Police Believe Missing Marines Are AWOL

[thedrifter]

Police Believe Missing Marines Are AWOL

POSTED: 2:57 pm PDT April 4, 2008
UPDATED: 5:02 pm PDT April 4, 2008

SAN DIEGO -- Investigators tell NBC 7/39 that they believe that two Marines may have faced deployment and that they are absent without authorization.

Lance Cpl. Margaret McMahon-Reid, 20, and PFC Gearge Kevyn Reid

II, 22, have been missing since early this week.


A member of the McMahon family told NBC 7/39 on Thursday that military police said to them earlier in the week that McMahon-Reid's purse and driver's license were still in the couple's Escondido apartment. However, Escondido police on Friday said that a search of their home did not turn up those items. Rather, officials said, all personal items -- including toiletries -- were missing from the home and that all that remained in the residence were household furnishings and the couple's Marine uniforms.

Also on Friday, Escondido police offered a possible motive for their absence.

"There's a possibility that they might be facing deployment to Iraq," Escondido Police Department Lt. Bob Benton said.

Benton told NBC 7/39 that officers had notified members of the missing Marines' families to inform them of their findings and said that McMahon-Reid's relatives were relieved that she may have gone missing willingly.

Police said they are working with federal agencies and other local authorities to try and locate the couple.

Escondido police said Friday afternoon that the believe the couple may be traveling in a two-door silver 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier with California license plate number 5UIW325.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Foul Play Not Suspected In Case Of Two Missing Marines

Last Updated:
04-04-08 at 6:45PM

Foul play is not suspected in the case of two missing Marines.

Escondido police searched the apartment today of George Reid and his wife Margaret.

They say everything was missing except for their furniture and military uniforms.

They didn't show up for their jobs at Camp Pendleton and MCAS Miramar Monday.

Police are checking if the couple is trying to avoid deployment.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine from LI goes missing in CA
Friday, April 04, 2008 | 7:58 PM
Maggie McMahon had recently gotten married
Eyewitness News

LONG ISLAND (WABC) -- A Long Island family is desperately looking for a young woman who vanished after joining the Marines.

Lance Corporal Margaret McMahon was last seen on Monday. McMahon, who is newlywed, was at Camp Pendleton doing paperwork to officially change her last name when she vanished without a trace.

Now, her worried family members are desperately trying to track her down.

Long Island reporter Lauren DeFranco has the story.

Relatives say Maggie McMahon would never lose contact with her family. They say they were just too close. They say they are worried because she married a fellow Marine she had just met. And now, even military officials can't find them.

"I don't know if she's tied to the truck somewhere," sister Heather McMahon said. "I don't know where she is."

For days now, Heather McMahon has been agonizing over her sister's disappearance. The 20-year-old Marine may be tough as nails, but her sister believes she is in trouble.

"I just need to know that's she's OK," she said.

The newlyweds, McMahon and Private First-Class George Kevlyn Reid, have been missing since Monday. McMahon has 11 brothers and sisters. Her father is a former Sag Harbor police officer. The strong military family is weak with grief.

"To have no absolutely no contact from her to any of us is, I can't even describe how it feels," sister Katie McMahon said. "Our minds are racing. None of us are sleeping."

What's even more frustrating, family members say, is that her cell phone goes right to voice mail.

Their only hope at contacting Maggie is through Reid's active MySpace page. A simple E-mail form him could answer so many questions.

"I personally have sent him more than 150 E-mails, and he has read every one of them," Heather said.

Here's what relatives do know. McMahon was last seen Monday at Camp Pendleton. Reid was last seen at a Marine Corps air station. The next day, $400 was withdrawn from McMahon's bank account in Hazelwood, Missouri.

Family members say military officials are investigating this as a possible kidnapping.

"As long as she's safe, that's all I want to know," brother Lawrence McMahon said. "I just want to know that she's safe, that she's OK.

Authorities say the two did leave behind some personal belongings, including their uniforms.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Missing SoCal Marine spotted near Kansas
04/05/08 18:31:47

Escondido police say one of two newlywed Marines who went missing on Monday has been spotted trying to withdraw money from an ATM in Salina, Kansas.

Police had been looking for 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Margaret McMahon-Reid and 22-year-old Pfc. George Reid II after they were placed on "unauthorized absence" status Tuesday for failing to report to duty.

Escondido police Lt. Bob Benton says Reid was spotted at the cash machine. The case is now being handled by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Marine Lt. Neal Griffin says there were no signs of foul play in the couple's Escondido home, rather it appears they packed their things and left.

Both joined the Marines 10 months ago and work as communication equipment operators. Neither has been deployed in combat with the Marines.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Newsday.com
In California, no stir over missing Marines

BY CHRISTINE ARMARIO

christine.armario@newsday.com

12:29 AM EDT, April 7, 2008

OCEANSIDE, Calif.


In this Marine hub outside Camp Pendleton, servicemen picked up their dry cleaning, chatted among friends at restaurants and bars and lined up for buzz cuts outside old-fashioned barbershops on a sunny Sunday.

Few said they'd heard anything about the newlywed Marines who have been missing since last Monday. It is a relatively common occurrence for someone to leave without authorization, they said, and news of another case didn't affect them.

"A lot of people come out of high school, and they don't realize what they signed up for," said one Marine, who asked only to be identified by his first name, David, outside the corner Pierview Pub. "You have to know, when you sign that contract, you commit yourself. It's honor, courage, commitment."

For a week, Lance Cpl. Margaret Elizabeth McMahon, a native of Sag Harbor, and her husband, Pfc. George "Kevyn" Reid, have been missing from their bases in California. McMahon is assigned to Pendleton and Reid to nearby Miramar Marine Air Base. Both were due to be deployed to Iraq this summer. Though investigators don't know why they left, they said there are no indications of foul play.

Ed Buice, a spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is investigating the couple's disappearance, said they still don't know the Marines' location. McMahon's family has expressed concern over whether she left voluntarily, especially as she had called friends and relatives after arguments with Reid.

The number of Marine desertions has fallen over the last three years, according to The Associated Press. In the 2007 fiscal year, 1,036 Marines deserted, compared with 4,698 Army soldiers. Army desertions have increased 80 percent since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the report states.

Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice and a former member of the U.S. Coast Guard, said the reasons for desertion vary from fear of going to Iraq or Afghanistan and political reasons to personal issues or a love interest back home.

Those objections tend to be more common in the Army than in the Marines, in part because the Marines can be more selective of the people they take, and they are deployed for shorter periods, said Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former assistant secretary of defense.

McMahon comes from a family with a long history of military service. Sitting at his living room in Sag Harbor yesterday, John McMahon, 60, displayed the boot camp portraits of six of his children, along with a photo of his 18-year-old son who plans to enlist this fall.

"We are a very proud military family," McMahon said. "Except right now, we're a very worried military family." He said he spoke with her daughter's husband only once, shortly before they were married earlier this year. The couple had known each other only since October.

"Do you know what you're getting into?" he recalled asking him. "This is a Marine Corps military family."

"Maggie's the straw that stirs the drink," John McMahon said. "She's got as big a mouth as anyone in this family and she's not afraid to use it, which all goes back to, why this silence?"

McMahon was caught on a surveillance video trying to make a withdrawal from a cash machine in Kansas last week. She did not appear to be under any duress, leading the Escondido, Calif., Police Department to drop its missing person investigation.

Buice said the corps is still approaching it as an unauthorized absence. "The investigation is continuing," he said.

Marines outside Camp Pendleton, where McMahon worked in communications, said those who leave tend not to be able to cope with the mental strain, or simply don't fit in well in an environment where they are taking orders and essentially part of a corporation.

When someone does leave, the unit continues on regardless.

"I'm here to do my job," said one, who asked to be identified only as Rodric. "I'm going to do my job whether they're here or not."

Staff writer Laura Rivera contributed to this story.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Missing Marine from L.I. spotted

News Wire Services

Monday, April 7th 2008, 4:00 AM

A 20-year-old newlywed Marine from Long Island who went AWOL last week has been spotted trying to withdraw money from an ATM in Kansas, officials revealed Sunday.

The disappearance of Lance Cpl. Margaret McMahon-Reid last week had her distraught family in Sag Harbor worried she had been the victim of foul play.

Now police believe she and her hubby, Marine Pfc. George Reid, 22, simply left their base in California because neither wanted to be shipped off to Iraq. McMahon-Reid's family is relieved but say they don't understand why she would cause them such concern.

In the video, cops said, McMahon-Reid does not appear to be under any duress.

She and her husband joined the Marines 10 months ago and work as communication equipment operators.

Ellie