Missing Girl

[Nevada]

I really hope they find this young lady safe and sound...what disturbs is that the office in charge says that to him goth and satanism are the same...while there are some goth satanists they are in some points very different cultures and with that attitude I hope he isnt missing some very important leads or resources that might help them find this girl...


VANCOUVER (CP) -- RCMP and the parents of a missing Richmond, B.C., teenager are concerned there may be a satanic connection to her disappearance.

Josephine Shih, 16, vanished Jan. 25 with nothing but the clothes on her back and $1,200 cash from her parents home.

"Please help us," her father Steven begged during a news conference Thursday as her mother sat quietly beside him with tears streaming down her face.

"She connected with some very strange websites (that gave) her the wrong idea."

RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen said an examination of the family computer showed Josephine frequented Internet sites about satanic cults and corresponded in chat rooms.

Thiessen said she may have been lured away by someone connected to the satanic websites.

"A number of things point that way," Thiessen said. "We would love to be wrong, but we don't know."

He said there is real concern that some harm may come to the young woman, noting a case last year that had similar links.

"We've seen this in the past in other forms. Two people died," he said, referring to last October's disappearance of a Vancouver couple.

Rachel Adams and Mark Remple hanged themselves near Lions Bay, north of Vancouver. They were known to be involved in so-called goth culture.

"Frankly, to be honest with you, I don't know the difference between satanic, goth, it's all to me the same," Thiessen said.

Her father said Josephine was a good student, but after the winter break at school her attitude changed and she wasn't studying.

"My wife, she can't sleep, we're very worried about her," he said.

The teen is five foot five and weighs about 165 pounds. She has a large scar on the back of her neck.

The Shih family moved to Canada from Taiwan seven years ago and also have a four-year-old daughter.

The family's computer is with the RCMP technical crime unit where an expert is looking for links to where the teenager could be.

Thiessen said there was some indication the girl may have tried to cross into the United States, but she had no identification.

"Our officers have been working on it every day, all day ... sending out information outside the province, the borders, the airlines, a wide variety of agencies are involved."

[Dmitri]

First, I get disgusted by the police lumping Goth or Metal ito Satanists...

Second, I had nothing to do with this disappearance...

[Constance Innuendo]

she mysteriously disappears with $1200 from her parents' house. . .. sounds like a runaway to me. Call it intuition, call it a hunch but I say. . .none of the leads listed have anything to do with her case.

[Adriana Rose]

Yea any one who takes off with 1200 dollars that is a runaway case to me.

and yes metal heads are not satanists!

[Galleywench]

I'd have to agree that with that kind of a bankroll my intuition says runaway too.

Perhaps if Dad restricted computer use and forced the issue of conversation she would not have had the impulse to run at all.

That said...time for me to sign off and force some family freakin' fun time on the kids.

Ok, sterotyping is never a good thing, BUT they looked at the websites...and have concluded they are of a satanic nature.

Now I study police and who they operate and investigate, they are not as ignorant as peole like to think when it comes to such topics.

Especially since this was published, I have a feeling, especially the way it was written they do know WAY more then they are releasing and are hoping to throw them off that they know she is a runaway and a few other paths as well.....

the police are trying to make it sound liek they think that she was taken against her will....this usually promt=pts kids like these to actually make a phone call and tell the folks they did not become a victim, but rather willingly left and are doing so of their own free will and they are mature enough to make their own decisions....

they are trying to get a reaction...most likely the money they quoted is larger then was really taken at all, also to make her call and defend herself as not a criminal or at least not that large of a criminal....

and as for what the officer said, well that is just his opinion, for all he cares, this is just another (in their eyes) deviant subgroup of society.....to many police one subversive group os the same as another....

Muffin

[daBaroness]

The time to check out the Web sites your child is frequenting and initiating discussion about them should be long before they've found someone who portends to be the understanding friend lonely and searching teen-agers so desperately want their parents to be. Fearing what you don't know and sticking your head in the sand is definitely a way to ensure those fears coming to fruition.

Doesn't know the difference between satanic and goth - and doesn't care anyway ... hmmmm, just guessing here, but couldn't that be at the root of the problem? I hope they find this girl and she hasn't suffered at the hands of a seemingly sympathetic soul who turns out to be a pedophile. I hope once found, this girl gets counseling and her folks are ordered into counseling.

[Eric McTavish]

----UPDATE---
No Internet luring behind her disappearance
http://www.richmondreview.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=45&cat=23&id=370531&more=

Missing teen reunited with her parents
By Martin van den Hemel
Staff Reporter
No Internet luring behind her disappearance

Josephine Shih has been reunited with her parents.
The Richmond High Grade 11 student was found early Friday morning by a Vancouver security guard who then contacted the police. Shih was taken to a hospital where she was reunited with her mother and father, less than 24 hours after the couple, originally from Taiwan, made a public appeal for help in locating the 16-year-old.
Shih left her family's home on Jan. 25 and didn't return home. She had no identification and took $1,200 in cash from her parents.
They contacted the Richmond RCMP and on Thursday morning took part in a press conference where they made an emotional appeal for the public's help. That paid almost immediate dividends, as the security guard who found her around 6 a.m. Friday in Vancouver had recognized her from the media coverage.
The security guard, Chris Waddell, was watching a movie in an empty Vancouver theatre Thursday night when Shih walked in and sat near him, then moved to the seat directly beside him and struck up a conversation. She then fell asleep.
It wasn't until early Friday morning, when Waddell saw Shih's picture on the front of a newspaper, that he recognized she was the missing teenager from Richmond. Waddell told CTV News he then called Vancouver Police and began to search for her and eventually found her on Granville Street, where she'd been kicked out of a stairwell. He took her to breakfast at a restaurant and then called police to say she'd been found.
Investigators had been worried Shih's life might be in danger based on her interest in Satanic cult web sites and feared she may have fallen victim to Internet luring.
But that proved not to be the case on Friday, Richmond RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen said during a press conference.
Shih's parents told reporters that Shih has been admitted to hospital suffering from emotional stress.
Before her disappearance, Shih began skipping school after the winter break, her parents said.
They began dropping her off at school, but instead of attending classes, she went to the local library to use its Internet connection. She had been a strong student, receiving good marks, and this was the first time she'd run away, they said.
On Friday, Shih's parents said they were going to get their daughter any help she may need.

[Nevada]

thanks for the update and thank the above she is okay!