Post by Scumhunter on Nov 19, 2015 12:37:50 GMT -5
(Above: Vincent, circa 2015. Photo Credit: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's missingkids.org website)
Missing Child Profile as of November 19th, 2015: (based on Missingkids.com Poster)
Missing Since: Jul 11, 2015
Missing From: Wichita, KS
DOB: Mar 3, 2015
Age Now: 8 months
Sex: Male
Race: Black
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 1'0"
Weight: 14 lbs
TIPS: Anyone having information should contact 1-800-THE-LOST or the Wichita Police Department (Kansas) at 1-316-268-4221
A social-justice advocate working with the family of a missing Wichita infant says relatives of the baby have been informed by authorities that they think the infant is dead.
Mary Dean, president and founder of Kansas Justice Advocate, in a five-page letter dated Wednesday, gives a timeline of her and the family’s contact with prosecutors and law enforcement who are investigating Vincent Moore’s disappearance. In the letter, she and the family question the effort Wichita police have put into the search for him.
She also cites a court document relatives of the baby received at an Oct. 8 child-in-need-of-care (CINC) proceeding that she says in part reads: “due to Vincent(’s) unknown whereabouts, the length of his absence and the details regarding his disappearance revealed doing (sic) the Wichita Police Department EMCU investigation, there is a clear and convincing evidence that Vincent is deceased.”
The document is being used in the CINC proceeding to try to sever the parental rights of Vincent’s parents, Michelle Mendez and Gary Moore, and place the couple’s 2-year-old son in foster care, she says.
Dean e-mailed the letter Thursday morning to community members, state officials, clergy and the media. Thursday afternoon she told The Eagle that some who received it, including local government leaders, have already responded.
Asked to respond to Dean’s letter, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said in an interview Thursday that Wichita police have “made the search for baby Vincent one of their top priorities. They have continued to work with my office both in the juvenile and the adult department and will do so until the case is solved.”
Bennett said he could not discuss the information contained in the court document that Dean’s letter cites because it is confidential.
Vincent, who was born March 3, was last seen the morning of July 11 leaving a house near 31st South and Hydraulic with his father. Police have said that on or around June 5, Vincent’s mother dropped the baby and his 2-year-old sibling off with their father for visitation. After not being able to reach him or find the children, she reported her struggles to Wichita police.
Moore – who had taken the children to Texas for a few weeks – was arrested during a traffic stop in west Wichita on July 29. The 2-year-old was with him, but the baby was not, police have said.
Moore has publicly claimed he returned the child to Mendez. Police have said Mendez also claims she doesn’t have the child and has passed polygraph examinations that support her statements.
To date, authorities have given no public statement about whether they think Vincent is dead. Police said as recently as last Friday that there was no new information they could release on the case.
In an interview with The Eagle earlier this week, family members of Vincent said they think police aren’t doing enough to find him. Efforts included an Aug. 3 search of a wooded area at 55th South and K-15, near Derby, and asking for the public’s assistance in the search.
To date, no one has been arrested in connection with Vincent’s disappearance.
Dean says in her letter that she was contacted by Vincent’s great-grandmother and Gary Moore’s grandmother, Linda Hodges, on July 30, after police notified her that the baby was missing. She has been in regular contact with Hodges and her family since, she said in a recent interview.
She says in the letter that the document that suggests Vincent is dead “hit the family like a ton of bricks.”
“The Moore family was devastated! Not only was Baby Vincent missing, but now it was determined … that he was deceased,” she writes. “Some of the information the detectives have been willing to provide to the Moore family has them confused, frustrated, angry, and stressed.”
In addition to giving a timeline of the family’s contact with authorities in the letter, Dean questions the search efforts to find the infant, wonders why no Amber Alert was issued for Vincent and asks whether the baby’s race – Vincent is black – has lessened authorities’ interest in finding him.
“The family of missing Baby Vincent wants him found. If, it has been determined that this precious child is deceased, the family wants more details than what was dropped into their hands in (in the court document) … This family is looking for some closure,” Dean says in her letter.
“This family needs compassion, sympathy, empathy, and consideration to what they are experiencing.”
Bennett said it’s not unusual for details of an investigation to be kept from family members and the public while it’s ongoing.
“It’s not that people are being insensitive or intentionally difficult,” he said. “There are rules to be followed concerning dissemination of information.”
Moore is currently serving a 12-month jail sentence for violating his probation in a battery case involving Mendez. He also is facing criminal charges in connection with the removal of a GPS tracking device in June.
Mendez, in a series of requests for protective orders filed in Sedgwick County District Court, described Moore as “rougher than he intends to be when he’s angry” and says “if he doesn't get help, it is only a matter of time before he hits them (the children) harder than he means to.”
In an interview with The Eagle earlier this week, Hodges said she and her family don’t think Vincent is dead and want more help finding him.
“He’s not dead,” Hodges said. “He’s out here somewhere. And they just don’t want us to look.
“They don’t want us to ask no questions and won’t help us look.”
Thoughts? I should note that I'm just sharing the Witchita Eagle's article and I'm not taking sides when it comes to any opinions. Obviously the Moore family is frustrated, so whatever happened to Vincent, I hope they can get their answers.
www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMC/1254967/1
www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article41827602.html
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