I’m watching Without a Trace (3/31/05, 10:05 p.m.). It’s just starting. A woman was singing in a church choir and left. Next scene: Malone is talking to the priest, and subtitle flashes on the screen, “70 hours missing.” This is typical for the beginning of a show. But what’s the basis for the FBI investigating an ordinary missing-persons case? They have jurisdiction over kidnappings, but there’s no evidence of such yet.
There is no FBI Missing Persons Unit. It exists on this show so they can have some interesting stories and the investigators can go all over the place.
Being missing is not a Federal crime. It’s not really a crime at all unless you’re a minor missing school I think.