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
Kaliyah N. Parker
Kaliyah, date, approximate 2006; India Parker
Date Missing 04/21/2005
Missing From
Cleveland, Ohio
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
Black
Date of Birth 04/21/2001 (21)
Age 4 years old
Height and Weight 2'4, 34 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes. Kaliyah listed height and weight are approximations.
Details of Disappearance Kaliyah was last seen in Cleveland, Ohio. The last time anyone other than her mother saw her was at her fourth birthday party on April 21.
Her mother, India Parker, gave several conflicting reports to various people who asked about Kaliyah, sometimes claiming she was with relatives or in foster care, or that she had been killed after a book fell on her. A photo of India is posted with this summary.
The father of one of India's other children got suspicious of India's story and in December 2011, five years after Kaliyah was last seen, he reported her missing. The police could find no record of the child's supposed death.
India told the police she'd found Kaliyah mysteriously dead in her bed one morning in 2006. She admitted she hadn't reported the death and continued to collect Kaliyah's Social Security benefits for years. She said she left her daughter's body in her bed for a week, then put it in a garbage bag and took it outside for curbside trash pickup.
India had been charged with child endangerment in 2000, but the charge was dropped after she agreed to take parenting classes.
When Kaliyah was born in 2001, India wasn't allowed to take the baby home. Kaliyah's grandmothers as well as a foster mother raised the child for the next two years while India completed a parenting plan. She got custody of her daughter in 2003 and they were monitored for another six months before Children and Family Services closed the file for the family.
In April 2012, India pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse and was sentenced to the maximum term of three years in prison. The judge stated he didn't believe her statement that she'd taken Kaliyah's body out with the trash and asked her, at sentencing, whether her daughter was alive.
India repeated she'd put the body in the trash and apologized for her "lapse in judgement." She also pleaded guilty to two counts of theft of government property in September 2013 and sentenced to sixteen months in prison. She admitted she'd collected $41,000 in benefits for Kaliyah after her daughter died.
Authorities are continuing to investigate Kaliyah's presumed death, but stated they may never find her body and may never be certain how she died.
Investigating Agency
Cleveland Police Department
216-623-5262
Other
Ohio Attorney General's Office
KTLA
WOIO
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer
NamUs
SRN News
The Examiner
Reuters
WKYC 3
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