The 8th Annual National Missing Persons Conference 2012

THEME 2012  ” In Support of the Journey “

Thursday, March 22, 2012

State Outreach Coordinators Meeting: Closed to the public, this meeting is for directors 2:00 pm

Class Times: 6:00 pm (You have to start Thursday night with this class and take all hours involved for proper certification). This class runs around all other training and speakers, so you will not miss any conference activities.

The Road to Becoming a Search and Rescue Technician

Registration packets and check in: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm and  7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Note: The back half of the ballroom will remain open all day and evening for any participants to set up items, informational handouts, missing person information or visuals, table display, banners, etc. When checking into the conference please request the person in charge for this area to help you in whatever you may need for a smooth process. You can also ship your items to the CUE Center or the hotel; please advise the hotel with instructions, if shipping to them.

Date: March 22nd – 25th of 2012

Join us for our upcoming national conference for missing persons and all who work in the arena from advocating, volunteerism, investigation, search and rescue and identification process of those who are lost. This event is open to all who support the mission of finding a resolution for families who have suffered a missing loved one and been left a victim of crime.

THE CONFERENCE CONCLUDES ON SUNDAY, MARCH 25th @ 1:00 pm

Please share this information to anyone in this line of work and or a family of a missing person or homicide victim. To learn more about CUE Center for Missing Persons please visit us at our web site www.ncmissingpersons.org or email us cuecenter@aol.com

NOTICE: (This conference is a pre – registration conference, ONLY) please contact our center for details

Download and print registration form below

    
Submit Registration: Mailing Address (CUE) PO Box 12714 Wilmington, NC 28405
Ph: (910) 343-1131 or (910) 232-1687 Fax: (910) 399-6137
Location: Holiday Inn Hotel Conference Center 5032 Market Street, Wilmington, NC 28405 (910) 392-1101

Note: CUE will arrange the hotel accommodations  for conference  registered attendees.

Want to become a sponsor?

Download and print forms above and mail them with with your check  payable to:
CUE Center For Missing Persons
PO Box 12714
Wilmington, NC
28405

Proclamation & Letters

Meet The 2012 Sponsors…more to come!

Visit some of our sponsors websites
Gary Micco Private Investigations

Training Sessions, Certificate Classes

Training: The Road to Becoming a Search and Rescue Technician

Patricia Totillo is a founding member of K-9 Search and Rescue of Orange City, FL. She has been involved in search and rescue for ten years. She has certified canines thur NAPWDA, NASAR, NSDA, NNDDA and L.E.T.S. She is a lead evaluator for NASAR and NSDA and has instructed at numerous seminars across the country.

The class is designed to provide knowledge concerning the general responsibilities, skills, abilities, and the equipment needed by persons who would be participating in a search or rescue mission. It provides a common starting point in training for the new person to search and rescue.

Focus will be on providing the necessary knowledge to pass the NASAR (National Association Search And Rescue) SARTECH III written exam. Persons who are interested in becoming involved with search and rescue operations.

Emergency response personnel who belong to organizations who provide resources and assistance during search and rescue missions.

Managers of emergency response organizations who want to understand the state-of-the-art skills and knowledge needed by the SAR workers.

Experienced SAR people who want to refresh their knowledge base.

This is the first step on your road to becoming a fully operational SARTECH II. Additional information will be provided to people who want to continue on this journey.

Training: Death Declaration & Power of Attorney and Missing Persons

Jenna Butler, her practice experience encompasses various areas of civil litigation in both the federal and state courts and before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. She advises clients and litigates cases involving all forms of commercial disputes, including contract breaches, trusts and estates litigation, insurance litigation, and securities litigation. Ms. Butler’s practice also involves representing and advising community associations, including litigating civil disputes on behalf of community associations and their members. Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Butler practiced in Atlanta, Georgia, and from 1995 to 1996 served as law clerk to the Honorable Malcolm J. Howard, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Training: Document the Abuse

Susan Murphy-Milano is often praised as one of the most dynamic and engaging speakers of our day in the intimate partner violence prevention field.

As an expert in the area of intimate partner violence and the prevention of homicide, Susan has created specific tools and procedures which the abused need to safely leave a violent relationship.

Susan witnessed her father, a decorated Chicago Violent crimes Detective, brutally and violently attack her mother repeatedly. The words “if you leave I will kill you,” turned into reality the night Susan walked into her childhood home and found her mother murdered and her father in the next room dead from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound to the head. Susan vowed then, and has, since the murder-suicide of her parents, carved out a road making changes in the way the world looks at violence in and outside the home.

Susan uses humor, passion, and all her years of experience to motivate her audience to become more effective first responders, advocates and professionals in their work to stop family violence.

Susan’s quest for justice was instrumental in the passage of the Illinois Stalking Law and the Lauternberg Act. She has been prominently featured in newspapers, magazines, radio and television including: The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Radio, ABC’S 20/20, Justice Files, E-True Hollywood, CNN, Sunday Today Show Profile, Women’s Day, Family Circle, US News and World Report to name only a few.

See more: http://imaginepublicity.com/clients/susan-murphy-milano/

Training: Sonar 2012, Improvements and Usage Deliveries

Chuck Elgin, Chief of North Carolina Underwater Response Team since 1991, NC Community College Instructor, Operations Chief in the county Emergency Management Operations Center, and am often called upon to utilize sonar in searches for missing people, mapping and bottom bathymetries through out the South-East.

Speakers and Presentation

TOPIC: Gangs, Forgotten Youth and the Missing

Michelle Guarino earned a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a Masters of Social Work from New York University. Michelle is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has worked with gang affiliated / at-risk youth since 1996.

She worked as the Youth Intervention Counselor for the New Hanover County / Wilmington City Gang Task Force; a first of its kind position employing a civilian within a law enforcement entity to intervene with gangs, gang members and families. Michelle has received Gang Counseling Techniques training from the National Gang Crime Research, as well as, Primary Gang Specialist Certification.

Michelle has trained agencies such as ROCIC Gang Conference, NC Governor’s Crime Commission, National Gang Crime Research Center Gang Conference, Project Safe Neighborhoods, NC Parks and Recreation, NC Association of Substance Abuse Counselors, Camp Eckerd, The North Carolina University system, Department of Juvenile Justice and various law enforcement agencies.

Michelle has also worked as an outpatient therapist specializing in children and youth with a focus on adjudicated youth and gang affiliated youth. Michelle is co-author of Best Practices Manual: The Wilmington Youth Violence Intervention Program, New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office Lower Cape Fear Gang Task Force Assessment and “A Second’s Chance”- Gang Violence Task Force Prevention Program published in the American Surgeon journal. Michelle serves as the Director of Program Development for The North Carolina Gang Investigators Association and has assisted the association in implementing Gang Free NC.

Michelle currently serves on the Governor’s Gang Task Force as the Chair for the Intervention sub-committee. Past recognitions include; New Hanover County Human Relations Woman of the Year 2000, for program development and services provided to at-risk and gang affiliated youth. Recipient of the Walter Lawson NOBLE award and The Governors Crime Commission “Excellence in Juvenile Crime Prevention” award, as well as, recipient of the “Cape Fear Peace Prize” for contributions made to at-risk and gang affiliated youth.

Michelle is currently employed as the Gang Counselor/ Program Director for the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office Gang Task Force. Michelle is also a part time instructor for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington School of Social Work.

TOPIC: Through the Window; The view from a “Crime Writer”

Diane Fanning is one of America’s premier Crime novelists and True Crime authors. At the top of a genre that often gets a rap in the literary world, Fanning brings esteem, doing due diligence when presenting a criminal case in book format.

At a young age, Diane had a brush with danger, coming close to being abducted, she became attuned to crime and wondered just what makes a criminal tick. What kind of questions could be answered for a child about the psychology of the criminal mind? The story of Krystal Surles and her part in ending the 20 year killing spree of serial killer, Tommy Lynn Sells, inspired Diane to write her first true crime book, “Through the Window,” an accounting of the courage and bravery of a 10 year old, not so much unlike herself.

Before writing her first true crime book, Fanning wrote for magazines,television, radio and ad agencies in Virginia, earning many awards, before she moved to Texas where her career in true crime blossomed, along with her work with several non profit organizations. She has served on the executive committees of the Writers’ League of Texas and the Heart of Texas chapter of Sisters in Crime and is also a member of Mystery Writers of America.

See more: http://imaginepublicity.com/clients/diane-fanning/

TOPIC: Bringing Jon Home; A father’s journey of loss and discovery

David Francis is president of the Jon Francis Foundation (JFF), a non-profit organization with the mission to provide support and empowerment to the families of people missing in the wilderness. The Foundation was created as a tribute to David’s 24-year-old son, Jon, who went missing in July 2006 while climbing the Grand Mogul in the Sawtooth Mountains of Central Idaho.

Authorities had abandoned their search for the young man after just two days, but David and his family refused to give up. They mobilized hundreds of volunteers who spent more than a year searching the wilderness.

David Francis is a retired Minnesota businessman, former nuclear submarine officer and retired U.S. Navy Captain with 30 years of naval service. His business experience includes several years with 3M and IBM and sales, marketing and management at five high technology startup companies in Minnesota.

David and his wife, Linda, live in Stillwater, Minnesota. They have been married for more than 40 years and have one son, Jon; three daughters, Robin, Jocelyn and Melissa; and six grandchildren, Taylor, Katie, Stephen, Audrey, Charlie and Camille.

David is the author of Bringing Jon Home – the Wilderness Search for Jon Francis. Bringing Jon Home is a national award winning inspirational memoir that tells the story of Jon’s remarkable life, sudden loss, and inspiring legacy and describes, in compelling detail, the long and relentless wilderness search for his son.

In 2010 The Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote, “David Francis has emerged as a leading advocate for missing adults.” Patty Wetterling, in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, commended his efforts by saying, “Francis’ work is invaluable. It’s not just his persistence; it’s his reasonableness… He’s solid…”

JFF received the 2011 Outstanding Support Award from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

TOPIC: Exploring Human Identification

Midori Albert is a professor and forensic anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), where she joined the faculty in 1995. She received her doctorate degree in anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder, 1995);her master’s degree in anthropology and bachelor’s degree in psychology are from the University of Florida (UF, 1993 and 1990).

Dr. Albert’s educational background involves human skeletal identification methods and techniques as well as an understanding and exploration of normal human skeletal variability. These specializations led her to link with colleagues in computer science, statistics, and mathematics, where her primary research focus since 2003 has been on adult age-related craniofacial morphological changes and their effects on computer automated face recognition technologies.

Together with her colleagues, Dr. Albert collaborates on research within the university’s newly established Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies in Identity Sciences (I2SIS). Students often actively engage in research learning opportunities with Dr. Albert as interests in human biometrics and identity recognition continue to evolve.

TOPIC: Awareness 101

Robert Cooke and Kelly Jolkowski, both parents of missing children, share valuable information about how to bring awareness to your missing loved one’s case.

Topics include events and preparation, advertising, reward funds, fundraising, media attention, and much more.

Learn how simple changes in the way you view this task can make a difference in bringing the face and story of your missing loved one to the masses and increase the odds of resolution.

TOPIC: ”Shattered Lives: The Aftermath of Crime”

Donna R. Gore, M.A.

SHATTERED LIVES examines the effects of those who have survived violent crime and how it has impacted their lives.

Real people, real tragedy, real help.–

We all look at ourselves in the mirror…and it never fails… The same person always stares back. We use our soap, our mud packs, our cucumber slices…whatever… But even the most expensive or exotic treatments don’t erase the pain that is below the surface….. Whether it is some form of crime victimization, accident, medical problem or life tragedy, Revlon was not designed to give the answers……. Not on your life!

Who can humanize the victim who befalls such tragedy? SHATTERED LIVES… Who can tell what happened after the heartless event with a heart? SHATTERED LIVES…. Who can tell the back story?SHATTERED LIVES….. Who can empower the families with some sense of hope by directing them to resources and information? SHATTERED LIVES…… Who can educate the public and families about organizations and service providers ready to help? … SHATTERED LIVES…. Who can tell them not to give up the ship, no matter what? SHATTERED LIVES….. Who can throw them an anchor? SHATTERED LIVES….

Learn more : http://imaginepublicity.com/clients/donna-r-gore-m-a/

TOPIC: Where do I turn to now

Birdie Frink, Married to Richard Barry Frink (45) years. Had three beautiful, lovely and talented daughters. Organist – Ocean Isle Beach Chapel.

In 1994 Birdie dedicated her life to work for and with victims of crime, after her youngest daughter, Amy Caroline, 18 years old, was carjacked, tortured, sexually assaulted and brutally murdered.

Although having been involved in numerous civic organizations she lists the following:

Charter member Shallotte Junior Women’s Club.

Life Member of the Garden Club of North Carolina, Inc.

Charter Member Long Bay Garden Club.

Founder, Justice for Citizens.

Served on North Carolina Victim Assistance Network Board (thirteen years).

Member North Carolina Interagency Council.

Criminal Justice Partnership Program – Brunswick County

Child Fatality Task Force – Brunswick County.

Governor’ Crime Commission – Victim’s Rights Study Group

Among numerous awards received – North Carolina Victim Assistance Network, 1998 Outstanding Volunteer Award.

2005 National Volunteer for Victims Award presented by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the 2005 National Crime Victims Rights Week Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

2005 North Carolina Victim Assistance Network Outstanding Volunteer Award.

Thirteenth Prosecutorial District “Friend of Justice Award” for dedication in seeking justice for the people of the Thirteenth Prosecutorial District.

Victims Hours Presentations

“MISSING” Dori Meyers – Donajean Kapp

“MISSING” Alonzo Williams – Family Member

“FOUND ALIVE” A mothers story, Pat Jordan

National Candle Light Service:“Missing Persons and the many victims left behind”

The annual service is hosted by the CUE Center for Missing Persons  in honor of those once missing, now recovered. Families from across the country attend the water front ceremony seeking comfort, supporting the thousands who remain missing in “the unveiling of the wall”. Come and join those left behind for a beautiful tribute along Wilmington’s Cape Fear River front victim testimonies,  musical dedication and so much more. Candles will be provided. The service is a part of the weekend long national conference 2012.

Saturday March 24, 2012       Time: 7:30 pm     (The public is welcome)

Riverfront Park, Downtown Wilmington Waterfront 

Mistress of Ceremony – Frances Weller, WECT TV 6

Frances Weller is a native of Wilmington, NC. She is the daughter of Katherine Weller and the late Fritz Weller. She is a product of the New Hanover County School system, graduating from John T. Hoggard High School. She graduated in 1981 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she majored in speech communication.

Frances began her television career in 1982 with WECT. She was a general assignment reporter for three years. In 1986 she was named co-anchor of WECT’s six and eleven o’clock news programs. Frances also anchors WECT News at 5:00. She produces and reports the monthly Pink Pack segments that promote breast cancer awareness and the importance of breast self exams.

AWARDS

YWCA Woman of the Year in Achievement

North Carolina State Human Relations Achievement Award presented by the governor

Citizen of the Year, presented by Omega Psi Phi fraternity

Voted Best Newscaster by Encore Magazine readers 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

She is the spokesperson for the Buddy Check 6 program, is a board member of the Community Boys & Girls Club, and she sits on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Boys & Girls Home.

Frances has a twin sister, Margaret, who also lives in Wilmington. Frances is also the sister-in-law of the late Willie Stargell, a former Pittsburgh Pirate baseball player and member of Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Guest Speaker – David Francis  ”Living After Death”
Reading of the Poem Dedication - Sheree Justus

Vocal Tribute – Mallory Malter “Lost in Paradise”

Mallory Malter is the 23 year old daughter of Marty and Laurie Malter of Wilmington. She’s been the “voice” of Community United Effort since the age of 4.

Mallory currently resides in New Jersey where she is currently auditioning for various roles.

Mallory has given her talents in an effort to provide comfort to thousands of families over the years who have suffered the loss of a missing loved one.

National Prayer – Pastor Angie Davis

Unveiling of the Wall – Honoree Families

Vocal Tribute – Kendall Dean “I’m Searching”

Kendall Dean has had the opportunity and privilege to play with some of the very same artists that you hear on everyday radio stations. For example: Stars Go Dim, Jeremiah, Kyle Williams, and John Hull. Kendall Dean is still in full rotation on Mountaineer Radio, Eastern Oklahoma State College Oklahoma. Kendall performed at Dfest alongside famous musicians, The Roots, and All American Rejects. He has also performed on Channel 8 & 23, The Spirit Bank Center in Owasso, Fly Trap in Tulsa, Muskogee Civic Center, The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, where Carrie Underwood and Color Me Bad have also performed. Kendall is one of the founders of the Dean Williams Band.

Their music is currently being sold on iTunes. Being a strong man of God, Kendall feels driven to become a positive influence on today’s adolescence music. He has completely left the pop industry, and since his departure he has been writing for different organizations. He also has a new interest and focus on writing music to help missing children in the United States.

Kendall Dean is under the direction of Michael Wittig and Lester Estelle from the well known Christian band Pillar. Pillar has sold over 800,000 records and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2008.

Service Dedication ~ In Loving Memory