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
Jamie Michelle Fraley
Fraley, date, approximate 2008; Ricky Dale Simonds Sr.
Date Missing 04/08/2008
Missing From
Gastonia, North Carolina
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 03/05/1986 (36)
Age 22 years old
Height and Weight 4'8 - 4'10, 90 - 100 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Possibly blue jeans and a large white t-shirt.
Medical Conditions Fraley has from bipolar disorder and an anxiety disorder. She is supposed to be taking medicine for her conditions, but she was apparently off her medication at the time of her disappearance. In addition, Fraley was suffering from stomach flu at the time of her disappearance.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Fraley has the name "Ricky" tattooed on her right ankle. Some agencies spell her last name "Farley."
Details of Disappearance Fraley was last known to be at or near her apartment at the Copperfield apartment complex in the 1800 block of Lowell Bethesda Road, in Gastonia, North Carolina on April 8, 2008.
She was suffering from stomach flu and had been to the hospital twice the previous day. She called her mother at around midnight and said she was sick again. At 1:30 a.m., Fraley called a friend and said someone was going to pick her up and take her back to the hospital. She has never been heard from again.
Fraley left her purse, wallet, keys and identification behind at her residence. Two days after her disappearance, a utilities worker found her cellular phone at the intersection of south New Hope Road and east Hudson Boulevard, three miles from her home.
Several phone calls were made from the phone at 4:30 a.m. the day she disappeared. None of the calls turned out to be connected to her disappearance; they were apparently from the phone's list of recent calls dialed. The phone also received a call early on the morning of April 9. Police stated that by the time they took possession of the phone, it had been handled by too many people to be valuable as evidence.
Fraley was engaged to be married at the time of her disappearance. Her fiance's father, Ricky Dale Simonds Sr., is considered a person of interest in her .
A photograph of Simonds is posted with this summary. He did maintenance work at the Copperfield complex, he lived two apartments over from her and was one of the last people to see her; he gave her a ride to the hospital emergency room a few hours before her disappearance, and another neighbor drove her home.
Simonds refused to take a lie detector test in Fraley's . He has a criminal record for fraud, larceny and drug charges, and he served time in prison in the 1980s for manslaughter in connection with the strangulation death of an ex-girlfriend.
In June 2008, another ex-girlfriend found Simonds's body in the trunk of her car. The woman had filed a restraining order against him after her car was broken into and her purse and keys were stolen. When she found the body, her keys were in Simonds's pocket and her purse was in the trunk with him.
Authorities believe he hid inside the car trunk in order to ambush his ex-girlfriend, and he got trapped there and died of heat stroke. It was only after his death that police said they suspected him of involvement in Fraley's disappearance. There is no proof that he harmed her, however.
A convicted murderer named Jerry Douglas confessed to Fraley's murder in 2015. killed a seventeen-year-old boy in 1985; his death was originally ruled an accident, and wasn't suspected until he wrote a letter to the Gaston Gazette in 2012, confessing to the crime. He was, at the time, serving a 22-year prison sentence for killing another individual.
He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2015. Later that year, he wrote another letter to the Gaston Gazette and confessed to having killed Fraley and another Gaston woman who was shot to death in 2008. However, he was incarcerated when Fraley disappeared, and police don't believe the confessions are credible.
Fraley was a part-time student at Gaston College at the time of her disappearance; she had never used il drugs, but she wanted to become a drug counselor to help others.
Investigators don't believe she left of her own accord, as she had no driver's license and no transportation and it's uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning. Her fiance was incarcerated at the time of her disappearance and therefore isn't considered a suspect. Little evidence is available in her , which remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Gaston County Police Department
704-866-3320
Other
NamUs
The Charlotte Observer
The Gaston Gazette
News 14
WCNC
NamUs
Investigation Discovery
Trace Evidence
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