Detective: Missing person's cases resolve themselves

The Carson City Sheriff's Department recorded about 200 missing persons reports in the last year.

In all, 164 were runaways, 28 missing adults and eight missing juveniles.

All of those cases are closed, said detective Sgt. Bob White of the Carson City Sheriff's Department.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time they're found within hours and it's a miscommunication with family members," he said.

But, White admits, there is no miscommunication in the case of Bertha Anguiano, missing since her 3-year-old son, Andrew, was found with blood on his clothing Nov. 10 in the parking lot of the Dayton Smith's, some 15 miles from his Carson City home.

The boy told police his mother was dead.

Authorities are looking for Anguiano and the man they believe she may have been having an affair with, Juan Carlos Tellez, 36.

White said the Aguiano case is top priority for the department.

Investigators are continuing to work on the phone tips they've received in the case, as well as the countless directions in which interviews have taken them.

Sheriff Kenny Furlong declined to comment on whether he's received the results of a blood analysis on Andrew's clothing.

As with any case, White said, Anguiano's information is listed in NCIC, a national computer database available to all law enforcement agencies.

Unlike on television police dramas, the department's policy on missing persons reports is to immediately list their information on the NCIC.

"We don't wait 24 hours," he said. "It doesn't matter how long they're missing, we're going to enter them into the computer."

In 1998 Jerry Hobson Jr.'s information went immediately into the database. Still his father Jerry Hobson Sr., waited two months to find out what happened when his son went missing Jan. 24,1998. Although people told the elder Hobson his boy hitchhiked to Sacramento to look for work, he didn't believe them, he said.

An anonymous call to Hobson's Johnson Lane home directed authorities to look for Hobson Jr.'s, remains on Goni Canyon Road. A search located the remains in a ravine 2 miles up a dirt road. Stepbrothers Roy Thrasher and Danny Harper were sentenced to life in prison for his murder.

Hobson Sr. said the news of Anguiano's disappearance reminds him of the pain he endured while waiting for word on his son's whereabouts.

"It can't be good," he said. "We've been kind of worried about her being gone this long."

Other notable missing person cases:

n Paul Watkins: Watkins, 29, disappeared Feb. 6, 2002. Three weeks later, his 2001 Honda Civic was found with a flat tire in the Sunrise Pass area of the Pinenut Mountains east of Johnson Lane. On May 16, 2003, skeletal remains discovered only 1,200 yards from where the disabled car had been found were identified as Watkins. Watkins suffered from schizophrenia and it's believed he got lost in the desert when the tire went flat.

n Michael Roberts: Roberts left his Kingsley Drive home May 24 saying he was going to the store. On June 12, a Division of Forestry worker found Robert's car 150 feet down a ravine on Highway 28. His body was found lying near the wreckage.

n Steven Dowden, 53: He disappeared Dec. 13, 2002, when he walked into the Desolation Wilderness with only a backpack. He had hailed a cab from Stateline and directed the driver to drop him off at Eagle Falls trailhead. Hikers found his remains in September. It's believe he died of hypothermia.

n Margaret Lorette, 59, of Calaveras County was reported missing Dec. 6 after her car was found on the side of the road Dec. 1, 2001. Her remains were found in April a quarter mile from Spooner Summit by a rest area near the Douglas County line. It's believed she committed suicide.

n Diane Clinton, 36, was last seen by her mother Sept. 21, 2000. Her remains were found June 5, 2001, in the White Sage Flats region of Silver Springs.