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
Amy Marie Matthews
Matthews, date, approximate 1983
Date Missing 01/03/1984
Missing From
Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 10/07/1959 (63)
Age 24 years old
Height and Weight 5'5, 125 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A gold chain with a star pendant and a ruby and diamond ring.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Matthews has a butterfly tattooed on her buttocks and a rainbow tattooed on her shoulder. She has a two- to three-inch scar on her left cheek along the jawline.
Details of Disappearance Matthews was last seen in Plymouth Township on January 3, 1984. She left her home that morning en route to the Gordon Phillips School of Beauty Culture in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where she was a student.
She didn't have her own transportation and may have planned to hitchhike to school. She never arrived there has never been heard from again. Since her disappearance, Matthews hasn't been arrested, accessed her bank accounts or gotten any credit cards.
Jack Lee Colin Jr. is considered a person of interest in Matthews's . He killed his parents in 1972, when he was nineteen years old and a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity for his parents' murders and spent five years in two state mental hospitals before his release in 1977.
In 1984, he was sent to prison for a couple of years after an "arsenal" of firearms was found in his apartment; because he had previously been judged insane, he wasn't allowed to own guns.
In 2004, Colin was named as a suspect in the murders of two Pennsylvania women in 1983 and 1984, and authorities began investigating him for involvement in Matthews's as well, because of the proximity in time and place. He lived just blocks from the beauty school Matthews attended in 1984.
Colin, who later moved to New Jersey, has never faced charges in any of these s, but in 2006 he was sentenced to seven years in prison for possession of guns and child pornography.
Foul play is suspected in Matthews's , but no charges have been brought against anyone in her disappearance.
Investigating Agency
Plymouth Township Police Department
610-279-1900
Other
NamUs
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Norristown Times Herald
The Philadelphia Daily News
The Press of Atlantic City
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
