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

Eloise Way
Way, date, approximate 1962
Date Missing 08/15/1962
Missing From
Charleston, South Carolina
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Age 48 years old
Height and Weight Unknown
Clothing/Jewelry Description A yellow dress with white stripes, tan shoes and sunglasses. Carrying a large white purse.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair. Way wears bifocal eyeglasses, but these were left behind.
Details of Disappearance Way was last seen in Charleston, South Carolina on August 15, 1962. At 10:00 a.m., she left the Atlantic Coast Life Insurance Company office on Wentworth Street where she worked as a bookkeeper. She was going to walk four blocks to the First National Bank and the C&S bank and make deposits in each. She had $1,458 in bills, $8.83 in coins and $729.47 in checks, a total of $2,196.30.
These deposits were less than the usual amounts she handled, and her coworkers thought she'd be back soon, but she never returned. Her coworkers called the bank to check on her, and discovered she'd never arrived there. Four hours later, they filed a missing persons report with the police.
When Way's daughter checked Way's apartment on Thomas Street half a mile from her workplace, everything appeared to be in order. Way's suits and all her clothes were there, except for the outfit she'd worn to work that day. She left her bifocals in a desk drawer in her office at work.
Way had worked for the insurance company for ten years and was known as a reliable and trustworthy employee with no apparent problems at work or in her personal life. She had two adult children and their father, her first husband, was dead. By the time of her disappearance, she was engaged to a Brunswick, Georgia man. She didn't have a driver's license and didn't like to go out after dark.
A witness reported seeing a woman talking to someone in a car about 25 yards from the insurance company around the time of Way's disappearance. According to the witness, the woman walked away from the car, but it pulled in front of her again, and after a short conversation she got in and rode off with the driver. The driver was described as a man in his forties, and the car may have had out-of-state license plates. It's not clear whether this sighting was of Way, however.
She has never been heard from again and an extensive search turned up no indication of her whereabouts. Her fiance said he feared she had been murdered.
In 1975, after his retirement, the Charleston police detective who investigated the gave an interview with the local newspaper and said he thought Way was still alive. He said he had a suspect in the whom he believed could tell what happened, if he were to be located and questioned. The detective died a year later.
Way's son told a reporter he believed his mother was abducted by a man who was suspected of robbing a dairy in 1957. Her son thought his mother had unwittingly befriended the suspect after meeting him at a party, and that this man may have been the driver of the car seen by the witness outside the insurance office on the day of Way's disappearance. Her son's theory was never confirmed and he is now deceased.
Due to the passage of time, police hold little hope that Way's can be solved. It remains a mystery.
Investigating Agency
Charleston Police Department
Other
The Charleston Post and Courier