"She walked from San Joaquin County Mental Health where I was working to the
Department of Motor Vehicles on Park Street we know she made it that far because
I got her drivers license in the mail, then she was going to visit a friend who lived
close by. Her friend was not at home, he had jury duty that day. She also worked as a
waitress at Rick's New York Style Pizza and was supposed to work that night at 5 PM.
She told me she would either take the bus or her friend would give her a ride there.
She never showed up. This is how we knew she was missing. Her work started calling
our home to see where whe was. My oldest daughter called me at work, and the panic
set in. I knew in my heart something was terribly wrong. I was numbed with fear but
managed to go home to see if I would find her on the way. When I got there, she had left
a message on the answering machine that said, "Hi, it's just me, I called." I went back
to my work to see if she had shown up there. The operator told me that my daughter
had called. So if I had stayed at work I wouldn't have missed her call, and I may have
my daughter with me today. She was going to receive a paycheck the next day and
never picked it up. She took nothing with her except what she was wearing
and what was in her purse.
This is the last picture taken of Gayle. It was on her drivers license that she got the day she went missing.
I want to say thank you to Chet Heine and Barbara Dunton
for all of their time and efforts to make this video for me.
This is just a small portion, the original is 28 minutes long.
I know it took a lot of time and I appreciate it so much,
words can never tell you how much. Thank you again.
Click Here to see the petition that was started
to ask John Walsh to air Gayle's story on America's Most wanted.(I have to add that this petition has been sent to AMW with no response)
The petition has now been closed because it never reached it's potential - sad but true. I hate to say that this show AMW has been taken off the air. But I am leaving the petition anyway. Because I want it to show that people out there do care and do want the right thing done. Not just for my daughter but for ALL missing people. Thank you to all who took the time to sign it. I appreciate it very much. From Gayle's mom.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Gayle when she was young and carefree with her heart full of dreams.
Regarding Shermantine and Herzog:
Before we get into Shermantine and Herzog I would like to explain that when I first heard he was talking about where there were bodies, I was excited and I hoped my daughter would be one of them. Imagine a mom sitting here being excited that her daughters body might be at the bottom of a well. OMG I felt so sick. I have been writing to Shermantine hoping he would tell me information about Gayle. After about 3 letters I realized he didn't have anything to do with what happened to her. But I am still writing to him in hopes he will give information that will reveal other buriel sites. So I just wanted you to know this before you read the rest. Miracles do happen I guess, sometimes. A miracle to me would for this to have never happen.
Shermantine is on death row. Herzog's sentence was reduced from 78 years to 14 years after the court ruled his confession had been coerced. He was paroled in 2010 and then committed suicide in January 2012, after he found out his former partner had begun cooperating with authorities and had offered to reveal the location of victims' bodies in exchange for a payment of $33,000.
Shermantine led investigators to the skeletal remains of Chevelle Wheeler and Cyndi Vanderheiden, who'd been missing since 1985 and 1998 respectively. He also pointed out an abandoned well in Linden, California that contained some 300 human bones and personal items. Shermantine stated the well contains up to twenty victims, Michaela Garecht possibly being one of those. He blames Herzog for all the murders and says he only helped with disposing the bodies. Authorities are in the process of sorting out the contents of the well and attempting to identify the bones. Shermantine and Herzog are being investigated in other missing persons' cases, including
Phillip Martin, who was a loving father, with a kind heart, happy spirit
and loved life and his daughters did not deserve what happened to him. His daughters and other family
members want answers. Michaela Garecht
A young beautiful girl with her whole life in front of her, all her hopes and
dreams snatched from her by a sick, evil creep. Her mom and family member want
answers too!
Here is a composite picture of the person who abducted Michaela, next to that is a picture of Loren Herzog. Draw your own conclusions.
Is the time close at hand where we will finally get our answers? I hope so. Answers I don't want. Are they finally going to find the bodies? Let's just pray they will find everything this time and our time in hell will end.
By Sue Kizer
These are feelings that I have had often, very often in fact. I might think that there was something wrong with me if I didn't have them. But I sure wish I didn't have them. I see in my mind that I have run from them, as though they were chasing me through a field trying to catch me. They have always been there, lurking in my dreams in just about every thought I have of Gayle, lurking in every thought and thing I do. As I know they must be with all loved ones of missing people, or murdered people or people who have died. You see when this first happened to me I truly didn't know what to think because all I felt at the moment was sheer terror, panic, despair, oh what a list of words I might use to describe this. However yesterday, December 2, 2011 just 2 days after her 42nd birthday and twenty three years after the day she vanished everything came to the surface. Of course I had this huge dam built up to hold it all in, I am "ToughGirl", stronger than any feelings that might ping against my tough skin! But a tough mom can only take so much and at last it was too much. For no apparent reason, meaning there really was not a catalyst except maybe her birthday just passing and seeing all the joyous commercials of the coming holidays and all the happy families on TV and me wondering what could have been had we been able to just skip October 18, 1988. But of course that didn't happen, ha! And the clock will never move backwards. I don't think, but my mind is always open. May I share a few other thoughts?
I suffer from chronic insomnia, I have bizarre thoughts, strange "what if" thoughts. I don't think that unless I am drugged either by booze, or prescriptions meds I am not gonna sleep too well. I was told I have PTSD. I think and worry about everything. When I worked I worried about my clients, or people I worked with. For some reason (and I am not complaining) people liked to talk to me and tell me their problems I liked to listen because you just never knew when it might be you in the same position. If I wasn't worrying about my work then I was thinking about my oldest daughter Annie and how she was doing and was she OK, did she need anything, and then I worried about my grandson Shane, and my mother, and my animals and so on and so on and so on. It wasn't actually all worry, sometimes I had visions of what a wonderful compound I would build when I became a millionaire and took in and cared for ALL animals, and how I would build houses for all of my family and friends and we would all live together in happy harmony with no cares or worries or woes.
MY HEART HURTS
I start thinking about Gayle. What kind of a person would she be? How would all of our lives be if she were still here? What would she look like? Then I think of what probably happened to her that night...she got into a car with someone she vaguely knew, and the minute she did she knew she shouldn't have, but now it is too late. Something horrible happens, she is strangled or stabbed or shot but she dies. My Gayle dies, I wonder if she thinks of me in those last moments? I wonder if she asked for me? I think of how scared and frightened she must be how helpless she was, how she must have fought and I think as her mom why wasn't I there to protect her? Why wasn't she at work where she should have been? Why did she call me on the phone? What did he do to her? Where did he put her? Why can't we find her? Was she left out in the open to just rot? Did he bury her? Where? Why can't we find her? Someday will someone stumble upon a bone and wonder what it is and just kick it aside like an old rock or something? Someday will I have to look at whatever they find of my daughter and remember that site for the rest of my life? Maybe that would be better than the vision running through my head. For I see my daughter half buried with an arm sticking up in the air like she is trying to get help and no one sees her. I see people passing close by her and she is right there but no one sees her. God Gayle, I see you, I see you night and day, I see you all the time, I will help you I swear I will and no one will ever ever hurt you again. I just need to know where you are, please help me find where you are........and the water finally flows over the dam and rushes through all the cracks and crevices the plains and the valleys the mountains and rivers and lakes and oceans that have made up all of the emotions of my being since Gayle left my life but lives forever in my heart and soul there will never ever be closure unless we can turn back the clocks of time. I got a message from my mom not too long ago and she said she was sorry! I couldn't imagine what she was sorry for, then it dawned on me, she was with Gayle so she knew she was wrong about Gayle being alive and was apologizing to me. It's nice to know Gayle is with her gramma.
On October 18, 1988, 18-year-old Gayle Marks was last seen near the Department of Motor Vehicles in Stockton. The $50,000 reward was requested by Stockton Police Chief Blair Ulring.
Amanda.Fulkerson@ltg.ca.gov
916-445-8994
Under the Governor's Reward program, 287 rewards have been offered since 1967 and 20 have been paid. The reward process is initiated when the Governor receives a written request from the chief of the law enforcement agency with investigatory jurisdiction over the matter. This request informs the Governor that (1) those responsible for the investigation have pursued all leads and believe, in their independent judgment, that a reward will help them in their efforts, (2) the crime is one for which a reward may be offered under California law and (3) the victims' families support the reward. The Governor's legal affairs unit processes the request and ensures statutory compliance. The Governor makes the final determination regarding the request.
Rewards may be offered for specified crimes under the California Penal Code and subject to statutory maximums. Rewards do not expire and are only paid if the information leads to the arrest and conviction in a California court of the individual or individuals charged with the crime.
I would like to thank the people who have supported me over the years, you will never know how much it means to me. Thank you all. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.
Here are a few links that bring you some of the things that have been happening since January 2011. The same month that Loren Herzog killed himself after learning that Shermantine was going to start pointing out body sites.
Missing people has become an epidemic. There is more money spent on the care of abused and abandoned animals than on our children. There are more missing people today than there were soldiers killed in the Viet Nam war. There is something wrong with this picture. We, as parents need to step up to the plate and demand changes. I am one mother that will NEVER stop looking for my child. Not ever.
Phillip Martin
Michaela Garecht
