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
April Ann Cooper
April, date, approximate 1986; Age-progression to age 26 (date, approximate 2005)
Date Missing 12/13/1986
Missing From
Rancho, California
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 05/13/1979 (43)
Age 7 years old
Height and Weight 4'6, 60 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A white leotard, a lavender dress, a white sweater and white leather dress shoes.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. April's upper front teeth were missing at the time of her 1986 disappearance.
Details of Disappearance April was last seen walking to an arcade at Woodchuck RV Campground in Rancho, California, on December 13, 1986. She and her mother lived there. She has never been heard from again.
April was being supervised by a neighbor, William James Bannister, at the time she disappeared. He was employed as a truck driver from Colorado in 1986. He had offered to babysit her when she and her mother went to work at an Old Town Temecula thrift store in Temecula, California that day. He said he gave April $5 to play video games at the arcade and she never returned home.
The day after April's disappearance, Bannister went to his father's wedding reception in dirt-caked clothes. He told the other attendees that he had gotten dirty while participating in the search for April. (In fact, he was not part of the search efforts.) He spoke to his father privately, then left the reception a short time afterward. That evening, Bannister's father told his new wife that Bannister had "done it again."
Bannister had killed his girlfriend in San Diego, California in 1978, and served five years in prison for second-degree murder in that . He was released from prison in 1984.
After April's disappearance, in 1993, he tried to strangle his son's fourteen-year-old girlfriend in the back of his truck and was sentenced to sixteen years for attempted murder. When police searched the truck for evidence in that , they found jewelry, bloodstained women's undergarments and several ligatures.
Bannister was charged with April's presumed homicide in 1995, nine years after she disappeared. He was extradited from Colorado to California for the trial. Investigators believed that he killed April as part of a brutal sexual fantasy, then concealed her remains.
His father was deceased by then, but Bannister's son testified that, in 1989, Bannister had told him April was dead. Bannister allegedly stated April fell off a rock and broke her neck while they were hiking together. He was convicted of her murder in 1998 and sentenced to life in prison without parole in early 1999.
Authorities believe Bannister may have also been involved in the disappearance of Laurie Lucas, a Colorado woman who vanished in 1990, but he has never faced charges in that .
April's body has never been located. She was a first-grade student at Cottonwood Elementary School in December 1986. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Riverside County Sheriff's Department
714-674-2183
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
The Riverside Press-Enterprise
The Doe Network
The North County Times
Colorado Bureau of Investigation
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
