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
Yuan Xia Wang
Yuan, date, approximate 1998; Age-progression to age 31 (date, approximate 2017)
Date Missing 10/21/1998
Missing From
Lincolnia, Virginia
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
Asian
Date of Birth 09/13/1986 (36)
Age 12 years old
Height and Weight 5'6, 118 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A white t-shirt, a blue denim jacket, jeans and white sneakers.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Asian female. Black hair, brown eyes. Yuan spoke Mandarin Chinese and very limited English at the time of her 1998 disappearance. Her nickname is Incha.
Details of Disappearance Yuan was smuggled into Washington D.C. from China, via Bangkok and Paris, on August 25, 1998. She used a genuine Thai passport to get into the country and posed as the niece of her smuggler, Chaichana Klaharn, a Thai citizen. They were caught at Dulles International Airport.
Yuan could not speak English or Thai. Through a Mandarin Chinese translator, she told immigration authorities she was from Fuzhou in the Chinese province of Fujian, and her parents had paid Klaharn a significant sum of money to take her to the United States. He said he was supposed to deliver Yuan to a hotel in Washington D.C.
Klaharn pleaded guilty to passport fraud in September 1998 and was sentenced to four months in jail. Yuan was sent to live with a foster family in the 4700 block of Barnum Lane in Alexandria, Virginia, while authorities decided what to do with her. At first she stayed at home with a Mandarin-speaking babysitter.
After three weeks she was enrolled in the seventh grade at Holmes Middle School, where she was the only Mandarin-speaking student. She would typically take the school bus home with one of her foster sisters, arriving home at 3:10 p.m. On the day of her disappearance, however, she took the bus home alone.
Yuan was last seen exiting a Fairfax County school bus at approximately 3:00 p.m. on October 21, 1998. The bus was near Lincolnia Road and Deming Avenue in the Lincolnia area of Virginia at the time. She supposed to take a cab to a doctor's appointment at 3:30 p.m., but she wasn't there when the cab arrived and never showed up for her appointment. She never returned to her foster home and has not been heard from again.
An extensive search of the area produced no clues as to Yuan's whereabouts. She was not familiar with the neighborhood at the time of her disappearance. Her foster family didn't speak Mandarin and, while they stated Yuan appeared to be intelligent and content with her situation, they admitted they didn't know her very well and couldn't guess whether she'd run away or not. She had lived with the family for only six weeks by the time of her disappearance.
Yuan's immediate family resides in China. She told immigration officials she was twelve years old, but it's possible that she was as old as fifteen. In November 2008, ten years after her disappearance, investigators said they thought Yuan could be in the Kansas City, Missouri area. This information was never confirmed, however.
Police believe Yuan either ran away to avoid potential deportation to China, or she was abducted, possibly by one of the people who smuggled her into the country. If the latter is the , Yuan may be being forced to work for her abductor(s). Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Fairfax County Police Department
703-691-2131
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Prince William Daily Journal
The Kansas City Star
The Washington Examiner
The Washington Post
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