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
Wendy Kathleen Claire Hudakoc
Wendy, date, approximate 1998; Age-progression to age 36 (date, approximate 2020); Ronald DePeppo, date, approximate 1998
Date Missing 11/15/1998
Missing From
Naples, Florida
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 08/12/1984 (38)
Age 14 years old
Height and Weight 5'6, 130 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A red, white and blue tank top and jeans.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Light brown hair, hazel eyes. Wendy has a small strawberry birthmark on the back of her neck and a scar on her left hand. She wore braces on her top and bottom teeth at the time of her 1998 disappearance. Her ears are pierced; the left one is pierced twice. Some agencies may spell her middle name "Kathlene."
Details of Disappearance Wendy's mother and stepfather were out of town when she disappeared from her hometown of Naples, Florida on November 15, 1998. One of her stepfather's coworkers was staying at the house to watch her and her sixteen-year-old sister, and the girls had a female friend spending the night as well.
Authorities determined Wendy went to the party with a 20-year-old friend, Ronald DePeppo, whom she'd met a month earlier. DePeppo had called Wendy's house shortly after he met her, and told her stepfather he was eighteen. Her stepfather told him Wendy was only fourteen and to leave her alone and never call the house again.
A photo of DePeppo is posted with this summary. He didn't have a serious criminal record, but did have a known history of getting in relationships with underage girls.
He and Wendy left the party together between 2:00 and 2:30 a.m., driving his blue 1991 Mazda. When questioned by police, he said Wendy got a page and they stopped at a payphone at the corner of Airport Road and Davis Boulevard so she could make a call. He said afterward, she asked him to take her home because she planned to meet someone named "Jeff." He said the last time he saw her was when he dropped her off at her house, at about 2:45 a.m.
DePeppo says he spent the rest of the night with a friend, Johnny Walker, but Walker said DePeppo left at 11:00 p.m. on November 15, and didn't return until 9:00 a.m. the next morning. DePeppo's girlfriend also stated he had asked her to lie and say he had been with her on the night Wendy disappeared. On December 1, DePeppo's car was destroyed in a fire. Authorities concluded the blaze was an accident, caused by a dropped cigarette; this was DePeppo's explanation and a witness vouched for it. This witness was Walker.
DePeppo turned the charred vehicle over to authorities for forensic processing, but the analysis didn't turn up any evidence. DePeppo cooperated with authorities during the beginning of their investigation into Wendy's , but he has since hired an attorney and refuses to answer further questions or take a polygraph.
Wendy's immediate family have all passed polygraphs and been ruled out as suspects. DePeppo was never identified as a suspect in Wendy's disappearance, although investigators said they were looking at several persons of interest. Walker, who is now a registered sex offender, is also considered a person of interest. In 1998 he told police he did not know Wendy and had never met her, but twenty years later in a media interview, he said he knew Wendy and that she and DePeppo were dating. This contradicted DePeppo's statement that prior to the night of her disappearance, he and Wendy had never gone out together.
Wendy was born in Toronto in Ontario, Canada. She and her family moved to Naples when she was in middle school. She was a freshman at Naples High School in 1998, an honor student who was enrolled in advanced classes. She was also a member of the local softball team.
Records show she hasn't applied for a driver's license or gotten a job since she went missing. She had run away once before, but only for about a day, and although authorities initially thought she'd left of her own accord when she disappeared in 1998, they now believe she could be deceased. On her 21st birthday, in 2005, her family had a memorial service for her in a Toronto church and placed a memorial marker in the city's Queen of Heaven Cemetery.
Wendy's mother died of cancer 2013, and Wendy was listed as a survivor in her obituary. Her sister and stepfather are still alive and hope she will be found. Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Collier County Sheriff's Office
239-774-4434
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
America's Most Wanted
Naples Daily News
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Child Find Canada
Unsolved in the News
The Southwest Florida News-Press
The Journal Review
CrimeWatch Daily
The Harbour City Star
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
