KORTNE CIERA STOUFFER-21 yo-Palmyra PA

Authorities searching for missing 21-year-old Pennsylvania woman

08/09/2012


Authorities are searching for a missing 21-year-old Pennsylvania
woman who vanished after partying with friends at a local nightclub.


Kortne Ciera Stouffer, of Palmyra, Pa., was last seen around 3:45
a.m. at her apartment July 29, after returning from a night of dancing
at the Hardware Bar in downtown Harrisburg.


When police later searched the young woman's home they found the door
locked and her purse, cellphone and dog still inside, according to
local reports.


"Kortne is very close to her family and rarely goes a day without
talking to numerous immediate family members who live close by," the
family's attorney, Karl Rominger, said in a statement. "Her sudden
disappearance is completely out of character and with every day that
passes, the family is becoming more concerned."


The Stouffer family is offering a $22,500 reward for any information leading to their daughter.

"We're really thankful to the family the friends, strangers,
everybody who came out to help look for Kortne," her mother, Wendy
Stouffer, told WHPTV.com. "Everybody has been so supportive and amazing
and we just didn't realize how many friends and family and everybody and
everybody who loves us and Kortne and wants to bring her home."


Stouffer, who is 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 115 pounds, has
long blonde hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing brightly
colored shorts and a yellow tank top. She also has several tattoos,
including "one love" on her right bicep, stars on her left foot and
flowers with a pistol on her left hip.


Anyone with information on her whereabouts is being urged to call authorities at 717-838-8189 or 717-744-TIPS.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/09/authorities-call-disappearance-21-year-old-pennsylvania-woman-suspicious/#ixzz23Fwb7ztK

Palmyra woman's disappearance investigated as 'kidnapping'

Posted: Aug 13, 2012 10:55 AM CDT
Updated: Aug 13, 2012 1:39 PM CDT
By Myles Snyder

PALMYRA, Pa. (WHTM) -Authorities are treating the two-week-old disappearance of a Palmyra woman as a possible abduction, abc27 News has learned.

According to the first page of a search warrant issued in the case last week, "kidnapping" and "unlawful restraint" are the violations under which investigators looked through Kortne Stouffer's apartment and car.

The remainder of the search warrant has been sealed.

Lebanon County District Attorney Dave Arnold told abc27 News the case is being investigated as a kidnapping due to the "suspicious circumstances" surrounding the case. He could not comment further.

Stouffer was last seen at the apartment during the early hours of July 29. According to her parents, police investigated two disturbance calls just before the 21-year-old went missing.

Stouffer's parents told abc27 News last week that a friend stayed at the apartment after Stouffer and others returned from a night of dancing in Harrisburg.

Police had initially reported that the last person to see Stouffer was a neighbor, but her parents said she and a male friend came back to the apartment shortly after 3 a.m.

Neighbors called police twice that morning, according to Stouffer's parents. The first complaint was over Stouffer's dog. Police spoke with Stouffer and left, but returned later for a complaint of "banging and stomping." During the second visit, Stouffer's parents said the officers left after no one answered the door.

Stouffer's father says he spoke with the male friend, who claims he and Stouffer went to sleep and he awoke in the morning to find Stouffer gone; leaving behind her car keys, cell phone, and her shoes.

Her parents say they know the friend well and are on good terms. Their daughter has known the man for about two years and her mother and father are aware of no problems between the two.

The Stouffers are offering a reward that is now more than $25,000. Anyone with information is asked to call Palmyra police at 838-8188.

http://www.abc27.com/story/19263796/palmyras-womans-disappearance-investigated-as-kidnapping

New details emerge on the last people to see, go out with Kortne Stouffer

Reported by: Annie McCormick
Contributor: Nate Wardle
Published: 8/17 4:53 pm
Updated: 8/17 7:20 pm

Lebanon County Investigators issued a second search warrant in the Kortne Stouffer case.

CBS 21 News has learned police and detectives searched a car and home last Friday, we exclusively obtained the top copy of the search warrant which the DA is keeping sealed.

The search warrant revolves around two men who Kortne got a ride with from Harrisburg back to Palmyra.

We want to make clear, the DA says they are not people of interest or suspects.

Investigators filed the search warrant Thursday August 9 for the 2004 Acura used by Milton Rodriguez Jr. The reason listed is the potential unlawful restraint pertaining to the disappearance of Kortne Stouffer.

Rodriguez's father also allowed police to search his home. Rodriguez and best friend Cody Pruett drove from downtown Harrisburg in that same Acura with Kortne Stouffer early Sunday July 29th.

“My son, he's spoken to officers four, five days in a row,” stated Milton Rodriguez Sr., father of Milt. According to Rodriguez's dad, Pruett and Stouffer dropped Rodriguez off around 2 a.m.

Pruett then spent the night at Stouffer's Palmyra apartment a few blocks from the Rodriguez home.

Just an hour later, a disturbance brought Palmyra Police to Kortne's twice. The first time police made contact, the second time they did not.

Pruett says he woke up Sunday morning and Kortne was gone, he headed back to the rodriguez home.

Since then Rodriguez's dad says Pruett has taken a polygraph, allowed police to search him for any signs of a struggle and sources say he's offered his DNA.

Milton Sr. says his son has an alibi and he doesn’t think either are capable of hurting someone.

“I know Cody and I know my son you would see something different a smoking pattern, or eating pattern if they had anything in this,” Rodriguez Sr. told us. “You’d see something different.”

http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story/New-details-emerge-on-the-last-people-to-see-go/bAX_BcURmEiXYJ72b7K8LA.cspx

Man says police searched his car following Kortne Stouffer disappearance

Posted: Aug 17, 2012 10:47 PM CDT
Updated: Aug 20, 2012 5:06 AM CDT
By Dan Carrigan

PALMYRA, Pa. (WHTM) -

Last week Milton Rodriguez said authorities showed up to his Palmyra home with a search warrant. The warrant, Rodriguez said, was for his car.

"They had a search warrant to go through my car and we left them search the house," Rodriguez said.

He said they took the car for several days to search it. The vehicle is a gold 2004 Acura TL.

Rodriguez said Kortne Stouffer was in the four door sedan hours before she disappeared.

The night of the 28th Rodriguez told abc27 he and some friends were at the Gas Station Pub in Hummelstown. He said Stouffer was there and asked if she could go with them to downtown Harrisburg.

"She asked is she could get a ride with us downtown and I said, 'yeah sure you can come with us downtown'," Rodriguez said.

He said he let a friend drive the group. At one point they were in the Harrisburg Hardware Bar and he saw Stouffer get into a verbal altercation with another woman.

"I don't know if she knew her but they were back and forth and said we had to go so we just left," he recalled.

Rodriguez said bouncers at the bar asked Stouffer to leave so she and the rest of the group left the bar.

Then, according to Rodriguez, his friend drove back to Palmyra early Sunday morning and dropped him off at his house a few blocks away from Stouffer's apartment.

That was the last time he said he saw the now missing 21-year-old, still in the car with others. He said he went inside his house and fell asleep.

"If I knew anything about where Kortne was, I would tell you," he said.

Rodriguez said he was never a suspect and has been working with authorities.

Kortne Stouffer was last seen in her Palmyra apartment July 29th. A male friend who stayed the night was possibly the last person to see her, Rodriguez said. He also said that friend was the one driving his car.

Calls to Lebanon County officials regarding the possible search warrant and investigation was not returned.

http://www.abc27.com/story/19309331/man-says-police-searched-his-car-following-kortne-stouffer-disappearance

Search for Kortne Stouffer enters its fourth week

Reported by: Jesse Knutson
Contributor: Nate Wardle
Published: 8/20 4:52 pm
Updated: 8/20 10:26 pm

The search for a missing Palmyra woman has entered into its fourth week, and now businesses are doing everything they can to assist police and raise money for the search.

It's been over three weeks since Kortne Stouffer disappeared on Sunday, July 29, and since then businesses have been doing everything they can to help police and help raise money for the ‘Bring Kortne Home’ fund.

Last Friday, Palmyra Police went to local businesses asking if they had surveillance footage from the night Kortne went missing.

Most businesses in the area don't have cameras, but Miller Auto does. The only problem is that police didn't ask for the tape until last Friday, the day after the tape from July 29 was deleted.

So far over $31,000 has been raised toward the ‘Bring Kortne Home’ fund, with local residents and businesses chipping in.

Mazzocca's Place in Palmyra began making Kortne Stouffer Peace Pies last Wednesday, charging $10 and giving half to the fund.

Mazzocca's says they'll keep selling the pizzas until Kortne is found.

http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story/Search-for-Kortne-Stouffer-enters-its-fourth-week/le6QqK-rpk6brsQedR-s7A.cspx

Kortne Stouffer Missing: Milton Rodriguez, Jr., Cody Pruett Questioned About Disappeared Woman

Posted: 08/21/2012 1:04 pm
Updated: 08/21/2012 1:07 pm

Police investigators interrogated two of the last people to see a missing Pennsylvania woman just hours before she disappeared.

As part of the widening search for 21-year-old Kortne Stouffer, Lebanon County officials issued a search warrant for the car of one of her companions. She vanished on July 29 after a night out in Harrisburg ended in an argument with her downstairs neighbor.

The two individuals questioned -- Milton Rodriguez, Jr. and Cody Pruett -- gave Stouffer a ride home on the night that she went missing. The group dropped Rodriguez off at his home around 2 a.m. before Pruett and Stouffer continued to her apartment in Palmyra. The two men are among the last people to see Stouffer before she vanished, according to a copy of a search warrant obtained by WHP-TV Friday.

The two men are not considered people of interest or suspects in the investigation, the district attorney's office has said.

Investigators searched Rodriguez's 2004 Acura as well as the home of Rodriguez's father.

Police responded to a pair of noise complaints from Stouffer's apartment building on the night she disappeared. At approximately 3:15 a.m., police arrived following an argument between Stouffer and another building tenant. About an hour later, authorities returned, only to find the building quiet.

As the search for Stouffer enters its fourth week, the missing woman's family continues to struggle with her absence.

"It’s hard to be happy-go-lucky when one of your babies is not around and you have no idea what’s she been through or who might have her," Scott Stouffer, Kortne's father, told The Patriot News. "How are they treating her? Is she eating and drinking water? The reality is that we don’t know if she’s dead or alive. But nobody wants to think that we may never see her again."

Stouffer is five feet eight inches tall and weighs 115 pounds. She has green eyes and blonde hair worn in dreadlocks. She has a "One Love" tattoo on her right bicep, a star tattoo on her left foot and a flower and pistol tattoo on her left hip. Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts is encouraged to contact the Palmyra Borough Police Department at (717) 838-8188 or (717) 838-8189.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/kortne-stouffer-milton-rodriguez-cody-pruett_n_1818359.html

PALMYRA — Scott Stouffer has received dozens of calls from people claiming to have information about his daughter.
One told of seeing her alive. In a cage.
The person described a spot along Swatara Creek. It was near where another person described seeing her walking along the road.

View full sizeKortne StoufferStouffer went.
“How
can I go to bed at night if I know that I heard something that day and I
didn’t follow up on it, as ridiculous as it possibly could be?” he said
in an interview this week.
Kortne Stouffer of Palmyra disappeared 28 days ago after a night out in Harrisburg.
Her
father, friends and relatives have scoured many spots in search of the
21-year-old or clues to her disappearance. Stouffer has questioned
friends and neighbors who were around Kortne in the hours before she
seemingly vanished from her West Main Street apartment around 4 a.m.
July 29.
Police, who have executed several search warrants, have named no suspects and are releasing little information.
Stouffer, however, said his own efforts have revealed she disappeared amid volatile circumstances.

Stouffer said his daughter lived with her boyfriend who was on house
arrest and probation for driving under the influence of alcohol and
drugs while underage.
On Saturday, July 28, just hours before she disappeared, there was a gathering at their second-floor apartment, and beer.
When
a probation officer showed up, her boyfriend was arrested. He ended up
spending about a week in prison, Lebanon County court records show.
According
to Stouffer, his daughter believed the probation violation would
trigger a long jail sentence. She became angry at her neighbors, who she
thought called police about the party.
Later, she met friends and spent the evening at Harrisburg night spots.
Early
Sunday morning, when she and a male friend returned to her apartment,
they saw several neighbors in the first-floor apartment. Kortne vented
her anger at them, her father said.

In an interview this week, Janice Riemenschneider and Rich Sheetz,
who live in the apartment below Kortne’s, said they saw Kortne kick and
swing at Todd Saksek, who lives in the other half of the duplex.



They said Kortne’s friend stepped between them. The neighbors said
Kortne’s friend also made hostile remarks toward them. At that point,
Riemenschneider and Sheetz said they closed their door and called
police.
Police got the call shortly after 3 a.m. and stayed until almost 4, when everyone had returned to their apartments.
Another call came within 30 minutes.
According to Kortne’s father and neighbors, Saksek called police after Kortne stomped on her apartment floor in anger.
Police
said they knocked on both doors but made no contact with Kortne or
Saksek, according to Matthew Scott, a Stouffer family friend.
Saksek, 44, declined to discuss the night’s events on the advice of a lawyer.
Stouffer
said he had a long conversation with Kortne’s friend. The man had known
her for two years and regarded her as a “sister,” Stouffer said. He
told him he went to sleep after the stomping and believed Kortne did,
too.
The friend woke about 7 a.m. and, not seeing Kortne, figured she was
sleeping in another room. He went to a nearby convenience store, where a
surveillance camera recorded him buying food and a drink and texting
Kortne.
Stouffer said he has read the text — Kortne’s cellphone was left
behind — which told Kortne he couldn’t find her after he awoke and would
see her later.
Kortne also left behind her car, wallet, her dog and another dog that belonged to her boyfriend.
So in that narrow window of time, in a small, peaceful town where information spreads far and fast, Kortne somehow vanished.
Lives overturned
The
story of the disappearance of the beautiful young blonde is making
national news. Utility poles in Palmyra are plastered with posters
asking for information. More than $30,000 in reward money is being offered.
Meanwhile, Riemenschneider, 49, and Sheetz, 57, said their lives have been overturned also.
They said they allowed police and dogs to search their apartment and have talked extensively with police and Stouffer’s family.
“We
have given the police department anything and everything they have
asked for,” said Sheetz, adding that other neighbors also have
cooperated fully and allowed searches.
Yet people have been
driving down the street behind their home and making harassing remarks,
as if the neighbors had something to do with the disappearance. They
avoid going outside.

Riemenschneider said she’s amazed that there seems to be a continued
focus on the neighbors, when it’s obvious to her that whatever happened
to Kortne took place elsewhere. The couple believe Kortne left her
apartment and encountered someone who took advantage of her.
Riemenschneider, who has a college-age daughter, said she prays for Kortne continually.
“Regardless
of what she did that night, she was a child of God and a child of good
people, and they love her and need her home,” she said.
Scott Stouffer, 47, admits his suspicions run in all directions.
“I
honestly believe that one of the people that was there that night with
my daughter is withholding information. They know something or they know
the person who knows something. There is no doubt in my mind,” he said.
Stouffer
said he has spoken with everyone involved in the early morning
disturbance. He said he’s also learned of potentially dangerous
circumstances beyond his daughter’s immediate neighborhood.
On
that night in Harrisburg, for example, when Kortne argued with a young
man and his girlfriend, she was thrown out of the bar. Stouffer said
Kortne knew the man, but he doesn’t know the source of the dispute.
He said another man had been angry with Kortne because she owed him money.
Growing frustrated
Kortne worked as a hairstylist and pet groomer and had done modeling.
She was fond of peace signs, and many likened her to a “flower child.”
One of five children, she was close to her siblings and her parents, who divorced in 2005.
Stouffer
owns a business just outside Fort Indiantown Gap that distributes
equipment including environmental recycling machines. The office is
decorated with mounted deer heads, family photos and youth sports
trophies.
Stouffer said his daughter has many friends whom he
knows well and likes. But she also had newer friends, who he believes
were involved with drugs and whom she didn’t bring around her parents.
“It’s
not that she was there 24/7. But she put herself in that environment
enough to basically, I think, allow those people to change the course of
her life,” he said.
On the Saturday night before she
disappeared, Kortne parked her car at a gas station before traveling to
Harrisburg with friends in a different vehicle. The friend who returned
home with her was a designated driver of another friend’s vehicle, and
they dropped that friend off in Palmyra before returning to Kortne’s.
Police
have executed a search warrant of the vehicle of the friend who was
dropped off, as well as of Kortne’s 2002 Ford Focus and her apartment.
The warrants are sealed.
But Scott Stouffer has grown frustrated
with the investigation. He believes surveillance cameras at local
businesses weren’t checked until some had recorded over footage from
July 29.
During this interview, he took a call from a friend who
owns a helicopter. Stouffer wants to conduct an air search of areas
including local quarries.
He said he won’t stop until he finds
Kortne, although he has begun to brace for the outcome he dreads. Nor
will he rest until he learns the facts behind her disappearance.

“I want her found, either way. I want her found for my family, and I
want her found for her. I want her to know she matters, that she’s not
just transient person they could just take advantage of and nobody’s
going to do anything,” he said. “I want those people looking over their
shoulders every day until we find my daughter.”

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/08/kortne_stouffer_disappeared_am.html

Police release new info in Kortne Stouffer case

By CHRIS SHOLLY, Lebanon Daily News
Updated: 08/29/2012 11:37:37 PM EDT

Palmyra police have released new information in the case of a 21-year-old Palmyra woman who has been missing for a month.

Borough police Chief Stanley J. Jasinski Jr. said Wednesday that officers were dispatched to Kortne Stouffer's apartment at 810 W. Main St. three times the night before she disappeared; not two as previously reported. The first time police responded was at 9:05 p.m. Saturday, July 28, after they received a complaint about underage drinking at the apartment. Jasinski declined to identify who called police about the underage drinking.

As a result of that first call, police have now charged two men with underage drinking. The citations were filed Wednesday with District Judge Carl Garver's office in Palmyra.

Cited were Michael Burdge, 19, of 325 E. Main St., Palmyra, and Corey Bowman, 18, of 1025 N. Forge Road, North Londonderry Township.

Jasinski said that when police arrived, there were seven people, including Stouffer, in the apartment.

"Kortne was the only one who was 21 years or over," he said.

Jasinski said that Burke and Bowman were the only two of the six underage people at the party who tested positive for alcohol. No other underage drinking citations are expected to be filed, he said.

The chief said police contacted Burdge's and Bowman's parents that night, then took the two men home.

"It all started with underage drinking," Jasinski said of the police calls that night at Stouffer's apartment.

"The investigation isn't completed as to who furnished alcohol to the people at the party. That's on hold right now," Jasinski said.

In April, police charged Stouffer with furnishing alcohol to a minor, which is a misdemeanor, following an incident at her apartment. However, that charge was reduced to a summary offense of disorderly conduct, according to online court records.

Read More: http://www.ldnews.com/announcements/ci_21427918/police-release-new-info-missing-woman-case

Kortne Stouffer Remains Missing as Vigil Is Planned

09/08/2012
What happened to Kortne Stouffer? The young woman hasn't been seen in
over a month, and it appears that the investigators on the case aren't
saying much about anything at all. A vigil is planned for the memory of
the missing woman, to take place on September 10th, but how many more
vigils will there be until she is found?
Police in Palmyra, the Lebanon County Detective Bureau and the county
DA is investigating this case in unison, which makes it hard to believe
that this is merely a missing person case. Could there be a deeper
investigation at hand stemming from the disappearance of Kortne Stouffer?
Hopefully
more information comes out about her disappearance soon. Until then,
there will be vigils and events for raising awareness about her case,
like what happens with many high-profile missing persons cases. Will the
disappearance of this young woman be solved before these vigils
continue for a year or more?
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981617508