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The Search for Rachel, a father's journal

Saturday, May 1 and Sunday, May 2

I put together some video of Rachel and news coverage of Rachel for the class I am teaching at the crime victims' conference this week. I also included some highlights of the M.U.S.T. seminars to show if time permits.

People have only ten days left to register on-line using a credit card for the 2004 Run/Walk for Rachel. On-line registration will be shut off Wednesday night, May 12. People may still register at the RunTex Round Rock and Riverside stores on Thursday, May 13 and Friday, May 14 from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Late registration will be held from 7:00-8:00 a.m. on the day of the race, Saturday, May 15.

Monday, May 3

The Williamson Country Sheriff's Office held a press conference on Rachel's case this morning. The main reason for the conference was to ask for the public's help. The public was asked to forget about any cars or sketches mentioned previously. Too much concentration on past sketches and cars could have caused a significant clue to go unnoticed.

After the press conference I attended the swearing in of new Williamson County Commissioner Lisa Birkman. Ms. Birkman has been very supportive of Rachel's case. I think she will be an outstanding county commissioner.

Tuesday May 4

I attended the Baptist Prayer Breakfast at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Crime Victim Conference this morning. My brother David is working on a committee to build a facility in Huntsville, Texas, for victims of violent crime and their families. The project is called Hope for Healing.

I also attended the opening ceremony of the TDCJ Crime Victim Conference and a ceremony at the Garden of Angels. The Garden of Angels is in Euless, Texas. The Garden of Angels was created over ten years ago for victims of violent crimes. Each victim has a cross in the garden.

Missing Jimmy Scott's family and murdered Opal Jennings' aunt and uncle also attended the ceremony. It was good to see both families again. It's awful that we have to meet under these circumstances.

Wednesday, May 5

I attended several seminars today at the TDCJ Crime Victim Conference. One seminar involved the Texas Victim's Compensation Fund; another talked about a program to treat and monitor sexual offenders just before and after they are released from prison.

The best seminar was presented by the Justice for All Alliance, This organization has developed a program to videotape victims of rape or family members of homicide victims. The victim or his/her family member tapes an interview for the parole board which will be handling the case of the perpetrator who harmed them or their family member. The victim impact statement contains information for the parole board about how the crime affected the person and his or her family. It also can include a plea to the board not to release the prisoner.

Thursday, May 6

I attended three more seminars at the TDCJ Crime Victim Conference in Dallas. One seminar covered child abuse, and the others covered problems victims and their families incur and things that can help make the situation better.

Some of the discussions in the seminars focused on how we can slow down violence. One program goes into public schools and tries to help children with problems before they become abusers of others. The possible future violent offenders may be from a broken home, they may have been abused themselves, or they may even have mental problems.

Friday, May 7

My seminar was at 8:30 this morning at the Crime Victim Conference. Twenty six people attended the class on what to do if you have a missing family member. I concentrated on abductions since I only had 90 minutes to teach.

I got home a little after 3:30 p.m. and relaxed a few hours before making some additional packets for the Run/Walk for Rachel. My friend JR and I have finished about half of the packets.

The on-line registration will close down Wednesday night, May 12. This is the only way to register for the Run/Walk using a credit card. We will accept cash and personal checks at pre-registration on Thursday, May 13, and Friday, May 14, and on the morning of the Run/Walk.

Saturday, May 8 and Sunday, May 9

Most of the Run/Walk for Rachel packets are made. The T-shirts and awards are ready. Everything seems to be on track for the race next Saturday, May 15.

Tomorrow is Rachel's 22nd birthday. This will be her third birthday since she disappeared. Our family will get together for a few minutes to remember her. I don't know how many more birthdays will pass before we find her.

Monday, May 10

A small group of us met at Rachel's Tree tonight. A permanent plaque has been installed with her name, the date she disappeared, and that she was in the Georgetown High School class of 2000. Today was a very difficult day for me.

Tuesday, May 11

I went on the FOX 7 morning show today. I talked about the Run/Walk for Rachel and Rachel's case.

I ate lunch with missing Sabrina Allen's father Greg. He gave me some of Sabrina's flyers to put in the Run/Walk for Rachel packets.

Tomorrow is the last day to register on-line for the 2004 Run/Walk for Rachel. This is the only time we will accept credit cards. I hope everyone who wants to register using a credit card does so.

Wednesday, May 12

I added some pictures from the New York Missing Persons' Day on Rachel's Message Board. To view the pictures go to Rachel's Message Board.

Tomorrow and Friday we will have representatives at the Round Rock and Riverside RunTex's to pass out Run/Walk for Rachel packets. People may also sign up and pay for the Run/Walk there. Our representatives will be at the stores from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. both days.

Thursday, May 13

All of the rain in Central Texas this week has slowed the registrations for the Run/Walk for Rachel. We still plan on holding the race as scheduled this Saturday at 8:00 a.m. There is still only a twenty percent chance of rain on Saturday. A lot of the course is on a jogging path where there is gravel to run and walk on.

Friday, May 14

The pre-registration for the Run/Walk picked up today because of the sunshine. It's still much lower than previous years.

Saturday, 15

We reached 210 registrations for the Run/Walk for Rachel by the time the race began. People were greeted with Round Rock Donuts. Bikers Against Child Abuse directed parking and Travis County Search and Rescue provided first aid. RunTex Foundation set up the start and finish line.

About 150 actually participated in the Run/Walk. Our M.U.S.T. instructor, Deborah Brown, sang the national anthem. Rachel's sister JoAnn shot the starting gun, and the Run/Walk began.

The grass was wet, but the weather was cool and the participants had a beautiful day to run or walk the 5 K. After the race Applebee's restaurant feed the participants and volunteers breakfast tacos. I really want to thank all of our sponsors and volunteers. Because of them, everything ran smoothly.

Sunday, 16

I posted the overall results from the 2004 Run/Walk for Rachel last night. This morning I found that some people who picked up \ multiple packets mixed up their bib numbers, so I updated the Internet overall results.

Late this afternoon I posted the results by sex and age group on rachelalert.org. I also put some pictures of the Run/Walk on rachelalert.org/run.

I received word from missing Erika Dalquist's family that human remains found in their area are believed to be those of Erika. My thoughts and prayers go out to Erika's family. Erika has been gone a long time. It looks like she is now coming home.

Monday, May 17

I fixed three mistakes in the Run/Walk race results and posted the changes on the Internet. The winners of each division who have not picked up their medals may pick them up at the Round Rock RunTex store. I also dropped off a few T-shirts at that store for people who registered and didn't get a chance to pick up their shirt.

We can now begin concentrating on the Rachel Alert Network cookbook. My sister Elaine has been hard at work proofing the recipes. I made some mistakes entering the recipes, and some of them have directions that are not clear. I'll start on the information pages this week. The information pages will contain the RAN mission and a list of other missing persons. We still have a goal of ordering the cookbooks the first week in June.

Tuesday, May 18

The Rachel Alert Network officers met tonight. We discussed the Run/Walk for Rachel and the RAN cookbook. The final cookbook details and the quantity to order were chosen.

I mailed some Run/Walk for Rachel T-shirts yesterday to out of town people who couldn't attend the event. We have several T-shirts available for purchase. They are $10 each, and the price includes shipping. More information may be found here: rachelalert.org/run.html. All proceeds will go to support RAN programs.

Wednesday, May 19

My sister Elaine finished proofing all 400 recipes in the Rachel Alert Network Cookbook. That was a huge job. Now I have to enter the corrections into the cookbook program.

I want everyone to take a look at Rachel's message board. Under Erika Dalquist's thread, I added the suspect's picture. To view it click here. He's on the run and everyone needs to look for him. As John Walsh says "Let's catch this creep.".

Thursday, May 20

I added an on-line order form to rachelalert.org/run that allows people to order 2004 Run/Walk for Rachel T-shirts using a credit card. When the cookbooks are ready, they may be ordered the same way.

Next week I head back to Phoenix to work on the law enforcement training course. The course will give guidelines and procedures on how to handle a missing person case.

Friday, May 21

I mailed six of the Run/Walk for Rachel T-shirts today. They went to four different statess. That's six more places that will be hearing about Rachel s story. Hopefully word will get to the right person, and he or she will come forward.

One third of the corrections have been entered into the cookbook. Hopefully I will finish entering the other corrections next week, and we can order the books the following week.

Saturday, May 22 and Sunday, May 23

Over half of the recipes for the Rachel Alert Network cookbook have now been corrected. Due to a slow connection, correcting them is taking longer than I thought. I should still have them done within two weeks.

We still have plenty of 2004 Run/Walk for Rachel T-shirts left. People can support RAN by ordering one. Please visit rachelalert.org/run for ordering information.

Monday, May 24

Later this week I will travel to Phoenix again. Our committee that is developing a training course for law enforcement on how to handle missing person cases will have a two day workshop. We should be able to develop a lot of the course content in the two days.

A person on Rachel's Message Board said the UNSOLVED MYSTERIES segment on Rachel was shown again last Friday on the Lifetime Network. I'm glad they are still repeating the older programs. It continues to give Rachel's case national exposure.

Tuesday, May 25

I flew to Phoenix, AZ, tonight. Our committee meeting to develop a training course on missing adults is tomorrow and Thursday. I met Bob from St. Louis, and we went out to dinner together. We talked about the St. Louis M.U.S.T. seminar trip next month.

Wednesday, May 26

Our committee meeting began at 9:00 a.m.. There are some new members on the committee, which brings the total number of members to about 20. The room was divided in half, and one half took the CEO training for police chiefs and sheriffs. My group took the first responder training.

Each group developed a list of training items needed for its audience. Tomorrow the groups will complete the two tasks.

Thursday, May 27

Our two groups worked this morning at the National Center for Missing Adults to complete our training course on missing person cases. Our group presented our course for the first responders to the entire group. The course was critiqued and submitted to Fox Valley College. Fox Valley will expand on the course and improve the format for teaching.

Next, the other group presented its course on training the CEOs. The CEOs of law enforcement are those people at the top, such as police chiefs and sheriffs. After a critique, their training course was also submitted to Fox Valley for final processing.

The committee actually finished early, which allowed us to visit among ourselves. I was proud to be invited to be part of the training course development. Everyone else is a professional in law enforcement, missing person clearinghouses, or other supporting agencies.

Friday, May 28

I arrived home at 1:00 a.m. from Phoenix. After a few hours of sleep, I worked at home.

After work, I finished entering all of the corrections into the Rachel Alert Network cookbook. Tomorrow I will start on the information pages to be included in the cookbook. These pages will contain RAN's mission, Rachel's Story, and a list of other missing persons.

Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30

My sister Elaine and I finished the three introductory pages for the Rachel Alert Network cookbook. The introductory pages contain Rachel's story and the origin and purpose of RAN.

Sunday night I started putting together a few pages containing stories of other missing persons for the cookbook. We are still on track to order the cookbooks this week. I will be glad when the cookbook order is in the mail.

Monday, May 31

I finished the last of the information pages for the Rachel Alert Network cookbook. I'll check over the order and put it in the mail this week.