The District Chronicles

Issue date: 5/3/09 Section: Cover

A composed Thelma Butler, 76, prepared dinner for her family Thursday evening and greeted people with a tender smile as they entered her intimate home in Southwest Washington, DC.

But then she broke-down as she recalled the events leading up to the disappearance of her daughter Pamela Butler. Her daughter, 47, a program analyst for the Environmental Protection Agency, is a brown-skinned African-American female, who was last seen February 12, in the 5800 block of Fourth Street in Northwest.

That was also the last time Thelma spoke to her daughter. She said her daughter, and her now ex-boyfriend, were making plans to take her out for Valentine's Day. Butler told her mother that she would pick her up at 3 p.m.

Five days passed and no one heard from Pamela. Derrick Butler, 46, described his sister as "real meticulous and methodical. She follows through on everything," he said.

Derrick sent his sister a text stating if he didn't hear from her he would file a missing persons report followed by an another text saying that their mother was in the hospital. She did not respond and he filed a missing person's report.

Average looking men, women and children from a variety of economic, social and ethnic backgrounds, make up the 102,764 active missing persons as of January 1, according to the National Crime Information Center. However, mainstream media fails to present what is in fact a very diverse missing persons population and many say race is the factor.

Butler's story received local news coverage by the local television networks, News Channel 8, MSNBC and the Washington Post.

News of Butler's disappearance was not reported on the national level but the stories of Chandra Levy, a congressional intern who had an affair with Rep. Gary Condit (D-California), and Laura Garza, a Brooklyn woman who vanished after leaving a Manhattan nightclub with a serial sex offender, were covered in great detail on national networks like CNN.

Garza is often described in the media as a "curly-haired beauty." Garza's name produced 1,800,000 results on Google. Levy's produced 642,000 and Butler's produced 440,000. What's the difference between the three women? According to many, race plays a primary role.

"Media Backtalk," a live discussion with Washington Post columnist and media critic Howard Kurtz, one Washingtonian wrote, "I cannot recollect one case about a young African-American or Hispanic woman/child going missing. Locally, yes. Nationally, no. i.e. the Pamela Butler case in which she has been missing for more than a week. Could you help me understand why the media fails so miserably in this arena?"

Continued...

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