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
Carolyn Elizabeth Lawson
Lawson, date, approximate 1991; Jerry Bland; Jerry McPherson
Date Missing 09/11/1991
Missing From
Jasper, Alabama
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Age 25 years old
Height and Weight 5'6, 140 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A red t-shirt, green khaki shorts, white socks and size 9 white Reebok sneakers.
Associated Vehicle(s) Four-wheel-drive 1991 Ford Explorer (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Lawson wears eyeglasses. Her maiden name is Smith. Her nickname is Carrie and most accounts refer to her by that name.
Details of Disappearance During the early morning hours of September 11, 1991, Lawson received a telephone call from a woman claiming to be a nurse at a nearby hospital. The caller told Lawson that a relative was in the hospital seriously injured. Lawson and her husband went outside to go to the hospital and a masked assailant met them in the yard.
The attacker, who was armed with a gun, forced Lawson to tie up her husband of two years. The man then abducted Lawson and drove away with her in her own four-wheel-drive 1991 Ford Explorer. She has never been seen again. The vehicle was found over a week later in the woods in Winston County, Alabama.
Lawson called her husband the next morning. A $300,000 ransom was demanded for her safe return. Her loved ones dropped the money into a dark culvert as specified in the ransom demand. The money was picked up on September 13, two days after Lawson's abduction, but she was not released and she has never been heard from again.
Karen McPherson later pleaded guilty to Lawson's kidnapping, but said she did not know her whereabouts. She stated that Jerry Bland, a distant cousin of hers, abducted Lawson, and McPherson herself was only an accomplice. McPherson said she last saw Lawson a day or two after the kidnapping and she was alive at the time. Bland later told her Lawson had escaped and ran into a remote wooded area.
Most of the ransom money was later found in the attic of Bland's home. He committed suicide three weeks after Lawson's abduction, shooting himself in the head while law enforcement authorities staked out his house. McPherson was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the abduction. Photographs of her and Bland are posted with this summary.
Lawson was apparently chosen at random by her abductors and the sole motive for the crime was money. Her parents hired a private detective to investigate her abduction and they believe a third individual was involved in the kidnapping.
Many investigators believe Lawson's remains are buried in an abandoned coal mine between Jasper and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Bland was a coal mining executive and had business connections in those areas.
Lawson is originally from Cleveland, Tennessee and is a graduate of Cleveland High School. She graduated from the University of Alabama's law school just prior to her disappearance, passed the bar exam and obtained a job with a Jasper law firm.
She was declared ly dead in 1993 and her husband has remarried, but her body was never found in spite of a substantial reward offered for its recovery.
Investigating Agency
Walker County Sheriff Department
205-302-6464
Other
The Doe Network
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Commercial Appeal
The Birmingham Post-Herald
The New York Times
The Huntsville Times
NamUs
The Tuscaloosa News
Alabama Department of Public Safety
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