Sunday, March 17, 2013
Mary Ann Verdecchia's disappearance rocked the Pittsburgh area in 1962.
One of the oldest and most memorable missing persons cases in southwestern Pennsylvania is that of Mary Ann Verdecchia, who disappeared from Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood on June 7, 1962. The 10-year-old had lived with her aunt in the five years after her parents separated. She had returned home after a half day of classes at Immaculate Conception School, changed out of her school uniform and went outside about 12:30 p.m. Witnesses saw Mary Ann go into the Martinique Apartments on Baum Boulevard. A woman resident who she ran errands for sent her to the store. She was seen going back into the apartment about 2:45 p.m. And that was the last reported sighting of her. About 6 p.m., her relatives began looking for her. They called police…
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Family received threatening phone calls after she went missing.
Amy L. Pugner chatted on the phone with her sister as she was painting her new apartment in Washington, Pa., where she had recently moved, on June 8, 2010. That was the last time Amy's sister spoke with her. Amy, a Latrobe native, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had a history of drug abuse. Her family considered the move a good thing—something that seemed to indicate that Amy, was getting her life together, leaving her demons behind and heading in the right direction. No one is sure when Amy was last seen, but likely it was June 9 or 10, 2010. Her family became alarmed when, a few days after that last phone call, a man used Amy's cell phone to make several threatening phone calls to them. He demanded money from them and told them…
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Pittsburgh resident has been missing since September 2006.
More than six years ago, Devin Janelle Brown-Bousetta, 25, disappeared from her Mt. Washington residence in the City of Pittsburgh She has not been seen since Sept. 5, 2006, and that was at her home near Southern Avenue and Natchez Street. Her vehicle—a white, 1995 Chrysler Cirrus LX—was later located in Pittsburgh. Devin is described as a black/Hispanic woman, 5-foot-2 and 115-120 pounds. She has black hair, brown eyes and a medium complexion. She has a flower tattoo over her right breast, the name "China" on her left arm and "chinese woman" on her back. Authorities say she also has a scar on her earlobe from previous tear, a burn scar on upper right thigh, pierced ears and a gap between her upper front teeth. Devin speaks very slowly. …
Sunday, February 17, 2013
She was last seen or heard from in June 2011, just after she moved back to Pittsburgh from Florida.
Amanda Marie Koller had moved back to the Pittsburgh area from Orlando, FL in May 2011. The 23-year-old did not establish or maintain a permanent address in the few short weeks after her return, according to her mother. On Sunday, June 12, 2011, she was stopped by Pittsburgh police and cited for operating a vehicle without a valid inspection and also without an emissions inspection. Her car, a purple 2005 Scion TC has a Pennsylvania license plate and also one from Florida, both of which expired in 2011. The license numbers are Pennsylvania GLH 0116 and Florida ANA 4580, according to the Pennsylvania Missing Persons website. She has not been seen nor heard from since. Amanda is described as 5-feet to 5-foot 5, about 100 to 150 pounds with …
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The North Huntingdon man had a fight with his girlfriend in the Strip District, and then vanished.
Jacob "Jake" Lipp, 27, did what many young adults do on the weekend—head to Pittsburgh's Strip District for the night life. He left his home in North Huntingdon Township. Westmoreland County, about 8:45 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, and ended up with his girlfriend at the Static bar on Smallman Street. The couple left the bar and then had an argument in the early morning hours on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. The girlfriend drove off, leaving Jake in the parking lot. He walked in the opposite direction, back toward the bar. She circled the block and went back, but Jake was already gone. He was last seen at about 3 a.m. in the parking lot outside the McDonald's restaurant at 1630 Penn Ave. in the Strip District, about two blocks from where his …
Sunday, December 16, 2012
The missing man was from Waynesburg but worked on a river boat owned by Tri-River Fleeting in Pittsburgh.
Robert Elmer Allison of Waynesburg, Greene County, worked on a river boat owned by Tri-River Fleeting, which is currently listed on West Carson Street in Pittsburgh. Allison reportedly left work on Dec. 21, 1994 and was headed for a bar in the west end of Pittsburgh. All of this belongings were found on the boat and he has not been seen since. Sources that list his disappearance say he was last seen "leaving Tri-River Fleeting in Bethel Park near Pittsburgh" but it is questionable as to why a river business is listed in Bethel Park. He was 42 years old at the time of his disappearance. Allison is described as being a white male with brown eyes and wearing glasses, brown hair and a fair complexion; about 5 feet, 9 inches; and 170 pounds. He…
Sunday, December 9, 2012
The Etna woman was last seen in Wilkins Township.
Last year, just about a week before Christmas, Joann Angel of Etna visited a relative's home in Wilkins Township. That day—Saturday, Dec. 17—was the last time anyone heard from her. She might have been spotted a few days later, on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at a gas station on Route 30 in the North Versailles/North Huntingdon area. She was last seen driving a dark-blue 2006 Chrysler Sebring with a black convertible top with the PA license number HMW-8034. In February, her family offered a $1,000 reward for information on her whereabouts, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Angel is described as 52 years old; 5 feet, three inches tall; 115 pounds, with a thin build. She has blonde hair and brown eyes. She suffers from seizures and might not …
Sunday, November 25, 2012
These cases in the Pittsburgh area did not have a happy ending but finding those missing persons might have brought closure to families.
As early as this July, people in the law enforcement community knew that the remains of Amanda Sue Myers of Pittsburgh had been identified through DNA comparison. However, it was only last week when Pittsburgh police finally released the news. In July, two separate sources told Patch that Amanda had been identified but that police wanted to hold off on releasing information until some interviews had been conducted. Amanda, who was 22 at the time of her death, was last seen in Pittsburgh at the end of 1999 but may have been in Florida and Tennessee as late as April 2000. She was not reported missing until 2007, according to the Pennsylvania Missing Persons website. Known unofficially as Homestead Jane Doe, Amanda was found deceased on Oct…
Sunday, November 11, 2012
The mother said her daughter had been abducted on the South Side but, later, the mother's boyfriend confessed to burying the toddler in Brookline.
The image of a little girl on a grocery shopping trip with her mother—then suddenly gone. That was happened the day of March 9, 1982 when Melody Childs Thomas told police that her daughter, Nicole Lynn Bryner, 3, had been abducted from a shopping cart at the Giant Eagle supermarket on the South Side of Pittsburgh. Though there were extensive searches, no trace of Nicole was ever found. Then, in 1986, Timothy Widman, Childs' boyfriend at the time, allegedly confessed he had punched Bryner and accidentally killed her. He told police that he and Childs' buried the body in a wooded area along Timberland Road in Brookline. Police searched unsuccessfully for the body. Without it, prosecutors could not pursue the case. But in 1988, a Superior …
Sunday, September 16, 2012
This Blair County girl disappeared as she walked to school in 1965.
Editor's note: Patch's Unsolved Cases generally features cases from southwestern Pennsylvania. On a trip this summer, I passed right by the small town of Tyrone, just north of Altoona. Tyrone, to me, has always meant Kathy Shea. Her face, which appeared in newspapers and on TV at the time of her 1965 disappearance, has haunted me since I was a child because she was just a few years younger than me. As I looked over at Tyrone from the new highway, I knew I had to share her story. It's a tale that's happened too many times—a young girl on her way to or from school vanishes into thin air. And that is the story of Kathleen Ann Shea of Tyrone, PA, who was 6 years old when she disappeared on March 18, 1965. She was last seen traveling north …
