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Page A 10 BC SUNDAY INTEIUGENCER/MONTGOMERY COUNTY RECORD September 13 19871,280 from Bucks CountyMissing persons’ reports riseBy Al ChristCoifems NewspapersMissing persons are commonplace today Just look at the sta tisticsExactly 1,280 missing persons were reported last year m Bucks County, approximately 89 per cent of whom were juveniles like 14-year old Tracy Byrd, of Bensa lem She remains missing after four years On March 8, 1983, Tracy was dropped off at Bensalem High School by her mother's boy friend, Paul Greenwald Tracy, who had been suspended and hadnrt told her mother, then unsuccessfully tned to get other friends to join her by skipping classes, since she wasn’t allowed m the school Tracy apparently ran away that afternoon, leaving rumors circulating that she was pregnant In October 1983, Jean L Byrd, Tracy's mother, disappeared Her body later was found in a Dela ware forest Greenwald pleaded guilty to her murder, but no connection could be made to Tracy's disap pearance On the day of his sen fencing, Greenwald was found dead in lus cell from an overdose of medication According to Bensalem police Detective Terry Lachman, one of the few people who believes Tra cy is still alive, believes Tracy may still be in the area Lachman said recently many calls have come in from people who went to school with her, saying they have seen her m places such as Space Port in the Oxford Valley Mall and in the Neshammy Mall “The problem ls that it seems everybody has a double, Lach man said Some people have con fronted this possible look alike, only to have her run away from them, Lachman said On Lachman's desk lay a stack, about 2 inches thick, of papers Each one represented an uniden tified body that may possibly be Tracy If she is still alive, Lach man urges her to come forward Since she would have recently turned 18, Lachman cannot tell her where to Uve All he can do is wrap up the case and confirm his suspicions that she is alive Although 94 3 percent of 1985 missing person cases and 99 7 percent of 1986 cases were can celed, statistics this year to Aug 1 showed 2,312 open missing per son cases in Pennsylvania Ofthose, 1,925 were juveniles On Dec 13, 1985, two months after the creation of the Missing Persons Unit of the Pennsylvania State Police, Allen Briscoe, 16, of 7701 Lindbergh Blvd, Philadelphia, became another statistic to the department Nearly two yeais after going through the standard routine of notifying police, stuiching the city, hanging posteis and placing an advertisement in a newspaper, Briscoe's mother Joanne, is find mg it hard to believe her son is still alive She said that despite dwindling chances of ever seeing her son again, she finds herself staring at every boy she sees, hoping one day to run into Allen “Every kid I see I think, Ts this him7’ she said “I just hope none of these kids says, 'What's with you, lady7'Most juveniles are runaways,but Briscoe argues her son was not“I believe something happened to him, or he was abducted for the simple reason that I had giv en him $50 His money was at home and his clothes were at home/' she said “One man told me, ’Well, he’s 16 years old and he’s a well-built kid Nobody could force him into a car ’Hope is waning for the parents of Lisa Gehris, then 18, of Daws Avenue, Norristown, who disap peared on the way to meet her boyfriend at a local arcade on Jan 25, 1984 Suzanne Gehns waited 24 hours after her daughter's disappearance before pan ickmg and calling police The police, however, suggested she wait a couple more days “She had run away before when she was a little younger, so they (the police) just assumed that she had run away again, Gehns said Dunng April 1984, Gehris was watching television when she saw a torso had washed up on a Maryland beach The torso had no head, arms or legs Gehns panicked “We were suspic’ous of that, because we don't know what hap pened to her, she said “We got m touch with the state police in Maryland, and they told us to do a wiping of her floor for pubic hairs After analyzing the initial wip ing, a crime lab came up to do a thorough wiping themselves “We had blood tests taken,said Gehris “I don't know what the odds ate, but the enzymes in my husband's blood, the way they described it, matched the torso’s And due to the time of the disappearance and the time that they found the torso, they (the FBI) were pretty convinced it was her Gehris and her husband, Rich ard, pray the body was not hers, and someday she will break away from her captor to call home A phone call to the Gehns house when no one is home brings a recorded message from Mrs Gehris“Hello, this is Lisa's motherWe will accept ail collect callsI'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave your message at the tone, I will get back to you Lisa, we love you If you have information on a missing person, you can contact Children's Rights of Pa Inc at437-2971\ or the Missing Persons Unit of the state police at (717) 783 5524
Newspaper Details
Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Sun, Sep 13, 1987
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Laura L.
MI, USA 13 Feb 2021
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