Friends of missing woman turn to Facebook to help in search

Friends of a missing Kinston woman have turned to prayer — through Facebook and in a nightly vigil — for help in finding the 27-year-old mother who mysteriously disappeared more than a week ago.

Laura Jean Ackerson, the head of a national web design and restaurant marketing firm in Kinston, was reportedly last seen in Raleigh about 9:30 p.m. July 13 driving her 2006 white Ford Focus.

The four-door sedan turned up in Raleigh early Wednesday morning with no evidence available inside to suspect foul play in Ackerson’s disappearance and, more importantly, no sight of the “self-taught designer with roots in the Indy music industry,” as described on an online portfolio.

Katie Northrup, a friend of Ackerson, created a group page on Facebook called “Praying for Laura Jean Ackerson” as a means to communicate how the public can help in the search.

Since the webpage debuted Tuesday, when the news broke Ackerson was missing, membership has nearly tripled with locals joining the group daily to post Bible verses, pleas of mercy and even a picture of Ackerson with her two sons — ages 1 and 3 — in the hopes someone will recognize the young woman and come forward.

“Please pray for her and her children and family,” Northrup wrote on the group’s site.

Jo Jackson attends Grace Fellowship Church with Ackerson and Northrup and joined the group Tuesday shortly after it launched. In response to the site, Jackson organized a prayer vigil to take place every night at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy Heights Road parish until Ackerson is found.

She said as many as 25 people have come to pray for Ackerson in the worship ceremony that started Wednesday and continued Thursday. She welcomed all those who wish to join her.

“We are asking our Father for a miracle, and I believe God heard our prayers,” Jackson said.

The Lenoir Community College instructor met Ackerson in May 2010 when Ackerson enrolled as a student in one of her early childhood education classes.

“God’s responds to faith,” Jackson said before Thursday’s vigil. “It’s our will to bring home this precious young mother.”

With the discovery of Ackerson’s car, the Raleigh Police Department assumed the leading role in the investigation of Ackerson’s disappearance at the request of the Kinston Department of Public Safety, said KDPS spokesman Woody Spencer.

“Any assistance we can offer or are asked to offer, we will be there,” Spencer said.

Raleigh police found Ackerson’s Ford Focus parked near the Camden Crest Apartments complex at 5400 Summit Manor Lane in the state’s capital, Jim Sughrue, director of Public Affairs for the Raleigh Police Department stated in a press release.

At this point, Sughrue said the investigation has not produced evidence that foul play was involved. He urged anyone who thinks they may have seen Ackerson in the past week or may have information of her whereabouts to call the Raleigh Crime Stoppers tip line at 919-834-4357.

A report states Kinston police have indexed Ackerson’s case file in the National Crime Information Center, a federal database of justice information that contains records of convicted criminals, fugitives, stolen properties and missing persons.

Ackerson is described as a white female who stands approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She has brown hair and hazel eyes.

Kinston detectives started searching for Ackerson Monday morning when Chevon Mathes, 32, filed a missing person report. Mathes, an associate of Ackerson, called police when Ackerson failed to report to work Monday.

The owner of GoFish Graphic Design and co-owner of Fork and Spoon Marketing, Ackerson was in Wilson July 12 to meet with potential clients, Mathes told Kinston police, recounting her last conversation with Ackerson that Tuesday.

“I am trying to hang in there,” said a distraught Mathes.

She told The Free Press Thursday she has not slept in three days.

“It’s pretty difficult not knowing anything,” Mathes said.

From Wilson, investigators believe Ackerson continued her business trip to Raleigh, visiting her children while in the capital city.

Mathes said Ackerson was scheduled to pick up her kids Friday in Wilson, but did not show.

Co-workers, friends and investigators called Ackerson’s disappearance suspicious since the mother of two has a close relationship with her children — described by many as a “mother hen protecting her chicks.” They added as a “highly committed and reliable” person, Ackerson never goes anywhere without letting others know.

 

Wesley Brown can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wbrown@freedomenc.com.

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myYearbook: The $100 Million Startup Name You Need To Know

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An unknown person once said that high school is the mouse race to prepare you for the rat race. For the next generation of million dollar milennials, that race is off to an early start.

It was a simple and irresistibly practical idea from siblings Catherine and David Cook. In 2005, the 15- and 16-year-old duo decided to trade the paper version of the regular high school yearbook for the digital one. myYearbook was born, a social networking website that the brother and sister team worked with throughout high school. The founder of the site would be Geoff Cook, the other sibling to Catherine and David, who would work to hire over 100 employees with the company. myYearbook exploded in popularity and in just six years it could proudly boast $17 million raised in financing, over 20 million members, 1.2 billion monthly page views, and $20 million in revenue as reported by both MSNBC and Business Insider.

The site met with its fair share of early investors interested in buying the company, but with only a few thousand dollars as one interested party’s offer, the Cook’s decided to wait on the offer. The wait was worth it as last Wednesday publicly traded Latino social network Quepasa purchased myYearbook for $100 million. $82 million would be in Quepasa common stock while David, Geoff, and Catherine would pick up the remaining $18 million for themselves. The money won’t change the business though- Geoff will still continue to remain the company CEO and the staff of myYearbook will all keep their jobs and remain headquartered in New Hope with a letter Geoff wrote to the employees stating that this isn’t, “…an exit or the end. I consider it the end of the beginning… we have a lot more innovative products to create.”

And how. MyYearbook specializes in allowing users to meet new people on the site instead of relying on the Facebook formula of befriending just the people you already know in certain networks. The additional perk of social flash games available on the site boosts myYearbook up in the social platforming arena. While the three certainly have the opportunity to retire early, I doubt they will. More likely, it’s time for them to spark new ideas, test out potential social networking websites on the rise, and create more companies to join their already impressive resume. The age of the million dollar millennial is quickly on the rise.

The younger and younger the next big upstarts in startups get, the savvier they are in social media and looking to work within an industry that “gets” them. Alongside the article I recently wrote on the future of jobs in a stint-centered world, CNN recently reported that if you’re going to work with a millennial,  you need to make it engaging, innovative, and perk-friendly.

The 2010 Pew Research Center study on social trends reported that the millennials are to be one of the most educated generations in history and also accountable for half of the employees in the world. Hence the reason for the stint position. While Gen Y understands social media and networking trends like the custom playlists on their iPods and know how to find what’s missing and create a site out of it, they also have shorter attention spans, difficulty receiving negative critiques, and do not strive to stay within a company for 15+ years. The millennial mind is a wandering one which relies on taking time off from work and going on regular vacations. All par for the course of staying connected to contacts and creating new ones!

So how do you work with a millennial? It’s a popular theory to say that they are attempting to delay becoming adults or attempting to Peter Pan their lives away by enrolling in more post-college studies in graduate schools. It’s also popular, as mentioned by Gen-Y consultant Jason Dorsey, to hold within oneself a sense of entitlement or, “It’s showing up and just feeling like people owe you things.”

Not the case for all millennials though, particularly as we face the unemployment rate. Hiring and working with millennials, whether you yourself are one or not, is going to require schedules to get chucked out, time management on specific projects as well as specific examples of your expectations, and constructive feedback that really does help to be on the agenda. Blocking social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter won’t be helpful in getting the Gen Y’ers to focus on one thing and one alone. It’s a losing battle. Better to allow them to do what they do best- multitask at work if you’re looking for big results. Happiness is of utmost importance to the millennial with making a real difference also included in that list.

And their breath of fresh air may be just what a company needs to revitalize or break new ground.

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