Missing person

A missing person is a person who has disappeared for no known reason. Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made.

There are many reasons why people disappear. Often an individual chooses to disappear on his or her own; most such individuals return within a short period of time. About 10% of missing persons in the United States never return home, however. Reasons for this include:

• Many people leave simply to start again in a new place under a new name. They may have had difficulties with individuals in their lives, or they may have lost someone and wish to begin a new life in a new location.
• Children (and some adults) may be the victims of a kidnapper. Children may be abducted by their non-custodial parent, by grandparents, by other relatives, or (rarely) by strangers.
• Some individuals choose to commit suicide in a remote location or under an assumed name to spare their families the shame and mess of a suicide at home (or to allow their deaths to be eventually declared in absentia, which may allow survivors to collect on insurance premiums).
• The remains of a murder victim may be disguised, destroyed, damaged, or hidden.
• People with mental or neurological illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia may not wish to be found, or may not know how to identify themselves.
• Many people die of natural or accidental causes far from home without identification (homeless people, for instance, or solitary hunters).
• In some areas, people may disappear in order to take advantage of better employment or living conditions in other countries.
• In some countries, individuals may be sold into slavery, serfdom, sexual servitude, or other unfree states, and may be unable to contact their loved ones.
• Criminals may disappear in order to avoid either discovery of their crimes or arrest.
• A very small number of individuals may become involved in cults or religious organizations.
• Those fleeing abuse may disappear until the abuser has died or forgotten about the victim.

US Statistics

By the end of 2005, there were 109,531 active missing person records according to the US Department of Justice. Children under the age of 18 account for 58,081 (53.03%) of the records and 11,868 (10.84%) were for juveniles between the ages of 18 and 20.[1]

During 2005, 834,536 entries were made into the National Crime Information Center's missing person file, which was an increase of 0.51% from the 830,325 entered in 2004. Missing Person records that were cleared or canceled during the same period totaled 844,838. The reasons for these removals include: a law enforcement agency located the subject, the individual returned home, or the record had to be removed by the entering agency due to a determination that the record is invalid.

Legal Issues

A common misconception is that a person must be absent for 72 hours before being legally classed as missing, but this is rarely the case; in instances where there is evidence of violence or of an unusual absence, law enforcement agencies often stress the importance of beginning an investigation promptly.

In most common law jurisdictions a missing person can be declared dead in absentia (or "legally dead") after seven years. This time frame may be reduced in certain cases, such as deaths in major battles or mass disasters such as the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Closure

On 26 May, 2002, a monument to missing persons was unveiled in County Kilkenny, Ireland by President Mary McAleese. At the time it was the first monument of its kind in the world. [2]

See also

• Forced disappearance
• List of people who have disappeared
• Missing white woman syndrome

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