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
Sharon Baldeagle
Sharon, date, approximate 1984; Age-progression at age 36 (date, approximate 2008); Royal Russell Long
Date Missing 09/18/1984
Missing From
Eagle Butte, South Dakota
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
Native American
Date of Birth 05/27/1972 (50)
Age 12 years old
Height and Weight 5'3, 110 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A black and yellow top with a tiger stripe pattern, and black shoes, and carrying a red bag.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Native American female. Black hair, brown eyes. Some agencies give Sharon's last name as "Bald Eagle." Her ears are pierced.
Details of Disappearance Sharon ran away from her hometown of Eagle Butte, South Dakota on September 18, 1984, along with a fifteen-year-old friend named Sandi. The girls were hitchhiking together in Casper, Wyoming when they were picked up by a truck driver named Royal Russell Long. A photo of him is posted with this summary.
Long took the two girls to his home in Evansville, Wyoming and fed them. Sandi stated he then offered them $100 for sexual services. When the girls refused, he tied them up at gunpoint, beat Sharon and raped Sandi. Sandi escaped and went for help, but by the time police arrived at the residence, Long and Sharon were gone.
A week later, Long was apprehended Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sharon wasn't with him and he said he did not know her whereabouts. When asked for his side of the story, Long said Sharon and Sandi had told them they were eighteen and nineteen, and that Sandi agreed to have sex with him for $100.
After the sex act took place, Sandi demanded $200 from him and threatened to accuse him of rape if he did not give her the money, and she told him she and Sharon told him they were actually only fifteen and twelve years old. Long said there was a struggle, although he did not hit the girls, and his nose was bloodied. He threatened them with a pistol and tied them up.
He then took a nap, and when he woke up he discovered Sandi had escaped. He carried Sharon out to his truck and drove her to Cheyenne, then put her on a light-colored truck bound for Dallas, Texas and this was the last time he ever saw her. He said he didn't realize he was wanted for kidnapping and rape until he went back to Casper.
According to Long, after realizing the police were looking for him, he drove to Amarillo, Texas, trying to find Sharon or anyone who might have seen her. Authorities were unable to find anything to support his story; they couldn't identify the truck driver Sharon supposedly got a ride to Dallas with, or find anyone who had seen this trucker or his truck.
Prosecutors considered charging Long with Sharon's murder, but they decided against it, and Sharon's father stated he believed his daughter was alive. Long pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping for the purpose of committing indecent liberties with a minor, and was sentenced to two life in prison.
Long is also a possible suspect in the disappearances of Deborah Meyer and Carlene Brown, who vanished from Wyoming in 1974, and he is the prime suspect in the disappearances ofCinda Pallett andCharlotte Kinsey, who vanished from the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on September 26, 1981.
He was charged with kidnapping and murdering Cinda and Charlotte after his 1985 arrest, but the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. He died of a heart attack in prison in 1993. Sharon's father went to visit him shortly before his death, but Long refused to speak to him.
Sharon is the oldest of four siblings and had just begun her first year Brainerd Indian School in Hot Springs, South Dakota when she disappeared. Her father is still alive and searched for her all over the country after her disappearance, traveling as far as Arizona.
There were possible sightings of her in Wisconsin and Colorado in the years following her disappearance. She has never been found and foul play is suspected in her .
Investigating Agency
Fall River County Sheriff's Office
605-745-4444
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The Doe Network
The Oklahoman
The Casper Star-Tribune
NamUs
The Rapid City Journal
Rawlins Four, Cinda Pallett, Charlotte Kinsey, Sharon Baldeagle | DARK MATTERS #49
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
