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
Shannon Rippy VanNewkirk
VanNewkirk, date, approximate 2014; James Bradley
Date Missing 04/05/2014
Missing From
Wilmington, North Carolina
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 04/06/1960 (62)
Age 53 years old
Height and Weight 5'5, 100 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A sleeveless white V-neck top and pants.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. VanNewkirk has a tattoo of a moon on her left hand, a tattoo of a butterfly on her right shoulder, and a surgical scar on her abdomen. Her ears are pierced. Some accounts spell her last name "Van NewKirk."
Details of Disappearance VanNewkirk was last seen at The Husk, a bar in the 30 block of south Front Street in Wilmington, North Carolina, at 7:00 p.m. on April 5, 2014. She had gotten a new haircut and a spray tan and was getting ready to celebrate her upcoming birthday, which was the next day. She has never been heard from again. When she missed the planned birthday lunch in her honor, her family became concerned. They had left presents in front of her home on south 5th Street. They returned on Monday and the presents were still there, untouched, so they notified police.
On April 29, James Opelton Bradley was arrested for first-degree murder in VanNewkirk's . A photo of Bradley is posted with this summary. He and VanNewkirk were coworkers at Motts Landscaping and he had a romantic interest in her. At the time of her disappearance, he was on parole for another murder; he had killed his eight-year-old stepdaughter, Ivy Gipson, in 1988 and served almost twenty-five years in prison. He was released fourteen months prior to VanNewkirk's disappearance.
Bradley and VanNewkirk exchanged seventeen phone calls between April 1 and April 5, but the communication abruptly ceased the same day she disappeared. He changed his story about the day of her disappearance at least three times. In the final police interview before his arrest, he admitted he was in his truck with VanNewkirk on the day she was last seen, but said they got an argument over VanNewkirk's relationship with another man, and she jumped out of his truck and ran away. He has maintained that story ever since.
When police were searching for VanNewkirk's body on land Bradley had often worked on as a landscaper, they found a woman's nude body wrapped in duct tape and trash bags in a shallow grave in a field in Hampstead, North Carolina. At first authorities thought the body was VanNewkirk's, but it turned out to be that of 35-year-old Elisha Marie Tucker. She'd died of blunt force trauma, and her blood was found in Bradley's SUV. In 2016, he was charged with her murder as well.
Bradley was convicted of second-degree murder in VanNewkirk's in 2017, and sentenced to 30 to 37 years in prison. In 2019, he was convicted of Tucker's murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
VanNewkirk's body has never been found.
Investigating Agency
Wilmington Police Department
910-343-3600
Other
NamUs
Facebook Page for Shannon VanNewkirk
WWAY 3
WECT 6
The Wilmington Star-News
Port City Daily
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