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
Martha Martinez Maxwell
Martha, date, approximate 1992; Jeffrey Maxwell in 2011
Date Missing 05/10/1992
Missing From
Fort Worth, Texas
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
Hispanic
Age 41 years old
Height and Weight Unknown
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Hispanic female. Black hair, brown eyes. Martha's ears are pierced.
Details of Disappearance Martha's family last heard from her on Mother's Day in 1992. She was living in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband of eleven years, Jeffrey Allen Maxwell. She had kept in regular touch with her family with phone calls and visits. In May 1992, they got a letter from her stating she was leaving Jeffrey.
Martha's relatives believe the letter was either a forgery or she was forced to write it, because she would normally have just called them instead of writing. Her brother called Jeffrey to ask about Martha, but he hung up on her. Martha's brother then flew to Texas and filed a missing persons report.
Police investigated but couldn't find any indication as to what happened to Martha. Jeffrey stated she simply left him, leaving behind her Social Security card, her credit cards, her car and their young son. In 1995, Jeffrey filed for divorce. He stated he didn't know Martha's whereabouts and hadn't seen her since 1992.
Jeffrey is the prime and only suspect in Martha's disappearance. In April 1987, she was found on the side of Interstate 35, about 10 miles north of Ardmore, Oklahoma, and taken to the hospital. She was bound with duct tape, her throat had been slit and she had other severe injuries.
Martha survived and told investigators Jeffrey had bound, drugged and tortured her the night before. Authorities searched the Maxwell home, but didn't find much evidence to support the story. Jeffrey was charged with aggravated assault and Martha took their son and went to live with her parents in Mexico.
While she was gone, Jeffrey wrote her several letters apologizing for his actions and urging her to reconcile. Martha eventually came back to him and stopped cooperating with the police in the kidnapping . A jury declined to indict Jeffrey in July 1987, and the was dropped. Martha disappeared five years later.
In March 2011, Jeffrey was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 62-year-old woman. The woman went missing after her house burned down, and was found alive thirteen days later in a secret compartment in Jeffrey's home. She'd been bound, raped and tortured.
A photo of Jeffrey is posted with this summary. In February 2012, he was sentenced to life in prison for the crime. He denies any knowledge of Martha's whereabouts.
Jeffrey is also being looked at as a possible suspect in the 2000 disappearance of Amelia Smith. Authorities haven't found any evidence that he knew Smith, but her disappearance was remarkably similar to the 2011 kidnapping.
Foul play is strongly suspected in Martha's ; investigators believe Jeffrey murdered her, but he has never been charged in her disappearance.
Investigating Agency
Fort Worth Police Department
817-392-4430
Other
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
CBS News
The Dallas Morning News
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
660 WROL
KDFW Fox 4
Unsolved in the News
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
