Truemors
GALVESTON: Bolivar Heartbreak, "We Are Going to Drown" - Last Call
AT LEAST 23 people are identified as "missing" from the Bolivar Peninsula, many presumed drowned, as tragic tales emerge of abandoned cars and lifts that never arrived.
In all, over 200 remain unaccounted for from the Galveston region as rescue officials reveal thay have not even begun to plumb some of the deep piles of washed up debris. Cadavar dogs have sniffed out several key locations and it could still be some weeks before it is known what lies beneath.
Tragic Delores Brookshire, 72, rang her cousin to say goodbye, "Me and Charles Allen are going to drown".
Charles Allen is Mrs. Brookshire's disabled son, 42. They have not been heard of since the phone call of 12 th September. They had been awaiting a lift after changing their mind about staying, but may have found themselves cut off. A car they may have shared has been found deserted not far from the devastated beach. - Update 13th October 2008
'>http://www.chron.com/...ry.mpl/front/6053793.html"]PORT BOLIVAR — It was a haunting statement, spoken with the kind of conviction that now seems to epitomize the story of dozens of people who remain missing after Hurricane Ike:
"I just called to tell you bye and I love you. ... I'm going to die. Me and Charles Allen are going to drown."
Those were the words of Delores Brookshire, 72, missing since Sept. 12. One month after the storm, that phone call, made to her cousin, echoes across the Bolivar Peninsula where 23 people remain unaccounted for and most are presumed dead.
Despite pleas, the task of recovering remains has been slow, if not altogether absent in some remote areas. Only six bodies have been discovered in storm debris so far, washed up in remote Chambers County marshlands or hidden in the mucky terrain of Goat Island.
Some have yet to be identified by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office. They lie silently, waiting for forensic evidence — X-rays, scars, tattoos, DNA — to give each a name.
State game wardens, volunteers with trained cadaver dogs and others have worked for weeks to search remote debris sites and flag areas that possibly hold human remains. But four weeks after the storm, no one has been able to excavate so-called "hot spots" identified by dogs.
Galveston County officials said it could be 10 days or more before that work begins.
Families don't know whether to grieve or cling to hope.
No one knows what happened to Brookshire and her disabled son, Charles Allen Garrett, 42. Brookshire telephoned her cousin just before dawn on Sept. 12. She said she was trapped by the storm surge in their small wooden house just a few blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. Neither owned a car. Their ride had not arrived.
Glennis Dunn's six children want to know what happened to their widowed mother, who celebrated her 70th birthday alone with her dog, Jacques, in her near-empty neighborhood in Crystal Beach on Sept. 11 — the day mandatory evacuation was ordered. She planned to stay, she told her children when they called from out of state with birthday wishes.
But sometime that next morning, she changed her mind.
Son Daniel Roske, who drove from Ohio and then joined up with the Red Cross to search after the storm, found his mother's car, smashed, about 300 yards from the beach. In the trunk were her late husband's war medals and an overnight bag with a change of clothes. At her home, there's only a slab, a lawn chair and scattered kitchen utensils.
Concerned for Bolivar
In all, more than 200 people remain missing a full month after Hurricane Ike, despite intense efforts by volunteers and investigators who have cleared more than 200 other cases, according to data collected through a hot line operated by the nonprofit Laura Recovery Center. Authorities say they continue to believe many displaced Galveston Islanders and others are on the list in error.
Those authorities are openly worried, however, about missing Bolivar Peninsula residents.
Of the six bodies discovered among storm debris near the peninsula, four — rendered unrecognizable by the elements and the passage of time — have not yet been identified by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's office.
Three bodies were found during a huge multiday recovery push in Galveston County that involved dozens of volunteer cadaver dog teams from across Texas, members of the U.S. HERO search-and-rescue groups and about a dozen representatives from Texas Task Force One, among others. That effort concluded Oct. 5, after the marking of several potential recovery sites.
So far, searchers have concentrated on the hot spots on the Bolivar Peninsula and on Goat Island — a strip of marsh and fill just across the Intracoastal Waterway from the peninsula.
For days, volunteer dog teams, guarded by volunteer "flankers" bearing guns to ward off alligator attacks, patrolled Goat Island afoot, using compasses to methodically cover the marsh. Bizarre bits of storm debris served as landmarks. A cow's bloated body. A piece of a wall in a tree. A displaced house that sits oddly intact atop marsh grass, with bar stools still pulled up at a counter inside.
At times, searchers followed trails carved by gators themselves — descending into muddy holes marked with tracks made by huge clawed feet. Just as often, the searchers mounted hills of wreckage or crossed bridges forged by storm-damaged surfboards, coolers and 2-by-4s. Repeatedly, volunteers fell without warning through weak spots, descending toward unseen hazards.
Dogs mark hot spots
Humans smelled and saw dead animals — ducks, rats, rabbits — almost everywhere. Dogs were more discerning. One German shepherd refused to leave a debris pile more than 10 feet tall, and then sat slowly and deliberately on top — marking a potential site.
A FIFTH victim has been discovered after an animal control officer stumbled over the body on Goat Island, where several bodies have been found washed up. It brings the death toll overall to 72. - Updated 7th October 2008
'>http://www.chron.com/...ry.mpl/ap/tx/6045018.html"]GALVESTON, Texas — An animal control officer stumbled across the body of a Hurricane Ike victim on an island near where the storm slammed ashore last month, bringing the Texas death toll to 37.
The Galveston Medical Examiner's Office said the unidentified victim was found Monday on Goat Island, off the devastated Bolivar Peninsula. This was the fifth Hurricane Ike victim found on the island.
Search teams have found the remains of two bodies amongst the fields of debris, today, it has been revealed. The tragic victims have not yet been identified. - Update: 5th October 2008
'>http://www.chron.com/...metropolitan/6040211.html"]Search crews recovered the bodies of two Hurricane Ike victims in debris fields in Galveston County this afternoon, raising the Houston-Galveston death toll to 35, authorities said.
A Texas Task Force One crew discovered the bodies while searching debris fields on Goat Island this afternoon, said Galveston County Sheriff's Office Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo.
The identities of the bodies are unknown at this time and will be determined by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office, Tuttoilmondo said.
Search teams are to start a detailed search of the ruined Bolivar Peninsula tomorrow (Saturday) as relatives (unverified) of "missing" Danielle Chapman and sons Joel, 15 and Addison, 12, claim in the responses below, that the three are safe and well. Please let Traci know they are safe, guys! I know you have fallen out and that it is a private matter, but please have a heart and let her know for sure, so she can stop worrying.
Officals have revealed that the debris is sorted into fifty huge piles, which could cover Manhatten Island "three times over". ~ Updated 3rd October 2008
[q url"http://my.nowpublic.com/world/galveston-300-missing-search-bolivar-start-tomorrow-saturday"]
Searchers expect to find more bodies out on Bolivar Peninsula, with its shredded beach communities. "Everything that was on the Bolivar Peninsula is now sitting in the southern half of our county, in bits and pieces," says Sheriff Joe LaRive. He says there are more than 50 separate fields of debris, which, if put together, would cover an area greater than three Manhattan Islands. The scattered lumber alone looks like someone bombed a Home Depot, and it's intermixed with furniture, jet skis, propane tanks, exercise bikes and stuffed animals. But what about the 400 missing? LaRive says that people reported missing who did not check in with their family members are found every day. "We could have two more out here, we could have 20 more out here," he says. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the problem we have is we don't know if the needle is actually there." Measuring Disaster On Saturday, search teams with cadaver dogs from all over Texas will help the sheriff and his deputies go through the monster debris fields. It's grim work, and not just because of what they might find. Black muck the consistency of yogurt sucks at their boots. Biting flies and mosquitoes attack exposed flesh. And slithering water moccasins lurk under the wreckage. "With each dog we have on the ground searching, we have somebody walking with a shotgun," LaRive says. "So that if a snake comes out and tries to bite the dog or the handler, we can kill the snake." THERE was heart-breaking news for Norma Rubin, 66, of High Island (see story second from bottom) as police yesterday identified one of the bodies found washed up over the weekend as Herman Thomas "Pee Wee" Moseley, 48, pictured. Norma Rubin's home was also destroyed in the hurricane. "Pee Wee" lived in a trailer in badly-hit Gilchrist. - 2nd Oct 2008 HOUSTON -- One of two bodies found in Galveston County last weekend has been identified as 48-year-old Herman Thomas "Pee Wee" Moseley. GALVESTON RESIDENTS are growing restless as 300 people still remain on the "missing persons" register, including Traci Turner of San Diego, whose sister Danielle Chapman, 32, remains unheard from and not seen since Hurricane Ike made a direct hit on the West side of Galveston when it made landfall. Danielle's two sons, Joel, 15, and Addison, 12, of Jamaica Beach, West Galveston, are also missing. Traci Turner is desperate to find out what has happened to her sister and two nephews. Update: 2nd October 2008 More than 300 people are missing since Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast last month, and the obstacles to finding them are frustrating family and friends who desperately want to know if their loved ones are dead or alive. These family and friends want answers: Why are so many still missing? Why has the first organized search for bodies, to be held Thursday on the battered Bolivar Peninsula, taken so long? Local and state authorities are conducting Thursday's search and have been working with the Laura Recovery Center, a missing persons organization. The center helped compile a list of missing people and police are using the information to go door-to-door looking for answers. "We are hopeful most of these people will be found, that a lot of them were evacuated to shelters, or don't even know they've been listed as missing," said Bob Walcutt, executive director of the Laura Recovery Center in Friendswood, Texas. iReport.com: Are you looking for loved ones? "We are hoping to get more answers as people call in or as school starts, but another week with this number could be a different story," he said. As of Thursday morning, the number of missing hovered at 300, including 24 children. Laura Recovery Center volunteers, working with the Galveston Police Department and Galveston Emergency Management, have been fielding calls from family and friends of people missing since Ike hit September 12. A majority of the missing come from the hardest-hit Texas towns of Crystal Beach, Port Bolivar, Gilchrist, Texas and Galveston. Traci Turner, of San Diego, California, doesn't know where her sister Danielle Chapman is. The last time she spoke to her was right after Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, about a week before Ike came ashore. At that time, Turner's sister Danielle Chapman said she and her family, who were on the west end of Galveston Island, were all OK. Chapman, 32, and her sons Joel, 15, and Addison, 12, lived in a home at the far west end of island, past Jamaica Beach. Turner said despite arduous online searching she has seen no news or photos about that area, and has heard nothing from her sister and nephews since Hurricane Ike. "My heart is hurting. This is my little sister and I love her to death," Turner told CNN. "These are her kids. I love them to death and they are gone. I don't want to say it -- maybe they have been washed out, maybe they haven't -- maybe they are in a shelter. Either way, they are still missing." Adding confusion to her search,Turner said, the recovery center took her sister and nephews off the list because someone called to say he or she knew their whereabouts. Turner hasn't been able to talk to the person who called in the tip. So without any proof that her family is still alive, she cannot rest easy. "Not until I hear a voice or see pictures of them," she said. FORTY persons reported missing have now been found and the number still missing is 365 including 26 children and many elderly people. Two bodies have been found washed up on Galveston Beach. The Houston-area death toll from Hurricane Ike has reached 32 with the discovery this weekend of two unidentified bodies along the shore in Galveston County and the body of a Port Neches man found in Orange County. Meanwhile, 40 people who went missing during Hurricane Ike have been reported found, according to dozens of calls received by Laura Recovery Center's hot line. However, the hot line also received about 16 new cases, leaving its count of storm-related missing persons at 365, according to an estimate from Bob Walcutt, executive director. Walcutt said privacy laws that keep hospitals and shelters from confirming the location of evacuees and patients have kept many families apart. "Because of that, we've got people who are desperately looking for loved ones who are safe in shelters," he said. Walcutt said he hoped the list of missing will be pared down significantly in the next week or two to those who "really are missing." His current list includes many elderly people and at least 26 children. Most of the missing live in Galveston County, more than 50 from the Bolivar Peninsula alone. 26th Sept 2008 ANGUISHED relatives and friends are clinging onto hopes that those still missing in the devastated area of Galveston will turn out to be safe and sound. The Bolivar Peninsula was in the direct path of the furious Hurricane Ike, which caused unexpectedly high surges in the Gulf's normally shallow waters. Norma Rubin of High Island hasn't given up hope that her son, Herman "PeeWee" Thomas Moseley, will be found. She last heard from him Sept. 12. He was still at his Gilchrist home as the storm surge from Hurricane Ike was rising. Only a few homes remain intact in Gilchrist. "We're still not giving up," said Rubin, 66, whose home in High Island also was destroyed by Ike. Moseley is one of dozens of Bolivar Peninsula residents listed as missing on the Laura Recovery Center's Web site. More than 400 people are listed on the center's Web site from Galveston, Harris, Chambers and Jefferson counties. The center is providing assistance to help those searching for loved ones, according to a news release from Beaumont police officer and spokeswoman Crystal Holmes. Family members and other loved ones have been calling in reports of the missing, said Terry Arnold, one of the center's founding volunteers. Those missing could have evacuated and be just fine, but they haven't gotten or aren't able to get in touch with family members. Still others might not have returned home yet. "It's hard to know how many are missing," Arnold said. Arnold said the center's officials are working with FEMA and the Red Cross to see if people are in shelters elsewhere. --------------- FOUR hundred people have been officially reported missing and have not been seen or heard of since Hurricane Ike struck twelve days ago. With the chaotic power supplies and with communication problems, families are hoping that they will be reunited with their loved ones soon. Ominously, perhaps, many of the missing are from the worst hit areas, such as Bolivar and Gilchrist. Nearly 400 people are presumed missing 12 days after Hurricane Ike slammed on shore. Calls flooded a Galveston County missing persons hotline at the Laura Recovery Center. People are terrified a relative was lost in the storm. After days of waiting, some families got the answers they've prayed for. "Someone just called in from Clear Creek ISD off a call we had made and said they have located some people associated with the school district and said they were safe and well in Texas City," said Terry Arnold with the Laura Recovery Center. But hundreds more wait for word as their loved ones names fill an online hurricane missing persons database. Those on the list share some commonalties in age and geography. "There are a lot of elderly folks, just looking at the age column," said Smither. Many of them are from the hardest hit areas of the county, including Boliver, Crystal Beach and Gilchrist. '>http://www.npr.org/.../story.php?storyId=95357681"]
Moseley lived in a trailer in the town of Gilchrist on the Bolivar Peninsula. His badly decomposed body washed up on nearby Goat Island over the weekend.
September 25, 2008 at 12:31 pm by Christina 123, 3809 views, 30 comments
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Christina 123
LONDON, United Kingdom
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (30)
at 12:41 on September 25th, 2008
Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I hope these people are found - perhaps some are staying with friends/family and don't realize they haven't been accounted for. A sad development..
at 12:52 on September 25th, 2008
Thanks, Terri! Yes, I do hope that many will be found safe and sound. Some of them appear to be children.
at 13:07 on September 25th, 2008
Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 14:01 on September 26th, 2008
Thank you, Rhonda J!
at 13:09 on September 25th, 2008
Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 14:02 on September 26th, 2008
Thank you, Tina!
at 17:22 on September 25th, 2008
One thing to remember about this number. It is taken from a center where people call in to report, and hopefully locate, loved ones.
However, if someone comes walking in the door the moment after the caller hangs up, they often do not call back and report the person found.
Source: galvestondailynews.com
at 14:08 on September 26th, 2008
Thank you dunkelberg! What I don't get is that between 40-57,000 residents stayed behind and 4,000 were rescued afterwards. Seven or eight bodies have been found. Can somebody help me with the sums?
at 14:35 on September 26th, 2008
When you are at a disaster even of less dimensions than this, hard information is hard to come by. Also, you have many official entities and governments trying (it is hoped) to work together, but there is no overall relief chain of command for the coast.
As for the sums, here are some suggestions:
at 01:40 on September 26th, 2008
Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 14:04 on September 26th, 2008
Thanks, Amitjha!
at 09:50 on September 28th, 2008
Good stuff christina
at 12:20 on September 28th, 2008
Thank you, Sputnic!
at 12:54 on October 2nd, 2008
Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff.
So sad
at 13:05 on October 2nd, 2008
...and incredibly brave.
- reply
zac b. (not verified)at 19:36 on October 2nd, 2008
I happen to know the woman that Traci Turner is looking for and can tell you there is a good reason she does not contact her sister. It's a private matter and this Turner person has already been told by authorities that her relatives are fine. Some people love the opportunity to create drama and get attention; however, in this situation it wastes resources in a serious situation where people are still truly missing and unaccounted for.
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Dorothy Lane (not verified)at 13:24 on October 3rd, 2008
zac b's comment is true. I am Danielle's mom, ergo next of kin, and Traci did not call me to check on status of Danielle and the 2 boys, although she has my phone number and has called me in the past. The rationale eludes me. Making a to-do involving CNN was a waste and totally unnecessary.
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D Lane (not verified)at 08:02 on October 4th, 2008
update....Ms. Turner has been notified by local police dept. via phone call (in my presence) of the Chapman family's "safe and well" status per info provided by myself and also, I believe, by CNN reporter who contacted me via phone recently to check on pertinent details. CNN has yanked the story based on their own research and contacts. Hopefully attention will be shifted to the many people who remain to be accounted for. The people of Galveston are in need of our continuing support and concern, not only for material loss but the personal anguish of dislocation and uncertainty for the future. Thanks for the fine story and updates, many people continue to follow the Ike-aftermath situation daily in hope of encouraging news.
- reply
Traci (not verified)at 06:53 on October 7th, 2008
This is Traci Turner and zac b dont know me. You don't know anything about our family.your can make all the statements you want, botton line, there has not been any proof. My sister and my nephews are still missing. you are a lier Dororthy Lane. There is NO PROOF OF THIS. HAVE DANIELLE AND THE BOYS GO TO THE NEAREST POLICE SATATION, SHOW THE POLICE THAT THEY ARE ALIVE. NO PROOF DOROTHY. HEAR SAY. WHY WOULD DANIELLE NOT CALL OUR FATHER, OR THE BOYS FATHER? YOU MY DEAR ARE MAKING STORIES UP. JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE CALLS IN, FIRST, THE POLICE NEED PROOF, THEN FAMILIES NEED PROOF, THERE ARE A LOT of WACK O'S OUT THERE. There are a lot of families who are hurting because of missing love ones from Hurrican Ike. My heart goes out to them. I know it's hard, hang in there. Just because you can write, why didn't you go on TV and say the very same thing you are trying now. There is notheing to gain,for me, but to know My sister and my two nephews are safe. No body has proven that. You Dorothy Lane have no proof that Danielle and the boys are safe. CNN wrote the story because it was and is STILL true. "THEY ARE STILL MISSING".
- reply
Dorothy Lane (not verified)at 17:55 on October 7th, 2008
oh my goodness gracious. What more can one say. The Center for Missing Children has listed this as "case closed" with the alleged missing alive and well, the local police AND a reporter at CCN have both spoken with Mrs. Chapman as well as myself, with the result that agencies and authorities are satisfied. Various friends have all been in continual contact with her since Ike -- and the upshot is, Mrs. Chapman has contacted everyone she wishes to contact. (Ms. Turner's rant may give a slight hint as to just why.) I think it's time to bury this rather embarrassing and humiliating use of public agencies and the media to force an unwanted contact and to simply accept (with thankfulness, I would hope) that the Chapmans are alive, well, thriving, and getting on with life. As should we all.
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Traci (not verified)at 22:48 on October 7th, 2008
No one has seen them, including you. Right, Dorothy. Joel and Addison’s father and Danielle’s father need proof. Again a phone call from her will do. Until then, you are wasting everyone’s time… this could have been over weeks ago. Why would you and her continue to play games, very inappropriate? With you and Danielle’s unusual behaviors, this is not a joke, let make that very clear... Danielle should have called her dad and/or had the boys call their father. A person in their right mine would call family members (not you Dorothy) to express that everything is ok, there has never been any problems before. You shouldn’t have encourage her not to call us.
STOP and THINK…Dorothy…. TELL/CALL Danielle to go to the nearest police station and let them know who she and the boys are. THEN CASE CLOSE. Then, we can all (family) decide that Danielle will need to be put on a 5150. Dorothy you know that this could all lead Danielle to mental anguish, which could prevent her from being able to provide food, and/or shelter, for the boys. This involves Joel and Addison welfare/safety conditions and they are not being remembered. No one should go though this pain, trying to relocate and locate love ones. And the bottom line still remains, “THEY ARE STILL MISSING” because there is no excuse for not calling, her dad.
at 08:09 on October 8th, 2008
It just breaks my heart
Time stands still and the clock doesn't know if it should
go forward or back....
Some things.. actually..a lot of things never seem to change
-They just get larger.
Thanks Christina.
Peace,
campanaro
at 08:10 on October 8th, 2008
It just breaks my heart
Time stands still and the clock doesn't know if it should
go forward or back....
Some things.. actually..a lot of things never seem to change
-They just get larger.
Thanks Christina.
Peace,
campanaro
at 14:53 on October 8th, 2008
Beautiful words, campanaro!
- reply
Dorothy Lane (not verified)at 13:06 on October 8th, 2008
Traci, at this point you have done irreparable damage to your own cause. You profess to love your sister but issue threats to push for a 5150 (Involuntary Psyciatric Hold) against her because she has made certain difficult choices about some relationships in her life, and consequently is not dancing to your tune. By your definition, anybody who chooses not to establish direct contact with you has to be certifiably crazy. I think it's painfully obvious that just the opposite is true. Accountability does exist for this type of threat and unfounded accusations, whether now or later. You have, I am sorry to say, portrayed yourself as the kind of woman who is willing to destroy someone in order to prove a point, and to exercise vindictiveness without any apparent boundary. Secondly, read up on the laws of confidentiality. Agencies can confirm but are NOT required to provide the kind of information you are determined to extract, not if the other party requests confidentiality. If your fight and frustration is with them, do not take it out on others. Thirdly, you insult Danielle's intelligence by implying I or anybody else can manipulate her to do anything against her free will. That is profoundly untrue, as you know, and insulting to my own brainpower as well. Why on earth would I willfully have chosen to unleash this boatload of embarrassing sensationalism. Lastly, you are insistent that I have not seen Danielle and the boys. In your own words, prove it. The roads run in all directions and I have the ability to turn an ignition key and pump gas. 'Nuff said. Everybody's satisfied but you and whomever else you are fronting for. I don't know what else can be done to turn you off and rein you in. And at this point, I don't care.
This is my last post in this matter. I've had enough of dealing with low-rent mentality and trash-talk. My sincere apologies to anybody who's been exposed to this fiasco. Hopefully the webmaster will decide to delete all postings relating to this entire matter as irrelevant to the essential story regarding Ike. It's all been just dumb and embarrassing.
Over and out.
at 14:51 on October 8th, 2008
Dear Dorothy & Traci
My heart goes out to all of you suffering out there. I do hope you will all find peace. Is there no way of reconcilaition? Life is so short. I do hope Danielle and her boys are well.
Lots of luv
Christina 123xxx
- reply
Dorothy Lane (not verified)at 05:45 on October 9th, 2008
Christina, I can only speak for myself. The time for potential reconcilliation passed when Traci, her dad, and Danielle's ex-husband put their heads together to brew up a vindictive and baseless scheme to punish Danielle for her choices and to work up a challenge to her custody of her sons (ie: threat of 5150.) This is their definition of family love and concern? Wow, just too sad. Yes, Danielle and the boys are well and in the process of rebuilding a normal life with the help and support of the people who really care for them....ie: her REAL family, proven by actions of the heart. As a mom and grandma, I'd be the very first to be in a panic if I knew a problem existed. My grandsons are dearer than life to me, and those who think to interfere with that had best think twice. There is a long history here which does not bear going into in a public forum, as you probably surmise. Agencies are aware of this. I would challenge Traci, her dad, and Keith to read I Corinthians Ch. 13 and see where they stand. They need to find a productive use for their lives and let others live in peace.
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Dorothy Lane (not verified)at 20:22 on October 10th, 2008
Final update on the Chapman family, and long overdue...The Galveston Police Dept. has been in contact with Danielle and identification is official; she and the boys are acknowledged as alive, well, and accounted for. They are NOT among the missing, and never were. Hopefully other sites will pick up on this and correct the misinformation that was generated by someone who willfully and knowingly withheld my name and number as next of kin from the media, agencies, and police. It took authorities time and effort to track me down and get the situation under control, and they are not happy about it. What a sad commentary and what an unnecessary mess.
at 15:06 on October 12th, 2008
Dorothy Lane - Thank you very much for going to the trouble to let readers know that Danielle and the boys are safe. This whole thing is so heart-breaking. What has happened to your family has clearly left you all feeling very fragile. Peace to you all.
- reply
Keith Chapman (not verified)at 12:45 on October 16th, 2008
This is Keith Chapman, Joel and Adison' father. The story that is being told by both Danielle and Dorothy are very misleading. I am not on here to point fingers and blame anyone for the misfortunate way things were handled. I am here to say thank you to everyone that did help us find out that all three are safe and well. Nothing else matters except that.
But on behalf of my family and myself I would like to extend a well deserved thank you to the Galveston Police Department, Laura Recovery Center, The Red Cross, Beyond Missing, Houston Police Department and last but deffinately not least Traci and her father Don and let them know that the love my family and I have for them for all that they have done goes far beyond any words we could possibly put into text. Just know that you all are and will continue to be in our hearts and have our undieing gratitude for all that you have done For my children and their mother. No matter how they choose to view this, we believe that all you have done was with the love and emotions of a truely loveing family in search of the truth.
I do not feel that I need to explain myself about the actions we took to find my children or Danielle. It was done purely out of concern for the safety and well being of all. We filed a missing persons report on behalf of my sons and Danielle with the Laura recovery team and Galveston Police Department, not to be vendictive as Dorothy has explained. But as concerned family members who believed that our family was part of this storm. With no communication from Danielle or the boy's as to their safety and well being, we did what i believe any family would do in a situation such as this. I have joint custody rights and should have been made aware by Danielle and noone else as to their safety and well being. When confronting Dorothy personally along with my my mother, all we were told was that they were ok and that there was no way to get into contact with danielle for verification for ourselves.
The sad thing about all of this, is that a simple phone call from Danielle to myself or local authorities would have ended it all, to which I have still yet to recieve.
I would also like to appologize to everyone on this site and others alike. This is your forum for speaking of your lost loved ones and hope that you all find them soon. Our family extends our thoughts and prayers out to you and yours.
Sincerely,
Keith Chapman