According to uslegal.com the definition of Missing person is defined as “a person 18 years old or older whose disappearance is possibly not voluntary, or a child whose whereabouts are unknown to the child's legal custodian, the circumstances of whose absence indicate that: ... If a child is missing and believed to be in danger, there is no 24-hour waiting period.“
There Is No 24-hour Waiting Period. In other words, no state in the nation requires an adult, or child, to be missing 24-hours for a report to be taken. None! However, guidelines do state children under 17 must be entered in NCIC within two hours of notification. NCIC (National Crime Information Center) is a Federal database used by law enforcement for entries of stolen property, guns and missing persons.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, known as NamUs, is the largest clearinghouse in the United states for the missing, unidentified, and unidentified persons. They have made great strides in research, development and education for missing persons. They welcome volunteers of all experiences. We urge you to visit their website at www.namus.gov.
According to the NamUs website: “600,000 people go missing every year.” They call it “The nation’s silent mass disaster.” Currently, they have on record of 16,997 open missing persons cases, 13,099 Found but Unidentified person’s cases and 6,351 Identified but Unclaimed persons. The numbers are heartbreaking. Fortunately, most cases are resolved, and early on. The one’s that are not are beyond heartbreaking, and that is where we come in. The public doing all they can to spread word, join campaigns, join searches (when able) and spread awareness. Encourage education and training, personally and those professionally.
Several websites, and databases are available online. Most all of them are free sites, some ask for a small donation. We will have a section that you can check out links. For your own state website you can to do an internet search with your state name followed by “missing person clearinghouse.” Most every state has one, and most are ran and monitored by the individual State Highway Patrol divisions.
Currently, the Top 10 states with the most missing person’s per capita*:
1-Oregon
2-Vermont
3-Washington
4-Maine
5-Wyoming
6-Hawaii
7-Montana
8-New Mexico
We hope you found this information informative. Please watch for future posts.
Thank you for your time.
From the Team of
Help Bring Home the Missing
*Information obtained by Patch.com