Delilah

As time ticks forward, Donna Parent wakes up November 16th knowing it is her daughter's birthday. It won't be a day of usual parties and celebrations for this event. Brandy Hanna has been missing without a trace for over three years.


Brandy had her share of life's ups and downs, but by all indications she was turning a bend in her life, living on her own, although struggling to make ends meet. The day she was reported missing it is stated everything in her apartment looked like she had just stepped out of the room. All her belongings, money, cell phone, even the glass of tea she was drinking was left as if she would be back in a second. It has been three long years and she has not come back to finish that glass of tea.


Each year's events are marked with vigils, candles, prayers, balloon releases, all in order to keep the awareness of Brandy Hanna in the public eye. Donna Parent works tirelessly with organizations to accomplish that goal, and this year she spent the evening paying honor to another missing woman, Alice Donovan. It is the united effort of all family members of missing persons that will keep these cases fresh.


Detectives have followed every lead provided them with no success in finding Brandy. Family and friends do not believe Brandy left her home on her own accord, she did not even own a car, and no one has been named a suspect yet questions still remain as to Brandy's whereabouts and what happened to her on May 20, 2005.


If you believe you have any information regarding this case that will be helpful in this investigation please contact:

North Charleston Police Department at (843) 745-1015


CUE Center for Missing persons along with Porchlight International have helped tremendously with searches and gathering information about Brandy's case.

Viridiana Maldonado was a young mother. She had her first child at age 15 or 16. She married and had another child four years later. Her husband, Jorge, was in the Army stationed at Ft. Lewis near Tacoma, WA.


According to news accounts they had trouble in their marriage which led "Viri" to take out an Order of Protection against Jorge. Apparently she had had enough and moved back to her family in North Charleston, SC with her 2 children, leaving Jorge in WA.

She lived with her mother and sister in an apartment on Dunbar Ave., along with her children. She held a postition with a local restaurant, La Nortena, and her boss was a friend of the family. From all accounts she was making a go of it with the support of her family.

On the evening of Oct. 11, 2007 she came home, changed her clothes and said she was going out with her sister in law, Vicky Roberts, for the evening. Nothing unusual was said to her family, nothing unusual about her demeanor that night. Just a night out with friends.

Her family reports that approximately 2am they received text messages from her cell phone. This was odd, because Viridiana did not usually text message them. One said she was in downtown Charleston, drinking with a man named Miguel. The next message said she was on her way home to Mexico. That was the last activity on her cell phone....ever.

Six days later her bank account, with a balance of about $1000, was closed by telephone and a cashiers check was sent to Tacoma, WA. It has not been reported who made that phone call, who closed that account, and who received the money.

There are a slew of strange circumstances surrounding this disappearance.

Vicky Roberts, her sister in law, says she was not with her and had not seen her for 2 weeks prior to Oct. 11.

Viridiana's estranged husband, Jorge, left the Army, moved back to North Charleston and claimed his child. He is reported to have been cooperative with police in the investigation.

Who is Miguel? Her family states they never heard Viri speak about any man named Miguel. Did she just meet him somewhere that night, or did she know him beforehand?

What is happening in this case now? Are these questions being answered for her mother and family? Apparently, they don't think enough is being put into the investigation and it looks like a lot of clues are getting cold as time goes by.

We have 2 small children who don't know what happened to their Mommy, a young, beautiful woman who was loved and cared for by her family in her times of trouble. Viridiana, just as so many others, is being forgotten. The longer we let these questions go unanswered, the colder the trail gets, and it happens all too often.

Another missing Mother vanishes in the night. Where do they go?

Non-Family & Family Abductions, Endangered Runaways, Lost or Injured, and Unidentified ... These are our ~Lost Faces~ of the Missing

There are times in the life of a mother bear, especially when one of her cubs is in danger, that her claws come out and she becomes a "Mammabear". This is a description of the attitude that abounds on the blog Lost Faces of the Missing. The writer, Mammabear, digs her claws into telling the stories that surround missing persons, no matter what the circumstances.

She has had her own first hand experiences searching for her own two "cubs", her sons who are missing to her because of a family abduction.

Oftentimes we don't think of family abductions the same way we think about a child being abducted by a stranger, thinking that child is at least with one parent and that is acceptable. This perception can't be further from the truth. These children suffer some of the same anxieties as if they were taken away by a stranger.

Mammabear is teaching the reader much about the alienation abducted children feel and their particular feelings of abandonment. The fears and questions are no different for them and the search for answers is always present. Not only has Mammabear written about her personal experiences, she is in the forefront of bringing attention to many other cases of abduction, missing persons, and unidentified cases, and she is very generous when it comes to featuring and highlighting cases for others.

This blog is just one of the writer's projects. She also keeps up with a Myspace page and is working on a website that should be up shortly to further bring attention to missing persons. Just like a mother bear can be docile and live in harmony with nature, so can she also be a fierce fighting machine when it comes to those close to her heart.

Please take time to visit Lost Faces of the Missing often and read about the cases presented there. Any time a story is read, or a picture seen it is one more chance that a missing person may be recognized and brought home to those who love them. Come in and sit a bit with Mammabear and soak in her friendly nature.....watch out for the claws, though!

http://lostfacesofthemissing.blogspot.com/