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
Margaret Reiley
Reiley, date, approximate 1992; Phillip Whaley in 1996
Date Missing 08/15/1992
Missing From
Syracuse, New York
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 04/04/1962 (60)
Age 30 years old
Height and Weight 4'11 - 5'0, 90 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A white dress shirt and blue jeans.
Medical Conditions Reiley had a drinking problem at the time of her disappearance.
Associated Vehicle(s) Blue ten-speed bicycle (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Reiley's nickname is Peggy.
Details of Disappearance Reiley was last seen leaving Tony G's, a bar on Marcellus Street in Syracuse, New York, at approximately midnight on August 15, 1992. She was accompanied by Philip S. Whaley Sr. at the time; they had been drinking at the bar together. She and Whaley knew each other socially, but had never dated. He later said they went in separate directions after leaving the bar, and Reiley rode away on her bicycle.
She has never been heard from again. Her live-in boyfriend reported her as a missing person on August 18. She had not told him or her teenage daughter of any plans to leave, and she left her clothing and identification behind at her apartment in the 400 block of Shonnard Street. She had dropped out of sight before, but had never been gone for longer than a day.
Reiley's blue ten-speed bicycle was located six weeks later, in a storage shed at Whaley's mother's home in Pulaski, New York, forty miles from Syracuse. After the bicycle was found, Whaley changed his story and said he had put Reiley's bicycle in his mother's motor home after they left Tony G's and had started to drive Reiley to her apartment, but she saw a cocaine dealer named "Angel" and asked to be let out so she could buy drugs.
Whaley said he let her out of the motor home a few doors down from her home and kept her bicycle, and he last saw her talking to Angel and another man on the street. Authorities doubted Whaley's account, however, and Reiley's loved ones stated she did not use cocaine. A drop of Reiley's blood was found on a pillow inside Whaley's trailer.
A photo of Whaley is posted with this summary. He was eventually charged with Reiley's murder and with the murder of another woman, his girlfriend Josephine Chatraw, who disappeared in 1984. He went to trial in 1996. A witness testified that Whaley told him he had shot Reiley twice after she tried to steal his cocaine. He then wrapped her body in blankets and plastic, bound it with duct tape, and dumped the bundle into the Salmon River. Authorities searched the river, but did not uncover any evidence.
Whaley maintained his innocence, but was convicted of both homicides and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. He was the first person in Onondaga County history to be convicted of murder without the victim's body, and his trial was also the first where DNA evidence was presented.
Whaley, who is still in prison and now in poor health, admitted responsibility for Reiley and Chatraw's deaths in 2011. He said they were not intentional homicides, however. He offered to lead authorities to the bodies, and a search was launched in November.
Authorities looked for Chatraw in a wooded area off Cusson Drive in Amboy, New York, but found nothing and gave up after two days. Whaley said he'd put Reiley's body in a garage next to his mother's home in Pulaski, New York, but the building has since been demolished and investigators believe her remains wound up in a landfill.
Foul play is suspected in Chatraw's and Reiley's disappearances due to the circumstances involved. Their remains may not be recoverable.
Investigating Agency
Syracuse Police Department
315-442-5330
Other
The Doe Network
The Syracuse Post-Standard
Syracuse Police Department
NamUs
The Wall Street Journal
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
