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
Barbara G. Glueckert
Barbara, date, approximate 1976; Thomas Urlacher, date, approximate 1976
Date Missing 08/21/1976
Missing From
Huntley, Illinois
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 09/07/1961 (61)
Age 14 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 120 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A green t-shirt, blue corduroy pants, tan earth shoes, a beaded leather necklace and a rope belt with a large metal buckle.
Associated Vehicle(s) Brown Buick Electra 225
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Dark brown hair, brown eyes. Barbara has a scar on her chin. Her ears are pierced.
Details of Disappearance Barbara was walking to mass at St. Raymond de Penafort Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois at 5:00 p.m. on August 21, 1976. A man identifying himself as "Tom Edwards" stopped her and asked if she wanted to go to a party.
She went to church instead, but gave Edwards her phone number, and afterwards she and a girlfriend met him at a pizza parlor and caught a ride with him in his brown Buick Electra 225. They went to a rock concert at a farm in Huntley, Illinois. They originally planned to go to a party in Des Plaines, Illinois, but Edwards suggested the concert instead.
Approximately 500 people attended the event, which was scheduled to end at 12:30 a.m. but actually lasted much longer. Barbara and her friend became separated between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. When the event broke up, Barbara's friend went home with another individual and it is believed Barbara left with Edwards. She never arrived home and has never been heard from again.
"Edwards" turned out to be Thomas G. Urlacher, who was then in his mid-twenties. He moved to San Francisco, California just days after Barbara's disappearance and lived there under another alias until the police found him. A photograph of Urlacher is posted with this summary. He had a long criminal record for arson, rape, and other crimes, and a history of violence against women.
He is the prime suspect in Barbara's disappearance; investigators believe he murdered her the night she went missing and buried her body near the concert site in Huntley.
In December 1976, Urlacher wrote a 33-page letter to a friend saying he had "put a girl in the ground" because he had raped her and was afraid she would tell the police. He never mailed the letter; he left it in his apartment's closet instead. Later, Urlacher asked another friend to retrieve the letter and destroy it. Instead, his friend read it, and took it to the San Francisco police, who arrested him on an outstanding warrant out of Illinois for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The charge was based on statements from witnesses who saw Urlacher give marijuana and alcohol to Barbara, her friend and other underage youths the night she disappeared. In March 1977, the prosecution dropped the charge; they were afraid that if they convicted him, this might make it more difficult to prosecute him for Barbara's murder later on.
A grand jury convened to investigate Barbara's disappearance that same year. Prosecutors hoped to indict Urlacher for her murder, but they were unsuccessful; no indictments have been issued against anyone in connection with her disappearance. Urlacher subsequently sued Barbara's family for defaming his character, but the lawsuit was dismissed.
Investigators never found enough evidence against Urlacher to charge him in Barbara's presumed murder, but he was found liable for her wrongful death in a civil suit in 1978 and was ordered to pay $5.15 million in damages to her parents. He was shot to death during a drug deal in Pueblo, Colorado in 2004.
Urlacher had always maintained his innocence in Barbara's disappearance; he said he left the concert alone at 11:00 p.m. He admitted writing the incriminating letter to his friend but said he had been under the influence of drugs at the time and what he wrote was not true.
Barbara was declared ly dead in 1984, eight years after her disappearance. She is a graduate of St. Raymond Catholic Grade School and had registered to attend Prospect High School in the fall of 1976.
She resided with her parents in the 600 block of Russell Street in Mount Prospect when she vanished; that city's police are investigating her . Her disappearance remains unsolved and foul play is suspected.
Investigating Agency
Mount Prospect Police Department
847-818-5221
847-870-5654
Other
WBBM-TV
NewspaperArchive
The Courier News
The Northwest Herald
The Pueblo Chieftain
The Daily Herald
NamUs
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
