SAMANTHA BOGDAN - 15 yo (2009) - Martinton IL

A 15-year-old girl's disappearance is being investigated by the Iroquois County Sheriff's Department.
The girl, Samantha L. Bogdan, has been missing since Friday, according
to Lieutenant Randy Eimen. The sheriff's department has been working
since then on the case.

"We've had two guys working on this since Friday," he said.

Yesterday
they were able to get passwords to Bogdan's computer and bank accounts.
He said they have checked her Myspace, Facebook and other personal
sites of hers, as well as her bank account.

"There has been no activity," he said. He said there also were no clues as to her whereabouts.

"Her
(adoptive) mother (in Martinton) reported her missing," he said. He
said the police have had contacted her natural mother in North
Carolina. There were no leads.

He said this has not been put out
as an Amber Alert because "We can't confirm she was taken against her
will." Her information has been listed on different systems, he said.

The
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website has her
information as a white female, 110 pounds and 5'4" tall. Her hair color
is brown and her eye color is brown. She is listed as an "endangered
runaway". It says she may still be in the local area or have gone out
of state. She was last known to be carrying a black cloth bag and a
black/white stripe zebra patterned purse/bag. She has a scar on her
left hand.

Family and friends of a 15-year-old Martinton teen should have been
celebrating her sweet sixteen birthday, but instead are asking for help
to find the girl, who left her family's home Friday and hasn't been
heard from since.


Samantha "Sami" Bogdan is 5-feet 4-inches tall, 119 pounds
with brown-tinted hair. Her 16th birthday party was planned for next
Tuesday. But on Monday night, friends were out distributing fliers
asking for information about Bogdan's disappearance.


Bogdan has been working at McDonald's in Watseka, and has a
$400 paycheck waiting to be picked up. It's clear she wasn't trying to
amass a large sum of money for her trip.


Anyone with information, should contact the Iroquois County Sheriff's Police at (815) 432-6992.

It was a traditional rite of passage that Amanda Slaughter was looking
forward to: Taking her daughter to buy a Sweet 16 dress next week.


Now Slaughter, of Martinton, is appealing for help to find her
15-year-old daughter, Samantha Bogdan. She last saw Sami, as friends
and family members call her, at 11:30 p.m. Thursday when she went to
bed.


Slaughter and her boyfriend awoke Friday morning to a letter
from Sami informing them that she wasn't happy, she was leaving, and
they were not to look for her.


Sami's friends, boyfriend and family haven't heard from her in six days. It is a mother's nightmare.


"I want to know she's safe," Slaughter told The Daily Journal
Tuesday night. "I want to know she's not being hurt. I want to know
she's not being held against her will."

The boyfriend of a 15-year-old Martinton girl reported missing last
week, and his mother, were arrested Thursday after they allegedly hid
her out in their home.

Kyle Duits, 19, of 603 Union St., Crescent City,
was arrested late Thursday morning and charged with one count of
criminal sexual abuse and one count of harboring a runaway. His mother,
Joanne M. Duits, 40, also of 603 Union St., Crescent City, was arrested
late Thursday morning and charged with one count of harboring a
runaway, Iroquois County Sheriff's Lt. Randy Eimen said.

Their arrests Thursday came after investigators found Samantha "Sami"
Bogdan, 15, of Martinton, in the Duits home Wednesday. Bogdan was
reported missing by her mother on July 3, when she and her boyfriend
found a note the teen had left telling the family she had run away, was
not happy at home and they should not look for her.

"Information we got (Wednesday) was they had this planned for several
days," Eimen said. "They had packed clothes and personal items (knowing
she would leave home at 2 a.m. July 3). He's going to school in Indiana
(in August) and then she would be going with him. Even more disturbing
than that was that Kyle made daily visits to her mother to console
her."

Joanne Duits made daily telephone calls to Amanda Slaughter, Bogdan's
mother, expressing sympathy and saying she couldn't imagine what
Slaughter was going through, Eimen said.

"And the runaway was sitting in her house," he said.

Kyle Duits is in the Iroquois County Jail on $15,000 bond, with his mother jailed on $10,000 bond, Eimen said.

A message was left Thursday for Slaughter, but she was unavailable immediately for comment.

A message was left for Iroquois County State's Attorney James Devine, but he was unavailable for comment immediately Thursday.

A Crescent City woman, accused of hiding a runaway Martinton girl in
July, had her criminal case continued Tuesday in Iroquois County
Circuit Court.


Joanne M. Duits, 40, was arrested July 9 and charged with one count of harboring a runaway.


Iroquois County Sheriff's investigators found Samantha "Sami" Bogdan, 16, of Martinton, in the Duits home July 8.


Associate Judge James Kinzer on Tuesday continued her case
until 9:30 a.m. Sept. 22 to allow her defense attorney, Dale Strough,
to review the case and discuss a possible plea agreement with
prosecutors.


Duits' son, Kyle M. Duits, 19, of Crescent City, also was
arrested July 9 and is charged with one count of criminal sexual abuse
and one count of harboring a runaway. Their arrests came after
investigators said they allegedly hid Bogdan in their home, while
seeming to offer comfort to the girl's mother while she desperately
searched for her daughter.


Kyle Duits' next hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. today.

Amanda Slaughter was so distraught by her daughter Samantha Bogdan's
disappearance last summer that she drove to the cemetery where her own
father is buried, fearing her daughter was dead and she would have to
bury her next to him.


"There is nothing more horrifying than the thought that your child is
dead and has been in the hands of someone harming them," Slaughter said.


Bogdan, now 16, was found safe five days after she was reported missing.
She had been in the Crescent City home of her 19-year-old boyfriend and
his mother, Kyle and Joanne Duits. Both were found guilty of harboring a
runaway. Kyle was sentenced to 90 days in the Iroquois County Jail, and
Duits, sentenced to 20 weekends, began serving her time in the county
jail Friday.


Slaughter said she and Bogdan are rebuilding their relationship, and
their family is working toward being able to trust Bogdan again. One of
the ways they are doing that is with a nonprofit foundation Slaughter
wants to create for runaway teens and their parents, called Healing
Hearts. Her idea is to provide a safe place for teens if they run away
and to offer services to parents and families searching for their
children.


"We need a haven, not only for teens, but a haven for parents,"
Slaughter said. "I knew it was time to do something positive. It's long
overdue for this area."