Overview of our Efforts to Find Nancy

Thank you all for your continued concern and helpfulness in our effort to find Nancy.  In an effort to keep you apprised of the progress to date, we are summarizing efforts currently underway.  Our current operating theories include four primary scenarios:

      1.     She is lost “in the system”.  This could happen if she was given aid by police, paramedics, or other safety-related personnel, but had discarded her identification bracelet and is unable to communicate.

      2.     Similarly, if she is without identity and the ability to communicate effectively, she is lost in the homeless and/or homeless shelter community

      3.     Someone in the community has elected to "foster" or "adopt" her

      4.     Somehow she has managed to travel out of the area and is in a situation where her plight is not known

We are attempting to work with these scenarios through an array of strategies, some of which employ the efforts of a large number of volunteers.  Volunteers are making personal visits to a large number of area and regional hospitals and medical centers, distributing flyers, talking with ER nurses, social workers and others.  In addition, a separate group of volunteers is making daily rounds of calls to over 125 hospital ERs to learn if any Jane Does have been admitted.

Similarly, we have been and are continuing to survey a variety of homeless shelters and lunch/dinner sites.  Permanent sites have received flyers and many members of the homeless community have helped to distribute flyers and are on the alert for Nancy.  We are concerned that we do not have a complete picture of homeless outreach residential facilities, and help to identify and communicate with these would be greatly appreciated.

As many of you are aware, we have canvassed and surveyed the area surrounding LACMA very heavily over the past two weeks and will continue to refresh flyers on a regular basis.  At this time - because there has been so much coverage in that area – we think it is unlikely she is still there (somewhat despite the statistics that may say otherwise).  We have reached out officially through law enforcement channels to divisions of the LAPD, LA County Sheriff's Department and other local law enforcement agencies.  In addition, volunteers visited and distributed flyers to most of these groups.  Law enforcement is also checking regularly within jails and the County Coroner's Office.

In the event that Nancy was somehow transported outside the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, law enforcement has posted a multi-county BOLO (Be On the Lookout) notice.  We also have a file with information about Nancy registered with NAMUS (National Association of Missing and Unidentified Persons System).

With coverage through several media outlets, the Los Angeles Times and local print publications we thought that we would have received a heavy volume of tips.  While we are still receiving tips, they are tending to be from people who think that they "might have seen her a couple of days ago."  This makes it clear that we need to continue to refresh flyers and contacts with all the above entities to generate new tips.

If you are already volunteering, your continued help is greatly appreciated.  We want to harness the energy of all our volunteers, current and future, in the most productive ways possible. It is enormously helpful to have tip trackers located in many parts of the community to allow quick response when we do receive tips.  While we have pretty well saturated the LACMA area, the expanded distribution of flyers in areas outside the LACMA neighborhoods will help to spread the word to an even wider population (see notes on canvassing below).  We are constantly reviewing and adding to our plans, so please continue to monitor the blog for emerging assignments.  Most importantly, it is vitally important to keep passing on the message that Nancy is STILL missing until the moment that we are able to find her and bring her home.  Our thanks to all who have joined the search!