Those who know Latasha Norman describe her as a serious, smart student who was seen around Jackson State University with pad and pencil, covering stories for the campus newspaper.
They say it’s out of her character to disappear without a word to her family and friends. She was last seen at the end of an afternoon class Nov. 13.Campus and city police have fielded dozens of calls, to no avail. The FBI is now part of the investigation, bringing useful resources, especially if the search goes beyond Mississippi’s borders, Special Agent Jason Pack said Wednesday.
“We’re looking at the circumstances of the case, putting a fresh set of eyes on it and trying to come up with some leads so we all can bring her home safely,” Pack said.
Norman’s father, Danny Bolden, is clinging to that hope. Bolden, a supervisor at a wastewater treatment facility, traveled from Greenville to Jackson as soon as he heard his daughter was missing.
Norman was 2 when her mother married Bolden, who said he’s the only father she’s ever known. Asked to describe Norman, he used the words “Christian,” “humble,” and “high morals.”
The 20-year-old who grew up in the heart of the impoverished Mississippi Delta is working her way through school and has a job at a Jackson craft shop.
Bolden said she didn’t receive a scholarship to college, but has a 3.5 grade point average at Jackson State.
In recent weeks, Norman had been the target of attacks. Someone slashed her car tires and removed the vehicle’s license plate. Her father instructed her to file reports with the campus police, and she did.
Last week, an ex-boyfriend of Norman’s was charged with hitting her last month. He has withdrawn as a student from Jackson State, university officials said Wednesday.
I hope they find her safe and sound, but the abusive boyfriend angle always disheartens …
Yes, it does. But if you do, pray.
Poor, poor girl. I’ll keep her in my prayers, but it doesn’t look good.
Take heart. Remember, skepticism in front, prayers behind. Mostly, humility. We can’t know. Unfortunately, (because it’s hard) we have to hope.
What a perfect smile. Dan, please disavow any attempt to stir up a racial bent — I hope this is just genuine concern and not baiting.
WTF, cynn? Is she a person? What do you think I am?
Of all the horrible things that people ever have said to me, that’s maybe the most horrible. I tried calling her dad to see if there were anything else I could do.
Penn Hills teen admits to fatal shooting
By The Tribune-Review
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
A Penn Hills teenager admitted to fatally shooting a West Mifflin High School sophomore in their youth minister’s Duquesne home last night after they had returned from a church function, Allegheny County Police said.
The boy, 14, whom police did not identify, told Duquesne police that he shot Chelsea McAllister, 15, of Duquesne, in the face while they were in a home in the 200 block of South Sixth Street, said Allegheny County Police homicide Lt. Chris Kearns.
McAllister died at the scene. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office will perform an autopsy today.
McAllister and several friends attended a church function in the Hill District before heading to the youth minister’s home, Kearns said. He would not identify the homeowner.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_539101.html
I’m sorry, Doug, but what’s the reference to this incident? I can pick up the paper and choose from a dozen different tragedies every morning. And if I go online, I can choose from a hundred times that many. Why post that here?
People who get hit by their boyfriends need guns. Or some sort of tracking device. Or something. We have the technology is all I’m saying.
It was a boy that shot a girl for no good reason, D. I can see how it relates, it’s just dark and pessimistic, which cynn kind of invoked too. I guess where this leads is maybe it would be more better to post a picture of the ex-boyfriend.
Yeah. More women should carry. The woman involved in this situation should carry…
something about feeling all Hobbesian I think it was… I totally get that now
cynn – That was pretty lame.
STA – Tired. Yet, predictable.
I certainly will add her to my prayers this evening.
I apologize, Dan. Just wanted to clear the air. I have to stay up and wait until my family with their backfiring El Caminos gets here for the holiday which has been forced upon me. Maybe the highway patrol can get here before them. God knows, I’ve called.
Pass this along to Shay at Booker Rising, or the gang at BlackProf, and see if they’ll post it too.
So that someone who’s slightly more likely to have known the young lady will possibly see it, I mean.
That’s all right, cynn. Doug, I guess I get the connection, though we’ve had a bunch of weirdos hanging around all week trying to get us to say something that would make it appear that we think blacks are uniquely violent.
Which, given my violence, is absurd.
I’m sorry about the family and shit, cynn. Just count your lucky stars that you’re not Italian ;-P
And also Goonies never say die, cynn. Pretty damn good holiday mantra, that.
cynn: Good friends are God’s apologies for bad relatives. Happy Thanksgiving.
I live less than five miles from where they found Sean Hornbeck and Ben Ownby. Never give up hope, man. I’ll be praying for Miss Norman.
I don’t know if there is a god, but times like this I wish I had your conviction. I hope she doesn’r suffer.
OK, enough of the maudlin; time to sit out on the porch. Happy T-Day.
You too. And also this is off-topic but kind of fun even though it’s probably one of those things I’m the last to know about. I definitely hadn’t heard about the thing in Sweden which sounds very William Gibsonny.
Dan, are you depressed today?
I’ll send you my story, if you want. I feel very badly for these people, but this is starting to remind me of “Queen For A Day”.
Random pain. Apparently.
I don’t mean to be a dick, but I am down enough, thank you very much. I lost seven friends on 9/11, a girlfriend disappeared into the ether (many years ago), and my best friend drank himself to death. These are random occurrences in my life.
I signed the guestbook for Mathew, and feel outrage for what happened to this woman, and I know I sound cold, but what’s up here? I don’t mean to put you down, but I think I have enough random pain in my life already.
I just don’t get it. Or maybe I do.
Life sucks, and then you don’t die.
I think this young woman’s family would beg to differ.
I’m sure that everybody around here is sorry that you’ve had a rough patch (or a few), but Dan’s trying to help out here. And I seriously doubt that most of the people who have given him a lot of crap over the last few days will step up and recognize that. They really have no obligation to do so, but he’s trying to do some good here.
[/lecture]
Lost Dog–
No, I’m not depressed. I’m just getting into my “things to be thankful for” frame of mind. Cuz ingratitude is the greatest sin.
Hang in there, all–this time of year is especially rough for many of us. Other people’s expectations press on us, other people’s decisions affect us in ways we never imagined….and it’s hard to stay focused on the good. Do something good for yourselves, folks. Life can be short. Happy Thanksgiving–I mostly lurk here, but it’s one of the most interesting places on the net. And I’m thankful for it–and all of you who throw your words out there for all the world to see.
Thanks, Lyndsey. I hope yours is wonderful, too.
Lost Dog I think I know what you mean cause I have a really hard time with media-driven tragedy even when it’s for real tragedy cause somehow after it becomes newsy tragedy it feels like it’s someone else’s problem and not like the way you empathize with and try to help neighbors and real people you know or hear about through friends. The way I always think about it is if I were to get in my car and drive to where the media says the tragedy is I would drive right past a whole hell of a lot of people that are in just as bad shape and worse and that’s before I even got out of Los Angeles.
happyfeet –
Bingo. I do feel badly for these people, but I don’t have to go more than a half a mile to find people that I CAN help.
I don’t see what I can do for people who live a world away from me (so to speak) except to feel badly for them. The family down the street needs a Thanksgiving dinner, and that’s what they will have. That’s the best I can do today. But they are real people to me, not a picture in the paper.
I hope I don’t sound cold, but as sad as these stories are, there is not one tiny little thing I can do about it. I CAN do something for the people in my world, though. And I try very hard to do so. I just don’t make a big deal of it. That’s what we are here for, regardless of my flaming rhetoric on so many other posts.
Thanx.
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