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 Case Updates with Photos

Alma Violet Root





Alma, date, approximate 1980; Age-progression to age 52 (date, approximate 2017)
Date Missing 01/01/1980
Missing From
Auburn, California
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 02/08/1965 (57)
Age 14 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 130 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Alma has a tattoo of a blue heart, about the size of a quarter, on one of her breasts. She goes by her middle name, Violet.
Details of Disappearance Alma and her older sister, Laura Huff, spent several years in foster care prior to 1980. The two girls were placed in care after they ran away from home to escape sexual abuse. A third sister had moved out of the household by then.
Alma's father was convicted of sexually abusing Alma and Huff and was sentenced to prison. He was still incarcerated when Alma disappeared. The two sisters were very close, although they often had to stay in separate foster homes.
Shortly before Alma went missing, the sisters were reunited and went to live with their grandmother in Applegate, California. Alma was last seen on January 1, 1980. Her 25-year-old boyfriend, Scott Petschek, picked her up from her grandmother's residence that evening.
According to Petschek, he and Alma spent some time at his grandmother's home, then Alma asked him to drive her to her aunt's home in Rio Linda, California. He dropped her off at her requested destination, then went to his job at McClellan Air Force Base. After work, when he went back to Rio Linda to pick up Alma, she was gone.
Petschek informed authorities that he did not consider her disappearance unusual, since Alma had a reputation as an occasional runaway and hitchhiker. Her family told investigators that she did not have an aunt who lived in Rio Linda. She may have traveled with a male companion after her initial disappearance.
Due to her history as a runaway, police believed Alma had left of her own accord in 1980. From the beginning, Huff believed this was not the ; she stated the two of them had always run away together and Alma wouldn't have left without her. Huff claims when she asked Petschek what happened, he told her she would never find Alma.
The was reopened in 1991, after Alma's father's release from prison, when he went to the police and asked if they had located his daughter. Authorities re-interviewed Petschek and searched the well behind his grandmother's home, but found nothing of interest.
Interestingly, sometime after 1980, Petschek was convicted of child molestation, and he is now registered as a sex offender. He has never been charged in Alma's , however, and maintains his innocence in her disappearance.
Little information is available as to Alma's fate. Her grandparents and father have died, but her mother and two sisters are still alive. Her remains unsolved and some agencies still classify it as a runaway.
Investigating Agency
Placer County Sheriff's Department
916-889-7800
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
The Sacramento Bee
Child CyberSearch
Child Rescue Canada
The Auburn Journal

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 Case Updates with Photos