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.



Missing Person Photos

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

Steven Allen Hafer
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
missing person case update January 2023 found new details posted
Steven, date, approximate 1989; David Lee Smith
Date Missing 03/01/1989
Missing From
Grant's Lick, Kentucky
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Age 32 years old
Height and Weight 5'11, 240 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A white t-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Hafer may go by his middle name, Allen, or use the alias name Dwayne Kaiser.
Details of Disappearance Hafer was last seen in Grants Lick, Kentucky sometime during March 1989. His family didn't report him missing until June 1992, because they thought he had left of his own accord. He was going through a contentious divorce at the time of his disappearance and expected he would have to pay child support.
In June 2008, police charged David Lee Smith with complicity to commit murder and tampering with physical evidence in Hafer's . They believe Smith, Hafer's brother-in-law, helped Rick Lear, Hafer's wife's lover, in the killing. A photo of Smith is posted with this summary.
Clues were uncovered beginning in 1995, when Smith's ex-wife went to the police and said he had been involved in Hafer's disappearance. She agreed to wear a recording device and talk to Smith and Hafer's wife, Linda, who later remarried and took the last name Meyer.
On the recording, Meyer and Smith admitted Hafer had not run away in 1989 and that he was deceased, but neither actually confessed to causing his death. Investigators decided they didn't have enough evidence to file charges, even after another of Smith's ex-wives told them in 2002 that Hafer's body was buried along the Licking River.
In March 2008, however, a tip came that there was a third witness to the disposal of Hafer's body. When police interviewed Meyer again, she admitted her husband had been murdered inside their residence on Boone Smith Road.
Meyer stated Smith began talking to Hafer inside the the home and during the conversation, Lear hit Hafer with a blunt object, possibly a baseball bat, club or shovel. Smith held Hafer down while Lear took a couch pillow and smothered him. Meyer was supposed to shoot him, but she refused to do so. Smith admitted to witnessing Hafer's murder and helping to dispose of his body, but he denied having any part in Hafer's death. By the time he was ready to go to trial, Lear had died of brain cancer and Smith's defense planned to blame him for the crime.
Prosecutors were uncertain if they could prove Smith's role in Hafer's death, so they reached a plea bargain with him on the eve of his trial. He pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and the complicity to commit murder charge was dropped. He was sentenced to the maximum, five years in prison. Hafer's family criticized the plea agreement, saying it was too lenient.
Hafer's body has never been found. He left behind two young daughters. It's likely no one will be prosecuted in his presumed homicide, but foul play is suspected in his due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Campbell County Police Department
859-635-7484
Other
The Kentucky Post
The Kentucky Enquirer
The Doe Network
Channel 9 WCPO
WLWT 5 Cincinnati
WKRC 12 Cincinnati
Unsolved in the News
NamUs

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.



Missing Person Photos

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