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

Wallace Guidroz





Wallace, date, approximate 1983; Sketch of man wanted for questioning; Sketch of woman wanted for questioning; Stanley Guidroz in 2011
Date Missing 01/10/1983
Missing From
Tacoma, Washington
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
Asian, Biracial, Black
Date of Birth 03/24/1980 (42)
Age 2 years old
Height and Weight 3'0, 35 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Purple corduroy overalls, a dark blue vest, a dark blue down jacket with a red collar, a gray knitted skullcap and cowboy boots.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Biracial (African-American/Asian) male. Black hair, brown eyes. Wallace is of Korean descent.
Details of Disappearance Wallace was last seen playing at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington on January 10, 1983. He was accompanied by his father, Stanley Lee Guidroz, at the time. According to his father, Wallace began to play with a girl about his own age, as well as the girl's mother, near a duck pond.
Stanley stated he left them and went for a walk around the pond with a man whom he assumed was the girl's father. The two men shared a beer. When Stanley returned twenty-five to forty minutes later, his son was gone, as were the woman and child.
Stanley and the man agreed to split up and search for them. They went in opposite directions and the man never came back. Stanley searched for his son for two hours before alerting police at 7:42 p.m. Wallace has never been heard from again.
Authorities made composite sketches of the man and woman; the sketches are posted with this summary. The man, woman and child were never identified. Investigators were not sure if they were involved in Wallace's disappearance, but they were sought as witnesses.
The man is described as Caucasian, in his late twenties to early thirties, and about six feet tall with a medium build. He had shoulder-length, sandy brown hair and a mustache and a beard, and he wore a baseball cap. The woman was also Caucasian, 5'2 and 115 to 120 pounds, with light blonde hair that fell below her shoulders and long eyelashes. She was in her early to mid-twenties. The girl is described as Caucasian with long blonde hair; she was about two or three years old.
After Wallace's disappearance became public, a woman called police to say she and her children had been at Point Defiance Park the day the child disappeared and had seen a man and woman, and the man matched the description of the man Stanley saw. The woman stated the couple had tried to abduct her children twice. Her account has never been verified.
Stanley and Wallace's mother, Chom Guidroz, divorced two years after Wallace's disappearance. Chom moved to Illinois, where she died in 1995 at the age of 37. Stanley moved back to his native Louisiana in 1986. In 2011, he was charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife, Pepettra Guidroz.
A photo of Stanley at the time of his arrest is posted below with summary. He killed Pepettra during an argument, then drove her car, with her body inside, to a city a hundred miles away and turned himself in to the police there and confessed. They had been married for eight years. According to Pepettra's relatives, they often argued and he was abusive towards her. In August 2012, Stanley pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Pepettra's death.
Wallace's got renewed media attention after Stanley's murder arrest. Authorities stated he'd never been ruled out as a suspect in his son's disappearance. In June 2011, they dug for Wallace's body in a waterfront area along Ruston Way in Tacoma. Police said they'd been directed to the site by Stanley. Nothing was located, however.
The medical examiner's office issued a death certificate for Wallace, listing the cause of death as blunt force injury to the head and the manner of death as a homicide.
Stanley was charged with manslaughter in his son's presumed death in 2011, but not extradited from Louisiana until 2014. According to his statements to police, he and Wallace did in fact go to Point Defiance Park that day, and after they got home, Stanley angrily lashed out at Wallace because the toddler was "fussing" in his high chair. He said Wallace accidentally fell from the chair, hit his head on the floor and died.
In July 2015, a judge suppressed Stanley's confession and dismissed the manslaughter charge, stating there was no evidence besides Stanley's statements to support the prosecution's .
Wallace's body has never been found and investigators believe it may not be recoverable. Foul play is suspected in his due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Tacoma Police Department
253-591-5940
Other
Operation Lookout
The Tacoma News Tribune
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
KIRO TV
The Houma Courier
The Zachary Plainsman-News
The New York Daily News
The Seattle Times
KOMO News
Find a Grave

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