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.



Missing Person Photos

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

Kimberly Whitton
missing 2023 updates
missing 2023 updates
missing 2023 updates
missing 2023 updates
Kimberly, date, approximate 2007; Barry Whitton, date, approximate 1997; Barry Whitton, date, approximate 2007; Michelle Whitton
Date Missing 06/21/2007
Missing From
Section, Alabama
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/07/1970 (52)
Age 36 years old
Height and Weight 5'9, 270 pounds
Associated Vehicle(s) White Ford van or truck with Alabama license plates
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Kimberly's nickname is Kim. Her maiden name is Compton.
Details of Disappearance Kimberly and her young daughter, Haleigh Culwell, were last seen on June 21, 2007. They resided in a log cabin on a forty-acre property. The driveway leading up to the residence has two locked gates and as a result, the cabin can only be reached on foot.
The day she went missing, Kimberly went to her job at Cloverdale Manor Nursing Home in Scottsboro, Alabama to pick up some papers. She called a friend on the way back home to Section, Alabama, but they were unable to talk because the connection was bad. Kimberly promised to call her friend back in five minutes. She never did.
Kimberly's coworkers reported her disappearance on June 28, a week after she was last seen. Authorities interviewed her husband, Barry Van Whitton, who is Haleigh's stepfather. Barry stated Kimberly and Haleigh left their residence in a white Ford van or truck with Alabama license plates shortly after Kimberly arrived home from work. He said he gave his wife $20,000 in cash, and he never saw them after that. He stated they may have gone to Montana. They have never been heard from again.
Photographs of Barry are posted with this summary. He had been married to Kimberly for eight years prior to her disappearance. He has a criminal record; he was convicted on charges of receiving stolen property in 1988 and 1991. After authorities searched his property for evidence in his wife and stepdaughter's disappearance, they arrested Barry on weapons charges. Guns were found on his property, and he is not ly permitted to own them due to his criminal history.
In September 2007, Barry pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. The typical sentence given for those charges is between 12 and 18 months, but the judge elected to sentence Barry to the maximum term due to the danger she believed he posed to the community; she described him as the most dangerous defendant she had seen in her judicial career.
The judge heard witnesses testify that Barry bragged about having murdered three people, discussed body disposal and removing trace evidence, and threatened to kill other individuals, including his mother-in-law and the judge who placed his eleven-year-old son in foster care after Kimberly and Haleigh's disappearances.
Barry is considered a suspect in Kimberly and Haleigh's s, although he has never confessed to harming them. Authorities stated they found blood in one of his pickup trucks and on a hatchet handle, but the source of the blood has not been revealed.
Barry's first wife, Michelle Townsend Whitton, also disappeared in late 1997. At the time Barry said she, like Kimberly and Haleigh, had simply left; he said Michelle went out to get breakfast and never came back. A photo of Michelle is posted with this summary. She was found beaten and stabbed to death and buried in a shallow grave in DeKalb County, Alabama six weeks later, in January 1998.
Barry and Kimberly met through a personals ad Barry placed in a magazine. They got married about a year after Michelle's death, after only four to six months of dating. It's unclear whether she knew his previous wife had been murdered or that he was considered a suspect.
While in jail on the gun charges, Barry allegedly told a cellmate he did not kill Michelle, but he knew who did and he had killed that person. In December 2014, a little less than a year before he was supposed to be released from federal prison, Barry was indicted for Michelle's murder. He was found guilty in September 2015 and sentenced to life in prison.
It's uncharacteristic of Kimberly and Haleigh to leave for an extended period without telling anyone. Kimberly had worked at the nursing home for seven years prior to her disappearance, and the only time she missed work was to take Haleigh on a school trip. Kimberly and Barry weren't having any known problems in their marriage in 2007, and Kimberly hadn't told anyone her husband was mistreating her. Barry hasn't faced any charges relating to their disappearances.
Kimberly and her daughter may have traveled to Montana after they went missing, but investigators suspect foul play was involved in their s. Their disappearances remain unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Jackson County Sheriff's Department
256-574-2610
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
America's Most Wanted
MySpace Page for Kimberly Whitton and Haleigh Culwell
The Laura Recovery Center Foundation
Fox News
The Huntsville Times
The Daily Sentinel
WEIS 990 AM
NamUs
WAFF 48
WHNT 19
The Chattanooga Times Free Press

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.



Missing Person Photos

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