Every year the Merced County Sharriff's Office goes around to local truck stops, and asks Truck Drivers if they could put a missing persons poster on the back of their trailer. Deputy Tighe made a phone call to Crete to get the nod. Then another Deputy climbed up and posted it.
This effort is funded by The Polly Klaas Foundation (www.pollyklaas.org). There are a lot of missing persons on the Foundation's web site and you'd be doing the families a service to look through as many photos as you can. Try to see if any of the missing people look familiar. It's not just going to help with people you've seen recently, but, also one of the photos might be somebody you saw 10 or 20 years ago. And that type of information can potentially crack a case wide open for the Detectives and families of the missing.This particular poster gives publicity to Missing Person Vanessa Smith. Missing since May 31st, 1997. Vanessa left her home in Wilton, CA at 7:00 PM and never returned home. Her walking stick was found along the path she usually takes. Vanessa was last seen wearing a light blue dress with an elastic waist and metal buttons.
The lead detective for this case is Det. Micah Blawley 209-385-7472 ex 4989.
