Clarion-Ledger, The (Jackson, MS) - December 6, 2004
Author: Staff, Camille C. Spencer
Girl gone since '88 among 513 listed missing in state
By Camille C. Spencer - caspencer@jackson.gannett.com

Fliers bearing side-by-side pictures of her face pepper downtown Jackson businesses, from print shops to eateries.

The photo on the left shows a smiling 7-year-old Daffany Tullos, who left her grandparents' home on 4403 Azalea Circle on July 26, 1988, in a blue-and-white striped shirt and shorts after arguing with her mother over fish sticks. She was last seen walking south on Azalea Drive toward Northside Drive.

The picture on the right is a computer-generated sketch of what she would look like at age 18.

It's been 16 years since Tullos, who is epileptic, disappeared. She vanished without her medication, according to the Doe Network Web site. "I decided to work on Daffany's case out of random," he said. "She's been on our Web page for so long. It's a cold case right now."

Piraino said he and Detective Kim Brown of the Jackson Police Department are working together to contact Tullos' family members.

Brown could not be reached for comment Sunday. Her family members could not be located.

Daffany is among 513 Mississippians listed as missing with the National Crime Information Center, which tracks cases submitted by police agencies.

No children are reported missing in Rankin County, Sheriff Ronnie Pennington said.

Capt. Henry Glaze of the Hinds County Sheriff's Department said the situation is the same in Hinds County.

Not all cases are reported to NCIC, since some law enforcement agencies require a family to request the individual be placed in the database, said Todd Matthews a member of the Doe Network .

Reopening a missing person's case doesn't always require help from a law enforcement agency, Matthews said.

"You may not need to involve law enforcement if you get a lot of local attention," he said. "There's so many ways to consider something reopened. The media sometimes has more of an impact on a cold case than a law agency."

Making sure accurate information about an individual is available - such as routes to school and work or detailed clothing descriptions - also helps solve missing persons' cases, Matthews said.

The group has helped law enforcement solve 28 cases nationwide, Matthews said. None of those cases were from Mississippi.

It's difficult to measure the effectiveness of fliers to help reopen a case, Matthews said. He said he hasn't received feedback on Daffany's case since the fliers appeared last month.

"I've seen (fliers) be very instrumental in some cases, and other cases, they are almost ignored," he said. "I've seen them turn yellow in doorways of buildings, as if almost unseen. A lot depends on complacency of the case. If it's a younger person, children are much harder to ignore."

Members of the Doe Network examine each case individually to adapt their search for a missing person, Matthews said.

"You look for what the case needs, what's lacking," he said. "A news article, age progression. Daffany's a long-term case, and a lot of these long-term people are martyrs for the cause."

But the likelihood of Daffany being alive is slim, Matthews said, who added that an updated computer sketch of Tullos at what would be her current age - 23 - could help the case.

"I would probably think this little girl is dead because of her (not having) medications," he said.

STATISTICS

Anyone with information on a missing person should contact the Jackson Police Department at (601) 960-1234.

The Doe Network and the Jackson Police Department