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CNN Sunday Morning

Missing Persons Cases Common in U.S.

Aired July 08, 2001 - 07:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Chandra Levy's disappearance has amassed an exorbitant amount of national attention. But each year, thousands of people are reported missing, most of whom we never hear about. Why do they vanish and are they usually found?

CNN's Anne McDermott has some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Where is Mike Negrete? The 18-year-old college student was last seen at his dorm at UCLA back in December of 1999. In the bureaucratic world of sober statistics, Mike Negrete is a missing person. To his parents, he is a heartbreaking mystery.

MARY NEGRETE, MISSING STUDENT'S MOTHER: No one would believe that somebody could just disappear without a trace.

MCDERMOTT: At any one time, there are thousands of people missing in the U.S., missing voluntarily or not, for all kinds of reasons, some because they just want to disappear. Most do turn up eventually.

Fifteen years ago, they might have been spotted on a milk carton. More recently, "America's Most Wanted" helped find such people as alleged SLA member Kathleen Solia. Many more are tracked down by police or simply surface themselves. So far, that hasn't happened in the Chandra Levy case.

But since she's been missing, New York City had 1,870 missing person reports and most of those have since been resolved. The case is closed. And in Houston and in Los Angeles, it's the same story. Last year, in fact, Los Angeles closed 99 percent of its missing persons cases. Most involved domestic partners. One officer says publicity about a case can help but...

SGT. JOE PURCELL, L.A. COUNTRY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: There's so many cases out there that some just never get reported. It's that they're not news worthy or they slip through the cracks.

MCDERMOTT: Not every closed case means a happy ending. A missing person may be a dead person or someone who doesn't want to go home.

ROBERT MANN, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: We can't take them. We can't abduct them ourselves because that would be kidnapping.

MCDERMOTT: Some cases are best known because they have never absolutely solved -- the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa. Also, in the unsolved category, at least for now, the intern everyone's talking about and a young man who disappeared without a word.

NEGRETE: Just a totally unbelievable story.

MCDERMOTT: Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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