The FBI is now involved in a search for Jackson State University student Latasha Norman, a junior accounting major from the Mississippi Delta city of Greenville who has been missing for over a week.
The 20-year-old was last seen on Nov. 13 at the end of an afternoon accounting class. Her car was left on the campus, but she never returned to her dormitory room when the class ended at 2:30 p.m.
In recent weeks, Norman had been the target of several attacks. According to the Associated Press, someone slashed the tires of her car and removed her license plate. Also, Norman's ex-boyfriend Stanley Cole, was arrested on Thursday and charged with simple assault after being accused of striking Norman with his fist Oct. 9 as the two argued in a restaurant parking lot in Pearl. Cole, who has withdrawn as a student from Jackson State, is currently free on bond.
Norman filed reports of the incidents with campus police after her father suggested she do so.
Police say they have no suspects. Among those they have questioned are Cole and her current boyfriend.
Meanwhile, the newly named chief of Jackson City's police department says race is among the reasons why Norman's case hasn't received national media attention.
"As far as the interest by the national media in the story, I think race probably had an impact," said Police Chief Malcolm McMillin, who is white. "It's a small college in the South. It's the daughter of simple people who maybe are not important outside of their circle, and maybe we don't attach the same importance to them that we do for other people."
McMillin said the nation's attention has been drawn to a Chicago case in which a former police officer, Drew Peterson, is suspected in the disappearance more than three weeks ago of his wife, Stacy. The couple is white.
"We need to show the same kind of concern for this," McMillin said of Norman's disappearance, adding that heightened exposure could help develop leads in the case.
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