South Louisiana mourns the missing at Christmas
For some, the holidays are not happy times. Instead, it is time to remember and mourn friends and relatives who have vanished without a trace. Perhaps we can help change that for one family this week.
The Charley Project profiles approximately 10,000 missing person cold cases in the United States. The non-profit does not actively investigate cases; it is merely a publicity tool allowing relatives to report loved ones missing for over a year. Their database includes 253 missing persons from Louisiana.
Before New Year’s Day each year, Bayou Justice routinely revisits some of their cases from Southeast Louisiana, hoping someone reading this column can help bring one of these families some vestibule of peace this holiday season.
Detectives in Livingston Parish are still searching for a 33-year-old Albany woman reported missing on August 17, 2015. Stacy Renee Baham, a Caucasian female 5’ 5” tall, weighed almost 130 lbs when she disappeared. She had brown hair and brown eyes with a butterfly tattoo on her left shoulder. She also has tattoos on her lower back, right arm, and left breast, and her ears are pierced.
Police found that her Facebook Profile identified her as Stacy Cook. According to that Profile, she was from Saint Matthews, South Carolina, studied Health Care Management at Colorado Technical University, and worked at the Hammond Nursing Home until April 2015. Facebook videos show her with her son and stepson at the Livingston Parish Fair and the Albany Christmas Parade.
Stacy’s father reported her missing after she left her son with a friend without returning to pick him up. Her boyfriend told LPSO Detectives that he and Stacy had just broken up and that she had left with his vehicle.
Friends last saw Stacy Renee Baham in Holden on August 10, 2015, and Gonzales on August 11, 2015, and then drove through Maurepas at 5:00 AM, August 12. Investigators found her boyfriend’s vehicle abandoned—out of gas—near LA Highway 22 in Maurepas on August 29, 2015.
Fifteen years ago, witnesses saw 58-year-old Barbara Blount talking to a man in a Ford truck at the end of a gravel hunting club road a quarter-mile from her home on Highway 1036 in Holden. Later the same day, Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Deputies found the woman’s 2006 Toyota Camry abandoned nearby, but Barbara Blount remains missing today.
Denham Springs Police found Air Force Veteran Nathan Blaine McGraw’s car abandoned, left at a friend’s home in 1996. Today, McGraw would be 45 years old. When he went missing, officials described him as a white male, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing approximately 165 to 170 pounds. He had brown hair and brown eyes.
If you have any information about these Livingston Parish residents’ whereabouts, please contact the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Department at 225-686-2241.
Navy Veteran William Denzel Newman, Jr., has been missing from his home in Slidell since 1980. Relatives described him as a Caucasian male with black hair and blue eyes. He had tattoos on both arms and shoulders and may sometimes answer to the first name Richard. Today, he would be 68 years old.
He may have been last seen in Lacombe, Louisiana, wearing a red short-sleeved shirt with stripes around the collar.
Neighbors last saw Julie Renee Gann Brumfield at her home in Abita Springs in 1994. Brumfield, a Caucasian female, wore red gym shorts and a white T-shirt. She usually wore 3 or 4 rings on each hand and a heart-shaped pendant necklace with a diamond in the center. Police believe her assailant took her clothes and her car. Police found both the following day in the parking lot of her apartment complex. She would be 64 years old today.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office is working on those cases. If you can help, please call them at 985-898-2348.
Ponchatoula Resident Daniel Fontenot, Sr. went duck hunting one day after Christmas in 1988. The 27-year-old brought his shotgun and a pirogue. The next day, family members found his pickup truck on a back road near Manchac Swamp.
Amite Resident Nicholas “Nick” Michael Schiro was last seen near his home on Lowery Lane in October of 2017. Neighbors reported him missing two weeks later, on October 21. Schiro is a Caucasian male with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. He was 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds at the time of his disappearance. Today, he would be 65 years old.
Thirty-three-year-old Abdul Jibril Alexander was last seen on Kellie Drive in Hammond, Louisiana, at 1:00 AM on June 20, 2009. An African-American male with black hair and brown eyes and three gold teeth in his lower jaw, he stood 6 foot 5 inches tall and weighed 215 pounds at the time of his disappearance.
Alexander was last seen wearing a t-shirt with dark blue or yellow cotton shorts, a red bandana, and slippers.
If you have any information about the whereabouts of Danny Fontenot, Nick Schiro, or Jibril Alexander, don’t hesitate to contact the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office at 985-902-2088.
Seventy-three-year-old Edward Carr, an African-American male weighing approximately 200 pounds, was last seen on Mooney Avenue in Hammond on the afternoon of September 18, 2016. He was wearing a red shirt, green camo shorts, and brown shoes with a short grey beard and mustache. If you know anything about this case, contact the Hammond Police Department at 985-277-5755.
Forty-one-year-old Giang Thai Than Phan, an Asian male with black hair and blue eyes, was last seen in Hammond en route from Texas to Lafourche Parish on a business trip on April 8, 2011. Phan was driving a 2009 silver Chevy Malibu, License plate number CB5G609. He had “God’s Hands” tattooed on his left wrist. If you have anything to say about this case, contact the Golden Meadow Police Department at 985-475-5213.
Be careful with strangers, and have a safe and secure holiday season.