I keep saying it, my readers are the best. In my inbox this morning, was a puzzle that has occupied me for the better part of the day.
A reader told me that after watching old television send-offs, they saw two clips from WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois.
Clip 1 is from 1989 and on YouTube
At 6min and 47sec, the clip ends with the national anthem. After that, the screen turns to a black-and-white, very low quality, missing person poster of Joanna Lopez. The telephone number underneath is not in service (anymore) by any Illinois law enforcement agency.
The screen remains static at this poster, no voice-over explaining the case, no details which Chicago Illinois Police Division is in charge of this case, nothing. It lasts until the end of the clip at 8min and 11 sec.
Clip 2 is from 1991 and also on YouTube
This clip ends at 2min and 3sec and again, at the end the same very blurry poster of Joanna.
So I went online.
Sofar, I have not been able to find anything in newspaper archives but I am still working on it. I did find some references online to this case though.
In my online search, I saw that two websites refer to Joanna’s case. One is called Arizona Royal Twists and the other is Sedentaria Digitale. Those links do not work anymore so I just took screenshots of the Google search.
On Reddit was a thread with others wondering what happened to Joanna. I saved it to the WayBack machine.
Interesting remarks on a Wiki called Speakonia Community. A user then named SavageBoy69 posted this, hinting that the entire family is missing and refers to the clips mentioned above. I have been told this was a bad joke. However, I did save the page to the WayBack Machine too to keep the reference to the clips.
There is no Joanna Lopez in the archives of either NamUS or NCMEC. She is not listed with the Charley Project either.
Is there a chance that Joanna is not alive anymore? Of course, but then she might be listed somewhere as a Jane Doe. In short, this is a puzzle I will be working on time-permitting.
I searched on the Illinois State Police websites under their missing and cold cases. However, their online archives do not seem to go back further than 2012.
If you have any links to newspaper articles or pictures of Joanna Lopez, please let me know. I took a screenshot from the missing person poster and tried to adjust it. It just isn’t a good picture.
Contact Information
If you have any information about this case that can help police find Joanna Lopez, please contact Chicago Police.
Hat tip to C.