Coral Pearl Hall
Missing since September 22, 1998 from Flint, Michigan
Classification: Endangered Missing



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Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: September 21, 1984
Age at Time of Disappearance: 14 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 4'11" (150 cm); 85 lbs (39 kg)
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde hair; blue eyes.
Marks, Scars: She has a scar on the lower part of her neck.


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Circumstances of Disappearance
Coral Hall was last seen on September 22, 1998.
She may be in the company of an adult male in the Los Angeles, California area.



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Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Flint Police Department
810-766-7036

Source Information:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children



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'Every day goes by, (and) she's still in my heart'
Grandmother longs for girl gone nearly 10 years
MT. MORRIS TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
By Ron Fongerrfonger@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6317

MT. MORRIS TWP. - Maybe Coral P. Hall has made a new life somewhere far from the broken home she came from in Flint.

But not knowing - nearly 10 years after the 14-year-old disappeared - still haunts her grandmother, who has waited all that time for any scrap of information.

"I'm getting old," Lois Janish, 68, said from the edge of her bed last week. "And I would love to see my granddaughter.

"There hasn't been a day (since she left) that I don't cry. Every day goes by, (and) she's still in my heart."

Hall's disappearance from her grandmother's apartment in Flint on Sept. 22, 1998, seems as much an unsolved mystery today as it was then. The few leads have only grown colder.

Janish reported Coral missing the day after she turned 14. The girl had said she was going to an upstairs apartment to return a book and never came home.

Coral's case remains open at the Flint Police Department because the former McKinley Middle School student has never been accounted for.

"We keep these things open until we find an answer, (but) I don't have anything new on Miss Hall or her whereabouts," said Flint police Sgt. Lee Kahan.

Janish said she still can't be sure why Hall left, but she said her granddaughter was increasingly in trouble for skipping school, rebelling against rules and hanging out with friends who were drug users.

Born at the former Flint Osteopathic Hospital on Sept. 21, 1984, Coral was raised by Janish after a Genesee County Probate Court judge found her mother, Sharon A. Jones, was unable to care for her infant daughter.

Jones died of a drug overdose Dec. 23, 1996.

Court documents list Coral's father as unknown, and Janish said she believes her granddaughter may have left Flint to try to find her father.

A report Janish filed with the court years before Jones' death said the little girl had one unmet need: "To hear from her mother more often (than) she has called. She doesn't call often."

Missing persons Web sites, such as www.michigandoes.com, say Coral may have been in the company of an adult male in the Los Angeles area after she ran away.

Coral's aunt, Tamie Gatica, said she believes her niece left the area with a boyfriend as soon as she was able because of the poverty she grew up in and she had been left alone by her parents.

Janish said she was forced to move frequently and worked several jobs to support herself and Coral. The pair used food stamps and shopped for clothes at Goodwill stores to stay afloat.

Court records show Coral bounced from the Atherton School District's Head Start program to Van Y Elementary School in Burton, Randels Elementary in the Carman-Ainsworth School District, then to Washington Elementary and McKinley Middle School, both in Flint.

Gatica said Coral's life wasn't easy, and she became more aware of and frustrated with her circumstances as she grew older. Her relatives said Coral was bright but also was withdrawn and angry.

"I didn't really consider her missing, (but) she's not contacted anyone (since)," Gatica said. "I really believe she left with (a) boyfriend because she couldn't take it here anymore."

Gatica said Coral knew she was headed to foster care if she stayed because she had missed so much school.

"She was just this skinny little ... girl," Gatica said. "She didn't fit in (and) had nobody to turn to."

Gatica said she believes Coral is still alive but has no interest in returning to the rough life she lived here.

Janish said she worries about what might have happened in the past nine-plus years and only wants to know her granddaughter is all right.

"I've lost three kids, and now my granddaughter is missing, and I would love (for) her to get in contact with me," Janish said. "Maybe she's so mad at me - I don't know -but I would love to make up. I would love to get her back in my life."

***

QUICK TAKE
Lois Janish talks about her granddaughter, Coral P. Hall, who has been missing for nearly 10 years. Go to mlive.com/flintjournal/and click on the audio link.

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Is she out there?
Fourteen-year-old Coral P. Hall vanished from Flint on Sept. 22, 1998. Her grandmother and an aunt say they have not heard from her since. She would be 23 years old today.

The Web site www.michigandoes.com lists Hall as "endangered missing" as do a number of other organizations that track the status of missing persons.

Information about the whereabouts of Hall can be reported to Flint police Sgt. Lee Kahan at (810) 237-6821 or (810) 237-6823.



http://www.mlive.com/flint/stories/index.s...0760.xml&coll=5

10 years after she disappeared, questions and search remain over missing Flint teen; 24th birthday is Sunday
by Ron Fonger | The Flint Journal
Saturday September 20, 2008, 3:00 PM


FLINT, Michigan -- Ten years after 14-year-old Coral P. Hall disappeared from her grandmother's house in Flint, her family is still divided on whether the little runaway is alive, and hoping that one day they will know for sure.

"I think she's gone. I really do," said Lois Janish, Hall's maternal grandmother. "I don't want to think that, but it's my gut feeling."

If she is alive, Hall turns 24 Sunday.

Hall's case has been detailed in a series of articles in The Flint Journal this year. After the first story, her cold case was assigned to Flint's Violent Crimes Task Force.

During the last six months, police have received new tips and interviewed some of Hall's family and friends. Janish said she herself took a lie-detector test as part of the police investigation.

It was Janish who reported Hall missing after the girl told her grandmother she was leaving to return a book to a neighbor and never returned.

Hall's half-sister, Jacinda Sturtevant, 22, said she believes Hall is still alive even though she hasn't seen her since the two girls attended their mother's funeral almost 12 years ago.

The half-sisters grew up in separate homes, and Sturtevant, who now lives in Georgia, ended up in foster care.

"I know my sister more than anyone," said Sturtevant, who believes Hall called their aunt from California about one year ago but never said a word.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children also says Hall may be in the Los Angeles, Calif., area in the company of an adult man.

Janish said she isn't sure why the NCMEC believes her grandaughter may be in California, but Bob Russo, case manager for the organization's northeast region, said it was Janish who reported to them in 1998 that two adult ment living in her home often made statements about taking Hall to California.

The NCMEC is again asking for the public's help in locating Hall on the tenth anniversary of her disappearance.

"I want her to know if she's out there and she's alive that her sister is out here," Sturtevant said. "She's got someone who loves her still.

"I miss her so much. She is always on my mind."

Flint Police Detective Sgt. Greg Hosmer said investigators are still willing to follow up on any lead.

Police have already chased possible sightings of Hall five years ago in Indiana as well as other tips that she may have been in Utah and Pontiac.

"We run down every lead," Hosmer said. "It's still an open case."

Court records show Hall lived a difficult life since she was born at the former Flint Osteopathic Hospital 24 years ago todayassumes sumday publication.

Janish raised her granddaughter after a Genesee County Probate judge found Hall's mother, Sharon A. Jones, unable to care for her infant daughter.

Jones, who also was Sturtevant's mother, died of a drug overdose on Dec. 23, 1996.

Court records show Hall shuffled from school to school as she and her grandmother frequently moved and struggled to make ends meet. She had a history of missing school and running away from her grandmother's home.

Relatives have said Hall was bright but rebellious and had a fiery temper -- even as a child. Her anger may have been fueled, they have said, by the poverty she grew up in and the absence of her parents.

Janish said she's anxious about Monday, the tenth anniversary of the last time she saw her granddaughter.

"I dread going through it," Janish said. "I know it's going to tear me up.

"Ten years and nothing, and all I can do is sit and pray



http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ss..._ten_years.html

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/...hoping_but.html

Police, friends keep hoping but fear the worst in search for missing Flint woman
Published: Friday, October 01, 2010, 1:37 PM
Ron Fonger

FLINT -- Twelve years after Coral Hall disappeared from Flint, police are out of leads and neither investigators nor an old friend believe the blonde-haired young teen who vanished in September 1998 is still alive.

"I really think if she was alive she would have come in contact with somebody," said Melissa Jackson, a childhood friend of Hall, who would have turned 26 in September. "I really think something bad happened."

The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children features this age-progression rendering of how Coral P. Hall might look now.
Hall's disappearance was the subject of several stories in The Flint Journal since 2008 but after an initial rush of tips to police, the case appears to have grown cold again although a community of on-line sleuths continue to turn the case over and discuss it in online forums.

Hall was 14 when she left her grandmother's home and never returned. A friend said later that Hall called her from a pay phone near the White Horse Tavern at the time, telling her there was trouble at home and that she needed to get out of Flint.

But when the friends made the drive that same night from Michigan's Thumb, Hall was nowhere to be found.

Flint Police Detective Sgt. Greg Hosmer said the missing person case remains open but investigators have had few new leads to follow.

In the last year, Hosmer said, DNA samples have been taken from Hall's surviving grandmother -- something that could help with the identification of a body in the future. Hosmer said the only other development recently came in an e-mail from a man who included a picture of a young woman on a bed that the writer said resembled Hall.

Hosmer said police don't believe the woman was Hall.

"We would follow up on any information" or tip, the detective sergeant said. "We will follow up if we have anything."

Hosmer can be reached at (810) 237-6945.

Among the tips police have received in the past about Hall:

• The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has said she may have been in the Los Angeles, Calif., area in the company of an adult man. Hall's grandmother, Lois Janish, told the organization in 1998 that two adult men living in her home often made statements about taking Hall to California.

• A former vending machine operator and the founder of a missing children organization both told The Flint Journal in 2008 that they reported possible sightings of Hall in northern Indiana several years earlier.

• Police have also checked on possible sightings of Hall in Utah and at a Pontiac pizzeria.

Hall lived with Janish after a Genesee County Probate judge found her mother, the late Sharon A. Jones, was unable to care for her daughter.

The Journal could not reach Janish for comment.

Jones died of a drug overdose on Dec. 23, 1996, when Hall was just 12 years old and courts records show she went from school to school as she and her grandmother struggled to make ends meet before her disappearance.

The Doe Network, which works to solve missing person cases, has information on its Web site that indicates Hall may have run away because she feared she would have been forced into foster care after missing too much school in 1998.

"It's frustrating (trying to find out what happened to Hall)," Jackson said. "It's been so long ... People have moved away and are gone.

"I really feel like somebody killed her," she said. "I cry about it all the time."



Picture is age progressed

Case Type: Endangered Missing
DOB: Sep 21, 1984 Sex: Female
Missing Date: Sep 22, 1998 Race: White
Age Now: 26 Height: 4'11" (150 cm)
Missing City: FLINT Weight: 85 lbs (39 kg)
Missing State : MI Hair Color: Blonde
Missing Country: United States Eye Color: Blue
Case Number: NCMC857702
Circumstances: Coral's photo is shown age-progressed to 25 years. She was last seen on September 22, 1998. She may be in the company of an adult male in the Los Angeles, California area. She has a scar on the lower part of her neck.

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/ser...earchLang=en_US

Flint detective says police have been 'misled' in case of missing girl
Published: Monday, September 24, 2012, 7:00 PM

FLINT, MI -- A Flint police detective says he has been "purposely misled by those who have knowledge of what actually hap
pened" to a 14-year-old Flint girl who disappeared in 1998.
"On several occasions, this investigation has purposely been misled by those who have knowledge of what actually happened to Coral (Hall)," said Detective Sgt. Greg Hosmer. "It has caused heart-breaking delays for some of Coral's family as well as her closest friends."
Hosmer would not elaborate on his comments, which come days after what would have been Hall's 28th birthday and 14 years after she vanished from her grandmother's home in Flint.
Hall's maternal grandmother, Lois Janish, said she has no new information about the case and referred questions to Robin Wheaton, a Flint attorney.
"I have nothing further to say about this case from here on in," Janish said. "I feel I have the right to retain a lawyer."
Hall was reported missing on Sept. 22, 1998, and has never been located since. Her mysterious disappearance has been the subject of several stories in The Flint Journal and police have received several tips and reports of possible sightings, but the case has grown quiet in recent years.
Hall was last known to have been in Flint when she called a friend who was living in the Thumb area of Michigan from a pay phone near the White Horse Tavern.
The friend has said Hall told her there was trouble at home and that she needed to get out of Flint, but when her friends arrived in Flint that night, Hall was nowhere to be found and never resurfaced.
Before referring questions to the attorney, Janish said she has moments when she thinks her granddaughter is alive and others when she thinks she has become the victim of foul play.
"A lot of people disappear who don't want to be found," she said.
The Hall case remains open at the Flint Police Department, and a reward for information is available. Contact Hosmer at (810) 237-6945 or Crime Stoppers at 800-422-JAIL.

http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/...&#entry22051832