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1996 Kirchmann, Richard July 5,1996; Sylmar 45 YO
Topic Started: Dec 7 2006, 08:12 PM (348 Views)
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kirchmann_richard.html

Richard Kirchmann


Above: Kirchmann, circa 1996


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: July 5, 1996 from Sylmar, California
Classification: Missing
Date Of Birth: July 12, 1950
Age: 45 years old
Height and Weight: 5'5, 140 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair, blue eyes. Kirchmann had a moustache at the time of his 1996 disappearance. He wears eyeglasses.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A white shirt and blue shorts.
Medical Conditions: Kirchmann may have been in the early stages of dementia at the time of his disappearance.


Details of Disappearance

Kirchmann was last seen in Sylmar, California on July 5, 1996. He was employed by a brewing company in Los Angeles, California in 1996. He told a co-worker he wanted to travel to St. Louis, Missouri for a few days, but it is not known if he ever arrived there. He packed his belongings before he left.
Kirchmann's car was discovered abandoned at Ontario International Airport in California on July 12, one week after he disappeared. There was no sign of Kirchmann at the scene and no indication that he boarded a flight out of the airport. He has never been heard from again. Some investigators theorize that he does not remember who he is and is hospitalized somewhere as a "John Doe" patient.

Some agencies may state that Kirchmann disappeared from San Fernando, California on July 12, 1996.



Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Los Angeles Police Department
213-485-5381



Source Information
Los Angeles Police Department
California Attorney General's Office
The Los Angeles Daily News



Updated 2 times since October 12, 2004.

Last updated February 22, 2005

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MISSING PERSONS HAUNT INVESTIGATORS.(News)(Statistical Data Included)
Article from:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA) Article date:February 1, 2005

Byline: Andrea Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Dean Tanaka walked out of his Woodland Hills home on an autumn afternoon eight years ago and simply disappeared.

Richard Kirchmann left his San Fernando home in 1996 for what was supposed to be a couple of days. His car was found abandoned at Ontario International Airport a few days later, but there was no indication that he'd boarded a flight and he's never been heard from again.

Sandra Nevarez was last seen at a Laundromat in a Sylmar shopping center a decade ago, her scattered laundry and a puddle of blood next to her car the only signs she'd ever been there at all.

They are among the legions of Los Angeles residents who go missing every year - people who walk away from their homes or cars or businesses and seem to vanish.

Most are located within a couple of days. But some - like Tanaka, Kirchmann and Nevarez - join the ranks of the long-term missing, leaving their families to forever wonder about their fate.

``Some of these cases are very, very difficult,'' said Detective Roger Michel, who heads the Los Angeles Police Department's Missing Persons' Unit. ``The difficult cases don't close overnight. They may take a week, or months, or years.''

The Missing Persons Unit handles 3,400 to 3,900 cases of missing adults each year. Unlike the cases of missing children - which have Amber Alerts and public interest to aid their resolution - most missing-adult cases are investigated quietly, outside the public eye.

More than 85 percent of missing persons cases are so-called ``voluntaries'' - individuals who are missing by design and want to stay lost.

Adults deliberately disappear for any number of reasons, Michel said. They drop out of sight hoping to escape arrest warrants, outstanding bills, bad relationships, drug and alcohol problems, or abusive relatives.

``Those cases tie us up,'' Michel said. ``It's not like we can forget about them.''

Michel points to a news story about boxer Ernie ``Indian Red'' Lopez, who was located in a Texas homeless shelter in March after being reported missing more than 10 years earlier.

When he was finally found, Lopez, whom relatives feared was dead, told investigators he had merely been drifting around the country and hadn't thought to call his children for more than a decade.

``See what it says? 'I am not lost,''' Michel said, stabbing at the newspaper with his finger. ``I kept this for a reason. They don't want to be found.''

Detectives recently tracked down a woman they were nearly certain was a Los Angeles resident reported missing by her family in 1999, but the woman refused to admit it was her, Michel said.

She appeared to have undergone cosmetic surgery, changed her name, and taken other drastic steps to conceal her identity, Michel said. Detectives never learned the reason for her disappearance.

Despite the setbacks, the unit has an extraordinary success rate - in 2000, 99.78 percent of their 3,597 missing persons were found. The clearance rate has exceeded 98 percent for every year since then.

But even when the missing person is found, the case doesn't always have a happy ending. Some have committed suicide, or been the victims of foul play.

Such was the case of Judy Palmer, a 60-year-old Reseda woman whose body was found near Palm Springs about three weeks after her April disappearance. Her former boyfriend, Paul Wesley Baker, is awaiting trial on murder charges.

Palmer's missing persons case became a homicide investigation early on, even before her body was found, because of her solid background and Baker's history of stalking and abuse, LAPD Detective Rick Swanston said.

``This wasn't a 25-year-old woman who wanted to change her life,'' he said. ``She was a grandmother, she had a job, she had a set schedule.''

A missing person's routine is key to finding out what has happened to them, Michel said. Detectives question relatives, neighbors, employers, co-workers and even the mail carrier to learn as much as possible about the person's daily activities.

Detectives often are puzzled by how little relatives know about the daily routines of their loved ones, particularly elderly parents, Michel said.

Sometimes, bank activity, phone records, or credit-card transactions give investigators a clue about whether the person planned to disappear. But it is old-fashioned detective work that solves the vast majority of missing persons cases.

The six detectives Michel supervises are handpicked. The job requires sharply honed instincts and a level of sensitivity that not everyone possesses.

``Anyone who works here has to have an empathy as if they were finding their own family member,'' Michel said. ``Everyone here does.''

Between 55 percent and 60 percent of missing persons suffer from some form of mental illness or dementia, Michel said.

Some are unable to identify themselves, and end up in hospitals or board-and-care homes, where detectives sometimes are hamstrung by federal laws intended to protect patients' privacy.

Medical personnel sometimes refuse to divulge information to investigators, fearing they will be punished for violating patient confidentiality.

Michel suspects that Tanaka, who suffers from schizophrenia, and Kirchmann, who may have been in the early stages of dementia when he disappeared, might be hospitalized somewhere, their identities buried deep inside their minds.

Nevarez's disappearance is more sinister. Detectives appear to be no closer to solving the mystery than they were when the then-41-year-old woman disappeared in 1995.

For Michel, a 31-year police veteran who has seen the seamiest side of human nature, missing persons cases haunt him like no other.

He turns their stories, particularly the long-term missing, around and around in his head, trying to find the key that will return the person to the loved ones who reported them missing.

``When you work patrol, you put the guy in cuffs, you button it up and you go home,'' he said. ``In missing persons, the case just won't go away.''

Andrea Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3669

andrea.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

MISSING

Here are some of the thousands of missing adults investigated each year by the LAPD's Missing Persons Unit.

Name: Dean Toshio Tanaka

Age at Time of Disappearance: 37

Circumstances: Tanaka, a motorcycle mechanic who suffers from schizophrenia, left the Woodland Hills home he shared with his mother in September 1996 and never returned home.

Name: Sandra Nevarez

Age at Time of Disappearance: 41

Circumstances: Nevarez, a married mother of four, was last seen at a Sylmar laundromat in January 1995. The trunk of her Chevy Nova was packed with clean laundry and her purse was found behind a rear wheel, not far from a pool of blood, but police have never learned what happened to her.

Name: Richard Kirchmann

Age at Time of Disappearance: 47

Circumstances: Kirchmann, a truck driver for a Los Angeles brewing company, packed a bag for a short trip in July 1996. His car was found several days later at Ontario International Airport.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Police Department

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http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-128394719.html
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Los Angeles Police Department
Missing Persons Unit
213-485-5381

Agency Case Number: 96-1623990

NCIC Number: M-944602577
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MISSING PERSON
Richard Kirchmann



* Report Type: Voluntary Missing Adult
* Sex: Male
* Race: White
* Hair: Brown
* Eye Color: Blue
* Height: 5 ft. 05 in.
* Weight: 140 lbs.
* Date of Birth: 7/12/1950
* Clothing: Blue shorts and white shirt.
* Last Seen: 7/5/1996
* Dental X-rays Available: Yes

Richard was last seen July 5, 1996 in Sylmar, CA.

CONTACT
Agency: Los Angeles Police Department
Phone Number: (213) 996-1800
Case Number: 9616-23990
http://dojapp.doj.ca.gov/missing/detail.as...N=2749619400528
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