The one phone call you hope you never have to make is a missing person's call.

Today's episode, Calling Colter Shaw, is the number two story in our fall series titled Missing, Found,

which highlights the different methods which are used in finding missing persons,

from science, DNA, and genealogy, as heard in our first episode,

the detective's best weapons, to our second episode, today's calling Colter Shaw.

Though the hit series tracker may not be based on true stories or events, for many families

it sheds light on actual true accounts,

wishing that there was someone out there like Colterjah to dedicate their life to finding and

solving the most difficult missing person cases. Today's missing, found story centers around the men

and women who search for missing persons. The National Crime Information Center, NCIC, database, confirms nearly 100,000 missing persons annually,

42% of which are children under 21 years of age.

There are 600,000 people declared missing every year.

Many of these, believe it or not, go missing intentionally.

Research tells us that factors like trauma, abuse, and financial trouble are primary reasons,

but there are many others.

Online enticement is a major factor in child cases.

Analysis of cases reported to NCMEC National Center for Missing Unexploited Children

show that online platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok are frequently used to entice

children into dangerous situations.

Reasons for disappearances vary.

The most common cause of missing persons reports is that of runaways, though this often

masks other issues.

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