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

Brendan Tyler Gonzalez









Brendan, date, approximate 2003; Age-progression to age 8 (date, approximate 2006); Brendan's necklace; Ivan Henk; Rebecca Gonzalez
Date Missing 01/06/2003
Missing From
Plattsmouth, Nebraska
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
Biracial, Hispanic, White
Date of Birth 07/30/1998 (24)
Age 4 years old
Height and Weight 3'6, 36 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A yellow or beige shirt with orange palm trees printed on it, a black hooded coat with gray trim, jeans, blue sneakers and a necklace that says "Brendan." A photograph of the necklace is post below this summary.
Associated Vehicle(s) 1997 Hyundai Accent (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Biracial (Caucasian/Hispanic) male. Brown hair, brown eyes.
Details of Disappearance Brendan was last seen between 9:00 and 9:15 a.m. in the company of his father, Ivan Kurt Henk, when they left Brendan's residence to play together in the yard. A photograph of Henk is posted with this summary. He is Brendan's mother's ex-boyfriend.
A photograph of Brendan's mother, Rebecca Gonzalez, is posted with this summary. She had custody of Brendan at the time he disappeared.
Later that same day, authorities saw Henk driving on the road and pursued him, wrongly thinking he might be a robbery suspect they were looking for. Henk led them on a high-speed chase that ended when he ran into a guardrail and rolled the vehicle he was driving, a 1997 Hyundai Accent which he had taken from Rebecca without her permission. (The state of Nebraska later billed her to $850 repair the guardrail, since it was her car that caused the damage.)
When she was notified of the accident, Rebecca told police her child was missing. Henk, when questioned about his son's disappearance, initially claimed he left Brendan with Rebecca. He was charged with willful reckless driving and obstructing an officer in connection with the chase incident.
Extensive searches failed to locate the child, but his blood was found in the trunk of the wrecked car, on the car seat, and in the garage of his home. Henk remained the primary suspect in the boy's disappearance. He has a criminal record for a myriad of offenses, including some violent ones, and a history of drug abuse and mental instability.
On April 29, 2003, after he was sentenced to one year in jail for the charges related to the police chase, he made an announcement in court and confessed to murdering Brendan. He said he did it because he thought the boy was the Antichrist. He claimed to have seen the numbers 666, the number of the devil in Christian folklore, on Brendan's forehead before he died.
Henk later made a full confession to the murder and said he had decapitated Brendan with a kitchen knife in Rebecca's garage. He led police to a garbage bin in Bellevue, Nebraska where he said he had disposed of Brendan's body. Brendan's blood was in the bin. Police searched the landfill where the garbage was taken, but without results.
Later that year, in August 2003, Henk was charged with Brendan's murder. Police did numerous futile searches for the the child's body before deciding to charge Henk and continue to look for Brendan's remains in the interval before the trial.
Henk attempted suicide while in jail by slashing his wrist, but he was not seriously injured. Just before his trial was due to start in February 2005, he pleaded guilty in order to save himself from a possible death sentence. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Brendan has not been found, and further searches for his remains are unlikely to take place due to prohibitive costs. Foul play is suspected in his due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Plattsmouth Police Department
402-296-3311
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Omaha Channel
WOWT Omaha
The Omaha World-Herald
KNCY Country
York News-Times
Otoe County Community Information Service
The Iowa Channel
The Omaha Reader
The San Francisco Gate
The Child Seek Network
Brendan Tyler Forever in Our Hearts
The Yankton Press & Dakotan

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