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
Melvin Elwood Snyder
Melvin, date, approximate 1985; Ronald Harshman, date, approximate 2000; Harshman, date, approximate 2019
Date Missing 05/25/1985
Missing From
Greencastle, Pennsylvania
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/02/1942 (80)
Age 42 years old
Height and Weight 5'7 - 6'0, 170 - 200 pounds
Associated Vehicle(s) Two-tone brown truck
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Red hair, brown eyes.
Details of Disappearance Melvin was last seen in Greencastle, Pennsylvania on May 25, 1985. He has never been heard from again. On May 27, his truck was found parked outside a supermarket in Reisterstown, Maryland. Melvin's wallet and checkbook were in the truck, there was a loaded rifle in the back, the keys were in the ignition, and the vehicle had been wiped clean of fingerprints.
Melvin's wife, Joan, reported him missing the same day his truck was found. She told police that some of his clothing, including a jacket, three pairs of shoes, several pairs of underwear, a western-style shirt and ten handkerchiefs, disappeared along with him. However, Melvin did leave $4,000 in his bank account, as well as the guns he used for hunting.
He had gone to the dentist a few days before his disappearance and made a further dental appointment for July, which he never kept. He also never claimed his pension from his workplace, Grove Worldwide. Joan obtained a divorce from him in 1990 and remarried. In 1993, she had Melvin declared ly dead.
Authorities believe Ronald West Harshman shot Melvin to death in revenge because Melvin had had an affair with his wife, Teresa Harshman, in 1984. In June of that year, after Teresa told her husband about the affair, Ronald threatened to kill Melvin, rammed Melvin's vehicle with his own car, and fired two shots at him but missed. He was charged with reckless endangerment for that incident.
Melvin disappeared exactly one year after he left with Teresa and went to Montana, where they stayed for a few weeks. They then returned to their respective spouses and ended their extramarital relationship. Melvin and Joan reconciled, but Teresa filed for divorce from Ronald a few months later.
Ronald was charged with criminal homicide in March 2000 and convicted of first-degree murder in 2001. Melvin's wife Joan was charged as a co-defendant, but the charges against her were dropped on the eve of her trial and she testified against Harshman. Photographs of him are posted with this summary.
Two .25-caliber shell casings were the only physical evidence presented at the trial. One was found in Melvin's barn at the time of his disappearance; police dug up the other outside the Harshmans' former home in July 1999. Both bullets had been fired from the same gun. Ronald bought a .25 caliber automatic pistol in March 1995, three days after his wife served him with divorce papers; the gun has never been found. Melvin is not own a .25 caliber gun.
Joan testified that Melvin was afraid of Ronald and kept a gun in his truck to defend himself if necessary. She said she knew of Ronald's plan to kill her husband and helped him by telling him Melvin would be alone in his barn between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. on May 25. Neighbors reported seeing a two-tone brown truck, which matched the description Ronald's truck, parked near the barn at that time.
Joan stated she saw her husband's body in Ronald's basement. Three former cellmates of Ronald's testified that he had confessed the murder to them. Ronald's defense called witnesses who said Melvin had spoken about wanting to return to Montana, "disappear off the face of the earth" and never contact anyone again.
Ronald appealed his conviction, and a Pennsylvania state trooper testified on his behalf, stating the three cellmates had all recanted their previous statements. The three men were threatened with arrest if they changed their stories, and at the appeal they refused to testify, citing their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. In 2018, his conviction was overturned; he will have to be retried.
Melvin's body has never been found, but foul play is suspected in his due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Ventura County Sheriff's Office
805-654-2385
Other
The Herald-Mail
The Chambersburg Public Opinion
The Fillmore Gazette
The Camarillo Acorn
Unsolved in the News
The Doe Network
NamUs
Find a Grave
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
