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
Janet Sue Kirkup
Janet, date, approximate 1992; Robert Kirkup, date, approximate 2008
Date Missing 06/01/1992
Missing From
Jackson, Michigan
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 08/13/1939 (83)
Age 52 - 53 years old
Height and Weight 5'7, 160 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Unknown, but she usually wears several rings and other jewelry.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Graying blonde hair, blue eyes. Janet may use the last name Johnson. Her four front teeth are capped and she keeps her fingernails long.
Details of Disappearance Janet was last seen in Jackson, Michigan during the summer of 1992. That summer she and her husband, Robert Kirkup, were on a road trip in a recreational vehicle (RV) at the time.
The couple had three daughters, Shana, Sherry and Susan. Robert worked in senior management throughout much of his career, but in 1989 he decided to quit and buy a saloon. The business went under, however, and by the fall of 1991 the Kirkups' house in Apple Valley, California had been repossessed.
Janet and Robert decided to go an extended vacation in their RV. Shana and Sherry were adults by this time and had moved away; Susan was sixteen and lived with her parents.For five months, she joined her father and mother in the RV, but eventually she decided to go home and live with Shana. The Kirkups headed east, stopping at the homes of various relatives along the way. Janet kept in touch with her children by telephone and letters.
Janet disappeared sometime during the trip after she and Robert visited his relatives in Genesee County, Michigan. Her calls and letters to her children stopped, and whenever her children called Robert would tell them Janet was unavailable to talk. She has never been heard from again.
In January 1993, Robert wrote a six-page letter to his children to say that Janet had in fact been missing for months. He stated she ran away with another wealthy man who drove a big RV, and he last saw her when he dropped her off at an airport hotel in Buffalo, New York.
Robert didn't provide many details about the incident, and after Janet's disappearance he continued to travel around the country in his RV.
The Kirkups' daughters initially believed Robert's story about Janet leaving with another man, because they knew how dissatisfied she was with the situation.
Susan stated that while she was with them on the RV trip, her parents argued frequently, both of them drank and Janet was very unhappy. Susan was close to her mother, but she described Robert as an abuser who could become violent, particularly when he was drinking.
Shana remembered differently, stating Janet was volatile and occasionally hit her children, but Robert never had. She described Janet as a very materialistic person who was concerned about having a lot of money, and Shana could believe that her mother would have left her husband for someone with more money.
After all the sisters' attempts to locate Janet led to nothing, Sherry filed a missing persons report.
The police found no record or any sightings of Janet after her visit with Robert's parents in the summer of 1992, and the couldn't identify the man Robert said she had left with. They came to believe she had vanished under suspicious circumstances and might have met with foul play.
In 1999, authorities tracked Robert to Michigan, went there and interviewed him. He repeated the story about Janet's having left him, but then added, "I had nothing to do with her death." The investigators pressed him, but Robert refused to say anything further and demanded a lawyer.
Authorities got a search warrant on his RV and found a 1992 calendar in which Robert had kept a meticulous record of his RV trip, daily noting the destination, miles traveled and the gas mileage. The entries for August 16 and 17, however, had no location listed; they were the only dates on the calendar without one.
Robert confessed to Janet's murder after the police persuaded Shana to confront him. He stated he and Janet got into a fight inside the RV at a campground near Buffalo, New York on August 14, 1992. He strangled Janet after she attempted to stab him, then buried her body in a wooded area in New York, but he couldn't remember exactly where.
Robert insisted he had killed his wife only in self-defense. He was sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison for Janet's murder.
Janet's body has not been located, but foul play is suspected in her due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Michigan State Police
517-780-4580
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office
909-387-3690
Other
The Doe Network
The Democrat and Chronicle
The Buffalo News
The Press-Enterprise
WHEC-TV
KESQ NewsChannel 3
The Batavia Daily News
MSNBC
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
