Finally Some Attention for an Ignored Case!
Black and Missing: Laws Make Search for Adults Difficult
Date: Monday, July 26, 2004
By: Associated Press
Their images on the Internet bulletin boards are haunting. Blacks, in the prime of life, who just disappeared, leaving behind family, friends and so many questions, without a trace.
Shelton Sanders, 26, often traveled between his parents home in Rempert, S.C. and Columbia where he attend the University of South Carolina. In June of 2001 Shelton called his father, a local judge, to say that he was headed home, but he never arrived.
Laquanta Riley, 20, was last seen getting into a green Ford Taurus or Chevy Caprice late on the night of Dec. 7, 2002. Rileys photograph displays a woman with a calm spirit. Montgomery, Ala. police officials said Riley was last seen wearing a green and yellow shirt, blue jeans and yellow Reeboks.
The Kansas City police said that Jonathan Williams was married on June 4 1994. Williams worked as a correctional officer in the Leeds County jail. Two days after his wedding, he left home and was never seen again.
The stories of these black missing people have rarely made it to the front pages of newspapers across the country. Their loved ones haven't been interviewed on the television networks' morning talk shows.
Yet, while these blacks remain missing, the nation has become quite familiar with a number of high profile cases like those of Chandra Levy, a Capitol Hill intern and love interest of a Congressman, whose bones were found in Washington D.C. Rock Creek Park ; Laci Peterson, a pregnant Modesto, Calif. woman who was allegedly killed by her husband Scott Peterson, after her body and the fetus washed up in San Francisco Bay ; and now Lori Kay Hacking, a pregnant Salt Lake City woman, whose disappearance last week has sparked another national search.
Is it a double standard? Is it racism? Why do young, white women who go missing get so much media attention while blacks who disappear do not? And why aren't black leaders talking about the seemingly disparate treatment?
The issue of Laci Peterson is a lot different because it was clear that she was killed, Brian K. Jordan, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington D.C., told BlackAmericaWeb.com. In the case of Chandra Levy what made the story was her relationship with a member of Congress. This is not to minimize any other cases, but that is what made that a story. Peterson was missing about four months before her decomposed body was found.
According to the FBI National Crime Information Center, 840,279 adults and juveniles were reported missing in 2001. The FBI also estimates that 85 to 90 percent of these cases were juveniles.
In 1990 Congress passed the National Child Search Act that was eventually signed into law. While the country is familiar with the Amber Alert system, family and friends often face a tougher challenge tracking down and finding adults when they disappear, according to a law enforcement official.
One of the things that makes it difficult is with adults it is not the same as a juvenile, said Jordan. A juvenile should be answering to somebody, but with an adult, they can move to another city, no one hears from them, and even if you find them, you cant tell another person where they are.
Sheriff Department officials in Sumpter County, S.C. said that they couldnt talk about Shelton Sanders case.
Sanders parents were not available, but someone who answered the phone at the familys home said that every day they hope for a break in the case.
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site...news/missing725
