All Blog Posts Tagged 'Roatan' (77)

An approximately 30-foot boat was found off the West Bay Point of Roatan, Honduras. It's blue with twin Yamaha engines. Name on side is Rojo Caliente and the registration number is BZ2182.

Please spread the word widely and pass any leads back to me. Thanks.

Some things are complicated, some aren’t – and some simple things become unnecessarily complicated by politics and/or bureaucratic inertia. Over the past year, I have become quite the authority on simple things being made complicated.

In May 2009, my brother Joe Dunsavage disappeared while on vacation on Isla de Roatan, Honduras. We don’t really know what happened apart from the fact that he left the beach to tool around the shallows offshore in a 10-foot-long outboard-powered…

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It's rare that we get media coverage for any of our stories of people missing abroad, and certainly not a year after the actual disappearance. Getting this nice story published in our hometown newspaper, The Star-Ledger, took months of close work with a reporter who took a genuine interest in my family's plight and in the larger story. That's the only way it happens -- getting people who can do something… Continue

Call me obsessive. I don't care. Five years ago, the Natalee Holloway disappearance was, in my mind, just another media feeding frenzy masquerading as journalism. Now I ask: for all the attention the case got, how much interest did the U.S. government take in the plight of a missing (likely murdered) U.S. citizen and her family?

Five years since, and families of the missing are still left on their own to invent the wheel when a loved one disappears outside their country's borders. It…

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A UK Dad whose eight-month-old son was kidnapped has launched a desperate plea for help on Twitter after busy police ignored his plight, according to this article in the Daily Mail Online. Martin Perry, 32, made the anxious appeal via the micro-blogging site after Tristan was snatched from a nursery near Bangkok, Thailand, nearly two…

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A blog post in ArizonaCentral.com: "Arpaio Says No to Mexico Travel. How About Honduras?"

While I know the suggestion is made with tongue firmly planted in cheek as a reference to a junket the sheriff's team apparently made to Roatan on the Arizona taxpayer's dime, Honduras IS being heavily promoted as a tourism destination and precious little media attention is being paid to the tourists and expats (as well as…

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Here is the link to the story in the Amandala newspaper website. Please read it and, if you can be of assistance, contact the family at the phone numbers provided in the article.

http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=9840

I will try to keep everyone posted.

I didn't know about this when I put up my earlier post:

"Luca Pagliaro: Dive master from Roatan missing!! who has seen him??

Luca, an italian native, has disappeared in Roatan (Honduras) last week, probably on 16th March 2010, with Mauriliuo Mirabella, owner of a diveshop who has also disapperead.

Everybody who has news about him that are useful to find him are invited to contact me and my mother without hesitation.

Please let me know also when is the…

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On Mother's Day 2009, my brother disappeared after leaving the beach on the West End of Isla de Roatan, Honduras. I didn't know at the time that a month earlier, almost to the day, Ron Scheepstra had disappeared from Xcalak, Mexico, a remote village on the Yucatan Peninsula close enough to Roatan for Ron and his fishing buddies to be using Roatan tide charts. Over the next few months, more men would disappear in Central America and the Caribbean: Alex Humphrey, in Panama; David Gimelfarb in…

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16-year-old Amy Vargas, who disappeared in Cancun Jan. 30, has been found safe and returned to her family, according to the FBI. Apparently the teenager left the hotel where she was staying…

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A reporter recently asked me two questions about the material I've been posting, and they were exactly the right questions:



* What do you find suspicious about these disappearances?

* You talk about 8 men missing in the region in 10 months -- how many disappeared in the prior 10 months?



Here is an excellent example of a journalist doing his job correctly -- holding me accountable for my assertions and seeking hard facts and data.



I'll begin with the second… Continue

The Missing Americans Project crossed the 100-members mark this weekend - a bittersweet accomplishment. So much of our new membership and visits have come from Missouri, the home state of Leo Finley, who disappeared in Roatan, Honduras, Christmas morning. I feel a special connection with the Finleys, as my brother Joe disappeared from Roatan under similar circumstances on Mother's Day 2009.



It's sad to know that our organization grows and will continue to grow primarily through… Continue

A search for Leo Finley, missing at sea near Roatan, Honduras, has been called off, according to this article in the Columbia Daily Tribune. The article said the search involved three U.S. Blackhawk helicopters and Honduran naval vessels. “The local Honduran authorities are still keeping an eye out for anything they might find, but… Continue

The first thing Leo Finley's friend, Lori Young, asked me was, "Do you ever find anyone alive?"



Man! My first thought was: "My God! She thinks we're a bunch of professionals doing this!"



I had to answer her honestly, that in our extensive experience of less than a year, we've had few, if any, happy endings. There were the girls in Ecuador, but we weren't really involved in that;… Continue

This is all I have so far: Leo, from Columbia, Mo., was working at the Royal Playa (owned by close family friends). He apparently took their boat out in the early hours of Christmas morning and was not seen again. His parents are on Roatan now and I will be sharing resources with them and information with the Project as I learn more.

Please keep Leo and his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Stories like this one In the Heart of Central America: Why now is the time to go to Honduras are part of the problem. By minimizing the dangers in these Third World tourist destinations, they lead travelers to feel a false sense of comfort and security. I posted a comment on the story (let's see if it stays there) and would encourage all members of the Missing Americans Project to do the same.

My brother, Joe Dunsavage, disappeared in the waters off the island of Roatan, Honduras, on May 10, 2009. I will be telling his story -- and my family's -- as this project progresses. But what is The Missing Americans Project?



As my family has struggled with our own loss, we also have had the opportunity to meet with other families who are contending with similar losses. Along the way we have learned things that might be of help to families in similar situations. Most important, we… Continue