11/01/96: Pierre Mercon, 21, Richmond Hall, ON, Canada

Missing - Pierre Mercon

Pierre Mercon, age 21, was last seen at around 2 a.m. on November 1, 1996, leaving a Halloween Party at the Original Six Sports Bar, located at 14 Oxford Street in the Town of Richmond Hill, Ontario.

According to the Toronto Sun, there were upward of 200 patrons at the now-defunct bar celebrating that night. The bar rested on an open patch of land "that was almost a pasture back then." It is now filled with residential housing.
Mercon phoned his mother from the pay phone outside the bar and asked her to pick him up at a nearby corner. She had driven him there earlier in the evening so he could celebrate with colleagues who had just finished a federal job training program. He and his mother were close and she didn't mind his calling for a lift.

Mercon's mother drove to the prearranged street corner to pick up her son. She found it empty. In fact, no one was in sight.


The Search for Pierre Mercon

When Norma Mercon last saw her son, he was wearing a costume consisting of Army fatigues, brown work boots, a camouflage Army-style rain poncho that his brother, Alexander, had loaned him, a green wool hat, and a long black hippie-style wig. Only his poncho has ever turned up. It was found under the table where Mercon had been sitting.

"He was still a boy," Alexander, told the Toronto Sun. "He was a house boy, not a street boy. Our family was close. The police response? He's over 18. He's a grown man. Wait it out. And, as a result, it was three days before a detective knocked at our door."
According to the Sun:

"When Mercon went missing, it wasn't the best time for the York regional police. The OPP was probing the comings and goings of York Chief Bryan Cousineau, who would be bounced a year later for a breach of trust conviction and replaced by future Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino."

'It wasn't until Fantino arrived that anyone really cared about what happened to my son," said Norma Mercon, indicating that a York detective named Richard McVeity was the one who finally put his soul into it.'

'I put a ton of time into it,' says McVeity.

'When a man calls his mother to pick him up and then is not there, then something is amiss. Besides, I didn't take Pierre as the type of person who would put his mother through all that.'

'But so much time had passed by then.'"

Investigators did determine that Mercon had no enemies, no heavy drug-use background, no debts and no reported threats against him. His bank account, from which he used to withdraw $20 nearly every day, remained opened, but untouched. Mercon wasn't one to hang with the wrong crowd, and he had no reason to disappear on his own.

Foul play is strongly suspected in the case.

But, according to the Tandem News, "without a smoking gun, without a body, without witnesses or any material evidence, the trail for Mercon soon grew cold."

The case ended up on the desk of York Regional police Detective Tim Gore, the region's lone cold case investigator since March 2002. Gore has been a police officer for 26 years.

"It seems like he just fell off the face of the Earth," Det. Gore told the paper.  "Because he doesn't have a history of running away, because his bank accounts haven't been touched, we began investigating the missing persons report right away."

He added, "There are cases when the victim is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes there just isn't a motive to be found," says Det. Gore. "In this case when he calls his mom and asks her to pick him up and he's not at the intersection where he's supposed to be, it leads us to believe that there is probably foul play involved."

As of July 2005, Gore had 38 cold homicides and disappearances to investigate; and he was hoping to crack his first case. "I'd like to be able to phone the victims family and tell them I have good news, that justice will be served," he told the paper. "Closure is important, even if it simply means finding a body that the family can bury," he said.

If you have any information, please contact: York Regional Police Homicide & Missing Persons at (905) 830-0303.


Quick Facts:
Name/age: Pierre Mercon, 21
Last Seen: 11/1/96, 2 a.m., Original Six Sports Bar at 14 Oxford Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Physical Description: Caucasian, 6'1," 220 pounds, stocky build, short brown hair, hazel eyes. Prominent tattoo of Uruguay on shoulder of right arm.
Last wearing: Army fatigues, green wool hat, long black wig (Halloween costume), work boots.
Investigating Agency: York Regional Police Homicide & Missing Persons at (905) 830-0303.

10/31/09: Isaac Ripberger, 28, California, KY

Isaac Ripberger, 28, walked away from a Halloween party at a house on Reis Lane in an unincorporated area of California, Kentucky and never came back or returned home.

Friends told police they last saw Ripberger on the front porch of the house at about 3:30 a.m. Sat., Oct. 31, 2009 while they were attempting to get their vehicle unstuck from the mud. Officer Steve Kush said, "It was cold and raining. "What few people were left at the party were trying to get the vehicle unstuck. He was waiting on the porch. Once they got the vehicle unstuck, no one could find him." Friends thought he went back into the house to spend the night, and did not realize he wasn't there until the next morning. They reported him missing. Friends reported that Ripberger may have been under the influence, and some speculated that he may have been injured.

04/27/08: William Jacobson, 19, Ithaca, NY

Nineteen-year old freshman William "Willie" Jacobson, an Ithaca College student in upstate New York, was last seen at a theme party at a house at 105 Grandview Avenue. He had been dressed as William Shakespeare at the party. His body was found three days later in a retention pond less than half a mile from the party.

Willie's Story
According to Ithaca College, Jacobson was last seen around 4 a.m. April 27 in the backyard of a home in the city of Ithaca near the Hudson Heights Apartments. It was a theme party, and he had been dressed in a William Shakespeare costume consisting of white long-sleeved dress shirt, navy blue vest, black dress pants, and black dress shoes. He was seen walking away from the home. Officials say they believed he was planning on walking back to his dorm room on campus. Jacobson would have had to walk about a half-mile from the party back to get to his dorm (the Terrace 11 residence hall). His roommate reported him missing late Monday night. According to interviews with party-goers, Jacobson had been drinking during the theme event, but witnesses say he was not drunk. There is no indication he ran into any trouble with anyone at the party.

The Search
Nearly one hundred people were involved in the search for Jacobson. Rescue workers searched briefly Monday evening before darkness set in and then conducted aerial and ground searches Tuesday. Firefighters, police and volunteers trekked through the woods.Helicopters and ATVs joined in the ground searches. Friends set up a Facebook alert and posted flyers. A state dive team also searched two ponds on campus.

Recovery
A State Police dive team found Jacobson’s body in a small 8-foot deep pond on Farm Road. Acting Ithaca Police Chief Edward Vallely said there were no visible injuries on the body. According to college spokesperson, Dave Maley, the retention pond is just down an embankment from a sidewalk that Jacobson could have been using to get home. It is conceivable that he tumbled into the pond, said Maley, but it is "too early to know exactly what happened." Jacobson still had his wallet and his cell phone with him.The pond is located on the route he likely would have taken to return to his Terrace 11 residence hall room.

A preliminary autopsy conducted on Thursday, May 1, by Dr. James Terzian of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton indicated the death was due to an accidental drowning. Police have ruled out foul play as the cause of death.


About Willie Jacobson
A resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, Jacobson, 19, was a writing major at Ithaca College. Jacobson had been a graduate of Central High School in St. Paul, MN, where he was a member of the student group Youth Against War and Racism.

Quick Facts:Name/age: William ("Willie") Jacobson (originally from St. Paul)
College: Ithaca College, Ithaca
Major: writing
Physical Description: white male, 5’9” tall, 165 lbs., thin build, black wavy hair, goatee. Wearing Shakespeare costume consisting of white long-sleeved dress shirt, navy blue vest, black dress pants, and black dress shoes.
Last seen: 4/27/08, sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 am
Recovered: 4/30/08
Cause of death: drowning
Manner of death: accident
Injuries: no signs of foul play or trauma
Air temperature: in the 40s

10/31/02: Chris Jenkins, 21, Minneapolis, MN

"I wish everyday I could go back to that naive place in the world where life was so simple. Where people were inherently good, where the sun shined just a bit brighter. It's not simple. There are really bad people out there and they do really bad things."

- Sara Jenkins, sister of Chris Jenkins

When University of Minnesota student Christopher Jenkins disappeared and his body was found in the Mississippi River, his parents, Jan and Steve Jenkins, embarked on a journey of remarkable courage to seek answers and justice. Through their perseverance, the family was able to uncover clues indicating that Chris may have been abducted and murdered. His official cause of death has been reclassified from accidental drowning to homicide. Charges have yet to be filed in his death.

After a 6 p.m. keg party at his home, Chris Jenkins, his girlfriend, Ashley Rice, and a few friends headed over to the Lone Tree Bar & Grill at 528 Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. The group arrived at the bar between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. and parked the car just south of the bar. Sometime around midnight, Chris Jenkins was reportedly kicked out of the the bar. Witnesses said the head of Lone Tree security instructed staff not to allow Chris back into the bar, despite the 20-degree weather outside. Wearing only his American Indian costume--a brown nylon shirt and pants, slip-shoes, and a headband with a red feather--he was put out on the street. He did not have a coat, and his wallet, cell phone, and keys were inside with his friends.

It was the last time he was seen alive.

After little progress was made by local authorities in finding their son, Jan and Steve Jenkins decided to take matters into their own hands. A possible tip indicated that Chris may have been spotted walking north across the Hennepin Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River. The Jenkinses were able to find surveillance footage of the bridge and have it reviewed.

 "There were two surveillance cameras on the Federal Reserve Bank pointing to the Hennepin Avenue Bridge," says Jan. "This was post 9-11, clearly good equipment. We have written documentation from the supervisor that more than one person viewed the tapes from both cameras late on the 31st and early on November 1. Chris was not seen on the tape. We do not believe Chris walked across that bridge. The supervisor told the FBI that it would be almost impossible for a person to sprint across that bridge and not be seen."

They also hired a private investigator, Chuck Loesch. Loesch found witnesses who reported that a gang of at least 10 men had attacked a man in front of Times Square Pizza (across the street from the bar), in what was thought to be a gang initiation. Although, the time of the incident has not been confirmed--it could have been around the time Chris left the bar.

Two bloodhounds with different handlers were also brought in by the Jenkins family on two separate occasions. Both dogs picked up Chris's scent on the sidewalk in front of the pizza joint where witnesses reported seeing the fight. Both dogs followed the scent into the parking garage next to the pizza joint. And both dogs followed the scent right to the same parking stall. Later, blood drops and a red feather, possibly from Chris's Native American costume, were reportedly found inside the garage.

Recovery and Investigation

Almost four months later, Chris’s body was found snagged on some tree branches in the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. The body was on the east side of the river near the spillway of the St. Anthony Falls Hydroelectrical Laboratory at 30 SE 3rd Street. (See Map.) It could be seen from the 3rd Avenue bridge, floating on its back with its arms in front.

Police initially believed Chris either committed suicide or died accidentally after falling into water. But all those who knew Chris felt differently. Chris was a star athlete--a two-time team captain of his lacrosse team. He was set to graduate with stellar grades from the university's prestigious Carlson School of Management, and had job interviews lined up. He was happy, easy going, very responsible, and he had plans for the future.

The Jenkins family consulted with numerous experts, including global experts in water rescue and recovery, renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, and even reviewed their own son's autopsy photos. They learned that the appearance of Chris's body did not fit with the suicide or accident theories held by the police. Most drowning victims are found face down with their arms out toward their sides, their clothing disheveled, and one or both of their shoes missing. This is because one's natural reaction when drowning is to vigorously paddle the feet and arms and swim. Chris's body was found on it's back, arms crossed in front, his shirt tucked in to his drawstring pants and still wearing both over sized slip-on shoes. He also still had on a necklace, a ring on the left index finger and a ring on the right ring finger.

Case reopened, death reclassified as homicide

When a new police chief, Tim Dolan, was hired for the city of Minneapolis, the Jenkins family brought him the leads uncovered by their private investigator and the new evidence they had found. The chief agreed that the case had not been thoroughly investigated. In 2006, Dolan reopened the case.

That same year, an eyewitness to crime (someone in jail and reportedly facing felony charges for another crime) stepped forward to claim he was present when Chris was thrown off a bridge. The inmate told investigators that his acquaintance, after robbing Chris and finding nothing of value, became angry and threw him off the Hennepin Avenue bridge. It is not known whether the eyewitness was involved in the crime, or only providing information to bargain for leniency, but the claim had other problems.

Photo credit: MN Department of Transportation

If a bridge was involved, Chuck Loesch believed, it could not have been the Hennepin Avenue bridge. The physical layout, which includes a steel beam and suspension cables, would have made it nearly impossible to throw someone over without injury. Jenkins was not found to have any broken bones, meaning that the killer would have had to lift a grown man over the high safety railing and throw him 4- to 5-feet out over the support beam, avoiding the vertical cables in the process. The bridge is brightly lit and has heavy traffic, and no one reported seeing anything unusual on the bridge that night. Cameras with a view of the bridge also did not capture anything suspicious, including Chris walking across the bridge.

Loesch, in fact, believes it unlikely that Chris was thrown from a bridge at all. Given the fall and the river's current, Chris's shoes would not have stayed on his feet.

But where Chris entered the water may be significant: If it was further upstream, it would point to a vehicle being involved in the crime. And Chris's family has said they have various reasons to believe Chris was "thrown in the back of a van - abducted, tortured, and eventually murdered."

In 2006, Chris's death was reclassified as a homicide. During a press conference, Chief Dolan offered the Jenkins family a public apology. But in July 2007, Hennepin County declined to press any charges in the case, citing lack of evidence. The case remains unsolved.

Chris's mother, Jan Jenkins, has written a book about the family's struggle for justice. For more information, check out http://www.legacyofcourage.com/.

Case Facts:
Name/age: Christopher Mark Jenkins, 21
Hometown: Eden Prairie, MN
Residence: Minneapolis, MN
College: University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management
Major: Marketing and entrepreneurial management
Physical description: athletic (goalie and co-captain of lacrosse team)
Recovered: 02/27/03 at 1650 hours in the Mississippi River near the Horseshoe Dam south of the Third Ave. Bridge just above St. Anthony Falls. Cause of death: Drowning.
Manner of death: reclassified as a homicide
Injuries: none visible
Blood Alcohol Content: 0.07 in deep tissue, .12 in heart
Water temperature: 33 F when found
Air temperature: 35 F when found