What happened to Yasmin Acree, a 15-year-old girl who vanished from her West Side home on Jan. 15?
Yasmin, who is the niece of the Rev. Ira Acree, a local activist and outspoken critic of the Chicago Police Department, hasn't been seen since.
"At 15 years old, the only way she could take care of herself is if an adult is harboring her," Acree said. "If that's the case, it is illegal, and it is criminal."
In a five-part series last year, Sun-Times reporter Maudlyne Ihejirika wrote that 54 people, on average, are reported missing each day in Chicago. Just 2 percent of missing juveniles have been abducted.
But Yasmin doesn't appear to fit the profile of a teen who would run away.
Adoptive mother's anguish:
"I know Yasmin didn't run away," said Rose Starnes, her adoptive mother/aunt. "I don't know what happened to her, but I do know she didn't run away. The only place she can get to on public transportation is school," she said.
Starnes pointed out that Yasmin always had adult supervision. Unfortunately, Starnes may have overlooked a threat to Yasmin's safety that was closer to home.
At the time of Yasmin's disappearance, Starnes was renting a room to a former boyfriend, and he was the last person who saw Yasmin.
Because the man hasn't been charged with any crime even though he apparently failed a lie detector test, I am withholding his identity.
Two months after Yasmin went missing, the man moved out of the rented room at Starnes' request.
Teen left alone with mother's ex-boyfriend:
On the night Yasmin disappeared, Starnes said she did not come home because she spent the night in Elgin with another daughter. That left Yasmin home alone with the former boyfriend.
"When I got home, one of my nieces told me that somebody had cut the lock off the basement door. I didn't pay much attention to that because I felt [the former boyfriend] had done it trying to scare me because I hadn't come home that night."
Starnes became alarmed when Yasmin did not return at her usual time from her classes at Austin Polytechnical Academy.
"She usually gets home at 5 p.m. and she has to come straight home. That is when I knew something was wrong and called the police," she said.
"The Police Department wasn't convinced there was a forced entry. Police interviewed family members, and the boyfriend is the only one who flunked the polygraph," Acree said.
"We've distributed thousands of fliers. We've held prayer vigils. We placed ads in newspapers. We have done all of that, and it hurts us to have police say she has run away."
Shortly after she vanished, Yasmin was profiled by CLTV, NBC-5 and Fox News.
But the coverage was nothing compared to the media blitz that followed the disappearance of two suburban women last year.
Stacy Peterson, 23, went missing on Oct. 28, in Bolingbrook. At least 150 articles or columns mentioning Peterson have appeared in this newspaper alone.
Before then, the "missing person" spotlight was on a 37-year-old Plainfield woman, Lisa Stebic. She went missing April 30, 2007, and her case also dominated the news.
Neither of the women have been found.
"I don't have closure," Starnes said. "You don't know if a person is dead or alive," she said.
"Deep down inside I didn't know if [the former boyfriend] had anything to do with it, but I couldn't stand to look at him because if something was going on, the child is always the victim."
Whatever has happened to Yasmin, that is the point: She is a 15-year-old victim. Her disappearance is just as painful to her family and friends as that of the other women I have mentioned.
The only differences between these missing person cases is race and class.
Starnes' former boyfriend should have been hounded by the media and the police just as the men in the Stebic and Peterson cases were hounded.
Frankly, the blatant disparity in how the media handles missing person cases exposes an industrywide bias.
A reward for information about Yasmin's disappearance is being offered. Anyone with information should call (773) 378-3300.
Mary Mitchell is a columnist for the 
How do you explain how the media keeps Diamond and Tionda Bradley in the spotlight 10 YEARS after they went missing then?!
To Mark:
The Diamond and Tionda Bradley case is mentioned about once a year during the anniversary of their disappearance. Further, the media focus on the missing girls was a direct response to pressure from community activists. More importantly, we are talking about two girls who disappeared, not two grown women.
Mary Mitchell
I work at the YMCA where Yasmin attended mentoring and other programs. We held a rally for Yasmin in May, and despite press releases to all the major and community media, we got almost no coverage for our rally (Including from the Sun Times); However, we did have over 75 teen agers in attendance. It was important for us to hold a rally, not only for Yasmin's safe return, but to let all the teens in our program know that they matter and make a difference. They can not just go missing and be forgotten.
Unfortunately, the ommision of news on cases like Yasmine's reinforces the message that urban teens are expendable and immaterial. It's no wonder that there are so many young people who don't value another person's life.
Yasmin we won't stop looking for you!
Dear Mary, These issues do exist with respect to race and socioeconomic status. I must respectfully disagree that this is the only difference. The Peterson/Stebic case also is front page as there are issues with the sensationalism of possible sexual liasons, abuse, a prime suspect, suspects that are intentionally dancing with the media and playing them. There is a central figure, a who done it, a Columbo mystery case. There is more than race and status although they are a definite elements. I hope that is evident to you.
I would like to see that everything is not always about money and race printed in the paper. I would like us not to have the media drive the issue and the associated fear that seperates us with these areas
"Starnes' former boyfriend should have been hounded by the media and the police just as the men in the Stebic and Peterson cases were hounded."
This seems like a strange point of view for Ms. Mitchell. In one of her columns (Oct. 30, 2007, I believe) on the boyfriend-now-suspect in the Nailah Franklin murder she basically called for better treatment of suspects-that they should not be hounded by the police and media. The boyfriend claimed he had been with the victim a month before the murder. Husbands and boyfriends (of any race)are frequently the first and best suspects so it didn't seem unusual that pressure should be applied to him-especially since, IIRC, he had done other crimes.
In this case, I don't know the race of the mother's boyfriend- if he is black he is arguably being treated in a fairer manner than Stebic or Peterson (who are both white).
This is a tragedy and it does seem odd that the boyfriend isn't being hounded more. So often the newspaper carries stories of children suffering at the hands of stepfathers and boyfriends. But if he hasn't been charged I guess he really shouldn't be hounded.
The police may be afraid of charges of racism. Sometimes, "routine traffic stops" are criticized in the media-sometimes in this column-forgetting that a "routine traffic stop" led to Officer John Knight's murder. Nailah Franklin's case was more publicized-to the officer's detriment.
While I don't mean to diminish the pain that Ms. Starnes is undoubtably going through, I have to question her judgement in leaving Yasmin alone for the night with someone who was basically a boarder in her home. That to me does not constiture "adult supervision."
Mary,
I would like to thank you for writing this article. I honestly feel that if we don't stand for something we will fall for anything. This scares me because I am a parent of a daughter and I know that if I was in the shoes of this family or any family of a missing child I would not be able to function. But it makes it touching because this child has just been classified as a run-away and the book was turned to another chapter, and the media coverage was minimal.
Thanks again
Mary, its kind of a 2-way street....Remember those three white Texas thugs who tied that black man up behind the back of a pick-up and drove him around until he was dead and decapitated, well that was Page One news nationally. Right? Even 2000 campaign commercial news...Mary, are you even aware, during the same period, right here in Ford Heights, IL a white man had gas thrown all over him on Lincoln Hwy when his car broke down, by a mob of black thugs. Set on fire until he burned to death. How come only page 4 and for only one or two days? Explain?
Mary, we all know the Amadou Diallo Tragedy in New York City. Amadou shot by 4 white policeman. Page One and nation-wide. And the big names like Jackson and Sharpton marching and ranting all over NYC....Well guess what, here in Chicago, during the same period, two innocent and unarmed African-Americans where shot dead by Chicago Police. There names were Latanya Haggarty and Robert Russ. This was NOT a nation-wide big deal story. Oh yeah, the only clergy really marching was Rev. Jakes. No Jesse Jackson and he LIVES IN CHICAGO. Oh, did I forget to mention ALL police involved in the shootings were African-American, also. Therefore, in comparison to NYC, lets 'hush' it up.
And believe me, there is other examples. You just need to look here in Chicago at the racist comments made by Chicago Alderwomen, Dorothey Tillman and Emma Mitts, towards the Hispanic community. And I definately did NOT see columnists like you go after them like you all did a lets say Don Imus.
Haven't you figured out by now that the media is more interested in ratings than what is right, corredt or fair? I don't remember Stebic, but I do remember Peterson because of THAT SMILE. You know the pic I'm talking about. That pretty face with that perfect, radiant, symmeterical smile. Perfect teeth. That smile. I saw that smile everyday in practically every magazine/paper/TV show. For months.
Don't you see that smile was MSM's "money shot"? Millions and millions of dollars were made on that smile. All races of people, all over the world pony'ed up the coin because they were compeled to know about the person behind the smile. They loved the tabloid soap opera aspect of a beautiful person dying mysteriously.
If people were really willing to spend money to know about the missing teen you described, her story would headline. Maybe she did not have a pretty enough smile?
Haven't you figured out by now that the media is more interested in ratings than what is right, corredt or fair? I don't remember Stebic, but I do remember Peterson because of THAT SMILE. You know the pic I'm talking about. That pretty face with that perfect, radiant, symmeterical smile. Perfect teeth. That smile. I saw that smile everyday in practically every magazine/paper/TV show. For months.
Don't you see that smile was MSM's "money shot"? Millions and millions of dollars were made on that smile. All races of people, all over the world pony'ed up the coin because they were compeled to know about the person behind the smile. They loved the tabloid soap opera aspect of a beautiful person dying mysteriously.
If people were really willing to spend money to know about the missing teen you described, her story would headline. Maybe she did not have a pretty enough smile?
So will you also be conducting a huge interview with Acree's ex-boyfriend? I'm sure he will also claim, like Reginald Potts, that he had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance. Be sure to again look him right in the eyes and ask him point blank if he had anything to do with it. I'm sure, just like Potts, he'll be so honest with you on that.
You blame the media for not hounding the guy but you wont even give
> out his name. Once again Mary hide behind race and whine about
> others not doing enough while you yourself withhold his identity.
>
> On the other hand when the media does just what you ask you call
> it racism. you wrote "By the time Cutts was arrested, he had
> already been pilloried in the media,". "Cutts is a black man who is
> accused of killing his pregnant white girlfriend and unborn baby."
> On the other hand, "although just about everyone I spoke with
> thought Vaughn must have killed his family, he was given the
> respect due any grieving father by the media." Said Mitchell, "The
> difference in these sensational crimes isn't character. It's race."
>
> Somedays your skewed logic makes me wonder why I give you any
> credibility.
This is just about the most pathetic thing you've ever written. It's RACIST that the cops are not hounding this guy, and yet in a previous column about another suspect, it was RACIST for the cops to be hounding him! White people cannot win with you, can they? You must finding something racist in the very fact of our breathing. You are a hypocrite. And irony of ironies, I believe it is YOU who are the real racist.
Didn't a recent black women's disappearance get alot of media coverage. You even interviewed her alledged killer. She's from the south loop. How do you explain her media over-coverage? You seemed to have omitted her. Why?
Experiencing first hand how cruel the media can be is the reason I started a petition for equal coverage for all missing children. I appreciate the coverage my nieces have gotten, however that is not enough. They have a twenty four hour weather channel and late night poker on all night, why the hell aren't these missing children on at the least somewhere on these channels. Personally, I am tired of hearing about who or what celebrity had a child or who was drunk in Hollywood. Our children are being stolen, raped, and murdered and the media only cares about crap. I am also paying for these cable packages($100.00) and not be able to demand what I want to watch. I am paying, so I should be able to watch a missing kids channel all night if I choose. I appreciate this site even mentioning my nieces but we need more. Sometimes I get so angry at this mess; I just feel like saying forget it. I can't and I won't ever stop looking for Diamond and Tionda. I have become so bitter about the unequal treatment of our black, hispanic, asian, and other minority children being ignored, I sometimes ignore any amber alerts. Then I have to remind myself that it's not the child's fault. What these corporate owners don't realize is that if they fail to keep ours in the news, how long will it be before a sexual predator steals their child(ren). Not putting all children on the air only enables some other child to be stolen. I am sure the sex offenders appreciate the media not airing missing children. That gives them time to move around hunting for a child to prey on. I am planning to have a "blackout" day to simply turn off our televisions just for one day. Then perhaps the media will feel the pain as their ratings hit the bottom. I thank you again for allowing my nieces to be featured here and please sign the petition.