WebSleuth
members posted greetings for Anna's 40th birthday September 25, and a
birthday surprise engineered by Nancy, Sherlock and AnnasUnc was the
news that Anna will be included in a television program, Missing, broadcast during the week of
Nov. 5. The link for finding stations and broadcast times (mostly in late
night/early morning hours on the weekend of Nov. 9-11) is http://www.usamissing.com/findus.htm#S.
AnnasUnc updated the Press section of
searchingforanna.com with background, photographs and biographical material, and added time lines.
Members who
posted on the forum this week, mostly about information in the Box From
Hell, were Rhett, Cubby, smile22, Dr.Doogie, AnnasUnc, MagicRose 99,
GraceBlue, InterestedWoman, SherlockJr, Dellemma, Gina_M, laini, drema
and tinytown.
September 22, 2007
This
week SherlockJr posted pages of a pocket calendar Anna's father used in spring of
1970. There has been a lively response by the Websleuths Forum to a number of
questions raised by the notes in this day book.
Cubby reviewed hundreds
of search engine listings with Anna's name and found no unauthorized
sites.
I still have had no answers to four letters sent out for the
second time regarding permissions to reprint. Without permissions, we
might have to revise the manuscript to omit the San Francisco Chronicle and Half Moon
Bay Review articles and two other quotes from copyrighted material.
Also,
no answers to my letters about Interpol and passports.
In
Searching for Anna, I wrote "No trace of her has ever been found,
though we found many other things while looking." In the current Sierra
Nevada search for the missing pilot Steve Fossett, seven other crashed small planes have been found as of this
writing. Our own search seems to be at a standstill (no posts on the
forum for more than a week, no answers to letters regarding permissions
for the manuscript, no word from law enforcement.) I need to think of all the things
we HAVE found in our search. Ruling out hundreds of possibile
scenarios, individuals, and paths has been reassuring to the family.
There is no way we could have investigated all this on our own, and we
will always be deeply grateful to Doogie and to WebSleuths for stepping
in here.
There are a few things pending. The writer at halfmoonbaymemories.com
intends to re-post the story about Anna on her excellent and
fascinating site. She did not realize that I was still living in the
area and that I could clarify some points in the story (an Internet
contact in Canada had sent her the information.)
Also pending -- an individual
associated with a national group dedicated to the families of people
suffering from mental illness offered to contact an acquaintance who
has done prize-winning documentaries. She believes the search would
make a good film, and of course I agree.
A Google search on "Anna Christian Waters" brings up more than 500
items. I have been checking these as I am able, to make sure that the
information is accurate and that the site is reputable. I particularly
want to look at sites which are soliciting donations. One of these
checks resulted in a story full of errors being taken down. Publicizing
the wrong information is worse than no media coverage at all, as we
learned from the first local newspaper story about Anna's
disappearance. The physical description was wrong, and in the interest
of sensationalism, the story suggested (with no evidence at all) that
Anna had drowned in Purisima Creek. This was the primary reason that no
other possibilities were followed up at the time, and that many people
were surprised to learn about three years ago, when our intensive
Internet-assisted search got under way, that law enforcement considered Anna's case
a probable stranger abduction. One very suspicious site which still comes up on Google has
been taken offline. I would appreciate it if anyone reading this would
help me by occasionally checking in to some of these sites to make sure
they are on the up-and-up.
September 7, 2007
Gina_M's video and the
application papers and permissions were submitted to the International
Centre for Missing & Exploited Children's YouTube video channel.
Their information says they will investigate the authenticity of the
case and get back to us.
At our request, the genius forensic artist
Steve at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
produced an age-advanced picture of Anna at approximately age 18 which
might be compared to school yearbook pictures.
June Morall, a San Mateo
County historian, promised to post Anna's story on her Web pages at halfmoonbaymemories.com.
I haven't yet seen this story, which was requested by Nancy, an
interested party in Canada. (addendum, 9/9/07: Apparently the story was there briefly, but has since been taken down; we do not know why.)
SherlockJr has assisted yet another adoptee
searching for birth parents.
No answer to all those letters requesting
permission to reprint various texts in Searching for Anna.
Aug. 31, 2007
At the suggestion of Gerald Nance at the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children, the San Mateo Sheriff's office was asked to
contact Interpol to request that Washington put a "yellow notice" in
files of Greece and Italy. This apparently alerts Interpol to the
possibility of an abduction from the U.S.
SherlockJr's adoption stories have been posted on searchingforanna.com. Read and be amazed!
Kelly (projectjason.org) checked in and gave us some encouraging words.
Sherlock is looking into getting some "missing" buttons mentioned on
Kelly's web site.
iNTERESTEDWOMAN has posted a photo album at Photobucket.
Doogie and I are attempting to get the book, Searching for Anna,
published in time for Anna's 40th birthday September 25. We'll keep you
posted.
Aug. 25, 2007
An Italian
adoptee searching for her birth parents was contacted and given the Web
page address, but did not respond. A new look-alike spotted through Gina_M's MySpace page.
The singer named Anna Waters in Australia asks that she not be sent any more e-mails (she's not our girl).
I re-sent the May letters asking for permission to quote the San Francisco Chronicle, Half Moon Bay Review and The Fantasticks in the manuscript Searching for Anna, having received no answer.
Websleuths
member Itsreenw knows a forensic artist who may be willing to give us a
high-school-age rendering of Anna for posting on Classmates, etc. The
artist at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is
willing to do this, but they are fairly swamped at the time, with only
three artists on staff.
SherlockJr
is writing the stories of the adoptees reunited with their birth
families in the course of our search. The idea is to post these on searchingforanna.com.
Several
old-timers checked back in to the Websleuths Forum this week, and
several others kindly offered to continue investigating possible cases
involving unidentified victims from different law enforcement
jurisdictions.
Aug. 17, 2007
We have contacted a private investigator who worked on Anna's case early on and are awaiting information from her.
Annasunc
has approached the forensic artist at the National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children about producing a high-school age progression
of Anna which might be posted on Classmates and other sites.
Cubby's Miscellaneous Websleuths thread has a good design for personalized postage stamps and other ways to get the word out.
I have
written San Mateo County Sheriff's Office requesting that they try to
obtain passport information from the State Department, if any, on Anna.
SherlockJr is working on material for searchingforanna.com, at Annasunc's request.
Dr.Doogie and I are working on the manuscript Searching for Anna with the idea of having it printed, and Dr.Doogie has found a good source for doing that.