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
Yasmin Rayon Acree
Yasmin, date, approximate 2008; Age-progression to age 23 (date, approximate 2015)
Date Missing 01/15/2008
Missing From
Chicago, Illinois
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
Black
Date of Birth 10/25/1992 (29)
Age 15 years old
Height and Weight 5'1, 125 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics African-American female. Sandy brown hair, brown eyes. Yasmin wears eyeglasses and cannot see well without them, but the glasses were left behind. Many accounts spell her name "Yasmine."
Details of Disappearance Yasmin was last seen at her family's Chicago, Illinois home on January 15, 2008. That day she went to the North Lawndale YMCA, where she was involved in sports and other activities. After she came home, she did a load of laundry and went to bed. She was gone by the next morning.
There were indications of a break-in at their residence; two locks on an outside fence and a lock on the basement door had been cut. Yasmin's bedroom was in the basement. Her room appeared untouched and nothing was taken, not even Yasmin's eyeglasses.
Her family has criticized the police investigation in her , claiming investigators assumed she was a runaway and failed to look into other possible causes of her disappearance. Authorities admitted they made serious errors at the onset of the investigation by not immediately dusting for fingerprints and not taking the broken lock from the basement door.
Yasmin was a freshman at Austin Polytech Academy at the time of her disappearance, and was about to start a new job. She has no history of runaway behavior. However, Yasmin, who was born in Kentucky, had a troubled past. Her mother, who is now deceased, was a drug addict, and Yasmin and her older brother were removed from her home when they were toddlers.
Yasmin spent several years in the Kentucky foster care system, where she was sexually abused and developed severe emotional and behavioral problems. In 2001, Yasmin and her brother went to live with Rose Mae Starnes, their aunt by marriage, and she adopted them in 2006.
Starnes stated she loved Yasmin but had trouble dealing with her behavior problems, and occasionally disciplined her by whipping her with a belt or locking her in the basement. In 2007, when Yasmin's brother was sixteen years old, Starnes asked him to leave her home. Yasmin was the only child living at the residence at the time of her disappearance. She had been an excellent student in middle school, but when she started high school she got poor grades.
Jimmie Terrell Smith and his father lived in the second-floor apartment in Yasmin's building at the time of her disappearance. His father was friends with Starnes. Smith moved into the building in 2005, after he was paroled from prison where he had been serving a sentence for attempted murder. Following his release he was arrested six times and he admits he was always armed and sold drugs near Yasmin's apartment. He reportedly took an interest in Yasmin, and she mentioned him twice in her diary.
Starnes didn't tell the police that Smith was living in her building until 2009, when he was arrested for raping five females, including two 14-year-old girls he allegedly kidnapped. In a press interview from jail, Smith said he knew what happened to Yasmin and he was responsible for four murders he hadn't been charged with. This information hasn't been confirmed.
Starnes died of natural causes in 2014, at the age of 57. Yasmin's remains unsolved and foul play is suspected.
Investigating Agency
Chicago Police Department
312-746-8365
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Austin Weekly News
CBS 2 Chicago
The Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Tribune
WLS 7
Missing Persons Planet
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
