Post by Scumhunter on Mar 20, 2015 10:08:23 GMT -5
(left: Hassani at age 5, right: Age-progressed to age 9)
Missing Child Profile as of March 20th, 2015 (based on missingkids.com poster):
Missing Since: Aug 10, 2009
Missing From: Oakland, CA
DOB: Sep 24, 2003
Age (as of 3/20/2015): 11
Sex: Male
Race: Black
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 3'0"
Weight: 40 lbs
TIPS: Anyone having information should call 1-800-THE-LOST or the Oakland Police Department (California) 1-510-777-3333
Hassani Campbell, a 5-year old African-American child with cerebral palsy, has been missing from Oakland, California since 2009. He was on AMW's website as a web-exclusive missing child case. Below is the Charley Project description of his disappearance:
Hasanni was reportedly last seen in the Rockridge district of Oakland, California at 4:15 p.m. on August 10, 2009. His foster father, Louis Ross, said he left the child outside his vehicle, a 2002 BMW, in the back parking lot of <i>Shuz</i>, a shoe store in the 6000 block of College Avenue. Ross was dropping off Hasanni and his one-year-old sister, Aaliyah, to be with his fiancee, Jennifer Campbell. Jennifer is the children's aunt and foster mother, and she managed the <i>Shuz</i> store. Photos of Ross and Jennifer are posted below this case summary. Ross took Aaliyah and went ahead to unlock the store door. When he returned to the vehicle, Hasanni was gone. An extensive search of the neighborhood turned up no sign of him. Owing to his cerebral palsy, he couldn't have gone very far on his own.
Hasanni had been living with his foster parents since December 2008, as his biological mother has health problems and substance abuse problems. Hasanni's foster parents were reportedly taking legal steps to adopt him when he disappeared. The state division of Children and Family Services had no problems with the couple as foster parents, and noted they conscientiously looked after Hasanni's medical needs. He was a student at James Leitch Elementary School in 2009.
After the child was reported missing, police impounded Ross's BMW, took Aaliyah into protective custody and served search warrants on his foster parents' home in the 5900 block of Roxie Terrace in Fremont, California. Ross took a polygraph test, which he failed; Jennifer refused take a test, saying she was pregnant and was worried the test would affect the fetus. Authorities stated there were incidents of domestic violence in the couple's relationship, and Ross had misgivings about raising a disabled child. According to court documents, Ross also once left Hasanni and his sister alone at home while he went to the bank. On July 31, ten days before Hasanni disappeared, Ross sent an angry text message to Jennifer threatening to abandon the child on a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) platform. He later stated he had simply been angry at Jennifer and had no intention of leaving Hasanni anywhere.
Police expressed skepticism of Ross's account of Hasanni's disappearance. The child supposedly vanished in the middle of a busy business district crowded with people, but nobody saw anything unusual, and tracker dogs could not find Hasanni's scent at the site where he was supposedly last seen. The family's neighbors stated they hadn't seen Hasanni since about two weeks before his disappearance was reported. In the investigation, police determined the last time Hasanni was seen by anyone other than his foster parents was on August 6, at a <i>Wal-Mart</i> store in Fremont.
On August 28, eighteen days after Hasanni's disappearance, his foster parents were arrested on suspicion of murder. Authorities intended to charge Ross with murder and Jennifer as an accessory. However, Jennifer was released on August 31 and Ross on September 1 after prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to file charges against them. Both of them maintain their innocence, but they remain the prime suspects in Hasanni's disappearance. In November 2008, after Jennifer gave birth to a daughter, she and Ross ended their relationship and moved out of their Fremont home.
Authorities are no longer actively searching for Hasanni, stating they don't know where to look. Although Ross and Jennifer maintain he was abducted from Oakland, police continue to believe he was murdered by his foster parents. His case remains unsolved.
Thoughts? This is once again a case of a missing child who is a minority and did not receive as much media coverage as other cases. You'd think the cerebral palsy along with the suspicion around the foster parents would take the interest level up at least a little
As for the parents, although it's disappointing the murder charges didn't stick I completely understand. In my opinion, the reason Casey Anthony was acquitted was because Caylee's cause of death was never satisfactorily explained, and it's hard to convict someone of murder if you don't know how the victim died. In this case, if Hassani was murdered, there's not even a body, let alone a cause of death. So a conviction, while not impossible, would be incredibly difficult.
What I do know in my opinion, based on the parents own statements, they are at the very least neglectful. All children need parental supervision at all times, let alone a child with cerebral palsy, and here they are leaving the child at home or in a parking lot.
Even though sometimes it sadly seems a missing child was murdered, I always look for the best case scenario, since the only thing we have in these cases is hope- even if it's against all odds. The "best case scenario" in my opinion is the parents either left him in their car and someone took them (although I find it hard to believe no one noticed anything odd in a busy business contract) or one or both of the parents gave Hassani away. Not that being abducted is a good scenario, but it's better than the worst-case in that Hassani could still be located
www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMC/1129016/1
www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/campbell_hasanni.html
web.archive.org/web/20091105234114/http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=67565#brief
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