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
Jan Scharf
Jan, date, approximate 2002; Jan's van; Glyn Scharf
Date Missing 05/16/2002
Missing From
Cameron Park, California
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/15/1956 (66)
Age 45 years old
Height and Weight 5'5, 140 pounds
Associated Vehicle(s) Tan Ford Explorer (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Jan's ears are pierced. Her nickname is Jani. Jan may use the names Jani Jo Thompson, Jani Jo Bautista and/or Jan Sharpe. She may be called Jane Scharf or Jani Jo Thompson by some agencies.
Details of Disappearance Jan was last seen in May 2002 in Cameron Park, California. Her friends and family last saw her on May 14, 2002, but her estranged husband, Glyn Wolfgang Scharf, claimed he saw her at their home on May 16 at 8:00 p.m. A photograph of Glyn is posted with this summary.
The couple was ly separated and in the a process of a divorce, but still lived together to save money. Glyn spent the night in a different room than his wife and left at 6:40 a.m. the following morning. He said that when he left the house, he noticed that Jan's bedroom door was closed and her car was gone.
Jan usually went to work at 5:30 a.m., but May 16 was her day off. Neighbors reported hearing a scream in the area at approximately 8:00 p.m. that day.
She was reported missing on May 18 after failing to show up at work. She was employed as an emergency room nurse at the University of California, Davis Medical Center and had been since 1985.
Her car, a tan Ford Explorer, disappeared at the same time she did; it was found abandoned on May 19 in front of 24-Hour Fitness in Folsom, California. A photograph of the automobile is posted with this summary. Jan did not check into the fitness facility that day and no one saw her there.
The same month Jan disappeared, she went to the police with complaints that she was being poisoned by Glyn. She tested positive for digoxin, a heart medication that had not been prescribed for her. Glyn, who worked as a paramedic, would have had access to the drug. Jan also reported that a gun had disappeared from her house. No charges were brought against anyone in either incident, however.
Jan has not used her cellular phone or ATM card since her disappearance. She disappeared a day after she applied for a promotion at her job. She had been planning to go water-skiing with a friend on Memorial Day weekend, and go to Las Vegas over the summer with another friend.
At the time Jan disappeared, she had also been making preparations for her daughter's wedding. She is described as a responsible, reliable person and her loved ones say it is extremely uncharacteristic of her to leave voluntarily.
On May 16, 2003, a year almost to the day after Jan was last seen, police conducted an all-day search on her husband's home. They then arrested him for her murder. Prosecutors characterized Glyn as a jealous and violent husband who lay in wait in Jan's home and ambushed and killed her after she arrived home, but Glyn maintained that Jan had probably run away with another man.
Glyn was convicted of first-degree murder in October 2004 on mostly circumstantial evidence. Some pieces of Jan's jewelry were found buried in the front yard of his girlfriend whom Jan had never met, neighbors reported hearing a scream at Jan's house around the time Glyn would have come home the night she vanished, and the jury was allowed to hear about the possible poisoning attempt on Jan.
Glyn attempted suicide twice after the verdict was given. A third attempt succeeded in May 2007, two and a half years after his conviction; Glyn died at Pleasant Valley State Prison after overdosing on his antidepressant medication.
Jan's remains have never been located.
Investigating Agency
El Dorado County Sheriff's Department
530-621-5703
Other
California Attorney General's Office
News10.Net
KCRA-TV
KOVR-13
Help Find Jan
The Sacramento Bee
The El Dorado Hills Telegraph
The Mountain Democrat
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