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
Mary Agnes Moroney
Mary, date, approximate 1930; Catherine Moroney; Michael Moroney; Mary McClelland (all the photographs are from 1954)
Date Missing 05/15/1930
Missing From
Chicago, Illinois
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 05/09/1928 (94)
Age 2 years old
Height and Weight Unknown
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Mary is left-handed. She has a scar on her abdomen from an umbilical hernia. Some accounts spell her last name "Maroney."
Details of Disappearance Mary was last seen in Chicago, Illinois on May 15, 1930. She lived with her younger sister and her parents, Michael and Catherine Moroney, in the 5200 block of Wentworth Avenue. Catherine was pregnant and the family was destitute. Michael posted an advertisement in a social service column in the newspaper, seeking help for his family.
On May 14, a woman calling herself Julia Otis came to the family residence, said she was sent by a social worker named Mrs. Henderson, and offered to assist them. She spent some time with Mary's family and gave them groceries. She offered to take Mary to California with her for a few weeks, but Catherine refused.
Otis returned the next day with money and gifts for the family, including more food and some clothing for the baby Catherine was expecting. She offered to take Mary shopping for new clothing and shoes. Her parents permitted her to go. Otis left the residence with the child and walked down the street. Neither of them were ever seen again.
The following day, the Moroney family got a letter from Otis, saying she'd taken Mary to California and would take good care of her, and would return her to her family in two months. Two weeks later, a woman named Alice Henderson wrote to the Moroneys and claimed Otis was her cousin. She said Otis had taken Mary because she was "love hungry," her own husband and baby having died the year before.
Henderson didn't write the Moroneys again. Authorities stated the letters from her and Otis appeared to be in the same handwriting. Otis is described as being about 22 years old in 1930, well-dressed, with protruding teeth and a "cultured" voice. She never contacted Mary's family again and has never been identified.
Mary McClelland, a woman from California, claimed to be Mary Moroney in the 1950s. She had been adopted within a year of Moroney's kidnapping and bore a striking resemblance to Moroney's siblings. McClelland had a highly publicized "reunion" with Catherine and Michael in Chicago in 1952.
An anthropologist claimed to have proven by her teeth that she was a relative of the Moroney family, but McClelland didn't have the hernia scar Mary would probably have still had as an adult. McClelland's adoptive mother claimed she'd gotten her from her physician, who supported the story and said he'd delivered the baby himself on November 17, 1927, but neither of them produced any records to prove this.
Photographs of Catherine, Michael and McClelland are posted with this summary. DNA testing later proved Mary McClelland was not Mary Moroney. She died in 2005.
Mary has five brothers and two sisters. Her family has never stopped looking for her.
Investigating Agency
Chicago Police Department
312-746-9690
Other
The Doe Network
Time Magazine
The Tucson Citizen
The Long Beach Independent
The San Antonio Light
The Jefferson City Post-Tribune
The Lima News
Among the Missing : An Anecdotal History of Missing Persons from 1800 to the Present
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