TARASHA "Pooh" BENJAMIN - 17 yo (2010) - Selma (W of Montgomery) AL

For nearly a week now troops of individuals have marched over Selma
and Dallas County, passed out fliers and taken information down on a
17-year-old girl who went missing Saturday morning.

No word and no new leads have developed in the search for Tarasha
“Pooh” Benjamin, who took off Saturday morning from her house to go to
the local flea market and has yet to return or call home.



“There have been several alleged sightings, and we follow up on each
from sun up to sundown each day,” said Angela Benjamin, city council
member for Ward 4 and a relative of the missing girl.

About two dozen people gathered at the Larry D. Striplin Performing
Arts Center on Wednesday afternoon to organize yet another search.

Mayor George Evans met with the group of volunteers made up of
friends, family members and those who wanted to pitch in. He praised the
searchers for working together.

“This is a real sad occasion,” Evans said. “People come up and get
lost; that’s what I hope this is. God knows, I hope that’s what it is.”

Volunteers received a quick lesson from the city council member, who
is in contact with local law enforcement, about how to question people
and write information on small notebooks given them.

The information is important, said police Chief William Riley III.

“The key is when somebody gives you information, please ask the hard
question: Where they got the information. Don’t send us on a wild goose
chase,” he told the group. “Ask ‘who told you they saw her?’ Write it
down. Call us. Call 911 with the information. The key is we need to find
out where she went and the last person she was seen with. This is what
we need to tell us where to go.”

When Tarasha Benjamin left her home on Dogwood in Cahaba Park West,
she wore short denim shorts, a white short-sleeve shirt with lime and
purple strips, a silver necklace she never removes and silver sandals.
Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail.

Tarasha has a tattoo on her upper right arm, the word “Pooh,” her
nickname, her mother, Regina Benjamin said.

The search will continue until the teenager is found.

Organizers of the search say they need a donation of a building to
use as a central headquarters and volunteers to staff it daily. “A
wireless Internet building is ideal for this situation,” Angela Benjamin
said.

Additional needs include copies of the missing handbill, water,
Gatorade, food, pens, small pocket tablets and nutritional snacks that
can be carried in pockets. Other needs are a few laptop computers and
volunteers to walk the streets.

“And we need prayer,” the council member said. “We need lots of
prayer.”

Benjamin said everyone on Facebook is asked to conduct a daily
three-point check before contacting the family: Check the events tab;
discussions tab and the wall.

“We also ask that all false reports of Tarasha’s body being found to
stop,” Benjamin said. “This only stops the community from searching for
her. Get the information from the family.”

A team of two search experts from the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children has joined forces with local law enforcement
authorities as the hunt continues for a 17-year-old teenager who went
missing more than a week ago.

The members of Team Adam are not identified, but generally are
representative of retired federal, state or local law enforcement, said
Bob Lowery, a spokesman for the center.

Based in Virginia, the center was established in 1984 as a private
nonprofit organization to help prevent child abduction and sexual
exploitation and help find missing children, among other things.

The two team members arrived in Selma on Tuesday and met with family
members of Tarasha Benjamin, said Angela Benjamin, a Selma City Council
member and relative of the missing teenager.

“They have the expertise, so we are putting the search in their hands
and in the hands of the Selma PD,” the council person said. “We (family
and friends) will continue to take information and go door-to-door.”

Tarasha left home June 26 to visit the flea market. The gray truck
she rode in was found abandoned early the following morning.

Nobody has heard from Tarasha since that Saturday, although the
family has followed up on hundreds of leads since that day.

Experts from the Center and police have scoured the landscape in and
around Selma, even employing helicopters in the process.

“We’re using everything we have access to,” said Selma police
Detective Michael Harris.

Those resources include the expertise of the Team Adam members.

“We think of time as the enemy,” Lowery said as he explained the
two-man team’s mission. “Someone out there knows what happened to this
child. We need them to call.”

People can call the Center’s number at 1-800-THE-LOST.

“We get the information into the proper hands as quickly as
possible,” Lowery said.

Other numbers to call include the Selma Police Department’s secret
witness line at 874-2190 or Crimestoppers at 877-3530.

The Benjamin family has requested that any donations of supplies,
food, water, snacks for searchers be coordinated through their family.

Those who wish to donate individually may drop off those offerings at
1029 Dawson Ave.

“No other address is approved by the family,” Angela Benjamin said.

Residents in Selma are searching frantically for a teen who went missing last month.

Because the search is becoming so large, Selma Police have asked for extra
help from across the state.

It has been 15 days since 17 year old Tarasha Benjamin left home and never came back.

Family members say she went out with friends regularly and would typically
call home often. When the teen never called, her family went to the police.

Officers say they followed up on numerous leads but are coming up dry.

Now, more than two weeks later, Dallas County officials are bringing in
reinforcements to help with the search.

"Well, we've had specialized teams as far as Huntsville, Athens, Alabama,
Shelby County, Montgomery, Wetumpka, that have brought specialized teams
and search equipment, and personnel to assist with the search. We've
had dogs, and we've had helicopters and we've also had a dive team come
in," said Rhonda Abbott, Interim Director of the Dallas Co. EMA.

Authorities say they've searched the woods, the Alabama River and the area where
they found an abandoned car she was last seen in.

As the community bands together fliers hang all over town as family
members hope the girl they call "Pooh" returns to them unharmed.

The family has started a Facebook page complete with Benjamin's information
and details about reward money.

Family members say people as far away as California are trying to help.

Nearly three weeks have passed since Tarasha “Pooh” Benjamin left her
house to go to a nearby flea market.

Still, experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children continue to work in the search for the 17-year-old Selma
teenager.

Linda Benjamin, one of the coordinators of the family efforts to find
Benjamin, said the experts, a team of two, have asked the family to
discontinue its search and allow the specialists to continue.

But the family continues to gather information, said Angela Benjamin,
a Selma City Council member and relative of the missing girl.

“They asked us to keep doing our information search and we’re still
collecting data,” the council member said.

Tarasha Benjamin was last see by her mother at 10 a.m. Saturday, June
26, at home. She wore blue shorts, a striped turquoise, yellow and
white short-sleeve shirt and possibly she wore silver sandals, according
to the family.

She has her nickname, “Pooh,” tattooed on her upper right arm.

The gray Mazda Tribute she drove was discovered abandoned on the
Cecil Jackson Bypass. The truck had two missing windows on the driver’s
side and a broken door on the driver’s side.

Family members have said they do not believe police acted quickly
enough after Benjamin’s family filed a report.

Now, officers are questioning person of interest, Angela Benjamin
said.

Additionally, law enforcement agencies from as far away as Huntsville
have responded to the call to search for Tarasha.

Dallas County Emergency Management Agency Interim Director Rhonda
Abbott said divers, cadaver dogs and their handlers, pilots with
helicopters and other police and emergency specialists have spent most
of the week scouring the county, creeks and rivers, following up on tips
from the family.

“They are doing this at no cost,” Abbott said of the outside help.

The family asks people to report any information they might have to
Linda Benjamin at 419-0626; Tosha Benjamin, 419-4381; or Wayne House,
267-8007.

According to the police investigation, on the morning of June 26, 2010,
Tarasha "Pooh" Benjamin woke up early like any other 17-year-old teenager
to go to the local flea market with friends.
Tarasha checked in often with her mother, Regina Benjamin, so when Regina didn't hear from
her daughter she became concerned and reported it to the authorities.
Although Regina Benjamin may have reported her daughters unusual activity early
on, it seems as though the Selma Police Department might not have
reacted quickly enough. The truck her daughter left the house in that
morning was not discovered until Saturday evening. It was left abandoned
on the side of the Cecil Jackson Bypass, a major highway. Reportedly,
the truck had two missing windows on the driver's side as well as a
broken door also on the driver's side.
Search teams were formed and the hunt for any clues began.
They combed through the nearby area,
woods and rivers. As the search expanded dive teams were brought in to
scour the deeper lakes of the surrounding area. The National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children have joined in the pursuit.
While family and friends were waiting for any news from the investigators they
were busy in a search of their own for their loved one, spreading the
word and desperately trying to find anyone who had any information
regarding the young girl.
It has been nearly three weeks and
there is still no sign of Tarasha, no evidence, no clues and all leads
are dead ends. Fliers have been passed out and hung up around the Selma
area. Pictures of the teen have been plastered on Facebook and The
Selma-Times Journal in hopes of finding her. It seems we
see these same stories of a young girl gone missing everyday on the five
o'clock news and most end in disappointment but in the small town of
Selma there is still hope. Hope in the minds and hearts of all who knew
her that she will return home safely.
If anyone would like to help the family or knows any useful information
that may lead to the safe return of Tarasha Benjamin they are asked to
contact Linda Benjamin, the family spokesperson, at 334-419-0626 or
contact the Selma Police Secret Witness Line at 334-874-2190.

There’s still hope


snipped......
Nearly six months ago on a Saturday, the 17-year-old Selma teen left her house to go to a nearby flea market.
Regina Benjamin last saw her daughter at 10 a.m. that day. She wore blue shorts, a striped turquoise, yellow and white short-sleeve shirt and possibly she wore sliver sandals.
The gray Mazda Tribute she drove was discovered abandoned on the Cecil Jackson Bypass. The truck had two missing windows on the driver’s side and a broken door on the driver’s side.
“It has been six months to the day on Dec. 26,” said Selma City Councilwoman Angela Benjamin, Pooh’s cousin. “This is so sad, but we keep looking.”
Regina Benjamin has her good days and her bad days, relatives say. She walks to a photograph of her daughter and kisses it. She speaks a prayer, asking for her daughter’s safe return.
This is the second big event without the teen. On Sept. 16, the family gathered in Bloch Park, each wearing a special tee shirt with Pooh’s face on it. Each celebrating the 18-year-old milestone their missing relative would have celebrated if she had not gone missing.
Tosha Benjamin, Pooh’s aunt, fields questions from the curious nearly every day. Where is Pooh? Has she been found? Is she all right?
“She has been missing so long, it seems like people think she’s come back home,” Tosha Benjamin said. “But I tell them the search still continues. We do a little.”
In those first few weeks of Pooh’s disappearance, family members recruited friends, neighbors and others to scour Selma and the areas just beyond. Experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children came to Selma to help with the search, which expanded into nearby states.
Still nothing.
If Pooh were with her family now at the Christmas season she would be out shopping, buying gifts, and primping to look pretty for the holiday season, Tosha said.
“I think about her every night when I go to bed,” the aunt said. “It has been hard to deal with.”
Each day, each family members hopes for the same thing — someone will show up and tell them Pooh is safe and well or that Pooh will walk through the door, unhurt, smiling like old times.
But for now, the family will celebrate Christmas with this dark cloud hanging over them and they will try to pray and believe, Angela Benjamin said.
Said Tosha Benjamin, “We don’t know if she is dead or alive. There’s so much going on and it’s the holidays. We just pray.”
Anyone with any information on the missing girl is asked to call Linda Benjamin at 419-0626 or Tosha Benjamin at 419-4381.

http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/2010/12/21/theres-still-hope/

MISSING Person Alert! Help Find Tarasha "Pooh" Benjamin NOW!

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https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=138166619533348#!/group.php?gid=138166619533348&v=wall

Known Circumstances:
Tarasha Benjamin is 17 years old and was last seen by her mother at home at 10 am on Saturday, June 26th 2010.


The grey Mazda Tribute (pictured above) she was driving was found on the
Cecil Jackson Bypass with two missing windows on the driver’s side and
a broken driver side door handle. There was no sign of Tarasha.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Selma Police Department (Alabama) 1-334-874-2134
Selma PD secret witness line at 874-2190 or Crimestoppers at 877-3530

If you have any information on Tarasha “Pooh” Benjamin please contact
the official numbers immediately. Alternatively, you can e-mail Help Find My Child Charity in strictest confidence - we will make sure your information is passed on to the relevant places.

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