MONDAY JANUARY 16 (will update)

TAR PIT OF SUSPICION

They tell us that the three witnesses to Julie Michelle Bullard's abduction varied in their account of what went down in the trailer the night an armed gunman broke in and took Michelle Bullard from the group of friends. Michelle Bullard has been missing since the beginning of January 2nd. The suspect desciption released said the abductor was a man in his mid-thirties wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and he had his face covered.

Also that night, in the small rural community of Broadway, NC, a man by the name of David Wilson also went missing. His wife sent him to the store for a roll of paper towels at around 10:30PM. He was seen on a video surveillance tape purchasing those paper towels in Broadway at approximately 10:50PM. Wilson did not answer his cell phone after that. His wife sent a family member out looking for him. He wasn't found until later that afternoon after 5. On his way home he shot and killed himself when a Harnett County Sheriff Deputy pulled him over near his house.

David Wilson was charged for shooting a man in cold blood in 1974 and was sentenced in 1975 to 40-60 years in prison as a result of the violent murder. Wilson was released early in 1998 even though he escaped from prison in 1980 only to be captured in Michigan after a high speed chase that ended in a crash that seriously injured Wilson and killed his fellow escapee. Twenty-three years served on a 40-60 year sentence. David Wilson is not a suspect, law enforcement say it looks like a coincidence.

Michelle Bullard is still missing.

The next week an 80 year old woman went missing. She was found in woods behind her pig farm brutally murdered in Robbins, NC , 27 miles southwest of Broadway. The man they are hunting stole her pick-up truck. The truck was found today in Georgetown, SC. Authorities are looking for Johnny Cletas Maness, also of Robbins.

Maness is perhaps more violent and evil than David Wilson. In fact they may have shared the same prison because both spent half their lives in the North Carolina prison system behind bars for violent offenses. Maness' lifetime criminal record includes: 8 assaults against citizens, 5 assaults against a law enforcement officer, 3 against emergency personnel, a habitual Felony charge in 1999 that could have kept him in prison but it was dismissed, assault with intent to commit serious injury in 1998, 1st Degree Kidnapping in 1996, assault with a deadly weapon with intent on September 24, 1994, another on April 10, 1994, another on March 16, 1990, and again another on February 23, 1990, and oh yeah one more in 89, in 1980 he was sentenced to ten years for various offenses, in 1977 he was convicted of crimes against nature and in 1974 he was sentenced to 5 years for stealing a car.

Maness' prison record shows 33 offenses, including a sex act against a prisoner. He escaped prison in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1986, July 1990, September 1990 and in 2000. Best I can tell he was released from probation on November 25, 2005.

Maness is on the run. How he was linked to the death of the woman in Robbins is unknown at this time. How he is able to finance his flight is unknown at this time.

Neither Wilson or Maness have been labeled a suspect in the abduction of Michelle Bullard. Did the 80 year-old Ruthie Morgan stumble across something the afternoon she visited her hidden away pig farm? She is not known to have money, she drove an old beater of a pick-up truck. The victim, Ruthie Morgan was a life long resident of the tiny town of Robbins and most likely she would have recognized Maness from his notorious reputation. It would have been that violent reputation that would have steered Miss Ruthie away from Maness had she have seen him.

Michelle Bullard is still missing.

Michelle was most likely abducted in the evening of January 1st. She was reported missing after midnight when her friends were able to free themselves from their bindings at around 1AM on the 2nd.

In the early morning hours of January 1st, 2003, Jamie Lockamy Smith, 26, of Sanford, was hit by a 30-06 bullet fired from a rifle, as she sat smoking a cigarette on her front porch. Sammy Hart was arrested for the crime but was acquitted after a controversial trial. However he did end up going to prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from escaping with 4 others from the Sanford, Lee County Jail prior to his murder trial.
Jamie Lockamy Smith's murder is still unsolved. The murderer has escaped justice.

Michelle Bullard is still missing.

A crack house in Sanford was raided yesterday and 3 ounces of crack cocaine were seized. Captain Dan Kehagias of the Sanford Police said to the Sanford Herald, “We've hit that house at least three times in the past, it's basically just a crack house. But it was a good pop. We got more (drugs) than we expected.” Just a crack house? Could David Wilson have frequented that house or a house like it? After all he was said to be having problems with a crack addiction prior to Michelle's abduction. Certainly the good Captain did not mean it the way it came out. Nor do the people that all too frequently describe some crimes as being a "drug related crime" as if that lessens the crime's damage to the community, to the victim(s). But we must be careful because, "just a crack house" and "a drug related crime" do not do any of us any justice. All this shows, is how jaded we have all become.

Michelle Bullard is still missing.

Law enforcement suspended their search last week. Today is January 16th, and no matter who any of us think did it, Michelle is still missing and has been for 15 days.

All three people in the line up above are 49 years old, you don't know everything do you?