By Daily Press staff
SM MOUNTAINS Volunteers are being sought for a weekend search in Malibu for Donna Jou, an Orange County college student who went missing June 23.
More than 30 volunteers and attorney Gloria Allred, who represents the Jou family, will search for Jou in the Santa Monica Mountains today and Sunday, with the assistance of Trinity Search & Recovery, Allred said.
Volunteer searchers can register online at www.trinitysearch.org and will gather at 9 am at Malibu Bluffs Park, 24250 Pacific Coast Highway.
Donna Jou was 19 years old when she hopped on the back of a motorcycle driven by John Steven Burgess, 35, a convicted sex criminal, on June 23. That was the last time her family saw her, and brief text messages from her phone indicate that she was locked in a bathroom and in danger at Burgess’ house, her family said.
Burgess is considered a suspect — but has not been charged — in the disappearance of Jou, whose family lives in Rancho Santa Margarita. He pleaded no contest Oct. 10 in a Los Angeles courtroom to two counts of failing to register as a sex offender and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Burgess has not given any hints about Jou’s whereabouts.
Deputy District Attorney Christi Frey said after an October hearing that Burgess’ attorney, George F. Bird Jr., “said he can’t advise his client to talk about anything that might incriminate him. He still has the right to remain silent, the right not to incriminate himself. And we can’t force him to talk.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.