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[Kelly]

http://bigstory.ap.o...es-missing-kids

Hope can be painful for families of missing kids

By JESSE WASHINGTON
— May. 9 2:56 PM EDT

CLEVELAND (AP) — The miraculous rescue of three missing women has given hope to many families whose loved ones have vanished. Yet hope, when searching for a long-lost child, can be a dangerous thing.

Thousands of children are missing across the country. The longer they are gone, the smaller the chance they will be found alive. So when three women who had been missing for a decade or more emerged from the house where they had been held captive, it provided an extraordinarily rare happy ending.

"I would definitely say it was a miracle," said Kelly Murphy, who founded Project Jason, after her own son vanished, to help other such families.

Murphy had worked with two of the Cleveland families while their daughters were missing. After they were found, she heard from many others who are still searching.

"The general response is that it gives us all hope," Murphy said. "I'm in the situation, too, with my son almost missing for 12 years without a trace and without clues. It definitely gives us hope that there is a chance. If it happened to those girls, it can happen to us."

"To have hope helps you get through each day, hope that there's a good answer instead of the answer that nobody wants. It just helps you keep going, because it's very difficult to have to live with ambiguous loss."

But how much does it help to hope for a miracle, which by definition is almost impossible?

Some, like Murphy, need to keep that spark alive, however small. Others, like Jody Himebaugh, need to protect their emotions.

Himebaugh knows about what happened in Cleveland but has avoided the details. His son Mark disappeared in 1991 at age 11.

"Every time I watch this kind of stuff, it rekindles the last 23 years," he said. "All it does, it just gives us hope again."

For Himebaugh, hope hurts. Whether hope is more painful than saying a permanent goodbye — that's impossible to figure.

"For the past 23 years, I've been happy for the families over that time who have recovered their kids, dead or alive," he said. "At least they've got closure. My biggest fear is I'm going to go to my grave and never know what happened to Mark, and why."

The flip side of that fear is hope — and the loved ones of the missing hold tight to every glimmer. Advocates and others often speak of persistence, of keeping missing children's images in the public eye, of always working to make sure the public stays alert for the one tiny detail that could end a family's agony.

"What an amazing time to be talking about hope, with everything that's happening," Jaycee Dugard, who was missing for more than 18 years before being rescued, said this week at an awards ceremony where she urged the audience not to give up on missing children.

In Cleveland, several religious leaders spoke on that theme Wednesday. Catholic Bishop Richard Lennon posted a video message urging viewers to pray that missing people "may have the strength of the virtue of hope and that their families also may never give up hope."

After a prayer gathering on the block where the women were found, the Rev. Larry Harris of Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church said, "There's a hope that many, many more will be coming back home."

On the block where the three women were found, Tonia Adkins was wearing a T-shirt printed with the face of her missing sister, Christina Adkins. Cristina vanished in 1995 at age 17, four blocks from the house where the women were held captive.

The arrests of three brothers has given the Adkins family hope for Christina, but has also stoked the dread that has been part of their lives for 18 years.

"I do believe that they're gonna break open some cases," Tonia Adkins said. "I'm scared that I'm gonna get the news that my sister's not alive."

The space between hope and resignation is a difficult place.

"It's an absolutely terrible predicament to be in. I can't imagine what families go through wondering — just the lack of knowing," said Bob Hoever, director of special programs with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

He recommends hope and sees this as the powerful lesson of the Cleveland case.

"I believe this is a tremendous boost to families giving them hope, that we should never give up looking for their children," Hoever said. "The National Center never stops looking for a missing child. As long as they're missing, we will continue looking."

But Sherry Hamby, a psychology professor at Sewanee: The University of the South who studies the victimization of children, said some families can become frozen in time at the point their child disappeared.

"At some point, after so many years have gone by, there's a lot to be said for closure," Hamby said. "It's just not a natural state of being for humans to be frozen in this time, waiting. We can't stay in that kind of limbo forever."

The most difficult decisions, Hamby said, can involve what seem like mundane details.

"Are you going to pack up that child's things? Are you going to convert that room to another use?" she said. "I think the need for psychological closure just is necessary because of the concrete limitations that we are facing. It's just hard to go through life trying to not make any changes."

Murphy, of Project Jason, knows families who have chosen to believe their missing child is dead, and she does not begrudge them that choice.

But Murphy holds onto hope, "because it keeps us focused on the future."

"It's just unfortunate that in our case," she said, "we don't know what the future holds."

___

Online:

Project Jason: http://www.projectjason.org

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: http://www.missingkids.org

___

Associated Press writers Meghan Barr in Cleveland and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

[Kelly]

http://www.stltoday....f0b7b2b2f2.html

For families of missing children, the pain is not knowing

May 13, 2013 6:00 am  •  By Todd C. Frankel

To her, he’s 9 years old. Brown hair and blue eyes, freckles along his nose. Small gap between his two front teeth.

“That’s what I remember, this little 9-year-old boy,” his mother, Peggy Kleeschulte, says.

Scott Kleeschulte disappeared in 1988. He walked out of his house in St. Charles on June 8, the start of summer vacation after first grade. A neighbor spotted him a few blocks away. Then Scott was gone. Vanished. No body. No clues. Among the missing. After 25 years, he’s still missing.

That’s all his mother knows.

She has suffered a quarter-century of worry and fear. Time has not dulled it. She still chokes up when talking about him. She still can’t bear to keep pictures of him up in her home, the same house on Leverenz Street where she and her husband raised Scott and his four siblings. She still thinks about him all the time.

She just wants to know what happened to her boy.

“That’s the main thing, to know one way or another,” Kleeschulte says. “It’s just hard to not have the closure.”

When any child goes missing — in those panic-soaked first moments — the ending is unknown.

In almost every case, the end comes quickly with the child returned home alive, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics. Most often they are unharmed. That was what happened earlier this month in Bloomfield, Mo., where authorities found a 9-year-old boy who had simply lost track of time playing by a creek, terrifying his mother.

Sometimes, the resolution takes days. Some are runaways.

Kidnappings by strangers are uncommon. But learning what happened can take years, as it did in Cleveland with last week’s stunning rescue of three women about a decade after they were abducted.

But in the rarest of missing-children cases, the end never comes. Families are left to forever wonder, years unspooling without any idea whether their child is alive or dead, whether he or she suffered or went quickly. It is, many say, the worst possible outcome.

‘I WANT AN ANSWER’

Kelly Murphy knows what it feels like.

She runs Project Jason, a nonprofit in Yakima, Wash., that assists the families of missing people. She said every family she had helped was thankful for the resolution when it came, even in worst-case scenarios involving a brutal murder. It surprised her at first. But she came to understand.

“Because having an answer is better than not knowing,” Murphy said.

She started Project Jason after her son, Jason Jolkowski, disappeared. He was 19, on his way to work at a Fazio’s restaurant in Omaha, Neb. He left behind money in the bank, his car, his family. That was on June 13, 2001. Investigators and his family never turned up a clue. He just vanished.

“I want an answer,” Murphy said.

Murphy watched the recent news out of Cleveland and felt elated. It was a miracle. It gave hope to mothers like her. The families in Cleveland got their answer. They no longer needed to contend with the confused feelings of loss that often arise in missing-children cases, when it’s not yet known exactly what the grief is for.

“No one can really know what it’s like to have ambiguous loss,” she said, “until it’s happened to you.”

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children currently tracks about 3,500 cases of long-term missing children. There are probably many more cases the nonprofit does not know about, said its senior executive director, Robert Lowery.

In Missouri, the state highway patrol counted 494 adults and 206 children last year among its active missing-person cases stretching back to 1953. Some were missing for weeks and others, including John Wagner, for years.

Wagner disappeared in Monroe City, Mo., in the northeastern part of the state, in 1968. He was 16. He would be 61 today. But his family is still looking for answers, using the Feb. 18 anniversary of the day he vanished to try to raise awareness of his case.

The statistics are grim. The chance of a missing child’s returning home alive fades with the passing hours and days. But then there is the Cleveland case. Plus the rescues of kidnapped children such as Shawn Hornbeck, Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard.

These can’t be the only missing children out there alive, said Lowery. “There have to be other children in this peril.”

PUBLIC INTEREST

And the public is fascinated. Meaghan Good can’t trace the exact moment when her own deep interest began. But now Good, a resident of tiny Venedocia, Ohio, runs CharleyProject.org, which runs summaries of more than 9,000 unsolved missing adults and children from across the country. It is a comprehensive database.

Good said she was motivated by a desire to keep these cases in the public’s eye. The number of visitors to her website tripled and then surged even more after the rescue of the Cleveland kidnapping victims.

Good said she couldn’t imagine how it felt to be the parent of a missing child.

“That has got to be the worst thing that can happen to a parent, even worse than knowing they died,” she said.

But, Good said, she can take some small measure of the loss. Her brother died in a car accident when he was in high school. She saw what it did to her parents. “I know how it affected them,” she said.

Becky Perry Klino never discovered what happened to her son, Branson Perry. He was 20 when he disappeared on April 11, 2001, from Skidmore, Mo. Authorities suspected foul play.

Over the years, his mother tried to keep the public interested in the case. She paid for billboards. She set up a website. She pressed the police. She wanted an answer. She died from cancer in 2011, the case unsolved. Earlier this year, a new grave marker was installed next to hers. It was for her son, even though he is still considered missing.

Scott Kleeschulte’s mother has hope. It is not the hope that her 9-year-old Scott — who now would be 34 years old — will walk through the door of her home.

Peggy Kleeschulte hopes only for an answer.

She has struggled over the years. The emotions are hard for her to explain. “I am his mother and I am not there to protect him,” she says, her voice trembling. She drives past the scenes of the fruitless searches, and freshly recalls painful moments a quarter-century old. Her mind lapses into dark thoughts when she is alone. She takes comfort in her husband and her other children and her six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

But she wants an answer. She says it seems silly to mention it, but after her father died earlier this year, she imagined he was up in heaven and maybe he saw Scott up there. She hoped maybe her father could give her some sign of what he knew.

[Kelly]

http://www.huffingto..._n_3333298.html

Missing Person Searches: French Authorities Won't Look For Missing Adults Anymore

Posted: 05/25/2013 8:23 am EDT
By David Lohr

Missing in France? Don’t expect police to come looking.

Though the United States and Canada have bolstered their missing person organizations with the help of the Internet, France has suddenly taken a step in the opposite direction. Law enforcement agencies in the country have ended missing person's searches for adults.

The news came in the form of a press release that was posted earlier this week to a government website.

“Taking into account the development of means of telecommunications and in particular the Internet, the number of [requests] … in the interest of families has considerably dropped these last years, such that this [system has essentially devolved],” wrote Laurent Touvetthe, Director of Legal and Administrative Information for the Prime Minister’s office.

As a result of the change, authorities will no longer search for adults who have been reported missing by family members. The changes took effect on Friday.

The only exception to the rule is minors, individuals who have expressed a desire to commit suicide, and cases in which there is a clear indication that the victim disappeared as a result of foul play.

According to Cabinet Martin, a private detective agency in Cannes, approximately 15,000 people disappear each year without trace in France. The number of those recovered each year is not known, but with the new policy in effect the number of those recovered will likely decrease.

“It saddens me to learn that the authorities in France are taking a step backward in their work to resolve missing person cases,” Kelly Murphy, founder of the Omaha, Nebraska-based Project Jason, told The Huffington Post.

Project Jason offers resources to families of the missing and has successfully organized grassroots efforts to pass missing-persons legislation.

Murphy started Project Jason after her 19-year-old son, Jason Jolkowski, disappeared in June 2001. He remains missing today.

“We understand the difficulty in conducting a full and proper investigation with the number of cases, but I believe they're not looking at the whole picture,” said Murphy, who, in 2010, was presented with the Volunteer for Victims award in Washington, D.C. by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

“It's not always evident that a missing person may have been the victim of a crime,” Murphy continued. “When the case is not investigated and then solved, the perpetrator will likely go on to commit other crimes, creating even more work for law enforcement and impacting more lives. Besides that, families are suffering daily without answers. It's traumatic to deal with ambiguous loss, and this leaves those families with a huge gap in their ability to retain hope since this avenue of assistance has been closed to them.”

[Kelly]

For Immediate Release:

Could High-Tech Forensic Imagery Help Find Missing Teen?

June 13, 2013 – OMAHA, NE – Thursday, June 13, marks twelve years since the disappearance of Omaha teen Jason Jolkowski, and his family hopes a new age progression photo and revamped poster will help lead to his whereabouts.

Jason Jolkowski was 19 when he vanished during an eight-block walk in Omaha along 48th Street from his home to Benson High School the morning of June 13, 2001.  His bank account and cell phone remain untouched, his car was left in the repair shop and his last paycheck left at work. It is unlikely he ran away – he was excited about a new job and was close to his family. But there are still no clues as to what happened.

One in six missing persons is found as a result of a visual aid, such as a poster or photograph, so there is hope that an age progression created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children will help.

"We have had over 1200 long term missing children recovered wherein an age progression image was done," stated Steve Loftin, supervisor of the Forensic Imaging Unit which created the image. "There have been some age progression images that have been directly attributable to a child's recovery and other age progression images that simply aided the investigator in determining whether they have found the missing child, especially if there have been a lot of years gone by since the child went missing." 

“We are confident that someone, somewhere, knows something that could bring our family the answers we desperately need,” said Kelly Murphy, Jason’s mother, and the founder of nonprofit, Project Jason, which has since helped thousands of other families with missing loved ones. “Enough time has now passed that perhaps someone will decide to do the right thing. Please help us by going to the authorities with what you know.”

Kelly Murphy was the recipient of the U.S. Justice Department’s 2010 Volunteer for Victims Award for her work helping other families of the missing. She also developed the only known annual coping skills retreat for families of both missing children and adults.

There is a reward offered for information that leads to finding Jason. If you have any information, no matter how insignificant you think it is, call the Omaha Police Department at (402) 444-5818 or you can call anonymously to the Omaha CrimeStoppers at 402-444-STOP or to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) 24-hours a day.

Printable Poster for Jason: http://projectjason....2YearPoster.pdf
Jason's information on the Project Jason website: http://projectjason....php?topic=131.0

                                                                                ###

[Kelly]

http://www.kmtv.com/.../211413271.html


Family of Missing Teen Releases Age Progressed Photo

By Marcus Cooper
CREATED 11:36 AM

Omaha - The family of a missing teen released an age progressed photo of their son on the 12th anniversary of his disappearance.

19-Year-Old Jason Jolkowski disappeared in June of 2001 while walking to work somewhere between 48th Street and Benson High School

Jolkowski's family says their son never touched his cell phone or bank account after his disappearance and his car remained in a repair shop and believe it's unlikely he ran away.

So far investigators haven't found any clues in his disappearance.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children say 1 in 6 missing persons is found as a result of a visual aid like a poster or photograph and hope the age progression photo will encourage someone to come forward with information.

If you have any information on the disappearance of Jason Jolkowski you can call the Omaha Police Department at (402) 444-5818 or make an anonymous call to CrimeStoppers at (402) 444-STOP.

You can find out more at the Project Jason website.

[Kelly]

http://www.wowt.com/...-211438871.html

12 Years Later- Jason Jolkowski Still Missing

By: LeAnne Morman
Posted: Thu 2:21 PM, Jun 13, 2013

Thursday marks 12 years since the disappearance of Omaha teenager, Jason Jolkowski.

Jason Jolkowski was 19 when he vanished and was last seen along 48th Street walking from his home to Benson High School the morning of June 13, 2001.

His bank account and cell phone remain untouched, his car was left in the repair shop and his last paycheck left at work.

His mother, Kelly Murphy has always said It is unlikely he ran away – he was excited about a new job and was close to his family.

What happened and where he is remains a mystery.

On the anniversary date, his mother released a new age progression picture of him in hopes that he would be the 1 and 6 missing persons cases usually solved because of a visual aid.

"We have had over 1200 long term missing children recovered wherein an age progression image was done," stated Steve Loftin, supervisor of the Forensic Imaging Unit which created the image. "There have been some age progression images that have been directly attributable to a child's recovery and other age progression images that simply aided the investigator in determining whether they have found the missing child, especially if there have been a lot of years gone by since the child went missing."

“We are confident that someone, somewhere, knows something that could bring our family the answers we desperately need,” said Kelly Murphy, Jason’s mother, and the founder of nonprofit, Project Jason, which has since helped thousands of other families with missing loved ones. “Enough time has now passed that perhaps someone will decide to do the right thing. Please help us by going to the authorities with what you know.”

[Kelly]

Doe Network Profile:  http://www.doenetwor...s/4727dmne.html

[Kelly]

http://www.huffingto...html?1374842908

Missing, Wandering Alzheimer's Patients A Growing Concern

Posted: 07/26/2013 8:48 am EDT  |  Updated: 07/26/2013 8:48 am EDT
By David Lohr

In some cities, there are so many homeless people wandering the streets that others barely notice anymore.

But while mental illness is frequently to blame for their situations, those suffering specifically from Alzheimer's disease may wander without knowing why they are there or where they've come from.

It's an unfortunately common problem for people with Alzheimer's to end up lost. But those who then vanish without a trace -– the people who cannot be located and are often never found –- constitute a rapidly growing crisis looming on the horizon for baby boomers and their loved ones.

"There should be more awareness," Darolyn Fagg told HuffPost. "When a patient is diagnosed, a doctor's office should be more proactive in sharing information about the available resources. We had no idea until my mother went missing."

Fagg's mother, Hellen Cook, 72, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2009. Her symptoms worsened and her ability to speak significantly diminished over time, according to her daughter.

Cook was last seen on July 13, near Warsaw, Mo., a small city about 100 miles southeast of Kansas City.

Cook and Fagg's father, Howard Cook, were at their second home in rural Benton County when she disappeared. Howard Cook said his wife of 51 years was sitting on a porch swing when he went to put his lawn mower away. When he returned, she was gone.

Despite multiple searches, Hellen Cook has never been found.

"These things can happen any given time. All it takes is a caregiver who's working really hard, to turn around for a second and the person can wander," said Beth Kallmyer, vice president of constituent services at the Alzheimer's Association.

Alzheimer's disease is fueling an increase in missing person cases worldwide and, without a cure, the problem could reach epidemic proportions by the year 2050. The disease, the most common form of dementia, is gradual, unbeatable so far and ultimately fatal. It afflicts 1 in 9 people older than 65, and according to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 6 of every 10 people with dementia will wander -- and some never to be found.

The growing number of reported cases has not gone unnoticed by organizations committed to raising awareness about missing persons. "I've seen a steady increase in our own cases in the past five years," Kelly Murphy, founder of the Omaha, Nebraska-based Project Jason, told The Huffington Post.

Project Jason offers resources to families of the missing and has successfully organized grassroots efforts to pass missing-persons legislation. Murphy started Project Jason after her son, Jason Jolkowski, disappeared in June 2001. He is still missing.

"There's approximately 125,000 search-and-rescue missions where volunteer teams are deployed ... for missing Alzheimer's patients every year," said Kimberly Kelly, founder and director of Project Far From Home, an Alzheimer's education program designed for law enforcement and search and rescue personnel.

The estimated number of reported cases is conservative, because not every department contributes to the reports, she said.

"With 5.5 million people with the disease, and 70 percent wandering away at least once, you can do the math," she said. "Even [if] it is a 10-minute wandering episode versus a 10-day episode, you're still looking at potentially 3 million people who would be walking away any given year. It's huge."

For many families, a lack of education about the disease fuels the problem.

Patricia Bryan has been looking for her father, Kenneth Lawson, since June 6. The 76-year-old was last seen at his home in Union Point, Ga. A number of exhaustive searches has been conducted, all to no avail.

"We have had no leads on the whereabouts of my father," Bryan said. "He was not always in a state of confusion. He would have moments were he would check out or not know where he was, but this was not all the time. Up till my father went missing, I didn't realize just how many people with dementia and Alzheimer's went missing on a daily basis. The media does not do them justice."

With each day, the odds of finding any missing person decrease, but when the missing person suffers from an impairment, the odds are worse. Alzheimer's patients do not wander without an actual cause; very few have hallucinations. They typically are going somewhere, looking for something, and don't actually consider themselves lost, so they don't reach out for help. The environment also can play a pivotal role

"In Virginia, if an Alzheimer's patient is not found in 24 hours, about 46 percent are found dead. In Nova Scotia, the mortality rate is 70 percent. In parts of California, we've never recovered a live Alzheimer's patient after 24 hours," Kelly said.

And it's a problem that will continue to grow. Unless a cure is found, an estimated 16.5 million people will suffer from Alzheimer's by the year 2050.

"In the next 20 years, it's going to bloom because of the baby boomer population," said Amanda Burstein, project manager of Alzheimer's Initiatives for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "That, in tandem with people using alert system's, we'll be seeing it more and it will be happening more because there are more of us at risk for it."

Earlier in 2013, the Obama administration dedicated an additional $100 million within President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget to the fight against Alzheimer's. A "National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease" was also implemented. The goal is to prevent and effectively treat the disease by 2025.

The success of the president’s initiative is difficult to predict. In the interim, better education for the families of Alzheimer's patients and members of law enforcement could help curb the problem.

"If someone does go missing, you need to call 911 immediately," said Kallmyer. "It's not a situation where you wait 24 hours, because they are vulnerable and can't necessarily find their way home or take care of themselves. It's always an emergency."

Thirty-two states in the United States have some form of public notification system -- sometimes referred to as a Silver Alert -- to broadcast information about missing seniors with Alzheimer's disease, dementia or other mental disabilities. The guidelines are governed on a state-by-state basis. The goal is to have an alert system in every state, but that has not been easy, according to Kelly, who said some of the opponents are members of abducted children's groups.

"They are afraid that equipment would be utilized for Silver Alerts and the [public's] attention would be diluted for Amber Alerts," she said. "The problem with that is that we're starting to see even more cases where you have an elderly grandparent who has custody of grandchildren. You see cases where grandma is going to take a baby for a walk and doesn't come back."

J. Todd Matthews, southeast regional director of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which was created by the U.S. Department of Justice, said he is seeing an increase in general in missing persons cases.

Alzheimer's is a defining disease of a rapidly aging population and knowledge is key, he said.

"I think we will be very wise to put great thought into this issue as soon as possible," he said. "The population is growing and so will this issue without efforts to prevent it. Awareness is the first step. It's an investment in our own potential future. How would you want to be treated if it were you? It very well might be one day."

For more information on the disease or to learn how you can take steps to help prevent a loved one from wandering, call the Alzheimer's Association free 24-hour hotline at 800-272-3900.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.huffingto..._n_4004406.html

Help Find Shauntay Mayfield, Jason Jolkowski And Other Missing People
David Lohr
Posted: 09/27/2013 2:24 pm EDT  |  Updated: 09/27/2013 2:24 pm EDT

More than 600,000 men, women and children are reported missing in the United States each year.

Please take a few moments to read the stories of this week's missing people. If you recognize one of them, help end a family’s uncertainty by contacting the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Typically someone, somewhere knows or sees something that could help law enforcement recover a missing person. And whether you realize it or not, that someone could be you.

Michael Bayne
Authorities in South Boardman, Mich., are seeking the public's help in locating 45-year-old Michael Bayne. According to Project Jason, Bayne was last seen at his home on Aug. 26. His whereabouts and reason for his disappearance are unknown. His glasses, watch and wallet were all found inside his home. Family members told police it would be out of character for him to take off. Bayne is described as 6 feet 1 inches tall, 190 pounds. He has blond hair and blue eyes and noticeable freckles. He was last seen wearing a green flannel shirt, jeans or sweatpants and black tennis shoes. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Kalkaska County Sheriff's Department at (231) 258-3350.

Deserae "Des" Bedsworth
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports that Missouri police are trying to locate Deserae Bedsworth. The 17-year-old from Warrenton was last seen on Sept. 18, her birthday. No further details on her disappearance are available at this time. She is described as 110 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches tall. She has blonde hair and brown eyes. Her ears are pierced. Anyone with information on Bedsworth's whereabouts is asked to contact NCMEC at (800) 843-5678.

Taji Rakwaan Blackston
Taji Blackston, 17, of Virginia Beach, VA, was last seen on Sept. 21. Authorities have only said he is considered a runaway. No further details are available at this time. Blackston is described as African-American, 165 pounds and 5 feet 11 inches tall. He has black hair blonde hair and brown eyes. His hair is styled as a flat top and he has a goatee. Authorities also said the teen has tattoos, but no description of them has been provided. Anyone with information is asked to contact Virginia State Police at (804) 674-2000.

Kristine Bruce
Thirty-eight-year-old Kristine Bruce was last seen in Kissimmee, Fla., on Sept. 6. According to police, Bruce, who is a certified public accountant for Disney Cruise Lines, apparently wandered away from her home. Investigators said the woman recently underwent surgery and was being treated for depression. Her purse, identification and cell phone were all found inside her home. Bruce is described as 210 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches tall, with medium-length brown hair and brown eyes. She has several tattoos, including a large gothic rabbit on her right shoulder and arm. Anyone with information is asked to call the Osceola County Sheriff's Office Crimeline at (800) 423-8477.

Alexa Brianna Ikard
Eighteen-three-year-old Alexa Ikard, of Lincolnton, N.C., has not been seen since 10:30 a.m. Thursday, near East Highway 27 in Lincolnton. According to police, Ikard suffers from autism and may be lost and in a neighboring county. She is described as being 4 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a gray shirt with a pink flower, black leggings, and earrings. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at (704) 732-9050.

Mehria Mansury
Authorities in California are investigating the disappearance of 79-year-old Mehria Mansury. According to the San Diego Police Department, Mansury was last seen at about 8 a.m. Tuesday, at her home in the 2800 block of Amulet Street. Authorities said Mansury's family members are concerned about her whereabouts and suspect foul play in her disappearance. She is described as Middle Eastern, 140 pounds and 5 feet 1 inch tall, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at (619) 531-2293.

Shauntay Mayfield
Shauntay Mayfield, 17, of Brooklyn, NY, has been missing since Thursday. She was last seen on East 102nd Street. Not further details on her disappearance have been released. Mayfield is described as African-American, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 225 lbs. Anyone with any information is asked to contact the NYPD Missing Persons Squad at (212) 694-7781.

Anarae Kristine Schunk
Police in Burnsville, Minn., are asking for the public's help locating Anarae Schunk, a missing University of Minnesota student. Schunk, 20, was last seen in the company of 31-year-old Shavelle Oscar Chavez-Nelson. According to Burnsville police, Nelson was charged Thursday with second-degree murder in the Sept. 22 shooting death of Palagor Jobi. Schunk was with Chavez-Nelson the night of the shooting and has not been seen since. Police have named Chavez-Nelson a "person of interest" in Schunk's disappearance. Schunk has green eyes, she is approximately 5 feet and 9 inches tall and weighs about 165. She was last seen wearing a white, zip-up jacket with a University of Minnesota logo on the chest. She had a camouflage backpack with her. Authorities said Schunk is not a suspect in the homicide investigation. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Burnsville Police Department at 952-895-4636. A Facebook page has also been set up to help find her.

Joseph Swett
Sept. 17 was the last time family members saw 20-year-old Joseph Swett, of Los Angeles, Calif. According to North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch, Swett, who has Autism, was last seen in the 8600 block of Sunland Boulevard. He is described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a black sleeveless T-shirt, black pants, and white shoes. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Los Angeles Police Department at (213) 996-1800.

Gerald Paul VanDyke
Authorities in LeBoeuf Township, PA., are trying to locate 55-year-old Gerald VanDyke. The to Erie Times-News reports he was last seen on the morning of Sept. 14, when he left his Smith Road residence in his silver 2003 Dodge Dakota crew cab pickup truck with license plate YKW 4528. Rockdale Township resident Richard Houy, 68, has allegedly admitted to killing Vandyke and dumping his body in French Creek, police said. Houy has been charged with criminal homicide, criminal use of a communication facility, tampering with or fabricating evidence, and false reports to law enforcement. He is being held in the Crawford County jail without bond. According to The Meadville Tribune, the victim and Houy's daughter were in the process of ending a long term relationship. Multiple searches have been conducted for VanDyke, but he has not yet been located. Anyone with information is asked to contact Pennsylvania State Police at (814) 898-1641.

COLD CASE OF THE WEEK:
Jason Anthony Jolkowski
Jason Jolkowski, 19, of Omaha, Neb., has been missing since June 13, 2001. According to family members, Jolkowski, an employee at a restaurant in Omaha, received a call from his boss that morning and was asked to come in early. The teen's car was in the shop so he arranged to meet a coworker at Benson High School, only seven blocks from his home. It's believed that Jolkowski got dressed in his work uniform and then set off for the school. Somewhere along the way he vanished without a trace. Following Jolkowski's disappearance, his mother Kelly Murphy founded Project Jason, a nonprofit organization that works to increase public awareness of missing person cases. The organization's Web site can be found at www.projectjason.org. Anyone with information about this case should contact the Omaha Police Department at 402-444-5818.

Each and every missing person, regardless of age, race, gender and circumstance, deserves to be found. Please join us in our campaign to raise awareness by sharing the link to this story on your social media accounts.