# missing children **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 31, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669 "2019-12-31T15:06:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/1 "2019-12-31T15:06:15Z")
Theres been this local teen missing for 11 days in northern Ohio. Its all over the news. I’m asking, how often do teens go missing, what are the chances of them being found alive? > **[National search for missing Ohio teen enters 10th day](https://www.wbaltv.com/article/national-search-continues-for-missing-ohio-teen/30362108#)** > > Investigators are now offering a $7,000 cash reward for information leading to this missing teen's whereabouts or safe return. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/2 "2019-12-31T15:16:25Z")
Several hundred thousand children go missing every year in the United States. Most of them are runaways rather than victims of violence however. > **[Number of missing persons files in the U.S. by age and gender 2021 | Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/240387/number-of-missing-persons-files-in-the-us-by-age/)** > > While the fear of being kidnapped may persist for one’s entire life, in 2021 the number of missing persons under the age of 21 was much higher than those 21 and over, with 194,673 females under 21 reported missing, and 62,552 females over the age of... ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/3 "2019-12-31T15:33:49Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Several hundred thousand children go missing every year in the United States. Most of them are runaways rather than victims of violence however. > [Number of missing persons files in the U.S. by age and gender 2022 | Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/240387/number-of-missing-persons-files-in-the-us-by-age/) On a show I watch that airs twice a week, during each airing they’ll highlight a missing child case and ask the public for help. Often times there’s a strong assumption that the child is with the other parent. A parent that isn’t supposed to have contact (or at least unsupervised contact) with the child, but picked them up and took off. Often times this other parent has had enough problems in life that they’re fairly off the grid and difficult to locate, especially once they’re out of the state. Right there is about 100 per year and those are just the high profile cases. I’d imagine a lot of those are not nearly as big of a deal (not to downplay what the parent is going through). Things like mom not realizing that grandma picked the kid up from school or a toddler that wandered off into the woods and was returned unscathed a few hours later. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/4 "2019-12-31T15:36:13Z")
In this case, both parents are at home. How do they survive on their own/ I’ve read theres a huge pedophile network out there. This case bothers me because the boy looks like my son did. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/5 "2019-12-31T16:05:29Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > In this case, both parents are at home. How do they survive on their own/ I’ve read theres a huge pedophile network out there. This case bothers me because the boy looks like my son did. He’s 14 and has a history of running away. More than likely he’s hiding out at a friend or relative’s house, and was probably there before it became such a big news story. This is very different than, say, a 7 year old riding his bike around the block and weeks later they still haven’t found him. Not to say that a 14 year old can’t be kidnapped, but this isn’t the first time he’s disappeared, just the longest he’s been gone. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/6 "2019-12-31T16:25:28Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > In this case, both parents are at home. How do they survive on their own/ I’ve read theres a huge pedophile network out there. This case bothers me because the boy looks like my son did. Not that 14-year-olds aren’t also potential victims of sexual abuse of course, but pedophilia means an attraction to prepubescent children. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/7 "2019-12-31T16:38:19Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > I’ve read theres a huge pedophile network out there. If there was a network of pedophiles, the police would be aware of it and would have arrested its members. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/8 "2019-12-31T16:54:44Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If there was a network of pedophiles, the police would be aware of it and would have arrested its members. I’m not sure if that’s a joke or not, but there is and they do get arrested… [https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/asia/child-sex-offenders-intl/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/asia/child-sex-offenders-intl/index.html) > **[Police reveal advanced pedophile ring - Norway's News in English —...](https://www.newsinenglish.no/2019/07/02/police-reveal-advanced-pedophile-ring/)** > > Norwegian police have uncovered yet another network of pedophiles, this one operating with such advanced technology that they went undetected for the past 20 years. Now a gay male Norwegian couple is under arrest and police have seized several... > **[Fifty children saved as international paedophile ring busted](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-48379983)** > > Interpol believes 100 more children have suffered abuse and is working to identify them. These articles may cover the same things, I didn’t read the very closely, I just grabbed the first few links that had dates in the article. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/9 "2019-12-31T17:17:32Z")
How many children (to include teens under 18) are abducted by strangers and then killed or kept as sex slaves (or sold into sexual slavery)? There are high-profile cases that dominate the headlines, like those of Jaycee Dugard or Elizabeth Smart, of course. But I imagine the number of such cases is on the order of 3-4 per year. The overwhelming number of child abductions are committed by family members, as has already been mentioned. Then there are the teens who just run off on their own, sometimes with someone they’ve met on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/10 "2019-12-31T17:34:46Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > He’s 14 and has a history of running away. Yea, the likelihood that a stranger kidnapped a 14 year old is low. Not impossible, but low. Much easier targets than that. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/11 "2019-12-31T18:11:07Z")
Not in the Cleveland area, remember Amanda Berry. he seemed to go online a lot, if he Has ran away, I guess it would be easy to fuind him if he logged on. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/12 "2019-12-31T20:17:34Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > How many children (to include teens under 18) are abducted by strangers and then killed or kept as sex slaves (or sold into sexual slavery)? … I imagine the number of such cases is on the order of 3-4 per year. I think and hope the subject of OP will turn up safe, but this estimate is wildly low. WAY way too low. Contortions are required to get the low estimates one sometimes sees. (“16 years or older? Not underage.” “Stays with her pimp because he supplies her with the heroin he hooked her on? Voluntary servitude, not slavery.” Etc.) Many or most victims are non-white: Racism may thus help minimize the problem. > [@](#): > > [From [Sex trafficking in the United States - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_trafficking_in_the_United_States)] In 2003, 1,400 minors were arrested for prostitution, 14% of whom were younger than 14 years old. > [This is ACTUAL arrests, not some inflated guess. The real numbers are much higher.] > … > [From [Teen recounts horror of abduction into sex slavery](https://www.today.com/news/teen-recounts-horror-abduction-sex-slavery-1C9013941)] [After being drugged, Shauna Newell managed to call her mother. But the police said she hadn’t been gone long enough to treat it as abduction.] Newell said that her captor told her she had been sold on the Internet for $300,000 to a man in Texas. Fortunately, she was rescued before delivery could be made. During Newell’s ordeal in Florida, her captor took money from a number of men who raped her. When she screamed, he held a gun to her head and threatened to blow her brains out. > … > [From [Houston teen takes own life after surviving sex-trafficking ring, highlighting ongoing US epidemic | Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/us/houston-teen-takes-own-life-sex-trafficking-ring-ongoing-epidemic)] Over 200,000 victims are trafficked in the state of Texas at any given time, nearly 80,000 of them minors, according to a report by the state attorney general’s office. ---
**Author:** ![albino\_manatee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/albino_manatee/32/2_2.png) [@albino\_manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/albino_manatee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/13 "2020-01-01T13:11:22Z")
i disagree with the assumption that exploited teenagers is low … 14-16 year olds are just as likely to be victimized as, say, 7-10 year olds. however … the older the child is … the likelihood that he/she simply made a bad decision decreases. a few decades back _(1989)_ … i recall a certain movie … a very sad movie. charles-bronson played the lead part … title of the movie is “ **kinjite** ”… about a pimp who preyed on teenagers … the scenario not being what most would _cogitate_ about. ---
**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/14 "2020-01-02T08:36:17Z")
These type of cases always remind me of Jayme Closs who was violently kidnapped (both her parents were shot and killed) and she was taken by a stranger. Yet he kept her alive and she escaped about 4 months later. Very bizzare case, but read about it, it does give you hope, not every case ends with the child’s death, though the odds are low. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/15 "2020-01-02T14:09:22Z")
I once knew a girl that was kidnapped by her father. Apparently he kept her until adulthood. She was very well adjusted and loved her father and didn’t seem to harbor any hard feelings about it. I assume he was frustrated by the child custody system that tended (especially at that time) to give kids to the mother despite the mother’s ability to raise them. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/16 "2020-01-02T15:36:01Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > [From [Teen recounts horror of abduction into sex slavery](https://www.today.com/news/teen-reco...ery-1C9013941)] [After being drugged, Shauna Newell managed to call her mother. But the police said she hadn’t been gone long enough to treat it as abduction.] Newell said that her captor told her she had been sold on the Internet for $300,000 to a man in Texas. Fortunately, she was rescued before delivery could be made. During Newell’s ordeal in Florida, her captor took money from a number of men who raped her. When she screamed, he held a gun to her head and threatened to blow her brains out. Do you have any more information about this case? I did some Googling, and I don’t understand the apparent lack of follow up. Newell’s mother, Lisa Brant, says that the police wouldn’t follow up because Newell was not missing for 72 hours. Her mother also [says](https://www.today.com/news/teen-recounts-horror-abduction-sex-slavery-1C9013941) - > [@](#): > > With law enforcement unwilling to act, Brant and Newell’s siblings started their own search. They were fortunate in that Brad Dennis, an investigator for KlaasKids, was based in the area because the Florida Panhandle is an epicenter of human trafficking. > > By sheer luck, one search party stopped at a convenience store for something to drink, and Newell’s 14-year-old brother spotted his sister in the back seat of another car that had stopped at the same store. She was rescued, but her abductors managed to flee. > > After three days of being raped and beaten and drugged, Newell was dirty, bloody, bruised and barely alive. She was airlifted to a hospital and had to be resuscitated twice. In addition to her serious injuries, she had been infected with an STD. [Lisa Brant also says](https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2008/10/after_daughters_abduction_lisa.html) - > [@](#): > > Brant said police accused the family of being uncooperative because she refused to allow Newell to be interviewed without a family member or a rape counselor present. Shauna Newell also says [she saw the man who raped her at the beach later](https://www.today.com/news/teen-recounts-horror-abduction-sex-slavery-1C9013941). I find it difficult to understand that a woman who was victimized in so horrific a crime, such that she suffered life-threatening injury, the mother has met and knows the person who committed the crime, the victim can identify the perpetrator, the brother sees her in the back seat of a car which could be traced, and the police don’t follow up because they aren’t allowed to interview the victim alone. > [@](#): > > Racism may thus help minimize the problem. Not in this case, since the victim is white. It seems like the perfect storm. Innocent pretty white teenager kidnapped, drugged, raped, and about to be sold into sex slavery. A known perpetrator, all kinds of leads, and yet the story just ends without resolution. If this is a typical story, I would like to know more. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/17 "2020-01-02T16:01:34Z")
I don’t want BigBrother more than anyone else, but if kids are microchipped, they could be found. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/18 "2020-01-02T23:55:37Z")
I would like to point out also that if a kid is repeatedly running away from home, there’s a good chance there’s a legitimate reason for it. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/19 "2020-01-08T16:13:04Z")
The reward is over 17,000 right now. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669/20 "2020-01-08T17:03:49Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > I don’t want BigBrother more than anyone else, but if kids are microchipped, they could be found. ☹ Microchips (in the pet sense) aren’t trackers. They’re just a way of identification. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-children/845669.md?page=2)