There are over 500 missing persons cases in the state of Arkansas.
That number is staggering! Sadly, over 90 percent of those cases receive little to no media coverage.
Why? The media almost always, especially in television, covers cases involving young, white, upper middle class women or girls. There is a disproportionate amount of coverage being received in cases of missing men, women of color, and those of lower social classes.
Take for instance the case of Nancy Lynn Donald. Donald has been missing from Jonesboro since April 1, 1998. There has been little to no media coverage of Donald’s disappearance.
In fact, websites dedicated to missing persons simply state that “Donald was last seen in Jonesboro, Arkansas on April 1, 1998. She has never been seen or heard from again. Few details are available in her case.”
Donald is described as a white female with brown hair and hazel eyes. Donald’s left earlobe is split. She has a scar on her left eyebrow and a birthmark on the back of her neck at the hairline. He ears are pierced.
How will Nancy Lynn Donald ever be located if there are little to no details available in her case and virtually no media coverage?
The answer is this: she most likely won’t be found.
She, like thousands of others, will become a number in a national database – a number that should outrage people into action — but the reality is that very few people are outraged in these types of cases.
Weeks turn into months, months into years, years into decades … and cases like that of Nancy Lynn Donald grow cold.
The truth is, as an adult, if I decide not to come home tonight or show up for work tomorrow, or ever come home again for that matter, my family, my friends and my employer would (hopefully) be upset and concerned. A police report would be filed.
Police might even be suspicious of the situation. But would an official law-enforcement investigation be launched?
Probably not.
Do you feel a surge of panic as you imagine this scenario playing out in your own life… as you think about your spouse, an adult child, or someone else you love just… disappearing?
There are an estimated 85,000 thousand individuals listed as a missing person with law enforcement in the United States. 85,000. That’s a huge number! 502 of them are in our own state.
To put it in perspective, 85,000 is the rough estimation of the population in and around Fayetteville, Arkansas where my Alma Mater (University of Arkansas) is located.
85,000.
That number is astronomical. I could easily be lumped into that number tomorrow if I decided not to come home. After all, as an adult, I make my own decisions with little interference from the rest of the world.
Now imagine an adult that disappears against their own will. How can law enforcement launch an investigation if there is no evidence of a crime? They can’t. It’s almost impossible for law enforcement to quickly determine if an adult is truly missing or if they have simply exercised their right as an adult to live their life however they choose.
If there is no crime, there is no law enforcement investigation. If there is no law enforcement investigation, that 85,000 number I mentioned earlier grows… Just like it has done year after year after year.
Did you know that of the 85,000 missing individuals in the United States that just over 50,000 of them are missing adults?
That means over 60 percent of those reported missing in the United States are adults OVER the age of 18.
Yes, 60 percent.
So where are all of the lost ones?
Experts break down the numbers of missing adults and place them into categories such as: adults that choose to disappear, victims of crime, addiction, mental illness, human trafficking, runaways, and “other”.
However, the true numbers and categories are difficult to determine with little resources available to families with missing adults to search for their loved ones. If a child goes missing, there are many resources readily available and law enforcement jump in to mobilize a recovery effort.
When a child goes missing, the first three hours are especially critical because 76% of abducted children who are killed die within that time frame. A child cannot (legally) make the conscious decision to not come home one day so law enforcement has to mobilize quickly.
So what can families do to receive assistance when an adult goes missing?
If an adult you know is missing, call 911 and report the disappearance immediately. The first 12-24 hours are the most critical in an active missing persons investigation and there is no mandatory time period that you need to wait to file a missing persons report. Next, report the missing adult to NamUs (namus.gov).
NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) is a national centralized repository and resource center for missing persons and unidentified decedent records.
NamUs is a free online system that can be searched by medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials and the general public from all over the country in hopes of resolving these cases.
A NamUs representative will verify the information you report with law enforcement and list the information on their site.
If you know an adult that has been missing for a long period of time (a cold case), NamUs can still assist in entering the information into their system.
When an adult goes missing, the family believes that investigators will actively search until their loved one is found. However, it just doesn’t work that way.
There just aren’t enough resources available to assist in finding missing adults.
And in most cases, it is up to the families and friends of missing adults to be persistent and proactive.
As a nation, we should stand with the families of missing adults in their search to find their loved ones.
If we continue to ignore the plight of the missing, the number of missing adult cases will continue to grow, families will continue to suffer and law enforcement agencies will continue to be overwhelmed and underfunded. All of the lost ones will remain unfound.
Please get involved. It’s easy to do.
You can start today by sharing this article on social media.
