However, those leads have dwindled over time, said Fairfield police chief Mike Dickey. A year ago, leads poured in by the dozens. Within the first few weeks, the police had interviewed 70 people based on phone tips.
Now, Dickey said, there have been less than five leads within the past 30 days — and he wishes for better.
“Other than her family, no one would like to resolve it more than we would. It just remains a mystery,” said Dickey, who pointed out that there is still a $50,000 reward for information relating to her case. Several officers in the Fairfield police department investigated the case in the beginning, but now, only one detective is still assigned, Dickey said.
A missing person’s report was filed after Markham did not show up for work Aug. 14 at David’s Bridal in Tri-County Mall. She left her car, her keys, her dog, and all personal belongings with the exception of her cell phone. Her cell phone was turned off around 12:45 a.m. on Aug 14, the day of her disappearance. The GPS device on her phone was also turned off.
What makes the Markham case so unusual is that she’s one of the few missing adults in Fairfield. Dickey said so far this year, there have been 87 missing persons reports in Fairfield. Most of these are just temporary, like an Alzheimer’s patient wandering off. So far, only 33 of these turned into an ongoing case, and the majority of those are juveniles. And many of these juveniles are repeat offenders.
But an adult going missing, especially this long, is much less common here, said the chief.
“It’s very rare. We’ve not had another case like that since I’ve been here for 13 years,” Dickey said.
In June, a lead appeared to materialize with the arrest of Gurpreet Kang, 26, who is a suspect in an unrelated sexual assault case in Oxford. Kang worked in a gas station near Markham’s residence. Karyn Winkler, the mother of Markham’s fiance, John Carter, said at the time she felt like this was the first substantial information in the case since Katelyn disappeared. However, by August, police had cleared Kang of any connection to the Markham case.
Krista Snyder, a friend of Markham’s who participates in a Facebook page devoted to Katelyn, said she’s “not quite sure” what to make of the fact that Markham has been missing for a year now.
“It’s crazy. It’s weird that someone can just disappear, and you do not hear anything from them for a year,” she said.
Dave Rader, a member of the group Texas Equusearch, recalls that national organization conducted two four-day searches for Markham involving dozens of searchers.
“It’s definitely frustrating” that the case has remained unsolved, Rader said. “A lot of people put their time and energy into searching, and for the family, it’s even more frustrating. To have this go on for a year without any kind of closure is terrible.”
The group stands ready to conduct another search if a new lead develops in the Markham case, he said. What’s more, the group has just set up local search divisions to improve response times. The southwest Ohio group, of which Rader is the coordinator, consists of about a dozen people.
One of the reasons a local division was formed is that missing persons cases seem to be becoming more frequent, Rader said. In addition to Markham, other open cases include Billy Disilvestro, 28, of Hamilton, who has been missing since February 2011 and Paige Johnson, 17, of Florence, Ky. She has been missing since Sept. 2010.
As of December 31, 2011, the National Crime Information Center contained 85,158 active missing person records. Juveniles under the age of 18 account for 37,371, or 44 percent of the records.
In Hamilton, there were 208 missing persons reports in 2010, 256 reports in 2011 and 2012 so far this year, said Officer Kristy Collins. Detective Rich Burkhardt said the majority of these were juvenile runaways.
“We usually find them pretty quickly by pinging their cell phone or using GPS,” he said. He said cases always remain active until the individuals are found, and “they don’t really grow cold.”
The situation was similar in Middletown, which saw 120 missing persons cases in 2010, 141 last year and 77 so far this year, according to police records. Out of those people, there were 20 missing adults in 200, 37 last year and 17 to date this year.
“Sometimes (adults) have just gone off somewhere on their own and don’t want to be found … at a certain point, there’s diminishing returns and not much happening,” said Maj. Mark Hoffman of the Middletown police.
Calls and messages to Markham and Carter’s families were not returned. At this time, no new vigils or remembrances are planned, but that doesn’t mean Markham isn’t on the minds of people who have been following her case.
Dianne Smith of Hamilton, a member of Facebook groups devoted to Markham, said “I know we are all disappointed because now it is coming up on a year and we have no idea what has happened to Katelyn …. We have not forgot about Katelyn, we will be here for as long as it takes to bring her home.”
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