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 Photos
Nelida De Jesus Del Valle
Nelida, date, approximate 1976; Age-progression to age 44 (date, approximate 2011)
Date Missing 12/20/1976
Missing From
Boston, Massachusetts
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
Hispanic
Date of Birth 07/09/1967 (55)
Age 9 years old
Height and Weight 4'0, 50 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A gold-colored coat, dark blue slacks, a white pullover sweater, black platform shoes, and a hat and gloves.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Hispanic female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Nelida's ears are pierced. She speaks Spanish and limited English.
Details of Disappearance Nelida was last seen walking to William Blackstone Elementary School on Shawmut Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts during the morning hours of December 20, 1976. She was enrolled in a third-grade bilingual class there. The school was located approximately one and a half blocks from Nelida's family's residence. She never arrived at school that day and has not been heard from again.
Some of Nelida's clothing was found two weeks after her disappearance, in the possession of Anthony "Rudy" Flores. A woman called police to report he had given her a hat and a pair of gloves; she was suspicious because Flores resembled the sketch of Nelida's possible abductor.
The hat and gloves were Nelida's, and another witness said he'd seen Nelida walking with Flores, holding his hand. Flores was taken in for questioning, and the police found a fake police badge and a fake gun in his possession. He was arrested, but he claimed he'd found Nelida's hat and gloves in the street and authorities were unable to conclusively tie him to her abduction, so he was released.
Nelida had a very shy nature in 1976 and distrusted stranger, but her family says she would have trusted a police officer, and they think Flores could have posed as one to abduct her.Flores was never charged in connection with Nelida's disappearance due to a lack of evidence, and he maintains his innocence in her , but he remains a suspect.
He has also been linked to the October 1976 disappearance of fourteen-year-old Cesilia Pena in New York City, New York, but has not been charged in that either. There are reports that he's serving a fifty-year sentence for one and possibly two murders in New York, but this has not been confirmed.
In January 1985, eight years after Nelida vanished, her mother, Theodosia De Jesus, claimed she recognized a picture of her daughter in the apartment of David R. Collins. Collins, who has a long criminal record and uses many aliases, was charged with kidnapping one teenager in California and sexually abusing several others in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The picture De Jesus identified was one of 25 which police found in his apartment and published in a newspaper in hopes that the public could identify the people in them. De Jesus changed her mind about her identification when she examined the original picture, and the girl in the photograph was later identified as another person.
Another picture in his apartment was thought to be of Sarah Avon, a six-year-old who vanished from Illinois in 1981, but that possibility was also ruled out. Collins is not believed to have been involved in either child's disappearance. Nelida's remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Boston Police Department
617-343-4200
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Boston Police Department
NewsLibrary
The Public Spirit
The Boston Globe
Stolen: Cesilia Pena & Nelida Del Valle | DARK MATTERS #25
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 Photos
