Help for Families
The Missing Coalition is always compiling resources for families. Eventually, these resources will include federal, state, and local missing persons clearinghouses, investigative resources, and access to the media.
If you’ve had a loved one become a missing person, this information is designed to assist you through the situation.
Immediately report this to your local law enforcement. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no mandatory 24 or 48-hour waiting period to report a person missing, especially if it is a juvenile or elderly person.
It helps to have the person's vital information, such as full name, date of birth, age, hair and eye color, and the description of the last thing they were seen wearing. Also show any recent photos you have of the person to the officer.
The officer may ask for additional information, such as medical and mental health conditions, medications, scars, teeth condition, etc.
If this is not typical for the missing person, stress this to the responding officer.
Sadly, sometimes an officer will not take a missing person's report if they're an adult, assuming they left on their own, which is not illegal to do.
Some law enforcement agencies will tell you to file a report with someone else, possibly where the person went missing from, or where you live locally.
This is a difficult situation to navigate. Here are some things you can do in this situation:
- Remember that law enforcement is the gateway to missing persons investigations. While you're justified in being upset, please don't threaten or physically lash out at the officer. We want them to help us find the missing person.
- Ask to speak with a supervisor, generally a Sergeant or Lieutenant depending on your local agency.
- If this is out-of-the-ordinary for the missing person, stress that to the officer. Also explain anything that could have been involved in the person going missing, such as mental health issues, drug use, recent arguments or fights, etc.
- Ask the officer to take an information report and ask for their business card and the case number. If there is no case number, ask for a "call number", "CAD number", or "incident number".
Depending on the state you are in, there may be laws which require the report to be taken. Refer the officer to NamUs, the official missing persons database provided by the US Department of Justice.
If the officer is not willing to do anything for you regarding the missing person, call dispatch back and ask to speak with a supervisor or detective, and fill out our Missing Persons Intake Form.
You can also contact your state's law enforcement agency, such as your state police or state bureau of investigation.
Once the officer has enough information to file your report, ask for the following information:
- Case Number. This identifies the report within that local law enforcement agency.
- NIC Number. This report is generated after the agency's dispatchers have entered the missing person into NCIC, the national computer system they use to run names and license plates.
- Contact information for detectives or investigators.
The Missing Coalition provides a lot of help in this area when you fill out our Missing Person Intake Form.
Our Social Media team will create and share posters for you on all of our social media profiles (which you're welcome to print and share), and you'll be contacted by our Family Support team to get more information and check on you and your family.
Many people will start a Facebook page for the missing person and invite everyone on their friends list. This is a good way to get information out quickly and generate immediate tips. If you receive tips on Facebook, always screenshot them and the profile of the user who sent it. The other user can delete their own comments, messages, and profile, and you want to preserve that information.
We always recommend posting the reporting law enforcement agency's contact information, not a family member of the missing person. We do this to prevent scams and harassment.
After you fill out the Missing Person Intake Form, here's what happens and what we can do in your case:
- One of our Family Support members will contact you. Sometimes they will ask for more information, give you support in dealing with law enforcement in the case, or find local resources for you and your family. Be sure to save their phone number or e-mail so we can keep in contact.
- Our Social Media team will create and share a missing persons flyer/video/post on all of our social profiles regarding your missing person.
- Our Investigations team will look through your case and communicate with Family Support on what other information we need, or contact you directly. If we have an available private investigator in that area, we'll communicate with them to see what they can provide at no or low cost.
Any phone or text message communication from us will always include us identifying our self as being with the Missing Coalition, and our job title within the organization. Any e-mails from us will always be from an @missingcoalition.org e-mail address.
Always report this to the reporting law enforcement agency or local FBI Field Office immediately.
A recent trend in missing persons cases is for scammers to contact the family directly, such as by their phone number posted on flyers, and use the information they've seen on the poster or in the news to convince families they have their loved one.
This is why we never post the family's contact information and recommend you always post the law enforcement agency as the point of contact.