People often thought Kimberly Bryan and her older sister were twins. A little more than a year apart in age, their mother often dressed them alike.
Now, Bryan needs answers. Her sister, Tiffany Foster, has been missing since March when the mother of three left her apartment to go shopping.
“It’s not just some person who went missing,” Bryan said. “This is my sister. This is my best friend that I have not spoken to in six months.”
In recent weeks, the story of Gabby Petito, who had a massive following on social media, has made national headlines. While on a cross-country trip with her fiancé, Petito disappeared, according to her family and investigators. Her body was found in Wyoming. She was 22.
Investigators are searching for her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who had returned home to Florida with Petito’s van.
Petito’s father said the family hopes the attention the case has gotten will spur people with information in other cases to come forward.
“I want to ask people to help all of the people that are missing and need help,” Joe Petito said during a recent news conference. “It’s on all of you, everyone in this room, to do that and if you don’t do that for other people who are missing, that’s a shame because it’s not just Gabby that deserves that.”
Someone is reported missing most every day across metro Atlanta, and most are quickly found, according to local law enforcement agencies. Some are teen runaways, some are people whose absence sparks a Mattie’s Call, an emergency missing alert in Georgia for disabled or elderly individuals. Some leave and return, unaware their absence was cause for alarm.
Others vanish with no trace, leaving investigators little to go on. The GBI’s missing person listings include more than 40 people from Georgia whose whereabouts remain unknown, some for nearly three decades. The Atlanta Police Department’s list includes 19 others reported missing and never found.
“We have had cases that have been solved after many years,” a GBI spokeswoman Natalie Ammons said. “It is never too late.”
The 2005 disappearance of south Georgia teacher Tara Grinstead was featured in the hit podcast “Up and Vanished” and made national headlines when an arrest was made in the case 11 years later. Her former student, Ryan Alexander Duke, was charged with murder and is awaiting trial. A second suspect, Bo Dukes, was convicted on charges of making a false statement, hindering the apprehension of a criminal and concealing the death of another. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Zach Sommers, a Chicago-based lawyer with a doctorate in sociology, has researched missing person cases and the varying media attention they receive. It can be difficult for families to understand why their case doesn’t make headlines when others do, he said.
“It reopens the wound when they see a case like this get so much attention when they’ve worked sometimes years to get news coverage,” said Sommers, who examined news coverage of missing people for research he published in 2016. “What I found was people who were African Americans were underrepresented with respect to getting any news coverage at all.”
Credit: Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Credit: Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Some cases in metro Atlanta have been the exception. In November 2019, the family of Clark Atlanta University student Alexis Crawford reported her missing.
The story made national headlines when about a week later, the boyfriend of Crawford’s roommate confessed to investigators that he had choked and killed her. The 21-year-old was strangled to death and smothered with a plastic bag before her remains were placed in a plastic bin in a park, according to police. Both her roommate, Jordyn Jones, and Jones’ boyfriend, Barron Brantley, are facing murder charges.
Bryan remains hopeful for answers in her sister’s case. The reward for information has been increased to $60,000. Still, the media attention the Petito case has received feels like a slap in the face, she said.
“My sister’s been missing since March,” Bryan said. “This person goes missing a couple of weeks ago and it’s plastered everywhere. But Tiffany’s case was not like that.”
In the days after Foster was reported missing, her car and personal belongings were found in College Park, according to the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office charged Robertson with theft by taking, accusing him of moving Foster’s car from Newnan to College Park shortly after she vanished. He was later charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping and remains jailed without bond.
“She’s going to be found,” Bryan said. “I do believe that. She’s going to be found.”
STILL MISSING
These metro Atlanta missing person cases remain unsolved:
Clarence Rudolph: On June 8, the 73-year-old left the area of Laboon Circle in College Park in a 2007 black Chevrolet Tahoe with Georgia tag DGF995. Rudolph said he was moving. but has not been seen or made contact with his family since that date. Anyone with information can contact the Clayton County Police Department at 770-477-3747.
Tiffany Foster: The 35-year-old Coweta County woman has been missing since March 1. Foster was last seen at her home in the Creekside at White Oak apartment complex in Newnan, the Coweta sheriff’s office said. Her car was found on March 8 in College Park with her purse and credit card inside. Anyone with information can contact the sheriff’s office at 770-253-1502.
Credit: DeKalb County Police Department
Credit: DeKalb County Police Department
Daniel Kwon: The 78-year-old left his Chamblee home the afternoon of Sept. 3, 2019 and never came back. Kwon, a paraplegic, used an electric wheelchair to get around. His daughter, Katherine Kwon, told investigators she and her sister were able to track his cellphone to an area near Sugarloaf Mills Mall in Lawrenceville, but the phone battery died before they could find him. Anyone with information can contact DeKalb County police at 404-286-7900.
Jenna Van Gelderen: The 25-year-old was housesitting for her parents in DeKalb County when she was reported missing in August 2017. Her last known contact was a phone call with a friend in South Carolina. Van Gelderen drove a blue 2010 Mazda 6 that was later found abandoned in Atlanta. Anyone with information can contact the GBI Tip Line 1-800-597-8477 and online at gbi.georgia.gov/webform/submit-tips-online.
Credit: AJC Special
Credit: AJC Special
Athena Curry: The 20-year-old is believed to have walked out of her boyfriend’s Beecher Street home in late May 2011, leaving behind her baby. Police interviewed Curry’s boyfriend and he told them and family members that she left his house early one morning after a fight. Curry’s sister, Aisha Magee, said her sister had no car and no clothes. Anyone with information can contact the Atlanta Police Department Missing Persons Unit at 404-546-4235.
Justin Gaines: The 18-year-old college freshman at Gainesville State College was last seen in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, 2007. He had been at the now-closed Wild Bill’s nightclub in Duluth and called multiple friends to ask for a ride, but nobody was able to pick him up. Gaines left the club around 1:30 a.m., surveillance video shows. Two men were later charged in connection to the case, but not with murder. Anyone with information on the case can contact Gwinnett County police at 770-513-5700.
HOW TO HELP
Those with information that could help sole cases can contact Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477 or visit the Crime Stoppers website.
Tips can also be submitted anonymously to the GBI by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
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