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
Kay Frances Read
Read, date, approximate 2008; Dodge Caravan; Luis Vargas
Date Missing 02/14/2008
Missing From
Tucson, Arizona
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 08/26/1945 (77)
Age 62 years old
Height and Weight 5'2, 125 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Possibly small slippers.
Medical Conditions Read is handicapped as a result of contracting polio as a young child. Her right leg is approximately four sizes smaller than her left leg. She requires a leg brace or crutches to walk, and she has neither of those with her. She also has scoliosis and her back is hunched noticeably as a result.
Associated Vehicle(s) Turquoise 1996 Dodge Caravan with the Arizona license plate number MTR492 (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Graying blonde hair, hazel eyes. Read wears eyeglasses for distant vision, but she doesn't have them with her. Some of her back teeth are missing and she has caps on a front tooth and a back tooth. She has a bump on the bridge of her nose from a previous car accident. She has previously broken her left ankle and left kneecap, and may have previously fractured a left rib.
Details of Disappearance Read was last heard from at approximately 9:42 p.m. on February 14, 2008, at her residence in the 7300 block of Marigold Circle in Tucson, Arizona. She had dinner with her elderly mother, watched television with her, then returned to her home and called her mother to say she'd arrived safely.
Her mother called her at 6:30 a.m. the next day to make sure she got up for work, but Read didn't answer. Her mother asked a relative to go check on her, and the relative went to Read's residence and found it deserted.
Her front door was shut but unlocked. Her crutches were lying on the floor next to her cordless telephone, and there was a space heater in the living room that had been tipped over and had its cord ripped off. Read's leg brace had been left behind, but her van was gone. There was no indication of forced entry.
At 9:30 a.m. that same day, Read's turquoise 1996 Dodge Caravan with the Arizona license plate number MTR492, was found at the intersection of Golf Links and Kolb Road, about two miles from her home. The interior had been burned, and Read's burned wheelchair and the cord from her space heater were found inside the van. A photo of a similar vehicle is posted with this summary.
Surveillance footage of a Conoco gas station nearby show a man with Read's vehicle. He also tried unsuccessfully to use Read's credit card to get money from an ATM.
The man is described as Caucasian or Hispanic, 5'6 to 5'9 tall and about 160 to 180 pounds. He was in his twenties or thirties, with short dark hair and a receding hairline. His face was pockmarked and his teeth were in poor condition, dark-colored and decaying. He was wearing a tan coat, a white shirt and dark-colored, possibly cargo type pants.
Luis Vargas was identified as a possible suspect in Read's shortly after she disappeared. He has a criminal record for burglary and driving under the influence, and was imprisoned for an unrelated burglary later in 2008. A photo of Vargas is posted with this summary.
In November 2014, days before he was supposed to be released from prison, Vargas was charged with murder, burglary, kidnapping, theft and arson in Read's . He was homeless at the time of Read's disappearance and sometimes stayed with relatives in the Tucson area, but he and Read didn't know each other. Police found his fingerprints on the space heater in Read's apartment.
Vargas was tried for murder in August 2016 and found guilty, after four hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Read was employed as a medical records clerk at Palo Verde Mental Health Hospital in 2008. She also taught Sunday school at St. Paul's United Methodist Church and volunteered at a summer camp for mentally disabled children. Her family stated she would never have opened the door to a stranger, particularly a man. It is uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning.
Read's mother died in January 2010, but her sister is still looking for her. Foul play is suspected in her due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Tucson Police Department
520-882-7463
Other
NamUs
Find Kay Read
The Arizona Daily Star
KMSB-TV
The Tucson Citizen
KOLD News 13
Tucson Police Department
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
