Thread: Did Mother of Missing Daughter go to Far?

Did she?

Reading a comment of her's about having forgiven her daughter's boyfriend but adding that the dude is in hell, reminded me of Robinjazz question of forgiveness in the John Lennon thread.

I admire this woman in some respects. Her own childhood was filled with incest and domestic violence according to her. I hope her daughter is alive but I fear she is dead.

This is a long story but I personally found it very interesting. And just to add some descriptive context to this: oconomowoc (spelling?) is what would would typically imagine as a "suburb" but perhaps just a tad more rural. It's almost completely white too. And 5th and Burleigh is almost entirely black and not an inspiring urban area.



Full story: The Vigilante - Features - Milwaukee Magazine

The Vigilante

Convinced her daughter was killed, Karren Kraemer set out to solve the mystery and nab the murderer. Soon, she was stalking other criminals and crimes.

Monday 11/22/2010

by Kurt Chandler
photo by Adam Ryan Morris

Two or three times a week, Karren Kraemer would get up at 3 or 4 in the morning,
fill a thermos with strong coffee, and drive from her home near Oconomowoc to one of Milwaukee’s toughest neighborhoods. With grim determination, Kraemer would walk the lonely, early-morning streets, papering the neighborhood with fliers bearing the face of her 23-year-old daughter, Becky.

“Please help us find Becky,” the fliers implored. “Missing/Endangered since December 13, 2003.”

Kraemer believed Becky’s boyfriend, Carl Rodgers II, murdered her daughter. Their relationship had turned violent, and Becky filed criminal charges of battery a few months before she went missing. “He was the last person to see her and remains a person of interest in her disappearance,” read the fliers.

Months passed. Then, on the night of March 31, 2003, she showed up at her parents’ door. Her face was black and blue and caked with dried blood. Carl had choked her, slammed her against the wall and thrown her onto the floor, according to a police report.

“I wrapped her face in an iced towel and held her all night,” says Karren Kraemer. She was treated at a hospital for a broken nose, bruised ribs and a fractured cheekbone.

So Kraemer began asking her own questions. She quit her six-figure job managing several Kinko’s copy centers. She cashed in her 401(k) and started a full-time crusade to find her daughter.

Knowing Becky had confided in co-workers at Target, Kraemer took a job at the same store and began pumping them for information. “They told me Becky would come to work and every part of her body would be covered with clothing, and she would have bruises on her cheek,” she says. One co-worker revealed that her daughter-in-law had also dated Carl for a while and ended it when he began threatening her.

But like everyone else, the Target employees hadn’t heard from Becky. She never picked up her last paycheck, $483.Her driver’s license had expired. Her credit cards showed no activity.

Kraemer was consumed by sorrow, anger and guilt, and those emotions fueled what has become her unrelenting mission to find her lost daughter and incriminate Rodgers. In the course of her crusade, she remade herself into something remarkable: a national advocate for families of missing people – and, at times, an unauthorized cop, prosecutor and judge, pursuing justice with a ferocity that has left many amazed and others appalled.

Kraemer, meanwhile, had set up an e-mail account with a bogus name at a public library (with the help of a former Department of Homeland Security agent) so her online snooping couldn’t be traced. Using this account, she logged on to Carl’s e-mail every day. “I controlled that guy’s computer for three months.”

The forgiveness part:

The public Kraemer exudes a practiced bravado, all cuss words and tough talk. She gets her kicks riding an all terrain vehicle – and never wears a helmet. She carries a loaded pearl-handled .22-caliber handgun in a purse holster and laughs unabashedly at the moniker of Pistol-Packin’ Mama that someone gave her.

“I believe in the right to carry. I believe in the death penalty,” she states. “But I also believe in forgiveness, and in second chances.”
Even for Carl Rodgers?

“I’ve forgiven him for what he’s done,” she says. “He’s dead and he’s in hell.”

The article is long and journey's into Miami strip clubs and Chicago streets searching for another woman's daughter hooked on heroin and prostituting for a pimp. Another body of a missing person is recovered in rural Wisconsin with her help and the dude she thinks killed her daughter commits suicide. Fingers are pointed at Milwaukee cops and including that of the uncle of the suicide guy because he's a retired Milwaukee cop that own a funeral home and is friends of other Milwaukee cops.

If the dude was innocent then maybe things went too far. If he did murder her daughter I guess the pressure was bitter just.

No, I don't believe she went too far at all....if he didn't do it, then I guess he is in hell (as she put it) for the beatings if nothing else....but the suicide tells me another story.

Well... the hell part suggests to me she's a bit disingenuous about having forgiven the guy. I couldn't blame her though if that is the case.

You have violent and malicious people in both sexes but the male sex seems to have an incredibly large lead on the female sex when it comes to that. My own sex disgusts me at times.

I don't know if you read that very long article but the mother of the missing girl apparently was raised in a home with her father beating her mother and sexually molesting them. I've seen men up close brutally assaulting women. Both cases I'm think of involved crack cocaine though. That's a dark and dangerous world to journey through.

And if you did not read the article it stated that something like 700,000 people are reported missing annually in the United States. About 77% of those are children.

Why I'm not 100% sure this guy killed this mother's daughter - and it sounds as if he did - is because there are enough twisted people walking around that the potential exists it could have been some other predator.

Consider this... a year or so ago the MPD arrested a black dude for serial killing. They tied his DNA to several women's corpses. At least one man was in prison for one of the murders he apparently committed. He was operating in Milwaukee more than a decade and at the same time Jeffery Dalhmer was serial murdering young men in Milwaukee. Two serial killers in one town of 500,000. About a year or so ago police entered two separate men's homes that did not know each other. Both had died. Police went through their homes and discovered rooms with walls plastered with articles and pictures of missing children. WTH? No child's disappearance could be linked to either man. Perhaps an innocent obsession, perhaps not? That's one town of 500,000. Now imagine the numbers or potential predators in all other U.S. cities combined? If you include all the cities on planet earth that number probably rises astronomically.

But if this harassed guy was innocent the jacking into his email account and sending info to women that he had STD's etc. was overboard. Apparently he was quite a ladies man too since 29 women responded back he gave them an STD or beat them.

Addendum^^^

Look at L.A.: LAPD plans to release pictures from ‘Grim Sleeper’ killer case - Yahoo! News

The Los Angeles Police Department will release 160 photographs today that were found in the possession of the suspected "Grim Sleeper" serial killer, The Associated Press reported.

When authorities arrested Lonnie Franklin Jr., 58, last July, they discovered nearly 1,000 photographs and hundreds of hours of home videos showing women who were partly or completely nude. Since then, the police have been trying to identify the subjects to determine if they are alive and to learn how they came to be photographed by a man accused of sexually assaulting and killing 10 women.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the former city sanitation worker and LAPD garage attendant has been charged with 10 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and special circumstance allegations of multiple murders. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Authorities hope someone will recognize the women in the pictures and contact investigators. Anyone with knowledge of the case is urged to call 800-222-TIPS (8477).

Originally Posted by Writ-with-Hand

My own sex disgusts me at times.

That may be because you're doing it wrong.

If I could seek to learn from or emulate a man in his behaviors towards women it would probably be actor Blair Underwood. That is one smooth an suave guy.



A friend of mine in prison asked me to look up some information on this guy that was convicted of killing this 16 year old girl (white). I actually so the "Cold Case" TV episode on this title "The Boy and the Monster" a year or so ago. The basement she was kept in was filthy and that episode disturbed me enough that it has stayed in the back of my mind. But I googled info and sent it to him. I found this blog in which one person claims to have been the girls best friend. Note carefully all the men in her life - all monsters some lesser or greater level. These are the members of my sex.

Doris Ann McLeod murder 2/23/91 Milkwaukie, WI « Bonnie’s Blog of Crime

I also caught this episode of Cold Case files. It filled me with a sense of grief to know someone went through this. I am an avid ‘fan’ of crime shows/serial killers/etc, i’m involved in cases the way I can be, but rarely is there a case that provokes me to go around telling people about it. This case makes me sick, and I feel it should be remembered. She lived a horrible life, then it was ended in a very horrible way. And I have but one questio; why?

I was one of Dori’s room mates in the webster cantrell hall staley group home, and she was my best friend. I was also one of the people who testified against white at his first trial. Dori’s life was horrible, every male in her step family sexually assaulted her and her sister. Their mother chose her husband over the girls, and so they became “wards” of the state of illinois. It would have helped if in becoming a ward of the state, counseling was readily made available for us. Which never was. It also would have helped if Dori’s caseworker would have listened to her, and cared about her. She hated the placement where she was, and she wanted to be moved. She wanted to live with her sister, but the caseworker wouldn’t allow it. Yes she should always be remembered, and she always will, because i will never forget her.

The story to her murder can be found here and by scrolling down to: http://www.ngcrc.com/ngcrc/proffem2.htm

DORIS McLEOD 1974-1991: KILLED BY GANGSTER DISCIPLE JOSEPH WHITE

Originally Posted by Mermaid on the breakwater

That may be because you're doing it wrong.

LOL. Clever, Mer.

Writ-with-hand~

In your post on 12-16-2010 01:03, you refer that you "found a blog in which one person claims to be her best friend". That would be me. I don't claim to be, I am, I was and I will always be. Thank you for not forgetting her, as long as people are talking about her she will never be forgotten! Dori was smart, she could straight A's with barely a glance at a book. She was funny, loyal and forgiving. She wanted to be a lawyer and advocate for children's rights. She hated her mother and loved her at the same time, and while she was seperated from her sister she was still protective of her. Dori was a typical teenager, loved to shop and hang out with friends, and dreamed big. Do you know the reasoning behind the judge sentencing Joseph White to June 26, 2074? That is Dori's birthday and she would have been 100 years old. Dori was not Joseph's only victim, her friends who loved her, the adults that cared for us in the group home, her sister, her neices and nephews and my children, as well as Joseph White's son, we are all his victims. ~Doris "Dori" Ann Mcleod~Never Forgotten~

Originally Posted by mankrt

Writ-with-hand~

In your post on 12-16-2010 01:03, you refer that you "found a blog in which one person claims to be her best friend". That would be me. I don't claim to be, I am, I was and I will always be. Thank you for not forgetting her, as long as people are talking about her she will never be forgotten! Dori was smart, she could straight A's with barely a glance at a book. She was funny, loyal and forgiving. She wanted to be a lawyer and advocate for children's rights. She hated her mother and loved her at the same time, and while she was seperated from her sister she was still protective of her. Dori was a typical teenager, loved to shop and hang out with friends, and dreamed big. Do you know the reasoning behind the judge sentencing Joseph White to June 26, 2074? That is Dori's birthday and she would have been 100 years old. Dori was not Joseph's only victim, her friends who loved her, the adults that cared for us in the group home, her sister, her neices and nephews and my children, as well as Joseph White's son, we are all his victims. ~Doris "Dori" Ann Mcleod~Never Forgotten~

Wow.

I'm very sorry for what happened to your friend, and you as well, Melissa. I know my apology is not needed but I feel compelled to give it anyways.

I feel a bit emotional here typing. You two must have been very good friends and she must have left an impression on you. That is... that you say you will always remain her best friend.

I wish so many of us men weren't so screwed up, so cruel to some young woman in a vulnerable position. Then there is the racial factor to this that does not help bring any sense of pride.

Do you know if Dori ever had any missed opportunity to leave or escape? From this Joseph cat that is?

And how are you doing now?

[QUOTE=Writ-with-Hand;1410476]Wow.

I'm very sorry for what happened to your friend, and you as well, Melissa. I know my apology is not needed but I feel compelled to give it anyways.

I feel a bit emotional here typing. You two must have been very good friends and she must have left an impression on you. That is... that you say you will always remain her best friend.

I wish so many of us men weren't so screwed up, so cruel to some young woman in a vulnerable position. Then there is the racial factor to this that does not help bring any sense of pride.

Do you know if Dori ever had any missed opportunity to leave or escape? From this Joseph cat that is?

And how are you doing now?

Why do you take it upon yourself to apologize for all men? Men or women for that matter are the result of the atmosphere they live in. Dori did make an impression on me, her life is something I honor every day by living mine, and her death is something that seems strange-still. I do not know the specifics of Dori's time with Joseph, it is something that I have never wanted to know, and even though I have asked Detective Hughes some questions pertaining to the case, they have always protected me by giving me "enough, but not to much" if you understand that.
How am I doing now? Wonderful! I can't change the past, no matter how much I would love to. I live my life, love my husband and children, and am probably the most protective mother ever. My children know about Dori, about her life and some of the circumstances of her death.

Good to hear you are doing well and your life is filled with happiness, Melissa.

And I suppose I can understand not wanting to know "too much" about what happened to your friend Dori.

Peace.

How did you happen upon this site and thread by the way?

I do a search every couple of months to include Dori's name to see how many places her name is mentioned. The more times it is mentioned the better her name and memory are kept alive. Just curious, since I didn't sign my names on these posts, where did you find my name? I am assuming that you found it on the other page where you mentioned my post? Also, Do you have any direct contact with Jospeh White? You stated that a friend of yours asked you to get the information? Do you know why he wanted the information?

Perhaps this conversation would be better conducted by private messages.