Media colleagues remember Campbell

Missing Peace Corp volunteer Julia Campbell, whose body it was believed to have been found in Batad in Banaue, Ifugao, was a journalist who had worked in various publications in the 1990s, including the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, People Magazine, and Star Magazine, a Rupert Murdoch publication specializing in gossip and celebrity articles. Her joining the Peace Corps was a major career shift for her, at least according to one of her former media colleagues. John Cutter, online news senior editor of the Orlando Sentinel, posted an entry on Campbell on his "Orlando Crime" blog on April 16. Here's the entry, titled "Missing in the Philippines and again in my thoughts":

Just back from a week of vacation to find news that a former colleague and friend, Julia Campbell, is missing in the Philippines after taking a hike. I worked with Julia for a while in the early 1990s at the St. Petersburg Times, even helped her move back to New York City to re-start her life there. Like too many people in my life and in journalism, I lost track of Julia after she left People magazine a few years ago and didn't know she was now with the Peace Corps. She's been teaching in the Philippines, which from what I remember about Julia, it sounds like a move I can see her making, despite being at a stage in life and her career where many of us would be thinking of doing anything BUT making such a radical change. Everyone's hoping Julia is not a victim of a crime, that her story will turn out well, that she will be found, just lost and embarrassed but otherwise OK. Add her to your thoughts today, and if you can, make a contact with a friend from the past and tell them you are thinking about them today.

Another former colleague, who signs herself only as "eurotrash," also had an entry on Campbell, posted April 18 and title "Oh Julia, we will miss you." Here's part of her entry, which recalls their days at the Star Magazine:

"One of my best office buddies was Julia Campbell. I remember her from my first day on Star, because in the news conference she seemed to get allotted a staggering amount of features for the week — anything from Demi Moore's eternal pregnancy which existed only in Bonnie's mind, to endless packages of who's fat, who's old and who's had surgery this week. And she did it all with enthusiasm too, which after the 50th time you've edited 'Best Beach Bodies!' in three months, is no mean feat. "I also remember her coming back to the office once after she'd been some talking head on TV about Brad and Jen or whatever, and she was all dolled up in telly make-up and she looked so happy and gorgeous and she'd done a great job in the piece, even when the interviewer threw her a tricky little curve ball of a question. I think that's how I'll remember her from now on."

Even during her stint as Peace Corps volunteer in the Bicol region, Campbell (40 years old, who was 5'-7" and weighed around 127 lbs.) managed to write about the aftermath of Typhoon Reming for CNN. The article was filed from Legazpi City and was posted at the CNN website on December 10, 200. Its title is "Heartbreak, laughter merge for typhoon survivors". The Peace Corps site also has a press release from Campbell's family posted on April 14:

“First, we would like to thank the Peace Corps for their immediate response to the disappearance of Julia and their continued search and rescue efforts in Banaue, where she was last seen. We are grateful to the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines and especially the Philippine people who are doing all they can to locate her. “During the past two years, Julia has been on assignment, she has served in various roles in the villages of Donsol (province of Sorsogon) where she worked with the local school there to rebuild and stock the school library. Many of her friends and family helped her in a campaign she created to provide age-appropriate reading materials to the library in a project she called "A Book and A Buck." She also worked with the local community to launch an ecology awareness campaign and build an Eco Center in Donsol. Most recently, she served as a teacher at the Divine Word College in Legaspi City, where she taught English. “Julia is a bright, strong, and gifted woman. We are optimistic that the search efforts will be successful, and we continue to pray for her and the people who are searching for her."

Campbell kept a blog called Julia in the Philippines. Her last entry was posted on January 13, 2007. - GMANews.TV