Police Search For Any Sign Of Missing Women From Hamtramck
DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit police are narrowing their search for two women who have been missing for a week, after being abducted from their Hamtramck home.
WWJ's City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas was on the scene Tuesday morning, as investigators searched through trash cans sitting in front of homes on garbage collection day in Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood.
Police were looking for clues near where a burnt out vehicle was found shortly after 18-year-old Abreeya Brown and 21-year-old Ashley Conaway were kidnapped from Hamtramck in a hail of gunfire. Detectives also searched through several burnt out and vacant homes, as well as a park in the community.
Brightmoor resident Denise Clayborn said she's concerned about the rash of violent crime.
"There's so many abandoned buildings, so many crazy people who don't have jobs and they don't want to do nothing, that's what it's about... They don't call this Brightmoor no more, they call this 'Burntmoor,'" she said.
The two best friends haven't been heard from since Conaway sent a text message saying they were locked in the trunk of a car.
Brown's stepfather, Charles McGinnis, called police about 10 p.m. Feb. 28 to report that Brown and Conaway had been kidnapped and that he had exchanged gunfire outside the home on Andrus Street with two men who abducted them.
When officers arrived, the women were gone. Shell casings were on the ground and the home they shared with McGinnis was riddled with bullets. McGinnis told police his stepdaughter and Conaway were in front of the house when two armed men forced them into a car and drove off.
Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski said the case has affected the entire city.
"I don't think that there's anybody in this city who hasn't had those two young ladies in their prayers every day," she said.
One man who police believe to be at least partially responsible for the abduction has been charged in an earlier shooting involving the two women. Read more, here.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Hamtramck Police at 313-876-7803 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. The reward for tips leading to an arrest is over $35,000.
MORE: Reward Total Grows In Case Of Kidnapped Women
Man Linked To Missing Women Charged In Shooting
Mother Of Missing Woman: 'They Were Taken So They Couldn't Testify'
