Timeline & Scenarios

Why we thought the way we did!

If anyone has information that can still lead us to answers in this seemingly malicious act, please contact deskside2@yahoo.com

Prayer Lines

Maliciously Missing May 19, 2005 - Concrete Proof Jon is alive given to family on
May 11, 2009

Facts [This all was posted before concrete proof was given to family on May 11, 2009 that Jon is alive.]: 

Jon is missing.

Scenarios, Activities and Thoughts - Why the family is so worried.

May 31, 2005 Phone call.

• Jon's one phone call was made to his stepdaughter, my daughter, Alisa. On the call he also talked to our daughters Johnna and Mary. All three children are adults.
  
• The call sounded like he had a gun to his head, he was forced to make the phone call. He asked that the search be called off for him yet he didn't know that his daughters were in Las Vegas....that makes no sense. The only way he would have known a search was going on for him is if he saw the TV reporter interviewing Mary which was clearly done in Las Vegas.
  
• He was monotone during the phone call. This was not Jon's personality. After 24 years of marriage I know him well enough to know that when he heard his daughters crying it would have torn him apart.
  
• He was sober, not drunk when the call was made.
  
• He kept repeating to the girls to "take care of Mom." You don't maliciously walk out on someone and then worry about them being cared for.
  
• Jon would never have called Alisa to tell her what was going on and lay this all on her like that, he would have called me.  He was too good of a parent to lay that on his children. My guess is that Jon couldn't call me because he would not have been able to stay monotone; he would have lost it hearing my voice and if he were in survival mode that loss of composure would have gotten him killed.
  
• The call ended abruptly.  Either he couldn't keep his composure anymore or they took the phone from him.

Casino Sighting:

• The reports that Jon was seen in a California Indian casino (almost 2 weeks after the phone call) are dubious.
  
• If it was him then it was major cry for help as he would have known he would be found if he used an ATM: ATM transactions are easily tracked and there are cameras on them; also, casinos are full of cameras....Jon knew this.
  
• If it wasn't a cry for help then it was someone using Jon's identity. If he was just off starting a new life then why is there no other trace of him since the supposable trace to this casino? Nothing on his credit, banks, no new addresses, nothing.........all traces end at the Las Vegas home.
  
• Also, by this time he thought the rental car was listed as stolen (he was told this on the phone call) so why would you go someplace so easily traceable if you thought you were a felon?

• Shortly after the casino incident Alisa received a call that clearly disturbed her.  Someone called her cell and there was silence.  Thinking it was Jon she said "Dad, dad if that's you talk to me.  If you don't talk to me I'm hanging up."  At that point someone starting choking, horribly choking as if they were being strangled or extremely struggling to talk.  Alisa hung up, called me, and then called the Overland Park, KS police where she was living. This call still haunts her to this day. 

• Why would a man who is retired twice; USMC and Sprint and a rehire by Citigroup, who never rehires anyone, walk away from his job? Why if he were planning a new life why wouldn't he give notice to his work that he was quitting? He was fired for being a no show after he disappeared. Why would anybody jeopardize an amazing work record?...........Jon sure as shit wouldn't have done that. He never burnt a bridge. Also, Jon knew the status of IT employment. Most jobs were going to India and the jobs here the salaries were falling.  He knew how lucky he was to get this job, he wouldn't have just walked away from it. 

• Jon wouldn't have stolen a car (he didn't even get speeding tickets) and he would have known that was what would happen with the rental car supposedly not being returned.
  
• Another scenario is Jon dropped the car off and started walking home or back to work. Budget was in between his work and home. Something happened along the way. He accepted a ride from someone, stopped to help someone, or it was a very hot day and he may have stroked out or became disoriented. Jon was not healthy. He may have had a mental breakdown after dealing with Budget; God knows they damn near drove me the brink of one. There are also a number of homeless people in this upscale area.  I was approached by a homeless man in that very parking lot. He wasn't the typical homeless guy either, he was down right scary. Budget may have been in possession of that car the whole time; I personally think this is what happened---why was that guy so nervous? Why did the car suddenly appear when they were going to have to have it listed as embezzled?
  

My thoughts: What was going on in our life and why I don't think he just walked out:

• Jon was so excited about the move back to Vegas (we had lived here in the late 80's and then moved back home to Kansas when Sprint made him a job offer). We loved Vegas and were happy to find a home on the Northwest side of Vegas where we had lived before.
  
• Jon was so excited about the house in Vegas, he picked this house out and was crazy about it. He was so excited that my sister and her husband were coming in June to visit that he busted his butt getting the house ready for their visit. We were almost done on the inside of the house and he was looking forward to getting some tiles laid that weekend which would have finished all the rehab we had done on the house. Does this sound like a man that was going off to start a new life? We worked side by side on this project. We painted every inch of the inside, rebuilt the stair case including hand staining each step --- Jon wanted it beautiful as he felt our daughters would walk down it as brides some day; and we rehabbed all the bathrooms.
  
• Jon had started doing a lot of walking with me and our new dog.  He was crazy about out new pet. He was enjoying our walks and taking the dog to the dog park.
  
• We were attending Mass regularly together.  He was very upset when Pope John Paul died. And, one of the last conversations he had with one of our daughters, before he disappeared, was when Terri Schivo died .... he was very upset about that.
  
• We went to the casinos occasionally and on my birthday, just days before he went missing we spent the whole day playing "tourist." Going to the dolphin show and the Secret Garden and watching the Belagio fountains. It was a great day and he was really enjoying himself.
  
• We found some great places to eat where we became regulars and got to know the staff:  Timbers, Tenaya Brewery, the Irish Pub at the Marriott and Three Angry Wives Irish Pub.
  
• Jon had been working hard to secure a loan for the pool and he had just gotten approval that we were to sign on the day after he disappeared --- it took 2 signatures so no he didn't run off with the money -- if he had I'd be getting billed for it and I'm not.
  
• Jon left behind his military papers, his treasured photos from Vietnam, his checkbooks, his clothes, his toothbrush, hair brush, and something Jon never leaves behind: his bowling ball............he left everything.....if he were just leaving me why wouldn't he have taken these items? Also, his email accounts have not been accessed. He has not signed up for league bowling since his disappearance. The only call showing on his cell phone was the call he made to Alisa.
  

• He returned to alcoholism. Jon's addiction was bourbon and he had not drank bourbon in 11 years. After 5 years of recovery chances are slim that someone will fall back into their addiction.....at 11 years it just doesn't happen. Even if he did start drinking bourbon again one of the things Jon did when he was drunk was to pick up the phone and start calling people .... sober he never calls people. No one has heard from Jon. He would have called me 1,000 times by now if he were drinking.
  
• He's having an affair. Don't know how this could have happened because we were together constantly. When we weren't together, he was at work and he emailed me all day long. The only way he could have had an affair was at work, but since I dropped him off and picked him up about 50% of the time or more and he only had a 1/2 hour lunch break there is no way he was having an affair. We also went out with people from his work on St. Patrick's Day ...... you wouldn't take your spouse around work people if you were having an affair with someone at work. Besides Jon had brought up that he wanted to get our marriage blessed. He had thought for a long time that getting an annulment meant that we would have to end our civil marriage. He read something at Mass that made him understand that it wouldn't end our civil marriage, it wouldn't be our marriage that would be annulled. He told me he didn't just didn't want our marriage to end for even a second. Does someone say that to someone they are going to leave? Besides if he were having an affair you don't think that his new interest wouldn't be screaming for him to get a divorce?...after all the man has two retirements under his belt. Also, in 11 years of sobriety he never had an affair, our marriage was solid at the time of his disappearance. Even during his alcoholic days the affair he had was because she let him drink .... he actually couldn't stand the woman and had said over and over again it was his biggest mistake, it was his biggest "stupid."
  
• Poor Maureen, he just walked out on her....why does she keep searching? This mentality of "lets sweep it under the rug, he just walked out on her" has been the most damaging to my search for Jon. For the idiots that think this way all I can say is PUT JON IN FRONT OF ME if this is truly what they believe PUT JON IN FRONT OF ME. This is the easy out so people don't have to help me in the search. If I truly believed he had walked out on me why would I be putting all this effort in to finding him?.....I'd just go on with my life ....easy.

The gun shot:

• I don't know if this plays into Jon's disappearance or not but it could very well be a case of Jon saw something he shouldn't have seen.  One night in January, February, or March of 2005 (I don't remember now the exact month.) Jon and I were awoken by what was clearly a gun shot.  Jon jumped out of bed and went to see what happened.  I started to get out of bed to join him when he came running back into the room and told me not to get out of bed.  He was visibly shaken. He seemed scared.  I asked him if we should call the police and he said, "no."  This was so not like Jon....he normally would have immediately called the police. He said he didn't see anything, but his behavior spoke otherwise. It makes me wonder if whoever fired the gun saw Jon looking out the window and threatened Jon or has done something to Jon to silence him.

Damaging Comments:

Note:  Jon and I had been married for 24 years at the time of his disappearance and we are still married.  Alisa, Johnna, Mary and our grandson John are the ones that were in Jon's life day in and day out. We are the people that know him best. So the following comments are from other family members who were not in Jon's life. One who had seen him maybe a handful of times since childhood and the other who hadn't seen Jon in years.

• "He's anti-social."  Oh please he was the neighborhood busybody.  There weren't too many places in KS or in NV that we didn't walk into where people didn't know us. He was a very well liked guy.
  
• "He's a gambler." Yea, I don't think so!  Jon played the nickel slots many times just one nickel at a time .... I don't think anyone would classify Jon as a gambler with the exception of someone who really does not know him.
  
• "He's a survivalist" - you know could hide in the mountains crap. Yea, right I couldn't even get him to go camping.  The man liked his bed. He liked the comforts of home.  He liked to be warm and cozy. He doesn't hunt. He once shot a pesky bird off the top of our home with a bb gun and got sick to his stomach after doing it.
  
• "He's always ran away his whole life." - Well if you call running away from an abusive, crazy mother to go into the USMC a run away --- maybe I'm wrong about him not being a survivalist --- that was his survival he was running too.
  
• And, my all time favorite - "He waited to leave you [meaning me] until the girls were grown so he wouldn't have to pay child support."  Gee, it took him 4 years past the time of child support to leave.  That family member doesn't even know the ages of other family members, give me a break. I'm still laughing on that one!

Unfortunately, when comments are made to law enforcement and investigators like those above it's no wonder we are getting little cooperation. 24 years, come on guys, 24 years of marriage and you all don't think I know my husband?  No one knows him better than me....no one!

Private Investigator:

The private investigator came up with report on Jon that was totally full of misconceptions and in one incident totally false, didn't happen. What follows is my response to that report:

Talk to Jon on his cell phone in December – didn't happen:

That is my cell phone that I purchased for Jon and paid for the Verizon services. I had it reported as stolen and turned off in July or August of 2005. I monitor the activity on that cell phone and there has been none since Jon’s one phone call to my daughter Alisa. I also call it every couple of weeks and it is still shut off…..rings busy. No one could have talked to Jon on that phone number. The phone was just recently completely turned off (March 2007).

Jon’s work:

• I doubt very much that Jon would have told anyone at work that he was starting a new life. He was only close to two people there and both those people have been in contact with me and have given me information to help in the search for Jon….they were not a part of Jon’s disappearance.
  
• Jon’s job was a coveted position. In the IT world since 2001 many positions went to India. The positions that remain the salaries have been cut in half. Jon was rehired by CitiGroup. CitiGroup has a policy to never rehire. There were a lot of people mad who wanted Jon’s position and that Jon was rehired fueled the fire even more. My guess is if that comment was made by a CitiGroup employee then there was an alternative motive for making a statement like that….they wanted his job.
  
• I know that the employees were instructed not to talk about Jon and to refer calls to Jon’s director. CitiGroup could be fearing a lawsuit since Jon was on their time when he disappeared and it very well could have happened in their parking lot.
  
• Note: We found duck tape and fix-a-flat on the street directly west of the CitiGroup parking lot. Those two items Jon always had with him. That, coupled with the fact that Jon would always stop and help people, is where our fear that something happened to him comes in to play.
  
• Jon’s friends would be reluctant to talk to authorities because they are close to retirement and if they go against CitiGroup’s directive they would stand to suffer devastating financial consequences.
  
• As far as Jon telling coworkers that he has a controlling wife the only reason he would say that is if they wanted him to go party with them. I know he turned down many offers to do just that. Since he rehabbed 11 years ago he has stayed away from any kind of social activities that I wasn’t present with him at. Not my demand but something he did for himself and as a gift to me. In fact I think one time when he needed an out I told him to say just that.
  
• There was some talk that Jon had lied on a loan application and that he was going to be fired because of it. Loss of job and IRS lien combined may have sent him running. If this actually happened then I’m sure he thought he was going to loose the house and didn’t know how to tell me this.
  
• If Jon has left willingly why would he not give his work a 2 week notice? Why would he screw up a career of over 40 years by getting fired? This is a man who went thru a layoff…….he knows how hard it is to find work in his profession and how impossible it would be to find work should he be fired from a position.

Indian Casino in California

• There are certainly varying stories coming out of the sheriff’s office up there. My contact told me that the film was too grainy to make anything out clearly. Next I hear and I believe it was from Detective in Vegas that the film was good quality. I was told that I could not view the video that it had to be passed from law enforcement to law enforcement hands…….the Detective wouldn’t get a hold of it for me. I later learned, from a former DA from another state, that I had every right to see that video and that more than likely the sheriff’s office didn’t want a lawsuit brought against them. I’ve later discovered that they have been hit with many lawsuits including a high profile one lending validity to the DA’s statement. I’ve also been told that Jon was with someone in the video and then told it was just another customer sitting at a slot next to Jon. Also, I doubt that he told anyone he was starting a new life…….you don’t steal a car and be on the run from the IRS and make statements like that.
  
• I’m not 100% sure it was Jon at that casino it could have been a Jon look a like who has Jon’s bank card.
  I am the only one who could look at that video and 1), know for sure it was Jon; and 2), assess his mental and physical condition.
  
• I can’t help but think that if that was Jon at that casino it was a cry for help. Why would you sign up for a casino club card if you weren’t staying there or living near there? He would have known I’d find him if he used his bank card from our joint account. He had other accounts that I didn’t have access to that he could have used instead. Although he had little money in them if this were planned why didn’t he move money into those accounts? I’ve got the statements and no money was moved in or out of those accounts.

Email that went around Sprint saying he had been found:

• After Jon’s phone call my daughter, Alisa, sent it out because there were people in the Sprint family that were in tears over Jon’s disappearance. Jon was well liked in the Sprint family and at that moment it appeared Jon was found so Alisa was just trying to put their concerns to rest.
  
• After the “strangling” phone call, and after we digested the first phone call, and the fact that he made no further contact with us, it became clear as can be to us that Jon is not in a good situation….he is still missing.

Statement that Jon was drunk on the first phone call:

• I was standing there when Alisa was talking to the detective and her statement was was that she had worked in a pub for many years and that she is an expert at determining if someone is drunk or not. She told the detective that Jon was NOT drunk and he was NOT slurring his words. Alisa has a severe hearing problem so it could be she answered some question of the Detective not hearing what he had actually asked and that has led to the miscommunication, but her original comment I heard as clear as a bell.

Strangling Phone Call:

• My daughter, Alisa, has an extremely high IQ, gifted student with a military background. She is probably closer to Jon than anyone in this world. Their minds thought alike…they could finish each other’s sentences and thoughts. They have always had an amazing relationship together, deep respect and love for each other. When Alisa received that phone call she knew it was Jon. That phone call has haunted her. She tries to say that it probably was just a prank but that night that it happened she knew it was Jon. She even called the police.

Jon owning a business:

• Why would he start a business using his SS# when he’s in trouble with the IRS? He definitely did not start a business in Vegas in 1994 …… we were living in Kansas. Jon's not a business man, he would admit that and he definitely would not know how to start his own business and run it while living in another state. If the PI thought this is his business then why didn’t he call that business and ask for him? If his name is attached to the business and his SS# is attached to the business then it most definitely is a case of stolen identity. I wouldn’t put it past the people who assumed the mortgage on our first home in Vegas (Dalegrove address) to have done something like that.

Jon used aliases.

• The aliases were ones Jon and I just laughed over.  We were constantly getting junk mail with both our names so screwed up it was laughable.  When we signed on our house there was a report with all of our aliases.  We got a chuckle out of that but we were amazed that junk mail aliases showed up on a report.
  

Budget Rental Car:

• Why when I contacted Budget via phone on that Monday after Jon went missing could they pull up no record of him? (Note: Spoke with male employee.) He had been renting that car for weeks and he was not in their system.
  
• On Tuesday after Jon went missing I physically visited Budget. Spoke with a very young woman employee. I showed her a photo of Jon and she knew who he was immediately. She said that the last time he had been in there (I think it was like a week or 2 weeks before) he had been very angry and yelling. This one statement I found very strange. Jon is non confrontational. If he were mad he would walk away and walk out the door grumbling under his breadth but he would never stand in a store where we shopped (Budget was in the Smith’s Grocery Store) and cause a scene….that’s just not him. She never would tell me why he was mad. Please note that a male employee was sitting there while I was talking to this young woman, he did not make eye contact with me and he never once said anything to the effect of not being able to pull Jon up in the computer when I called.
  
• I asked why they couldn’t run a trace on the car since there was a sticker on the car saying “This vehicle is monitored.” I was told it was not a monitored car. Jon and I had even discussed that we felt safe in that car knowing it was monitored.
  
• Jennifer, in Budget’s security, made one of the cruelest remarks I’ve ever heard when I made a statement to her that my husband could very well be dead in the trunk of that car and she responded back to validate why they kept hitting our joint bank account for $1,400.00 at a pop that “He’s with the car then isn’t he?”
  
• Note: Budget continued to hit the joint account even after the car was found. $1400.00 whenever they feel like it.

Car being found at Suncoast:

• How in the hell did a car sit in Valet Parking at a major hotel/casino and go unnoticed for months? Vegas is a prime target for terrorists. Abandoned cars just don’t go unnoticed in that city. You can’t tell me that there is no paper trail, no video no nothing on how that car got there I don’t buy it. Vegas is a town that literally when you leave your home there are cameras on you everywhere.
  
• How do we know that Budget didn’t take the car and plant it in the Suncoast valet parking themselves? The Suncoast is right near Budget. Hell they had a great thing going there with hitting our joint account whenever they felt like it.
  
• Car being processed and nothing being found in it: Well since Budget processed the car why would they let us know if they did find any evidence in it? There were a couple items of mine that should have been in there…funny no mention of those items. Budget fears a lawsuit from me they would never let us know if they found anything in that car.

Recap:

• One phone call from Jon. No emotion in his voice even when his daughter’s were crying…….that would not be Jon. When it comes to family he was emotional. He spoke in a controlled voice, devoid of emotion, leading the girl’s to believe someone was controlling the call. And, that the call ended abruptly furthers our concern.
  
• Last sighting of Jon was in June of 2005 – strangers determined it was Jon.
  
• There has been no credit activity, no banking activity, no contact with family members other than the initial phone call and maybe the strangling phone call. No one that knows Jon has physically seen him. (Note: his mother says she saw him but that was right after I got a flyer in the hands of the real estate agent selling the home across the street from her….too big of a coincidence and given the fact that his mother has always had a severe problem of lying then the validity of her seeing him is low. Her spiel was consistent with what was on the flyer.)
  

End of response to PI's report.____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Comments from Maureen

To those that have stood beside me throughout this ordeal, some of you complete strangers, I say thank you and God bless!

To those who turned their backs on me and instead of helping caused friction, I say to you that my family, my girls, my grandson and I will always, no matter the outcome of all of this, we will always have a better quality life than any of you. But, to you I also say God bless.

To those who chose not to help and to those who closed their eyes all I can say is I hope this never happens to you, because when it does you are going to feel very guilty about your choice not to help me. But, to you I also say God bless.

To those who may have caused Jon's disappearance, who may have hurt Jon or worse and to those who have stolen his identity and/or military retirement check and his military ID to you I say watch out. I'll never give up and I will find you. You will need to pray for forgiveness and seek God's blessing.