Michelle took a job at a McDonald's to try to keep up with her bills and talked to her parents about sending her son back to live with them. I don't wanna talk about it." }); type: "text/javascript", The Cast and Crew of 'Party Down' Discuss Beyonc's "Cuff It", PODCAST: TV Producer/Comic Creator Rodney Barnes and Actor William Jackson Harper, PODCAST: Actor Skyla ILece and Tech Entrepreneur DeJuan Strickland, PODCAST: Actor Kyla Pratt and Comedian Vir Das, Still Here Tells Incarcerated Black Women Experiences Through VR/AR Storytelling. Monique: When I got the article and the ages matched up, the location matched up, and then I had a name, it was this sense of relief like, Oh, my goodness, like, I'm not crazy. Out of options, Michael teams up with Christian Baker, the journalist assigned to Moniques story. Virtual Crunchyroll Expo Wrapped Up This Weekend with Huge Announcements and More! And she's like, "Do you even know who this guy is? Vlad Feier understands hundreds of thousands of children are missing in the United States. i would rate this an 8 but they brought it down. Monique: When my mom told me she was selling drugs, I knew that I couldn't tell anyone. I know it's a movie but it's all to real day to day life for many black people living in America. She was maybe two years older than me. Oops! Its just an incredibly lazy and culturally tone-deaf film that offers nothing thats impressively creative. Pseudonymph: And just looked up a few different search terms. Come in the car with me. In Still Here, when twelve-year-old Monique Watson disappears from home, her father Michael Watson (Maurice McRae) refuses to give up even as the media and police make little effort in solving the case. One complexity shes still trying to figure out, though, a missing piece of the story. "This blew out of proportion," he said. Our clothes were soaking wet and it was getting later. She didn't have the best life growing up. She spent several months homeless, slipping away from police who were strained for good tips. But as of right now, it's all up to her. But I knew I didn't want to face what was happening in Pennsylvania. 33 people named Monique Watson found in Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, San Diego and 4 other cities. So I knew that it was something that was supposed to be kept a secret. One of the searches led police to West Virginia, where they said she was living and working at a bargain motel using the alias Monique Watson. Martin said he was unaware if she was using a false identification in California. She told us that.". Christian goes to the building and looks at the mailboxes to find out which one is for the Watsons apartment. window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ And, honestly, all of my friends have that attitude. We're going to go to the beach." else if ('' == 'right') "I decided to leave," she wrote in a police confession when she was caught in January. Monique says her mom went from having a life full of possibility, to a life full of illegal drugs. Amory: What happened next is another blurry part of Moniques memory about the abduction. The irony of Michelle's story is that even if found guilty, she probably would not have spent any time behind bars had she stayed and faced her alleged crimes in 2008. When twelve-year-old African-American Monique Watson goes missing in Brooklyn, the police are apathetic and her father Michael is distraught. Monique Watson is on Facebook. I don't know where he is. Its all part of her ending a cycle of pain created by generations of abuse and neglect in her family. IN A NUTSHELL: Ben: Some of this story, Monique has always known. tower cafe sacramento; galley pirate blox fruits. Lived In Rosedale NY, Providence RI, Boston MA, New York NY. All rights reserved (About Us). Amory: Monique got a lot of love and support. var readyStateOverflowInterval; Some of the performances are over the top and there are slight technical issues, (i.e. I had to be really careful what I said, how I expressed my emotions and how I just carried myself. When she hastily ran out that night, Michelle ditched Monique and started over. "There was a letter that she had written about how she claimed to be a Katrina victim," Thornton said. The chain of telephone calls lasted minutes -- 10, 15 tops, said Thornton, the detective. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Amory: Dead end. Monique Watson, as Michelle called herself, scurried to a back room, told employees she had to deliver a message to a housekeeper and vanished as the family friend called the McMullen family.. Ben: In the span of a lunch break, Pseudo-Nymph found what Monique had been searching for for years. Whether you want to call it the projects or the hood, its still a ghetto stereotype. Ben: This is a familiar refrain to anyone who has been close to drug addiction. Monique: I was born in Oxnard, California. Monique Watson of Brooklyn goes missing. ", The family is refusing to dwell on what happened but is instead focusing on helping Michelle rebuild. I want to go everywhere! var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63fffe99d76c9'); So in addition to offering emotional support and advice, she also helped Monique take some immediate next steps. type: "text/javascript", One thing led to the other, and it spiraled out of control. You know how it is: Poor black family in a poor black neighborhood Cops arent interested. Living in the same area. And so, the next day, The Chronicle runs a front-page article, written by Christian, with the headline Taxi Driver, Yann Abellard, Overlooked by Investigators in Monique Watsons Disappearance. Christian is both smug and excited about this article. "I tried to check on her, but the name I had was different," Topka said. She left her child with a friend and made the woman promise to say nothing until Tuesday morning. Superb acting from a largely unknown (by me, anyway) cast. And when I actually searched his name and I saw his picture, my body started shaking. So they were all going through similar things. I would get picked up from school and not be talked to and not be asked about my day, and then as soon as my cousins were in the car, it was like, "Oh, how was your day? if ('' == 'left') After Christian gets this rude awakening that being a white journalist doesnt automatically mean that hell be welcomed with open arms in certain neighborhoods, he goes back outside and tries to get some more information from Reggie, whos hanging out in the same place with his friends. And as we were driving to the beach, he had a couple of porn magazines and he ended up giving us the porn magazines and made us look through them and kind of suggested that we do that. But minutes later, the full-uniformed officers returned. "They were checking her, but I had no clue," Topka said. I watch STILL HERE this weekend and l have to say it was a great movie! I believed that I deserved absolutely everything bad that's ever happened to me. The choices I made to leave were mine and mine alone.". And through therapy Monique has realized that knowing the full story about what happened to her is an important part of moving past it. textContent: 'var frmRef=""; try { frmRef=window.top.location.href; } catch(err) {}; var captainform_servicedomain="app.captainform.com";var cfJsHost = "https://";', Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Michelle was outed and on her way back to Harrisburg. Ben: So Monique has now given new interviews to law enforcement, in hopes that police will investigate her abduction further. "She is a sweet person. A US Marshals fugitive team found the teen - who was in a distraught state - at about 5:30pm on Tuesday in Port Huron, Michigan, Deputy Marshal Robert Watson said. It wasn't until she posted to Reddit that she found real leads and. I think I looked up Amber Alert, I looked up the city she was in at the time and a date range. "This really sucks. }, 10); One thing that I'm learning to understand is that when you're a kid, you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna get in trouble, you're gonna get grounded. She had friends. McMullens car was found in Hagerstown, Md., with her personal possessions inside a little more than a week after she disappeared. var popupParams = { We have to go to your mom. And, you know, I was a little kid, I'd seen this guy before. I can't stop my life for her right now. Police say Mumuni wanted to help her get paper work, but she resisted. Includes Address (11) Phone (1) Email (1) See Results. Still Here is not the worst movie you could ever see. "I am very ashamed to say that I never called my parents to tell them that I was OK," she wrote in a statement. But another Redditor reacting to Moniques post, a librarian, found an actual lead. Ben: Legal matters aside, theres something else Monique is focused on right now. It should also be noted that Christian, who likes to wear scarves and designer coats, is always dressed as if hes about to have drinks at a trendy cocktail lounge, instead of going to some of the run-down seedy areas where he has to go during the course of his investigation.. Do you know what happened to you?" if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ She works on homework, takes a nap. But we had very open, honest communication with each otherat one point. Then one morning in January, police came and took her away. It was a. The dramatic film Still Here desperately tries to look like its got a higher social conscience than the average B-movie, but the results are phony, awkward and downright dumb. It speaks volumes that the filmmakers wanted to make the African American cop a bigger villain than his white colleague. The actors in this movie dont do anything particularly outstanding. It was a good movie though, main characters were great, (Father and Reporter) If you can get past the over acting and try hard detectives (especially Johnny Holm) you'll love it. "Sure he missed his mother and had genuine concerns, but he's always believed she would come back one day and be reunited, which she did. She talked her way out of a minor traffic stop with police and was even able to keep a low profile for 12 months after being featured on the Investigation Discovery show "Disappeared." Michelle McMullen of Harrisburg is charged with theft by deception, accused of stealing $20,000 from a Susquehanna Township church where she worked and using the money to pay for school, authorities said. Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell pushed back on recent criticisms of her office by Gov. It was nice but at the same time, my aunt wasn't like my mom. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. And I don't really remember what exactly happened. We just had a trade. Real, strong and touching story so much so that it made me have a better understanding of the tumultuous world we all live in today. Christian obviously thinks that easy puff pieces are beneath him and hes bored with the assignments that hes been getting lately. var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63fffe99d76c9'); This website is using Google Analytics. And my family felt like it was all their fault, too. captainform_create_form_popup(popupParams); Join Facebook to connect with Monique Watson and others you may know. Its at the center of a mystery shes trying to solve. Michelle was young and impulsive, and she felt incredible shame because her mother is a pastor, he said. But these actors were so powerful in their performance that I actually felt their pain not only because they were black but because their daughter was black and no one cared. Because she's considered a flight risk, Michelle has spent four months behind bars, waiting for a trial that hasn't been scheduled. "We were so close no one knew that she was not my daughter.". She could be trapped in her car out of sight of passing traffic. Its why Im in education. What did you do at practice? Click a location below to find Monique more easily. Robot). Because of the subject matter you forgive a lot of it. Lillie and Michael McMullen feared their daughter might have fallen asleep behind the wheel during the long drive or suffered a migraine headache and crashed. For parts of her abduction, she seems to remember feelings more than specific details. And hes out now. Monique: And not to say she's not a great person. Bipen Patel, manager at the Knights Inn, told police he met Monique when she was staying at a different hotel, near the Maryland border. The family relationship is very well tight all around. She told people that she wasn't a citizen and that her wallet had been stolen on a bus. And when I brought it up, it was kind of a taboo thing to talk about. "She was pretty upset, she was crying and she was pretty scared," he added. Let's just say that. } YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Just asking me questions that no one really asked me before. His case was originally treated as a kidnapping, but investigators found that, quote, the mother had omitted important information about her relationship with the defendant.. Ben: Two, its highly unlikely that police could dredge up physical evidence of what happened to Monique 15 years ago. Her relationship with Topka matured, too. And this inaccuracy is what often happens when people from certain communities are written and directed in a problematic way by people who dont come from those communities. } Christian Baker (Johnny Whitworth ) a reporter doe his own investigation to help locate her. "We were together like family. 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