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Friday, July 04, 2003

By Jonathan D. Silver, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Jamaur Jackson lives with his mom near the top of a woodsy hill lined by yards overflowing with flowers. It's peaceful and quiet and the next best thing to the country, a place where residents cross paths with deer, snakes and other wildlife.

Except for a long, steep set of city steps leading to busy Chartiers Avenue far below, Litchfield Street in Sheraden is out of the way. So much so that Jackson's mother, Lynn Vason, wonders how her autistic, mentally challenged 18-year-old son ever crossed paths with a 28-year-old man from Washington County named Aaron Martens.

Both have been missing since Tuesday, and Pittsburgh police believe they are together based on interviews with two waitresses at a McCandless restaurant. The waitresses told detectives they spotted the pair Wednesday about 7 p.m. along with an unidentified woman at J. Clark's Restaurant on Pine Creek Road.

"There's no way that Jamaur would cross this man's path unless this man had been lurking in this area," Vason, 39, said. "I really don't know what to think."

So far, the statements from the waitresses are the only evidence linking Jackson to Martens, who is from Peters. Police said Martens recently completed a two-year sentence in a military prison for downloading and storing child pornography while in the Air Force.

Police Cmdr. Maurita Bryant described Jackson as "endangered," but said she has no indication that Martens would do him any harm. That is also what Martens' father, Mark, said yesterday.

"There's no reason to think he'd be a danger to anybody," Martens said. "We just can't envision him hurting this boy."

Bryant described Aaron Martens as under the care of a psychologist and on anti-depressants.

While on the pair's trail, police turned up Martens' car on the first floor of the Downtown Greyhound station's parking garage, Bryant said.

Police found that a one-way ticket to Phoenix was bought Wednesday in Martens' name; they are trying to access videotape from Greyhound.

As the search goes on, two sets of parents are left to wait and grow anxious.

"All I want is for my son to be returned home safely," Vason said from her porch. "I'm very tired. I'm operating on six hours of sleep in two days."

Said Mark Martens: "We certainly feel for the other family. We certainly hope [Jackson] gets back OK."

Jackson, who is 5-feet-8 and 170 pounds, was supposed to start a summer school program Wednesday in Beechview, but he vanished before getting the chance to go to class.

Vason said it is not unusual for her son to go on walks, but he normally returns within a half-hour. Around 9 or 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jackson did just that, taking the city steps to the Foodland on Chartiers Avenue and then coming home.

Vason had gone to work without any concerns until her 10-year-old daughter called to report that Jackson had left a second time and not returned after 45 minutes.

Cashiers at Foodland said they saw Jackson around 1 p.m. by himself. Police said they have no further sightings of him until he showed up in the McCandless restaurant with the man believed to be Martens and the woman. She was described by police as 20 to 25 years old, blonde, 5-feet-7, 130 pounds with a tattoo on her right shoulder, a black halter top and tan pants.

Martens said his son had been home for only about two months, having returned from a naval prison in San Diego. With such a short time back in the Pittsburgh area -- Aaron Martens joined the Air Force in July 1996 and served in Ohio and then Germany -- his father said he did not know anyone here.

Martens said his son had enrolled in Triangle Tech on the North Side and went to school Monday, but never showed up Tuesday. Martens' mother called Peters police after she saw a news broadcast about Jackson and told them she hoped her son had nothing to do with the disappearance, Pittsburgh police said.

Martens' father said the timing of the two disappearances is what made his family suspect a connection.

Asked what the next step for detectives is in their search for the men, Bryant said, "You just throw a broad net, just try to keep looking."