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Missing Christine Starrine Byrd 
Byrd, approximately 1992 Date reported missing : 05/27/1992 Missing location (approx) : Tyler, Texas Missing classification : Endangered Missing Gender : Female Ethnicity : Black DOB : 07/16/1949 (72) Age at the time of disappearance: 42 years old Height / Weight : 5'1 - 5'3, 160 pounds Description, clothing, jewerly and more : A yellow shirt, blue denim shorts and approximately $25,000 worth of jewelry, including a diamond-encrusted bEthnicity : let, two diamond rings and a diamond pin. Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos : African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes. Byrd may go by her middle name, Starrine. Her ears are pierced. Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Byrd was last seen in Tyler, Texas on May 27, 1992. She has never been heard from again. She left food cooking on the stove in her house when she vanished. There were no indications of forced entry. Authorities believe Byrd's disappearance could be related to the murder of a local eight-year-old boy, Ernest Chadwick "Chad" Choice. Chad was kidnapped from his bedroom in November 1991. Two days later, a ransom note was found at his uncle's workplace. The family tried to deliver the money at a bus station as per the instructions in the note, but no one showed up to collect it. Chad's family got an anonymous phone call saying he had been abducted to collect on a debt his uncle owed to three Colombian drug dealers. On the one-year anniversary of his abduction, Chad's mother found another note left on her car windshield; the note said Chad was still alive and demanded $6,000 for his return. The alleged kidnapper(s) never made contact with his family again. In 1995, on the fourth anniversary of the abduction, Chad's skull was left in a grocery bag on his uncle's front porch. Patrick Horn ultimately led authorities to the rest of the body and was convicted of the child's murder in 1997. Horn, a friend of Chad's older brother, was only seventeen years old at the time of Chad's abduction and murder. He said the three Colombian drug dealers had abducted and shot Chad, and that he was not involved in the crime and only disposed of the body because he was in fear for his life. At the time of his conviction in Chad's case, Horn was already serving life in prison without parole for carjacking and bank robbery. He was sentenced to death for Chad's murder, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment due to his Age at the time of disappearance: at the time of the crime. His statements about the alleged drug dealers have never been verified and no one else was ever charged in Chad's case. Investigators stated Horn had been a suspect in Byrd's disappearance since shortly after she vanished. They believe she may have known something about Chad Choice's murder and was killed as a result. Christopher Wells, an associate of Horn's, may have helped move Byrd's remains, but he hasn't been charged in her case. Her disappearance remains unsolved. Other information and links : ncy Tyler Police Department 903-531-1026 September 2021 updates and sources The Doe Network Tyler-Smith County Crimestoppers A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are not known. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2�5% of missing children in Europe. By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends. Several organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and imAge at the time of disappearance: s of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece. The Dallas Morning News KLTV 7 Stolen Lives October 12, 2004. December 21, 2017; Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : updated. |