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

Charlotte June Kinsey









Charlotte, date, approximate 1981; Age-progression to age 44 (date, approximate 2012); Suspect sketch; Royal Russell Long
Date Missing 09/26/1981
Missing From
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 09/10/1968 (54)
Age 13 years old
Height and Weight 5'0 - 5'1, 100 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A dark maroon short-sleeved pullover blouse with white stripes on the sleeves and white trim on the sleeves and neck, blue jeans, Nike sneakers, and a wedding band type ring on her right ring finger.
Medical Conditions Charlotte suffered from depression at the time of her disappearance. Two weeks before she was last seen, she tried to take her own life by overdosing on tranquilizers.
Associated Vehicle(s) Tan two-door 1980 or 1981 Pontiac Grand Prix with a half-vinyl roof and South Dakota license plates (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue/gray eyes. Charlotte has a small dot-shaped scar below her left eye caused by pencil lead. She has silver caps on her lower front teeth. Charlotte's ears are pierced. She has a triangular-shaped birthmark on her lower back, near her waistline.
Details of Disappearance Charlotte was last seen at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on September 26, 1981. She was accompanied by her friend, Cinda Pallett.
Charlotte called her family's home to announce that she and Cinda had been offered jobs assisting a worker unload plush toys from a truck at the fair. Charlotte's mother agreed to let her take the job, on the condition that she call home at 9:00 p.m. The two girls planned to spend the night together at Cinda's house.
Two sketches of the man are posted with this summary; claimed he worked for the carnival. He was 35 to 50 years old, between 6'1 and 6'3 tall, and 200 to 250 pounds, with dark hair, a mustache, a full dark beard with gray streaks, and hairy, muscular arms. He wore silver wire-rimmed eyeglasses, a straw cowboy hat, a brown-striped cowboy shirt or a plaid shirt, cowboy boots, a digital watch on his left wrist, a leather belt tooled with the name "Joseph", and a yellow badge.
He drove a tan two-door 1980 or 1981 Pontiac Grand Prix with a half-vinyl roof and South Dakota license plates. This man is known to have spoken to several other children at the fair that day, offering them jobs for $5 an hour.
The man also asked two teenage boys to help them, and the boys agreed. He took the four of them to a truck stop off Interstate 40, but the truck wasn't there. The man dropped the boys off in the parking lot, gave them $10, and told them to wait while he went to get the truck. He drove away with Charlotte and Cinda in the backseat of his car. Neither girl has been seen again.
After Charlotte and Cinda's disappearances, the abductor's yellow badge was located. It bore the name and photograph of a carnival drifter, Don Corey. Corey bore a striking resemblance to the sketches of the suspect. Authorities launched a nationwide search for him and charged him with two counts of kidnapping. He was arrested in Texas, but the charges were quickly dropped, as Corey was able to prove he had been in Dallas, Texas the day Charlotte and Cinda disappeared.
Investigators have ruled out all Oklahoma State Fair employees as suspects in the girls' s; they think the abductor was posing as an employee to gain his victims' trust.
Royal Russell Long, who was employed as carnie and part-time long-haul truck driver at the time, has long been considered the prime suspect in the girls' disappearances. A photo of him is posted with this summary. He closely resembled Cinda and Charlotte's abductor.
Long was charged with kidnapping and murdering Charlotte and Cinda in August of 1985. He had arrived in Oklahoma City on the day before the girls disappeared to deliver a flatbed trailer to a business there, and admitted he'd been at the Oklahoma State Fair the day the girls vanished, although he denied any involvement in their disappearances. The two boys, as well as other witnesses, identified him as the man who offered the girls the jobs unloading toys and approached other children with the same offer.
Long also had a history of sexual violence towards young women. His own daughter claimed he had molested her for years and witnessed him try to lure other girls with puppies or stuffed animals.
Authorities located the Pontiac Grand Prix which Long had rented during his September 1981 stay in Oklahoma. Hairs that were found in the car's trunk were analyzed using forensic testing and were matched to Cinda. Animal hairs were also located in the truck; those matched the types of dogs and a cat that Cinda had access towards before she disappeared.
A lock of blonde hair found by investigators in Long's residence in Wyoming may have matched Charlotte's hair; however the tests available at the time could not be conclusive. Forensic tests proved that the mat in the truck of the Grand Prix had a bloody boot print as well and other bloodstains; an expert who examined the mat thought he saw either one large body or two small bodies outlined in blood. DNA technology at the time did not exist, so it was impossible to tell whether the bloodstains came from Charlotte, Cinda, someone else, or even an animal.
During court proceedings Long taunted the Pallett and Kinsey families, saying he was the only one who knew the truth about their disappearances. In December 1985, after the presiding judge threw out Long's daughter's testimony, the testimony of one of the boys who were offered a job by the abductor, and much of the physical evidence, all charges against Long were dismissed. He is still considered the prime suspect in the girls' s.
He is also a possible suspect in the disappearances of Deborah Meyer and Carlene Brown, who disappeared from Wyoming in 1974. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping in connection with the 1984 abduction of Sharon Baldeagle, who remains missing, and was sentenced to two of life in prison. He was still in custody when he died of a heart attack in 1993.
Charlotte enjoyed poetry and roller skating at the time of her disappearance. After she went missing, for eight years, her mother kept her room just how she left it. Authorities believe the girls' bodies are still in Oklahoma, but may never be found. Their disappearances remain unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Oklahoma State Police
405-231-2121
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
APB News
California Attorney General's Office
Operation Lookout
NewsLibrary
Newspaper Archive
The Doe Network
KXII 12
NamUs
Rawlins Four, Cinda Pallett, Charlotte Kinsey, Sharon Baldeagle | DARK MATTERS #49

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