grounded and self-possessed in a superficial atmosphere. She played sports, did debate, got excellent grades (as evidenced by her scholarship) and was fairly artsy. Close family, everyone knew the Modafferi girls. They towed the line pretty well and weren't trouble makers or rebels.

Her older sister lives in Charlotte still and is very, very involved in the community there. Musician, yogi, lots of interests and friends - cool but not in the mainstream kind of way. That's probably how Kristen would have turned out.
 
Island_Chica said:
And a few other things, now that I'm thinking about it (I pulled out my yearbooks last night). Kristen was attractive, but understand that my HS was populated with done-up, cheerleader types who wore a lot of make-up, dresses, etc. Those were the girls who were considered "hot" and had guys chasing them.

K wasn't considered "hot" in HS (though I believe she would have been a very pretty woman), and really didn't wear a lot of make-up or dress up like some girls. Our school was in a very affluent area and honestly she was just fairly average. She wasn't petite either - very athletic, pretty tall but in good shape - not fat at all, just solid (I know of what I speak, that's my build too). HS guys tend to go after the waifier girls at that age.

Not sure I'm really helping here. Just trying to paint a picture. This was a girl who was rather grounded and self-possessed in a superficial atmosphere. She played sports, did debate, got excellent grades (as evidenced by her scholarship) and was fairly artsy. Close family, everyone knew the Modafferi girls. They towed the line pretty well and weren't trouble makers or rebels.

Her older sister lives in Charlotte still and is very, very involved in the community there. Musician, yogi, lots of interests and friends - cool but not in the mainstream kind of way. That's probably how Kristen would have turned out.
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Thanks again. Yes, I think what you are saying is important.
For me it puts perspective on things.

So, a few more questions hopefully you can help with...

1) Being that she was from an affluent and fairly sheltered(?) area, and yet she was well educated and had her wits about her... how would you rate her street smarts on a 1 to 10 scale? Particularly the radical differences that would exist in the Bay area vs. the protected world back home?

2) From your descriptors, it doesn't seem like you would think anyone from back home would have stalked her out to California?

3) You point out a lot of strengths... what about her possible weaknesses?

4) Other than what has been publicly known about her interests, would you know of any notable habits or peculiarities in her personality or behavior?

5) Would she be the sort of person that would scope out a new school and get to know her way around it, by visiting maybe a couple times before actually attending?

6) Do you think she would fall for a Ted Bundy sort of ploy to help a stranger in need? Essentially, would she have been that naive?

7) What do you personally feel about how her co-workers responded to her disappearance initially?

8) Also from your description it doesn't sound like she would have been seduced by someone on the spot and gone off with them. Instead, it would have been against her will. Why do you think she wouldn't resist, scream, etc?

9) She didn't clock out. And what you say supports my idea that she was just too responsible to do that. This has strongly left me thinking that whatever happened did involve her co-workers, and they overlooked the timecard as a smoking gun. If they were involved, the story about seeing her with the blonde person, could have been made up. Do you think she would just walk out without clocking out, after never having done so before? If so, what would it take to distract her to that degree?

The idea that I have formed is that some situation evolved that took her out of the workplace either forcibly or more likely by an initial deception.
For example, say a large order was picked up, but the person needed help carrying it just around the corner... she would be still on the clock.
In these scenarios, my gut tells me the co-workers would know something.
And therefore they hold the key to what really happened to her.

By contrast, if someone that she knew, even briefly, even if it would make her excited, wouldn't distract her enough in my view from clocking out properly. If she had to leave her shift early, she would tell someone else and clock out. The idea that she would just walk away from her job and not clock out without saying anything seems totally out of character.

So, again I'm thinking she was lured out, while on the job, and that coworkers know something. I do not think it's merely a coincidence that the only time she didn't clock out that she also vanishes. That is the key to the case.
 
I only have a few, but I'll do the best I can:

1) Being that she was from an affluent and fairly sheltered(?) area, and yet she was well educated and had her wits about her... how would you rate her street smarts on a 1 to 10 scale? Particularly the radical differences that would exist in the Bay area vs. the protected world back home?

She was only 18. I'd say they weren't awful, because she had common sense, but like any 18 y.o., she could be duped.

2) From your descriptors, it doesn't seem like you would think anyone from back home would have stalked her out to California?

Doubt it. Unless she met someone in college.

3) You point out a lot of strengths... what about her possible weaknesses?

She was so young - we all make mistakes when we're that age. Some of our mistakes are made around the wrong people. I honestly can't recall if she drank alcohol or used drugs. I dated a guy she was good friends with and he smoked a lot of weed. Very high achieving, but still a pot head. So, she'd certainly been exposed to that environment and wasn't fazed by it. A pothead in Charlotte is probably a lot different than a pothead in the Tenderloin of San Fran, ya know?

4) Other than what has been publicly known about her interests, would you know of any notable habits or peculiarities in her personality or behavior?

No, she was pretty normal. No irregular speech patterns, crazy accent or other behaviors that I knew of. Again, we were acquaintances (she'd been to my house a time or two and we were in debate together), not close friends.

5) Would she be the sort of person that would scope out a new school and get to know her way around it, by visiting maybe a couple times before actually attending?

Yes, I could see that. She was fairly extroverted and curious.

6) Do you think she would fall for a Ted Bundy sort of ploy to help a stranger in need? Essentially, would she have been that naive?

Maybe, she was 18.

7) What do you personally feel about how her co-workers responded to her disappearance initially?

I actually don't know what happened with them - did they act hinky? I just looked at findkristen.com and couldn't find any info about that. Could you link to some and I'll get back to you?

8) Also from your description it doesn't sound like she would have been seduced by someone on the spot and gone off with them. Instead, it would have been against her will. Why do you think she wouldn't resist, scream, etc?

Maybe she did and no one was around. Or maybe she trusted the person just enough until it was too late.

9) She didn't clock out. And what you say supports my idea that she was just too responsible to do that. This has strongly left me thinking that whatever happened did involve her co-workers, and they overlooked the time card as a smoking gun. If they were involved, the story about seeing her with the blonde person, could have been made up. Do you think she would just walk out without clocking out, after never having done so before? If so, what would it take to distract her to that degree?

I agree it is out of character. Not having looked at the case that carefully, I didn't realize she didn't clock out until I read some articles this week. I guess if she were excited or in a hurry it is possible.
 
In response to Kemo's 12/01/12 post. there is a known link between Jon Onuma and at least one of Kristen's co-workers.


http://www.findkristen.com/ResponseRD.html

Actually, Jill's ex-boyfriend, Matthew Luque, didn't work at Spinelli's at the time Kristen did but his close friend, Kelly Strathman did. It seems like a little too much of a coincidence, just like the missing pages of Jill's diary/day planner, but it could just be a "degrees of separation" issue.

At the time findkristen.com was set up, in 2005, Jon Onuma was the "prime Suspect". From what I understand, Law Enforcement and the family have now pretty much concluded that he was uninvolved. He is a manipulative abuser and a Con Man but nothing was found that suggests he is a killer. Jon did have ties to Danial Dubie, a Con Man who had gone far more "Big Time" than Jon ever did. Dubie represented himself as a sort of guru-lover and sought out young, vulnerable women whom he induced to commit crimes on his behalf. Danial was murdered in Thailand in 2005 by one of his long time female followers. Just another coincidence perhaps.

I think the best clue has always been the blonde in the mall. The co-workers were pretty sure it was Kristen they saw her with. Earlier that day, Kristen was batting around ideas of what she might do after work that day. She apparently was considering going to the Sutro Baths. This would suggest she had no definite plans. If she were meeting up with a new friend, perhaps someone she met through a personal ad, you would expect her have plans pretty well set. Still, a young woman who would place an ad for a companion to "do stuff with" would be likely to accept the friendly overture of a safe appearing young woman she might meet at, say, a bus stop.

It is not unheard of for sexual predators to use a female accomplice to lure a victim. Think Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. My best guess is that this is what happened. I am not aware of any other situations in California at the time that fit this pattern.

Then, there is always the Rogue Wave theory. People have been swept away by waves at Suro Baths and at least one body has never been recovered. The Pacific Ocean at San Francisco and North, is very different from the Atlantic around North Carolina. It can be very rough and in June, it is very cold, 55 degrees more or less.
 
kemo said:
In response to Kemo's 12/01/12 post. there is a known link between Jon Onuma and at least one of Kristen's co-workers.


http://www.findkristen.com/ResponseRD.html

Actually, Jill's ex-boyfriend, Matthew Luque, didn't work at Spinelli's at the time Kristen did but his close friend, Kelly Strathman did. It seems like a little too much of a coincidence, just like the missing pages of Jill's diary/day planner, but it could just be a "degrees of separation" issue.

At the time findkristen.com was set up, in 2005, Jon Onuma was the "prime Suspect". From what I understand, Law Enforcement and the family have now pretty much concluded that he was uninvolved. He is a manipulative abuser and a Con Man but nothing was found that suggests he is a killer. Jon did have ties to Danial Dubie, a Con Man who had gone far more "Big Time" than Jon ever did. Dubie represented himself as a sort of guru-lover and sought out young, vulnerable women whom he induced to commit crimes on his behalf. Danial was murdered in Thailand in 2005 by one of his long time female followers. Just another coincidence perhaps.

I think the best clue has always been the blonde in the mall. The co-workers were pretty sure it was Kristen they saw her with. Earlier that day, Kristen was batting around ideas of what she might do after work that day. She apparently was considering going to the Sutro Baths. This would suggest she had no definite plans. If she were meeting up with a new friend, perhaps someone she met through a personal ad, you would expect her have plans pretty well set. Still, a young woman who would place an ad for a companion to "do stuff with" would be likely to accept the friendly overture of a safe appearing young woman she might meet at, say, a bus stop.

It is not unheard of for sexual predators to use a female accomplice to lure a victim. Think Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. My best guess is that this is what happened. I am not aware of any other situations in California at the time that fit this pattern.

Then, there is always the Rogue Wave theory. People have been swept away by waves at Suro Baths and at least one body has never been recovered. The Pacific Ocean at San Francisco and North, is very different from the Atlantic around North Carolina. It can be very rough and in June, it is very cold, 55 degrees more or less.
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1) I'm not sure how someone like Onuma, into S&M, burning women with cigarettes could ever be off the hook. Similarly Dubie, although murdered in Thailand in 2005 by one of his "women", could have played a role. It is too much of a coincidence to me that these rotten and extremely dangerous apples connect with Kristen's co-workers, and especially since Onuma ALSO made that call falsely accusing others of Kristen's murder, and those key diary pages go missing.

2) There may be some more significant missing pieces(players) to this puzzle. While Onuma was linked to co-workers and made the call, and was very connected to a big time scum like Dubie, these guys likely were connected to other evil people - WHO? If we are considering human trafficking, abduction, etc... given the low-life predators involved here, how many degrees of separation to those with cash to buy Kristen? I'd say Zero to One. These are the kind of people that could have used Kristen for their own fun, or connect directly to people who would make such a purchase. Sure Dennis http://www.findkristen.com/OnumaCallsDennis.html says LE knows 500 times more than he, but what have they done with it?
Consider a scenario like this... Dubie and Onuma being con men, have "nets" out there looking for "fish". Kristen swims in, gets caught in the net.
To be more explicit, If Dubie had a buyer looking for an American girl with Kristen's characteristics, Onuma or others common to them, may have known about this request and had their eyes open. It's kind of like, if I told you I wanted a XX mega juicer for under $300 and suddenly you see it on sale for $299 and let me know. Onuma or similar elements in Dubie's circle could have had their sniffers on and the bells rang when Kristen popped up. They need not be involved in the actual abduction, but acted as the eyes and ears of those behind the abduction. Another factor is that I understand Onuma had an apt very nearby to Spinelli's at the time.

3) I'm not buying the blond thing(or TRUST the word of her co-workers) Kristen didn't clock out, and that is just too much out of character. I agree that she was lured someplace and likely with a female or some sob story. But that she was not lured very far - she was still on the clock. If she really did meet with a blond, that person should have been right there at Spinelli's. These were not the days of someone texting saying meet me upstairs by Victoria Secret. What could a person say to get Kristen to leave her post, but not clock out? To me this would be that she felt the situation would be very brief, or seemed like an on the job activity. She gets lured out of the building and poof something else happens and she's gone. Something that doesn't jive here is that the co-workers didn't notice her being lured out of Spinelli's. The question is why?

And then again, you are suggesting that "someone" lowered Kristen's defenses by luring her with the perceived saftey of another female. But this fits the MO perfectly of Dubie and Onuma. It's yet another coincidence that twisted pimpish con men who use women to do their bidding, while being tied to the co-workers are innocent... meanwhile someone else executes the same method on Kristen. Seems to me that LE got very warm on this one, but couldn't get enough to make a case for prosecution.



4) Similarly I don't think she would wander off from work, not clock out and then also coincidentally be swept into the ocean without a trace. The combination of these factors has to be something on the order of winning multiple powerball jackpots. Just not buying it.
 
I just wanted to clarify something regarding the personal ad. It has never been proven that Kristen placed a personal ad looking for a companion. A copy of the newspaper with the ad was found among her possessions and it sounded like something she might write, but there has never been definitive proof that the ad was placed by Kristen.
 
Litlstar04 said:
I just wanted to clarify something regarding the personal ad. It has never been proven that Kristen placed a personal ad looking for a companion. A copy of the newspaper with the ad was found among her possessions and it sounded like something she might write, but there has never been definitive proof that the ad was placed by Kristen.
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I remember that details about this personal ad are sketchy.
It makes no sense to me that the personal ad could not be ruled in or ruled out.
How would someone contact her? The contact information should be enough to rule it in or out. LE, and certainly the FBI would be able to check that one off the list. Certainly I wanted to rule out that if she did connect with someone at Berkeley or from this ad... because I see these as being the only alternatives to someone NOT connected to her co-workers or Onuma/Dubie

One other thing popped into my mind. Many Many years ago I managed a restaurant in a Mall like the Galleria. We would make drops(deposits) to a bank inside the Mall a couple times each day. We would often do this by putting the cash in a zippered deposit envelope, and then putting that in a paper fast food bag so it looked like a sack of food. This was obviously done to discourage anyone from noticing the pattern and staging a robbery.
Spinelli's didn't seem to have a lot of people on duty, so I wondered if someone like Kristen would be tasked with making the drop to the bank.
Usually this would be a manager or assistant manager task, but with fewer employees someone with Kristen's character could easily be trusted for such a task. I wonder if any LE or FBI audited the financials at Spinelli's that day? A place like that would have ended it's lunch rush by about 2:00-2:30 and a manager or leader of some sort likely would have counted out the money for a drop about then. This coincides with the time she was walking around in the Mall (supposedly) while not being clocked out.
Separately I also know that robberies of restaurants like Spinelli's were quite common in the Bay area. But because she went missing, and the strong stench of connections between co-workers and Onuma/Dubie... The idea of an inside job occurred to me as well. For example: Let's say that a co-worker or whomever was the manager or assistant manager tipped off Onuma or peripheral criminal about the cash drops (or they figured it out on their own by hanging around a lot). Either Kristen was set up to make the drop or they watched and saw that she was tasked with it. As she's walking inside or outside of the Mall (wherever the bank would be...) she's intercepted presumably for the robbery. However, the robber (possibly Onuma or connected to him) for one knows Kristen is now a witness that can make an ID... and that she is very attractive. So instead of just taking the cash (which likely would only be a few thousand dollars), they take Kristen as well. Killing witnesses to robberies does occur, but in this case they may have had additional motives (like rape and/or trafficking).

LE / FBI could disprove such a scenario if they carefully checked the accounting for Spinelli's and bank deposits. I have seen cases where Managers make it seem like they were ripped off when they in fact had something to do with the missing money. Even without any sign of missing money... her trip could have been something as simple as being sent to get "a roll of quarters" which could have taken her to something other than a bank.

Even if no money was involved, I strongly feel that Kristen did not clock out for a reason and that's a huge clue. For this reason, I don't see "random stranger" abduction to be in the cards. I think it was not random, it was planned. And I think the person was not a total stranger, at least to Spinelli's, the co-workers or Onuma(if not him directly).

I really would like that personal ad ruled in or out, because it could firm up this theory if ruled out. Even if the personal ad could be attributed to her, I don't see her wandering away from her post just 10 to 30 minutes before the end of her shift without clocking out.

This is one case where it looks to me like LE/FBI were on the right track with co-workers and Onuma but just don't have enough evidence to make something stick. There is something going on there, directly or indirectly.
I know supposedly Onuma was "cleared". But all that means is there is insufficient evidence. It doesn't mean that he wasn't involved, or that people connected to him were not involved.

This reminds me of the recent "escape" of Amanda Berry from Ariel Castro.
Castro was indirectly connected to 2 of the Victims. Amazing that LE could not see the rather remarkable connections between Castro and 2 of the 3 girls. This is exactly the kind of "peripheral" sort of person that I think was involved with Kristen's disappearance. Onuma fit that description and the scenario in almost every way. So, LE/FBI seemed to be on the right track here. We all know that totally random stranger abduction is quite rare.
The problem with this case (from public view) is the lack of evidence. If LE/FBI has a lot more evidence it is puzzling why nothing has happened. If they do, it must be significant to sit on it for this length of time. Otherwise, maybe they don't have much and if so... there will never be a conviction even if it was Onuma, his girlfriend or someone they knew.
 
The issue of the Personal Ad seems to be critical to this case. If Kristen did place it, it is very possible that it is connected to her disappearance.

My understanding is that in the 1990's, personal ads worked like this: you placed an ad (man seeking woman, just friends, etc.) followed by some means of being contacted. One could give a phone number but that would be inviting trouble. The most common means of contact would be a P.O. Box. Some papers provided a service where you could respond to the paper and they would get the responses to the person who placed the ad. I have no idea how the Bay Guardian worked. Whatever means of contact was used; Law Enforcement should have been able to verify whether or not Kristen placed the ad.

Based on various blogs and internet postings and quoted news reports, I was under the impression that Kirsten did place the ad. If, as has been reported here, the issue of the Personal Ad is just "Speculation" based on a copy of the Bay Guardian found in her room, it suggests extremely sloppy police work. It would not be that difficult to ascertain whether or not Kirsten placed the ad.

I follow many missing person stories on this site and I am unaware of any adult woman abducted by force off of an urban street. Bad things can happen to a woman walking alone, late at night, but there are usually other people around and cars passing by. Most urban abductions of adult women involve situations where women went voluntarily with their abductors: while hitch hiking, seeking employment or housing, accepting a ride from a "friendly stranger", going off for consensual sex, engaging in the sex trade, answering a personal ad etc. We don't know all the details of her life, but meeting an abductor through an "innocent sounding" Personal Ad would be a strong possibility. Arranging to meet near her place of employment, right after quitting time, would be very reasonable.

My understanding is (and anyone corrects me if I am wrong) that she left work a 3:00 PM which was her normal quitting time. She apparently forgot to "punch out" but she was not AWOL from work. Having supervised many people of all ages over the years, I can attest that people often forget to punch out; particularly when they are new on the job.

It is also my understanding (again, anyone correct me if I am wrong) that the co-workers who saw her with the Blonde in the Galleria were "pretty certain" that it was her. Could they have been lying? Did the officer who took the statement detect anything “hinky"?
 
Ozzie said:
Question: Was there a disappeared episode on Discovery ID for Kristen? For some reason I thought there had been but I cannot find one. If there has not been one, there should be. I hope Kristen's family gets answers.
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I don't think there's been a disappeared episode for Kirsten. Maybe a vanished one or similar?
 
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