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
Marsilene Smith
Marsilene, date, approximate 2007; Palmer Smith
Date Missing 12/06/2007
Missing From
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 05/08/1938 (84)
Age 69 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 139 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A beige long-sleeved t-shirt, a blue denim jacket, faded blue jeans, black zip-up ankle boots, a yellow gold band with diamonds on her left hand, and a yellow gold band with three diamonds on her right hand.
Medical Conditions Marsilene is a diabetic and insulin-dependent and requires a special diet. She could become disoriented or go into diabetic shock if she is without her insulin for more than a couple of days. The last time she took it was on the morning of her disappearance.
Associated Vehicle(s) Champagne-colored Lincoln Navigator SUV (accounted for), Bright green girl's or woman's bicycle
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Some agencies spell Marsilene's first name "Marcelene" or give it as "Marcia." Her nickname is Marcie (sometimes spelled "Marsi"). She wears eyeglasses and she has a dime-sized birthmark on her forehead.
Details of Disappearance Marsilene was last seen in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on December 6, 2007. She went Christmas shopping at 1:30 p.m. that day; she normally shops at the K-Mart, Old Time Pottery, Kroger, Stones River Mall and the Avenue Murfreesboro.
Marsilene normally returned to her home in the 400 block of Village Green by dark, by on the day of December 6 she did not and she has never been heard from again. Her husband of 51 years, Glover Palmer Smith, who goes by his middle name, reported her missing at 6:00 p.m.
A photograph of Palmer is posted with this summary. He later told police Marislene was carrying $600 and may have had as much as $10,000 in cash with her.
The morning after her disappearance, Marsilene's champagne-colored Lincoln Navigator SUV was found in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store on south Rutherford Boulevard, with no sign of her at the scene. The SUV's keys were in the ignition and the passenger door was open.
Surveillance camera footage of the parking lot showed a man get out of the driver's seat of the vehicle at 2:30 p.m. on the day Smith disappeared, remove a bright green bicycle from the back and ride away. He rode south, in the direction of the Applebee's restaurant. The bicycle appeared to be a girl's or a woman's bike, but it was not Marsilene's and her loved ones did not recognize it. The camera footage indicates Marsilene was not in or near the SUV when it was parked there.
Marsilene carried a cellular phone at the time of her disappearance, but did not use it after she went missing. The phone's GPS tracking device continued to transmit a signal, however. Several days later, police found the phone off Barfield Crescent Road. This is about three miles from her home, and about nine miles in the opposite direction from where her car was found. There was no evidence of Marsilene's whereabouts at the scene.
Palmer quickly stopped cooperating with police in Marsilene's disappearance and hired a lawyer. Three months after Marsilene disappeared, another woman accused Palmer of stalking her and took out a restraining order to keep him away from her. The woman said Palmer had repeatedly asked her for a date and continued to call her at work after she asked him to stop, and that he referred to Marsilene in the past tense.
Palmer also purchased a coffin and a headstone for Marsilene. He has not been charged in connection with his wife's disappearance, but, in March 2009 he was charged with two counts of evidence tampering and six counts of making false statements to the police in Marsilene's disappearance.
At Palmer's trial in April 2010, the prosecution alleged it who he who had parked Marsilene's car in the Wal-Mart and rode away on the bicycle in the back, and also that he told several lies to the police about various aspects of Marsilene's disappearance.
Palmer and Marsilene's adult son, Evan, testified against him, describing his father as physically and mentally abusive. Evan stated Marsilene was hospitalized in 2004 after she allegedly fell down the stairs, but he believed her injuries came from a beating at Palmer's hands. Palmer maintained his innocence, but he was convicted of all charges. He was sentenced to a year in jail and six years of probation.
Marsilene's loved ones describe her as a reliable person who would be unlikely to leave without warning; they fear she was abducted or had a diabetic reaction that caused her disappearance. Authorities believe foul play is possible in her and have not ruled out the possibility that a family member or someone else she knew was involved. Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Murfreesboro Police Department
615-893-1311
Other
The Daily News Journal
The Shelbyville Times-Gazette
Someone is Missing
NewsChannel 5
The Murfreesboro Post
WSNV Nashville
Texas Equusearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team
MSNBC
The Tennesseean
NamUs
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
