I don't know if this is strictly a generational thing or what. I keep reading speculative comments about this being a "test" or confirmation of this being a "real" person. It's such an odd line of thought that this was something that would have been done as some sort of test run. But if this thought does indeed run along generational lines, then it's really fascinating how much things have changed; that the concept of airing a missing persons slide has to be explained.
@@samsquanch1996 there was this one crazy theory going around that the Joanna Lopez broadcast was just a “test” because there’s no records of Joanna anywhere and the missing poster/picture looked too washed out to make out what she looked like. Making it seem like she didn’t exist at all. This confirmed that she is/was a real person because Tricia Kellett’s missing poster was done in a very similar way and there’s records of her case online.
@@LordDagger My theory of the Joanna Lopez case is that maybe she was found early on and that's why there's not much info, or maybe it was a case that never went anywhere and was never solved, which is a sad reality for many missing persons cases. Despite the lack of information I never thought it was fake, I don't know what the point of a test missing persons poster would be, even if it was a test there'd probably be a caption saying "this is only a test" or something.
The Joanna Lopez card being a "test slot" is thrown out for one main reason... This one (Tricia Kellett) aired in 1988, and the the Joanna Lopez case was aired in 1989, and again in 1991... So it couldn't have been a test slot...
5:26 I don't know why, but there's something about these black and white missing posters like these that always I find unsettling. It's probably the way she smiles at the camera, unaware of the unfortunate fate that had awaited her, is what makes this all the more creepier.
I was 8 years old at the time and still to this very day remember that poster. I stayed up late watching Saturday Night Live then Showtime at the Apollo would come on and I’d flip the Nintendo on and change the channel to 3. After a while of playing a game I turned it off and went back to channel 5 and there was that creepy, eerie black and white picture staring at me and I immediately shut it off! Here it is years later and as a 44 year old man I can still feel that same feeling the first time I saw it.
@@FuzzyMemoriesTV dude, it scared the F out of me! Even though my very vibrant, no nonsense grandma was in the same room at the time and I felt like I was all alone , me and that image - 3am if I recall. I don’t even know how I found this again but at that time it gave me the heebie jeebies.
@@TasteTestTitanThere are many people who believe these “Missing” posters are fake, specifically the Joanna Lopez one. Did you happen to catch that one when it aired as well?? Would love to know.
This testimony is actually so important because a lot of people who didn’t see these live think that they’re fake for the sake of clicks and to be scary. Thank you for sharing!!
@@genesis8284 that’s the 1 I was commenting on. I also remember a few more times coming across 2 more. 1 was when I was getting ready for school and it was around 7am that it came on my screen as I was flipping the channels. Still gives me chills thinking of how I felt seeing those images in black and white.
So from this, we see that the Missing Persons slides were common and the thing that makes Joanna Lopez' case stand out was her picture was such low quality compared to what we're used to seeing. This makes her case even sadder once you think about it given that may have been the only photo they had of her to use at the time.
That is a very sobering and chilling thought. The poor family of Joanna Lopez and now Tricia Kellet. Makes you wonder if they were ever found- where are they now.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles Sadly, Tricia was never found either. After looking up the case, her parents have both passed and there are still questions going on about what happened because people are theorizing the police KNEW who took her but they let him get away. It's a sad story.
@@SuperCosmicMutantSquid I hope it doesn't sound strange to say thank you for this follow up information. This is haunting. It's just mind-boggling that people can literally disappear and never be found. The fact that Tricia's parents passed away without ever knowing what happened- that's an awfully huge hole in anyone's existence. Even though this happened so long ago, it's still painfully sad.
In one breath you say that you clearly didn't know that this was a normal thing and then compare it to the ONLY OTHER CARD YOU'VE SEEN! Madness. This girl wasn't special, her case is not abnormal, people go missing everyday and they clearly did this everyday because of those facts. This was not a special airing of the very important Joanna Lopez missing persons contact info. She got time all night on one of a very small handful of networks. That's great. God knows how many people saw it and maybe they found her. You kids are sick with your shitty little internet mysteries desperate to be 1 second stars. I have pictures of myself that look worse than that one and they weren't photocopied and then braodcast on tv and saved on an inferior medium. smh.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles IIRC, Tricia was killed, but the Chicago PD kept it under wraps for unknown reasons until 2017 or so. The murder itself is unsolved.
Not only does this confirm that Joanna is a real person, but that she did not necessarily go missing in 1989, as Tricia's slide was aired 6 years after her disappearance. Hopefully more slides are discovered or we find a way to see if these were a regular or semi regular public service done by the station. (As a Chicagoean, I'll see what I can dig up myself) On the topic of Tricia, her case absolutely breaks my heart, and not only am I disgusted that her killers walked free, but that CPD tried to cover it up and her surviving siblings didn't get any closure until almost 40 years later. May she rest in peace.
of course shes a real person. This was a regular thing. Missing persons ads were everywhere all the time for decades. The picture isn't creepy, its a low quality image of its time probably taken from a copy of a copy. Find a new hobby. Victims of crimes are not a hobby.
@@HoorayTV21 I never looked at this as a hobby nor did I ever think this was a hoax. In fact, I and many others just want to know if Joanna is okay and hopefully still alive, and hopefully this leads to more info. Nobody here is treating her case as a hobby, but go off I guess. I never described her picture as "creepy" either, nor have I personally ever doubted that she was/is a real person. I have had an interest in this case for a while because I sincerely hope Joanna was a runaway that was found and is still alive today. I have never treated this case as "creepy analog horror" or whatever. I'm just a girl from Chicago who is intrigued by this case and really hopes there's a happy ending to this mystery, which I don't think is "treating it like a hobby" at all. The only reason I stated that this is proof that Joanna is a real missing person is for all the people who have doubted that since this case got attention. I was never part of that crowd. But, as I said, go off I guess. I didn't realize caring about someone who is missing and trying to figure out what happened to them in a respectful manner is "treating a crime like a hobby" but okay. 🙄
@@billbombshiggy9254 they never went to trial because it was found that Ponteneli was paying off the families of the children he abused so the charges would be dropped. The cops even tool note of that during his investigation
I was always creeped out by tv test patterns and sign offs as a kid. If some missing person shit looking like this popped up, or if I had fallen asleep and woke up to the tv on and this silent, white noise buzzing, with this image or even the Joanna Lopez image up, I'd have shit my pants and ran to my parents room.
Tricia's story is really sad... the part about how her mom was convinced she could hear Tricia's clogs and how her mom would run outside in the middle of the night only to find a quiet, empty street... it's infuriating how little they did to help this girl. They had all kinds of leads... I hope this case gets resolved
@@bkoldiessaw a video from China of over 100 kids in a sewer rotting with all of their chests ripped open. It was horrific. A guy was down there doing some maintenance and stumbled upon it. These places are under the united states too.
90's too. Basically it was a time of audiovisual transition, and all broadcasters were trying everything to get attention. So it was quite common to see bizarre things on TV, especially the logos
This is groundbreaking stuff! I’ve been following the Joanna Lopez mystery before it even became popular on Reddit and other sites. Although there are no updates on Joanna, this ultimately confirms that the missing person slide of her was not a hoax as some have speculated. Very much unfortunate with what happened to Tricia….and also rather shocking that WMAQ had an overall lack of information on these slides. Hopefully more slides will be discovered, and hopefully this will bring us closer to solving the mystery behind Joanna’s disappearance. Thank you for this find!
This whole thing is ridiculous. Of course it wasn’t a “hoax”. Just because they used a bad picture of Joanna Lopez for her missing slide - I’m sure that was the only picture provided to WMAQ, so talk to the family or whoever provided it on that one. If anyone had asked me I could have told you that the missing slide wasn’t a one time thing. It was something they did as a public service to try and get more info out on a missing kid, just like the milk cartons. Any information, any picture would have been better than nothing, so people need to get off judging an over 30 year old overnight editorial decision that was just trying to help. This “mystery” is only a “mystery” because it doesn’t have enough available information to resolve it. The name is fairly common, the picture is bad, and there’s no last seen date - all of which add up to making it almost impossible to track down the outcome - not because it’s some great mysterious circumstance. For all we know, Joanna Lopez might have been a temporary runaway that was only gone for a week and they decided to put her picture up there - and then maybe she was found the week after - thus no great searchable record on the internet. Contrast this with the Tricia Kellett case where she was missing for over 6 years at this point and was a bonafide child abduction.
It’ll be interesting to see how many other missing slides could be dug up from WMAQ, knowing now that the Joanna Lopez slide isn’t a one-off. Compared to hers, we at least have a date that Tricia went missing, but still a complete lack of description (no height, weight, age, last seen wearing, etc.) Seems like a strange thing to leave out on WMAQ’s part, unless they weren’t provided with that information. Tricia’s case is heartbreaking, for her parents who never knew what happened to her, and her siblings who, nearly 40 years later, had to pry the information from the CPD and find out they almost certainly knew her killer and nothing was done about it. Hopefully someone somewhere has information about Joanna, someday.
I think the lack of info on the slides was a huge oversight on WMAQ'S part because we know/have had a description for Tricia since the day she went missing. Tricia's case was just gutting to read. Poor girl.
@@HoorayTV21 I'm aware. In comparison to the other video with Joanna Lopez's slide, Tricia's slide at least has a clear picture of her face, as well as the date she went missing. But, compared with other missing persons alerts of the time on other stations, this isn't much to go on. Other segments would often have a colour photo (if available), height, weight, age, place last seen... it just seems like either WMAQ wasn't given enough information, or somehow their design choices didn't end up including vital information about the missing person. Also, showing these at a time where viewership is declining and people are turning off their television sets is an odd choice. Not saying these can't be helpful, but they're a bit strange compared to others.
Tricia Kellett is Lacey Fletcher who was found melted into the couch. Autism and Paralyzed. Her parents didn't take care of her. Marvin Pontarelli was Clay Fletcher. He didn't die in prison.
Kellett had been taken by a local man by the name of Marvin Pontarelli. Pontarelli was positively ID'd days later in an investigation by Chicago PD, and already had an extensive rap sheet involving child pornography and rape. Pontarelli's along with Kellett's name was in the phonebook of a known child pornographer by the name of Larry Kessler whom Pontarelli intended on blackmailing. Neither men were charged for this crime and the evidence against these perverts was buried by CPD only to later be dug up via FOIA by NBC News and Kellett's surviving siblings almost 40 years later in 2018. Kellett's parents had passed long before the family finally had closure on who had taken Tricia, but luckily Pontarelli died in an Arizona prison in 1994 on wholly unrelated charges. Despite this information, the case has never been formally closed and Tricia legally remains a missing person to this day.
I was scanning the comments for any info on the case and reading this just broke my heart, not only for Tricia, but her parents and siblings. I can't imagine what it must have been like to find out that your sister's murderer was let free and that the cops buried the fact that they did so for almost 40 years. Was Kessler ever arrested on other charges? Is he dead? I wish nothing but peace to the souls of Tricia, her parents, and their surviving family. Absolutely heartbreaking.
@@DaveBob96 I looked into it a bit more, Kessler died before the Kellett siblings got info through the FOIA. I hope both Pontarelli and Kessler rot in hell.
I wonder if there are any other missing persons slides like these. Poor Joanna and poor Tricia. :( Since discovering the case of Joanna Lopez and now seeing Tricia’s picture, it has given me chills every time I think about it.
I think what really makes these broadcasts disturbing, is how it's almost like the cards are thrown in as an afterthought. At the end of the station's airing (when most people probably wouldn't be watching), just thrown in. Hardly any info, no voiceover, and the picture they use is always of extremely low quality. To me anyways, it gives the impression that whoever put these in didn't care about the child being found, because they didn't even try to get people to see the missing poster. Almost like they only put in the missing posters just to say that they did. I'm almost wondering if they did it just to avoid suspicion amongst friends, so they put the posters in these sign offs to say "We got posters up, let's hope she's found" to try to hide their disinterest. That last bit is just me trying to reason why they'd put posters up, but the fact that these are so haphazardly thrown together and then slapped onto the end of a sign-off is giving me really bad vibes. From what little I've read about this particular case, we know that Tricia's parents didn't care about her(I could be mistaken, I didn't read too much into the case), which makes me worried for Joanna and any other kids who possibly had sign-off posters that are yet undiscovered. Idk, what do y'all think?
It does really give off bad vibes, even a bit uncomfortable to see, For example in mexico at least they showed missing people's slides at hours were people could see (wether or not it were real, its still in discusion idk), but here they didnt even bother to get more info about Tricia and Joanna (Joanna didnt even have "last seen" date) plus the uncomfortable silence with only the static and the black and white low quality photo makes the whole thing more uncomfortable.
man i already actually feel goosebumps when hearing our national anthem (especially in the last parts of the anthem, the last lines of our anthem goes like "but it is glory ever, when thou art wronged, for us thy sons to suffer and die" - if it aint chilling enough, but hey, it invokes national pride; if i was american i would also feel the same for "the land of the free and the home of the brave") during sign-off. pictures like these, especially missing kids at the very last sequence would really scare the crap out of me. on the technical side, if for instance it was added at the very end of a stock tape, that's understandable but a screwed-up idea nevertheless to insert such on a tape meant for broadcast closing. still, my thoughts to tricia and joanna, and to all the missing people out there, wherever they are now.
CPD may not have been the ones to actually kidnap Tricia Kellett, but based on what I've read and heard about the case, they are definitely accountable in my opinion.
Wow, this context makes the joanna thing actually make sense. She's real and probably went missing, and they just used a terrible photo of her. I didn't think this was some selene delgado type thing they did multiple times but apparently they did.
This is both amazing and sad, amazing at the fact that we can confirm Joanna Lopez and sad at the fact that it was a real case, not something made up, just like this one it probably went cold too and without any data to ever back up she even existed.. I’m thankful for today’s technology for that
Not gonna lie, seeing these missing person images before going to bed might not want to make anyone want to fall asleep based off the nature of this. On a side note however, do you have any more of these laying around anywhere? I’ve become interested in seeing more of these cases since I learned about Joanna Lopez.
I have a feeling that this is just like the joanna lopez case 🙁 edit: just searched up her name and it's not (well the slide in this video is but the case isn't like joanna's), she's a young girl who is actually missing in chicago. She was waiting last seen at her apartment that day for her father to pick her up for the weekend and decided to play outside with friends in the mean time. She was playing with puppies across the street from her home when she was seen getting into a blue four-door 1979 Dodge or Pontiac with one or two men already inside. The car had a damaged front passenger door and a license plate beginning with the letters "Q" and "R." She hasn't been seen or heard from and it's been 40 years since she's been missing. *note: all of this info is from the International Missing Persons Wiki*
A bit of a sad spoiler here: This comment and the thumbnail prompted me to quickly look up the kid’s name and there’s a good chance she’s no longer with us. According to an article I read (and will link if asked), she was abducted by a guy who owned the car she was found going into, with the guy a known kidnapper and assaulter who targeted kids. They were able to arrest him, but because the family failed to show up to the trial (or maybe rather Tricia), he was let go on the spot and he probably tried using her for his sick actions. The American justice system, ladies and gentlemen.
@@devinsmith4790 That is a interesting detail notice. I wonder when WMAQ started airing missing person slides and if any were successful. My heart, btw, goes out to Tricia’s family, whether she is gone or not. ❤️🙏
That sign-off was kind of creepy. The channel goes off the air for the night and then it froze into the stations missing persons report instead of the usual color bars? 🤔
We always think we're the only ones to have a thought or a feeling and then thanks to the internet, we find we were never alone. I too used to think these missing persons slides were among the most bone-chilling, scariest things I'd ever seen as a kid. I never told anyone because I thought I was just being silly in some way. If I happened to fall asleep with the tv on and woke up seeing one of these, I HAD to sleep with the lights on. And I'll tell you, this is still just as haunting today as it was when I was a kid.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles same here. I'm 50 years old and this kind of thing still creeps me out just as much as it did when I was a child. It's scarier than any horror movie because it's real and could have happened to any one of us
You’re right. The first time I saw Joanna’s picture it took me a while to comprehend that she was human. Now finding out that she is real is super gut wrenching. That’s all we have of her, a single photo of terrible quality. I’m not religious but I literally pray that something of Joanna (and Tricia) are recovered though it’s been years.
I remember divorce court back in the eighties. I want to know do you have any more episodes or eighties promos of divorce court as a request if you do I will appreciate it thank you and God-bless
@@AiMR - The so-called 'subliminal' version (is that the MK Naomi you're referring to?) has a font that was created over the last 10-20 years or so, which I've seen in some advertisements but can't pin what the name of it is.
Do people seriously think this proves Joanna Lopez exists? Come on. Why didn't Joanna have a last seen date then? If someone reported her missing then they would know when she was last seen.
This doesn’t prove Joanna Lopez is real. If anything this further proves it’s a test image. Why didn’t Joanna’s broadcast show the last date she was seen like this one? There is info on Tricia Kellett’s disappearance but not Joanna. How can you say this is real when there is not report of her missing or anyone who knew her?
There were a lot of missing persons cases that had disappeared when the internet came around. It’s likely that Joanna Lopez’s case may have gone missing in this, but either way, this does prove that there are a hell of a lot more things out there.
Ok so an anonymous person called the station to report Joana as a missing persons case, and said they would call back for more information about Joanna Lopez, they never called back, and we don't really know why.
It's not only made the same it has the same real phone number again. They just had very little to work with in Joanna's case and since it seems her case was largely Ignored unfortunately, or records of whatever became of her case was lose maybe. Thier is absolutely no doubt in my mind being an '80s baby myself that these are REAL pictures of REAL CHIDEREN. Shame on younger or more naive people not being able to show you can't fake an aged photo on archived film's that we're uploaded online decade's later. I've seen the sorry remakes of these they're so obviously fake. I knew right away this one was real just like the Lopez case.
WHY IT'S SO LONG LIKE, WERE STARING AT HER FOR LONG TIME, WE EVEN GET SOME FOODS TO EAT WHILE SHE APPEARED AND THEN WE SLEEP!, BUT WE LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TV!
So did 12yos just read a creepy pasta blog about scary ole tv and this has turned into a thing? You know they used to put these on milk cartons too? This is absolute idiocy.
Fun fact: People can have empathy and give a shit about missing persons they were never related to and hope for the case to be reopened/the safe finding of said person without it being the equivalent of 12 year olds having just read a creepypasta. :) Also I'm sure everyone knows that missing persons used to be on milk cartons but go off I guess. 🙄
I think what scares people most about these broadcasts is the abrupt way they’re conducted. Going from a jovial rendition of the national anthem into a monochrome slide about a missing person with the still image and bold text is a mood whiplash. The complete lack of information on these slides and zero narration explaining anything doesn’t help at all. With this one, there’s at least information about the case if you Google her name, but with Joanna’s, there’s a complete lack of a case. No information at all, and no one seems to know anything about her. It’s sad and a bit unnerving to know someone could be lost to time.
@@gothtarrare This has nothing to do with caring about this cold case. It is completely based in millennial/zoomer ignorance of how the world worked pre five nights at freddies. Something that happened every night is not "creepy". The idiots in the comments stating that the creepiest part is that the missing persons card is not high quality enough and that means that nobody cared and they were possibly racist. She got a card all to herself all night making it the only thing people would see on their TVs all night until broadcasting resumed not to mention that sure, its only one channel but there were only a handful of channels on the literal dial built onto the tvs of the time. They used to put up a test pattern up! We didn't need confirmation that other cards were ever used. This girl wasn't special and she got a card, one might assume that other cases might also get them and that would mean it was regular.
@@sleepisaluxury That's a really good way of describing exactly what made seeing these all those years ago such a jolting and frightening experience- especially if you were a kid at the time as I was.
This confirms that Joanna Lopez was definitely a real person and not a test.
What would be the point of showing a "test" missing person poster?
I don't know if this is strictly a generational thing or what. I keep reading speculative comments about this being a "test" or confirmation of this being a "real" person. It's such an odd line of thought that this was something that would have been done as some sort of test run. But if this thought does indeed run along generational lines, then it's really fascinating how much things have changed; that the concept of airing a missing persons slide has to be explained.
@@samsquanch1996 there was this one crazy theory going around that the Joanna Lopez broadcast was just a “test” because there’s no records of Joanna anywhere and the missing poster/picture looked too washed out to make out what she looked like. Making it seem like she didn’t exist at all. This confirmed that she is/was a real person because Tricia Kellett’s missing poster was done in a very similar way and there’s records of her case online.
@@LordDagger My theory of the Joanna Lopez case is that maybe she was found early on and that's why there's not much info, or maybe it was a case that never went anywhere and was never solved, which is a sad reality for many missing persons cases. Despite the lack of information I never thought it was fake, I don't know what the point of a test missing persons poster would be, even if it was a test there'd probably be a caption saying "this is only a test" or something.
The Joanna Lopez card being a "test slot" is thrown out for one main reason... This one (Tricia Kellett) aired in 1988, and the the Joanna Lopez case was aired in 1989, and again in 1991... So it couldn't have been a test slot...
5:26
I don't know why, but there's something about these black and white missing posters like these that always I find unsettling.
It's probably the way she smiles at the camera, unaware of the unfortunate fate that had awaited her, is what makes this all the more creepier.
in a way it seems like the 2007 abc hoax has the same black and white quality.
It’s the uncanny feeling that you get with a lack of noise on TV, *especially* in these cases.
nice pfp
I was 8 years old at the time and still to this very day remember that poster. I stayed up late watching Saturday Night Live then Showtime at the Apollo would come on and I’d flip the Nintendo on and change the channel to 3. After a while of playing a game I turned it off and went back to channel 5 and there was that creepy, eerie black and white picture staring at me and I immediately shut it off! Here it is years later and as a 44 year old man I can still feel that same feeling the first time I saw it.
Love it! Great memory.
@@FuzzyMemoriesTV dude, it scared the F out of me! Even though my very vibrant, no nonsense grandma was in the same room at the time and I felt like I was all alone , me and that image - 3am if I recall. I don’t even know how I found this again but at that time it gave me the heebie jeebies.
@@TasteTestTitanThere are many people who believe these “Missing” posters are fake, specifically the Joanna Lopez one. Did you happen to catch that one when it aired as well?? Would love to know.
This testimony is actually so important because a lot of people who didn’t see these live think that they’re fake for the sake of clicks and to be scary. Thank you for sharing!!
@@genesis8284 that’s the 1 I was commenting on. I also remember a few more times coming across 2 more. 1 was when I was getting ready for school and it was around 7am that it came on my screen as I was flipping the channels. Still gives me chills thinking of how I felt seeing those images in black and white.
Wow. The Joanna case is now confirmed and that it’s an actual person. Holy, that’s such a scary feeling.
So from this, we see that the Missing Persons slides were common and the thing that makes Joanna Lopez' case stand out was her picture was such low quality compared to what we're used to seeing. This makes her case even sadder once you think about it given that may have been the only photo they had of her to use at the time.
That is a very sobering and chilling thought. The poor family of Joanna Lopez and now Tricia Kellet. Makes you wonder if they were ever found- where are they now.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles Sadly, Tricia was never found either. After looking up the case, her parents have both passed and there are still questions going on about what happened because people are theorizing the police KNEW who took her but they let him get away. It's a sad story.
@@SuperCosmicMutantSquid I hope it doesn't sound strange to say thank you for this follow up information. This is haunting. It's just mind-boggling that people can literally disappear and never be found. The fact that Tricia's parents passed away without ever knowing what happened- that's an awfully huge hole in anyone's existence. Even though this happened so long ago, it's still painfully sad.
In one breath you say that you clearly didn't know that this was a normal thing and then compare it to the ONLY OTHER CARD YOU'VE SEEN! Madness. This girl wasn't special, her case is not abnormal, people go missing everyday and they clearly did this everyday because of those facts. This was not a special airing of the very important Joanna Lopez missing persons contact info. She got time all night on one of a very small handful of networks. That's great. God knows how many people saw it and maybe they found her. You kids are sick with your shitty little internet mysteries desperate to be 1 second stars. I have pictures of myself that look worse than that one and they weren't photocopied and then braodcast on tv and saved on an inferior medium. smh.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles IIRC, Tricia was killed, but the Chicago PD kept it under wraps for unknown reasons until 2017 or so. The murder itself is unsolved.
Not only does this confirm that Joanna is a real person, but that she did not necessarily go missing in 1989, as Tricia's slide was aired 6 years after her disappearance. Hopefully more slides are discovered or we find a way to see if these were a regular or semi regular public service done by the station. (As a Chicagoean, I'll see what I can dig up myself)
On the topic of Tricia, her case absolutely breaks my heart, and not only am I disgusted that her killers walked free, but that CPD tried to cover it up and her surviving siblings didn't get any closure until almost 40 years later. May she rest in peace.
of course shes a real person. This was a regular thing. Missing persons ads were everywhere all the time for decades. The picture isn't creepy, its a low quality image of its time probably taken from a copy of a copy. Find a new hobby. Victims of crimes are not a hobby.
@@HoorayTV21 I never looked at this as a hobby nor did I ever think this was a hoax. In fact, I and many others just want to know if Joanna is okay and hopefully still alive, and hopefully this leads to more info. Nobody here is treating her case as a hobby, but go off I guess. I never described her picture as "creepy" either, nor have I personally ever doubted that she was/is a real person.
I have had an interest in this case for a while because I sincerely hope Joanna was a runaway that was found and is still alive today. I have never treated this case as "creepy analog horror" or whatever. I'm just a girl from Chicago who is intrigued by this case and really hopes there's a happy ending to this mystery, which I don't think is "treating it like a hobby" at all. The only reason I stated that this is proof that Joanna is a real missing person is for all the people who have doubted that since this case got attention. I was never part of that crowd. But, as I said, go off I guess. I didn't realize caring about someone who is missing and trying to figure out what happened to them in a respectful manner is "treating a crime like a hobby" but okay. 🙄
Wtf you talking about? Those men never even went to trial and her family still has no closure. Her body was never found.
@@HoorayTV21 commenting on every comment isn't a hobby. Maybe you should take your own advice.
@@billbombshiggy9254 they never went to trial because it was found that Ponteneli was paying off the families of the children he abused so the charges would be dropped. The cops even tool note of that during his investigation
Now I know why I was so spooked by early morning TV when I was a little kid.
This was midnight. Not 6 am
@@diabolivirtusen-tavares-ea4392 some say that the ‘missing’ pictures remained until early morning. I cannot confirm as I wasn’t born around that time
@@kennymccormick2027 I heard that too.
Those missing posts happened in early morning too@@diabolivirtusen-tavares-ea4392
I was always creeped out by tv test patterns and sign offs as a kid. If some missing person shit looking like this popped up, or if I had fallen asleep and woke up to the tv on and this silent, white noise buzzing, with this image or even the Joanna Lopez image up, I'd have shit my pants and ran to my parents room.
Tricia's story is really sad... the part about how her mom was convinced she could hear Tricia's clogs and how her mom would run outside in the middle of the night only to find a quiet, empty street... it's infuriating how little they did to help this girl. They had all kinds of leads... I hope this case gets resolved
she has been missing for a long time so she is probably dead.
@KC so sad and not at all surprising
@@bkoldiesI heard of someone who has been missing since 1971 and recently, a few months ago, she was found safe.
@@Ggggggfefdffthat's pretty accurate, kids go missing all the time over there
@@bkoldiessaw a video from China of over 100 kids in a sewer rotting with all of their chests ripped open. It was horrific. A guy was down there doing some maintenance and stumbled upon it. These places are under the united states too.
Imagine waking up from a late afternoon/early evening sleep, leaving your TV on, and seeing THAT on your screen. The 80s was a wild time.
90's too. Basically it was a time of audiovisual transition, and all broadcasters were trying everything to get attention. So it was quite common to see bizarre things on TV, especially the logos
@@cosmicparsec9463 and drug PSAs lol
You guys are chumps. I made a video in the dark at 2:30.
This is groundbreaking stuff! I’ve been following the Joanna Lopez mystery before it even became popular on Reddit and other sites. Although there are no updates on Joanna, this ultimately confirms that the missing person slide of her was not a hoax as some have speculated. Very much unfortunate with what happened to Tricia….and also rather shocking that WMAQ had an overall lack of information on these slides. Hopefully more slides will be discovered, and hopefully this will bring us closer to solving the mystery behind Joanna’s disappearance. Thank you for this find!
This whole thing is ridiculous. Of course it wasn’t a “hoax”. Just because they used a bad picture of Joanna Lopez for her missing slide - I’m sure that was the only picture provided to WMAQ, so talk to the family or whoever provided it on that one.
If anyone had asked me I could have told you that the missing slide wasn’t a one time thing. It was something they did as a public service to try and get more info out on a missing kid, just like the milk cartons.
Any information, any picture would have been better than nothing, so people need to get off judging an over 30 year old overnight editorial decision that was just trying to help.
This “mystery” is only a “mystery” because it doesn’t have enough available information to resolve it. The name is fairly common, the picture is bad, and there’s no last seen date - all of which add up to making it almost impossible to track down the outcome - not because it’s some great mysterious circumstance.
For all we know, Joanna Lopez might have been a temporary runaway that was only gone for a week and they decided to put her picture up there - and then maybe she was found the week after - thus no great searchable record on the internet. Contrast this with the Tricia Kellett case where she was missing for over 6 years at this point and was a bonafide child abduction.
@@FuzzyMemoriesTVStill dosen’t explain why wouldn’t they give a proper description…
It’ll be interesting to see how many other missing slides could be dug up from WMAQ, knowing now that the Joanna Lopez slide isn’t a one-off. Compared to hers, we at least have a date that Tricia went missing, but still a complete lack of description (no height, weight, age, last seen wearing, etc.) Seems like a strange thing to leave out on WMAQ’s part, unless they weren’t provided with that information. Tricia’s case is heartbreaking, for her parents who never knew what happened to her, and her siblings who, nearly 40 years later, had to pry the information from the CPD and find out they almost certainly knew her killer and nothing was done about it. Hopefully someone somewhere has information about Joanna, someday.
I think the lack of info on the slides was a huge oversight on WMAQ'S part because we know/have had a description for Tricia since the day she went missing.
Tricia's case was just gutting to read. Poor girl.
TV channels used to put up a test pattern. Be thankful that they changed that to anything helpful.
@@HoorayTV21 I'm aware. In comparison to the other video with Joanna Lopez's slide, Tricia's slide at least has a clear picture of her face, as well as the date she went missing. But, compared with other missing persons alerts of the time on other stations, this isn't much to go on. Other segments would often have a colour photo (if available), height, weight, age, place last seen... it just seems like either WMAQ wasn't given enough information, or somehow their design choices didn't end up including vital information about the missing person. Also, showing these at a time where viewership is declining and people are turning off their television sets is an odd choice. Not saying these can't be helpful, but they're a bit strange compared to others.
The victims didn't show up to court and refused to testify against the guy. What else could the cops do? Just throw him in jail on hearsay?
Tricia Kellett is Lacey Fletcher who was found melted into the couch. Autism and Paralyzed. Her parents didn't take care of her. Marvin Pontarelli was Clay Fletcher. He didn't die in prison.
Kellett had been taken by a local man by the name of Marvin Pontarelli.
Pontarelli was positively ID'd days later in an investigation by Chicago PD, and already had an extensive rap sheet involving child pornography and rape. Pontarelli's along with Kellett's name was in the phonebook of a known child pornographer by the name of Larry Kessler whom Pontarelli intended on blackmailing. Neither men were charged for this crime and the evidence against these perverts was buried by CPD only to later be dug up via FOIA by NBC News and Kellett's surviving siblings almost 40 years later in 2018.
Kellett's parents had passed long before the family finally had closure on who had taken Tricia, but luckily Pontarelli died in an Arizona prison in 1994 on wholly unrelated charges.
Despite this information, the case has never been formally closed and Tricia legally remains a missing person to this day.
I was scanning the comments for any info on the case and reading this just broke my heart, not only for Tricia, but her parents and siblings. I can't imagine what it must have been like to find out that your sister's murderer was let free and that the cops buried the fact that they did so for almost 40 years. Was Kessler ever arrested on other charges? Is he dead?
I wish nothing but peace to the souls of Tricia, her parents, and their surviving family. Absolutely heartbreaking.
@@gothtarrare Kessler's whereabouts are unknown afaik.
@@DaveBob96 I looked into it a bit more, Kessler died before the Kellett siblings got info through the FOIA. I hope both Pontarelli and Kessler rot in hell.
I wonder if there are any other missing persons slides like these. Poor Joanna and poor Tricia. :(
Since discovering the case of Joanna Lopez and now seeing Tricia’s picture, it has given me chills every time I think about it.
I'm so glad to see this again. Especially the first part that was the intro/ending for movie 5 that has stuck in my head for all these years.
I think what really makes these broadcasts disturbing, is how it's almost like the cards are thrown in as an afterthought. At the end of the station's airing (when most people probably wouldn't be watching), just thrown in. Hardly any info, no voiceover, and the picture they use is always of extremely low quality.
To me anyways, it gives the impression that whoever put these in didn't care about the child being found, because they didn't even try to get people to see the missing poster.
Almost like they only put in the missing posters just to say that they did.
I'm almost wondering if they did it just to avoid suspicion amongst friends, so they put the posters in these sign offs to say "We got posters up, let's hope she's found" to try to hide their disinterest.
That last bit is just me trying to reason why they'd put posters up, but the fact that these are so haphazardly thrown together and then slapped onto the end of a sign-off is giving me really bad vibes. From what little I've read about this particular case, we know that Tricia's parents didn't care about her(I could be mistaken, I didn't read too much into the case), which makes me worried for Joanna and any other kids who possibly had sign-off posters that are yet undiscovered.
Idk, what do y'all think?
It does really give off bad vibes, even a bit uncomfortable to see, For example in mexico at least they showed missing people's slides at hours were people could see (wether or not it were real, its still in discusion idk), but here they didnt even bother to get more info about Tricia and Joanna (Joanna didnt even have "last seen" date) plus the uncomfortable silence with only the static and the black and white low quality photo makes the whole thing more uncomfortable.
man i already actually feel goosebumps when hearing our national anthem (especially in the last parts of the anthem, the last lines of our anthem goes like "but it is glory ever, when thou art wronged, for us thy sons to suffer and die" - if it aint chilling enough, but hey, it invokes national pride; if i was american i would also feel the same for "the land of the free and the home of the brave") during sign-off.
pictures like these, especially missing kids at the very last sequence would really scare the crap out of me.
on the technical side, if for instance it was added at the very end of a stock tape, that's understandable but a screwed-up idea nevertheless to insert such on a tape meant for broadcast closing.
still, my thoughts to tricia and joanna, and to all the missing people out there, wherever they are now.
CPD may not have been the ones to actually kidnap Tricia Kellett, but based on what I've read and heard about the case, they are definitely accountable in my opinion.
Wow, this context makes the joanna thing actually make sense. She's real and probably went missing, and they just used a terrible photo of her. I didn't think this was some selene delgado type thing they did multiple times but apparently they did.
The Joanna Lopez mystery thickens
The strangest public domain title on "Movie 5" from that time was Fritz Lang's classic "M" in German with English subtitles.
this most likely confirms that Joanna Lopez was a real person, though her slide didn't say when she was last seen as with Tricia here.
Sigh. I stayed up way too late again. And the school bus comes at 8:10...
This is both amazing and sad, amazing at the fact that we can confirm Joanna Lopez and sad at the fact that it was a real case, not something made up, just like this one it probably went cold too and without any data to ever back up she even existed.. I’m thankful for today’s technology for that
what creeps me out the most is that she has the same last name as me.
At least this report has an intelligable face, unlike joanna's 1989 slide. Gee, wonder why?
Not gonna lie, seeing these missing person images before going to bed might not want to make anyone want to fall asleep based off the nature of this. On a side note however, do you have any more of these laying around anywhere? I’ve become interested in seeing more of these cases since I learned about Joanna Lopez.
Who thought it was a good idea to air this stuff at midnight????!!!
My uncle was right. There was more.
I have a feeling that this is just like the joanna lopez case 🙁
edit: just searched up her name and it's not (well the slide in this video is but the case isn't like joanna's), she's a young girl who is actually missing in chicago. She was waiting last seen at her apartment that day for her father to pick her up for the weekend and decided to play outside with friends in the mean time. She was playing with puppies across the street from her home when she was seen getting into a blue four-door 1979 Dodge or Pontiac with one or two men already inside. The car had a damaged front passenger door and a license plate beginning with the letters "Q" and "R." She hasn't been seen or heard from and it's been 40 years since she's been missing.
*note: all of this info is from the International Missing Persons Wiki*
Literally the first I thought of 2
A bit of a sad spoiler here: This comment and the thumbnail prompted me to quickly look up the kid’s name and there’s a good chance she’s no longer with us. According to an article I read (and will link if asked), she was abducted by a guy who owned the car she was found going into, with the guy a known kidnapper and assaulter who targeted kids. They were able to arrest him, but because the family failed to show up to the trial (or maybe rather Tricia), he was let go on the spot and he probably tried using her for his sick actions.
The American justice system, ladies and gentlemen.
I noticed that Tricia' is a year earlier than Joanna. Idk if that means anything, but I thought it's worth pointing out.
@@devinsmith4790 That is a interesting detail notice. I wonder when WMAQ started airing missing person slides and if any were successful. My heart, btw, goes out to Tricia’s family, whether she is gone or not. ❤️🙏
I was just wondering about this in reply to a post above. My God but this is so sad.
That sign-off was kind of creepy. The channel goes off the air for the night and then it froze into the stations missing persons report instead of the usual color bars? 🤔
This was pretty common for Chicago in the 80s.
@@diabolivirtusen-tavares-ea4392 yea it's like they go into the channel's service to the community segment and then stays there
These videos like this are better than educational to learn some English, Spanish, Math, and many more.
See guys, this proves that Joanna Lopez is actually a real person. Now if only someone knew about this Tricia Kellett Mystery. 🤔
Well a lot of people knew about the disappearance of Tricia Kellett, and there’s even a page dedicated to Tricia Kellett.
I honestly thought this was one of those analog horror videos on my feed, very sorry
Huh?
@@diabolivirtusen-tavares-ea4392 they are a recent trend
@@a.k.aorangepenguin5032 oh you mean like those "this video game copy is personalized". I got you now. Haha.
I remember those Child Find Alberta here in Canada. They would really scare me.
i like this rabbi
The Rabbi was the kidnapper!!!!!
@@diabolivirtusen-tavares-ea4392 ruining comments again...
This is creepy and scary.
We always think we're the only ones to have a thought or a feeling and then thanks to the internet, we find we were never alone. I too used to think these missing persons slides were among the most bone-chilling, scariest things I'd ever seen as a kid. I never told anyone because I thought I was just being silly in some way. If I happened to fall asleep with the tv on and woke up seeing one of these, I HAD to sleep with the lights on. And I'll tell you, this is still just as haunting today as it was when I was a kid.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles same here. I'm 50 years old and this kind of thing still creeps me out just as much as it did when I was a child. It's scarier than any horror movie because it's real and could have happened to any one of us
Why the hell did they decide to air this at midnight
at least the girl on this slide actually looks like a person (no offense to the joanna lopez 1989 slide)
You’re right. The first time I saw Joanna’s picture it took me a while to comprehend that she was human. Now finding out that she is real is super gut wrenching. That’s all we have of her, a single photo of terrible quality. I’m not religious but I literally pray that something of Joanna (and Tricia) are recovered though it’s been years.
I’m tired leaving the tv on
I remember divorce court back in the eighties. I want to know do you have any more episodes or eighties promos of divorce court as a request if you do I will appreciate it thank you and God-bless
Any minute now we'll have the freaks who swear there are subliminal messages in the SSB video.
Exactly since, having seen this in slow motion, there ain't any.
@@wmbrown6 There were two versions; the MK Naomi, and this. This one is cropped, whereas the MK Naomi is the full 4:3 format.
@@AiMR - The so-called 'subliminal' version (is that the MK Naomi you're referring to?) has a font that was created over the last 10-20 years or so, which I've seen in some advertisements but can't pin what the name of it is.
@@wmbrown6 Nope. It is the identical font to the original seen here.
@@AiMR You refuse to listen to reason
Maybe Joanna and Tricia rest in peace... God bless her soul
They’re probably still out there somewhere. Or not.
Joanna may have been found and she’s alive and well
You wanna know something? Everytime i look away of this photo, and see it in the corner of my eye, it looks like its moving closer or something.
a doubt.... the girl that appears on the slide was found?
oh it lost forever?
As of now, Tricia Kellett is lost forever and is one of millions of people around the world who never returned home.
@@ftjm69 I believe she's dead
@@Sensatokiko she is
And the home of the brave??
Just a typo
I'm just buzzed to find out so many others were terrified by things like these creepy North Korea-esque sign offs and EBS, etc.
5:26 this is a very creepy photo in general
Bro how long did that image last?
The fact that it played until the station signed back on makes it creepier
This is spooky.
5:26 scary
5:26
Do people seriously think this proves Joanna Lopez exists? Come on. Why didn't Joanna have a last seen date then? If someone reported her missing then they would know when she was last seen.
why is this scarier than the joanna lopez one lmao
This doesn’t prove Joanna Lopez is real. If anything this further proves it’s a test image. Why didn’t Joanna’s broadcast show the last date she was seen like this one? There is info on Tricia Kellett’s disappearance but not Joanna. How can you say this is real when there is not report of her missing or anyone who knew her?
There were a lot of missing persons cases that had disappeared when the internet came around. It’s likely that Joanna Lopez’s case may have gone missing in this, but either way, this does prove that there are a hell of a lot more things out there.
Ok so an anonymous person called the station to report Joana as a missing persons case, and said they would call back for more information about Joanna Lopez, they never called back, and we don't really know why.
It's not only made the same it has the same real phone number again. They just had very little to work with in Joanna's case and since it seems her case was largely Ignored unfortunately, or records of whatever became of her case was lose maybe. Thier is absolutely no doubt in my mind being an '80s baby myself that these are REAL pictures of REAL CHIDEREN. Shame on younger or more naive people not being able to show you can't fake an aged photo on archived film's that we're uploaded online decade's later. I've seen the sorry remakes of these they're so obviously fake. I knew right away this one was real just like the Lopez case.
@@cutekoala5492 source?
@@oronasundial The name and picture could have been a placeholder.
i like to mine
WHY IT'S SO LONG LIKE, WERE STARING AT HER FOR LONG TIME, WE EVEN GET SOME FOODS TO EAT WHILE SHE APPEARED AND THEN WE SLEEP!, BUT WE LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TV!
I hope Baby Girl didnt suffer too long 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢💔💔💔💔💔💔
Unfortunately she is still missing to this day, possibly dead
So did 12yos just read a creepy pasta blog about scary ole tv and this has turned into a thing? You know they used to put these on milk cartons too? This is absolute idiocy.
Fun fact: People can have empathy and give a shit about missing persons they were never related to and hope for the case to be reopened/the safe finding of said person without it being the equivalent of 12 year olds having just read a creepypasta. :) Also I'm sure everyone knows that missing persons used to be on milk cartons but go off I guess. 🙄
I think what scares people most about these broadcasts is the abrupt way they’re conducted. Going from a jovial rendition of the national anthem into a monochrome slide about a missing person with the still image and bold text is a mood whiplash. The complete lack of information on these slides and zero narration explaining anything doesn’t help at all. With this one, there’s at least information about the case if you Google her name, but with Joanna’s, there’s a complete lack of a case. No information at all, and no one seems to know anything about her. It’s sad and a bit unnerving to know someone could be lost to time.
@@gothtarrare This has nothing to do with caring about this cold case. It is completely based in millennial/zoomer ignorance of how the world worked pre five nights at freddies. Something that happened every night is not "creepy". The idiots in the comments stating that the creepiest part is that the missing persons card is not high quality enough and that means that nobody cared and they were possibly racist. She got a card all to herself all night making it the only thing people would see on their TVs all night until broadcasting resumed not to mention that sure, its only one channel but there were only a handful of channels on the literal dial built onto the tvs of the time. They used to put up a test pattern up! We didn't need confirmation that other cards were ever used. This girl wasn't special and she got a card, one might assume that other cases might also get them and that would mean it was regular.
@@sleepisaluxury That's a really good way of describing exactly what made seeing these all those years ago such a jolting and frightening experience- especially if you were a kid at the time as I was.
@@HoorayTV21 We get it, your generation is SoOoOo much better.
I don't believe it.
This is real she went missing in 1982 after she got in car with an unknown male individual she was eight years old then
I didnt see Joanna Lopez. Where did she go?