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
Scott Michael Coville
Coville, date, approximate 1988; Jane Limm in 1988; Limm in 2010
Date Missing 04/12/1988
Missing From
Sitka, Alaska
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 04/12/1962 (60)
Age 26 years old
Height and Weight 6'1, 150 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, blue/green eyes.
Details of Disappearance Coville met Jane N. Limm (also known as Jane Reth) while they were both students at La Sierra College in Riverside, California in the mid-1980s; he was studying biology and she was in the physical therapy program. A couple of years later, Coville dropped out of college and moved to Alaska, where he worked first in the commercial fishing industry and then in a pulp mill. Limm followed him to Alaska in early 1987, after she completed her degree.
The couple married in a civil ceremony in October 1987, and had a church wedding in San Diego, California on February 1988. Coville told his mother the relationship was "fire and ice" and he and Limm had frequent arguments.
Coville's official date of disappearance is listed as April 12, 1988, his twenty-sixth birthday. His family hadn't heard from him for weeks before that, however. His mother tried to call him on his birthday, but no one answered him. She sent him a check as a birthday present, but it was never cashed.
Coville's mother did get a Mother's Day card in May; it was signed "Love, Jane and Scott" in Limm's handwriting and was postmarked San Bernardino, California. The next time she tried to call his home in Sitka, Alaska, his mother discovered his number was disconnected.
One of Coville's friends told his mother that he hadn't seen Coville since mid-April and that he hadn't said goodbye. Limm did not report her husband's disappearance to the police; neither did she call any of his relatives to ask if they had seen him. Eventually, Coville's mother reported him missing.
Limm moved to Illinois after Coville's disappearance, remarried, and then got a divorce in 2005. In 2007, authorities reopened the investigation into Coville's disappearance. They found his blood on the walls and sub-floor in the bedroom of his trailer.
Limm confessed to Coville's murder in a recorded telephone conversation with her ex-husband, and when investigators questioned her in early 2009, she admitted she had killed him. In early 2010, she was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and evidence tampering in Coville's . A photo of her at the time of her arrest is posted with this summary.
In October 2010, Limm pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder. The evidence tampering charge was dropped. She admitted that she shot Coville while he was in bed asleep, dismembered his body, wrapped the pieces in bags and put them in the garbage. It was probably incinerated.
Limm was sentenced to 55 years in prison, with 19 of them suspended. She stated she committed the murder to get out of an abusive marriage. She is not scheduled for release until 2034, by which time she will be 80 years old.
Coville's body has not been recovered, but foul play is suspected in his due to the circumstances involved. Many of his relatives, including his father, have died in the years since his disappearance, but his mother is still alive.
Investigating Agency
Alaska State Troopers
907-451-5100
Other
WREX 13
The Anchorage Daily News
The Chicago Sun-Times
The Daily Sitka Sentinel
KCAW-FM
KFSK Public Radio
Alaska VINELink
NamUs
Oxygen
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