When the news of Latoyia Figueroa's disapperance first made it onto the Philly Future front page last week, she was a relatively anonymous missing person. Unfortunately, she is still both relatively anonymous and missing. That's the continuing sad truth of the matter.
The hopeful news is that, thanks to local bloggers like Richard at All Spin Zone, and those who've followed his lead, her name is starting to get out, and hopefully her face has a greater chance of being seen by someone who may be able to help find her. Richard's post on Latoyia has been picked up by Evan Derkacz at Alternet.
Richard asks, and we echo his request, for all Philly area bloggers to put the word out on their blogs about Latoyia Figueroa, who's been missing for over a week now. Include a picture of her. Even if you only get one visitor a day, every little bit helps raise awareness of this missing Philadelphia woman, who is not only five months pregnant, but also has a seven-year-old waiting for her at home.
Another course of action Richard has suggested is to write an email to Nancy Grace at CNN, who has provided wall-to-wall coverage of missing teenager Natalee Holloway. In a world where only the white-skinned, blond-haired young women seem to be missed by the mainstream media, these are some ways to help bring Latoyia's story a little attention too.
UPDATE: CNN.com has finally picked up the story. Now maybe we'll see other outlets on the trail, and maybe even some mention on television. The more exposure the better chance there is that a picture of Latoyia will be spotted by someone who knows something about the situation.
Finding the Missing- Equal Time for A Philly Mom Named Latoyia
Hi - we followed your lead. Thanks for the prompt. It's so easy to get wound up in the minutia of our own lives, that we forget other human beings who need help. Anyway, here is the text of the letter sent to Ms. Grace via http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5c.html?24:
Dear Nancy Grace
We were prompted to write to you after the urging of a fellow blogger on the blog www.phillyfuture.org. Usually we write strictly about stopping eminent domain abuse in our home town, but couldn't NOT lend a voice to a different cause even MORE important: helping bring home a local missing young mom.
This young mom from West Philadelphia went missing for no good reason. Her name is Latoyia Figueroa. She is also pregnant. Don't let a young woman from a less advantageous socio-economic level just disappear into some cold case/missing persons file. Authorities and media should run to try to help this woman just like other missing persons currently in the news so prominently day in and day out. It's called equal time. Latoyia Figueroa deserves better. You have the power to help her, so why don't you?
And while you are at it, why not help the families of 35-year old Richard Petrone, Jr. and his girlfriend, 34-year-old Danielle Imbo , who disappeared February 19th, 2005. These folks have ties to Philadelphia and Ardmore, PA. Again, here with Ms. Imbo, is a young mom who has a child who needs her.
This couple and Ms. Figueroa are yet more example of all the other people who go missing every single day. People who don't get the same media attention, probably because they don't make as good copy as other cases, and they don't have families who are able to throw big bucks around.
Your last name is Grace. Shed some grace and peace of mind on the families of these missing people. Their lives should mean something and they deserve it. Like others writing to you, we don't know these people, but they are human beings in danger. Help them.
http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_203161837.html
http://kyw.com/news/local_story_203161837.html
http://www.runningscared.org/life_and_beyond
http://www.richardpetrone.com/html/news.asp
Thank you.
Front page at CNN.com
Good work folks. Keep this visible. Thanks for posting Howard.
cnn link
http://us.cnn.com/2005/US/07/27/Philadelphia.missing/index.html
Latoyia still missing no news on CNN later
I just sent a quick email to Nancy Grace and posted about Latoyia (and the lack of coverage) last night I also send an email to the Abrams Report (MSNBC) with a link to Richard's initial post (and his letter to Nancy Grace) indicating that they, too, spend an inordinate amount of time on missing white women (even when there's no new info) without covering other cases such as Latoyia's.
I've got a pic of Latoyia with a link to my post about her that will remain in my header as stories get buried on the blog.
Richard and Danielle and CNN
I just noticed that CNN has covered Richard & Danielle (both Nancy Grace & Anderson Cooper according to the Petrone family web-site).
Glad someone cares to notify us
much respect and love to you for doing your part to post the news on this missing sister.
I found out about her because one of my members posted it on my site.
It's a shame that the mainstream media has different standards for various missing persons.
That's great to finally see...
now hopefully the increased visibility will help find her. It also wouldn't be too much to hope other media outlets start pulling their weight on this story too.
It is really nice to see that so many people out there care about real people, not just the ones the mainstream outlets tell us to care about.
thank you!
Just saw the (too brief, and during their blog reports) CNN report on Latoyia...thank you SO MUCH for spreading this around. If she were rich and white, you wouldn't have to. So sad.
Banner At My Site
I made up a quick banner with Ms. Figueroa's photos on it, and the number to the Philadelphia Police Dept. It will stay at the top of my page until this situation is resolved; everyone is welcome to copy the banner if they wish to use it (of if someone can come up with a better one, that'd be great!)
http://paxromano.blogspot.com/
That's great -- finally a TV mention
-keeping our fingers crossed that there will be more news items to come.
Oh, and as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome. With people like Richard and Duncan out there (that's how I got word of this story last week), it's a lot easier for people to band together on stories like this that really matter.
Great idea Pax
A great way to make sure the news doesn't get buried by the regular blog minutiae. I'm gonna' look at putting a blogad on my own sidebar with a modified version of what you've got there.
Caught a glimpse of the last two minutes of Inside Politics
They did a pretty good job of sussing out what Richard's been trying to do (even though they only gave it about a minute of coverge). Again, hopefully they'll offer more in-depth content as this goes on.
SaveAdmoreCoalition - make this a blog post...
A request - we will promote it to the home page.
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