Unreported missing

Unreported missing (also known as missing missing^[1]) describes persons who cannot be found, yet have not been or cannot be reported as missing persons to law enforcement, specifically the National Crime Information Center database of missing persons in the United States. The term applies whether the missing person is a child or an adult.

Reasons[]

According to Outpost for Hope, people can become unreported missing for a variety of reasons, including:^[2]

• the lost/missing person may be estranged from family or friends;
• law enforcement may not take a "missing person" report;
• the lost/missing person may be in the country illegally;
• the person may be an unknown dependent child of unreported missing adults or teens; or
• the person might be the victim of an undiscovered crime.
• chronic homelessness

Another reason missing persons may not be formally listed as missing is that those over the age of majority can be "voluntarily missing." Barring evidence of criminality or being a danger to oneself, privacy and confidentiality laws generally protect the rights of those who elect to remain out of contact with family or friends. If an adult unreported missing person is located in such an instance, the police are not obligated to inform the family of the missing person's whereabouts.

Another example is of children born to homeless or otherwise unreliable mothers. These children are sometimes not registered anywhere and can become victims of crimes such as human trafficking or forced prostitution without any of their other relatives or local agencies knowing. A study by Professor Kenna Quinet states that the "most successful serial killers know to select the unmissed as victims if they intend to kill for an extended period of time", referring to serial killers targeting transient people, as well as those in institutionalized care, because their absence is not easily noticed.^[1]

Foster children are another source of unreported missing people.^[1][3] In the United States, children in foster care are protected by confidentiality laws; their identity and the fact that they are in the foster care system is private information. In the majority of US states, when foster children go missing their name is not publicly released and, with a few exceptions, child protective services representatives will not speak to the public—in some states, biological parents are not even permitted to contact the news media about their fostered child going missing. Based on 2002 statistics, of the approximately 585,000 foster children in the US, 20% are missing at any given time, with 98% thought to be runaways and 2% (2,340) unaccounted for.^[1]

There have also been cases of missing persons reports being accidentally purged from databases, leading to those persons becoming unreported missing.^[1]

Foundations that assist in unreported missing person cases[]

There are two known foundations that exist to help unreported missing person cases in the USA.

Underground Mysteries (www.undergroundmysteries.com) is a site that was formed in October, 2017 by a New Jersey resident, Barbara Rotella, a missing / unidentified person advocate who is also involved in the identification process of John and Jane Does and cold case criminals with her other company, Doe Naming. Underground Mysteries is unique from other sites that help in unreported cases, because it actually lists and publishes the unreported people cases. It also uses very detailed tagging measures so that Law Enforcement can search the site. The organization collects stories of underground cases that are unreported (not reported) to the police or law enforcement. It aims to help the family members to properly file a missing person report but also publicizes each case to the website, even if only vague amounts can be found online. Consider it a "hub" for the unreported or underrepresented cases. Underground Mysteries also focuses on underrepresented cases and goes to extra lengths to give a spotlight for missing person cases that have received little to no public / media attention as well as greatly enhances the tagging measures that even NAMUS may not be able to pull from. It also aides in cases that have "fallen through the cracks". Underground Mysteries also uses newer technological and social media means to creatively collect new cases. It pushes the families / loved ones of the unreported missing people to file a police report, no matter how long ago their loved one went missing.

Underground Mysteries also helps communicate with the families of the missing to ensure data is up to date and collected, and then pushes for this data to be entered or adjusted in NAMUS. It also helps to create awareness of the many people who go missing who are never reported missing, such as homeless, addicted, nomads, and transients, to name a few.

Outpost for Hope is another organization, started by Libba Phillips in 1999, after her sister went missing. Her website achieves the following:

1. Defining the problem of unreported missing children and adults: the kids off the grid.
2. Supporting the efforts of families in crisis, law enforcement and affiliated agencies to locate and provide recovery information that saves lives.
3. To educate society about the mis-perceptions of mental illness, drug addiction, and homelessness and their ripple effects. Reducing the stigma about these conditions which create opportunities for people to be lost and for predators to exploit them without anyone noticing.
4. Helping families with tools that allows them to find their missing relatives or friends. It also trains and provides informational material to law enforcement and other agencies which allows these individuals and agencies to deal with the families of Unreported missing persons as well as finding ways to get them officially listed.
5. Researching the scale and solutions for this social problem by gathering and analyzing information using "The Missing Link Registry".
6. Providing social awareness campaigns such as "The Perception Project".
7. Working with and supporting other organizations such as Project EDAN, the Doe Network, and Lets Bring Them Home.

Risks[]

This section needs expansion. You can help by . (December 2018)

Being unreported puts a person at a higher risk of exploitation than a person who is reported missing. Of the approximately 2,340 unreported missing foster children in the US (in 2002) who are not accounted for, it is estimated that 468 will be the victim of a homicide.^[1]

Notable cases[]

• Barbara Precht, discovered in 2006 and was not identified until late 2014. She was never reported missing by her husband.
• Anjelica Castillo, discovered in 1991 and was not reported missing due to her mother's fears of deportation, as her family were illegal immigrants.
• Jason Callahan, discovered in 1995, not reported missing until 2015, as his family did not know what jurisdiction to report his disappearance to and thought he may have gone to live on his own and not wanted contact.
• Atcel Olmedo, discovered in 2005 and was not reported missing because of complications with his abusive stepfather.
• Marcia King, discovered in 1981 and was not reported missing due to a transient lifestyle.
• Tina Marie McKinney Farmer, discovered in the 1980s, and was not ever formally reported missing. Her case was solved by Detective Elkins of TN in 2018 who had been working on an unidentified person case for many years, who eventually discovered the body belonged to Tina Farmer, thanks to the website Underground Mysteries, who publicized Tina's case.

See also[]

• Cold case
• Forced disappearance
• International child abduction
• Lists of people who disappeared

References[]