What to Do if You Think Someone Is Missing

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When you believe a person in your life has disappeared, it's of import to act quickly to set up a search in motion. Commencement by calling the police department to file a missing persons report, then take measures to conduct your ain search. If the person does non render dwelling, you may need to alert the media and rent a individual investigator. By taking the right steps apace, you increment the chances of finding a missing person.

1. 1

   Contact the police as soon as y'all have reason to worry. Yous don't take to wait a mandatory amount of time to file a missing person report.^[1] The faster yous notify the police force that your loved i is missing, the faster they can brainstorm searching. Go to your local law section to file a report.

   • You lot should understand the limits of what the police tin can exercise, peculiarly if the missing person is an adult. It is not usually illegal for a person to go missing.

2. two

   Provide the police with data about the missing person. To complete the missing persons report, you'll need to provide detailed information about the missing person'south physical characteristics and last known location. Have the following data ready when you go to the police station to file the report:

   • At least three recent photos of the person
   • A list of nicknames or aliases used by the person
   • A physical description, including height, weight, age, hair color, eye color, build, etc.
   • A description of the clothing and shoes the person was last seen wearing
   • A list of possessions the person might be carrying, such every bit jewelry, glasses, contact lenses, accessories, a handbag, a wallet, ID cards, etc.
   • A list of scars, tattoos, and/or any other identifying characteristics
   • A listing of medications the person takes, if whatever, besides equally allergies, handicaps, and other medical conditions
   • A list of relatives or friends of the missing person, along with contact information
   • A list of places the person frequents
   • A clarification of the person'southward car or a different mode of transportation (a bicycle, for example) if applicable
   • A description of the situation surrounding the person's disappearance

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3. iii

   Go along a record of the report. Make sure you obtain a case number for your missing person'due south report. Write down the name of the person in charge of your case. Contact this person when you lot wish to follow up.

4. four

   Contact the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Arrangement (NamUs). The US Section of Justice operates this system. NamUs lets you upload data about a missing person for utilize by constabulary enforcement officials, agencies, and individuals. The site helps missing persons cases wrap upwards sooner by providing this information to the public.^[2]

5. 5

   Register with other missing persons databases or review their resources. You can use other databases designed to help find missing persons, many of which are geared toward specific characteristics. Consider registering with additional databases to gain access to their free services and resource to help you find your missing person.

   • The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children^[3] specializes in providing services for families of children who are missing. After you take reported a missing child to police enforcement, yous can call the National Heart for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST(1-800-843-5678).
   • The National Alliance on Mental Affliction^[4] provides resources for families of people with mental illness who have gone missing. Their website contains potentially useful materials, including suggested guidelines and forums.

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1. 1

   Contact the person'due south friends and acquaintances. Call the people in the missing person'south life and enquire when they final saw him or her. Determine if they know annihilation well-nigh the person'due south whereabouts. Besides friends, family members, neighbors, and classmates, call anyone who had regular contact with the missing person. This may include teachers, doctors, dentists, passenger vehicle drivers, coworkers, and neighbors.

   • Keep a log of the people to whom you've spoken and what they had to say about the missing person. Continue it updated with every bit much detailed information every bit possible.
   • Encourage people to call you back if they detect out more data from some other source.
   • Study new findings to the example worker in accuse of your missing person's instance at the police force department.

2. two

   Cheque with hospitals and coroners in the area. If the missing person was in an accident, he or she might be in a local hospital and unable to communicate for some reason. In some tragic cases, a missing person will be found with a coroner or medical examiner. Call all the facilities in your expanse to dominion out these possibilities.

   • When you make the calls, enquire for the missing person by name.
   • If no one past that name is on tape in that location, enquire if they have unidentified people in their care who resemble your missing person.

3. 3

   Check with your local canton jail. If the missing person had an encounter with police enforcement that led to an arrest, he or she may be in a local canton jail. Cheque with local law enforcement offices to see if the missing person is incarcerated. Y'all may too be able to check online using the "inmate locator" option on your local law enforcement's website.^[5]

4. four

   Check social media sites. This is an important mode to proceeds information near the days leading up to the person'southward disappearance. Check his or her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other accounts. Decide whether recent activity contains any clues. Look at the missing person'southward friends' accounts as well.

   • Impress out correspondence and activity that seems equally though it could pb to the missing person's location.
   • Study any activeness that might be a clue to the case worker at the police section.

5. 5

   Put up fliers with a picture and clarification of the missing person. Often, the missing person will encounter the fliers and determine to return habitation. Fliers can besides warning friends and neighbors who might take data most the person's whereabouts. Put up the fliers in the neighborhood where the missing person lived and around places where he or she spent time.

   • Hang your fliers in prominent locations. Gas stations, grocery stores, post offices, banks, drug stores, local libraries, churches, hospitals, homeless shelters, parks, and hiking trails volition all piece of work well.
   • Be sure to include a recent, clear photograph of the missing person.
   • Include the person's age, a concrete description, and the date they went missing.
   • Include contact data every bit well.

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1. 1

   Ask people to spread the discussion. Transport out an electronic mail with a picture of the missing person and a asking to pass the word effectually. Postal service a moving-picture show and description of the missing person on your social media pages and enquire people to share. The more people who become aware that you're looking for a missing person, the better the chances of finding him or her.

2. 2

   Alert the local media. Getting the media involved is another of import way to publicize the fact that you're looking for a missing person. The person may see the announcement and make up one's mind to return domicile. Others will look out for the missing person as well. With media involved, local police force may devote more resources to solving the case.

   • Send photos and videos of the missing person to your local Boob tube stations.
   • Call your local newspapers, and inquire them to publish an article on the missing person.
   • Have out an ad in a weekly newspaper.
   • Ship information to local blogs and websites.

3. iii

   Consider hiring a private investigator. A private investigator, different the police department, will spend as much time every bit you want investigating your case. If you accept the coin, hiring an investigator is a good way to keep the search going when constabulary are no longer spending as much fourth dimension on it. Inquiry private investigators in your area and work with 1 to find your missing person.

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• Utilize photographs that are up close. Pictures of the missing person's face and upper body tend to work the best.

• If police force enforcement determines your child has been abducted and the abduction meets certain criteria, they may issue an AMBER Alert. An AMBER Alert notifies broadcasters and country transportation officials virtually the missing kid.^[6]

• If yous take admission to the missing person's phone records, find out who they final called. Contact this person to see if they know anything about the missing person'south whereabouts.

• If you have access to the missing person's fiscal institutions (i.e. credit or debit card providers, etc.), analyze their financial transactions. Finding out where they last spent money may indicate their current whereabouts.

• Telephone call the law. They can help very much.

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About This Article

Article Summary X

To discover a missing person, start by contacting the police and then they can begin looking for the person as soon as possible. Additionally, ask the person's friends and family if they have any information, and call nearby hospitals and jails in case the person's been injured or is being held past the police. You lot should also check the missing person's social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to go clues as to where they are. If the person is a child, you may want to consider registering with an organization like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. For more tips from our Legal co-author, like how to mail service flyers or warning local media to spread the word about your missing person, read on!

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Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Missing-Person

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