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.



Missing Person Photos

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

Jennifer Sophia Marteliz
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
Jennifer, date, approximate 1982; Age-progression to age 45 (date, approximate 2021); Thomas Welnicki, date, approximate 1990
Date Missing 11/15/1982
Missing From
Tampa, Florida
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
Hispanic
Date of Birth 06/08/1975 (47)
Age 7 years old
Height and Weight 3'6 - 4'0, 60 - 70 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A pink or orange knee-length dress with yellow flowers printed on it, maroon ballet shoes, heart-shaped gold post earrings, a gold necklace, a hair comb with ribbons and flowers, and peach-colored polish and silver glitter on her fingernails.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Hispanic female. Black hair, brown eyes. Jennifer has moles or beauty marks on the upper part of her chest, on the right side of her nose near her eye, and on her collarbone. She has a mole on the back of her right thigh. Her ears are pierced. She has a cleft in her chin and her upper front teeth are large, crooked and chipped. Jennifer's nickname is Firecracker. She is of Cuban, Lebanese and Italian descent. She walks pigeon-toed and one of her shoulders is lower than the other.
Details of Disappearance Jennifer was last seen walking home from school. She was one block from her family's residence on 15th Street and 109th Avenue in Tampa, Florida on November 15, 1982 at approximately 3:00 p.m. Jennifer asked a friend to watch her as she continued to her house; her friend turned away for a moment and Jennifer disappeared. She has not been seen again.
Jennifer's parents were divorced in 1982, and she lived with her father and stepmother, but her mother had custody. Jennifer did not get along with her stepmother, and members of her mother's family had contemplated removing the child from her father's home. Both sides of her family accused one another of hiding Jennifer after her disappearance. Eventually all her relatives were ruled out as suspects in her .
Authorities suspected that Thomas Peter Welnicki, a family friend of Jennifer with an extensive criminal history for charges ranging from theft to drug possession to minor assault, was involved in her . A photograph of Welnicki is posted with this summary.
When questioned by police, he claimed to have a psychic vision of Jennifer's abduction and murder. He said she was abducted and strangled by two men. One of them, he said, was in his forties and had a criminal history, and the other was a blond man in his mid-twenties whom Jennifer knew and trusted, and whose conscience troubled him deeply after the child's death. Welnicki himself matches the description of the blond man.
Authorities believe Welnicki's "vision" was actually a confession, but he denies this. He failed a polygraph about Jennifer's , but this may have been because he was taking medication to prevent seizures. Welnicki he has never been charged in connection with Jennifer's .
At the time of her disappearance, Jennifer was a second-grade student at Lassie C. Shaw Elementary School, which was one miles from her home. She was a good student and well-behaved. Her presumed abduction remains unsolved. Her mother self-published a book about it in 2011, titled "Jennifer, Where Are You?"
Investigating Agency
Tampa Police Department
813-273-0770
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
The Tampa Tribune
Tampa Police Department
Operation Lookout
The St. Petersburg Times
WTSP 10
The Doe Network
Jennifer Marteliz Where Are You?
Unsolved in the News
The Fort Myers News-Press
NamUs

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.



Missing Person Photos

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