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
Robin Nadine Benedict
Benedict, date, approximate 1983; William Douglas
Date Missing 03/05/1983
Missing From
Boston, Massachusetts
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/19/1961 (61)
Age 21 years old
Height and Weight Unknown
Associated Vehicle(s) Silver 1982 Toyota (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair.
Details of Disappearance Benedict was last seen in Boston, Massachusetts on March 5, 1983. At the time of her disappearance was working as a high-class prostitute, charging about $100 an hour for her services. Authorities believe she was murdered by one of her clients, William Henry James Douglas, an anatomy professor at Tufts University Medical School. A photo of Douglas is posted with this summary.
According to prosecutors, Douglas met Benedict in April 1982 and quickly became obsessed her. He paid for her vacations and bought her expensive gifts, including a car and a house. He wrote her many letters and called her several times a day. In December 1982, he broke into her apartment, stole her answering machines and used them to intercept her phone messages.
Benedict eventually began to perceive his attentions as harassment and tried to end the relationship. On March 2, she called his wife and told her she wanted Douglas to stop calling. He didn't stop, however; the day of Benedict's disappearance, he called her twelve times.
Benedict was last seen on March 5, en route to Douglas's home in the silver 1982 Toyota he'd bought her. She has never been heard from again. The next day, a teenager found a work shirt, a women's corduroy jacket smelling of perfume, and a hammer in a trash can along Interstate 95. All the items were bloodstained, and the hammer had a single dark hair stuck to it. The teenager turned the items in to the police, and Benedict's father and boyfriend/pimp identified the jacket as hers.
Police obtained a warrant and searched the Douglas home on March 20, fifteen days after Benedict's disappearance. They found her pocketbook, credit cards and personal phone book in Douglas's closet, and he said he didn't know how they got there. The police also found a man's bloodstained jacket with what appeared to be a piece of human tissue in the pocket. In July, Benedict's bloodstained vehicle was found in New York City near Penn Station.
Douglas was charged with first-degree murder in October 1983. He was also charged with embezzling $67,000 from Tufts University, money he allegedly spent on Benedict. In April 1984, on the morning his trial was scheduled to begin, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and admitted he beat Benedict to death with a hammer in his home on the night of her disappearance. He stated he'd put her body in a dumpster in Rhode Island.
Although authorities searched the Central Landfill in Johnson, Rhode Island, Benedict's body has never been found. Douglas was later sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement, to be served concurrently with his manslaughter sentence. He was released from prison after serving eight and a half years.
Benedict graduated from the Greater Lawrence Regional Vocational School and studied for graphic design a year at the Rhode Island School of Design. She began dabbling in prostitution while still in high school, however, and turned to the career full-time after she dropped out of art school. She was arrested on prostitution charges four times prior to her disappearance.
Foul play is suspected in her due to the circumstances involved. Author Teresa Carpenter wrote a book about the murder called Missing Beauty: A Story of Murder and Obsession.
Investigating Agency
Boston Police Department
Other
Find a Grave
The Boston Globe
Dark Deeds
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