The Security Professionals, Inc.

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Press Release

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Cahners

Heart Break

May 2000
Volume 37 - Number 5

Media Keeps Case Upfront

In Chicago and in Memphis, the McPikes and the investigators enlisted the aid of another group - the media. "It was a two edged sword to open yourself to reporters, but it is one of the best ways to get the word out. They kept the story alive," says Nancy McPike. The media especially Memphis newspaper reporter Yolanda Jones of the Commercial Appeal and national television, kept the pressure on the police, too.

One theory, of a gang-related incident, drew in Clarence (Bubba) Glenn, (image seen above), who has long-time experience with gangs such as the Disciples. "We made contact with gang leaders in Memphis and they told us that their involvement just didn't make sense," comments Glenn.

The private investigators brought in Electronic Help

In Chicago at The Security Professionals offices, Pempek was pounding the Lexis-Nexis pavement. The Miamisburg, Ohio-based information services firm is a long time tool of investigators tracking down deadbeat dads, stolen cars and bad check artists. In a review of Memphis police activity since Hillary's disappearance, the private investigators made a discovery using Lexis-Nexis-but unlike the police, they quickly linked it to the missing grad student.

They discovered that on November 21 the Memphis police had recovered a 1989 Ford Bronco, which had been stolen in Ashland, Miss., about three days before. Using Lexis-Nexis as well as official and unofficial Federal and state law enforcement contacts, the private investigation team now believed that a convicted murderer and rapist who was fleeing from a recent murder charge in Mississippi had been near the spot and near the time of Hillary Johnson's disappearance.

With a tenuous link from the Memphis area where Hillary lived to an "on-the-run" murderer from Mississippi, the investigators then traveled to Mississippi to interview law enforcement officials at the state police headquarters.

In talking with one officer who chased the Mississippi murder suspect into the Memphis area, "we confirmed how close this guy was to the area where Hillary was," Davis says. "There was another car theft in that Memphis area and the police assumed that the murderer had dumped one vehicle and picked up the other, which wasn't Hillary's," Davis adds.

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When you need security, you can count on us.