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
Hamza Ali
Hamza, date, approximate 2013; Ummad Rushdi
Date Missing 08/06/2013
Missing From
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
Black
Date of Birth 01/08/2013 (9)
Age 7 months
Height and Weight 2'1, 12 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics African-American male. Black hair, brown eyes.
Details of Disappearance Hamza was reported missing from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania on August 6, 2013. He lived with his mother, Zainab Gaal, and Gaal's boyfriend, Ummad Rushdi. His mother called the police to say she, her son and Rushdi had been visiting Rushdi's parents in the 6600 block of Chestnut Street in Upper Darby for the weekend when Rushdi took the baby and vanished. She suggested they went back to York, Pennsylvania, a town 90 miles away from Upper Darby where they lived.
A photo of Rushdi is posted with this summary. He was arrested at his home in York at 2:30 a.m. on August 7 and charged with kidnapping and other offenses, but Hamza wasn't with him. He told the arresting officer the baby was "with God."
Authorities told the media they believed Hamza was dead, and launched a search for his body at sites in the York and Lancaster areas of Pennsylvania. After Rushdi abducted the baby he'd gotten his vehicle stuck in the mud near the intersection of Routes 30 and 441 in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Investigators believe he initially buried Hamza's body near that spot but moved it later.
He asked two people for a ride, and they stated when he approached them he was carrying a copy of the Quran in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. Rushdi wound up going to church with the two witnesses and attending a Sunday School class with one of them, but left during a prayer session and started crying loudly in the hallway.
Rushdi allegedly told his brother he had killed Hamza by shaking him because the baby wouldn't stop crying. He has a prior criminal record for disorderly conduct, trespassing and making terroristic threats.
Gaal stated Rushdi had abused her, forced her into an il marriage ceremony and kept her captive, never allowing her to leave the house alone, and that he "tortured" Hamza and referred to him as "an idiot baby" and "a negative-energy baby." She and her child lived with him, his brother and some other relatives, and some boarders in the 900 block of Castle Pond Drive in York. Rushdi's mother's testified that Rushdi told her he wanted to "get rid of" Hamza, perhaps by taking him to his grandmother in Maine, and that he said, "If not, I will throw him off I bridge before I get there."
Late in August, Rushdi was additionally charged with Hamza's murder, as well as kidnapping to facilitate a felony and inflict injury or terror, concealment of a child's whereabouts, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. He confessed the murder to police, stating he wrapped the baby's body in a sheet and buried it under branches in the York, Pennsylvania area. He said they would never be able to find the body.
Authorities plan to seek the death penalty against him. In September 2017, Rushdi was declared incompetent to stand trial. Two mental health experts testified; one diagnosed Rushdi with a schizotypal personality disorder, and the other said he had schizophrenia. Rushdi was involuntarily committed to Norristown State Hospital until his competency could be restored. The has been revisited several times, but each time he has still been deemed incompetent.
Foul play is suspected in Hamza's due to the circumstances involved. His body has never been located.
Investigating Agency
Upper Darby Police Department
610-734-7693
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Delco Daily Times
WFMZ
The York Dispatch
NBC Philadelphia
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
