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Missing lawyer’s friends launch Web site

Nicole Formosa
Vail, CO Colorado

BRECKENRIDGE ” Every hour of every day that passes without word of Royal “Scoop” Daniel’s whereabouts, the concern about his well-being intensifies for everyone who knows the missing 61-year-old attorney.

“It’s such an emotional rollercoaster,” said Daniel’s former girlfriend Cheryl Love. “Everybody’s who’s close to him can’t believe this has happened. It’s such a tragedy.”

Daniel, a well-regarded local real estate and immigration attorney entrenched in the Breckenridge community through his church and volunteer work, has been missing since last Friday when he vanished from his law firm inside the Breckenridge Professional Building.



Love went live with a Web site on Wednesday that provides a forum for folks to enter anonymous comments or tips, read news accounts of Daniel’s disappearance and watch videos of reports from Denver media outlets. The same flyers that are plastered around the community with Daniel’s description are available in English and Spanish on the Web site.

Love hopes the site will turn into a web campaign of sorts with people passing the link on to everyone they know in order to reach an audience broader than just Colorado.

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“I think it’s a pretty common feeling that the chances of him being out of state are as good as him being in-state,” Love said.

Meanwhile, investigators continue to pore through information gathered from eight search warrants served on Wednesday in Breckenridge, and are following tips coming in from the community in hopes of honing in on the reason behind Daniel’s mysterious disappearance.

Nancy Lovell, who dated Daniel in 1994 and remained close friends with him until she moved out of Summit County in 1999, recalled on Thursday comments Daniel used to make about Brazil, a country he traveled to frequently for business. He speaks Portuguese fluently.

“He said many times that if he disappeared, he’d go to Brazil,” Lovell said, noting that the comments were six or seven years ago and she doesn’t know whether he said anything similar in more recent years.

Lovell, who’s kept in sporadic touch with Daniel via e-mail since she moved to Virginia, said as far as she knows he had never acted on such statements in the past.

Breckrenridge Police Department spokesperson Crystal Dean declined to comment on a potential Brazil connection, saying “we’re looking at all angles, anything we’ve been given.”

Dean also declined to say whether other tips may have pointed investigators to South America.

Love said Daniel spoke fondly of Brazil, where he once worked closely with major corporations when he specialized in international Brazilian commerce as a lawyer in Washington, D.C.

While Daniel had close friends there and talked of the country’s beauty, he “never left any impression with me whatsoever that he would drop his business, drop everything he had here in the manner under which it appears” and flee to a foreign country, Love said.

Love also said Daniel’s passport hasn’t been used since his disappearance.

Love expressed her gratitude for the steady stream of phone calls and e-mails of concern she’s received from community members in the last six days, many of whom, she said, are struggling through the same emotions as she is.

“It’s a tragedy for this entire community,” she said. “… It’s all-consuming. It’s hard to do anything else but try to think of what you can do to move this forward.”

She urged those who feel like they need counseling through this ordeal to contact Advocates for Victims of Assault for support. The ministry at Father Dyer Church is also available to help anyone who feels they need support, Love said.

Scoop Daniel’s friends have set up Web site at http://www.royalscoopdaniel.com where anonymous tips and comments can be entered. New photos and information on the case can also be found on the site.


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