| Michaela Joy Garecht |
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| DOB :jan-24-1979 Age :30 years Height : 4' 8" - 142 cm Weight : 75 lbs - 34 kg Eyes :Blue Hair : Blonde Missing since November 19th, 1988 from Hayward, CA Circumstances : Child's photo shown aged to 29 years. Garecht and a friend rode their scooters to the Rainbow Market on Mission Boulevard in Hayward, California on November 19, 1988. The store was two blocks from Garecht's home. Garecht noticed that her friend's scooter had been moved in the parking lot when the girls exited the store; when she went to retrieve it, an unidentified Caucasian male grabbed her and forced her into his vehicle. Garecht's friend went inside the Rainbow Market for assistance, but the abductor was able to escape with Garecht. Neither has been seen again. The abductor is described as between 18 - 24 years old (in 1988) with a pockmarked or pimpled face. He wore a white t-shirt and had longish dirty blonde hair and a slender build. Two sketches of Garecht's abductor are posted below this case summary; the original sketch was later revised. The abductor drove a large older model American-made sedan. It was possibly a four-door vehicle and was cream, gold, or tan in color. The car may have had cement splatters on the sides and lights set into the rear bumper. The front bumper was battered; the vehicle may have previously been in an accident. It appeared to be run-down. The car was last seen speeding south on Mission Boulevard towards nearby Union City, California with Garecht inside. Garecht was wearing three-inch-long pearl or white-colored earrings that resembled feathers, a white t-shirt with Metro printed on the front and images of people imprinted on its midsection, denim pants rolled above her knees, flesh-colored nylon stockings, white anklet socks, and black shoes. Two men have been named as possible suspects in Garecht's case. Authorities announced that Timothy Bindner had a possible connection to her disappearance, as well as the disappearances of Ilene Misheloff, Amber Swartz-Garcia, Tara Cossey and Amanda Campbell. A photo of Bindner is posted below this case summary. He maintains his innocence and successfully sued Campbell's hometown of Fairfield, California in 1997 for defamation of character. Bindner, a married sewage treatment plant worker, came to authorities' attention after he began sending birthday greetings to young girls in the East Bay area. One child's parents contacted authorities and handed over a letter Bindner had written to their daughter. The note was printed backwards and could only be deciphered by holding it up to a mirror. Bindner claimed he sent the cards as a kind gesture because the girls were "lonely." Bindner also visited the Oakmont Cemetery gravesite of Angela Bugay, a five-year-old girl girl who was abducted and murdered in Antioch, California in 1983. A photograph of Bugay is posted below this case summary. Bindner was never considered a suspect in her murder and another man has since been arrested in that case. Bindner approached many of the mothers of missing girls from the East Bay area offering his assistance, including Swartz-Garcia and Garecht's families. Investigators asked Swartz-Garcia's mother to maintain a quasi-friendship with Bindner in hope of learning if he was connected to any of the girls' cases. She and authorities agreed that Bindner appeared to playing mind games with victims' loved ones and law enforcement. Many people theorize that he enjoyed taunting families into thinking that he may have been involved in the presumed abductions. He was once arrested for annoying two little girls whom he was trying to lure into his van, but the charges were later dropped. Bindner often drove around in a light blue Dodge van with a license plate that said "Lov You". Inside the van was wallpapered with many pictures of children. A photograph of the van is posted below this case summary. Bindner refers to himself as a "good Samaritan." He asked Linda Golston, a reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, to interview him at Oakmont Cemetery at 4:30 AM. He played his favorite song on her car stereo, "Jesus, Here's Another Child To Hold." Bindner told Goldston that he thought of the missing girls as "his children." She asked him how he believed the abductions occurred and he said one child was submissive, but another fought back against her assailant. Bindner added that he was "guessing" about the girls' reactions. Bindner wrote a letter to a law enforcement agency in the late 1980s, stating that he believed the next girl who would be abducted from the area would be nine years old. Garecht disappeared shortly thereafter; she was nine at the time of her abduction. Bindner also sent a holiday card to a profiler for the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) in 1990. The card depicted an image of a young girl holding up four fingers. Campbell vanished in 1991 at the age of four. Search dogs traced Campbell and Swartz-Garcia's scent to Bugay's grave. Authorities never had enough evidence to prove Bindner was connected to their cases, although he was known for visiting the cemetery on occasion. Bindner was given a heroism award by the California State Patrol after assisting victims in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. He has never been charged in any of the cases. Curtis Dean Anderson, who was convicted of the 2000 kidnapping and molestation of a young California girl, was also mentioned as a possible suspect in Garecht's case. Investigators searched Anderson's mother's residence in June 2001 for evidence linking him to other missing girls' cases, but nothing was located. James Daveggio has been considered as a possible suspect as well. He and his former girlfriend, Michelle Michaud, were charged with the 1997 abduction, rape and murder of Vanessa Swanson. Swanson's remains were discovered approximately five miles from the site of Jaycee Dugard's 1991 California abduction. Photos of Daveggio and Michaud are posted below this case summary. They were also charged with additional counts of sexual assault in unrelated cases in the mid-1990s. Michaud claims that she met Daveggio in 1996 and therefore was not involved in Dugard's abduction. There are striking similarities between Michaud and the female suspect in Dugard's case. Daveggio is also considered a possible suspect in Swartz-Garcia and Misheloff's disappearances. Neither he nor Michaud has been charged in connection with any of the case. In 2004, police announced that they were going to re-interview a convicted sex offender in Oklahoma about Garecht's case. The man, a former Hayward resident who served a year in prison for assault with intent to commit rape, was interviewed for the first time shortly after Garecht's kidnapping. He lived only two blocks from the store where she was kidnapped. He is not being called a suspect in her case. Garecht remains missing and her case is unsolved |
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