About Me
I am not affiliated with Ilene Mischeloff's family or law enforcement
Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
Missing Since: January 30, 1989 from Dublin, California
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
Date Of Birth: March 12, 1975
Age: 13 years old
Height and Weight: 5'3, 115 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Misheloff wore braces on her teeth at time of her disappearance. Her ears are pierced. Misheloff has freckles on her cheeks and on the bridge of her nose, and a small lump on the inside of her left ankle.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A charcoal-gray Espirit pullover polo sweater, a pink and charcoal-gray skirt with horizontal stripes, and black low-top Keds sneakers.
Details of Disappearance
Misheloff was walking home in Dublin, California on January 30, 1989 at 3:00 p.m., after her classes concluded at Wells Intermediate School. Several classmates reported seeing Misheloff walking alone on Amador Valley Boulevard near Village Parkway and the Shamrock Shopping Center in the afternoon; she vanished shortly afterwards. She was taking a shortcut home, going through a wide alley behind a shopping center, a furniture store called the Sawmill, and Gallagher's Pub, then across the boulevard and through John Mape Park along a dry creek bed.
Misheloff has never been seen again. She was carrying a dark blue backpack at the time of her disappearance. The backpack was later found abandoned in the creek bed in John Mape Park near where she was last seen. It was located after the area had already been searched; authorities believe someone may have placed it there after Misheloff's disappearance.
Authorities announced that Timothy Bindner had a possible connection to Misheloff's case, as well as the disappearances of Michaela Garecht, Amber Swartz-Garcia, Tara Cossey and Amanda Campbell. A photo of Bindner is posted below this case summary. He maintains his innocence and successfully sued Campbell's hometown of Fairfield, California in 1997 for defamation of character. Bindner, a married sewage treatment plant worker, came to authorities' attention after he began sending birthday greetings to young girls in the East Bay area. One child's parents contacted authorities and handed over a letter Bindner had written to their daughter. The note was printed backwards and could only be deciphered by holding it up to a mirror. Bindner claimed he sent the cards as a kind gesture because the girls were "lonely."
Bindner also visited the Oakmont Cemetery gravesite of Angela Bugay, a five-year-old girl girl who was abducted and murdered in Antioch, California in 1983. A photograph of Bugay is posted below this case summary. Bindner was never considered a suspect in her murder and another man has since been arrested in that case.
Bindner approached many of the mothers of missing girls from the East Bay area offering his assistance, including Amber and Garecht's families. He introduced himself to Kim three days after Amber vanished. Investigators asked her to maintain a quasi-friendship with Bindner in hope of learning if he was connected to any of the girls' cases. She and authorities agreed that Bindner appeared to playing mind games with victims' loved ones and law enforcement. Many people theorize that he enjoyed taunting families into thinking that he may have been involved in the presumed abductions. He was once arrested for annoying two little girls whom he was trying to lure into his van, but the charges were later dropped. Bindner often drove around in a light blue Dodge van with a license plate that said "Lov You." Inside the van was wallpapered with many pictures of children. A photograph of the van is posted below this case summary.
Bindner refers to himself as a "good Samaritan." He asked Linda Golston, a reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, to interview him at Oakmont Cemetery at 4:30 a.m. He played his favorite song on her car stereo, "Jesus, Here's Another Child To Hold." Bindner told Goldston that he thought of the missing girls as "his children." She asked him how he believed the abductions occurred and he said one child was submissive, but another fought back against her assailant. Bindner added that he was "guessing" about the girls' reactions.
Bindner wrote a letter to a law enforcement agency in the late 1980s, stating that he believed the next girl who would be abducted from the area would be about nine years old. Garecht disappeared shortly thereafter; she was nine at the time of her abduction. Bindner also sent a holiday card to a profiler for the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) in 1990. The card depicted an image of a young girl holding up four fingers. Campbell vanished in 1991 at the age of four.
Search dogs traced Campbell and Swartz-Garcia's scent to Bugay's grave. Authorities never had enough evidence to prove Bindner was connected to their cases, although he was known for visiting the cemetery on occasion. Bindner was given a heroism award by the California State Patrol after assisting victims in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. He has never been charged in connection with any of the cases.
James Daveggio has been considered as a possible suspect as well. He and his former girlfriend, Michelle Lyn Michaud, were charged with the 1997 abduction, rape and murder of Vanessa Lei Swanson. Swanson's remains were discovered approximately five miles from the site of Jaycee Dugard's 1991 California abduction. Photos of Daveggio and Michaud are posted below this case summary. They were also charged with additional counts of sexual assault in unrelated cases in the mid-1990s. In 2002, Michaud and Daveggio were convicted of Swanson's murder and sentenced to death. They are awaiting execution. Michaud claims that she met Daveggio in 1996 and therefore was not involved in Dugard's abduction. There are striking similarities between Michaud and the female suspect in Dugard's case, but the FBI no longer believes she and Daveggio were involved.
Daveggio is also considered a possible suspect in Swartz-Garcia and Garecht's disappearances. Neither he nor Michaud has been charged in connection with any of the cases. Misheloff remains missing and her case is unsolved. She enjoyed ice skating at the time she disappeared.
