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By Steve Huff in missing persons
Friday, Oct. 17 2008 @ 10:20AM

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal, an article published early in the a.m. on October 17:

Sources said it's believed that a member of Cole's family owes a Mexican drug cartel between $8 million and $20 million.

Sources described the family member as an alleged money launderer for the cartel. The family member is in hiding.

puffinburger.jpgThat statement as well as other information dovetails with comments posted on this blog. The comments in question were left on this post and this entry as well. Generally these comments have come from a reader calling himself "joe." This was one of joe's longer comments -- some emphasis has been added:

Look people there is so much more to this story than is being reported and no the mother is not involved in any way. I know this family personally. The three hispanic men are part of a mexican drug cartel. The grandfather of this little boy is a piece of shit drug smuggler, he stole money from the drug cartel and they are taking this boy in retaliation in hopes that the grandfather will come out of hiding and give himself up the money up or whatever, I do not know. I do know the boy is obviously in great danger and it is all because his grandfather decided to steal money from the wrong people. This boy was targeted because they have been unable to track him down and they could easily find his daughter and her son and we all know how these drug cartels work. The mother had received threats from these people a few months back but has no contact with her father so was unable to do anything about it. I assume there is good reason that the police are not reporting all these details but I assure you that this little boy is missing and the mother or boyfriend have nothing to do with it. I know this sounds like it is out of a movie but it is the sad truth. The money they were looking for was a very large sum in the millions stolen from the cartel...

The preceding comment was posted at 5:15 a.m. ET on the 16th -- a full day before the report from the Review-Journal quoted at the beginning of this post.

Joe knows his stuff. Because this reader's comment was so prescient, it's worth it to take a close look at what he said. Aside from Joe knowing ahead of time that millions of dollars might be involved, he (or she) also stated that the "piece of shit drug smuggler" grandfather was the father of Cole's mom, Julie Puffinburger. A search of Nevada marriage records revealed that Julie's maiden name was Tinnemeyer. There are matching records for a Julie Puffinburger (who married Cole's father, Robert, in 2001) and at least two different men named Tinnemeyer at the same Las Vegas address. Mainstream media reports have already indicated that Julie's father once lived at the same home from which Cole Puffinburger was abducted. One of the men who tracked to the same address as Julie A. Puffinburger was 51-year-old Clemens F. Tinnemeyer. He was listed as the property owner in 2007. This man may or may not be Julie's father, but he is clearly a relative. He is also old enough to have children in their late 20s and have grandchildren. Or a grandchild.

Is he the "grandfather" who may be in hiding, who may hold the key as to why Cole was kidnapped? There's no telling, at the moment. But Clemens F. Tinnemeyer seems curiously absent from any other records outside of property tax rolls. Could this have been intentional on his part?

Perhaps the most important aspect of finding out some of this background info is that it helps dismiss any lingering suspicion against Cole's mother. Police do not appear to suspect Julie Puffinburger of being complicit in her son's abduction at all. The newest reports about large sums of money matching up with a comment left on this blog a day ago are also pretty compelling. The kidnapping of Cole Puffinburger, it seems, isn't remotely comparable to something like the disappearance of Caylee Anthony. Knowing the mindset of many who follow stories like this in particular as well as I do, I feel it's necessary to say that outright.

Cole's abduction may be something rare in American experience, but somewhat common in Central and South America. The big question now is whether or not Cole's kidnappers have issued any ranson demands. If they are following the pattern seen in some Latin American countries, this could mean there's reason to hope that the boy is still alive. There are numerous stories from south of the border of kidnap victims being returned to their families following payment of a ransom. Typically, though, they have been adults, and often male.

If kidnapping Cole was akin to punishing his grandfather's family, that's another story altogether. One that no one wants to write before its time. [ReviewJournal.com]

UPDATE

A look at business records for the State of Nevada showed that Clemens F. Tinnemeyer Jr. was attached to a number of endeavors over the years: Bomber Records, Incorporated; Salita Records, Inc.; and C & C Weston, Incorporated. Salita Records caught my attention because of the Spanish name ("salita" means "sitting room" or "small auditorium") and because the company's connection to Tinnemeyer was confirmed by an Internet listing for the company at the same street address already referenced in the original post above -- in the 900 block of Betty Lane in Las Vegas. Otherwise, I could find little evidence that the company in question was real. This was true for the other names, as well. Could they have been fronts for profits actually gained through illicit activities, like drug smuggling? Considering what we already know, it would make a lot of sense.