It's been almost a year since Paige Johnson went missing and her family is not giving up hope that she will be found. Ever since the 17 year old disappeared on September 23, 2010, the city of Covington has been plastered with fliers but now, some of those fliers have been torn down. Local 12's Angela Ingram talked to Paige's grandmother about the order to remove the fliers.
Johnson's grandmother, Jenny Roderick, spends a lot of time putting up fliers in Northern Kentucky cities. but the city manager of Covington says they'll have to come down off his city's utility poles, because they're illegal.
In the heat of summer, Jenny Roderick is putting up flayers. On Monday, she was at work in Independence. "I do this, unless my daughter needs me at home."
She hopes the fliers remind the public that her granddaughter is still missing. "We still want people to know that that she's not found. And that, you know, there's tons of people that love her."
But last week, while Roderick was putting up the fliers in Covington, a police officer stopped her. "He wasn't mean or anything, he was just insistent that I had to take them down. And by the time I was walking back after he left, I was crying."
The officer suggested put them up in legal spots like store windows, and bulletin boards. "Some businesses will let us put them up in the windows but not very many."
Jenny chose utility poles because of their high visibility. "It has affected our whole family. We miss her something fierce. And we want her home, you know, even if it is the other way. We still want her home and this is what keeps me going."
A spokesperson for Covington Police said the officer only stopped and confronted Paige's grandmother because the city received a complaint. The city manager says, that regardless of what the posters say, they have to come down, and he says, although he must enforce the current ordinance, the city has no intention of being insensitive to her family.
Jacob Bumpus is the last person known to see Paige Johnson alive. He is locked up on a parole violation.
