Newlywed Marines Reported Missing From Pendleton Spotted in Missouri

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 11, 2008 at 2:23 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Two recently-married marines reported missing from Camp Pendleton 12 days ago have been spotted in Missouri. The Naval Criminal Investigation Service has called off its search for the pair. KPBS repor

Two recently-married marines reported missing from Camp Pendleton 12 days ago have been spotted in Missouri. The Naval Criminal Investigation Service has called off its search for the pair. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Since it’s now clear Lance Corporal Margaret McMahon Reid and her husband, Private First Class George Reid, are not victims of foul play, military investigators are no longer actively searching for them. Now it’s up to them whether they’ll report back for duty, or join the ranks of about 1,200 marines nationwide classified as deserters.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Camp Pendleton spokesman Mike Alvarez says, for the moment, they’re simply “absent without authority.”

Alvarez : After 30 days of being absent without authority they can be classified as a deserter status. At this time, it’s too early to comment on any disciplinary action which may be taken by their respective commands.

Marine Corps data shows between 700 and 1,700 Marines have deserted each yea since 2002. The numbers have fallen slightly over the past three years.

About six marines are classified as deserters for every thousand on active duty.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

twitter

Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.