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
Marjorie Gayle McCaffrey
Marjorie "Gayle" McCaffrey, date, approximate 2012; Robert McCaffrey in 2014
Date Missing 03/16/2012
Missing From
Charleston, South Carolina
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Age 36 years old
Height and Weight 5'2, 155 pounds
Associated Vehicle(s) Jeep (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. McCaffrey goes by her middle name, Gayle.
Details of Disappearance Gayle was last seen at her residence on Limestone Boulevard in the West Ashley neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina on March 17, 2012. Her husband, Robert McCaffrey, said they went out to eat that afternoon, and after returning home they got into an argument. He went out for a walk, and when he returned at 7:45 p.m., Gayle was in bed ignoring him.
Robert stated he left again at 10:00 p.m. He maintained an address in Easley, North Carolina, and initially told the police he went there, but this was a lie. He says when he returned home to Charleston at 6:30 a.m. the next day, Gayle wasn't there and their two children, aged ten and four, were alone in the house, asleep in bed.
She'd left her wedding band and a typed goodbye letter, saying she would always love him and their children but wanted to be with a man named "Nicky", and that Robert should not look for her. She left her Jeep, cellular phone, wallet and checkbook behind, but Robert said a 350-pound safe containing a gun and $110,000 in cash was missing from the home.
Gayle has never been heard from again. Robert reported her missing that evening.
Gayle's family stated they don't believe she actually wrote the goodbye note left in her home; the letter contained curse words, and they said Gayle is a devout Baptist and never cursed. Authorities searched the McCaffrey home three times and removed multiple items of evidence, including guns and ammunition, as well as sheets in the dryer that were stained with human blood.
Robert had had an extramarital affair shortly before Gayle's disappearance, something Gayle was aware of. He had told the woman he was separated from his wife. She ended the relationship with him after a few weeks, when she realized he was not, in fact, separated.
Gayle was trying to keep the marriage together and had booked a romantic getaway vacation for herself and her husband, but Robert kept trying to contact his former girlfriend and win her back.
When he left his home on March 17, he went not to his address in Easley, but to Travelers Rest, South Carolina, to a bar where his former girlfriend was at. She tried to ignore him, and was able to lose him after he tried to follow her in his car once she left the bar. On the afternoon of March 18, Robert texted his girlfriend to say Gayle had left him.
In May 2012, police announced they believed Gayle had been murdered and that Robert was the prime suspect in her . By this time, custody of the couple's children had been given to Gayle's sister.
In 2014, Robert was charged with obstruction of justice; investigators stated he'd lied to them about Gayle's disappearance on multiple occasions and refused to assist in the search for her. Among other inconsistencies in his story, the couple's ten-year-old daughter and other relatives who'd been in the home told police that the safe Robert claimed Gayle took from the residence did not exist.
In 2018, a probate court judge declared that Gayle had died and that her husband was responsible for her death, ensuring that her children rather than her husband would inherit her estate. Later in 2018, Robert was charged with Gayle's murder, but the grand jury declined to indict him and the murder charge was dropped. A photo of him is posted with this summary.
At his trial for obstruction of justice in 2019, the prosecution argued that Robert had written Gayle's goodbye letter himself. His defense admitted he had not been a good husband, but said he knew nothing about her disappearance. He was convicted in March 2019 and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Gayle is a graduate of Southern Wesleyan University and worked as director of facilities finance at The Citadel, a military college, at the time of her disappearance. She was a longtime member of the First Baptist Church and sang and rang bells for the church choir, and her family described her as a devoted mother.
Foul play is suspected in her due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Charleston County Sheriff's Office
843-308-7308
Other
NamUs
WCSC Live 5
The Charleston Post and Courier
News 2
ABC 4
Fox 24 Charleston
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
