In the wake of the media frenzy over the "runaway bride" saga, Allison Keyes reports on the story of Tamika Huston, the African-American woman who's been missing from her home in South Carolina for the past year. Is race an issue in how each case was handled? Latest photo of Tamika Antonette Huston, last seen the first week of June 2004 in the Spartanburg, S.C., area. 
ED GORDON, host: From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES.  I'm Ed Gordon.</s>ED GORDON, host: Nearly two weeks after her return, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks is      still in the headlines.  Other missing women like Lori Hacking and Laci      Peterson also captured the national spotlight.  But not all such cases      receive national coverage.  NPR's Allison Keyes reports on one      African-American woman who disappeared nearly a year ago in South      Carolina and has received little attention.</s>ED GORDON, host: ALLISON KEYES reporting:</s>ED GORDON, host: Twenty-four-year-old Tamika Huston lived in a small white frame house on      Harvard Drive in Spartanburg.  In her pictures, the nutmeg-colored      woman's eyes sparkle and her smiles are wide and friendly.  No one has      seen her since last May 24th.  Tamika's aunt, Rebkah Howard, says not      knowing what happened to her has been difficult to bear.</s>Ms. REBKAH HOWARD (Missing Woman's Aunt): I miss her so much.  She's      just such a wonderful, warm person and her absence from our lives has      just left an incredible void.  We miss her terribly.</s>KEYES: Tamika lived alone in the house she owned and had just quit a job      as a waitress.  She was also known to jump in her car and visit relatives      spread along the Eastern seaboard, so Howard didn't worry at first when      Tamika's ex-boyfriend called to say that no one had seen her around.</s>Ms. REBKAH HOWARD (Missing Woman's Aunt): I just assumed, `Oh, well, you know, I know I haven't spoken      to her in a couple weeks, but almost certainly her mom did.'  And once it      became apparent by the next day that no one had heard from her, we became      very alarmed.</s>KEYES: Spartanburg Public Safety Department Lieutenant Steve Lamb led      the team of investigators who went to Tamika's house after the family      reported her missing on June 12th.</s>Lieutenant STEVE LAMB (Spartanburg Public Safety Department): Our      investigators actually made forced entry into the residence.  Tamika was      not there.  She had a dog who'd just had puppies.  We felt like the dog      had been by itself for several days, possibly several weeks.</s>KEYES: On June 20th, Tamika's 1991 black Honda was found abandoned, and      police had received a 911 call just before Tamika vanished that      investigators thought might be connected to the case.</s>KEYES: Unidentified Man #1:  My brother just came to my house and told me that      he killed his girlfriend and put her in Cleveland Park Lake.</s>KEYES: A search of the lake found nothing.  Then in January, police got      a tip that led them to execute a search warrant at an apartment complex      in Spartanburg.  Again, Lieutenant Lamb.</s>Lieutenant STEVE LAMB (Spartanburg Public Safety Department): We did find blood in that apartment, and that DNA did match      back to Tamika.</s>KEYES: Lamb says the person who lived there during that period was      dating Tamika around the time she disappeared.  He is in custody right      now on a parole violation unrelated to this case, but so far, no charges      have been filed.  Lamb says police consider him to be a person of      interest and are continuing their investigation.</s>KEYES: Unidentified Man #2:  See you.</s>KEYES: Unidentified Woman:  Bye.</s>KEYES: At RJ's Grill, a diner a few blocks away from Tamika's house, two      waitresses said they talk about the case all the time.      Twenty-nine-year-old Suzanne Davis noticed that runaway bride Jennifer      Wilbanks got much more attention from the media than Tamika's case has.      She thinks money is the reason why.</s>Ms. SUZANNE DAVIS (Waitress): The runaway bride was from a rich family,      from a well-to-do neighborhood, and this girl is just from a--just      regular neighborhood.  I mean, I guess her family's not well-to-do      enough.</s>KEYES: Standing outside the Southside Barber Shop, Mike says he thinks      Tamika's case didn't get wall-to-wall national coverage because she isn't      white.</s>MIKE (Spartanburg Resident): We took one little affluent white girl and      here we go again, folks.  They make her important, and that's what the      media's telling us.  But Tamika Huston, a little pretty black girl right      here in town, hard-working, she's missing.  She could be dead.  No one      knows.</s>Ms. KELLY JOLKOWSKI (Project Jason): I think that we all know that the      coverage is not balanced.</s>KEYES: Kelly Jolkowski founded the Omaha, Nebraska-based Project Jason      Web site after her own son vanished in 2001.  Tamika's face and bio are      among those featured, and Jolkowski has been supporting her family.  She      says she knows not all missing-person cases can get coverage, but she      also thinks the media ignores some cases, like that of her son.</s>Ms. KELLY JOLKOWSKI (Project Jason): I've never seen, in national coverage, a male, and I have      never seen a minority.  So that is some of what we're out there doing is      we're fighting for these people.</s>KEYES: Howard, Tamika's aunt, works in public relations and says she      knew how important it would be to get her niece's name and face out there      as quickly as possible.  But getting national coverage, she says, was an      uphill battle. Only BET and "America's Most Wanted" have joined      Spartanburg's media in covering the case.  Howard thinks the issue is      both race and class.</s>Ms. REBKAH HOWARD (Missing Woman's Aunt): I don't think it's a conscious effort on behalf of network      producers and executives to exclude certain people.  I just think that      the bottom line, television news is a business and I think that they have      found a formula that works for them, and that formula is young,      attractive, white, middle- to upper-class missing woman.</s>KEYES: Howard says now the family is beginning to hear from national      media organizations.  But she thinks if Tamika's case had gotten      attention earlier, perhaps the family would have been spared a year-long      ordeal.  Allison Keyes, NPR News.