Dateline NBC’s social and digital series ‘Missing in America’ began on December 5, 2013, following a question the night before to our Facebook community, “Do you know anyone who has simply vanished?” The response was overwhelming. Since that first post, every Monday, we have featured the story of a different missing person brought to our attention from a member of our online communities.
On this third anniversary of the series, more than a third of those we have featured are still missing. Several have had someone charged in connection with their cases. In others, a person has been convicted of their murder. But they still have not been brought home.
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This map shows all the locations across the country where those part of our Dateline Missing in America remain missing from.
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Click link belowfor article and photos with stories of persons still missing:
Nearly 170 victims of child sex trafficking, many of whom had never been reported missing, were rescued in the last week as part of an annual nationwide crackdown, the FBI said Monday.
Besides the 168 children rescued from the sex trade, 281 pimps were arrested during the same period on state and federal charges.
“These are not faraway kids in faraway lands,” FBI Director James Comey said in announcing the annual enforcement push known as Operation Cross Country. Instead, he added, “These are America’s children.”
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Nearly 170 victims of child sex trafficking, many of whom had never been reported missing, were rescued in the last week as part of an annual nationwide crackdown, the FBI said Monday. | Zigy Kaluzny via Getty Images
As a young boy, David Amaya was told that his mother abandoned him in Mexico and fled for the United States.
The truth is that Kathy Amaya has been looking for David for more than 30 years. She told KNSD this week that David — now 37 — is back in the country after her estranged husband abducted him and took him to Mexico when he was a young child.
“I went to file a report, and they were saying they couldn’t do anything because he was in Mexico,” Kathy told WEAU.
She said she never gave up the search and hopes to finally be able to see him in person — as a man.
She explained that her ex picked up little David from her sister in Chicago and never returned. Decades later, she got an unlikely call.
“The border patrol in San Diego called me and told me that they had someone detained that was crossing the border and he said his name was David Amaya,” she told WEAU.
A suspicious Missouri school official led police to a woman who allegedly kidnapped her own grandson 13 years ago.
Sandy Hatte, 60, is accused of taking the boy from his Florida home in 2000, when the child was an infant. She recently tried to enroll him in a Livingston County, Mo., school, but an official saw red flags, ABC News reports.
“They had some concerns about an individual who had enrolled a child into school and had some concerns if they were the actual parent,” Livingston County Det. Eric Menconi told the station.
The official was right. Authorities now believe that Hatte kidnapped the boy more than a decade ago while his father was at work. When she tried to send him to the school, she claimed to be his mother, WDAF reports.
A 6-year-old girl who went missing last week was found dead in a Dumpster early Tuesday morning near the apartment complex where she lived.
Louisiana police say that Ahlittia North was last seen by her mother and stepfather when they put her to bed around 11 p.m. Friday night, WWLTV reports.
The next day, North — along with her blanket, toothbrush and toothpaste — were gone.
Lisa North, who reported her daughter missing, was contacted by authorities Tuesday around 1 a.m., shortly after the girl’s body was discovered.
“I didn’t think they were going to tell me she was dead,” North, 20, told the Times-Picayune.
On Monday, authorities with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office identified 20-year-old Matthew Flugence as a “person of interest.” Flugence is a relative of North, WDSU reports.
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Ahlittia North
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The body of 8-year-old Cherish Lily Perrywinkle was discovered near a church in Jacksonville, Fla. around 10 a.m. Saturday, Jacksonville.com reported.
UPDATE: Initial reports suggested that Cherish Perrywinkle’s mother allowed her daughter to go to McDonald’s with Donald James Smith. The mother has now told Action News Jax that she did not realize Smith left with the girl.
Perrywinkle was abducted from a Walmart in Jacksonville at around 11 p.m. Friday.
Donald James Smith, a registered sex offender, has been arrested and charged with murder, according to Action News Jax.
Police have not commented on the cause of Perrywinkle’s death.
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Charish Lilly Perriwinkle, 8, was found dead Saturday morning after being abducted from a Walmart in Jacksonville, Fla. Friday night.
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A 17-year-old Pennsylvania mother and her 5-month-old daughter are missing, and Philadelphia police are asking for help in trying to locate the pair.
Jerrica Laguins was last seen Thursday, May 30, boarding the subway in West Philadelphia. She was with her daughter, Paris. Their intended destination is unknown and they have not been seen since, police said.
Authorities notified the public about the disappearance of Laguins and her daughter on Tuesday.
Jerrica Laguins is described as an African-American female, 5-foot-6 and weighing around 155 pounds. She was last seen wearing a purple shirt, black pants, purple sandals and a pink and brown Kangol hat.
Her daughter was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with blue flowers and dark blue jeans
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Have you seen Jerrica Laguins and her daughter?
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Authorities have recovered the body of Holly Fischer, a missing North Carolina woman whose car was found at the bottom on an 800-foot embankment Sunday night.
Investigators had been searching for Fischer since last week, when she left her parents’ home in Knox County, Tenn., presumably for her home in Charlotte, N.C.
“It is with unbearable sadness that we can confirm that she was not found alive. Our hearts are broken … We are all devastated to lose our beautiful daughter, sister and friend,” Fischer’s family said in a statement posted to a Facebook page created to share information on the case.
According to the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office, a family friend who was searching for Fischer contacted authorities Sunday night and told he spotted car tracks going off the road in an area off N.C. 16 in Millers Creek, N.C.
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Authorities have recovered the body of missing N.C. woman Holly Fischer.
A popular teacher who disappeared after a night of partying more than two weeks ago was seen driving alone away from a bar on surveillance footage that New Orleans police found.
Witnesses said they last saw Terrilyn Monette around 4 a.m. on March 2, in a parking lot talking to a man near the bar where she’d been celebrating her nomination for a teacher of the year award in her district. By daybreak, she and her black 2012 Honda Accord were gone.
The trail had gone cold until the Times-Picayune reported that New Orleans police found several stoplight cameras and security cameras on homes and businesses that show the 26-year-old at the wheel of her car around 5:15 a.m. the day she vanished.
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Terrilyn Monette disappeared on March 2.
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LAS VEGAS — Police suspect that a casino worker killed a 10-year-girl before going to a Las Vegas resort and allegedly slashing the face of a co-worker with razor blades.
The search for Jade Morris ended Friday afternoon when officials confirmed that it was her body that was found a day earlier in an undeveloped housing tract.
The Clark County coroner’s office said she died of multiple stab wounds. Jade was last seen Dec. 21 with family friend Brenda Stokes Wilson, who picked her up to go Christmas shopping.
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Brenda Stokes Wilson appears in Clark County
Justice Court, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Las Vegas.
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Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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