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
Nicole Lynn Bryner
Nicole, date, approximate 1982; Age-progressions to age 26 (date, approximate 2005); Melody Thomas Childs, date, approximate 1982; Timothy Widman, date, approximate 2006
Date Missing 03/11/1982
Missing From
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 02/20/1979 (43)
Age 3 years old
Height and Weight 2'6, 35 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue jacket, a gray turtleneck sweater, a green velour t-shirt, blue jeans with a star on the right rear pocket, and brown suede shoes.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Some agencies may spell Nicole's middle name "Lynne."
Details of Disappearance Nicole's mother, Melody Thomas Childs, told authorities that her daughter was abducted from a shopping cart on March 9, 1982. Childs claimed that Nicole was sitting inside the cart at a Giant Eagle supermarket store at 23rd Street and Jane Street on the south side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She stated that when she turned around for a moment, Nicole disappeared. A photograph of Childs is posted with this summary. She and Nicole lived in the 2000 block of Sarah Street.
Authorities were skeptical of Childs's account from the beginning; no one else remembered seeing Nicole in the grocery store at all that day. Several days after Nicole disappeared, a letter was found in her mother's home which was purportedly from Nicole's abductor. The letter stated "Nikky" was dead and buried. Handwriting analysis determined it was probable that Childs herself had written the letter. An extensive search yielded little evidence at the time and Nicole's became cold.
Timothy Wayne Widman confessed to Nicole's murder four years later in May 1986. A photograph of Widman is posted with this summary. He was imprisoned on burglary charges at the time of his claims. He had been Childs's boyfriend and lived with her and Nicole in the 2000 block of Sarah Street in 1982, but by the time of his confession he had ended his relationship with Childs.
Widman said that he slapped the child in March 1982 after she bit his toe, and she fell and hit her head. Afterwards, he was unaware she was seriously injured and Childs put her to bed. She was found deceased the following day. Widman claimed that he and Childs put Nicole's naked body in a green plastic garbage bag and buried it in shallow grave in a wooded area along Timberland Road in Brookline, Pennsylvania. They then reported the abduction to cover up Nicole's death.
People who knew the couple reported that Widman regularly abused both Nicole and her mother, and that Childs was fearful of him. She was still married to her first husband, Nicole's father, at the time she was involved with Widman. Nicole's father lived in Texas in 1982 and was quickly ruled out as a suspect in his daughter's .
A search was conducted in the region for Nicole's remains, but nothing was located. Widman was nevertheless charged with involuntary manslaughter in her shortly after his confession, but the charges were dropped in 1987. Prosecutors stated that there was not enough evidence against Widman to support any charges; the law at the time dictated that a body had to be found to prove homicide.
Childs, who moved to Garland, Texas and married after Nicole's disappearance, was arrested in June 1986 and charged with felony counts of hindering prosecution and providing false reports to the authorities in connection with her daughter's . The charges were dropped after Widman refused to testify against her. Childs died in Texas in 2001.
In September 2006, Widman was charged again with criminal homicide in Nicole's presumed death. Investigators did not have any fresh evidence against him, but it is no longer unheard of for homicide s to be prosecuted without the victim's body being found, so authorities decided to go forward with the against Widman. He cooperated with the investigation and, in May 2007, admitted to Nicole's murder and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Widman was sentenced to two to four years in prison, with credit for time served. Authorities stated they did not have any evidence to prove intentional murder, as Nicole's body was never located. Widman has apologized to Nicole's surviving relatives. He died in 2011, at the age of 56.
The missing child's report date is listed as March 11, 1982, although Childs claimed Nicole was abducted on March 9.
Investigating Agency
Pittsburgh Police Department
412-255-2888
Other
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Daily News
The Dallas Morning News
The Washington Post
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
KDKA 2
The York Dispatch
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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
