Citizens' Voice from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • T12

Sightings bring hope to sister of woman missing 21 years 'Wr Mm i i i and said she was trying to get to Florida. "I have been looking for my family for a long time," the caller quoted Renee as saying. "I can't understand why they can't findme." As she learned more about the encounter, LaManna's certainty grew that Renee, now 56, had finally been found. All of the details fit: her age, her height, her weight, her brown eyes, all the way down to her 7 shoe size. While shopping at the thrift store, Renee told her Good Samaritan friend she loved the "colors of the peacock" purple, turquoise and cobalt blue.

The strange expression was always one of her sister's favorites "and was unique to Renee," LaManna said. The clincher came when the caller sent her a photo of the woman, snapped through the open door of a vehicle as she sat in a blue cape It was Renee. "There is no doubt in my mind," LaManna said 'A sister knows a sister" 'Looking for my family' On the afternoon of Feb. 2, LaManna received a telephone call from Rocky Mount, Virginia. "I saw your sister," the woman on the other end of the line told her LaManna said her heart jumped, but elation quickly gave way to disappointment.

The sighting had happened four months earlier It had taken the Good Samaritan who befriended her sister that long to find Renee's information in a missing persons database and make the connection. The caller said she first spotted the homeless woman sitting on a bench in Gretna, Virginia, on Oct. 4, and approached her the next day She spent three days with the woman, including taking her to a thrift store to get new clothing and helping her find temporary shelter Although the soft-spoken woman could not initially remember her name or where she was from, she later identified herself as Renee Leman An age-progression illustration of Renee LaManna. her sister over the edge. As Anne and Frank LaManna pressed forward with the search for their missing daughter, aggressively pursuing potential leads and placing Renee on a number of missing persons registries, there were a couple of confirmed sightings early on.

In May 1995, Renee turned up at a car dealership in Northfield, New Jersey where she was trying to sell a hair dryer for $20 to buy a bus ticket to New York City She was next spotted the following December at a subway station in New York, where she was looking at an image of herself on a flier taped to the wall. Then nothing. Even as the years passed, the family never gave up, and after her parents died Anne in 2003 and Frank in 2013 LaManna carried on the quest alone. Renee LaManna as a 30-something woman in the 1990s. fering a nervous breakdown.

On Jan. 8, 1994, Renee was found wandering barefoot in subzero temperatures in Queens, New York. LaManna, who had moved to Florida a year earlier, arranged to have her sister taken to the beach home in Ocean City accompanied by a family friend. Forty minutes after Renee arrived in Ocean City she ran from the home and into the night. No one in her family has seen her since.

Rare disorder LaManna believes Renee suffers from dissociative fugue disorder, a rare condition that involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory awareness, identity or perception and thought to be caused primarily by severe psychological trauma. The breakup with her boyfriend, LaManna said, pushed RENEE LAMANNA TIMELINE 1958: Born May 2 in Scranton to Frank and Anne LaManna 1976: Graduates from Abington Heights High School 1994: Disappears Jan. 8 in Ocean City, New Jersey 1995: Sighted in Northfield, New Jersey, in May and at New York City subway station in December Oct. 4: Befriended by good Samaritan in Gretna, Virginia Oct. 28: Given ride by police officer in Asheville, North Carolina Feb.

20: Possible sighting in South Chesterfield, Virginia Feb. 25: Possible sighting in Hickory, North Carolina Feb. 28: Possible sighting in Asheville March 9: Silver Alert issued in North Carolina DODGE 08 CALIBER All wheel drive. Power everything! New brakes battery. Cloth interior.

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We have a route for YOU! CALL NOW! 570-821-2114 earnextracashcitizensvoice.com Save 20 at over 100 area locations every time you show your PRESS PASS Call The Citizens' Voice for more information 570-821-2108 LOOK By David Singleton Staff Writer A distraught and confused Renee LaManna dashed from her sister's beachfront home in Ocean City N. on the night of Jan. 8, 1994, and disappeared in the winter darkness. Ebr 21 years, as her family has pursued a relentless but ultimately frustrating search for the missing woman, Margaret LaManna, M.D., never abandoned the belief that her younger sister still lived or that one day they would be together again. Now, buoyed by multiple sightings in Virginia and North Carolina of a homeless, memory-impaired woman LaManna is positively convinced is Renee, she is more optimistic than ever that day is close.

"I'm very hopeful," LaManna said by phone from her home in West Palm Beach, Florida. "Renee has survived for 21 years against all odds. I believe she has incredible intelligence and resources to navigate 21 years and, God willing, she will come home to me Scran ton roots The LaManna sisters grew up in the Scranton area. Their mother, Anne, taught music and relative arts in the Scranton School District and performed as a violinist with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. Their father, Frank, was a restaurateur whose career also included positions in state and Lackawanna County government.

The girls had a brother, Mark, who died of cancer in 1967, at age 14. Renee graduated from Abington Heights High School in 1976, and went to the University of Scranton, where she earned three degrees, including a master's She traveled internationally and immersed herself in other cultures, spending time as a Peace Corps trainee in Morocco and becoming fluent in five languages While in her 20s, she met and fell in love with an Afghan taxi driver. She converted to Islam, became a vegetarian and devoted herself to helping her boyfriend's friends and relatives when they arrived in the United States. Then, after 10 years, her boyfriend ended the relationship, and the 35-year-old Renee went into a tailspin, becoming anorexic and suf- WBVOICE DLY -12- NEW! General LIFEGUARDS WANTED for Frances Slocum State Park. 37.5 hoursweek at $1 1.04hour.

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Location: Mountain Top Hose Company grounds $50 for 6 weeks or $10 walk-ins Information Registration call: 570-814-0996 SCHILLINGS A photo believed to be of Renee LaManna was snapped in October by a good Samaritan in Gretna, through the open door of a vehicle as she sat wearing a blue cape. 03251 5 WBVOICEPAGES T12 032415 21:47.