Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 12

Ali Gilmore 12ATallahassee Democrat Sunday, July 23. 2006 o) cola Raheim Brown, cousin of Ali Gilmore, and Francina Weatherbee, CHASE AGNELLO-DEAN Democrat old yearbook of Ali's with Ali's mother, center. CHASE AGNELLO-DEAN Democrat Sandra Daniels-Barbara talks about the disappearance of her niece, Ali Gilmore. TIMELINE The last week Ali Gilmore was seen: Monday through Wednesday (Jan. 30 to Feb.

2): Co-workers said Ali Gilmore was excited about the possibility of reconciling with her husband. The two had been going through counseling, and she was four months pregnant. Thursday, Feb 2: 8 a.m. Ali arrives at work at the -Department of Health on Merchants Row and is depressed about the taxes going up on her home at 231 Loraine Court, in the Wilson Green subdivision off Crawfordville Road. Co-workers said she complained that she didn't know how she would afford the taxes.

5 p.m. Ali gets off work at DOH. There is a severe thunderstorm. 6 p.m. The 30-year-old arrives at Publix on Apalachee Parkway, where she works in the bakery.

Sometime during the evening, she gets two slices from Pizza Hut, police said. 8:45 p.m. James Gilmore, Ali's estranged husband, said she called him to remind him of the counseling session they had scheduled the next morning at 9 a.m. James said when they hung up, Ali told him she loved him. Also during the evening, Ali called her supervisor at DOH, Karen Freeman, and asked for advice on her tax problem.

11 p.m. -r Ali gets off work and drives home. She puts her pizza slices in her refrigerator. Friday, Feb. 3: 12:47 a.m.

Ali received a phone call, family members say, but police won't say from whom. 7:30 a.m. Ali's next-door neighbor Dan McGee said he saw a car in Ali's driveway and is almost certain it was James'. 9 a.m. Neither Ali nor James makes the counseling appointment.

11 a.m. James called Ali at work to apologize for missing the counseling session because he overslept. Saturday, Feb. 4: Sometime in the morning, James calls Ali at home but receives no answer, he said. He goes by her house in the afternoon, knocks on the door, but there's still no answer.

Monday, Feb. 6. In the evening, two of Ali's DOH co-workers, Freeman and Liz Denson, go to Ali's house after calling but not getting an answer. Freeman was out sick Friday and hadn't realized Ali was absent. They knocked on her front door and windows but got no answer.

They noticed that Ali's bedroom light and floodlight were left on and her car was in the driveway. They called the police. GILMORE From Page 1A of foul play. No blood. No signs of a struggle in her house.

Nothing seemed stolen. Her car was in the driveway. Her purse was in the car, but her house keys and car keys were missing. She had vanished. After six months, more than 1,600 hours of investigating by police, a media campaign and numerous searches, the question still remains: Where is Ali Gilmore? Police say everyone is a suspect until they know what happened to the Florida graduate.

They acknowledge that whatever evidence they have is circumstantial and name her estranged husband, 34-year-old James Gilmore, as a "person of interest" but add that he has been cooperative. Tallahassee Police Chief Walt McNeil said he has two investigators working full time on Ali's case. "Our focus is trying to find her," McNeil said. "Either her body or her alive." Friends and family members said Ali isn't the type to leave without a word. "For her just to disappear off the face of the earth that's not Ali," said Sandra Robinson, who's known Ali since high school.

By all accounts, Ali talked to friends and family every day by phone or e-mail. But no one realized she was gone until four days after she was last seen. A polarized hometown Ali I-isha Grimsley grew up in Riviera Beach, a community polarized by race and money. The city in Palm Beach County is mostly black but has a large white population on more-affluent Singer Island. The Palm Beach Post recently described it as "Inner-city squalor and oceanfront splendor, within one city." She was born Jan.

5, 1976, to Percy Walker Sr. and Laurvetta Grimsley. She was named after boxer Muhammad Ali and had her father's sandy-colored hair and her mother's eyes. She never knew her father. The first 11 years of her life she was raised by her mother's niece, Gaynelle.

Her mother said she gave Ali to Gaynelle because "there were issues going on in my life." In 1985, Ali learned who her father was, but by that time he had been dead for two months, said her sister, Bettye Knighton. But Ali did get to see him s- r-. right, a neighbor, look through an on a videotape. "Tears rolled down her cheeks," Knighton said. "We realized she was crying because' she never met him." When Ali's mother took her back at age 11, the family lived in the same yellow, modest one-story house where Grimsley-.

McLawrence lives now. She ran a no-nonsense household. Skirts couldn't be too short. Everyone had to be in the house when streetlights came on. And at age 18, everyone had to register to vote.

"I wanted the best for my children," said Grimsley-McLawrence, a nurse. "I worked two or three jobs. I wanted them all to go to school." By most accounts, Ali was friendly and smiled often, but she wasn't easily intimidated. Ali's stepfather, Carl Anthony Leon McLawrence, recalled that while Ali was in high school, gang members were assaulting girls in the neighborhood. He offered to walk her to the bus stop.

"She said no one is going to stop her from going to school," Carl McLawrence said. "She was going to walk on her own." Ali went to Jupiter High School, a majority-white school outside her community. She would get up about 5 a.m. and be at the bus stop while it was still dark, waiting for the 45-minute ride. A track star, she would go to practice after school and would often return home after 7 p.m.

She would also run Saturday mornings and after church on Sundays. She loved running on the beach in her tennis shoes without socks. Wonique Newbold met Ali in a nigh-school English class. The two became best friends, and Ali is godmother to her 8-year-old son, Elijah. When Elijah was born, Ali was in the delivery room.

"She was so excited," Newbold said. "She spent the night in the hospital with me." Ali even planned New-bold's baby shower, decorating the ceiling with pink and green balloons. "She was a master planner," Newbold said. "She wanted everything done to the The last time Newbold spoke with Ali was a week -AX ON THE WEB: Video report about Ali Gilmore and events leading up to her disappearance. Video interviews with family, friends and co-workers Video from events held to remember her and bring awareness to her case Photo gallery of people featured in this report Gallery of photos taken of Ali over the years Past stories from the Tallahassee Democrat Forums to talk about the case All can be found at Tallahassee.com "I wanted the best for my children.

I worked two or three jobs. I wanted them all to go to school." Laurvetta Grimsley-McLawrence Ali's mother "Our focus is trying to find her. Either her body or her alive." Chief Walt McNeil Tallahassee Police Department "She was a master planner. She wanted everything done to the Wonique Newbold Ali's friend "She said no one is going to stop her from going to school. She was going to walk on her own." Carl McLawrence Ali's stepfather "I always told her, know I have children, but you The decision was if we were going to have kids, we wouldn't have a lot." James Gilmore Ali's estranged husband "Ali really loved James.

She was protective of him." Attalah McLawrence Ali's sister 1 "She took me as I was." James Gilmore Ali's estranged husband before she disappeared. They spoke about Ali's pregnancy and the counseling she and James were getting. "She wanted to tell the baby at least they tried," Newbold said. Worked hard Ali began working at Publix her senior year in high school. She would give her mother $25 for the gas bill every month.

"She is a hard worker," said Sandra Daniels-Barbara, Ali's aunt. "She loved working at Publix." In high school, Ali decided to go to FAMU. Part of the attraction was Tallahassee's low crime rate and, slower pace than Palm Beach County. She moved in 1993, receiving financial aid and working in a Publix bakery. Ali enjoyed going to school with students whose parents were doctors and professionals.

She often played spades in FAMUs Orange Room snack room. She thought about going into pharmacy but eventually majored in health information management, family members said. After graduation, Ali stayed in Tallahassee and got a job with the state Department of Health, working in the office of Evaluation and Planning Data Analysis. She still worked at Publix in the evenings and on weekends. A year after Ali graduated, she met James Gilmore at Governor's Square mall, where he was selling picture frames from a booth.

She was looking for a frame for her college diploma. "She was cute," James Gilmore said. "She just seemed real fun to be around. We just hit it off." On her second visit, James asked Ali for her Ehone number, and they egan dating. James said Ali brought out the best in him and helped him improve his station in life.

At age 29, he went back to school at Tallahassee Community College, then at Flagler College on the TCC campus. "She's been there supporting me the whole way," James said. After dating eight months, James brought Ali back to Governor's Square mall one day, took her to the area where they met, dropped on one knee, showed her an engagement ring and asked her to marry him; "She was elated," he said. James had been married before and has three children. Friends said Ali took to James' children as if they were her own.

"She took me as I was," James said. The couple would often have lunch together. Their favorite spot was Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q on Apalachee Parkway. At their wedding Oct. 7, 2000, at the then-Radisson Hotel in downtown Tallahassee, Ali wanted the ceremony to be quick.

Florida Please see GILMORE, 13A .1 Jo 4 1 UJ A. Special to the Democrat All and James Gilmore were married Oct. 7, 2000, In downtown Tallahassee..