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
Sierra Mae Lamar
Sierra, date, approximate 2012; Antolin Garcia-Torres; Garcia-Torres's car
Date Missing 03/16/2012
Missing From
Morgan Hill, California
Missing Classification Non-Family Abduction
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 10/19/1996 (25)
Age 15 years old
Height and Weight 5'0 - 5'2, 100 - 110 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A black sweatshirt with the San Jose Sharks hockey team logo on the front and the number 16 and the word "STONEHOUSE" on the back, gray shoes, and carrying a pink and black Juicy bag.
Associated Vehicle(s) Red and black Volkswagen Jetta (accounted for)
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Sierra's hair was dyed black at the time of her disappearance. She has a four-inch scar in the center of her back and a mole on her neck.
Details of Disappearance Sierra left her home in the vicinity of Santa Teresa Avenue and Dougherty Avenue in Morgan Hill, California at 6:00 a.m. on March 16, 2012. She was going to walk to the bus stop to catch a 7:35 bus to Ann Sobrato High School, where she was a sophomore and a cheerleader.
Sierra texted a friend at 7:11 and agreed to meet her before class started. She never boarded her bus, never arrived at school and never met her friend. Her mother found out she was missing that evening when the school contacted her to say saying Sierra had missed class. She has never been heard from again.
On March 17, Sierra's cellular phone was found on the roadside about three-quarters of a mile from her home; it appeared to have been tossed from a passing vehicle. A day after that, the police found her bag in a cactus field on the roadside about two miles from the bus stop and one mile from where her phone was found. The bag had Sierra's pants and t-shirt folded and placed inside it.
In May, two months after Sierra was last seen, authorities arrested Antolin Garcia-Torres for her kidnapping and murder. Investigators stated they had both circumstantial and direct evidence against the suspect, including DNA evidence from his car, which police had seized in early April, and from Sierra's bag.
Photos of Garcia-Torres and his vehicle, a red and black Volkswagen Jetta, are posted with this summary. Police found strands of Sierra's DNA inside his car, a strand of her hair on some rope in the trunk, and DNA from Garcia-Torres on her discarded clothing. He has a prior criminal record, but not for any sex assaults or felonies.
Police believe Sierra's presumed murder was a random act of violence; although she and Garcia-Torres lived just seven miles apart, there's no evidence the two ever met prior to her disappearance.
At Garcia-Torres's trial in May 2017, his defense argued Sierra was an unhappy teenager who had simply run away from home. He was convicted of her murder and also of three counts of attempted kidnapping; he had tried to abduct three other women from Safeway store parking lots in 2009, something the prosecution called "training" for Sierra's death.
Garcia-Torres was sentenced to life in prison; he could have faced the death penalty.
Sierra was born and raised in Fremont, California and previously attended high school there. Her parents divorced before her disappearance and she lived with her mother and her mother's boyfriend. They had moved to Morgan Hill only about six months before Sierra disappeared. She has no history of running away. Foul play is suspected in her due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office
408-299-3233
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
NamUs
FBI
California Attorney General's Office
Facebook Page for Sierra Lamar
The Huffington Post
The Los Angeles Times
America's Most Wanted
Rewards TV
KSBW
The San Jose Mercury News
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
