Time Magazine: Here’s How Long It Takes the Internet to Forget a Missing Person

http://time.com/2992332/forgetting-missing-people/

Even the most covered unsolved missing person cases seem to hold attention for 6 months

Interest in some of the most covered, open missing persons cases fell by 90% from their peak within 4 to 8 months, according to Google data. These cases include Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old student who disappeared June 3, 2011; Lisa Irwin, a baby reported missing October 4, 2011; Holly Bobo, a 20-year-old student abducted April 13, 2011; and Kyron Horman, a 7-year-old who vanished on June 4, 2010.

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I believe that factors can influence this. In Aus we have had two high profile missing children's cases that come to mind. The first was a teenage boy named Daniel Morcombe who disappeared while waiting for a bus, his family continually put pressure on the police and media, toured schools with safety awareness programmes, started a foundation and actively followed leads, about ten years later the case was solved, a pedophile jailed and his remains found.

A more recent case involves a toddler who's parents are unable to be in the media spotlight due to family court reasons. Interest in the case was recently spiked again with police investigating potential leads but otherwise people are no longer interested.

Family members may be able to influence how prolific a case remains.

Very interesting article. I would imagine that the more sensational cases garner more and longer interest.

I think this is what happens: A high-profile case will stay in the news for as long as things are happening. Developments, people talking, news releases, press conferences, etc. However, eventually, it reaches a point where nothing is happening. The case drops out of the media. So the public can still discuss the case---based on what they know---which tends to be a month or less of information. And usually after this initial media interest period is over, very little info will be released about a case, until the trial. The reason why a case like JonBenet Ramsey can be discussed for 18+ years is because of the sheer volume of information out there about it. But for pretty much every unsolved case on WS, you have a very small period of high media interest where lots of info is being released---but not enough info to sustain a discussion for years.

When a case is "hot", any new development get tons of posts. Once the media interest dies down, you start to realize that there really wasn't that much info released about the case. A lot of the developments had more to do with the actions of people involved afterwards, which are interesting to discuss at the time, but not for much longer.