MissingNoMore is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in Arizona proudly standing on Christian values to serve and protect the most vulnerable, the least of these, in our communities. Our mission is to provide aid through proactive search and rescue efforts and financial support of partnering organizations for the purpose of finding missing children and safely restoring them to their families. No child should ever go missing, but, for those that do, we exist that they will not stay missing.
No Child Should Ever Go Missing | No Child Should Ever Stay Missing
Many things are said today about the crisis of missing persons cases with variances of perspectives occurring on both local and national stages. Some agencies report the rarity of missing persons reports with the assurance that almost all cases are resolved within a few days or weeks. If this was true, it would still be unacceptable. One is too many! And waiting days or weeks for potential resolution is torment no parent should have to endure.
Regardless, such reporting does not accurately fit the data. It is reported that approximately 600,000 individuals go missing in the United States every year.* This likely does not include the nearly 300,000 undocumented children who traveled unaccompanied across the border in the last few years; their whereabouts are currently unknown with certain experts claiming that it is nothing more than a clerical issue regarding missing paperwork.* However, other sources indicate the problem may be what we fear.** The truth of the matter is that there is a systemic problem in our country and children are paying the highest price.*
What we know is that the Amber Alert system is not activated for all cases involving a child who has gone missing; instead, Amber Alerts are only utilized in situations in which a child is known to have been abducted.* Unfortunately, much of this information will not be fully known until an investigation has been conducted. And, yet, in the United States in 2021 alone, a single hotline received reports of 10,359 incidents of human trafficking involving 16,554 victims.* However shocking this research may appear, it pales in comparison to the reports that there are an estimated 500,000 predators online every day specifically targeting and soliciting children.*
While numbers can speak volumes, it is also important to remember that each number has a face, each is a cherished loved one unjustly suffering. Natalee Cramer was 15-years-old when she became one of those faces. In 2022, she was abducted from a Dallas Mavericks game and immediately sexually assaulted, sexually trafficked across state lines, and sexually exploited online. Approximately 9-months later, 8 men were arrested and sentenced but 3 others were never indicted. Through the entire experience, there were multiple intervention points in which she could have been rescued.
From the very onset, Dallas police did not issue an Amber Alert; and, instead required her father to file a report with his local police department (more than 30-miles away) classifying his daughter as a runaway. After attempting to do so, his local police department claimed jurisdictional issues since the incident occurred in a different city. After multiple agonizing days of unsuccessful police investigation, Natalee’s parents hired a private investigator.
Today, Natalee is safe, healthy, and recovering; but, not all stories end this way. Most importantly, it never should have happened in the first place.*
“Sensitive men dare not be silent. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. To do nothing when a house is burning is to do something. It is to let the house burn.”
Robert Hudnut
A Sensitive Man and the Christ
According to a 2023 report from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), there were a recorded 96,955 active entries for missing persons activities with only 64,169 being specifically categorized as having been successfully located. A review of multiple years of data indicates that the figures from 2023 were not outliers but are instead the expected norm. Another source cites that in 2021 there were 521,705 missing persons cases filed with 485,000 of those cases being resolved within the same year;* this leaves 36,705 unresolved cases based on the numbers provided. Taking into consideration other potential factors, it is simply stated that there are over 20,000 unresolved missing persons cases yearly. Arizona is currently ranked 6th worst in this matter with over 1,000 open cases. California tops the chart with over 3,300 active unresolved cases.*
Because this is not as rare an issue as some attempt to claim, many counties refer pleas for help to local private investigators; the obvious problem is that private investigators, even when wanting to act charitably, can be expensive and the most vulnerable within the community lack the funds to hire their services.
Join us in this fight to bring them all home! No longer can we bury our heads in the sand or expect the crisis to be resolved by government institutions; the problem is real, it’s happening, and it needs to stop! The fact of the matter is that local and federal law enforcement agencies, for many different reasons, are overwhelmed and only capable of devoting so many resources to the issue. This is furthered by matters of policy, disputes of jurisdiction, and understaffing of patrol officers (to name only a few hindrances). But, if it was your child or loved one, you would hope to devote an unlimited supply of resources and manpower with the only acceptable outcome being his or her safe return home.