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
Christopher Ryan Smith
Smith, date, approximate 2010; Edward Shin; Kenny Kraft
Date Missing 06/10/2010
Missing From
Laguna Beach, California
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 12/03/1978 (43)
Age 31 years old
Height and Weight 5'8, 185 pounds
Associated Vehicle(s) White 2009 Range Rover (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, green eyes.
Details of Disappearance Smith was last seen in Laguna Beach, California on June 10, 2010. He has never been heard from again.
His white 2009 Range Rover disappeared with him and was found in San Jose, California in August 2011. That same month, his business partner, Edward Younghoon Shin, was charged with his murder. They ran 800 Xchange, an advertising business, together.
Shin had previously been convicted of embezzling $600,000 from a previous employer, and he had several lawsuits pending against him. He had agreed to pay $700,000 in restitution to settle the criminal charges, but needed Smith's sign-off on the settlement, and Smith wanted the money to come from only Shin's personal funds. It was in the middle of this dispute that Smith disappeared.
After his arrest, Shin confessed to the homicide and admitted he'd concealed Smith's absence for seven months by, among other things, sending emails to Smith's family in Oregon pretending to be him and claiming to be on a "surf safari" in Africa. The emails continued until December, when they suddenly stopped.
Eventually Smith's family became suspicious because the writing didn't sound like his. They hired a private investigator and, in April 2011, Smith's father reported him as a missing person. When police checked the office Smith and Shin had shared, they realized it had been cleaned and repainted. They found blood traces in the carpet and DNA confirmed the blood was Smith's.
Authorities also arrested Shin's personal assistant, Kenny Roy Kraft, and charged him as an accessory: he allegedly helped cover up the homicide by disposing of Smith's vehicle and belongings. Photos of both Shin and Kraft are posted with this summary.
Kraft testified against Shin at his trial in December 2018, saying he helped dispose of Smith's clothes. Shin claimed he killed Smith in self-defense during a fight, then paid an unidentified Eastern European man thousands of dollars to dispose of his body.
The jury rejected his self-defense claim and he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In March 2019, a few months after Shin's trial, the accessory charge against Kraft was dropped "in the interest of justice", with the consent of Smith's family.
Shin maintains he has no idea where Smith's body is, but authorities believe he disposed of it himself. Cellular phone data indicates Shin drove to Boulevard, California, a town near the Mexican border, twice in the days after Smith's disappeared, and the body may be in that area.
Smith graduated from Aptos High School in 1997. He was a professional waterboarder in the 1990s, and enjoys outdoor sports, music and traveling. After his sporting career was cut short by a knee injury, he became involved in internet startup businesses.
Shin and Kraft are awaiting trial. Authorities believe he killed Smith because he didn't want to pay him the $1 million he promised. Smith's body has never been found.
Investigating Agency
Laguna Beach Police Department
949-497-0701
Other
California Attorney General's Office
ABC News
MSNBC
The Los Angeles Times
The Orange County Register
The Santa Cruz Sentinel
The Laguna Beach Independent
ABC News
Laguna Niguel-Dana Point Patch
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