Woman and Child Abducted From Crash Scene

CSO-- The ex-husband of a missing Bucks County mother appealed this morning for the return of her and their 9-year-old daughter, whose disappearance is being treated as an abduction.

FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver at the same time said, without elaboration, that investigators are following a number of leads in the hunt for Bonnie Sweeten and her daughter Julia Rakoczy.

Anthony Racoczy said that he and Bonnie Sweeten had since maintained a good relationship since they divorced in 2003, and that he knew no reason for anyone to harm her or their daughter.

"I'm still in shock," he said on NBC's Today show. "She's a great mother."

Earlier this morning, Philadelphia police located Sweeten's SUV in Center City.

The discovery came nearly 12 hours after Sweeten called 911 saying she was in the trunk of a car and that she and and Julia had been abducted after an accident in Upper Southampton, Bucks County.

Her daughter, she said was still in the family's Yukon Denali.

A police officer spotted the SUV about 1:30 a.m. today at 15th and Chestnut Streets in Center City, two blocks from the cell phone tower that picked up Sweeten's call, police said. A parking ticket was on the windshied.

Earlier, an Amber Alert was activated for the child.

When Sweeten, 38, called police shortly before 2 p.m. yesterday, she said she was in the trunk of a dark-colored 1990s Cadillac. She said she and her daughter had been abducted by two black males, Klaver, the FBI spokesman, said yesterday.

Sweeten told a 911 operator that her daughter was still in her family vehicle.

The mother reported she and daughter were taken after they were involved in a minor accident with the Cadillac on Street Road in Upper Southampton Township, about a mile north of the city, Klaver said.

Police impounded a black Cadillac with front end damage in Hunting Park last night, but the FBI indicated it was not linked to the investigation.

Julia is described in the Amber Alert as 4 feet, 1 inch tall, 59 pounds, with long brown hair, blue eyes, and a dime-sized birthmark on her forehead.

"She loves the Phillies. She plays softball. She always dances around the house," her father said.

Her mother is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 130 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information about the case was urged to call 911.

Anthony Rakoczy and Sweeten were divorced in Bucks County Court in May 2003. Online court records indicate no ongoing disputes or court actions since the decree was granted.

This morning, Rakoczy said that when he was told of the 911 call, "I was thinking that this is not real, that this is stuff you see on TV." He described Sweeten as very organized, on top of her children's many activities, and as someone with no known enemies.

"I don't understand why anyone would want to keep them," he said. "Just let them go."

Sweeten has since remarried to Richard Sweeten, who operates a landscaping service. According to her Facebook page, she has three daughters, and is a 1989 graduate of Bensalem High School."

Her older daughter, Paige, 15, wrote on her Facebook page: "im asking everyone, to please pray for my mom and sister pray please."

Julia attends Belmont Hills Elementary School in Bensalem. A parent of another child there said that Sweeten had been very active at the school. The parent, who asked not to be identified, said news of the kidnapping broke before a student performance at the school last night.

"The word spread quickly and no one knew what to say," the parent said. "Everyone is shocked. We just pray they come back home safely and we can see them once again in the school she so generously shares her time with." (source)

George Anthony, Other Familiar Faces Involved in Haleigh Cummings Case

George Anthony, grandfather of the late Caylee Anthony, joined the family of missing 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings Thursday to support them, Anthony's attorney, Brad Conway, told ABC News.

"He wanted to go and comfort the family," Conway said. "He saw Haleigh's father on TV. Anyone could see the anguish on his face. George particularly related to that. He felt like he had to go."

In a case that garnered national attention, George Anthony's granddaughter, Caylee, disappeared in June of last year. After six months of desperate searching, Caylee's body was discovered less than a mile from the Anthony home in Orlando.

Along with George Anthony, the search for Cummings, which began after the girl disappeared from her father's Satsuma, Fla., home Tuesday, has attracted several familiar faces from the Anthony case. Police are treating the investigation as an abduction.

Leonard Padilla, the California bounty hunter who bailed Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, out of jail during the Caylee case, arrived in Satsuma Tuesday and has offered a $25,000 reward if the child is returned by midnight Saturday.
"I'm doing it because I think the child's alive," Padilla told ABC News.
The reward comes with no questions asked. "Money for the child. Alive," he said.

Texas EquuSearch, headed by founder and director Tim Miller, is organizing a civilian search effort, much like the one that drew thousands of searchers for Caylee, according to a report by the Orlando Sentinel.

According to Conway, George Anthony is attempting to use his notoriety to bring attention to Haleigh's case, but realizes such a strategy could be a double-edged sword.
"[The Anthonys] have been working behind the scenes for the last few days," Conway said. "They have been contacting people in the media to publicize it. But nobody wants to detract from the search effort. They don't want this to turn into a George and Cindy story with that girl still missing up there."

Drew Peterson's Brother: Suicidal Guilt

Thomas Morphey Appears

Many of us have wondered where Thomas Morphey had gone after his encounter with Drew Peterson on the night of Stacy Peterson's dissappearance October of last year. Well, he showed up at a vigil in honor of Stacy since her disappearance one year ago on October 28, 2007.

Morphey reappeared this past week but could not be located for an interview. His girlfriend, Sheryl Alcox, wouldn't say where he was or why he's back at the couple's Bolingbrook house.

We had heard for a couple of weeks, last year, that there was a missing blue barrel that had been placed, by Drew Peterson, in the back of his SUV, along with another man.

On November 28th, 2007, an article broke from the Chicago Tribune, that gave more detail into what happened that night.

Drew Peterson was scheduled to work at 5 p.m. Oct. 28, 2007, but called in to take a personal or sick day, said Bolingbrook police Lt. Ken Teppel.

A source familiar with the investigation said that at about 7 p.m., Drew Peterson picked up Morphey from a park and the two went to a local coffee shop.

After a short time, Drew Peterson told Morphey he had to go somewhere and left Morphey at the coffee shop with a cell phone, along with instructions that Morphey should not answer if it should ring, the source said. The relative waited for some time, and the phone rang, showing the name "Stacy" on the caller ID, the source said.

A brief time later, Drew Peterson returned to the coffee shop, the source said. Drew Peterson and Morphey then drove to the Petersons' home on Pheasant Chase Court, the source said. Drew Peterson asked Morphey to help him move something from the home into the Petersons' sport-utility vehicle, the source said.

The two men went to an upstairs bedroom and removed a large covered and sealed 4-foot-long rectangular plastic container and placed it in the SUV, the sources familiar with the case said.

They left the home about 10 p.m., and Drew Peterson then dropped Morphey off at his home, at which point Morphey contacted a friend, saying words to the effect of, "I think I just helped Drew dispose of Stacy," the source said.

Morphey allegedly told the friend the plastic container was warm to the touch and may have weighed about 120 pounds, a source said.

Two days later, Morphey was treated at Edward Hospital in Naperville after an apparent suicide attempt. From that time there has been questions about Thomas Morphey's where-a-bouts, until now.

After disappearing for months, former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson's step-brother has resurfaced in Bolingbrook, attending the one-year anniversary vigil for Peterson's missing fourth wife, Stacy.

Thomas Morphey had gone into seclusion last November after sources reported he allegedly helped Drew Peterson load a large, blue barrel into Peterson's SUV on the day 23-year-old Stacy vanished from the couple's Bolingbrook home.

Peterson has been named a suspect in the still-unsolved Oct. 28, 2007, disappearance of his wife but has not been charged in that case.

The day after Stacy Peterson vanished, Morphey was hospitalized for a suspected overdose of sleeping pills, then disappeared from public view. Sources said the 40-year-old Morphey had been placed in protective police custody, but authorities never confirmed those reports.

Morphey reappeared this past week but could not be located for an interview. His girlfriend, Sheryl Alcox, wouldn't say where he was or why he's back at the couple's Bolingbrook house. Previously, she had said he was receiving "therapy."

Morphey could be a key witness for authorities investigating Stacy Peterson's disappearance, but Alcox and a law enforcement source said he hasn't appeared before a special grand jury trying to determine what happened to her.

Illinois State Police Lt. Luis Gutierrez declined to comment about Morphey.

Alcox said she and Morphey already have run into Drew Peterson at a local store, but neither man spoke to the other.

"He didn't come near us that time," Alcox said.

The Anthony's on the Today show 10/22