Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
Alan John Westerfield
Alan, date, approximate 1964; Age-progression to age 53 (date, approximate 2010)
Date Missing 09/12/1964
Missing From
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 08/24/1957 (65)
Age 7 years old
Height and Weight 3'10, 80 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Sandy brown hair, blue eyes.
Details of Disappearance Alan's stepfather dropped him and his older brother, Terry Westerfield, off at the Broadway Theater on Hay Street in Fayetteville, North Carolina on September 12, 1964. The two brothers were never seen again and it is unclear if they actually walked into the theater.
Police questioned the boys' stepfather, Carl Bock, who said he dropped Terry and Alan off at the theater at 5:30 p.m. When he went to pick them up at 8:00 p.m., he said, they had disappeared. Some employees at the theater remember seeing the Westerfield children that evening, but other theater workers do not. They were regular customers and could be easily recognized.
Bock was separated from the children's mother at the time Terry and Alan vanished. He was an Army sergeant who worked in the Criminal Investigations Division at Fort Bragg in 1964, and was shipped overseas a year after his stepsons disappeared.
Investigators believe Bock was in some way involved in the Westerfield children's disappearances. They think the boys were both killed a short time after being abducted. No one has ever been charged in the s, however.
Terry and Alan's biological father was interviewed and ruled out as a suspect. Bock has since divorced from Alan and Terry's mother and now lives in Wisconsin; he was last interviewed by police in Virginia in 2000. The Westerfield brothers' s remain unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Cumberland County Sheriff's Office
910-323-1500
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Fayetteville Observer
WRAL 5
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
