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
Karen Louise Wilson
Wilson, date, approximate 1985; Sketch of unknown man; Wilson's ring
Date Missing 03/27/1985
Missing From
Albany, New York
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 02/02/1963 (59)
Age 22 years old
Height and Weight 5'3, 114 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Faded blue Levi's jeans, a light blue short-sleeved pullover Izod golf shirt, a three-quarter length cream-colored women's raincoat, white sneakers, a size 5 1/5 fourteen-karat yellow gold ring with a light blue stone (possibly a zircon), a Seiko watch with a black face, plastic earrings and a yellow and white two-strand necklace. A photograph of Wilson's ring is posted with this summary.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Wilson may wear eyeglasses.
Details of Disappearance Wilson was last seen in the 1600 block of Central Avenue in Colonie, New York, on March 27, 1985 at approximately 7:20 p.m. She gone to the Colonie Center and bought a red t-shirt and a blue t-shirt in preparation for an upcoming spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She may or may not have gotten a tan at the Tanning Hut; she had booked an appointment, but no one at the salon remembers seeing her there.
Investigators initially believed Wilson got on a bus near the Butcher Block restaurant on Central Avenue and took that to Fuller Avenue, but it was later determined that she could not have gotten on the bus and probably walked to Fuller Avenue instead. Witnesses told authorities that she was spotted there shortly afterwards.
Wilson has never been heard from again. Investigators have been unable to locate the personal belongings that she carried with her on the night of her disappearance; she had a gray cloth pocketbook, a blue nylon wallet with a velcro closure, a green and white plastic bag from Ups N Down, and possibly also a blue knapsack containing a yellow dress.
Authorities believe Wilson probably walked south on Fuller Avenue towards the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, where she was a senior political science major. They think she was abducted somewhere near Six-mile Waterworks, the entrance ramp to Interstate 90 westbound and the Northway.
The night was very dark and the road not heavily traveled, and it would have been possible for a man to pull her into a vehicle in a matter of seconds without having any witnesses. A strange man was seen in the area at around the time Wilson vanished; a sketch of him is posted with this summary. He has never been identified and is being sought for questioning as a witness, if not a suspect.
Police looked into the possibility that Wilson had possibly traveled to Florida after her disappearance like she planned to, but found no evidence that she ever left New York.
A possible suspect in Wilson's died in an accidental house fire in 2013. Authorities stated they were never able to directly link the man to Wilson and they didn't think he could have been involved because he reported to work as usual at 4:00 a.m. on March 28, only hours after Wilson vanished.
Another SUNY-Albany student, Suzanne Lyall, disappeared in 1998, thirteen years after Wilson. Her disappearance remains unsolved. Authorities have not found anything to link the two s, but they stated the circumstances of the women's disappearances were similar.
Wilson's family lived in Plattsburgh, New York in 1985; her father was in the Air Force there. She aspired to a career in the foreign service and had interned at the State Assembly. Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
New York State Police
Troop G, Loudonville
518-783-3212
Other
New York State Troopers
California Attorney General's Office
NewsLibrary
The Times Union
Capital News 9
NamUs
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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
