User:Jbrucedean/sandbox

Jerrie Lee Bruce Dean is an American advocate for the missing and the founder of Missing Persons of America. Dean began Missing Persons of America in 2009 and has become one of the most well-known websites for information on missing people.

Biography:

Dean was born in San Diego, Calif., on August 5, 1954. Her parents were Darrell Boyd Bruce (1928-2001) and Ruth Edna Bruce (1929-). Her siblings are Cheryl Patton, and twins, Jon Patton and Jim Patton. All three were parentally abducted and hidden until a private investigator found them in Tucson, Arizona when they were teenagers.

Dean married in 1976 to William Dean Donally and had a son, Dean Darrell Donally in 1977. They divorced in the 1980's.   Dean began working in federal law enforcement and met Mark Alan Dean in the 1990s. They had a son, Dawson, who is a child actor. Dean retired,and after several years of teaching piano to family and friends she found herself drawn to missing cases. While doing research on missing people, she realized that a small percent received media exposure. With that, she decided to write about these little known cases for the Examiner. A few years later, frustrated by the format and writing restrictions by the Examiner, she decided to start her own website and founded Missing Persons of America. Her very first story was in July 2010, "Etan Patz, the Boy on the Milk Carton."

The website launched into the media limelight with the Deborah Heriford case in April 2011, when she reported on a interview she did with Deborah's daughter that revealed information that had not been reported on the case before.

Dean became personally involved with the McStay case after she was introduced to Patrick McStay, Joey McStay's father, by a friend who had read a story about the McStay's on the website. She developed a relationship with Patrick and found a private investigator that would work pro bono on the case, and spent hours working on tips and leads she received on the website. Dean was the first one to receive the information that the McStay family had been found buried in the desert by Patrick McStay. She also personally met with a person that posted the infamous "Isuzu Trooper" post on Craigslist. She has never said who that was and has never revealed any of her confidential tips that have become a major source for her story's on the website.

Jerrie has been on news and TV shows and fields questions from the public and media alike in hopes to help bring awareness to those missing in America. She has built relationships from family's that receive no attention for their missing loved one to family's with the highest media profile cases. Radio Show:

2013 Host "Missing Persons of America Radio Show" on KNSJ 89.1

Guest appearances:

Happily N'ever After ID Discovery Channel

Interviews:

Fox 5 McStay's father criticizes SD investigators

Huffington Post: Laura Simonson Case

McStay memorial erected in Victorville - Kristy Wolski

Remains of missing Fallbrook family found Fox 5 San Diego CBS-8 McStay story

Glendene Grant's BlogTalk show. The Journal News - Interview for Online Publication

East County Magazine The State Journal Register The Spec.com KNSJ Radio News (Hannah Anderson case) - Radio interview

Three Teens found after Missing for over 40 years 

Patricia Spencer and Pamela Hobley KKTV Debbie Heriford

Chelsee Hoffman Case to Case

McStay Case:

Phone Interview CBS 8 McStay memorial erected in Victorville Remains of missing Fallbrook family found Fox 5 San Diego East County Magazine

Publication:

How to Use Social Media to Help you Find a Missing Person

To date, Jerrie still posts stories about the missing on the website, but also has volunteers that help post stories of the missing. This gives her more time to answer questions and help missing family's all over the US.

Quotes:

"Every missing person that I write about becomes like an extension of my own family, so when a person is finally found, it is the most satisfying of all days for me. My wish is that every family of a missing person gets that kind of day."

"At first family's believe that the police will come to their rescue and find their missing family member. I unfortunately am usually the one that has to break it to them that life is not like a TV crime show."

"By the time a family's seek me out that are pretty bitter, confused and angry at law enforcement. It isn't until I talk with them that they realize it's nothing personal and they are not alone."