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
Sophia Zaman Tareq
Sophia, date, approximate 1999; Mary Zaman; Mohammed Taef
Date Missing 09/17/1999
Missing From
Rochester, Minnesota
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
Asian
Age 26 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 110 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Asian female. Black hair, brown eyes. Sophia is of Bangladeshi descent.
Details of Disappearance Sophia moved to the United States from her home in Bangladesh sometime during the mid-1990s. She was accompanied by her three-year-old son, Mohammed Tahseen Taef, and her husband, Mohammed Tareq.
Mohammed returned to Bangladesh in March 1999, but Sophia and Taef remained in Rochester, Minnesota. They resided with her sister, Mary Zaman; Zaman's husband, Iqbal Ahmed; and their young son, Asif Iqbal. Photos of Zaman and Taef are posted with this summary.
Zaman, Ahmed and Iqbal moved from Bangladesh to New York City, New York in 1996. They initially traveled utilizing eleven-week visitors' visas. The couple moved to Rochester in 1998 and began working as servers at India Garden Restaurant. Sophia and Taef joined them in Minnesota shortly afterwards.
The restaurant's owner told authorities that he never witnessed any confrontations between Zaman and Ahmed. The owner said that Ahmed told him that he and his wife frequently argued privately; Ahmed apparently believed she was having an affair. Their employer also stated that Zaman reported for work with facial scratches in 1999; she did not explain how she received the lacerations.
Authorities located credit cards receipts that indicated Ahmed was preparing to leave Minnesota with Iqbal during August 1999. Ahmed purchased a hand ax and twelve extra-heavy-duty contractor's garbage bags at a hardware store on September 5, 1999. Zaman, Taef and Sophia disappeared from Rochester on September 17.
Ahmed phoned the restaurant owner shortly afterwards and claimed that Zaman was involved with another man in New York City. He said that she returned to the city with their son several earlier. The couple never retrieved their final paychecks. Iqbal stopped attending school on September 20. The family's apartment was abandoned by the end of the month; all of their personal belongings and Ahmed's vehicle were left behind.
Investigators learned that Ahmed had been charged with his wife's attempted murder in New York in 1998. The complaint stated that Ahmed locked Zaman in a bathroom and strangled her until she lost consciousness. The prosecutor was forced to drop the when Zaman refused to cooperate with authorities.
Zaman and Mohammed's remains were discovered in a ditch near Rochester in November 1999, two months after they disappeared. They had both been decapitated and their bodies were placed in garbage bags. Neither of their heads has been recovered. Their bodies remained unidentified until mid-2000. Authorities elected to keep the victims' identities confidential while they continued building their against Ahmed, who was the prime suspect in the homicides of his wife and nephew.
It is believed that Ahmed and Iqbal traveled to New York City shortly after Zaman and Taef were murdered and Sophia disappeared. They returned to Bangladesh shortly afterwards. Authorities charged Ahmed with two counts of second-degree murder in July 2000, but the warrant remained confidential as well.
The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh and authorities were hoping to force Ahmed to return to Minnesota through other means. His fingerprints were taken when he applied for a job as a taxi driver in New York in 1998. Ahmed's right thumb print matched one of the prints taken from the bag containing Taef's remains.
FBI agents questioned Ahmed in Bangladesh in December 2000. He claimed that he spoke to Zaman by telephone earlier during the year and said he believed she was still living in the United States. Iqbal was discovered residing in a nearby village; he was unharmed.
The victims' identities and the homicide charges against Ahmed were announced publicly in October 2001; he was still in Bangladesh at the time. In 2005, he sentenced to life in prison there for two other, unrelated murders. Authorities didn't believe he would ever return to the United States to be tried. In September 2010, authorities learned he was dead.
Investigators have never located Sophia and believe that she may have been murdered as well. Her remains unsolved but is no longer being actively investigated.
Investigating Agency
Olmsted County Sheriff's Department
507-285-8300
Other
Minnesota Public Radio
The Associated Press
The New Nation
The Rochester Post-Bulletin
NamUs
The Superior-Telegram
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
