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
Bethany Anne Decker
Decker, date, approximate 2011; Decker's tattoo; Ronald Roldan
Date Missing 01/29/2011
Missing From
Loudoun County, Virginia
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 05/13/1989 (33)
Age 21 years old
Height and Weight 5'0, 130 pounds
Medical Conditions Decker was about four to five months pregnant at the time of her disappearance; her due date was August 7, 2011.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Decker has a small tattoo on her left ankle. A photo of the tattoo is posted with this summary. Decker's ears are pierced. Her maiden name is Littlejohn.
Details of Disappearance Decker was last seen in Loudoun County, Virginia on January 29, 2011. She lived in an apartment on Orchard Grass Terrace in Ashburn, Virginia.
Her husband was on leave from military duty in Afghanistan that month. They had been married about eighteen months and had a one-year-old son, who lived with Decker's parents. The couple took a vacation in Hawaii just before Decker's disappearance and returned to Virginia on January 28. Decker's husband returned to Afghanistan on February 4. She wasn't at the airport to see him off, which is uncharacteristic of her, but she and her husband had been having marital problems and her loved ones thought perhaps this was why she didn't say goodbye to him.
Her family reported her missing on February 19, after their numerous attempts to contact her were unsuccessful and they realized someone was impersonating her on her Facebook account. By then she'd been missing for approximately three weeks. Decker's car was found parked in her garage after her disappearance. There hasn't been any activity on her bank accounts, email or cellular phone since she went missing.
She hasn't gone to work at the Carrabba's Italian Grill in Centreville, Virginia or attended classes at George Mason University, where she was a senior majoring in global and economic change. She also left behind her passport and identification. After her disappearance, someone posing as her used her Facebook account to send messages to her friends.
Decker was dating Ronald Roldan at the time of her disappearance. They had been living together for two months and he was the last person to see her, and he was the father of her unborn child. Decker's family said she'd told them he was controlling and abusive, and that he'd threatened to "cut her open."
In March 2015, Roldan was charged with the attempted murder of another girlfriend; he brutally beat her and shot her three times, and she broke her neck and lost an eye. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to reduced felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and assault inflicting serious bodily injury in that , and was sentenced to six to eight years in prison. He was expected to be deported to his native Bolivia after his release in November 2020.
Late that month, only the day before Roldan's projected release date, authorities announced they were charging him with abduction in Decker's . A photo of Roldan is posted with this summary. In December, Roldan was additionally charged with second-degree murder in her . He is awaiting trial.
Since Decker went missing, there's no activity on her bank or email accounts or her cellular phone, no evidence that she left the country and no records indicating she's given birth. Her husband has since returned from Afghanistan and taken custody of their child. Her mother hopes she's still alive, but foul play is suspected in her disappearance due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Loudoun County Sheriff's Office
703-777-0445
Other
Virginia State Police
NamUs
CBS News
Fairfax Patch
WTOP 103.5 FM
The Loudon Times
NBC Washington
Leesburg Today
Facebook Page for Bethany Decker
The Washington Examiner
The Washington Post
MyFox DC
The Daily Mail
CrimeWatch Daily
NBC 4 Washington
WUSA 9
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
