Overview of project; Classmates.com

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Classmates.com

Melanie does not have computer access at her home, and so is not very familiar with the Internet and the resources available on it. That is why she needs someone to help her with this search.

I started my search at Classmates.com, where I set up an account for Melanie. And lo and behold, there is a possibility I may have already found Jennifer! I clicked on Classmates.com's "search" tab and did a basic search, which consisted of Jennifer's first and last names. Several hits came up for her name, but only one of them was from Florida--a graduate of Cape Coral Christian High School in Cape Coral, Florida. Her graduation year, 2001, matches the year Melanie's daughter would have graduated. Well, as Jennifer's birthday is in November, there is a chance she could have graduated in 2000 also.

I called up Melanie and got her voice mail. I am waiting for her to get back to me and tell me how she wants me to proceed--eg, does she want me to contact Jennifer pretending to be Melanie (with Melanie dictating the note she wants me to write)?; does she want to type out the e-mail herself?; what does she want me to say to Jennifer?, etc. Of course, we still have to ascertain that this person is her daughter.

In order to send an e-mail to Jennifer I will have to sign up for an upgrade at Classmates.com. You can post and view information for free, but in order to correspond with people you have to pay. It costs $5 per month for three months, and less than that per month for longer periods of time.

Anyway, that is the update for now. I am excited about this promising find.
Posted by Anne M. at 5:06 PM 0 comments

Overview of Project

For my user topic, I am going to help an acquaintance, Melanie, locate her daughter, Jennifer. Jennifer was kidnapped by her father (Melanie’s ex-husband), Sam, in 1985, when Jennifer was two years old.

Background: At the time she was kidnapped, Melanie and Sam were estranged, but Sam had temporary custody. Under the terms of temporary custody, Sam was not supposed to move out of state with Jennifer. However, he moved with Jennifer to Tampa, Florida, where his mother and other relatives were living.

Melanie’s sister, Brenda, was married to a relative of Sam, and has been in touch with some of Sam’s relatives. So, she has obtained some information about Jennifer through the grapevine, although she has not obtained her contact information. Jennifer is apparently still living in the Tampa area.

Resources already tried: Melanie has tried calling 411 for information, but her daughter is apparently not listed.

Goals: My goal is to locate Jennifer, or, if not locate her, find resources that Melanie can check periodically to try to find her. I will also probably look into some of the state laws regarding kidnapping by an ex-spouse as part of my research.

Format: At first I was going to use a paper format, but I now feel a blog would work best. So, here it is.
Posted by Anne M. at 4:07 PM 0 comments
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