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(Introduction to show begins)
TODD: I want to introduce Milton Nerenberg, father of Audrey Lyn Nerenberg. She has been missing since July 15, 1977. Welcome Milton.
MILTON: Oh, thank you very much, Todd. Me and my wife, Evelyn have been married 52 years since September 7th, 1955 and we never left each other's side. We met when we were each about 22 years old and I am a retired computer programmer with programming experience of 35 years in New York City, programming those giant IBM mainframe computers. My wife, Evelyn, worked in the New York City Empire States Building for 5 years doing computer bookkeeping work. We had 3 kids: firstborn, Brenda Lee; second was Audrey Lyn and finally our son, Steven. What I used to do after work, instead of going out with the guys for a few beers, I used to run home to help my wife, Evelyn, with the 3 kids; to change their diapers, make the formula, wash the kids, etc. Brenda and Audrey were only a year and a half apart, while Steven was 3 years younger than Audrey. The kids were very close growing up. When Brenda started kindergarten school at the age of 6, Audrey was only 4 1/2 years and she had to wait a year and a half to start school, but Steven was only one year old.
My father, Max, owned the house we lived in on Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn, and after Steven was one year old, the apartment got to be much too small for us and so we moved to a house in Canarsie, in Brooklyn, on 84th Street. We lived out the lease there for 3 years and by that time Audrey was 9 years old and we moved to our final house in Brooklyn, in Canarsie, just one block near Remington Avenue, but we had some very bad luck in that apartment because the Spanish people, who owned that house, got hurt in a very bad car accident. Being the very best computer programmer in New York City, I made a lot of money and saved it to buy our own house on 29th Street in Flatbush between J & K, and we lived there 5 years until Audrey was 15 in 1973. I sold this house and got a very high price for it because the buyer wanted to convert it to a dentist office, so I took all that money to purchase some land in Florida and also purchase our last house, in Brooklyn, on Ryder Street, near King's Highway. We moved in after New Year's in 1974 and Audrey was 15, Brenda was 16 1/2, and Steven was only 12 at that time, but my two girls were going to high school and Steven was going to junior high school.
Something very strange happened in this house, in that our Audrey was getting up from sleep in the upstairs bedroom and going by the stairs, hollering "who's that talking down there!" and waking us all up from our sleep to check it out, but we found out that Audrey was hearing things and told her to go back to sleep. Then, about a month later, in 1974, her high school wrote us a letter saying "to take her to a psychiatrist to check Audrey out because she is walking around the halls not knowing what class to go to." So we took her to Dr. Valentine Wolf Zetlin, located in New York City, just across from Flatbush Avenue, Columbus Circle and the doctor said that Audrey has schizophrenia. The doctor gave her a prescription for Torrozine medication to give to her but the medication was not working okay and after that month she had to go to King's County Hospital for about a week and after that they discharged her and drove her into Kingsboro Psychiatric Center which was located only about 2 blocks away. By that time our Audrey was doing a little better because they increased the milligrams for the Torrozine medication and after a few days, we were able to take Audrey home to our Ryder Street house. After only about 2 days, we noticed that Audrey was very sad so we took her back to Dr. Zetlin in New York City and he examined her. The doctor told us that Audrey was getting paranoid about herself and checked her into Hillside Psychiatric Center on Hillside Avenue in Queens. Audrey stayed there for about 2 days and she ran away from there to come all the way home to us in Brooklyn. After that, we took her back to Dr. Zetlin and he said that there is a new center opening in New York City called Gracie Square Mental Center with a lot of doctors who could help out. So we took Audrey there and she was getting better in just 2 days. After that, they discharged her to an outpatient center in Brooklyn on Flatbush Avenue near the junction, so we took her there and from the very first day, Audrey liked it very much so that she learned how to go there by taking the Flatbush Avenue bus. Coming home by bus was very easy for her too and it was going good for Audrey until she was almost 19, when the outpatient center closed down. So Audrey liked staying home with us and sometimes enjoyed going to King's Plaza Mall by bus, which was only 10 minutes from the house. By this time, Audrey was almost 19 and getting better from her schizophrenia with the Torrozine medication, with high milligrams.
Brenda, always busy with her friends, was graduating from Brooklyn College. Brenda started another 2-year sleep away college in Long Island called Hofstra University, and I used to take her up there and take her back home, giving her money; when I was not busy with Audrey, of course. Steven was busy going to Hebrew school after graduating high school. Audrey and Steven were already in their late teens, while Brenda, almost graduating from Hofstra University, was 22.
It was July 14th, 1977. There was a very bad blackout all along the east coast, north and south. I heard over my portable radio that Staten Island had power because it was more west, so we all hopped into my air-conditioned Cadillac and drove to Staten Island across the Verrazano Bridge. We all went except Brenda because she said that she had to help out a school friend with a paper, otherwise she wouldn't be able to graduate. So me, Evelyn and Audrey and Steven went to see a Jerry Lewis movie called King of Comedy, if you remember, in an air-conditioned movie in Staten Island, and we all enjoyed it very much. After that, we all went to eat at McDonald's and had a wonderful time eating, when we heard that the power was on in Brooklyn. It was getting late, about 9 p.m., so we went home and got home about 10:30 p.m.
We all went to sleep and got up on July 15th, 1977. When I went to work, Brenda, again, went to help out her friend and Steven went to Hebrew school. Audrey got up around 2 p.m., came down from the upstairs bedroom and told my wife, Evelyn, that she will be right back, that Audrey was only going around the corner for a pack of cigarettes. It was 3 hours and Audrey didn't come back yet. When I came back from work, it was around 5 p.m., and Evelyn told me that Audrey was gone 3 hours already, from around the corner on Flatbush Avenue. So we all went looking for Audrey, all over, until around 12 midnight and nobody had her so we all went home. The next day, on July 16th, around 10 a.m., I received a telephone call from a kidnapper saying "I got your daughter, get as much money as you can and I'll call you back later." I guess I was stupid because I was afraid that our Audrey will get hurt and I immediately called the FBI at the Brooklyn-Queens office and one hour later, 6 FBI agents came running up to our house, and they sat around our living room, smoking cigarettes and also drinking my wife Evelyn's coffee. They stayed in our house for 3 hours. Todd, are you there?
TODD: Yes.
MILTON: Good. Then the supervisor got up and said, "Case closed" because the kidnapper never called back. Those FBI agents went away without even going up to Audrey's room to see if they could find anything. And they didn't even trace the call to see where the call came from. Those FBI agents didn't send an agent around the neighborhood to see if they could find a clue as to what happened to our daughter. If anybody wants to read more about this in a book that I wrote, they can. A book I wrote entitled 'Give Me Back My Daughter Audrey'. It's a magazine-type book, 8" by 10" in full color, easy to read, and you can get it by calling 1-888-232-4444, or going online at http://www.trafford.com/robots/03-0431.html.
By that time, 24 hours have passed and I was able to report to the New York City Police, Missing Person Squad. The police accepted the case and we were all interviewed by: Lieutenant Commander Philip Mahoney, Detective Revis and Detective Cumberbatch. Later that week, they gave me some photos to pass around of our beloved Audrey and now our beloved Audrey has been missing for 30 years, since July 15th, 1977. The current detective Ted Matheson with the FBI agent Tom MacDonald can't even find. Shit, I hate to it because they eat too many doughnuts and not able to go to the bathroom.
I, Milton Nerenberg, came up with 2 clues. One being a friend of my son Steven, whose first name is John, who used to call on Steven 5 or 6 times a week, and coming up to the house on Ryder Street. But I never used to let him into the house because he was so fat that he would have to turn sideways in order to fit through the door, so I always told him to wait outside and I'll tell Steven. This guy has always seen my daughters of course, come and go but I never did see him speak to my daughters, and one year later, I picked up the New York Daily News and there he was on the front page. Arrested in New York City for stabbing a girl 15 times for refusing sex. The judge threw the book at this John and gave him 20 years but he's out now after serving 18 years. I gave this guy to the detective and the FBI and they couldn't even get back to me about it because this John, I guess, was not involved in Audrey's disappearance.
The other clue I gave them is a guy, Leon, who was a Baskin-Robbins owner/operator, one block from the house, where Audrey would go for her ice cream, 5 or 6 times a week. One day she came home crying to us that this guy raped her, so I took Audrey to confront this man and asked Audrey "who did that to you?" and she pointed to that guy Leon. I asked Audrey "where did he take you?" She pointed to a 'head' (toilet) no bigger than a telephone booth. I opened up this 'head' and there was no room in there to do anything. This guy, Leon, told me that he doesn't even know Audrey, but I reported it anyway, to our local 63rd Police Station on Brooklyn Avenue. Two detectives came up to our Ryder Street house to interview Audrey and me. They took Audrey's underwear for testing but I didn't press charges at that time because Audrey was sick. But now I want to press charges so I told the local police, the FBI, the detectives working on the case and they also never got back to me about the charges.
I did everything on this case to find some clues as to whatever happened to our beloved daughter, Audrey. That included getting the story on 150 websites, the best one being: www.angelfire.com/ak/403/page10.html. I also listed this case with many missing persons organizations and I even asked our congresswoman, Ginny Brown-Waite, to sponsor a bill, HR 271, to be known as The Audrey Nerenberg Act, which will modify, if passed, the Missing Persons Act of 1974, to include adults who have a certified mentally of a child, like Audrey. On this basis, I was able to list Audrey with The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and they put her poster in all Walmart stores, including getting the post office to send out 28,000 flyers to zip code to 11234 in Brooklyn.
Now that we live in Florida, God told me not to give up and do everything I can to help find out what happened to our beloved daughter Audrey. I'm still doing everything including this radio show Missing Pieces for Audrey, and also important we'll have a segment on a TV show called Missing on April 15th and July 15th on MYNTV from 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please listen to this radio and TV show with all our best wishes that you can come up with a clue as to what happened to our wonderful Audrey. God bless you, if you can. Sincerely, Milton Nerenberg. Are you there?
TODD: Yes we are. Milton, you've had an incredible life's journey. 30 years.
MILTON: Yeah
TODD: This has been an incredible experience for you. I see you've done a lot of work. Eric, are you familiar with the area in which they lived?
ERIC: Yes. It's been over 30 years since I lived in New York but, yes, I do remember that area.
TODD: Do you remember the blackout?
ERIC: Yes, I do. At the time, I had just gone into the service, I'd been in there for about a year; I went in October 1976, but I do remember that blackout period Todd.
MILTON: Oh you do. I'm glad you did but what did you think about those 2 clues that I gave the detectives and the FBI? They never. The audacity of them not to get back to me to tell me something. Shame on them.
ERIC: You know, I had always thought that the FBI would handle kidnapping cases. It's amazing that they just came and sat the house and drank coffee without. Did they. There was never any interview by the local?
MILTON: No, because see what happened, Todd, when they left, they hollered "case closed!" they didn't even file a report in their Brooklyn-Queens office, so that when I went to open up the case again, they said "What? We don't have a case like that." There was never. There was no report of a case like that, even though they came from that office. 6 of them!
ERIC: Well, let me ask you, did you have their names at all?
MILTON: No, I did not. They just showed me identification. When I opened the door, they showed me their badges and that was it and they knew that they were coming to wait for a call back from the kidnapper. As I said, they hung around smoking cigarettes, drinking my wife's coffee for 3 hours and, unfortunately, the reason why, that kidnapper could have been outside in the street and seen those FBI agents come running up.
TODD: And that was probably what had happened, they actually saw that you did contact the FBI, and I think you said that, at one point in time, you've regretted having done that.
MILTON: Yes, I did regret it because. I figured I was stupid because I thought Audrey would get hurt. What I should have done is worked with the kidnapper myself. It's a mistake but if he didn't call back and the FBI, nobody followed through on it, maybe there's no clue there, you know, maybe it was, like they said. A crank call.
TODD: And it could have been but, you know, I think back in those days, of course this is 30 years ago, a lot of the thinking was 'an adult is an adult and they can do what they want to do' and I don't think they ever saw her as a child but probably never even took her medical condition into consideration at that time.
MILTON: Yeah, and it's a good thing that I got a bill in congress now, HR 271, and it's got a half a dozen co sponsors already and I got 780 names that are very much interested in that bill, to get it passed. On a petition. Anybody who wants to could look up in congress, HR 271 and can see about the bill and hopefully it may come to the floor for votes.
TODD: Well, we have links to that on the website, so that people, our listeners can see that and, you know, hopefully participate, if possible.
ERIC: I do have a question. She left home on the 15th.
MILTON: She left home on July 15th, 1977, just to go around the corner for a pack of cigarettes and never came back.
ERIC: And did anybody every question the shop owner, the store owner?
MILTON: Yeah! ME! I went to all the stores around that Flatbush Avenue and so did some of the detectives from that 63rd precinct. They came down. Somebody told me that there was a patch in that. A ground-floor patch in that Baskin-Robbins and so I had some detectives come around from the 63rd precinct to look at that with some electronic equipment and there was nothing there to prove it out. What they're telling me, that Audrey, she did not have any medication on her and did not have any ID, that she's living as a Jane Doe somewhere with another name, maybe another family adopted her, gave her another name, another social security number and the family is collecting social security payments for her. On the original social security number, there has not been any activity for 30 years. So I devoted 30 years of my life for this and God told me not to give up. I'm still working on it.
ERIC: Okay. Did anybody in the stores recognize or see her that day?
MILTON: No, that's the unfortunate thing about it. nobody even knew her, nobody even seen her get any cigarettes and even that guy in the Baskin-Robbins said that so many women and girls come in the place, he doesn't know one from the other. But he lied. The detective that came up to interview us, he said that he lied and they couldn't do anything and I didn't press any charges, but now I want to press charges and I'm going to get with that FBI agent because they took her underwear back for testing so there is DNA involved and I could do further testing with the police department.
TODD: Now, the Nerenberg case is a really well known case, very well documented. He's done his homework on this. You definitely see that it's connected to just about every website that has anything to do with missing persons. You've really done a lot of work but.
MILTON: Have you got any ideas for me of how I could continue?
TODD: Well I think you've covered a lot of things already. Just not giving up. You know, I think you said you have a faith that you needed to continue to do this. You've written a book.
MILTON: Some of your listeners can contact you. Maybe they have an idea. Maybe they know of something in that area that they could suggest.
TODD: Well, of course, that's obviously the hope, you know, we want to try to get your story out a little more, in more detail. Give you an opportunity to speak a little more.
ERIC: That's right.
TODD: I've seen the age progression for her, and you spoke that you think that she possibly could be still alive, living as a Jane Doe. With her medication, did you ever speak with her doctor?
MILTON: Oh yeah, I spoke to that Dr. Zetlin, a number of times, and Audrey, as I mentioned, was hospitalized a few times but after that out-patient center closed, she didn't have much to do and that July 15th, when she went around the corner, it's just very possible that somebody could have picked her up, you know, anything is possible.
TODD: But do they feel that her medical condition was severe enough that without medication something could have just completely snapped and she might have forgotten completely who she was?
MILTON: It's very possible. That could happen in one day if a person who has schizophrenia doesn't have their medication, then their mind, what you call it, gets very, very confused and they wouldn't even know what their name is. So, we're doing the very best we can. I had a girl Texas say to me that she is our daughter; she calls herself Audrey, she sent me some pictures of herself, saying. With a sign on her picture saying "Hello Dad, I love you Dad Milton" and I did DNA with her. So have our DNA already listed with the FBI and she submitted her DNA and, unfortunately, it was no match. But here is a girl that doesn't even know her mother and father and I feel very sorry for her.
TODD: Did she look like her? In your opinion, did you really feel like this could have been her before the DNA testing?
MILTON: After looking at the pictures, it was a little possibility, and everybody that I showed the pictures to and family said no but I said. I even did X-rays, dental records of Audrey and I submitted Audrey's dental records with this girl's, her name is Virginia, and detectives tell me that it's no match but if she wants to continue, then the best thing is to do a DNA, so.
TODD: But you still have contact with.
MILTON: With my DNA, no match.
TODD: Well, if you still have contact with her, possibly we could help her too. She's a little at loose ends with.
MILTON: Yes. Yes. She needs help. I feel very sorry. The person, the mother. the woman who raised her kidnapped her possibly from a hospital and this Virginia gave me her birth certificate and I was on the phone with the hospital, with the birth certificate and the hospital told me that the birth certificate was a complete fraud, and I told Virginia that the person who raised her, kidnapped her and she should report it to the FBI. Then she did report it to the FBI, but the FBI told her that many years have already passed, and the person who raised her is old by now and there's nothing that they could do.
TODD: How long ago has this been?
MILTON: Pardon.
TODD: How long has this been since this lady contacted you?
MILTON: How long has it been?
TODD: Yeah.
MILTON: It's been about 6 years but I've got her. She made a website for herself, looking for her real mother and father and that I can give you, I can email you as a link.
TODD: That would be great and we'll add it to your page on Missing Pieces and actually help her out a little bit too.
MILTON: That was one clue that I've had. she said, she insisted that she was our daughter but DNA says 'no', dental says 'no', and I had to go by that, right?
TODD: Well, yes.
MILTON: So, I could give you that, of course, not at this moment. I have to go on the computer. She's got a website looking for her mother and father and you'll see that I made a quote on the book-signing. I've done that. It's a very sad thing, you know, when somebody. The person who raised her. The lady could have kidnapped her from a friend or could have kidnapped her from a hospital where she was born. So she understands that now and she's got her own child, she's got a son about 17 or 18 years old.
TODD: You've struck up quite a friendship with her, it sounds like?
MILTON: Well, yeah because it went on for about 2 months until I was able to do the... The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children supervised it. They supervised getting our DNA and they have a record of it and they submitted it. They're the ones, they sent me a report that it's 'no match'.
TODD: Well they're very good. They will continue now that you've got your DNA into the DNA Database, you can rest assured those services are still going to continue. Do you have any plans to meet Virginia or have you met her?
MILTON: No, I have no plans because she's in Texas and besides that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told me it was not match. They sent me a letter; I've still got copies of that letter if you want to see it, do you need to see it?
TODD: Well, it'd be interesting to see it, you know, but this relationship with her, you know, you had this near miss and you seem to really be fond of her and wish her very well.
MILTON: Yeah.
TODD: And your case might help her.
MILTON: My case?
TODD: Yeah, your daughter's case might actually help bring a little light to her case.
MILTON: I don't know how but if you've got some ideas. You're Todd, right?
TODD: Well, I'm thinking it could. It could help bring her case to light. You know, somebody hearing your story might know her, you know, there's that possibility.
MILTON: Yeah. Yeah, well there's always that possibility. But, I mailed out Todd, a DVD with a flyer and an invitation.
TODD: Yeah, you have an event coming up?
MILTON: Yeah, to our 52nd anniversary on July 15th.
TODD: Back in New York.
MILTON: Yes, I'm going back. Are you Todd?
TODD: Yes.
MILTON: And if you want, I'll mail you that letter that I got from the National Center saying that it's no match and I'll give you her link and she's got her own website. It's unfortunate that, here's a girl that doesn't even know her mother and father. It's a very sad thing.
TODD: Well, you went through so much work to link your daughter's case in so many places, I'm definitely thinking if this lady stays in contact with you, just from being in relation to you with your efforts, you can definitely help shed light on her case. You know, there are so many people like her.
MILTON: Yeah. So isn't that something that the FBI told her that, that the case is too old?
TODD: mm huh
MILTON: .they can't bother. She's about Audrey's age. She's about. Audrey was born in 1958, and she's about 48 years old.
TODD: But you know? It's never too late. You've got to keep trying, there's no way that you can ever give up on anything like that, you know, that's your life.
MILTON: Yeah, right. God doesn't want us to give up.
TODD: Absolutely not. Eric, what do you think about this story? It's an enormous story.
ERIC: You know something, sir, Milton. I still have to ask. Was Audrey prone to leaving home?
MILTON: No! She never ran away from anything. She never. One time, she took a ride to New York City, when she was about 16, she was all better, she took a ride and she got lost and she called me up and she said "Dad, come and pick me up. I got lost." (chuckles) So I went there and. a half hour, and I went to pick her up, but she never ran away from home.
ERIC: uh huh
MILTON: and she never went. She never went by herself any place like that. Of course, that's what schizophrenia does to a person; it confuses their mind and they don't know what to do if. You know, like that and it's unfortunate that if you don't take your medicine, it'll cripple them.
ERIC: That was my next question.
MILTON: Yeah.
ERIC: Had she ever had an incident where she had gone without taking her medication over a long period of time?
MILTON: No. Not at all. Not at all. It's just that she thought that she was going around the corner for a pack of cigarettes and she thought she was coming right back, and she didn't have any identification on her, she didn't have her medicine with her and she just had a couple of dollars in her purse and she thought was coming back but it's possible that somebody picked her up.
ERIC: Well, would she have just gotten in a car with anybody else?
MILTON: That is possible. Yeah, I mean, I have no record of that and.
ERIC: But she's never done that before?
MILTON: No, never done anything like that before. She was always close to the family. It's just unfortunate that this happened. It's just a bad situation, you know. It's unfortunate that she had this schizophrenia, if she didn't have schizophrenia, I doubt very much that that would have happened.
ERIC: How have her brother and sister....how have they taken it?
MILTON: They've taken it pretty good. Brenda is busy. Brenda has a good job working. She lives on Staten Island, Brenda, and she's got a good job with UBS, she's a stockbroker, you know, she's a college graduate, she's smart and she makes a lot of money. Steven is here with us, in Florida, and he's busy and that's about where it is right now. My wife, Evelyn, and I are busy and I'm on the computer a lot. I have this computer from when we first moved here, I've had 3 computers in this house and with being a computer programmer; I was able to do a lot of work for Audrey on the computer.
TODD: You know, the thing about Audrey's case, we don't know if she wandered off in a state of 'not knowing exactly what was going on' or if somebody took her by force. That's the real trick there, you know, we don't really know what happened. And those situations are very different, you know, if she had fared well, or she could have wandered off or been in a hospital or possibly have been taken in by another family.
MILTON: That's what they have told me, the Missing Persons Squad of New York City Police.
TODD: Has she ever been compared with an unidentified body, from a homicide? Have you ever had to go through that particular scenario?
MILTON: Well, a long time ago something in. I don't' remember too much about it because it was quick. In a field, you know, where they had, you know, one of those bodies?
TODD: uh huh
MILTON: .and I contacted the manager of that and sent him a. I made an x-ray because they had teeth records, I made a copy of the x-ray and submitted that to him and he said "no match."
TODD: The dental records?
MILTON: Yeah, the dental records and there was no match and so I forgot about that and I never had anything else like it. The only 2 clues. I got to. I want to press charges now on that guy, Leon, because you know what happened? This is very interesting, 3 months. This happened. Well she said that he raped her 3 months before she disappeared, and then 3 months after she disappeared, he sold that Baskin-Robbins and moved away to Long Island. I've got his address and I even called him and gave a phony name to see if he was interested in opening up another Baskin-Robbins, and he was.
TODD: (laughs) So you were doing a little detective work?
MILTON: Yeah, he's still in Long Island. I think they call that Valley Stream, Long Island.
TODD: Well, have you talked to law enforcement about possibly pressing charges? What is their conclusion on doing that?
MILTON: I got it with the FBI and the detective of the New York City Missing Persons cases.
TODD: uh huh
MILTON: I spoke to them about it but they never got back to me.
TODD: Was there a statute of limitations possibility? But, of course, if it's homicide.
MILTON: You know what they told me Todd? They told me that Audrey is not here to press charges but I told them that I'm here to press charges because I confronted that S.O.B.B., and the detective, the female detective that came up to the house with a metal detector, the female detective told me that he's lying and that's why she took Audrey's underwear back for testing and I want to press charges on that guy, at least, to take a polygraph. Am I right?
TODD: Well, hopefully, maybe we can make contact with somebody or try to help you out with that.
MILTON: All right.
TODD: where we can get some sort of conclusion on that. I'll definitely work with you on that and try to talk to somebody to give you a straight answer on that, so you won't be waiting. You know, you might be waiting on something and they're not even working on it or they're on a different wavelength.
MILTON: Yeah, they're probably working on something else but I could understand that John, he probably wasn't involved.
TODD: uh huh
MILTON: in Audrey's disappearance and that's why they didn't get back to me on that but this guy, this S.O.B.B., I confronted him. I went face to face with him and he lied to me by saying that he doesn't even know who Audrey is because there's so many girls and women coming there for ice cream. He doesn't know one from the other, you know? And the detective told me also, that he's lying. I've got the police report, by the way, on that Leon.
TODD: So, how long has it been since you've actually had a sit-down conversation with law enforcement regarding this case? I mean, you know, if nothing is going to be done, somebody needs to tell you. Somebody needs to tell you the status quo of this case.
MILTON: Yeah.
TODD: .with what they're doing.
MILTON: Somebody has to tell me, is this case closed? From what I understand, it's still an open case.
TODD: Well, I know of a lot of things that are called 'open', you know, but does that mean that they're active? You know, that's 2 really different things.
MILTON: I don't know. I'd have to get with the Missing Persons Squad. The New York City Police Missing Persons Squad. I'd have to get with that FBI agent, he's in New York City and tell them "what's up?" "How come you're not bothering me?"
TODD: I think I can help you with that a little bit, I'm definitely going to try to work on that for you.
MILTON: All right.
TODD: Try to get some kind of statement from them to some degree on this and I think it's really what you need. It's just missing pieces and that's why we do this show, you know.
MILTON: Yeah, that'll help out. You're Todd, right?
TODD: Yes.
MILTON: That'll help out Todd because coming from you, they would feel more. They would feel. You know, you would have more supervisory information. You know what I'm trying to say?
TODD: Do you feel that moving to Florida has hampered your ability to work on this case, or has the Internet helped keep you connected?
MILTON: Well, I went back a few times. I'm going back again. I sent you an invitation to our party, that's why I'm making it July 15th.
TODD: That's the 30-year anniversary of the disappearance.
MILTON: Our anniversary is September.
TODD: mm huh
MILTON: And so, I want to have a reason to go back and look around. As a matter of fact, I'm going to give out a couple of hundred flyers at King's Plaza Mall because she loved going there. She would go there, maybe once a week by bus. It was just a matter of an 8- or 10-minute ride.
TODD: Well, you've put up a $10,000 reward for this case. Did that never raise an eyebrow?
MILTON: No. No.
TODD: I mean, in a lot of cases, when a reward is posted, it kind of stirs a little bit of interest.
MILTON: Yeah. I, uh…never did anybody come back to me saying, "I've got a clue". Nobody ever did. I had a private detective from Brooklyn, from around that area and he said he wanted $100 an hour (chuckles), so.
TODD: Wow, that's a lot.
MILTON: So, I said "okay". But he did a few things but he couldn't come up with anything. So he dropped out.
TODD: And it's hard, you know.
MILTON: What?
TODD: It's hard. Now they have people that have actually said "if you'll do this for me, I'll pay you to do this", and there's no way to charge anybody for something that you can't guarantee. There are no guarantees.
MILTON: That's right.
TODD: Absolutely. You know, I can never do that to anybody. You can make no promises.
MILTON: Nobody's interested in the reward. I swear to you I never had anybody come by to me in 30 years and say "All right I want the reward. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that for the reward. Nobody ever came. Nobody ever came by.
TODD: What about you wife?
MILTON: They not interested in the reward. They're only interested in helping out. You see all these organizations I got?
TODD: Yes.
MILTON: You see all these organizations. They don't say anything to me about "I've got a clue so give us the reward."
TODD: Most of them are non-profit organizations. Their main goal, like with The Doe Network, is just to publicize the case and do everything they can.
MILTON: Yeah.
TODD: You haven't told us much about your wife. How has this affected her?
MILTON: Oh, it's affecting her like me. We're just doing work on the case. She helps me with flyers. I sent out…would you believe? I sent out a thousand flyers. Plus she helped with me it too.
TODD: Oh, I have no doubts.
MILTON: .soup kitchens in Brooklyn and New York City. That's the only two. I didn't send out any in Queens or any other. Just in Brooklyn and New York City. A thousand flyers! I already got 40 of them back. Wrong address. But she helped me with stamping them, sealing them, you know, she wants to do whatever she can.
TODD: Well, I'm a strong believer in 'God helps those who help themselves'. I really believe that and I don't think your work is going unseen. That's obvious. You've worked very, very hard.
MILTON: Guess who gave me those soup kitchens?
TODD: Who?
MILTON: Paul, you know Paul?
TODD: uh huh
MILTON: Paul Thompson?
TODD: Yes.
MILTON: He gave me those soup kitchens. He sent me emails with 5 pages of addresses.
TODD: And Paul Thompson is one of our friends from the cold-cases discussion group. He's very active and he's befriended a lot of these people, like Milton.
MILTON: Oh, Paul Thompson, he's a great guy. He helps out a lot and he does whatever he can do to help find missing people. He's going to be at our party, by the way.
TODD: Well, Eric, do you have any final questions for Milton?
ERIC: Yes. Did Audrey have any girl friends or guy friends that maybe you may not have known about that may have come out throughout the years?
MILTON: She didn't have really many girlfriends because of her illness, you know, it started at age 15 and it went on until when she disappeared.
ERIC: Well, what about?
MILTON: She didn't have any girlfriends, you know, she didn't go to school. They took her out of school and, unfortunately, she was not like Brenda, Brenda had a lot of girlfriends and Steven had a lot of friends too. She was, more or less, you know, with us or by herself.
ERIC: Okay. Well, you know something. This has really been quite interesting but the old clock on the wall says, "That's all."
MILTON: All right.
ERIC: Todd and Milton, I want to thank both of you for having come on tonight.
MILTON: All right. Would I be able to? People were listening on this. Can you tell?
ERIC: Yes, people were listening in on it. We have an awfully good crowd when Todd comes on.
MILTON: Oh, all right. It's available for re-broadcast, Todd?
TODD: Absolutely. It will be available.
MILTON: When?
TODD: By tomorrow.
MILTON: Any particular time?
TODD: Sometime midday. I will send you an email and I'm going to stay in touch with you. This is not goodbye. It's just goodbye for tonight, that's all it is.
MILTON: I hope to see you at our party.
TODD: If God's willing, I'll make it if I can.
MILTON: You'll see a lot of people you know there.
TODD: I have a feeling that I will.
MILTON: All right and gee whiz, I want to thank you. Me and my wife want to thank you very much for doing this and we want to be sure that God blesses you and to keep up the wonderful work that you are doing. Evelyn, you want to say 'goodbye' to him? Evelyn, say goodbye because he did a wonderful job. Here's the phone.
EVELYN: Hello. Thank you very much.
TODD: Thank you Evelyn.
ERIC: You are quite welcome Evelyn. I want to tell everybody 'goodnight' and, hopefully, another time we might be able to do this again.
EVELYN: Okay. Bye Bye.
TODD: Goodnight everybody. Bye.
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