I first saw the reports at Philly Future, which led me to All Spin Zone, which led me to the confirmation of the sad news that her body was found this morning just outside Philadelphia. I can never read a story like this without wondering why.
Amen.
I was quoted in a Wired piece that just started running this morning, and now it seems a bunch of you are seeing this blog for the first time. Though I’m not exactly sure what you’re seeking, I wanted to synopsize some other hits throughout the Philly blogging community that offer some really useful background on the Latoyia Figueroa case that was part of the focus of the Wired article.
If you followed the Wired link to this page, you may want some more background on Latoyia’s situation. Hopefully this gives some of you a bit more of a trail to follow, should you choose to…
Politics Philly makes a fine point, amid the Latoyia Figueroa story, that there are many other missing Philly folks—and some of them are even listed on the press release page of the Philly P.D.’s website.
Often the biggest obstacle to finding missing people is a lack of awareness on the part of the public. Go see if there’s anyone you might have seen lately.
The second half of this week flew by at an alarming pace. Blog-wise, that had mostly to do with the efforts to bring the Latoyia Figueroa story to the forefront, or at least make it visible. The efforts seem to be working, but a few by-products with which I have grown weary have tumbled along on the coattails of that effort.
One is the raging argument about how the media covers different kinds of missing persons. This argument, while it is a legitimate one to have, has overshadowed the intent of all this activity. Whereas it began in the vein of raising awareness, it has evolved in many circles into an ever-so-subtle marginalization of Latoyia Figueroa and her family’s plight.
A fellow Philly blogger, Steve Reynolds (“The Spin Dentist” at AllSpinZone.com), was a guest on Tucker Carlson’s latest vehicle at MSNBC this past Thursday evening. He was relatively subdued and respectful, but Carlson asserted more than once that the “Help Find Latoyia” blogswarm was made up of left-wing bloggers. Given Philadelphia’s average political demographic, that assertion is bound to be somewhere close to the truth, and Steve tends liberal as well, but anyone familiar with his ASZ content knows he wasn’t in political mode while talking to Mr. Carlson. Among the people leading this swarm, politics was never the driving force. Raising awareness of a missing person who, up until a few days ago, hadn’t received much coverage at all, even here in her hometown area—that’s what this was always supposed to be about.
By now, the Google News hits on Latoyia Figueroa are at least noticeable, but in the wee hours last night, Matt synopsized some of the things that can be done to continue to help the situation. He includes running the ad you see on the right—anything to keep the face available to those who haven’t seen yet. He also mentions Richard’s drive to raise money for the reward fund. Just in case you were looking for some ways to pitch in…
Richard’s effort to raise the level of awareness of the Latoyia Figueroa story has been paying some dividends. Not only has the reward for info been rising, but that all-too-short tail end segment on Inside Politics (the one about blogs) featured some useful details on what the blogosphere’s been doing to help find Latoyia (transcript here—if you’re interested, it’s toward the end).
Rumor has it that Tucker Carlson will be doing something with the story on his show tonight (which will be the first reason I’ve ever had to show an interest in Tucker Carlson…)—I think he comes on at 9 p.m. eastern.
Latoyia Figueroa, a pregnant Philadelphia woman with a 7-year-old daughter at home, has been missing for over a week now. Sadly, her story apparently doesn’t have the hook to draw national media attention, so Philly area bloggers have been called upon to bring the story as much attention as possible. The call came from Richard at All Spin Zone, who also suggests writing an email to CNN’s Nancy Grace (she who has been giving exhaustive coverage to the Natalee Holloway story on her nightly show).
If you’re a Philly area blogger, please join the effort to give Latoyia as much face time as possible. Even sites with limited readership can make a difference just by getting her face seen by one or two more people who might have an idea how to find her. Thank you.
UPDATE: CNN.com finally has a story on Latoyia. Let’s hope other media pick up on it as well.
