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TWELVE YEARS LATER... January 31st, 2008 Dear Friends and Family, Well, it has now been twelve years since Rachel seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. These past twelve years have been difficult on all of us who knew and loved Rachel, but we do draw comfort in each other and the faith that Rachel is indeed in a better place dancing, laughing and singing.I first would like to personally thank everyone for the continued support and prayers that keep me going on a daily basis. I could never have made it through these many years without the love that you all have given me. Thanks!!!! At this time with all the high profile missing people cases in a close proximity to Bolingbrook, I'd like to challenge all of us to action. I do not want Rachel's death to be in vain when there are changes that can be made to protect people in the future. First of all I think we need to urge all law enforcement agencies and judges to take missing people cases seriously immediately when reported, regardless of the age of the victim. The experts say that the first 24 hours are critical yet many times reports are not even taken until someone has been missing for 24 hours. There also needs to be almost immediate search warrants executed upon the victims residence. In Rachel's case this was not done for several days and things had been cleaned up. One thing that Rachel's case, Stacy Peterson's case and Lisa Stebic's case have in common is that in all three cases, there are records of police calls for domestics in the background of each person who last saw each victim, yet the remaining children in the households were not removed from the environments even temporarily for evaluation. We also need to urge local law enforcement to accept the outside help that is readily available. There seems to be a hesitancy to accept help and I really don't understand why. I thought we were all on the same side. Help is available through the FBI and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children--- these are trained experienced investigators, but if the local police do not request assistance none can be given. For example, Project Alert is available free for cold cases like Rachel's, but it has yet to be utilized for Rachel. Let's see what we can do to make some kind of reason out of this tragic experience that we have all been through. I again want to thank everyone for their continued support and love that keeps me going daily. May God bless each and everyone of you as you continue to remember Rachel and her bubbly self. Sincerely, Jeff Skemp
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