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 Lou Bostwick
Mary Lou, date, approximate 1972
Date Missing 07/17/1972
Missing From
Waverly, New York
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/20/1956 (66)
Age 15 years old
Height and Weight 5'2, 120 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Cut-off blue jeans and pink sandals.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Red hair, blue eyes. Mary Lou wears eyeglasses with dark-colored plastic frames. She has a three-inch scar at the base of her spine. Two of her teeth have been extracted, and she has no dental fillings.
Details of Disappearance Mary Lou was last seen on July 17, 1972, three days before her sixteenth birthday. Her father dropped her off at a friend's apartment on Broad Street in Waverly, New York; she was supposed to baby-sit there. Three days later, Mary Lou's mother went to the house with her daughter's birthday cake and gifts, and the occupants said Mary Lou had never arrived there to baby-sit. However, her belongings were there, including the change of clothes she'd carried in a grocery bag.
Mary Lou has never been heard from again. Although she had stayed overnight with relatives and friends before, she had never run away and her family thinks she would have contacted them if she could have. She attended Athens High School, but her parents had agreed to let her drop out of school after her birthday in order to take care of her younger siblings.
Another local girl, sixteen-year-old Sharron Coston, disappeared from Sayre, Pennsylvania in October 1973. Her body was found a few days later; she'd been strangled and her body mutilated. Gerard Paul McKenna was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death in 1974. Although he maintained his innocence, he asked to be executed because he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in prison. In 1982 his conviction was overturned on appeal, and by the time he was convicted a second time the death penalty had been outlawed in Pennsylvania. He has since died in prison.
Mary Lou's mother believes Sharron's murder and her daughter's disappearance are related. One of the witnesses who testified against McKenna in exchange for immunity from prosecution is a suspect in Mary Lou's . One person claimed later that Mary Lou had been beaten to death during a party at a home in Sayre, but he was unable to substantiate the story.
When Mary Lou's brother died in 2004, she was listed in his obituary as having pre-deceased him. Her mother, two other brothers and her sister are still alive. Foul play is suspected in her , which remains unsolved. Pennsylvania police are investigating.
Investigating Agency
Pennsylvania State Police
570-697-2146
Athens Township Police Department
570-888-2200
Other
The Towanda Daily Review
The Philadelphia Inquirer
NamUs
Pennsylvania Missing Persons
The Elmira Star-Gazette
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