Guardian Angels aid in search for missing persons

Mike Chapman | Redding

The intersection of Cypress Avenue and Hilltop Drive will be noisier than usual starting at 11 a.m. Sunday.

The busy crossroads will be the site of Redding's first Honk 4 for the Missing, an effort by Redding's chapter of the Guardian Angels and the Nor-Cal Alliance for the Missing to spread the word about people who seemingly vanished with little or no trace.

There are plenty of people to honk for in the North State. Organizers expect the families of Ember Graham, the 6-month-old who went missing July 2015 from Happy Valley, and Stacey Smart, the 52-year-old Lewiston woman who last seen by her family in mid-October, to participate with posters and fliers at the intersection. The faces of other missing North State residents also will be on display.

The Sunday event is the fifth annual Honk 4 the Missing that's been held worldwide by the Alliance of Guardian Angels, but it's Redding's first since the local chapter got started in August.

Redding will be one of 140 cities in 16 countries participating in the event, set to end around 1:30 p.m.

"The point is these people are not missing just today, they're missing every day," said Patrick Carpenter, the chapter leader for Redding's Guardian Angels.

"We want to remind people that these people are still missing — to bring that awareness to the front," Carpenter said.

One missing person that the Nor-Cal Alliance wants to highlight is Jessica Roggenkamp, the 44-year-old Anderson woman last seen at 3 a.m. Dec. 10 off a remote part of Highway 36 in the Wildwood area of Trinity County.

She had help from a California Department of Transportation crew in changing a flat tire on her 2010 black Ford Mustang while en route to a friend's home in Igo.

"She went missing about the same time Sherri Papini (was in the news) and she didn't get a lot of publicity," said Trudy Nickens, founder and director of the Nor-Cal Alliance for the Missing.

Papini was the country's most well-known missing person last fall after her mysterious abduction Nov. 2 while jogging near her home northeast of Redding and her equally mysterious reappearance on the side of a Yolo County road Thanksgiving Day after apparently being beaten and dumped there by her captors.

The Anderson Police Department continues to receive occasional tips about Roggenkamp's disappearance. Detective Steve Blunk said Roggenkamp's case "doesn't have any Papini-esque components to it," but it's undetermined whether she voluntarily left.

One interesting detail, Blunk said, is that when Roggenkamp's car was found abandoned in the snow, there were no footsteps leading away from it.

"We are still actively investigating it as if there was potential harm," Blunk said.

Other recent missing persons include four friends driving through Trinity County in May and two other men — Steven Hixson and Roger Her — who went missing in separate instances in March.

Two longtime missing people from the Redding area are Cort Jones and Heather Cameron, who both disappeared in August 2012.

Carpenter said he holds out hope Sunday's event will generate tips about those missing because sometimes a person is willing to share information with someone not involved with law enforcement.

Tips that Redding's Guardian Angels recently helped locate four people, including an elderly woman with mental health issues and someone who got caught up in gang-related sex trafficking, Carpenter said.

Any tips the groups get will be passed on to police and deputies.

"We always partner with law enforcement," Carpenter said.