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Help Find The Missing's Blog

2,300 a Day Reports of missing persons have increased sixfold in the past 29 years, from roughly 150,000 in 1980 to over 900,000 this year. The increase was driven in part by the country's growing population. But the numbers also indicate that law enforcement treats the cases more seriously now, including those of marginalized citizens.

An astounding 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day, including both adults and children. But only a tiny fraction of those are stereotypical abductions or kidnappings by a stranger.

We need to help make the public aware of the disastrous epidemic of missing persons.

Hopefully we can help make a change. When we become aware of a missing individual that goes unreported, while the media locks its eye on another who represents their version of “newsworthy,” we will do all we can to make sure the voices of others who are missing are heard.

New Article

Diane Fanning: Author, Speaker

The body of my non-fiction writing is stained with the agony of missing loved ones. In my first book, THROUGH THE WINDOW, some of the victims of Tommy Lynn Sells were found dead in their homes, others were missing for months and a few like Stephanie Stroh and Yvette Mueller remain missing decades after their deaths.

The serial killer in INTO THE WATER, Richard Marc Evonitz, abducted young girls from their front yards in broad daylight. Sofia Silva’s family spent two months in unrelenting pain not knowing what happened to the 15-year-old girl until her body was discovered in a lonely spot along the highway. The parents of Kati and Kristin Lisk suffered through an eternal week before their daughters’ remains were spotted in a logjam on a secluded stream.

I wrote about Susan McFarland in GONE FOREVER. She was missing for fifty-three days. While her whereabouts were unknown, her husband told their three little boys—ages 6, 8 and 11: “Your mommy needed a break from you because you are so bad.” With those hateful words, he compounded the evil he perpetrated when he killed their mother.

In BABY BE MINE, Lisa Montgomery killed Bobbie Jo Stinnett and kidnapped her unborn child. Frantic police sent out an Amber Alert and ran themselves ragged in the day and a half it took to find the missing newborn.

Phony doctor Dean Faiello inadvertently caused the death of his patient Maria Cruz in UNDER THE KNIFE. Instead of owning up to his responsibility, he buried her under a slab of concrete in the carriage house of his Victorian mansion, sold his home and partied in sunny Costa Rica. While he enjoyed the tropical life, Maria’s family died a little more every day. It took nine months before her body was found.

In my most recently released book, THE PASTOR’S WIFE, Mary and Matthew’s families were terrified when Matthew was found dead and Mary and her three little girls were missing. They feared the worst until police found Mary—she’d shot her sleeping husband in the back and then took her daughters to the beach.

This summer, my next true crime release, POISONED PASSION, details the misery of Michael Severance’s family. He was missing for two months before investigators found his mutilated body in a stock pond in the middle of nowhere. His veterinarian wife was found guilty of giving him a lethal injection.

Right now, I am working on a book about Caylee Anthony, the sweet little toddler who was missing for nearly six months before her discarded body was discovered. The whole nation grieved and prayed for her safe return. It isn’t easy to write this book—it is heartbreaking work writing the story of the death of the most innocent victim of all.

Past Articles

Runaways are always endangered · December 8, 2008
An Anniversary · June 28, 2008
HACKED! · June 16, 2008
The Untold Story of Paige Birgfeld · June 9, 2008
Are You Really Ready to Help Find The Missing? · May 11, 2008
The Smiley Face Killers Story Is Heating Up · May 7, 2008
A Child, Still Unknown After 25 Years · May 3, 2008
“Accidental Drowning” Threads on HFTM · May 1, 2008
Mr. Sensenbrenner and The Smiley Face Killers · April 30, 2008
Accidental Drownings or the Smiley Face Killers? · April 26, 2008
They found me in Maricopa County · April 4, 2008
The Amazing Double Life of Paige Birgfeld · February 18, 2008
HFTM Brings One Home! · February 14, 2008
What Happened to Lisa Hatchell? · February 14, 2008
The Laurie Depies Case Haunts Me · February 3, 2008
Amber Wilde Missing Over 9 Years · February 2, 2008
Media and The Missing · January 28, 2008
What Happened to Beaner? · January 15, 2008
Where is Steven Baird? · January 11, 2008
The Confounding Case of Tom Smith · January 11, 2008
Someone Is Missing · January 10, 2008

News

Welcome to the blog of Help Find The Missing! Here, members of our staff post opinions, observations and profiles of missing person cases. We also have guest bloggers contributing articles and information from time to time.

Check back periodically to view new entries, add your commentary and feel free to contact us with topic ideas for a blog entry. Thanks for stopping in!

Information

Someone is missing.

To most of the world, missing persons are distant and detached. Missing persons are the subject of television dramas. Missing persons are footnotes on everyday lives, just another news story that makes little impact.

The media shows us high profile cases, like Stacy Peterson or Natalee Holloway, but only while the case is new, hot and titillating. After a few days, when there is no resolution and there are no new developments, those high profile cases just quietly fade away and disappear from the media spotlight. Once again, a missing person becomes a footnote in everyday life.

That is until someone we know and love goes missing. For every high profile case, made famous by a media splash, there are hundreds more cases of missing people that hardly anyone hears about.

When the missing person is one of our own, we cannot comprehend why the media isn't all over our case. What makes one missing person more important than another, what makes one missing person a high profile case and not another? Why is someone the subject of media scrutiny and not our family member or friend?

No one is really sure why that is, it just is. Every missing person deserves the same attention. What someone is, or was, makes no difference. Every missing person is a daughter, a son, a mother, a father, a cousin and a friend. Those of us left behind have painful holes in our lives that need resolution.

Right here is a place where recognition is made. Here is the place where those of us left behind can tell our stories, nay, tell the stories of the missing. By telling their stories, we tell our own.

Every missing person deserves the same attention. Someone, somewhere, holds the key. That one clue or detail that could solve the case and bring our loved one home. Here is where you tell us your story. Tell us your story, tell us their story. Tell us and we'll tell it here. Let the world know their story.

After all, someone special is missing.

Help Find The Missing Blog