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
Marlena Danyele Childress
Marlena, date, approximate 1987; Age-progression to age 29 (date, approximate 2012)
Date Missing 04/16/1987
Missing From
Union City, Tennessee
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 02/17/1983 (39)
Age 4 years old
Height and Weight 4'0, 38 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A purple and white checked shirt with lace trim, light purple pants and pink jelly-style shoes.
Associated Vehicle(s) Older model two-door red car with possible McCracken County, Kentucky license plates
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Light brown hair, blue/hazel eyes. Marlena's ears are pierced. She had silver or stainless steel caps on her top and bottom front teeth at the time of her 1987 disappearance.
Details of Disappearance Marlena was last seen playing in the front yard of her family's residence in Union City, Tennessee at approximately 3:00 p.m. on April 16, 1987. Her mother, Pamela Lynn Bailey, stated she heard car brakes and when she went to check on Marlena, the child was gone.
The vehicle is described as an older model two-door red car. Bailey said she didn't get a good look at the driver, but Marlena's seven-year-old stepbrother and the owner of a store two blocks away both told police they'd seen Marlena talking to him shortly before she vanished. Their descriptions of the car matched what Bailey said she'd seen, but no one recognized the driver. It reportedly had McCracken County, Kentucky license plates. Marlena has never been heard from again.
Two months after Marlena's disappearance, her mother told investigators that she had hit her while trying to discipline her and had unintentionally killed her. She said she disposed of the body in the north fork of the Obion River.
Bailey said a local man had helped her dispose of the body, and he was questioned by police, but he denied any involvement, saying he knew Bailey but he hadn't even seen her in two years. He also had an alibi for the day Marlena disappeared. The man was never charged in connection with her disappearance.
Marlena's body was never located and Bailey recanted her confession shortly afterwards, stating she had made up the story because she was emotionally distressed, taking medication for depression, and being pressured by the police.
Bailey made several conflicting statements about her daughter's disappearance: at one point she said she had sold Marlena to pay off a drug debt, and another time she said Marlena had been abducted by a family friend who had sexually abused Bailey when she was a child.
Bailey moved to Kentucky after Marlena disappeared. She had initially been charged with second-degree murder in connection with her daughter's alleged death
The charge was later reduced to voluntary manslaughter, then dropped altogether for lack of evidence. Prior to Marlena's disappearance, no one had filed any complaints of child abuse or neglect in the family.
There were reports that Marlena had been seen in Anniston, Alabama in the months following her disappearance. She was supposedly staying with a family there in the late summer of 1987. Their surname was also Childress, but they aren't related to Marlena.
The family had a history of harboring other people's children. They traveled to Florida, where the father was arrested on sex charges relating to his wife and two of his ten children.Neighbors from Anniston identified photos of Marlena as the child they had seen at the residence, but these sightings were never confirmed.
Bailey was arrested in Kentucky in late April 2002 after she stabbed her twelve-year-old son in a rural cemetery in Graves County. The child survived the attack, stayed overnight in the hospital, and was released to his father. Bailey pleaded no contest to attempted murder, served time in prison and has since been released.
Marlena's disappearance continues to be classified as a non-family abduction. Her was re-opened by the police after Bailey's 2002 arrest, but it remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Obion County Sheriff's Department
731-885-5832
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
The Associated Press
MSNBC News
The Lauderdale Chalkboard
The Commercial Appeal
NamUs
The Kentucky New Era
WBBJ TV
The Jackson Sun
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
