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
Ruben David Felix
Ruben, date, approximate 1997; Age-progression at age 17 (date, approximate 2011)
Date Missing 02/23/1997
Missing From
Shoshone, Idaho
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
Biracial, Hispanic, White
Date of Birth 10/18/1994 (27)
Age 2 years old
Height and Weight 2'6, 32 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A red sweatshirt, blue sweatpants with a red stripe down each leg, and brown "street hiker" boots.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Biracial (Caucasian/Hispanic) male. Sandy blond hair, blue eyes. Ruben has a scar on his right wrist.
Details of Disappearance Ruben and his family attended a gathering of his stepfather's relatives at Tanupa Ranch along the Little Wood River in rural Shoshone, Idaho on February 23, 1997. There were several adults present, as well as about four to six children. Ruben's mother left for work between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m., leaving Ruben and his younger half-brother in the care of their stepfather, Aurelio Mireles.
At 6:15 p.m., Ruben's grandmother came by Tanupa Ranch to drop off one of Mireles's relatives, with whom she worked. As she did so, she noted several cars parked by the river. She then went home and changed out of her work clothes. Shortly after she arrived home, she got a call from one of the people at Tanupa Ranch, telling her Ruben had been missing for two hours.
The child was last seen sitting in the front yard and drinking his bottle. Mireles said he went inside the house for a moment to retrieve something and when he returned, Ruben had disappeared.
Dogs traced Ruben's scent for 200 yards from the house, to an outbuilding, across a potato field, up an embankment, over the railroad tracks and through as small pasture to the edge of the Little Wood River, and searchers found a child's footprint in the snow on the riverbank. Authorities searched the river several times looking for Ruben's remains, but found nothing.
In late March 1997, Ruben's family found his bottle in the yard near the house where he was last seen. The area had previously been searched several times and no one had seen the bottle there before. Police were unable to determine where it came from or how it came to be there.
Years after Ruben disappeared, his mother got a call from a man who identified himself as the FBI agent investigating Ruben's disappearance. The caller said he'd traced Ruben to Guadalajara, Mexico, where he'd been sold to a wealthy family, and that she should meet him at the FBI office in Twin Falls, Idaho. Ruben's mother went to the FBI office, but no one there knew what she was talking about. The FBI agent investigating Ruben's had retired, unbeknownst to Ruben's mother, and the investigation into his disappearance had been cold for six years.
Ruben's mother thinks he may have been kidnapped and sold. She divorced Mireles after the child's 1997 disappearance and believes his family might have been involved in her son's . Ruben's remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Lincoln County Sheriff's Office
208-886-2259
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
Idaho Bureau of Criminal Investigation
The Magic Valley Times-News
KBOI 12
Facebook Page for Ruben Felix
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
