May 13, 2009

It has been one year and six months to the day since I have posted anything on this account. The trial is in the upcoming weeks and I have decided to update this as much as possible, including my thoughts from blogs on myspace, news articles, and other events that I think are of importance. I will eventually make this into a blog book, thanks to a friend of mine for showing me how, and will later hand it down to her daughters when they are grown women. Here is the rest of the story...

Sep 20, 2007

'The Web watches case of missing mother' 09.16.07

The Web watches case of missing mother
By J.R. WELSH

baybureau@aol.com

KILN -- Six weeks ago, Brandi Hawkins Laurent was scarcely known to the world outside this small community, where she worked at the dollar store on Mississippi 603. Now she is all over the Internet.
People across the country are viewing photographs of Laurent, reading her story and offering message-board comments on the 29-year-old mother of two, who vanished in the middle of the night from her home in the Mississippi countryside. That was at midnight Aug. 3. She hasn't been heard from since.
"We've had lots of people swear they've seen her," said Kenny Hurt, chief investigator at the Hancock County Sheriff's Department. So far, however, those sightings apparently have been cases of mistaken identity. Laurent remains missing from the home she reportedly left on foot, without the things many people would never leave behind: car, identification, keys, cell phone or cash.
Family and friends describe Laurent as a devoted mother to her daughters, ages 2 and 12.
They maintain she would never leave without at least calling home later to check on them.
Her husband, Leo Laurent, reported his wife missing at 11 a.m. Aug. 4, saying he had been unsuccessfully searching for her. He told police when Brandi disappeared into the night, she was wearing only tan shorts, a green tank top and flip-flops.
In another twist, a posting appeared on Brandi Laurent's own myspace.com page Aug. 5. Allegedly written by her, it said she had left for Missouri with an unnamed man. The legitimacy of that posting is in doubt, and authorities have since seized several computers from the Laurent home on Road 528 in the Fenton-Dedeaux community.
Meanwhile, Hurt and investigator Rita Blaize-Watson continue to unravel a mystery involving disappearance, strong fears of foul play and allegations of drug use. The investigators say they are not discounting any possibilities.
As the weeks have worn on, friends and family have come to fear the worst. Laurent's mother, Alabama resident Anita Moody, has started a myspace.com Web page on her daughter's case. She posts regularly to the page, called myspace.com/missingbrandi and to her own page, myspace.com/redirishdiamond.
"This behavior, I assure you, is not the character of my daughter, leading me to fear foul play," Moody wrote in a recent post.
Andrea Dominach, who has known Laurent since grammar school, doesn't believe her longtime friend would leave her children willingly. "I don't think she's anywhere by choice," Dominach said.
Several other Myspace pages are devoted to the case, and a long string of messages on the Laurent case has been posted at the "Amber Alerts and Missing People" blog at courttv.com.
As the Sheriff's Department investigates, friends and family have conducted their own campaign to find Laurent, knocking on doors, keeping up a flurry of Internet postings and handing out fliers.
Hurt and Watson said as many as 100 leads have poured in from people calling, sending e-mail or stopping by the Sheriff's Department. The investigators say they dare not overlook a one.
Watson said one problem is Laurent's physical appearance is strikingly similar to a number of other women in the region. She is about 5 feet, 4 inches tall with long, reddish-blonde hair and green eyes - "a common description," Watson said.
There have been reports a woman matching the description has been seen in Pearlington, and investigators say another woman living in the county apparently looks almost identical to Laurent.
Watson said Anita Moody recently spotted that woman, and briefly believed it might be Laurent. "Even her mother thought it was her," the investigator said.
However, even in a county where many young women may closely resemble her, Laurent's most distinguishing physical characteristics are at least four tattoos - one below the back of her neck, another at the base of her back and one on each leg.
Circumstances leading to Laurent's disappearance go hand-in-hand with allegations of drug use and apparent marital problems. Deputies say when he first reported that his wife of nearly 10 years was missing, Leo Laurent told them she had been using drugs heavily for several days, then left their home that night after they had argued.
In Web postings, both members of the couple have candidly written about marital and other family problems.
Laurent's mother has also publicly expressed deep concern about her daughter's personal problems and presumed drug use, although she says even that would not prompt her to leave her children. Investigators at one point looked closely at an acquaintance of the Laurents who is a reputed drug dealer.
Leo Laurent initially agreed to meet in person with a Sun Herald reporter and grant an interview for this story, but that never materialized.
Watson said various interviews with people who know Laurent involved reports she occasionally experienced binges of extended methaphetamine and crack cocaine use. "But that doesn't make her somebody we want to help any less," she said. "We want to make sure she's all right."
So the case continues, hitting one brick wall after another. Last weekend investigators received a tip Laurent was alive and planning to attend services at a church in Harrison County. That fell through.
In another lead, a jail inmate claimed to have seen Laurent in Beaumont, Texas. His information was rejected as unreliable.
Hancock County Sheriff Steve Garber said such dead ends are typical in cases like this. "It's hard to decide, what do you put in the left stack and what do you put in the right stack?" he said.
"We'll think we're on the right track, and then... no," Watson said.
Dominach, Laurent's friend from childhood, now lives in Louisiana but has spent time and money helping in the Mississippi search. She and others are staging a Sunday-night candlelight vigil for the missing woman.
Dominach said she has worked over many possible scenarios in her mind about the fate of her friend. "I keep thinking, what could possibly be wrong? But something is wrong."
Have you seen her?
Brandi Rene Hawkins Laurent
Age: 29. Born June 23, 1978.
Description: 5 feet, 4 or 5 inches tall. Medium build, white, with reddish blonde hair and green eyes. Small mole on left cheek below eye. Scar above right eyebrow.
Tattoos: Large red rose on her right leg. Black dragon on her left leg. The word "Bailee" inscribed on her back just below the neck. A fairy on her lower back.
Last seen: Midnight, Aug. 3, 2007 in the Fenton-Dedeaux community of Hancock County.
Vigil: Friends will begin staging a candlelight vigil for Brandi Laurent at 7 p.m. Sunday at Hancock County High School, 7084 Stennis Airport Drive in Kiln, just north of Interstate 10.

http://www.sunherald.com/278/v-print/story/143266.html

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