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

Sean Christopher Dubs





Sean, date, approximate 1984; Charles Ng; Leonard Lake, date, approximate 1985
Date Missing 07/25/1984
Missing From
San Francisco, California
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 03/30/1983 (39)
Age 1 year old
Height and Weight 2'9, 25 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A t-shirt, tan corduroy pants and a diaper.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Some agencies may spell Sean's last name "Dubbs."
Details of Disappearance Sean and his parents, Deborahand Harvey, lived in San Francisco, California in 1984. Harvey was selling video equipment in July of that year and placed an advertisement in a local newspaper.
Deborah was speaking on the telephone to a friend on July 25 when the doorbell rang at their family's apartment. Deborah told her friend that she had to end the conversation, as two men who were interested in the items had arrived at their home. She carrying a leather purse when she was last seen. Deborah, Harvey and Sean have never been heard from again.
One of the Dubs family's neighbors saw an Asian man leave their residence with a box later in the day. The same neighbor observed an unidentified vehicle drive away from the Dubs's apartment on July 26, the day after the family disappeared. The neighbor attempted to follow the car, but she lost the vehicle in traffic.
A man identifying himself as Jim Bright called Harvey's employer shortly afterwards and claimed that the family moved to Washington. The unidentified man terminated the conversation when Harvey's employer became suspicious.
Authorities believe that the Dubs family were victims of serial killers Charles Chitat (occasionally spelled "Chat") Ng and Leonard Lake. Photos of Ng and Lake are posted with this summary. The men reportedly met through an advertisement in a survivalist magazine in the early 1980s. Lake was a former United States Marine and a Vietnam War veteran. Ng was a citizen of Hong Kong and falsified American citizenship documents in order to enlist in the Marines.
Ng was charged with stealing weapons from the military in 1982 and was apprehended on Lake's property in California later that year. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and should have been deported to Hong Kong after completing his sentence, but a bureaucratic error allowed Ng to remain in the United States. He was released in 1984 and moved on to Lake's ranch in Wilseyville, California. Lake was a survivalist and the residence was stocked with weapons, explosives and provisions. Ng and Lake began using the ranch as a veritable sex slave compound shortly thereafter.
Authorities believe that the men found their victims at random, as in the of the Dubs family. The female victims were often videotaped and forced to perform sexual acts for Ng and Lake prior to their murders. The male victims and children were usually tortured before their deaths.
Investigators apprehended Lake after he and Ng were caught shoplifting from a San Francisco hardware store in 1985. Ng fled from officers, but Lake was taken into custody. The men were driving a vehicle owned by a missing person, who was later determined to have been one of their victims. A pistol and a silencer were discovered inside the car.
Lake swallowed a cyanide capsule he taped to the collar of his shirt while in custody. He reportedly told authorities that Ng was his partner prior to his death several days later. Investigators searched Lake's property and uncovered the remains of several victims. Many of the bodies had been dismembered and burned, making identifications of the victims difficult or impossible.
Ng was apprehended in Canada later in 1985. He was convicted of eleven murders in California in 1999 after 14 years of wrangling and stalling. Ng's trial was one of the most expensive in California history. He claimed Lake was the actual murderer and has never accepted responsibility for the murders. A receipt in Harvey Dubs's name was discovered at Lake's compound, but the family's remains have never been recovered. It is believed that the Dubses were forcibly abducted from their home and murdered at the ranch.
Ng and Lake are also believed to be responsible for the 1985 disappearances of Jeffrey Gerald, Paul Cosnerand Clifford Peranteau. All of them vanished from San Francisco and have never been located.
Investigating Agency
San Francisco Police Department
415-553-0123
Other
California Attorney General's Office
The Crime Library
APB News
Canoe
The San Jose Mercury News
The Doe Network

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