The front page banner story of NDN, The National Daily News, Wed., Nov. 28, 2007:

Connecticut woman listed as missing

Secalappsaw, Ct. – Traycye Peterson, 33, a housewife pregnant with her third child, has been reported missing after more than 48 hours have passed with no signs of her at her home, her children’s school, or any of the several other locales where she can usually be found in this idyllic small town 35 miles from Manhattan.

Her husband Screw, a partner in the New York investment firm of Cavendish, Burnham, Whitley and Peterson, is said to be distraught with grief over the possibility that something might have happened to his beautiful wife of six years. He is sitting with his children, Lyndzi, 5, and Claetonn, 3, and has not been available for comment.

Peterson has been interviewed by police, but he is not considered a suspect in his wife’s disappearance. Lt. Edward Threapleton, spokesperson for the Secalappsaw Police Dept., tells NDN that it is department policy to take disappearances with the utmost seriousness, and the Secalappsaw P.D. is putting the full resources of its missing persons unit into locating Traycye Peterson.

This is not the first time that local officials have expressed concern for Ms. Peterson and her whereabouts. Three years ago, she was absent from two consecutive P.T.A. meetings and did not phone ahead, and earlier this year she failed to attend a tennis brunch at the home of her good friends, Albert and Cassandra Beckwith, also of Secalappsaw, and was later found cycling along a nature trail some 15 miles away. In addition, Ms. Peterson arrived nearly 45 minutes to a dinner party celebrating her and Mr. Peterson’s fifth anniversary last year. (Note: refer to NDN’s online archives for our in-depth coverage of each of these incidents.)

Ms. Peterson was diagnosed 22 months ago with Rustible-Gelphig Syndrome, an increasingly common condition usually afflicting Caucasian women whose diets consist of modest intake of almost exclusively high-priced organic foods. The primary symptom of RGS is a tendency to arrive inexplicably late or not at all for social functions and other public gatherings.

Dr. Wilson Thorndyke, M.D., Ph. D., chairman of the psychiatry department at Chandler-Townsend University, recently received a $16.4 million grant from the federal government to run an ongoing study of 12 women in suburban Connecticut believed to suffer from RGS. Dr. Thorndyke says he and his team of esteemed medical, mental health and social researchers, technicians and student interns are determined to uncover the root causes of RGS within the next two to three years.

Ms. Peterson’s mother, Evelyn Maxwell-Pierce, 59, of Greenwich, said that she first became concerned for her daughter’s health after her late arrival at the anniversary party, but that she does not for a moment believe that, even if suffering from RGS, her daughter would disappear for two days and leave herself and her son-in-law and grandchildren to worry for her well-being. “Traycye had a rebellious streak as a teenager,” Maxwell-Pierce noted, “but as an adult, and especially as a mother, she’s always been the most responsible and reliable woman. I don’t for a moment want to believe the worst is possible, but right now my heart aches, just aches, for Screw and those adorable grandchildren of mine.”

The partners at Mr. Peterson’s firm have already offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of Traycye Peterson. Senior partner Wilton Cavendish II remarked that “After two days, it’s not enough simply that the local police are searching for Screw’s lovely bride. This reward is intended to mobilize the community at large, and possibly the entire New York metropolitan area, to try and find this devoted wife and mother. Disappearances of such women have become far too common in recent years, as evidenced by the extensive news coverage of such incidents. These heinous acts must be halted at once!”

*****

Also in today’s nationwide crime blotter:

Rolonda Wilkins, 24, of Brooklyn, N.Y., found dead after a brutal knife attack; Murray Jackson, 87, and Edith Jackson, 85, of the Kensington section of Philadelphia, killed in a home invasion; Cristina Chang, 40, an unmarried secretary in Baltimore, raped and murdered; Tom Stipes, 47, a divorced insurance salesman in Springfield, Mo., shot and killed in a street mugging; Diana Lopez, 29, of Chicago, beaten and left to die in an alley; Francisco Lopez-Cochal, 4, her son, missing and presumed dead; DeShawn Kingsley, 18, of Memphis, listed as missing after missing 19 consecutive dialysis appointments; Raphael Calderon, 38, of North Miami, Fla., unemployed, found dead of a gunshot wound in a vacant lot; Loretta Smith, age unknown, mother of three, waitress and part-time law student, of Los Angeles, listed as missing five days after failing to appear for her California state bar exam; Patricia Miller, 20, of Oakland, Calif., unemployed and pregnant, suicide by hanging.

*****

For additional coverage of the Traycye Peterson disappearance, refer to the following:

-additional comments from friends and community members in Secalappsaw, p. 3
-map of Secalappsaw, highlighting all the locales regularly frequented by Ms. Peterson, p. 6
-feature story on Rustible-Gelphig Syndrome and its devastating effects, p. B-22 – B-25
-transcript of the Secalappsaw police report on Traycye Peterson’s disappearance, p. 26
-cross reference of coverage of breaking developments in this story by our network news partners, p. C-1