NASCAR Helps in Search

The stock car racing circuit is tapping into its enormous popularity and fan base in an effort to help Volusia County Sheriff’s investigators solve the two-month-old disappearance of Lillian Martin and Joshua Bryant. Information about the Deltona disappearance was posted this week on two popular racing Internet sites. And on Saturday, photos of the missing grandmother and her 10-year-old grandson will grace the rear bumper of Rich Bickle’s No. 59 Chevy during the inaugural NASCAR Busch Grand National-Hills Bros Coffee 300. This weekend’s nationally-broadcast race will christen the newly-opened Chicagoland Speedway.

All of the renewed attention and publicity is welcome news to Capt. Dave Hudson, commander of the Sheriff’s Office’s investigative team that has been heading up the search for Lillian and Joshua. In addition to the racing connection, the Deltona case was mentioned in a July 3 story in the Washington Post and also was featured in a segment on America’s Most Wanted. “The continuing publicity and national exposure is immensely helpful to the investigation and may, in fact, be the best tool we have for solving this case,” said Capt. Hudson. “Car racing has a huge fan following and has the ability to reach millions of people. This will help keep Lillian and Joshua in the public eye and hopefully generate the information we need to find them.”

The 77-year-old Martin and her grandson disappeared without a trace on May 12 from the Deltona home they shared with Joshua’s older sister, her husband and the couple’s two-year-old son. Nearly a dozen Sheriff’s investigators have been chasing down hundreds of leads and suspected sightings in the case. Investigators also have called in outside assistance from the FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, but have been unable to find the two or determine whether they left voluntarily or were the victims of foul play. The investigation remains classified as a missing persons case under suspicious circumstances. The Sheriff’s Office recently submitted approximately 31 leads to the FBI for its field offices to track down, but investigators don’t consider any of the leads to be particularly promising. Investigators also continue to re-trace their steps and take another look at information and leads developed early in the investigation. Now two months into the investigation and with old leads so far failing to pan out, Capt. Hudson said new information is what’s needed to solve this case. And that’s where the racing connection comes.

The racing industry decided to take up the cause of Lillian and Joshua after Melling Racing along with Body Dynamics Racing Bodies, Inc. and the producers of America’s Most Wanted brokered a deal to place a photograph of Chandra Levy on a car in last week’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Levy is the missing Washington, D.C. intern who’s been linked to California Congressman Gary Condit. That’s when motorsports officials started looking to help out other law enforcement agencies with unsolved cases. After learning about the Volusia County case, Scott Davis, Marketing/Media Relations Director of Body Dynamics -- a North Carolina company that builds race cars -- contacted the Sheriff’s Office about helping out. On Tuesday, the company posted a missing persons flier for Lillian and Joshua on its web site (www.bodydynamics.com). In just the past two days, the flier has attracted more than 200 Internet hits. Also this week, information about Lillian and Joshua was posted on another Internet site (www.jayski.thatsracin.com) that serves as a clearinghouse for NASCAR news. The site reportedly gets approximately 1 million hits a month.

“We at Body Dynamics Racing are glad we can help,” said Davis. “With our web site, our contacts and relationships within the sport of NASCAR, we might be able to do some good. NASCAR is a very giving, family-oriented organization and the teams are like family. So when it comes to a project such as this, we all come together to make a difference.”

It was Davis who brokered the agreement to have Lillian and Joshua’s photographs grace the rear bumper of Bickle’s ST Motorsports/Kingford Charcoal Chevy in Saturday’s race. The toll-free number for Crime Stoppers of Volusia & Flagler Counties, 1-888-277-TIPS, will appear on the bumper along with the pictures for anyone with information about the disappearance. A North Carolina company, The Decal Source, has agreed to donate the photo decals that will go on the race car. Saturday’s NASCAR-sanctioned race, presented by Sam’s Club, is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m and will be broadcast live by NBC and MRN radio. The brand new track is located in Joliet, Ill. “You just never know where that next lead or big break in the case will come from,” added Capt. Hudson. “NASCAR races have a huge audience. Hopefully, someone watching the race will know something about what happened to Lillian and Joshua and pick up the phone and call us.”