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

Grace Marie Canto Reapp





Grace, date, approximate 1978; Michael Reapp, date, approximate 1996
Date Missing 06/06/1978
Missing From
Jericho, Vermont
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 10/01/1945 (77)
Age 32 years old
Height and Weight 5'7, 190 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Grace has a scar on her abdomen. Her ears are pierced.
Details of Disappearance Grace and her young daughter, Grace Noel "Gracie" Reapp, disappeared from their residence on Hanley Lane in rural Jericho, Vermont on June 6, 1978. They lived on a ten-acre plot.
Grace allegedly left a note stating that she and Gracie were leaving their home voluntarily and had no plans to return. Neither of them has been heard from again. Grace's husband, Michael Eugene Reapp, reported his wife and daughter missing to the Vermont State Police on June 11, 1978, five days later.
Michael then filed for divorce from Grace on June 16, 1978, ten days after she vanished. He cited desertion and intolerable severity as his reasons for the dissolution of marriage. He and Grace were also the parents of two sons who were 11 and 7 years old in 1978. Grace's relatives stated it would be uncharacteristic of her to abandon her sons.
Authorities questioned Michael regarding his wife and daughter's disappearances shortly after he filed the police reports in 1978. He and Grace married in 1965, when he was 20 and she was 19 years old.
Michael admitted that he had several extramarital affairs while wed to Grace, and was having one at the time of her disappearance. There were reports that Grace was physically abused by Michael. He maintained that Grace took their daughter of her own free will and simply vanished.
In a letter he wrote to Grace's family members in December 1978, Michael stated he believed Grace had left because she was having an affair and she left her sons behind because they knew about the affair.
Michael was granted a divorce from Grace in July 1979, just over one year after she was last seen. He married their children's former babysitter in November 1979. In 1983, he lost his job as an air traffic controller and moved his family to Florida. Michael and his second wife divorced in 1985.
He continued to tell authorities that he believed Grace and Gracie were living with Grace's relatives and stated he hoped Gracie would contact him in the future. Grace's family, however, continued to investigate their disappearances and heard from neither Grace nor Gracie since 1978.
The missing persons was reopened in the summer of 1987. Extensive searches of the Reapps' former Vermont property have been conducted since 1978. Investigators have not located any sign of Grace or Gracie's whereabouts. Their s were reclassified as homicides in 1996.
Michael remarried for a third time by the mid-1990s. In May 1996, one of Grace's sons died in Germany of natural causes. Vermont authorities interviewed Michael in Florida in September. He continued to claim he believed his former wife and daughter were alive and well.
Michael left his home in Jupiter, Florida on October 26, 1996. He drove his gray 1994 Isuzu pickup truck with with the Florida plate number JJZ55G to New Orleans, Louisiana, and bank record show he made a withdrawal at a New Orleans ATM.
Michael and Grace's surviving son reported his father as a missing person to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department in November 1996. Michael's truck was located at an airport in New Orleans in December 1996, but there was no trace of him. He took only his toothbrush and cigarettes. A photo of Michael from 1996 is posted with this summary.
In June 2006, authorities charged Michael with first-degree murder in connection with Grace's disappearance and second-degree murder in connection with Gracie's. They theorize that Grace was killed because she found out about Michael's affair, and Gracie was killed because she witnessed her mother's murder.
Michael remained at large, however, and renewed attempts to locate him came to nothing for the next four years.
In June 2010, investigators announced they had identified Michael as a John Doe from Yuma, Arizona. On January 10, 1997, Michael abducted a man at gunpoint and stole his car. His victim escaped and Michael was forced to pull over on the highway after a high-speed police chase.
Michael shot himself in the head before law enforcement officers could arrest him. His identity was unknown until a fingerprint match was made thirteen and a half years later.
Authorities have conducted over twenty-five digs on the Reapps' former Vermont property since 1996. They still believe Grace and Gracie's remains are buried somewhere on the property, and they still hope to recover them. Foul play is suspected in their s due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Vermont State Police
802-524-5993
Other
Vermont Department of Public Safety
What Happened To Grace and Little Gracie?
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
The Burlington Free Press
WCAX-TV
The Doe Network
The Yuma Sun
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Unidentified Wiki

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