Have you ever searched for a missing person?

Yes, I have been searching for my lost brother a while now. He lives in the UK. He doesn’t even know his parents are late. Also for my aunt who lives in Wales as she too does not know her brother is late.

Came looking just for this after I saw you FB post! What happened?

I searched for my own daughter for one terrifying weekend. She was 6, and had gone on an overnight visit with her wack job bio-mom…and they weren’t where the wack job said they’d be, at the apartment. Couldn’t find her. I was TERRIFIED.

My brother and sister married a brother and sister. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law had one other sister who was a year older than me. We all went to school together and knew each other from our siblings dating. The summer after she’d graduated high school when she was 17, the sister of my inlays borrowed their mother’s car to go to Dairy Queen. She never came home. We looked and searched for two years. Loggers found her decapitated body in the woods.

At the time, I was 16 and thought she would turn up one day with stories of beaches and parties and lovers we’d only imagined in novels. Everyone thought she’d runaway from home because her parents always fought and were pretty neglectful of the children. Little did we know she was killed over the car and drugs.

I have searched for missing persons on a number of different levels (e.g., computer search, walking through woods with my search dog, etc.). How it made me feel depended entirely on the circumstances. The computer searching was far less threatening feeling that being called out on searches with my dogs to find lost or missing persons (who may, in fact, be deceased). What are you searching for?

My first grandson was taken by his baby-sitter when her former boy-friend showed up at my son & daughter-in-law’s house & forced her to go with him. The police were notified when a neighbor saw the front door open & checked & found no one at home. They notified my son & my daughter-in-law & they called me. The former boy-friend was wanted by the police for probation violation. All of us were searching for them. My grandson was a little less than a year old at the time & he was missing all day & well into the night before the police found him & his baby-sitter & the former boy-friend in Tyler, TX. It nearly scared me witless. He was safe & sound, & so was the woman who was his baby-sitter. The former boy-friend was charged with kidnapping.

@Dutchess_III What happened was that a 13 year old girl, who is one of my daughter’s best friends, went missing this morning. She had apparently been fighting with her parents for quite a while, and decided she needed some space, so she took off in the middle of the night.

Her dad called me this morning, in an absolute panic, so I threw some clothes on, made my kiddos get dressed, and we took off to look for her. We drove for several hours before her dad had this weird feeling to check another friend’s house again, even though he’d already been there.

Sure enough, she had gotten there a few minutes before, and had apparently just been walking through the neighborhood all that time to clear her head. Thank God, she’s smart enough to stay off the beaten path, so while she was walking, she made sure to stay fairly hidden, so she wouldn’t get picked up by someone.

I was right behind her dad when she was found, and was shocked as all hell when she ran to me, instead of her dad. That’s when she whispered to me why she left, while her dad was making tearful phone calls. She cried, I cried, we all cried…........ then she had to deal with the cops and explain herself, and it was decided that since she “needed some space” from her parents, she should come stay with me for a few days.

So she’s here now, for as long as she wants. I’ve been talking to her, reminding her that despite the arguments, her parents love her very much, and that she can never just take off like that again, because we were all freaking the hell out. I kind of slip things in, here and there, leave it alone so she can process it, then slip some more into the conversation later. UGH, me the uber bitchy person as a teenage counselor. But I adore this girl, so I’m trying to do whatever I can.

Thank God it had a happy ending, @WillWorkForChocolate. You are a good woman and your friends are truly blessed to have you in their lives.

How terrifying, @Linda_Owl. Also, thank God for the happy ending with your grandchild.

Geez, @Shippyj, that is very sad.

Thanks, @bkcunningham! These friends pretty much only call when they want something, especially something for free… but I love their daughter, so I really don’t say anything. If I thought they’d allow me to actually do it, I’d ask to keep her here when they move out of state next year. I’m gonna miss her like crazy. :(

And @Linda_Owl That is terrifying! Thank goodness it ended well.

I helped in a search for an elderly man who wandered away from a nursing home. We didn’t find him, but we were very close. He floated to the surface of a pond that was in the search area after we left. The group I was with got separated from the main group and got lost in tall grass and needed rescued ourselves. I can imagine how a dementia patient could get hopelessly lost where we were.

That is very sad, @majorrich.

@majorrich WTF? Ummm, do you live close to Dallas, TX? That just happened here, at a nursing home that my husband works at all the time.

This was in Cincinnati, 1991 or so. It was shortly before my son was born.

Oh, just had to ask, haha.