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
Robert Leon Desmond
Robert, date, approximate 1964
Date Missing 08/01/1964
Missing From
Kennebunk, Maine
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 08/21/1953 (69)
Age 10 years
Height and Weight 4'3, 70 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Black hair, brown eyes. Robert's nickname is Bobby.
Details of Disappearance Robert was last seen in Kennebunk, Maine on August 1, 1964. He lived with his mother, Alice, and stepfather, Chet, on Hovey Street at the time of his disappearance. He has never been heard from again.
His mother and stepfather never reported him missing. It wasn't until about a month later, when he failed to return to class after the summer break, that anyone realized he had disappeared. When asked, Robert's parents stated they believed their son had run away. They told the same thing to his siblings.
According to Robert's younger sister, Dawn, their family life was "chaotic". Chet drank and would become violent, breaking furniture and assaulting people when he was intoxicated. The police had been to the home on numerous occasions.
Dawn said she then went to another bedroom and saw Robert lying on the floor, dressed only in underwear and not moving. She tried to drag him into the closet, but he was too heavy for her, and their mother saw and got angry. Dawn dropped Robert and hid under a bed, but Alice pulled her out by her foot and dragged her by the foot down the stairs, through the kitchen and into the basement, where she locked Dawn in a wooden crate. Dawn screamed, cried and tried to break out of the crate, but wasn't able to.
When she woke up in the morning she was in bed and wondered if the whole thing had been a bad dream. However, when Dawn went downstairs, Alice showed her her purse and said money was missing from it, the front door was open, and Robert was gone. Alice told Dawn that Robert had stolen money from the purse and run away. She then told her to eat her breakfast.
Dawn said no one spoke about Robert for years after his disappearance, and photos of him began to disappear from the family's home. At one point Dawn asked Alice what had happened to him, and Alice replied, "I don't know what you think you know, but you're wrong." Chet refused to speak about him at all. Dawn said she was so traumatized by her childhood that she didn't remember the night of Robert's diasppearance until she was seventeen years old.
Shortly after his disappearance, Robert's family moved out of the Hovey Street house. The house's basement floor was cemented over in 1968. In 1976, authorities dug up the cement floor, looking for his body, but the search turned up only a pair of eyeglasses and some animal bones.
There wasn't any further investigative activity after the search, and eventually Robert's missing persons file was closed, archived and destroyed. It has since been re-opened and a new detective has been assigned to investigate the .
Alice and Chet are both deceased, but Robert's three siblings are still alive and would like to learn his fate. His remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Kennebunk Police Department
207-604-1319
Maine State Police
207-657-3030
Other
NamUs
The Portsmouth Herald
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
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