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

Julia H. Stoddard
Stoddard, about forty years prior to her disappearance (more recent photos are unavailable)
Date Missing 12/27/1983
Missing From
Delavan, Kansas
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Age 68 years old
Height and Weight 5'3, 85 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Unknown, but Stoddard usually wore men's gray work pants, a flannel shirt, a heavy coat, a big scarf on her neck, sneakers and a straw hat.
Associated Vehicle(s) Pickup truck (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Gray hair, brown eyes. Stoddard may use the last name Hart. Her nickname is "the Dog Lady."
Details of Disappearance Stoddard was last seen trying to dig her pickup truck out of the snow at her home in rural Delavan, Kansas on December 27, 1983. She has never been heard from again. The police were called to her residence several days later, after neighbors realized Stoddard's truck was still in the same place and no one had seen her.
The police found approximately 100 dogs on Stoddard's property, but no sign of her. There were four plastic water buckets in the front yard. The large brown leather purse she usually carried was missing. Her cane, which she also usually carried, was found near her truck, which was parked in the yard.
After she retired from her job as a Civil Service employee at Fort Riley, Kansas, Stoddard had moved to her house three miles northwest of Delavan. She is described as intelligent and a voracious reader, and a very private person. She kept to herself, was divorced, had no children, didn't associate regularly with her relatives, and never let anyone inside her home.
She would often stop along U.S. Highway 77 between Delavan and Junction, Kansas and pick up stray dogs people had dumped there. Over time scores of dogs, perhaps as many as 200, came to live with her, both inside the house and in sheds and shelters on her two-acre property. She had names for each one, and if one would go missing she would call the police to report it and ask them to keep an eye out for the missing dog. Her neighbors viewed her as eccentric but harmless.
When the police went to her home after her disappearance, the dogs were starving. Ten of them were dead and their carcasses had been partially consumed by others. Many were roaming loose and the authorities set live traps to catch them. Ultimately, at least seven were considered adoptable, but the majority had to be euthanized.
Investigators theorized Stoddard might have become exhausted and died of exposure while trying to walk through the deep snow to the airfield half a mile away; she often went there to use the phone and get water. If that was the , though, her body has never been found. Another theory is that her body was eaten by the dogs, but there's no evidence to support that idea either.
Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Morris County Sheriff's Office
Kansas Bureau of Investigation
785-296-4017
Other
Kansas Bureau of Investigation
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Manhattan Mercury
The Council Grove Republican