The Search for Linnea Lomax Part 1 by Michelle Wishart |

Part 1 by Michelle Wishart

My Perspective, A Historical Non-fiction

I GET THE CALL- Part 1

At the end of June 2012, in the late afternoon, I got the call that would forever change my life. My friend, “Chica” said she needed my help. Chica had volunteered to be part of the search party for a missing local girl. She said she needed someone she could trust, and that the scene of the volunteer post was a shit show. Chica said she and the volunteers were searching in some sketchy areas. She wanted someone armed to watch her back.

Chica briefly gave me the details of the missing girl. She said her name was Linnea Lomax, that she was nineteen years old and was last seen on Howe Avenue near Sacramento State College. Chica also told me she was from my area and lived less than five minutes from my house in the rural foothills of Northern California. She’s the daughter of a local family with a local white water rafting company, Rock N Water.

Finding people was my specialty

I’m good at finding people and I was hopeful I could make a difference with Linnea, so I agreed to help in the search and to watch Chica’s back.

I packed the surveillance car with an ice chest filled with bottled water and headed down the hill to the River Park area of Sacramento. My specialty was finding people who seem to fall off the face of the earth and on June 26th, Linnea Lomax fell off the face of the earth. I arrived at the volunteer post around five o’clock in the afternoon. On that day, the summer heat was unbearable.

CATS

The volunteers had taken over the corner of the Safeway parking lot at the corner of Howe and Fair Oaks. I sat in my car watching the volunteers milling around. There were some of the volunteers with Starbucks in their hands, chatting with each other as if it were a social gathering. Some of the volunteers were agitated and frustrated. A couple of the volunteers were trying to organize the group, but it was like herding cats. My friend Chica and another lady named Mary, who I came to deeply respect were trying to organize the cats.

KNOCK AND TALK

The three of us teamed up and started door to door, knock and talks along Howe Avenue. Howe Avenue runs north and south, with the American River a short distance to the west. The doors we knocked on used to be the doors of college kids back in the day, but now they are rows and rows of run-down, low-income apartments. Some of the folks behind the doors are just regular folks living the best life they can afford. Most are hairballs looking for a way to get the next fix of their drug of choice.

SIGHTINGS

Two blocks farther on either side of Howe Avenue were the “nice neighborhoods”. The neighborhoods that have been re-gentrified. Some of the people behind the doors were helpful. They said they saw a girl matching her description walking in the river’s direction.

HOMELESS JUNGLE

After we got the intel of Linnea walking in the river’s direction, we moved the search to the bike trail on the bank of the American River. In groups of three and four people, we walked up and down the bike trails along the river. We spoke to several homeless people, the ones coherent enough to speak to us hadn’t seen or heard anything. There are dirt trails that wind through the thick underbrush and tangled berry bushes on either side of the bike trail. It is no place for civilians to search after dark, armed or not.

The first day of the 73-day search for Linnea Lomax ended after midnight. On my way home, I thought of Linnea’s parents. I thought about the hell they must be going through. As I drove home to my family, I silently cried for the Lomax family as my heart broke and I vowed not to give up until we found her.

Thank you for visiting.

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Michelle Wishart

Bell

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About The Author

Michelle Wishart, Author-BellsRides

My name is Michelle Wishart, but most of you know me as Bell, a motorcycle enthusiast with Bells Rides. Between careers, I was a Private Investigator for three years. I specialized in locating people who didn’t want to be found or those who were taken against their will. I tapped into my experience with real life investigations and recovering human trafficking victims for my fictional stories in The Russian Hit, Human Cargo, and Human Theft.
After retiring from my formal career as a heavy equipment contractor and later a long haul commercial driver, my husband and I traveled full-time in our RV for two years. Exploring the United States, traveling to motorcycle rallies and riding destination.
In 2022, I became a member of the Guinness World Record Book along with over a hundred and forty fellow riders in the World Record Poker Run. Benefitting Rider Down, a non-profit organization for riders involved in a life altering motorcycle accident.
In that same year, 2022, I formed my publishing company, “Bell’s Publishing Co, LLC”, to publish my work. And I finished writing my first novel in a series of novels, The Roxxy Foxx Series.
Our new adventure is traveling and living on our Sea Ray 500 Sedan Bridge. I’m juggling my time between working on a twenty-year-old boat and working on the second novel in the Roxxy Foxx Series, Monstro, Human Cargo and Human Theft, while traveling on the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) up and down the eastern seaboard.
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The Search for Linnea Lomax Part 1 by Michelle Wishart