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
Joseph Patrick Martin
Joseph, date, approximate 1996; Age-progression to age 25 (date, approximate 2005); Alexander Barsky, date, approximate 2008; Daniel Malak in 1998; Daniel Malak in 2009
Date Missing 03/25/1996
Missing From
Kerhonkson, New York
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 11/12/1980 (41)
Age 15 years old
Height and Weight 5'2, 115 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A green and blue flannel shirt, a hooded green sweatshirt, blue jeans and dark-colored sneakers.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Blond hair, hazel eyes. Joseph's left ear is double-pierced. His two upper eye teeth cross over each other. Joseph had a slim, muscular build at the time of his 1996 disappearance and was a track runner. His nicknames are Joe and Joey. His head was shaved at the time of his disappearance, except for his ponytail.
Details of Disappearance Joseph was last seen departing from his family's residence on Samsonville Road in Kerhonkson, New York at 10:40 p.m. on March 25, 1996.
Joseph was reported as a missing person during the following morning. He has never been heard from again. Authorities did receive reports of sightings of him in the New Paltz, New York area in 1999, but the sightings were never confirmed.
Barsky was 15 years old at the time of Joseph's disappearance; Malak was 16 or 17. In 1997, Malak was charged with murdering a 62-year-old man in the victim's home. He was convicted the following year and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Photos of both men are posted with this summary.
In May 2008, authorities arrested Barsky and charged him with second-degree murder in Joseph's presumed death. Investigators stated they went to reinterview him about Joseph's , and Barsky was evasive, failed a polgraph test and eventually confessed to Joseph's murder. It was supposedly committed in retaliation for some petty theft on Joseph's part.
According to Barsky's account, he and Malak picked up some marijuana before they went to meet Joseph to see the comet. The three boys went to a makeshift fort they had built, smoked the marijuana and drank beer.
Barsky and Malak then attacked Joseph from behind with two-foot length of metal pipe. They struck him approximately four times altogether before he died. After his death, they hid his body in a cave-like indentation in a rock.
Several years after Joseph's death, Barsky allegedly returned to the site, removed the bones, and dumped them in various trash cans in New York City. Authorities discovered forensic evidence to support Barsky's account, including some fabric, a tooth and a scrap of bone at the site where he says he originally hid the body.
In August 2008, Barsky pleaded guilty to a manslaughter and was sentenced to three to ten years in prison. The lenient sentence was due to his age at the time of the crime; he was three months short of his sixteenth birthday. He had he been 16 when Joseph died, he could have faced 25 years to life in prison.
Barsky apologized to Joseph's family at the sentencing hearing. He stated Malak was the instigator of the attack, and that it was Malak who struck the first two blows. He also claimed that when they attacked Joseph, they had only meant to hurt him and didn't intend for him to die.
In September 2009, Malak was also charged with second-degree murder. Barsky testified against him at his trial in September 2010, and he was found guilty.
Some agencies continue to classify Joseph's as that of an endangered runaway. He was a student at Rondout Valley High School in 1996, and Barsky and Malak went to school with him.
Joseph enjoyed skateboarding in 1996 and had also participated in football, wrestling and track. Foul play is suspected in his disappearance due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
New York State Police
Troop F
Ellenville Station
845-626-2800
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
New York State Police
The Times Herald-Record
The Daily Freeman
The Mid-Hudson News Network
The Poughkeepsie Journal
WTEN
Remembering Joseph Patrick Martin
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
