According to the FBI, there are as many as 100,000 active missing persons cases in the United States everyday. Having a loved one go missing is a nightmare. After you report your case to the police, your options are not limited. Take action! There’s a lot you can do to find your missing person.
Make Noise! In 2007, when Lisa Stebic, the mother of two disappeared from her Plainfield, Ill. home, her family and friends took action immediately and made her story a national obsession. They were so successful that people from across the globe have become involved. If someone you love disappears, make as much noise as possible to keep the focus on finding them. Here are a few critical tips which could help you in the campaign to bring your missing loved one home.
- Report your case to the police.
- Choose a confident spokesperson who will always be available to the media.
- Establish an online presence with a website, a blog, a Facebook group or a MySpace page.
- Keep putting up new information online.
- Gather clear, high-resolution photos and videos of your loved one which you can post online, share with the media, and use for posters, flyers, or other handouts.
- Create a press release.
- Set up a press conference. Contact all local media outlets, invite them to events you host to promote your case.
- Focus on the visual.
- Wear bright colors when appearing on camera and make eye contact during interviews.
- Create posters and banners to hang during your media events.
Click here for a downloadable guide with the above information and more, to help you make noise, and keep the focus on your missing loved one.
Watch the videos for an in-depth guide. They will walk you through the process with Melanie Greenberg, Lisa Stebic’s cousin a stay-at-home mom who had no experience with the media but did a professional job of bringing world wide attention to her family’s quest to bring Lisa home!
11 Comments on "Making Noise! Bringing Attention To Your Missing Loved One"
Jo Berry
How do I go about putting up about two missing people 1 is a 16yr old boy and the other is a 15 yr old girl ? They are missing from the Portland Metro area in Oregon. Thier names are Amanda Ward and Devin Luv. Please let me know the family is really worried about both of them. Her family and his.
A worried Friend,
Jo Berry
Karen Eason
How can I add my daughter to your missing kids list?
Dawn Bopp
My 16 year old daughter is missing and has been since September 27 how can I get her on a list in the Indianapolis, IN area. I am worried and need help.
marianne asher-chapman
Thank you for all your wonderful advice. My daughter went missing oct.25th,2003. I have co-founded missourimissing.org .We all need all the help we can get. I learned some very good things from you tonight.
Sissy Schrewsbury
I have a missing cousin he has been missing for 16 years now because he is an adult and rumored to be involved in drugs and may be in witness protection our family may never know if he is alive or dead. He was last seen in Jacksonville Fla. He was reported missing but that is as far as it went His name is Richard Schrewsbury (Richie) from Coal City WV if any one knows him please tell him we love and miss him
Julie Ray
Im trying to help my sister-in-law find her sister that has been missing 14 years. She left Honduras on June 30 1994 and also left a three year old daughter and 1/i2 year old son. She was going to the states we believe. Her name is Paula Beatriz, she may have changed her name to Fabiola? She was born on June 29th 1971. Her home was Bonito Oriental. Her mother and children beg anyone to help find her!
Can You Help?
Jacquie Knoedler
When my son went missing we had a hard time even reporting it to the police because he was 27 yrs. old but we did finally get it done.
My daughter and I are on myspace for yrs. we changed our default pic to a missing poster my son-in-law had made. It had Ryan’s pic,car,license plate and showed all of his tattoos,had the story of where he was last seen. We joined every website we could to get his face and info out there. We posted bulletins and reposted. All we could not seem to get was the media’s help and we wrote all of them.We plastered posters everywhere,we made maps up and went out everyday looking for his car and him.
He went missing 10-16-08 and we finally after 5 wks. got word on 11-23-08 that he had been found in a 1 car accident and had been in a revene upside down for the entire 5 wks. The coroner listed cause of death as drowing.
We would not give up till he was found. The only thing we lacked was media’s help at least till after he was found.
I think that you are great to post this so people know what to do.I am hoping to use my son’s death to bring awareness like you have to others not to ever give up even on the worst days we never stopped networking for him.
God bless you for getting this out there so others can be educated and know they are not alone.
debra pardee
My grandson was taken from his mother in 2002. He was taken by his father without permission. My daughter was told by police that without custody she couldn’t do anything about it. She can’t get custody without haveing the child. We have not seen or heard from him since he walked out 6 yrs ago. We have hired PI’s with no help. The police don’t seem to think its important. What can we do to get him found and returned to us.
Griselda Gonzalez
I am a desperate mother of two missing children. Tammy and Diego (4 and 3 years old) were abducted by the father on October 2007. There’s not a trace.
I tried everything I could but there’s not support, I contacted the media but nobody care for it is a family abduction, they don’t care about an abusive father putting our children in danger to make me suffer.
It is almost a year and a half and the investigation is getting cold.
I would like to know what else can i do. What resources would be available for us.
John Ferenc for Bronislawa Ferenc my 85 yr old Mom
My 85 year old, widowed, Mom, a mother of 4, a Grandmother of 2, a Great-Grandmother of 1 and her 1995 4 Door WHite Oldsmobile Delta 88 went missing on Febraury 12, 2009. The Police have been looking, the Sheriffs have been looking, the community has been looking, I have been begging and still, no sight of her or the car. Did my Mom have an enemy? NO! Did my Mom pray every day for the peach of the World? YES! Did my Mom care for my SIster, with MS, and was her primary caregiver for over 20 years? YES! Should this be how she is rememeber? NO! Nor it will be.
Dayythenn Guedea
I need help on this do not know what can be done , but i know taking a child with violence is a crime no matter if it is the father no one is helping me or my daughter fight this we have no money for a lawyer . Please this is a case of abuse of my daughter and the way the child was taken. What can we do. We need justice please. They think its ok .
Desperate in Sherman,texas!!!!! Time is running out.
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