He isn't missing...

July 2, 2008

Carole Moore
Missing Persons Contributor
Officer.com

"...he knows where he is." Sound familiar? I know I heard that joke over and over when taking missing persons reports on adults. And most of the time, the missing person turned out to be a runaway or just someone who needed to put some time and distance between himself and his "real" life. But not always. It's the "not always" cases we're going to talk about here. The child who disappears while walking home from school. The young mother who drops off the face of the earth. The college student or grandfather or construction worker who vanish, leaving behind a confused and deeply concerned family and a primary jurisdiction that hasn't got the manpower to chase these cases unless there's a clear indication of foul play right from the beginning. I'm going to look at agency resources, local and national efforts to make missing persons investigations easier and developing technology. But not just for missing persons cases -- we'll also look at historic cases from the past as well as found, unidentified bodies. And here is where you come in. Do you have a case you'd like to publicize? It can involve someone missing or found and not identified. Do you have a resource or technique that worked for you? Or an idea for something that could make the difference in these cases? Send them to me. I'll post them here. If there's information on the web about this case, I'll put up a link. Maybe, together, we can bring someone home again.
About the Author

Carole Moore

A 12-year veteran of police work, Carole Moore has served in patrol, forensics, crime prevention and criminal investigations, and has extensive training in many law enforcement disciplines. She welcomes comments at [email protected]

She is the author of The Last Place You'd Look: True Stories of Missing Persons and the People Who Search for Them (Rowman & Littlefield, Spring 2011)

Carole can be contacted through the following:

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