Unreported missing

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Also known as "Missing Missing"[1] or "Kids Off The Grid,"[2] unreported missing refers collectively to persons who cannot be found yet have not been or cannot be reported as missing to law enforcement.

The term applies whether the missing person is a child or an adult. "Unreported" means the missing person is not part of the National Crime Information Center database of missing persons.

One of the main reasons that families cannot have the police or other organizations report their missing relative or friend is that a person over the age of 18 does have the right to privacy and confidentiality and can be voluntarily missing. A family member needs to provide information that can be validated by law enforcement to suggest that the missing person is a danger to him or herself and/or others. If the adult person is located, the police are not obligated to inform the family of the missing person's whereabouts.

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

  • 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 this country illegally;
  • the person may be an unknown dependent child of an unreported missing adults or teens; or
  • the person might be the victim of an undiscovered crime.

Being unreported puts a person at high risk of exploitation than a person who is reported missing. There are many different outcomes or ways in which a person can be lost or off the grid. These outcomes include situations like being mentally ill and lost among the homeless[3]. When this happen a person could very well be mentally ill or have a drug problem, go into the streets, cannot be reported missing by their family because they have a history of disappearing and then be the victim of murder or human trafficking. The family never sees them again and even if their body is found, the police have no way of tracking the person to their family as they are not listed in any formal missing database.

Another example is that of children born to homeless or drug addicted mothers. These children are not registered anywhere and can become victims of crime without any of their other relatives or local agencies knowing. Other children who go missing but are unreported are often runaway foster children[4] or children who are neglected or whose files are simply cases fumbled by police[5].

Unreported Missing often become unidentified John or Jane Doe at the morgue. One very graphic example of an unreported missing person was "Baby Grace"[6], a toddler whose body washed ashore in Texas. A composite sketch was published and she was finally identified. She had not been reported missing by her parents and they are under investigation for murder.

Someone can also become an Unreported Missing person through a victim of an exploitative crime, being involved in human trafficking or prostitution. A study by Professor Kenna Quinet states, "The most successful serial killers know to select the unmissed as victims if they intend to kill for an extended period of time".[1] In her study she refers to serial killers targeting transient people because they are not easily missed, as well as people in institutionalized care.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The Missing Missing Toward a Quantification of Serial Murder Victimization in the United States by Professor Kenna Quinet, http://hsx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/11/4/319
  2. ^ a b Outpost For Hope, http://www.outpostforhope.org
  3. ^ Readers Digest Article http://www.rd.com/content/founder-of-outpost-for-hope
  4. ^ Missing Kid Crisis Dcfs Finds Only A Few Runaways, Abductees. - Free Online Library
  5. ^ Missing-children cases fumbled by police nationwide, by Thomas Hargrove Scripps Howard News Service,http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=MISSING-05-10-05
  6. ^ Baby Grace, http://www.baby-grace.org/