Calif: Mother of missing teen for two years pleads for information
Patty
chose to give money to charity rather than profit off a story. I think
that most of us would also like to see the same thing done with rewards.
By Mike De La Cruz
Merced Sun-Star Staff Writer
The mother of missing Winton teen-ager Vanessa Dawn Smith made a
passionate plea to those responsible for her daughter’s disappearance
more than two years ago to come forth.
Beverly Smith’s plea came during a news conference Friday in which
$5,000 in reward money was contributed to the Vanessa Smith Fund by the
Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation (CSCMRF).
Smith has sought to learn what happened to her daughter who went for a
walk on May 31, 1997, and never returned. The only trace of her
disappearance was a walking stick she usually carried on her walks. The
stick was found along the roadside on Mercedes Avenue approximately 200
yards east of Winton.
“I hope the person responsible for Vanessa’s disappearance is
watching,” she said. “I want you to know this has been the most
difficult thing I have had to endure in my lifetime – missing my
daughter.”
Smith told the audience gathered in front of the Merced County
Sheriff’s Department that she has now gone through two Christmases
without Vanessa.
“Vanessa disappeared on her 16th birthday and now I’m about to
experience her 18th birthday without her.”
Smith said she has watched other families go searching for their loved
ones during the past two years.
“But there has been one big difference – they have been able to bring
their searches to a conclusion,” she said.
“Please allow my family and friends to spend this holiday season
knowing what happened to my daughter. This not knowing is killing us
day after day.”
Sheriff Tom Sawyer, expressing appreciation to the CSCMRF for the
contribution, told the audience it is imperative to keep Vanessa Smith
in the limelight.
Sawyer said the case remains open, with investigators following up on
every lead as it comes up. However, all leads have led nowhere, he said.
“Somewhere out there someone knows something,” Sawyer said. “This is
why adding to the reward fund is important, he said.
The $5,000 contribution from the foundation, added to a $10,000 reward
from the governor’s office and a $25,000 reward available from the
Child Safety Network brings the reward to $40,000.
Jody Stayner, widow of kidnap victim Steven Stayner, and sister-in-law
of Cary Stayner, also was at the conference.
Cary Stayner is charged with the murders of Carole Sund, her daughter,
Juli, and family friend Silvina Pelosso. The three women were visiting
Yosemite National Park when they were killed. Her brother-in-law is
also charged with the murder of Joie Armstrong, a Yosemite Park
naturalist.
Jody Stayner, who donated the proceeds of a television interview to the
Carrington Foundation, brought the plight of the Smith case to
foundation officials who contributed the $5,000 reward.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Patty
By PATTY GUERRA
Modesto BEE STAFF WRITER
(Published: Friday, November 05, 1999)
MERCED -- Two families on opposite sides of the Yosemite murders are
joining together to help a third family solve its own terrible mystery.
At a press conference today, the Carole Sund-Carrington Memorial
Reward Foundation will announce a $5,000 contribution to the reward
fund in the case of Vanessa Dawn Smith, a Winton teen-ager who has been
missing for more than two years.
The donation came at the request of Jody Stayner, widow of kidnap
victim Steven Stayner and former sister-in-law of Cary Stayner, who has
been charged with the murders of Carole Sund, her daughter Julie and
family friend Silvina Pelosso in February while they were visiting
Yosemite National Park. He has also been charged with the July murder
of Yosemite naturalist Joie Armstrong.
Jody Stayner said she got involved after representatives of a
television show offered to pay her for an interview after Cary
Stayner's arrest.
"'Inside Edition' asked me to do an interview (and) expressed their
desire to give me money," she said. "At first, I didn't want to talk to
anybody."
But Stayner said she eventually agreed to the interview, thinking
she could help others in the process. "I told them, yes, I would, but I
would request that that money be donated to the Carrington Foundation."
Stayner said the memory of her late husband helped convince her to
change her mind. Steven Stayner was kidnapped from a Merced street as a
child in 1972 and escaped from his captor seven years later. He died in
a motorcycle accident in 1989.
"After Steven was brought home and before he died, he and his mother
(Kay) did so much to try and help people," she said. "The Stayners are
good people. I have two children with the same last name, and I want to
show the world that there are good people out there."
Stayner said she did not know the Smiths, but had heard of them
because Stayner's Ballico home is not far from Winton, where the Smiths
live. Vanessa disappeared May 31, 1997, after leaving her home to take
a walk. Investigators continue to work on the case, but little progress
has been made.
Jody Stayner brought the case to the attention of Kim Petersen,
director of the Sund-Carrington reward foundation.
"It's a case in her community," Petersen said. "It has been one
that's affected her because of having a daughter a similar age."
Petersen said this is the 13th case the fund has been involved in
since it was established in May to offer rewards to locate missing
people and capture violent criminals.
The contribution will bring the total reward fund for the Smith
investigation to $15,000.
Merced County Sheriff Tom Sawyer said he hopes the money entices
someone who can offer leads in a case that has left detectives
discouraged with the lack of clues.
For Jody Stayner, working with the Carrington-Sund fund is a way to
honor her husband's memory, and to set an example for her children,
Steven Jr. and Ashley, who were very young when their father died.
She said she and her children didn't see much of the Stayner family
over the past few years, and they generally only got together at the
holidays. But they did know Cary Stayner.
"It is very hard on my children," Stayner said. "They read these
articles I've saved about their father, and now it's their uncle (in
the newspapers). It's the complete flip side of the coin."
Sawyer will be host of the press conference, which will begin at
10:30 a.m. in front of the Sheriff's Department, 700 W. 22nd Street,
Merced. Beverly Smith, Petersen, and Jody Stayner are scheduled to
attend.
