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
Gayle Marie Marks
Marks, date, approximate 1988; Age-progression to age 43 (date, approximate 2012); Wesley Shermantine; Loren Herzog
Date Missing 10/18/1988
Missing From
Stockton, California
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 11/30/1969 (52)
Age 18 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 110 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A black skirt, a black long-sleeved knit shirt, a brown scarf tied around her waist, brown high-top shoes and a black leather necklace with silver spheres attached to it.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Marks's ears are pierced.
Details of Disappearance Marks accompanied her mother to the San Joaquin County Mental Health Department in Stockton, California on October 18, 1988. Her mother was employed at the department. Marks then walked alone to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on Parks Street to get an identification card.
She is known to have arrived at the DMV, because her card was mailed to her several days later. Marks called her mother at work after leaving the DMV. She was unable to reach her and left a message on the answering machine. During the message she didn't sound as if anything was wrong. She has never been heard from again.
Marks was supposed to meet a friend before she began work at 5:00 p.m., but did not keep the appointment. She did not take any personal belongings besides her purse when she went missing. She never retrieved her last paycheck from her place of employment, Rick's New York Style Pizza, where she was a waitress.
Wesley Howard Shermantine Jr. and Loren Joseph Herzog, the so-called "Speed Freak Killers," are possible suspects in Marks's . They were arrested in 2000 and ultimately convicted of murdering several females in the 1980s and 1990s; authorities believe they had as many as fifteen victims. Photographs of both men are posted with this summary.
Shermantine is on death row. Herzog's sentence was reduced from 78 years to 14 years after the court ruled his confession had been coerced. He was paroled in 2010 and then took his own life in January 2012, after he found out his former partner had begun cooperating with authorities and had offered to reveal the location of victims' bodies in exchange for a payment of $33,000.
Shermantine led investigators to the skeletal remains of Chevelle Wheeler and Cyndi Vanderheiden, who'd been Date Missing 1985 and 1998 respectively. He also pointed out an abandoned well in Linden, California that contained some 300 human bones and personal items. Shermantine stated the well contained up to twenty victims. He blames Herzog for all the murders and says he only helped with disposing the bodies.
Shermantine and Herzog are being investigated in other missing persons' s, including Phillip Martin, Michaela Garecht,Susan Bender, Sylvia Standly and Ruth Leamon. The skeletal remains of victims Kimberly Billy, a 19-year-old who disappeared in 1984, and Joann Hobson, a 16-year-old who disappeared in 1985, were identified, but Standly's body was not found in the well.
Foul play is suspected in Marks's . She had moved to California only a few months prior to her disappearance.
Investigating Agency
Stockton Police Department
209-937-8377
Other
Gayle Marks Has Vanished
Child Protection Education of America
The Lost Child Emergency Broadcast System
CrimeNews2000
America's Most Wanted
The Doe Network
The Stockton Record
Fox 40
The Modesto Bee
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
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
