Palladium-Item from Richmond, Indiana • Page 8

CA eps Page A8 Palladium-Item Sunday, July 21, Local JULY 2001 2001 ONE YEAR 2001. Where 2001 IS DECEMBER20 Police await more solid hints, leads to crack case Missing but not forgotten: Officers organized searches, still checking for clues By Don Fasnacht Staff writer Detective work gets personal. Investigators become involved, partly because of the intellectual challenge of solving a puzzle, partly because they come to know the people tangled in the case better than most of us know our families. Richmond Police investigator Roger Redmond has been part of the team looking for Niqui McCown since July 23, 2001. He's now the lead detective.

"You don't want to lay it down," Rogers said. "We take this as a personal challenge," Capt. Bill Shake said. "We have to find Niqui." Shake is supervisor of Richmond's investigative division. When Niqui McCown first vanished, two or three investigators were working 40- hour weeks hoping to find some clue before the trail went cold.

There were rumors, tips, theories, hunches. "You've got to check every. thing out," Redmond said. "We've got hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in this investigation," Shake said. But nothing solid emerged.

Police talked to hundreds of people, went back to the laundry where Niqui was last seen, walked the streets of the neighborhoods. They looked at security videotapes from nearby businesses and checked area pharmacies. Niqui has a medical condition that requires regular medication. Officers helped organize friends and family who wanted to help. "Most of the city was.

searched," Redmond said. But the searches were more useful for working off energy than for finding evidence. No one knew where to McCown CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 It's a message a mother wants to keep alive. "Until they prove she's not coming back, I'm not going to stop looking," Barbara McCown said. No mother would.

Ironies and little hurts surround the disappearance. July 22. the day Niqui disappeared was the birthday of an older brother who died when he was months old. "First my baby boy, then 33 years later my baby girl was taken from me," Barbara McCown said. Niqui McCown is the youngest of six children, three sons and three daughters.

Her given name isn't Niqui -it's Marilyn Renee McCown -but since childhood she's been Niqui. Most of the joy has been sapped from the routine celebrations of family life during the last year. "We had a birthday party for Payton last Monday," Barbara McCown said. Niqui's daughter was 10 on July 15. "But it was very hard," the grandmother said.

"The last time the entire family was together was her (Patyon's) birthday last year, just before Niqui disappeared." Payton has lived with her a a a a a a a a a a a JUNE LATER 2002 MAY 2002 MARCH Niqui? other investigators in his department when he asks, but he's carrying the burden now. He gets help from Dayton family," Redmond said. "Itry to keep them up to date on what we're doing." "It's not over," Shake said. Palladium-Item photo by Steve Koger FAMILY STILL SEARCHING: Niqui McCown's 10- McCown's sister, Michelle, still await word on year-old daughter, Payton Johnston, and McCown's whereabouts. idence is thin.

Police and other Ohio law en- his load. "I juggle it along "A lot of information is forcement departments, but with other cases," Redmond stale," Shake. for them, this is a Richmond said. Redmond gets help from case. "I stay in touch with the He makes trips to Dayton when there's a need, follows leads in Wayne County, too; but there are other cases in McCown is on the fence of the I For The TALE Love SE Of Niqui NOT FORGOTTEN: A makeshift shrine for Niqui South 9th Street in Richmond.

McCown has been McCown home at missing since you than you can bear," she said. There is a prayer vigil for Niqui at the Lighthouse Assembly of God Church at 10:30 a.m. today. The Rev. R.

M. Holdeman said, "I guess we're just trying to be there for them." Family members have been attending services with regularity. Holdeman has offered ministry when it was needed. The church will hold private dinner for the family after the 200 JULY 2002 "I stay in touch with the family. I try to keep them up to date on what we're doing.

It's not over." Bill Shake, Richmond police captain start looking. As wild rumors were disproved and squelched here, the focus of the search for Niqui McCown changed to Dayton, Ohio. "She worked there, went to school there and had lived there," Redmond said. The 1990 GMC Jimmy Niqui McCown was driving on the day she vanished was found in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Dayton last November. Police had said for three months that finding the Jimmy would provide a "breakthrough" in finding Niqui.

It didn't. They brought the SUV back here to the police garage so it could be thoroughly searched and analyzed. Police found her laundry in the back but not much else that told them anything. "We're hanging on to the car," Redmond said. "Maybe there's something we've overlooked." Cops know that when a person "goes missing," it's usually because they want to be missing.

Most missing persons are really runaways. Redmond discounts the possibility Niqui just left. "She was close to her daughter, close to family, it doesn't make sense." And police have checked her financial accounts, looked for the trail a runaway inevitably leaves. There isn't any trail. People are important in any investigation, as suspects or witnesses or maybe liars.

Redmond said there is one person in Richmond, "who will remain in this investigation until McCown has been grandparents while she's waited for word of her mother. "She's as strong as any adult could be," Barbara McCown said. But no day goes by that some question of her mother doesn't come up. The stress on the entire family has taken a toll. Barbara's husband, Harvey, has lost 35 pounds as his fragile health grows worse.

The ripples of pain move out to the extended family. "We argue sometimes, but we all come back together," Barbara McCown said. "We're all trying to deal with it in our own way," Niqui's sister, Tammy Hughes, said. "Sometimes it feels like the family is crumbling." The pressure has worn them away, in big ways and little. "We've all got harassing phone calls and a lot of calls with bad information," Hughes said.

"We've had to get new phone numbers." But there has also been support. "We've had so much prayer and so much help from the community," Hughes said. Each family member takes the absence of Niqui a little differently. "We were very close," Hughes said. "She was in my house seven days a week.

"Now my life has stopped." Only answers will let it go on. "At first I was very hopeful," Hughes said. "No I don't know.I McCown disappearance Mount Olive North Church: Street 1108 N. St. Richmond Street Street Coin Laundry: 1000 S.

St. Eighth Ninth South South South Street Village Pantry 1001 S. St. McCown's parents' home: 1500 block of South Ninth Street Palladium graphic by Wm Schulte located or information completely eliminates this person." Redmond declined to elaborate. But much of the attention now is directed at two persons in Dayton who had worked with Niqui McCown at the Montgomery Education and Pre-Release Center.

"We're moving most of our attention in this direction at this time," Redmond said. "We feel strongly about these people." "There's at least one person out there who knows something," Shake said. But so far that person hasn't told his story. The physical ev- Prayers for Niqui A prayer vigil to mark the oneyear anniversary of Niqui McCown will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at: Lighthouse Assembly of God Church, 2339 W.

Cart Road. want to find the person who did this crime." way family looks at life. "It seems like there are so many stories about missing people," Michelle said, "or at least I notice them more. "I used to think it couldn't happen to me. But now Ifind I'm more careful about what my girls are doing." The fervor of the initial search for Niqui couldn't be sustained forever.

It falls back on more desperate means now. Niqui's story will be told on the syndicated television program "Unsolved And Hughes is certain it was a crime. "A lot of people believe she just left, but I know she didn't." Niqui's sister, Michelle McCown-Luster, shares the closeness too. "We were more than sisters, we were best friends," Michelle said. Niqui's absence, Michelle said, "Is like a slap in the face very day.

"I will always hope for the best," Michelle said, "but I have to prepare for the worst." Going through the last year of changes has altered the way the Mysteries" on Aug. 23. The family has been contacted by television psychic Sylvia Brown. "We sent out information about Niqui to her just today," Barbara McCown said. The traditional refuge in times of hopelessness has been there, too.

"The church has helped us through all of this," Barbara McCown said. Faith keeps her going. Faith in God has been important. "He doesn't put any more on will always hope for the best, but I have to prepare for the worst." Michelle McCown-Luster, Niqui's sister July 22, 2001. prayer service for Niqui.

"We feel blessed and fortunate and honored to be able to serve the family at a time like this," Holdeman said. With all the support, there's a loneliness in the ordeal. Barbara McCown was asked to take some time and reflect on the year that has just passed. She wrote down her first thought. "How long has it been sincel held her." Niqui McCown is still lost.

worst.".