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

Rebecca Elizabeth West




Rebecca, date, approximate 1991; Age-progression to age 31 (date, approximate 2010); Iryll "Nicki" Wood
Date Missing 10/21/1991
Missing From
Spokane, Washington
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 09/17/1979 (43)
Age 12 years old
Height and Weight 4'7, 90 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A black shirt, black pants and black shoes.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, brown eyes. Rebecca's nickname is Becky. Her ears are pierced.
Details of Disappearance Rebecca was last seen at a service station in Spokane, Washington on October 21, 1991. She was accompanied by her 11-year-old friend and elementary school classmate, Iryll N. "Nicki" Wood, at the time. A photo of Wood is posted below with summary. Neither girl returned to their homes that evening.
Searchers discovered Wood's body under a pile of burning pine needles only two hours after the girls' disappearances were reported to authorities. She had been strangled. Her remains were located in the Seven Mile area near Riverside State Park, north of Spokane. There was no evidence of Rebecca's whereabouts at the scene.
Michael W. Tarbert resided in a cabin near the location of Wood's body in 1991, and he knew Wood's mother. He was an admitted alcoholic and drug addict and had been in trouble with the law several times before. He said he'd given the girls a ride home from a neighborhood store on the day they were abducted, but he dropped them off safe a block from Wood's home and had nothing to do with their disappearances.
Bloodhounds tracked Tarbert's scent from his cabin to where Wood's body was found, and they also smelled the two girls' scents at his cabin. Authorities discovered he was wanted on unrelated charges; his middle-aged former landlady said he had sexually assaulted her in a secluded area not far from where Wood's body was later found, and also stolen $400 from her purse.
He was arrested the day after the two girls' disappearances, but authorities lacked the evidence to file charges against him in their s. Tarbert was convicted of first-degree rape and theft in his landlady's in 1992 and sentenced to eleven years in prison.
Tarbert was charged with both of the girls' murders in March 1996. The prosecution had a witness who saw Rebecca and Wood get into Tarbert's car on the afternoon they were abducted, and two prison inmates who stated Tarbert told them he'd killed the girls while under the influence of drugs. DNA technology, which wasn't available at the time the girls went missing, later showed that blood found on Tarbert's pants had probably come from Wood.
Tarbert entered a no contest plea to two counts of first-degree manslaughter in May 1998, four days before his trial was scheduled to begin. He maintains his innocence and said he only took the plea deal to avoid a possible first-degree murder conviction and life sentence. Tarbert was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the girls' homicides.
Rebecca's remains have never been located.
Investigating Agency
Spokane County Sheriff's Office
509-532-9266
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Spokesman-Review
The Doe Network
Washington State Missing Persons
Find a Grave
The Spokane Chronicle

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