Chapter 5

                                                                                                                                                                                             Chapter 5


                   Oddly enough the only two people that seemed to be able to match up their watch time to the cash register time and the wall clock inside the store. Was Officer Curtis and Kris Duell. When Kris opened the cash register at 8:16 a.m., Easter morning. Officer Curtis matched up the time to his personal watch to the cash register and store wall clock and confirmed the times were correct. Gram Duells comment, "the clock was still an hour behind," and time had stood still for Heidi. Was a complete contradiction to Officer Curtis claiming his watch matched the store clocks.
                   The Sheriff's immediately set up home base at the local fire barn in New Haven, New York. They implemented faxes and had faxed every police department across the country a missing flier of Heidi Allen, this included border patrol. What the public and media did not know was someone was faxing part's of the investigation from the District Attorney's fax number, across the road to an unknown, strange man. No one seems to know who did fax a complete stranger parts of the Allen investigation. That is another mystery that is unsolved.
                   Two days passed and the search for Heidi had still not surfaced any clues. Sheriff Nellis said, "There is no sense in taking the search any further in to the county because no one knows which direction Allen went in." he continued by saying, "We could go on forever we just do not have anything to go on."
                   The search teams had a canine unit while the state police helicopter scanned the Lake Ontario shore lines. At the families request the Sheriff's allowed a psychic to accommodate deputies during the searches. But police still had no leads. Two days in to it, the Sheriff's had indefinitely ended the search for the missing teen.
                   "As of this morning we are not going to be doing the searches for Heidi Allen, " said Sheriff Investigator Summer Hall. "The only searches we will conduct will be if we have specific information on something. The Sheriff's deputies will still be at the Heidi search center. They will review new and old leads to see if anything had been missed." Hall informed the public. "Deputies will end searches on foot but continue searching per vehicles."
                   The sheriff department stated they had contacted everyone that had been at the store Easter morning and had questioned people during road block's. ,"the last customer that had seen Allen said, "she appeared to be alright."" Sheriff Nellis added." And the Sheriff's are checking the Syracuse Hancock Airport to see if Allen had hopped a plane."
                   "There is no proof that Allen was the victim of foul play." Undersheriff Ruell Todd agreed to Sheriff Nellis belief that there was no evidence that suggested any sort of criminal activity had gone on.
                   "We don't have a crime scene." Lt. Goodsell said.
                   Unknown to anyone the strange, mysterious man who was receiving faxes from the District Attorneys phone number. He had also set up camp across from the Heidi Allen center. Declaring it his own "Heidi Search Center" as he made himself a self proclaimed investigator on the case. This man was the real life Renaissance man, who could do and be everything. He was like Houdini. You never knew he was around and you never knew who he was when he was around. No one did, but a few officer's and the FBI. But no one in the public or media did.
                   Ralph Larkin was a part of the state wide search and rescue team. When asked why he was there he responded with, "Because I have kids. I would hope someone would do the same for me."
                    Kris Duell became the media coordinator, she said, " more than 20,000 fliers bearing Allen's photo had been distributed across central New York by Monday morning." The Heidi Allen volunteers would begin to mail the fliers to friends and major businesses across central New York. Volunteers wearing boots and sporting Orange ribbons in memory of Heidi continued their search efforts alone. They had placed a sign outside of the fire barn that said, "Pray for Heidi's return." That "damn" sign seemed to bother the mysterious man that watched from the distance in his little building he deemed his search center.
                   With the Sheriffs standing in the side lines. Kris Duell took it upon her self to coordinate the search maps and to direct the search crews assigning sections of the map to different groups.
                   By Tuesday April 5, 1994 the searchers were exhausted the wear and tear on their bodies from miles of searching, and the stress was overwhelming. "As long as we are searching the family has hope." A few of the volunteer's said. "Rumor's were also putting a strain on the family and volunteers and their efforts."
                   "We want the rumors to stop." Heidi's Aunt Martha Sturtz said. Martha was the wife of Judge Russell. Martha was Heidi aunt and married to Judge Sturtz.
                   Three rumors that a body had been found were reported to the command post in the village's fire barn. One reported that a body had been found near Mexico point. The second report was that a body had been found in a field, the third report was that an unknown body was taken to the Syracuse Hospital.
                   The Under Sheriff's Ruell Todd's theory for these odd reports were, "The citizen's band radios picked up the transmissions between searchers using hand radio's." he continued ," The CB people picked up a small piece of information and it went down the line growing bigger."
                   These were not the only false leads sent in to the Heidi Search Center. The strange unknown man, himself, had called in and documented his actions. Reporting three different strange vehicles that he said had been seen in the area. He also called the Sheriff's screaming across the telephone, " I know what happened to Heidi, call Bobby Wheeler."
                   The Sheriff's also checked in to two reported sighting's of the missing teen. One they claim was at the Syracuse International airport and the other was in Utica, a larger city to the East of New Haven.
                    More help was on it's way in the form of a man named Rick Benningfield. He was the director and chief operator of the Heidi Center out of Texas. He was a part of one of the growing groups that took part in searches for missing people. The foundation Rick worked for was a group founded in 1990, after a girl named Heidi Seemon disappeared a block from her home, in San Antonio, Texas. Her body had later been recovered sixty miles from her home in San Antonio. But the search for her kidnapper still continued. Benningfield was the foundations only paid staff member and he worked with over forty volunteer's. For almost four years the foundation had helped with 42 abduction cases. All of which had been partially resolved. "About a dozen victims had been found alive," Benningfield said.
                   In New Haven Rick would work hand in hand with over two hundred volunteer's, a handful of Sheriff's and an FBI agent assigned to the case. The only cost was the airplane ticket that Justice Judge Russell Sturtz and his wife Martha had paid for.
                   "It's a big help knowing someone is coming in spearheading thing's so we aren't over whelmed." Sue Allen, Heidi's mom said relieved, that she had more help willing to find her missing daughter.
                   "The guy coming has brought a lot of hope to a lot of people. " Brett Law said. Brett had received a call that morning Heidi disappeared from Heidi's Aunt Nancy letting Brett know that Heidi had vanished. "When I got there, the police and Heidi's family were already at the store, " he said , "I didn't know what to do." Law continued by saying, "I try to do what I can to help, but I often find myself standing in the middle of the Fire hall and staring at the activity going on around me." , "It hits me sometimes on exactly what was going on."
                   "There is one thing they will ask you, " said Heidi's mom, "Do you think she just took off?"
                   "I know there is no possible way," said Brett, "We relied on one another, first. We were the most important thing to each other."
                   The Sheriff agreed, "But, no evidence had pointed to Heidi being abducted."
                   "There was no doubt in our mind," Brett added, "That we were going to be together, forever. One of the reason's I fell in love with her, was due to her work ethnics. She would not sit still for a minute."
                   Heidi would go to school until four in the afternoon, from there she would work until ten o'clock at night. She would then go to Brett's after work and tend to Brett. Heidi would go out of her way to tend to Brett or to simply give him a kiss. Rain or shine, Heidi stuck by the same pattern, day after day.
                   Day's after Heidi vanished people were still finding reminders of her existence at the store. Heidi had taped light colored pastel egg's to items through out the store. If a customer had purchased an item with one attached the customer would receive a free movie rental. When she interned she had named the group for divorced kids "Banana Splits" not only was Heidi smart and hard working she was very creative.
                   Rick Benningfield had arrived the Thursday following Heidi's disappearance and immediately he implemented changes at the local Heidi Search Center. Since he had arrived those now entering and exiting the search center were made to sign in and camera's were now monitoring visitors. Benningfield explained that many abductors would help with the search before they got caught.
                   Benningfield outlined a better understanding to volunteer's and issued duties to all involved. He then helped the Allen family to establish a seven member board of director's to carry out fund raising, possible future searches and flier distribution along with a number of other tasks.
                   "He has given us direction, he has fine tuned us." Heidi's father Ken Allen said.
                   The family insists he did not get paid but received a thousand dollar donation for the San Antonio Heidi Center as a donation, from Heidi search center in New Haven, New York.
                   Benningfield thought that someone had lured Heidi out of the store and may have tossed her in to a vehicle, quickly disappearing from the intersection of state route 104 and 104b. "I'd find it hard to imagine that one person had taken a girl the size of Heidi."
                   Rick then sent a letter to Sheriff Nellis. "Requesting help from two hundred law enforcement officer's. He wanted to conducted a square-mile grid search over a period of three days." Nellis passed the letter on to the local emergency management office, which in turn they faxed the letter to the State Emergency Management Office." In turn this letter generated over one hundred and twenty local and state police men and women. Whom were willing to assist in the Allen case.
                    Sheriff Nellis claimed this letter had caused a state of confusion. The Sheriff insisted his department didn't need anymore help investigating the case on Allen.
                   "There has been eleven Sheriff's investigator's working up to sixteen hour's a day on the case. And they have been able to pursue every lead." Investigator Lt. Dean Goodsell said. " The Sheriff's department has been calling on the state police for help when it is needed. Including the use of a helicopter and an expert who can dust for fingerprints and look for evidence." Nellis finished explaining why the Sheriff's had no need for further assistance. "If the Sheriff's Department reaches the point where it need's more law enforcement assistance," Nellis added, "We will call the State Police for help."
                   For three day's a rumor sailed around, reaching even Albany. The letter that was sent by Benningfield to request searchers. the rumor was that the Sheriff and his Department had denied the help of other officer's. In which case, Nellis did deny any outside help, but later called the rumor, " An absolute falsehood."
                   The Governor in 1994, Mario Cuomo had gone over the Sheriff's head and sent the force that Benningfield had requested. Cuomo sent over two hundred National Guard. They had provided air patrol. The Civil Air patrol unit would help with improving communication. One hundred of the volunteers came from the local military base in Fort Drum out of Watertown, New York. A trainer and coordinator with the United States National and International search and response disaster team. She joined on to the search bringing her German Shepard search dogs with her. The dog's could detect a human scent breaking the surface of the water. The dog's would become helpful in water and in brushy area's searches may have missed.
                   Benningfield stayed for nineteen day's vowing to return if Allen's remains were ever found or if there was an arrest made in her abduction. To serve as a buffer for the Allen family and as a source of constant information.
                   "The work is not over," Benningfield said, "We still have to find out who did this to Heidi. Chance's are if they did this once, they will do it again."