4-19-2013 Letter to Governor Brown

4/19/2013 Dear Governor Brown, My name is Stephanie Thompson (maiden Lique), and I grew up in a tiny town 20 miles East of Barstow, called Newberry Springs. I graduated high school, went to college, joined the Coast Guard and then eventually settled down in Oregon. Newberry Springs is a charming town, it's old and desolate and the people are few and far between. It is actually a great place for people who like solitude but still require some sort of civilization. It is my hometown and it always will be. But like all towns, big and small, it holds many peoples deepest darkest secrets. There is a lot of crime and poverty. A lot of unreported crimes happen out there. Because it usually takes the police so long to get there, sometimes it is not worth even calling. So the bad people are getting away with the bad stuff. Newberry Springs is close to Yermo/Daggett/Ludlow and Barstow. If you live there, all but Barstow is treated as pretty much the same place. The landforms merge into each other, the vast expanses have no clear boundaries and people move about through all of the towns and families are spread throughout that entire portion of that part of the High Desert. Barstow is our version of "going to town." But that is not my issue. My mom is Catherine Lique, who went missing from Barstow in late November in 2003. She was just 43 years old. Married and a mother of three. Because of the draw at the chance of being alone in the desert can make some regular people walk away from their lives for a break, the consensus was that she walked away or was just somewhere visiting with no phone (not uncommon out there). The PD didn't put a whole lot of importance on her case because it seemed like she intentionally walked away. I am mature enough to understand their reasoning for being so relaxed about it. But it wasn't the same scenario on mine and my two brother's side of things. We were frantic and upset. We had already let a month go by to give her time to come home if she did just need some time away. But after she didn't contact anyone for Thanksgiving or Christmas we finally asked for a well check at the last place she was known to be living as of the beginning of October that year. While the well check was happening I called hospitals, mental health facilities, jails, gas stations... you name it, I called. My parents had split up after 29 years of being together in 2002. My Dad moved up here to Oregon so that I could care for him as he had COPD and a few heart attacks. My mom stayed in Yermo (they were living there when they split up) and couch hopped. She dated a couple of guys and stayed with friends. She began using prostitution as a means of making her own money and not having to rely so much on others. It was a high risk lifestyle but she stayed close to home and always kept in touch with friends and family. Not very many people even knew she was doing it, most of us found out after the private investigator uncovered it from the guy she was staying with in Barstow. No one ever corroborated it until years later. The only thing we knew is that she supposedly left for work one day right before Thanksgiving. She usually would go out to the Vegas Truck Stop which is on one of the four corners in Yermo near the High School (my Dad's old employer) . Her brother in law works at Peggy Sue's the fifties diner diagonal to the truck stop. I put my life on hold to look for my mom. For 6 years I scoured the coroners website, I traveled to California to chase leads, I stumbled around in the remote desert just hoping and looking for a sign. I met many other people with missing loved ones and was introduced to the world of Missing Persons. That is a really awful club to join. I barely slept, my son was put on back burner status, I rarely dated, and I didn't have a single person near me who understood what I was going through. It was a really sad and dark time of my life and my families'. I went places in my soul that no one should ever have to go to, especially when it concerns their Mommy. She was found in 2008 by some hikers in Death Valley National Park. Pieces of her bones were found and her skull. Inyo County Sheriff's Department has the case now, since she was just inside the Inyo County Line. They conducted very thorough searches in the area and were able to give most of her back to us. Her remains were scattered all around by years of being out there, high on a hill with not even so much as a grave. There is no indication that she was clothed, but it was a relief to find out that she hadn't been cut up and thrown into multiple mine shafts. The detective on my Mom's case has been back out there many times. Sometimes just to see what, if anything he can find that might help him. Inyo County is a neighbor of San Bernardino (as I am sure you know) but it is still pretty far away. So the investigation into her death has hit a slow point. There is a lot of possible scenarios and many different theories that could have led to her demise. But I live way up in Oregon, my brother's aren't really capable of running a murder investigation and the detective is very far away from the people who would know things. We have requested a reward for information regarding her murder and disappearance. From your office. I don't think we were denied but I know we haven't been approved yet and it has been years. After my mom was found, I stepped back to try to regain some sort of semblance of a normal life. I try to be patient with law enforcement this time, because it was too stressful to always be making sure the pd is doing their job, but mostly because I believe in our Detective. I feel that he really cares what happened to her. He really cares that we still cry about our mom and wants to give us the justice we deserve for losing our Mom so young. He never treats us like what we tell him is crazy or makes us feel like we are alone now. We have a good support system with Inyo County. I couldn't feel more relieved that she was found in their jurisdiction after my bad experiences with Barstow. I am writing you now to beg you to please authorize a reward for information. Money is the only thing that speaks to dirtbags. If you will authorize the reward, a billboard will be put up near Barstow. Hopefully in a place that people will see going from Yermo to Barstow. Ideally close to the truck stop in Yermo. The group offering to help with this, won't do it until we have a reward offered. I know California is having financial issues, I can appreciate that, but I also know that it is rare for someone to actually collect on a reward, so I am hoping that you will approve reward, so that we can move forward to getting the billboard up and get some leads going. This year will be ten years since she was murdered and left all alone out in the middle of nowhere to be picked apart like garbage. I know that a drug addicted bludgeoned prostitute must seem like less of an issue than what you probably deal with on a regular basis and in the grand scheme I think some people would rather the reward money be used for someone's prim and proper parent. She wasn't prim and proper, she wasn't mousy and she wasn't sugary sweet.... but she was My Mom, Greg's Mom, Doug's Mom. Steve's wife. Wanda & Herbert's daughter. Glenna and Raymond's daughter in law. Fontana High graduate. Jerry, Colleen, Al, Patty, Bobby, Phyllis and two brothers' Sister. Many sibling in laws' who loved her like she was their own sister. She was my son's Grandma and she loved him so much. She was loud. She was funny and nice and one of the best friends a person could hope for. She loved the sun and loved California like it was her Mother. She loved the 4th of July. She loved writing. She loved puppies and kitten and hated snakes. She was so much more than her case file and a description. She was so much more than a google search and a mugshot. So much more than a pile of dusty bones out in the middle of the desert. I will be getting married this summer and I don't get to have my Mom with me. Because someone took her. Not because she chose to be gone. I know I am asking for a lot. I know it. But it would make a tiny dent (if we are lucky) in the finances of California but a huge, gigantic, gift for her family and a great big help for our Detective. Thank you for taking the time to read through this, and please remember us when you are approving or denying rewards. It would really make a huge difference for us. Thank you Stephanie Thompson on behalf of the entire Schwab and Lique families and friends.