Missing Toni Sharpless

I had planned to take a hard look at the disappearance of Gladwyne,Pa. mom Toni Lee Sharpless.

Sharpless, a mother and nurse employed by Lancaster General Hospital went missing after leaving a house party on the 1300 block of Bobarn Drive on August, 23rd 2009.

To date Ms. Sharpless’s black 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix Gt PA license plate number DND7772 has not been recovered. It was however spotted in the Camden, NJ area after her disappearance.

Ms. Sharpless’s cell phone was turned off around 4am the night of the party and she has never been heard from since. Nor has there been any activity on her bank account.

Having consumed alcohol at the party and reportedly low on gas when she left. There are many theories as to what may have happened to her. No one at the party Ms. Sharpless attended is suspected of any wrong doing.

Her story has been the subject of many newspaper articles and was featured on an episode of Investigation ID’s “Disappeared” program.

Tips from the program have turned up sightings of Ms. Sharpless in the Lancaster, Pa…Camden, NJ…Philadelphia, Pa. areas.

An initial attempt to try to “test the waters” to help solve this disappearance has yielded information that a very active and long term investigation is continuing. I will not interfere in any case where there is an “official” investigation ongoing.

In missing persons cases throughout America. Sometimes I am very surprised when LE and investigators turn down help from others.

Notably in the Caylee Anthony case volunteers were told by LE not to search near the area where the tots body was found months later. Had volunteers been allowed to search that area the tot’s body may have been found months sooner possibly leading to a different outcome in the case.

In the case of Holly Bobo a large contingent of volunteers who were going to search the area where she went missing were dispersed quickly.

Recently it was volunteers…not investigators that found the body of missing Michelle Le.

I believe as much help as possible is needed to solve these disappearances. In disappearances where there is absolutely no known crime scene with no leads. In these instances, help should be sought from the public. Active help. Unfortunately, missing persons don’t appear on milk cartons anymore. People don’t stop at the post office to look at the “missing” posters anymore. The world is a depressing place enough.

The amount of pain friends and family members go through
in not “knowing” ANYTHING … is unbareable.

Would of it hurt to distribute posters in the areas where Ms. Sharpless has been seen? Or are investigators closing in on the whereabouts of Toni Sharpless?

I pray in this case as I do others for the safe return of Ms. Sharpless.

UPDATE 2013- Please enjoy this wonderful update from Cindy Stauffer on the Sharpless case. Its fantastic work.

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/801938_Tips-on-whereabouts-of-LGH-nurse-missing-since-2009-give-family-some-hope.html

I look forward to commenting on some of the things that have surfaced in this case but will continue to do so from a far. While Ms. Sharpless’ mother has expressed that she wouldn’t turn away help. I have felt as I said all along that on paper that Ms. Sharpless’ family is doing all the right things in this case. She does have seasoned investigators working the case both in a private manor as well as the police department. Even though her private investigator may not be any fan of mine from her response to me. I know people are reading my blog and clicking her poster and just maybe… MAYBE… it will lead to someone coming forward.

But in Cindy Stauffer’s update she writes of possible hoax phone calls in the case.

Last year one particular hoaxer made headlines by not only making disturbing videos for the missing persons family to see. But to also carry on very disturbingly with famed crime writer James Renner. I have seen hoaxes too in other cases. It sickens me and makes me sooooo angry. There should be laws put in place to arrest anyone who behaves so despicably.

Here is the letter received by a private investigator on the case:

Text of letter sent to private investigator

The letter is as it was received, with errors in capitalizations, punctuation and spelling. In two places, a phone number and vehicle identification number have been omitted.

Dear Eileen law,
The police in Pa do not have a tip line. I tried calling the philly police where I live but they said it was not in their jurisdiction. One of the detectives pulled me aside and gave me your name and address. In the last few days of Sept. 2009 a friend in Camden called me and offered me money to move a car from Brooklawn NJ to Boston Mass. He told me he would pay me $5,000 dollars cash plus I could have the plates. He asked if I new anyone 27 or 29 that wanted to paper trip so he gave me a social security card. I drove the car a black 4 dr. Pontiac Grand Prix and drove to a auto body shop outside of Boston Mass. I took off the plates and with a black magic marker wrote down the last five digits of the VIN number and cleared out the glove box. I came back to Camden a day later and he told me that the car was not stolen but missing. He said a friend of his a cop in Camden got into a fight with a girl, she died and he needed to get the car out of Jersey. About a month ago my daughter was playing in the garage and found the box with the plates & S.S. card I had forgotten all about it. The plates are DND7772 the S.S. card.(Sharpless’ cell phone number was written here) and the last 5 digits of the VIN are (the last five numbers of Sharpless’ vehicle’s identification number was written here). Because of hurricane Sandy I had to visit Jersey to help friends clean up. I decided to drop you this letter. What happened to Tony I don’t really know all I know is that she had a run in with the police and I was paid much needed cash to get the car to a shop in Boston.

My take: I have not interviewed or dug deep in this case as to its players and what they know. I am going off all public information here. I have always felt the evidence in this case has pointed to only two outcomes. Disappearance as the result of a criminal act or suicide. Ms. Sharpless by public accounts did leave the party intoxicated and very very upset. Possibly humiliated. Possibly bullied? All of those things can lead to suicide by bridge jump. And there were bridges between her destinations. All of those things can also leave a young woman traveling alone prone to disappearance because of a criminal act. Investigators in this case have done a good job looking for her car so as to cross disappearance as the result of an accident off the list.

I also have felt that after a sighting of her car in a very high crime area and then her car disappears altogether. That it most likely was chopped up somewhere.

I hope investigators will take the letter serious enough to run down the leads in it to its last breath given there appears to be some hoax leads recently. I will never ever name hoaxers by name in any missing persons case. They wont get personal attention from me EVER.

This family deserves us to keepthesearchalive until this mystery is solved.

SOMEONE OUT THERE KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT THIS CASE. PLEASE I URGE YOU TO COME FORWARD!! Use the link below to view her poster…contact authorities or leave an anonymous tip:
http://www.missingtonisharpless.com/