CHARLOTTE ANNA MOLINARI - 15 yo - Santa Rosa CA

Sonoma County sheriff's deputies are searching Annadel State Park
from a helicopter today for signs of a 15-year-old Santa Rosa girl
missing since the weekend.




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Charlotte Anna Molinari
COURTESY PHOTO

Charlotte Anna Molinari, a student at Sonoma Academy, told her
father she was going for a bike ride at about 9:45 a.m. Saturday when
she left her home, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Lisa Banayat said.
Molinari apparently indicated she may head to Spring Lake, Banayat said. She
didn't return home and her father called police at about 9 p.m., Banayat said.
Molinari may suffer from depression, she said.
Molinari was described as a 5-foot-9 and 150-pound white female with brown curly hair and brown eyes.
She was wearing a dark blue knee-length coat and a green backpack. She also
had a ukulele and a laptop and rode a green mountain bike, Banayat said.
Detectives uncovered unspecified information late Wednesday that Molinari may have headed into Annadel, police officials said.
The sheriff's volunteer search and rescue team were on alert Thursday
should the helicopter find sign of the girl, officials said.
Anyone with information about the case can call Det. Jeneane Kucker at 543-3595 or the dispatch unit at 528-5222.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120419/ARTICLES/120419448/1033/news?Title=Sheriff-s-helicopter-searching-Annadel-for-missing-Santa-Rosa-teen

Searchers found the body of missing Santa Rosa teen Charlotte Ann
Molinari in Annadel State Park on Friday, ending a two-day search for
the Sonoma Academy sophomore who was last seen a week ago.
She
appears to have committed suicide by hanging, Santa Rosa Police Lt.
Steve Bair said. Her body was discovered about 5:30 p.m. between Canyon
Trail and Skycrest Way, a street just outside the park, he said.
The Sonoma County Coroner's Office will conduct an autopsy Monday, Bair said.
It
was a tragic discovery but not unexpected, he said. “You always hope
for the best, but this is always in the back of your mind,” Bair said.
“With the information we had, we knew this was a definite possibility.”
The location was in a steep wooded area about 75 yards from a park trail, not far from Skycrest Way, he said.
Her family was notified before police released the information that her body had been found, Bair said.
Police
said Thursday there were indications the 15-year-old Santa Rosa girl
had been contemplating suicide when she did a Google search for the
route to Annadel last Saturday, about an hour before she left the west
Santa Rosa apartment she shared with her father.
Molinari's father
found her journal Wednesday night and an entry several weeks old in
which she detailed her sorrow over a romantic rejection and discussed
taking her own life.
Police and the girl's parents, John Molinari
and his former wife, Sebastopol resident Colleen Fernald, said they
hoped she would be found unharmed, though Fernald said it was hard not
to “fear the worst.”
John Molinari said he was clinging to hope
that police would find a useful lead among the many calls from people
who thought they may have seen the ukulele-toting teen with dark curly
hair.
“She obviously is a little confused and depressed, and
that's why we just want to get her back safe and sound and get her some
help,” John Molinari said.
The girl had not been feeling well for
some weeks when she argued with her father about wanting to ride her
bike from their apartment near Coddingtown Mall to Annadel on the
morning of April 14, he said.
He had suggested they instead find
something fun to do together, but she slipped out of the house around
9:45 a.m. when he was upstairs getting dressed.
When he realized she was gone, he drove around the neighborhood and soon called family and friends in case someone had seen her.
“It's been kind of a nightmare ever since,” he said.
John
Molinari said he noticed that she had packed a backpack, though he
didn't know what was inside and she wouldn't tell him. She also had her
laptop computer and a ukulele.
He reported his daughter missing that night.
But
amid the dozens of missing, mostly runaway teens reported monthly to
police, her case did not stand out until Wednesday, when her father
found the journal and alerted police, Bair said.
Police obtained
court orders to search her cellphone, email and Internet records, Bair
said. At some point, John Molinari was able to access the voicemail on
her cellphone and could tell that she had not picked up any of her
messages, he said.
Police also talked to the former Sonoma Academy
student Charlotte Molinari had mentioned in her journal. He suggested
the journal entry was likely made in late March, though it was dated
Feb. 31, 2012 — a non-existent date, Bair said.
On Thursday
morning, police learned she had Googled the route from her apartment to
the Veterans Memorial Trail entrance to Annadel in the Annadel Heights
neighborhood, Bair said.
“That's why we start concentrating our
searches up here in Annadel,” Bair said. “It was the most most recent
information and the best place to start.”
The Sonoma County Search
and Rescue team mobilized for a second day early Friday, aided by
several search dogs from the California Rescue Association, the Sonoma
County sheriff's helicopter and horseback riders who volunteered to
help.
Throughout the day Friday, the sheriff's Henry 1 helicopter
shuttled two-person search-and-rescue teams, equipped with GPS units, to
various locations in the park.
While joggers, walkers and
cyclists enjoyed the warm weather and soft breezes, the sheriff's
helicopter cut through the air just above the trees, landing in an open
grassy field next to a Spring Lake parking lot for horse trailers, where
a command post was set up. The Red Cross provided food and refreshments
for the search parties.
Bair said most of the park had been covered between search teams and the hundreds of people who use it each day.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120420/ARTICLES/120429998/1350?template=printart