It bothers me how certain cases make national news, garner national coverage, outrage, and searches, and some barely make the local tv station. Such is true with the disappearance of 23 year old Dana Bruce from Sedalia, Missouri in October 2008. I first heard of the case when I saw her MISSING poster at a convenience store. From the start, the outlook didn't look good. And now, the case has grown cold as it approaches its 5 year anniversary.
Little has been made public about Dana's disappearance, which is a bit alarming. It seemed that the case never had much of a start and that the trail went cold as immediately as she went missing.
Dana was the single mother of two children. She had gone out to a local bar "Malone's on Main" in Sedalia that evening. She was reportedly seen with a man in a late model, red Ford F-150 and left the bar with him around 11:30. She returned to the babysitter's home around midnight and gave the babysitter extra money and asked her if she would stay the evening. She never returned home.
While police have identified the man that Dana was with that evening, he soon traveled to Atlanta, GA. Police flew to Atlanta and questioned him when he was arrested there for possession of marijuana and driving while suspended. He has been named a "person of interest" but police never named him publicly, so there's not much to go on after that. They interviewed him in October 2008 and that's the last time any news reports about a suspect in the case have been written.
She reportedly has no credit cards, debit cards, cell phone, car, or checking account, so there hasn't been any activity to track since she disappeared. Her friends and family claim that she was a 'devoted' parent and would not leave her children, and foul play is suspected.
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I've thought about Dana for a long time and always wondered what happened to her. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good for Dana, and she probably was an easy target. She only weighed a reported 93 lbs at the time of her disappearance; the man that she left with wasn't someone that was familiar to others, and likely, was someone she had just met.
The lack of followup in this case is very frustrating, but I tend to think that the police didn't think Dana was a very high priority. She was young, with two children that she had with a man that has several pages of criminal infractions on Missouri CaseNet. She herself had been arrested in 2006 for theft and incarcerated after. She had no links, other than her children, to be tracked: no cell phone GPS, no car to be searched for, no money outlet. If she wanted to disappear, she could have...easily.
But that's not what happened. But what DID happen to Dana Bruce?
Several theories are available on sleuthing websites of Dana's disappearance. One claimed that the "person of interest" was a 34 year old that worked for Pro-Energy in Sedalia and they had just laid fresh concrete at the construction site, but this was never reported in any news stories. The police reportedly used scent dogs around the site, according to this article.
There were a couple of searches for Dana in the months following the disappearance. There were also websites and Myspace pages set up to find Dana, and all have come down. The only one that stands is the Dana Bruce Tribute Page on Facebook, which is updated occasionally but usually not about Dana- other information about missing locals.
Missouri is still a densely rural area, especially where Dana disappeared. Twenty miles away is Knob Noster State Park, which is a nearly 4,000 acre park near Whiteman Air Force Base and Warrensburg, Missouri. Forty miles in the other direction is Warsaw, Missouri, which is home to the Harry S Truman Reservoir/Truman Lake, a massive lake with many side areas.
Granted, without anything to go from, police may not know where to start searching for Dana. But it doesn't seem like they're doing much to find out, either.As the five year anniversary of her disappearance approaches, it's the perfect time to get her name and her face back in the news. It's time to organize searches, share her photo, and revisit the person of interest in Georgia.
It's time to lay her to rest and give her the peace she deserves.
Source:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/bruce_dana.html
my heart aches for dana and her kids and her family! How can a person go missing without a trace and noone knows anything. i don't believe that for a minute. what if this was ur son or daughter mother or father would u just give up. come on let's help find dana!!
ReplyDeleteWe must find Dana!!!
ReplyDeleteI watched dana when she was younger and I know she would not just up and leave many believe it was her ex that needs to be questioned and that the children at one time did say that the grandMA and dad know where their mom is but of course this is hear say and who listens to children right.
ReplyDelete