ALEXIS PATTERSON - 7 yo (2002) - Milwaukee WI

Milwaukee WI ----
The
mother of a missing Milwaukee girl is lobbying for a national day of
remembrance for all missing children and adults.Eight years ago
Monday, Alexis Patterson went missing. She was 7 years old.On the
day she disappeared, her stepfather said he walked Alexis to Hi-Mount
School and left her on the playground. She's been missing ever since.About
30 close friends and relatives held a prayer vigil at the spot where
Alexis disappeared eight years ago on Monday night."Let my baby
come home! If the worst has happened to my child, it don't matter. I
just want my baby's body, Lord Jesus. If you got my baby, let her go,"
Patterson said."You know how hard it is for me to even allow
myself to get up and push on? It's very hard for me. But I keep going
because I know Alexis knows, 'My mama's looking for me. My mother wants
me. My mother knows I'm coming home.' When I go to sleep, I pray that I
see her in my dreams. And I see her in my dreams. That's how I know that
she's coming home."No one has ever been arrested in Alexis'
disappearance. Her stepfather is in jail on unrelated drug charges.Alexis'
mother, Ayanna Patterson, said she would like May 3 to become "National
Forget-Me-Not Day."She is encouraging people to go out on May 3
and look for missing children and adults, in honor of Alexis.Patterson
said she gets upset when she hears the local sheriff say he thinks
Alexis can't be alive after all these years. She said, "No news is good
news to me" and continues to hold out hope her daughter is alive.The
Sheriff's Department said there is still a $10,000 reward for
information that leads to her return."This community still needs
closure. We must continue to actively search for new information that
will bring Alexis home safely or satisfy the questions surrounding the
events of May 3, 2002," said Sheriff David Clarke Jr. "My continued
prayers go out to her family."

10-year anniversary of Alexis Patterson’s disappearance approaches

Posted on: 4:42 pm, April 23, 2012, by Cary Docter,
updated on: 08:57pm, April 23, 2012

MILWAUKEE — The 10-year anniversary of the disappearance of Alexis Patterson will be marked on Thursday, May 3rd.


Alexis Patterson at age 7, progression to age 14 (2009)

Alexis was only seven years old when the Milwaukee first grader went missing on her way to school. The last time anyone saw Alexis was near 49th and Garfield in Milwaukee. She was roughly 3’8″ tall and weighed about 40 pounds.

The public is urged to call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) with any information they have concerning the disappearance or current whereabouts of Alexis. Calls are kept confidential and may be made anonymously.

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.

http://fox6now.com/2012/04/23/10-year-anniversary-of-alexis-pattersons-disappearance-approaching/

Ayanna Patterson seldom refers to her daughter Alexis Patterson in
the past tense, even though in the 10 years since she last saw her,
Alexis' name and image have come to personify the heartbreak of the term
missing children in Milwaukee.


She professes a firm belief that the then-7-year-old girl, who
vanished May 3, 2002, is now a young woman, so she celebrates Alexis'
birthday every April 4 - this year, her 17th, with a roller skating
party.


"Alexis loves to go skating," Patterson says of her daughter, whose
disappearance 10 years ago this Thursday led to a massive search
involving hundreds of volunteers and one of the largest missing-person
cases in Milwaukee history.


"Last year we had a Sweet 16 party for her."


Alexis' family and others will gather Thursday at Hi-Mount Elementary
School, where Alexis was a student and where her stepfather told police
he dropped her off the day she went missing.


The gathering will be part of a commemoration Patterson calls "Forget
Me Not Day," which she hopes will help keep attention on her daughter's
case, and those of all missing children.


"We must never forget her. I can't ever forget her," says Patterson,
who during the past 10 years has taken the search for Alexis nationwide,
appearing on numerous television shows, including "Maury Povich,"
"Ricki Lake" and "The View."


During an interview in her Milwaukee home, she describes her struggle
to keep her daughter alive, both in memory and in flesh - a battle she
says has been accompanied by an agonizing, perpetual sense of anguish,
loss and grief.


"I have a pain, I have an ache, I have a hole in my heart," she says.


"I never stop hurting."

Recounting the fateful day



According to news accounts:


On the morning of May 3, 2002, Alexis was upset because she couldn't
take cupcakes to school for a class treat because she hadn't done her
homework.


Her stepfather, LaRon Bourgeois, told police that he and Alexis
walked the half-block from their home to Hi-Mount, 4921 W. Garfield
Ave., and that he last saw her crossing the street toward the school.


Along with Patterson, police extensively questioned Bourgeois, who
had a criminal record that included involvement in a 1994 bank robbery
that resulted in the fatal shooting of Glendale police Officer Ronald
Hedbany.


During media interviews, Bourgeois, who was granted immunity in the
Hedbany case in exchange for his testimony, angrily denied any role in
Alexis' disappearance.


Neither he nor Patterson was ever connected with it.


The two have since divorced.

Outpouring of aid



In the weeks following Alexis' disappearance, the Milwaukee Police
Department and Milwaukee County sheriff's office embarked on one of the
largest joint efforts in the history of the two law enforcement
agencies, setting up a command post in Washington Park and searching for
Alexis by boat, motorcycle and horseback.


The search - conducted in the area between W. Meinecke Ave. and W.
Vine St. and N. 16th and N. 60th streets - drew hundreds of civilian
volunteers on bicycle and foot. They posted and passed out thousands of
fliers with the image of the smiling little girl with the braided,
beaded hair.


The image became seared into the city's collective psyche as the
fruitlessness of the search seemed to break the heart of an entire
community.


Through the years, age-progression images on the website for the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have depicted an
older Alexis, and investigators have pursued hundreds of leads.


None of them, however, has delivered the missing daughter Patterson has sought for a decade.


"It's just so frustrating I found myself losing my mind," she said.


"Everybody has their theories, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't know what happened so I know they don't know."


Police have always been careful to stress that Alexis' disappearance was a missing person case and not a criminal investigation.


Detectives with the department's cold-case unit, to which it is assigned, were not available for comment.


The sheriff's office is still offering a $10,000 reward for
information that leads to Alexis, and Milwaukee County Sheriff David A.
Clarke Jr. still holds out hope that someone who has such information
will come forward.


"Maybe someone on their deathbed who wants a clear conscience before they die," Clarke says.


"People hang onto information until they need it," he says. "Information is currency."

Not forgetting their sister



Patterson says she has to remain on guard so that the drain she feels
over Alexis doesn't take away from the attention she gives her
daughters Dysoni, 10, and Eri-Onna, 7.


She says she makes sure the girls grow up knowing their sister,
telling them stories about Alexis and taking them to the places where
she used to play.


"They are always around me," Patterson says. "I take them to school
and pick them up. No bus. I barely let them out of my sight."


Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will proclaim May 3 as "Alexis Patterson: Forget Me Not Day" in the city.


As Patterson prepares for the day, she and her daughters sort through
mementos of Alexis spread across their kitchen table: a watercolor
self-portrait, homework assignments written in kid handwriting, a school
pocket folder with a ladybug print, photographs of a happy Alexis
striking impish, little girl poses and smiling from ear to ear.


And though there is no proof her daughter is still alive, Patterson's
rejection of the notion that Alexis was destined to remain a little
girl forever is absolute.


"I think she looks just like me," Patterson says.


"I don't think the age-progression pictures look like her at all."


The commemoration to mark the 10th anniversary of the
disappearance of Alexis Patterson will begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at
Hi-Mount Elementary School, 4921 W. Garfield Ave., with a prayer and
balloon release, followed by a walk to Washington Park. Another event in
her memory is planned for May 10.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/after-10-years-alexis-pattersons-mother-still-holds-out-hope-2p56uqc-149449205.html