Kareem Jamal Ward

(The State)  It was Sunday morning, Father’s Day on June 17, 2007, and the family of Kareem Jamaal Ward were at home planning a dinner for later that day at his sister’s house.

Ward’s mother, Ann Warren, said she remembers that morning he was outside playing with his pitbull puppy and talking to his cousin in the yard.

About 10 a.m. that day, the 23-year-old got a phone call and left his mom’s house.

Ward didn’t say where he was going, but said he would return in time for dinner.

Hours ticked off the clock, daylight turned to darkness and calls to Ward’s cellphone went to voicemail.

The family assumed Ward went to visit his girlfriend, where he had recently spent a lot of time, and lost track of time.

But Ward never came back.

It wasn’t until the following day when Horry County police came to their home that Warren knew her only son hadn’t lost track of time with his girlfriend.

The officer told Ann Warren and her daughter, Sharhonda Warren, that Ward’s car had been pulled from the Pee Dee River after it was found submerged at a boat landing off Gunters Lake Road in the Galivants Ferry area.

Police told the family that some recently installed audio sound equipment had been stripped from the car before it was submerged, Sharhonda Warren said. Her brother’s cellphone was in the car, but the SIM card was missing and there was no trace of Ward.

“The area was searched for days and nothing turned up. The police had claimed to have gotten leads to his possible whereabouts but nothing turned up,” Sharhonda Warren said. “The disappearance of my brother was extremely hard on my entire family.”

Like a few other families in Horry County, the Warrens continue to wait for answers about what happened to him.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/01/05/3191061/nearly-7-years-later-myrtle-beach.html#storylink=cpy

NamUs MP # 23932

http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/tag/kareem-jamaal-ward/
http://www.thestate.com/2014/01/05/3191061/nearly-7-years-later-myrtle-beach.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/ward_kareem.html
http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=1014824#.U48JJRalDwI

Viridiana Maldonado

Viridiana Maldonado

Early in 2007 Viridiana and her husband, Jorge, lived near Tacoma, Washington where he was stationed with the Army. There were incidents of domestic violence and Viridiana left the home with her children, living in a shelter for 3 months before returning to her family in North Charleston, SC.
She lived with her mother and sister in an apartment on Dunbar Ave. with her children. She held a postition with a local restaurant, La Nortena, and her boss was a friend of the family. From all accounts she was making a go of it with the support of her family.

On the evening of Oct. 11, 2007 she came home, changed her clothes and said she was going out with her sister in law, Vicky Roberts, for the evening. Nothing unusual was said to her family, nothing unusual about her demeanor that night. Just a night out with friends.

Her family reports that approximately 2am they received text messages from her cell phone. This was odd, because Viridiana did not usually text message them. One said she was in downtown Charleston, drinking with a man named Miguel. The next message said she was on her way home to Mexico. That was the last activity on her cell phone….ever.

Six days later her bank account, with a balance of about $1000, was closed by telephone and a cashiers check was sent to Tacoma, WA. It has not been reported who made that phone call, who closed that account, and who received the money.

Early on in the investigation her husband Jorge reported to officers that he was in Washington at the time that Viridiana disappeared, however, it was found the same day that Viridiana disappeared, October 11, he had been questioned by police in an Ilinois parking lot, and that his cell phone records show usage several times on a route from Illinois to South Carolina. When confronted with the information, Jorge quit talking to investigators.

Jorge returned to South Carolina, took his child away from Viridiana’s family and went back to Washington until he was discharged from the Army. He then moved back to South Carolina and subsequently left with the child for his native Dominican Republic where his family lives. He was ordered to return to South Carolina to attend a custody hearing, but that changed when he was arrested.

According to the Charleston Post and Courier article of November 8, 2008, Viridiana’s husband, Jorge Maldonado is now in custody on charges unrelated to her disappearance.

When Maldonado, 22, stepped off the a plane in Atlanta on Wednesday, federal agents took him into custody. His attorney in the custody case, Tommy Bolus, explained the situation to a judge during Friday’s hearing.

“He’s in federal custody, he can’t assert his rights today,” Bolus told Judge Tommy Edwards of the 10th Judicial Circuit. “Obviously, right now, he’s held up.”

Another missing Mother vanishes in the night. Where do they go?
Mothers Are Vanishing

If you have any information about this case, contact North Charleston Police Department.
Sgt. James Hill
843-740-2860
jhill@northcharleston.org
NamUs MP#8115

Status Missing
First name Viridiana
Middle name
Last name Maldonado
Nickname/Alias
Date LKA October 11, 2007 - 18:26
Date entered September 06, 2010
Age LKA 21 to 21 years old
Age now 25 years old
Race White
Ethnicity Hispanic/Latino
Sex Female
Height 64.0 inches
Weight 115.0 pounds