According to the NAM Us database, the National Missing and Unidentified Person System,

600,000 people roughly declared missing every year, just in the United States.

Some of them, the great majority of them,

thankfully turn up quickly and are taken out of the system.

Kids who wandered off, adults who decided on an impromptu change of scenery,

miscommunications, that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, many of them are also found to be no longer alive.

The dead bodies of missing people are discovered every day.

Many thanks to ever evolving forensic science, are identified,

leading to at least some closure for the victims' families,

but many others almost 90,000 a year,

and just the US, at any given moment in recent years have not been found.

We don't know if they're alive or dead, if they've been sexually trafficked,

or if they're homeless, disoriented, due to mental illness or drug use or both,

or have just left to start a new life somewhere else without telling anybody.

When somebody goes missing, initially, there's typically a burst of energy at the beginning to find them.

Maybe the family makes calls to news stations, distributes flyers, combs the area where the person was last

seen.

As the weeks wear on, they continue to search vigilantly,

holding out hope that they'll be reunited with their family member.

Months later, it's getting a lot harder to hold on to that hope,

to keep the momentum going.

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