Not necessarily the family's fault. Remember, we've seen many cases throughout the years where LE has refused taking a missing person's report, especially here where an adult (the mom) seemingly has left voluntarily with another adult (TPR) and brought her children with her.
Very true. There are so many reasons why a missing person may not have been reported, or it may appear not to have been reported back then. It's not illegal for an adult to go missing, and back when all this went down, we didn't have the internet (email, social media), only expensive long distance phone calls and snail mail. Telegrams, too, if you want to get really old school. That's it. So it was easy to lose track of someone and it not necessarily be a red flag. People used to go long periods of time without contact back then and think nothing of it. (My friend went over 10 years without contacting his mother back then. I harped on him to call her, but he was too embarrassed because so much time had gone by. He finally did.)
Also, I've noticed a trend in some of the latest identifications: the family didn't want to report them missing (or were hesitant) because the adult MP's were wanted by law enforcement. OR, the family didn't want to get them in trouble if they happened to leave due to their life style or questionable activities. Kimberlin Mills and Jimmy Hendricks weren't reported because he was on the lam. Denise Beaudin wasn't reported because her family believed she may be in financial straits and didn't want to get her in trouble, especially if they knew about TPR jacking electricity and bouncing checks. Recently, I read about an undocumented immigrant who died in 1989 in NY who wasn't a John Doe, but his family was in Europe, and they held back reporting him after they didn't hear from him in a while because they knew he'd be mad at them for contacting the authorities to report him missing. They didn't want to stir up the pot. He ended up being buried in a pauper's grave and his family just recently reclaimed him. Even though he technically wasn't missing in the US, he was buried with his real name, but to his family, he was missing all this time. So, I'm seeing cases where the family just didn't know how to handle their loved one's absence, possibly afraid it would look like they were crying wolf, especially if the MP had a criminal history or a transient, financial hardship-type lifestyle and went off the radar on purpose. What if their loved one weren't missing, just living their life? And if they were reported and found, their missing loved one could get in trouble and they’d be angry at their family. It really backs the family up against the wall. Darned if they do, darned if they don't.
Please note, I'm talking about adults here, not missing children.
I've also noticed that some folks tried to report their loved one missing, but LE wouldn't take the report because they were adults or, if teens, brushed off as a runaway. Or the MP was reported missing, but LE lost the report, the report got damaged in a flood or fire, or they closed out the report due to inactivity. Then there are some families that state they reported their loved one missing, but LE states they didn't. It’s because of all these reasons, I don’t judge the families of historical missing person cases.
