Featured Cases


HEATHER NICOLE KULLORN

Heather in an undated photo - her 5th-grade school picture - age-progressed to age 19
Information

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

  • Missing Since: July 15, 1999 from Richmond Heights, Missouri
  • Classification: Endangered Missing
  • Date Of Birth: March 9, 1987
  • Age: 12 years old
  • Height and Weight: 4'10, 87 pounds
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Heather has a birthmark on her inner right thigh. Her ears are pierced multiple times. Heather shaved her eyebrows prior to her July 1999 disappearance.
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description: Green plaid shorts and a dark blue cut-off t-shirt with an emblem.
  • Medical Conditions: Heather is a mild diabetic and requires daily insulin injections to regulate her condition. She needs to test her blood sugar four times day. Sugared foods and water may sustain her for a short period if she does not have her insulin, but if she does not get medical assistance, eventually Heather will fall into a diabetic coma.
    • Background

    Details of Disappearance

    Heather was staying with friends of her family, Dana Madden and Christopher Herbert, and babysitting their two-month-old infant in July 1999. She had been staying in their residence for about a week by July 15. She was at the apartment in the 1600 block of Yale Avenue in Richmond Heights, Missouri during the overnight hours of July 15. Madden was working the night shift for her employer and the Herbert was not at home at the time. A neighbor reported observing an unidentified man carrying a child who was Heather's age out of the apartment at approximately 2:00 a.m. that morning. The child's upper body was wrapped in a blanket. When authorities were called to the scene at 5:00 a.m., they discovered that a white comforter with a floral design was missing from the apartment along with Heather. The baby was in the apartment and crying, and there was no sign of Heather, but a small amount of blood was found inside the residence. DNA testing linked the blood to Heather. She has never been heard from again.

    Authorities announced that they believed Heather was not a victim of random violence and that the attacker(s) most likely knew her family or the friends she was staying with at the time. The investigation centered on a methamphetamine ring in Missouri. Evidence of a methamphetamine manufacturing lab was found in the Maddens/Herbert apartment. Investigators said that Heather may have witnessed illegal drug activity in the apartment's garage and was abducted and presumably murdered as a result. In March 2002, human remains were discovered that police thought were Heather's, but they turned out not to belong to her. Investigators say they have a suspect, but there is insufficient evidence to charge the individual with anything connected to Heather's case. The suspect has not been identified publicly.

    Heather's mother, Christine Kullorn, had a verbal confrontation with Madden in April 2000, nine months after her daughter vanished. She was arrested after arguing with Madden during the latter's work shift at a local 7-11 convenience store in St. Louis. Christine believes Madden and Herbert know more about her daughter's disappearance than they are telling. Herbert has given conflicting stories about his whereabouts at the time Heather disappeared; Madden was known to be at work when she vanished. Christine has been actively involved in Heather's case since the onset of the investigation and has never been considered a suspect. She says she believes her daughter will come home safe eventually.

    Foul play is suspected in Heather's disappearance. She was a student at Blow Middle School in south St. Louis, Missouri at the time of her disappearance. Her case remains unsolved.

    Photographs and Images

    The apartment complex on Yale Avenue where Heather was babysitting

    Christine Kullorn with a picture of Heather
    Videos and News Clips

    A Birthday Vigil For Heather Kullorn, Nearly 7 Years After Her Disappearance

    		 Click for News Clips

    Birthday Sunday For Missing Heaather Kullorn

    10th March 2008
    Birthday Sunday For Missing Heaather Kullorn
    Last Edited: Sunday, 09 Mar 2008, 8:18 PM CDT
    Created: Saturday, 08 Mar 2008, 10:02 PM CST
    By Summer Knowles

    (KTVI -- MyFOXstl.com)  -- 

    It's been nearly a decade since 12 year-old Heather Kullorn disappeared while babysitting at Richmond heights apartment complex.

    A witness told police he saw a man carrying a girl out of the apartment, and investigators even found Heather's blood, but no one's ever been charged.

    The man whose child Heather was babysitting has always been a person of interest and investigators say his stories about that night are inconsistent.

    And that just makes it even harder for Heather's family to deal with their loss, but giving up simply isn't an option for them.

    Every year for the last nine years, Heather Kullorn's family has been fighting to keep her memory and the investigation of her disappearance alive, whether it's by holding vigils on the anniversary of the day she went missing, or by celebrating her birthday.

    Sunday about a dozen friends and family members, once again, met at Heather's grandmother's grave to celebrate Heather's life with what's become an increasingly sad song.

    As they sang happy birthday and let go of celebratory balloons, Heather's family vowed to never let go of the hope that someday they'll find out what happened to her.

    "Heather we all come here for the ninth time and that won't change," said Christine Kullorn, Heather's mother. "I just want to tell you I’m sorry it's this way."

    "I think it's worse than the disappearance date because you know she got to spend 12 nice years with Heather," said Heather's Aunt Cynthia Fields.

    12 years with her, and nine without.

    "It’s very important for everyone to understand how it feels to have your heart ripped out when your child is taken from you," said Fields.

    And to anyone who knows anything about Heather’s disappearance?

    "For any of you who knows who where she is and you're not coming forward to tell us where her remains are at. All I can say is god help you b/c maybe you'll get away with it in this lifetime, but in the next you will pay for it, all of you will pay."

    Again Heather would've been 21 years old Sunday. It's been nine years since she disappeared, but after witnessing Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby's safe return.

    Heather's family believes anything is possible.

    A Birthday Vigil For Heather Kullorn, Nearly 7 Years After Her Disappearance

    3/9/2006 5:08:52 PM
    KSDK-It's been nearly 7 years since Heather Kullorn disappeared while babysitting in Richmond Heights. Thursday, loved ones gathered to remember her birthday.

    The missing girl would have turned 19 Thursday. Friends and family held balloons and flowers as they sang "Happy Birthday" to Heather at her grandmother's gravesite in South Saint Louis County. "I just wish whoever knows something would bring her back to me," said Christine Kullorn, Heather's mother. Richmond Heights police say the case remains open.

    Chris still holds out hope she will get a break in the case. "I feel like things are going to happen eventually. They'll feel guilty. I just would like to have her home so I can bury her," she says.

    Heather is also on the minds of family members of Bianca Piper. The Foley, Missouri teenager has been missing a year Friday. Her grandfather hopes
    someone comes forward for Bianca's family, the Kullorns and the families of other missing children. "Hopefully, someone who knows something, they'd think about our family or Heather's or Shawn's. I could go on and on," explained Bianca's grandfather, Guy Young. Bianca's family will hold a prayer vigil Friday in the same area where the young girl was last seen.

    http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=93466

    Questions Persist in Heather Kullorn Case

    Apr 13th 2007
    As previously reported at Netscape, the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis will soon reopen the cold case of Heather Kullorn. According to Bill Baker, who leads the squad, the police have a longtime suspect. Yet no one has ever been charged in since Heather disappeared from a Richmond Heights, Missouri apartment on July 15, 1999.

    At the time she vanished, the 12-year-old was babysitting the infant daughter of family friends Christopher Herbert and Dana Madden. Police believe she was abducted sometime during the night or early morning hours. There was no forced entry and Heather's blood was found on the couch in the apartment. The only witness was a neighbor --legally blind without his glasses--who saw a child being carried out of the apartment in the early morning hours.
    Police detectives will go back and interview everyone who was originally questioned. Meanwhile, the lack of an arrest has given those close to the case plenty of time to ruminate on what might have happened to Heather.

    "I have had years to think about this," says Mike Mason. Back in July 1999, he was living across the street from the apartment complex from which Heather disappeared. Today, he sits in federal prison in Marion, Illinois, serving a six-year sentence on federal drug charges.

    In an interview at the prison, Mason recounts being awakened by a knock at the door the morning after Heather was discovered missing. When he answered, he found Christopher Herbert, accompanied by a police officer. "Is she in there?" the police officer asked, before searching Mason's apartment.

    According to Mason, he was one of the few people in the building who knew Heather. In his view, that explains the visit and the search. Mason adds that he was given a lie detector test soon afterwards, and that he passed it. (Police refuse to comment on the results of any lie detector tests.)

    Still, the police had another reason to be interested in Mason: his drug dealings with Herbert. At the time, both men were doing heavy amounts of methamphetamine. Police also found drug paraphernalia in a garage shared by the two men.

    Heather, who was close with Dana Madden, frequently hung around Herbert's apartment. She was quite aware of the drug use going on, says Mason. "That girl had seen a lifetime of stuff," he notes.

    For his part, Mason believes that Heather knew her abductor. Major Case Squad Commander Baker agrees that the culprit probably wasn't a stranger. This judgment is partly based on the proximity of the apartments in the complex. "Usually when you have a stranger abduction," says Baker, "you would have someone hearing screams." No such noise was reported.

    Shortly after Heather's disappearance, Mason discovered that his tow chains were missing. Today, he still think it's possible someone used the chains to weigh down Heather's body and throw her in the Mississippi River.

    "I Want Her To Come Back Home"

    What happened to Heather also weighs on the mind of Dana Madden, 31, who shared the apartment with Herbert. She and Heather were buddies, she says. One of their favorite things to do was to go to the Dollar Store together. Now living in Illinois, Madden says she scans the Internet once a month, looking for news stories about Kullorn.

    "I am scared for Heather and I want to know where she is at," says Madden in a phone interview. "I want her to come home."

    Madden was also friendly with the girl's mother, Christine Kullorn, but today the two no longer talk. In 2000, Kullorn was arrested for trying to attack Madden with a baseball bat. To this day, Kullorn believes her former friend knows something about what happened to her daughter. Madden denies the charge.

    What does she think happened that night? "I can only account for myself," says Madden, who was working the overnight shift at a convenience store when Heather disappeared. After the police searched Mason's apartment, they sent him to pick up Madden at work and bring her home.

    Madden says it wasn't common for a friend or acquaintance to randomly drop by her apartment. She is at least willing to consider the possibility of a stranger abduction. Heather used to play at a nearby park, she recalls. Perhaps somebody followed her back to the apartment complex.

    "You Don't Think About Things"

    In the weeks and months that followed Heather's disappearance, the group continued their heavy substance abuse, even as the police kept a close eye on the apartment. Both Mason and Madden agree that the drugs affected their reaction to the girl's disappearance.

    "When you are high, you don't think about things," says Madden. "And you wake up in the morning, and you think, 'I am going to have to deal with this stuff.' So then you get more high.'"

    And what about Christopher Herbert, who will be released from federal prison later this year? He had actually dated Christine Kullorn on and off before he met Madden. Some people close to the case recall that he treated Heather like an uncle. (Others recall no particular warmth to the relationship.)

    The night of the disappearance, he told police he was out with friends. Later, he admitted that he was trying to manufacture meth with a friend along a bank of the Mississippi River. That area of the river would eventually be dragged by police, as would a lake on a nearby property frequented by Herbert. Their search yielded nothing.

    Herbert, who has repeatedly told police he doesn't know what happened to Heather, declined Netscape's request for an in-person interview. But in a letter to this reporter, he writes that he has "nothing to hide." "I don't think I can tell you any more than you already know," he adds.

    "Maybe Someone Will Come Forward"

    The original investigators interviewed some additional parties. These included Herbert's companion at the river that night and a couple from Sikeston, Missouri, who stopped by Herbert's apartment earlier that same afternoon to recover some meth-manufacturing equipment (which police say was stolen by Herbert in the first place).

    Now the Cold Case Sqaud will take a second shot at the whole process. Commander Baker is hopeful about the new interviews. "Maybe this will trigger something for someone," says Baker. "Maybe someone will come forward."

    For Christine Kullorn, who is currently trying to raise funds to start a foundation in her daughter's name, the reopening of the case is bittersweet. "I just wish they'd done this a long time ago," she says, speaking by phone from her Saint Clair, Missouri apartment.

    As for Mike Mason, he's eager to see the case move forward. "I would love to see this go to trial," he says. "I would love to be able to talk to someone about this."

    Heather Kullorn Case Update

    Mar 28th 2007
    Earlier this year, Netscape's Dakota Smith wrote about Heather Kullorn, a missing girl from Richmond Heights, Missouri. Here's an exclusive update to that story. In addition, Smith spent last week in St. Louis interviewing people connected to the case, so look for more in-depth reporting on the Kullorn kidnapping over the next few weeks.
    Exclusive:

    The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis plans to review the Heather Kullorn case as part of its new Cold Case division, according to Commander Bill Baker.

    The 12-year-old girl disappeared from a Richmond Heights, Missouri apartment in July 1999. No one has ever been charged in her disappearance, but police continue to have a strong suspect, said Baker. "Reopening the case will give a fresh set of eyes to a homicide detective," he noted. "The detective will re-interview everyone, because there may have been something that someone missed."

    Back in 1999, the Major Case Squad worked the Kullorn case for about six weeks, and then handed it back over to Richmond Heights Police.


    http://newsquake.netscape.com/2007/03/28/heather-kullorn-case-update/

    The Disappearance of Heather Kullorn

    Jan 23rd 2007
    The recent rescue of 15-year-old kidnap victim Shawn Hornbeck provided many Americans with an increasingly rare commodity: good news. For Christine Kullorn of St. Clair, Missouri, the massive press coverage had an additional effect. Since January 12, when Hornbeck was reunited with his family, a stream of television news crews and photographers have been showing up at Kullorn's apartment.

    Kullorn's 12-year-old daughter Heather disappeared in July 1999, while she was babysitting for family friends in Richmond Heights (a community about 10 miles from Kirkwood, where Hornbeck was discovered). "I'm glad they found Shawn because it keeps Heather in the public eye," says Kullorn, who just received 500 new missing posters of her daughter. She will put them up in the St. Louis area--and again, she will wait.

    The Hornbeck and Kullorn cases are markedly different. When Hornbeck disappeared on a bike ride home in 2002, police had no clues or witnesses. In Heather Kullorn's case, there are clues, a witness, and plausible motives. And those close to the case believe that someone in this suburban pocket of Missouri knows what happened to Heather.

    Heather Vanishes

    Heather had just recently started babysitting in 1999. Her aunt, Debbie Kullorn, would pay the outgoing sixth-grader to push around her baby cousin in a stroller. Heather also loved watching the two-month-old infant of family friends Christopher Herbert and Dana Madden.

    Herbert and Madden lived on Yale Avenue, a residential side street on the eastern edge of Richmond Heights. In the early morning of July 15, when Heather is believed to have disappeared, Madden was working the overnight shift at a convenience store, and Herbert told police he was out with friends. He returned home at 6 A.M. At that point he found Heather gone and his infant daughter crying but unharmed. Significant traces of Heather's blood were on the couch.

    The apartment complex on Yale Avenue where Heather was babysitting

    A massive search for Heather was launched by more than 60 police officers from the St. Louis area. In any abduction, the early hours of the search are crucial, but in Heather's case, the missing girl was a diabetic who required daily insulin injections. Eventually the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime would also join the investigation.

    At first there were promising leads. A neighbor in the apartment building told police that when he went out to walk his dog at 2 A.M., he saw someone carrying a child's body out of Herbert's apartment. Without his glasses, the witness was legally blind. Still, he reported that the child's upper body was wrapped in a blanket, with her legs exposed. A white comforter was subsequently discovered missing from the couple's apartment.

    According to Richmond Heights Police Detective Mike Brown, it quickly became clear that Herbert was involved in the local drug scene. During his initial conversation with the police, Herbert claimed to have been out with friends all night. Later he confessed that he had been manufacturing methamphetamine with a friend down by the river.

    Additionally, meth paraphernalia was found in the garage used by Herbert and Mike Mason. Mason, a neighbor who lived across the street, was responsible for rehabbing apartments in the development, and often hired Herbert for handyman jobs. And on the same day that Heather disappeared, a man and a woman from Sikeston, Missouri (a city about 180 miles south of Richmond Heights) stopped by Herbert's apartment and left him a note. Brown speculates that there may have been a drug deal in the offing. But when the couple's BMW was impounded and searched by the FBI, no evidence connected them to Heather's disappearance.

    Looking for Motives

    Did police believe that Heather was killed because she witnessed a drug deal that night? The local media were quick to pounce on that possibility. Brown says his investigation produced no solid evidence to support that theory. But it was certainly never disproved, either. "Can I say it was drug-related?" he asks rhetorically. "Well, everyone involved here was doing drugs."

    Meanwhile, Christopher Herbert was arrested on federal drug charges in 2004. He is currently serving a four-year sentence in a Florence, Colorado prison. Mike Mason, who was also interviewed extensively by police, was convicted of federal drug charges in 2005, and is serving a six-year sentence in Marion, Illinois.

    Christine Kullorn has written to Herbert in prison. He responded to one of her letters, she says, but hasn't replied to a subsequent one. Still, she believes that at least half a dozen people know what happened to her daughter--starting with Herbert. "Maybe someone else was there that night and just freaked out," says Kullorn.

    But Herbert has repeatedly told police he knows nothing, according to Brown. "He continues to deny any involvement in Heather's disappearance," says Brown. Netscape News wrote to Herbert in prison, requesting an interview, but did not hear back.

    Other theories-Heather's abduction was an act of revenge against Christine or Herbert, for instance-never panned out, he says.

    Still on the Trail

    Back in 1999, two local businessmen offered a reward of $25,000 for any information that would help to solve the crime. Given the lack of viable leads, the offer was recently suspended. Yet the tips keep coming in: every month, Brown gets phone calls from people claiming they saw Heather or know where she is buried.

    He characterizes most of these leads as "third-hand and fourth-hand rumors. It's someone calling and saying that Heather's body is in southeast Missouri, leading me to go there for four days."
    Meanwhile, Christine Kullorn is hoping to discuss her daughter's case on America's Most Wanted, having met host John Walsh during a recent Larry King Live taping. And she stays in constant touch with Brown. "He wants to find justice for Heather," she says. "He is doing all that he can."

    "Christine deserves to have closure and to know what happened to her child," says Marc Klaas, a California-based child-rights advocate whose own daughter Polly was abducted and murdered in 1993. According to Klaas, it's rare for a case with so many clues to remain unsolved.

    A few years ago, Kullorn's sister Beth gave her a framed mural with a large photo of Heather, surrounded by pictures of other missing children. One of these was Shawn Hornbeck. Now his safe return home has given Kullorn some renewed hope. "I believe in my heart and soul that I will find her," she says. "Even if it's not good news, I know I will find her."


    Anyone with information about Heather Kullorn can call Detective Mike Brown at the Richmond Heights Police Dept.: (314) 645-3000 or the Center for Missing and Exploited Children: (1-800-843-5678)


    http://newsquake.netscape.com/2007/01/23/the-disappearance-of-heather-kullorn/