Missing Person's Myths

INTRODUCTION

Missing persons cases and how they are reported contain many myths and a huge factor contributing to this is because of how they are portrayed on many podcasts, websleuths, and true/fictional crime shows. The biggest percentage of these are portrayed as serial murders, vanishings, mystery, and crime and studies have shown the media calls this an “obsession” with the public. Another contributing factor is likely the fact of misinformation and communication
amongst the public either in person or on social media platforms die to the fact a lot of iinformation that is passed along is either unverifiable information or unreliable resources communicated without valid facts but will talk about it with whomever will talk with them about the situation as there are likely more reasons as to what leads people to be true when reporting or searching for a missing person, here are some of the myths cleared up from my research on national research missing persons data bases.

Myth #1

Myth:

You must let 24 hours pass before filing a missing person report 24 or 48 hours, or some other amount of time, must pass form when it is noticed someone
isn’t where they are expected to be before reporting them missing to the police. This is one of the most common misconceptions and possibly harmful inaccurate pieces of information.

Truth:

There is no time restriction on how much time has to pass before someone is reported missing. Leads and evidence can disappear, details and information can be forgotten or jumbled, and this is lost time that the police could have spent getting valuable information, interviewing key witnesses, or gathering important evidence to find the missing person and the more hours that go by, the better chance that missing person or the person involved has to travel, harm, or destroy evidence.

Myth #2

Myth:

You must report to the jurisdiction where the person disappeared
Truth:

Even when your loved one goes missing in a different state far from relatives or friends, what is important is that the information gets to authorities no matter where you are. Once you file a missing person report, every police officer and agency has access to that information regardless of their jurisdiction. Moreover, every city in the U.S. has a missing Persons Unit and all information is put into a national database for all states to have access to.

*One side note however not to confuse with this is who would have jurisdiction in handling certain parts of the investigation and that would be dependent on many factors such as but not limited to whether they suspect criminal activity or foul play.

Myth #3

Myth:

Cold cases are inactive cases

Truth:

Cases that have been unsolved for long periods of time are a lot of times called Cold Cases however, it is completely untrue that they are no longer active. Unless the investigations generate an outcome, the cold case will remain active.

Myth #4

Myth:

Most Sex Trafficking involves kidnapping
Truth:

Oftentimes someone who is looking to exploit a victim will first establish a trusting relationship with them and build on that relationship with trust by offering housing, food, or whatever the victim needs the most. It’s more of an emotional manipulation and it's very possible someone can even be trafficked from within their own home and even by family members abusing their position of trust.

Myth #5

Myth:

There’s no way you can help

Truth: More often than not, people tend to think their voice is not heard or there is nothing they can do. This is far from the truth! With the amount of social media attention that missing persons get, the news, fliers that are hung up around your town, amber alerts that are sent out on cell phones, word of mouth, people can gather enough information to keep their eyes peeled for any kind of description of that person, a license plate if listed, anything out of place that may be listed on any of the above mentioned sources and then call either the number listed on those sources, your local police, or even 911. You may think your tip is nothing, but it may be the key to something you had no idea the authorities were waiting on. No tip is a small tip and a small tip could be a huge tip!