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
Joshua Jerome Mahaffey
Joshua, date, approximate 1991; Age-progression to age 39 (date, approximate 2015)
Date Missing 10/12/1991
Missing From
Centralia, Illinois
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 06/02/1976 (46)
Age 15 years old
Height and Weight 5'2, 120 pounds
Associated Vehicle(s) Blue Ford Maverick
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Joshua's two front teeth are capped and one of them is discolored. He has a dog bite scar on his left cheek. His nickname is Josh.
According to one account, he was later sighted with another teenage boy, leaving a shopping center in a blue Ford Maverick with a friend, Terry Martin, and Martin's girlfriend. Martin and the other boy returned hours later. The car was mud-splattered and Joshua wasn't with him. He has never been heard from again.
Joshua had been known to run away for several days at a time, so his mother was initially unconcerned by his absence. She began to worry after weeks passed without any sign of him, and she reported him missing on November 12.
Martin is a suspect in Joshua's disappearance. In 2003, while in jail, he allegedly told another inmate that he had killed a boy named Josh in 1991. A witness, Tonya L. Collins, who was in her teens in 1991, told authorities that she'd witnessed Joshua's torture and murder in a Satanic-type ritual in the Devil's Playground area of Centralia. She passed a polygraph about the in 1996, but failed a second one in 2008.
In 2008, she was placed under hypnosis and led authorities to Joshua's supposed burial site in the Devil's Playground, but a dig of the area produced nothing. Collins named Martin as Joshua's killer. It was she who claims she saw them leave the shopping center together.
Martin has an extensive criminal record. In 1993, he beat a man with a baseball bat and almost killed him. In 1999, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the rape of a 6-year-old girl. He was paroled in 2010, but allegedly failed to register as a sex offender and was re-arrested.
Joshua and Martin burglarized a small grocery together prior to Joshua's disappearance. Joshua testified against Martin in that , and Martin was ultimately sentenced to four years in prison. Joshua was also allegedly seeing Martin's girlfriend in secret, something Martin denies.
Martin admits that he was friends with Collins and Joshua in 1991, but says he didn't harm Joshua and doesn't know what happened to him. He stated Joshua often talked about running away, possibly to Kentucky, which was where his father lived.
Authorities believe Joshua is probably deceased, but they're unsure as to what happened to him. His remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Clinton County Sheriff's Office
618-594-4555
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Chicago Sun-Times
NamUs
The Belleville News-Democrat
NBC News
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
