Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Disappearance of couple suspicious Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 16:10:35 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Disappearance of couple suspicious \BY Margaret Rankin and Brian Reilly \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES The last time anyone reported seeing James "Jammin' Jimmy" Wright was Nov. 10, when he left his 2 1/2-year-old daughter with a baby sitter and promised to return after visiting his girlfriend in the hospital. But the WPGC-FM radio personality never came back, and his girlfriend, Lavet Epps, has not been seen since she left work Nov. 9, the day before Mr. Wright disappeared. Metropolitan Police are calling the disappearances suspicious, and Miss Epps' friends and family, who say she was trying to break up with Mr. Wright, said they suspect foul play. "Something's wrong because nobody seems concerned about the baby," said Johnnie Kenneybrew, Miss Epps' mother. "Lavet wouldn't just go off and leave her baby like that." "We're not trying to hope for the worst, that he . . . killed her," said Miss Epps' sister, Aleta. "We're thinking he maybe abducted her somewhere and is trying to hide her out." Robin Breedon, a former WPGC employee, said she finds it hard to believe that Mr. Wright could harm Miss Epps. "This shocks me," she said. "He was a happy, jolly guy who always helped out. Any time I needed anything, he would do it." Mr. Wright was last seen about 8:30 a.m. Nov. 10, when he left 2 1/2-year-old Jamye Wright with a baby sitter across the hall from the apartment he and Miss Epps shared in the 1500 block of F Street NE. The baby sitter, who asked not to be identified, said Mr. Wright had picked up Jamye about 5 p.m. Nov. 9 and said he and Miss Epps were going to buy clothes for the child. About three hours later, she said, he returned to borrow $50. "He said they had come up short at the clothing store, so I didn't really think anything of it," she said. She only had $12, which he took and promised to repay the next day when he dropped Jamye off. But the next morning he showed up with the child in the same clothes and without the money. "I asked him where Lavet was, and he told me she was at the hospital for a problem she was having with her face," she said, explaining that Miss Epps suffers from a condition that causes her pain while chewing. "He told me he was going to pick her up and that he would come back with the money before he went to work." But he never returned. When the baby sitter called the Department of Agriculture office where Miss Epps works as a secretary, she was told that Mr. Wright had called to say Miss Epps would be late. Mrs. Kenneybrew said Miss Epps was trying to break up with Mr. Wright and had asked him to remove his belongings from their apartment by December. Police ask that anyone with information on the couple's whereabouts call the missing persons branch at 202/576-6771. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM