Gene Cloud Jr. has been added to Official Missing Persons List

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Sanford LittleEagle in Native Currents. Discussion »

Gene Cloud Jr is Missing

BLACK FALLS, WISCONSIN - On Wednesday, January 25 after leaving a family member's residence in the Black River Falls area, Gene Cloud, Jr. drove his girlfriend's car on secondary roads towards Warrens, Wisconsin.

County Highway O in the town of Millston runs eastbound into a heavily wooded area known for hunting and ATV trails. Thick fluffy snowflakes blanketed the roads, and the roads were icy. Gene noticed a squad car in his rearview mirror that was out on patrol in the rural area. The Sheriff's Deputy had not even run the plates of the car Gene was driving. Around 7 am, the deputy then witnessed the car crossing the center line into the oncoming lanes ditch, facing the direction he was driving.

“The deputy stopped to help him,”

said Chief Deputy Mark Moen of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.

When the deputy asked for identification Gene fled from the disabled vehicle into the woods. Sheriff's Department officials state they did not know who Gene was until Thursday January 26. All the Sheriff's Department could go on was whose name the vehicle's plates were in, which was not Gene or his girlfriend. The vehicle was registered in his girlfriend's sister's name.

After making contact with the owner, Cloud was suspected of being the person driving the car into the ditch. Gene, who may have been under the influence, had many fears of the outcome of the Sheriffs presence; would his girlfriend be mad about the car? Was he going to jail? Many reasons probably went through his head, whatever the reason was; he decided to flee from the scene. There were no other known occupants in the vehicle. Cloud had gotten a puppy a couple weeks earlier and when he ran into the woods, he did have the Dachshund with him.

It is not clear in this case why the Deputy did not pursue Gene on foot. The relatives where Gene was the night before awoke to Gene not being there in the morning. On his Facebook account, also known as Breezy, last posted on January 25 at 4:29 am, which states: "lms if u awake.", meaning for his Facebook friends to "Like" his status update if they were awake at that time too. A pretty common post, yet it was his last post. Nine hours and thirty six minutes later, Gene's girlfriend went on his page, as she has the whole time since Cloud has been missing, asking him to call or come home.

Simone (Cloud) Zane, Gene's mother sat down for an interview with the Hocak Worak and one of the reasons she spoke with us was to get the word out about Gene J. Cloud's disappearance. Simone was very emotional and has been very distraught over the last few weeks since learning Gene has not been seen or heard from. As many of us that are on Facebook, much of the dialogue regarding Gene Missing has led to a lot of rumors, sightings, and questions.

“My son is missing. He has not contacted us.”

Gene has four sisters and one brother. Gene stays in daily contact with his brother texting, calling, and Facebook. Since January 25, that has stopped. No one has heard from him.

Simone did report her son Gene missing. When she reported her son missing, she was told that Gene had warrants for his arrest. A records check showed that Gene did have a few outstanding body warrants for a failure to appear for a traffic violation. Initial search efforts were stalled by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, due to Cloud eluding and after the fact that Sheriff's Department had discovered Gene ran away to avoid getting arrested. Zane was told they were calling off the search because

“We don't think he is a missing person. He's just hiding from the police because of his warrant situation.”

Simone was then instructed to let the Sheriff's Department know if she heard anything. Zane went away discouraged. Family and friends of the young couple learned of Gene eluding the Sheriff's and that he had not been caught or shown up by any of his family or friends, so out of concern a search effort was conducted by tribal members.

A close friend of Zane's children had been very helpful and resourceful to the search effort. Ho-Chunk Nation's Chief of Police, Dan Libke, had been assisting with the search effort, and then Jackson County Sheriff's Department brought out dogs that are trained to search and track. On two occasions, the dogs were used to track and search for Cloud.

Cloud's foot trail was followed by members of the first search party. Tracks show Gene's trek through up to three and a half feet of snow in some areas and it was shown where he stopped to rest. Simone stated that as Gene's sister and uncle were on his trail they had noticed at some parts of the trail they had stepped in to swampy ice covered areas. But the trail Gene left, shows he traveled over 3.4 miles from where the car had originally went in the ditch, eastbound through the woods parallel to the road, and that he crossed the road back and forth into the woods a few times. At some point, search efforts by law enforcement were called off again.

Zane was told that some of the trails and tracks that the dogs were on were now losing scent and trail because of the tribal members search. There is no evidence that shows that Gene got into a car, but during the search the dogs ended the trail on the road.

Libke verified that the dog search efforts had led to a dead end.

Two different dogs were used; both had lost trail and scent on or by Smrekar Road. Jackson County did put out two press releases; the first one was 12 days after Simone reported Gene missing on February 8. The second press release was February 15; nineteen days after Cloud was reported missing. Zane inquired and requested assistance from the Nation; she was told that the assistance eligible for tribal members was only available for funerals.

Zane also wanted to address some rumors, some have said,

“He has his money, he's just hiding out?”

Simone said,

"Gene is expecting a child with his girlfriend and he told me he wanted to change his life. So Gene moved to Tomah with his girlfriend and was going back to school to receive his high school diploma so he could obtain his per-cap and be set by the time the baby was born."

Another rumor was saying,

“His family is just hiding him.”

False.

“His sisters and brother and I have not heard from him. This is not like Gene to not talk, text, or come by any of us.”

Check his Facebook. Gene's phone was in the car, and from what any of us can see on our end, he has not posted, replied, or logged in. Simone wishes to Thank everyone for helping search for Gene and posting his missing posters.

In closing I asked Simone about what she truly feels about her son missing and what she thinks. Zane said,

“I don't feel like he's gone.
I don't feel like his spirit has gone on.
I don't.
I know he's out there,
I just don't know where.
I don't know if he is hurting.
I just know he is still here.
What's killing me the most is the silence, not knowing, not hearing anything! ”

"I just want someone to come forward that actually knows where he is."

Son, I just wish you would come home, I love you, and everybody misses you. Your baby is coming. Just man up and face everything, get it over with and we will all move on and continue our life.

Simone ended with saying,

“He's a very good person. He deserves to have a family, to start his life.”

Update

As flyers have been posted from Black River Falls to the Wood County Wisconsin Rapids area, Simone received a call from the brother of a missing person. In this call the man shared similarities to the case of Gene J. Cloud Jr.; his brother has been missing since January 14, was under the influence, and may have gotten a ride but nobody has seen or heard from him since.

Jackson County Sheriff's Department has searched the rural area, Chief Deputy Mark Moen stated that a search of the surrounding area by a Sheriff's Deputy familiar with the area, who even knew of cabins or properties off of the Plat maps have been searched for signs of break ins or tracks. No signs or clues have been found. It has been four weeks now since Gene Jacob Cloud Jr. has been missing.

There have been reported sightings of persons matching Gene's description made to the Jackson and Monroe County Sheriff's Department. As of February 20, the last reported sighting was disbursed and four Sheriff's Department squads were dispatched to the scene. No one matching Gene's description was found.

Gene Jacob Cloud Jr. has been added to the Missing Persons list in the State of Wisconsin. Download the flyer

If anyone has information we urge you to contact the following:

Jackson County Sheriff's Department
715.284.5357

Simone Zane 608.448.8212

Rochelle Mann 608.448.1760

1-800-843-4673 (THE-HOPE)

WI Missing Persons

Editor's Note: This article appears in the current issue of the "Hocak Worak," the newspaper of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Sanford LittleEagle is a staff reporter for the newspaper.

updated February 25, 2012 4:50 am est; posted February 24, 2012 6:50 am est