5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

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5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:17 pm

http://www.cracked.com/article_21960_5-strange-realities-being-missing-person.html

Based on this article, the genitals article, and some other personal experience articles, it seems that PWoT Syndrome truly is a global pandemic. Seriously, it's a missing person, cops shouldn't just shrug it off like that. I guess they were too distracted by her extensive hentai collection.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby thatindianguy » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:20 pm

I guess movies and T.V have convinced us that each murder and kidnapping is an event.

To the guys doing the investigation, it's just another day at the office.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby DomaDoma » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:24 pm

The police of a rural barrio region in my area can't even be arsed to deal with homicide. If there aren't any relatives complaining, they'll call it suicide if they have to say he shot himself in the head twice and then walked half a mile.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby sunglasses » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:29 pm

Eric, unless it's a child, most missing person's cases aren't really handled well.

Here's actual guidelines/training manual: http://www.ct.gov/post/lib/post/pdf_doc ... eports.pdf

Here's some info: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/missi ... ons/print/

I mean, the missing persons problem is so bad there are websites devoted to identifing the Jane and John Doe's for the unidentified bodies. Not only can't they find missing people, they can't identify the ones they have.
http://canyouidentifyme.org/home

there's a missing kid's clearinghouse. http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/missing/#/

That took the wind out of my sails.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:35 pm

Well then, I say we should kickstart up a "Law & Order: Lazy Asshole Division". It shall follow a team of cops that just want to do nothing but watch netflix in their underwear and have to literally dragged to every crime scene and extensively bribed to do 5 minutes of work. There will be a gibbon mascot and it will star some Black musician in a creative slump. All episode plots will be a bastardized combination of three current events.
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Last edited by Deathclaw_Puncher on Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby Andropov4 » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:41 pm

A missing persons investigation isn't exactly a five minute affair. And you frequently have next to nothing to go on. I can understand why cops don't really want to do them; it's probably going to be a lot of fruitless work and has a pretty high chance of ending in heartbreak. Not that that's an excuse, I just sort of get why they wouldn't want that case on their desk.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby MisterKrinkle » Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:15 pm

While I'm sure missing persons investigations aren't a cake walk, when said person has 3 encounters with police with one definitely running her through the system, and then shows up in a mental hospital, that's literally them doing your job for you. How does a missing person not show up in the police system? And how does the hospital not say, I don't know, check to see if there's anyone missing fitting the description of the delirious patient who doesn't know her name? There's so many instances of fucks not being given I think they've collapsed into an accretion disk that feeds on inadequacy.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby LegionofShrooms » Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:34 pm

Eric: I think part of the issue is that, from what I understand, a lot of missing persons cases involve people that aren't exactly missing. A lot of times, it seems to be people that ran off while fully in possession of their right mind and are in no immediate danger.

Although I'm not saying I condone the mentality because it does mean a lot or cases slip through the cracks, I can understand the police mentality of not wanting to waste time on what is likely just a spouse run off with a lover or a child fighting with their parents.

I'd honestly like to see LadyAwesome's input on the matter as an actual practicing cop.

That said, so many people fucked up along the way on this specific case that I'm forced to assume everyone involved was holding Idiot Balls.

The one that pissed me off a lot more, to be honest, was the kid that reported being sexually abused to her school guidance counselor only to have them... Call the parents and ask if it wasn't a lie. Are you at-symbol pound-sign dollar-sign percentage-symbol ing kidding me???
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby sunglasses » Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:55 pm

MisterKrinkle wrote:While I'm sure missing persons investigations aren't a cake walk, when said person has 3 encounters with police with one definitely running her through the system, and then shows up in a mental hospital, that's literally them doing your job for you. How does a missing person not show up in the police system? And how does the hospital not say, I don't know, check to see if there's anyone missing fitting the description of the delirious patient who doesn't know her name? There's so many instances of fucks not being given I think they've collapsed into an accretion disk that feeds on inadequacy.


Krinkle: We do not routinely check police reports in the hospital because we do not have access to them. We cannot just call the police and say "hey are you looking for a white female?" because it violates privacy laws. People can have fugue states and forget their identity. It doesn't always mean they're a missing person. Now, perhaps, if the police had left a poster at the hospitals then yes, maybe it would have been caught by an admissions person. The databases are not connected (and rightly so, i can only imagine the abuse of power that could occur).

As for multiple police failures, it's very possible that they considered her a "low risk" missing person. As such, they wouldn't have put an APB out on her vehicle.

Or whomever initiated the missing persons report fucked up and didn't PUT an APB on her vehicle. I know my local police station never put an APB on our stolen car (they forgot they said) so we didn't know it was sitting in a parking lot 10 miles away until they went to tow it.

I do want to point out that the author's boyfriend had neglected to tell the police officers that she'd had a dissociatve episode before. Information that very well could have been crucial and led to a memo to all ERs.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby MisterKrinkle » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:08 pm

Thanks for the info Sunny. I don't think my dislike for the system has subsided , but a little bit of my faith in humanity has risen for hospitals anyways (I'm confused as to how said privacy laws apply to that situation, but perhaps I'll wander over to your ask a nurse thread later and ask in more detail).
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby Absentia » Tue Mar 17, 2015 5:48 am

In defense of the cops, two of the three incidents weren't exactly erratic behavior. And the firemen wouldn't have had any reason to keep up with missing persons reports. So the only real head-scratcher is the cop who saw someone flinging random stuff into a ditch and didn't figure they might be either high enough to be DWI or crazy enough to need help.

And then there's the mental health system, but we already knew that was a mess. At least she recovered quickly and got out of there.
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby SandTea » Tue Mar 17, 2015 5:29 pm

uhh I'm not sure if I'm misremembering but she said she drove to a different state. She was gone for two weeks. We'd be incredibly; however the hell you spell "nieve" (phonetically here), if we thought missing persons reports go nation wide instead of just in state. All those cops probably did run her info and only got "pretty much a ideal little white girl" so just shrugged. Not saying I agree with the actions of some of the cops but its hard to put a bunch of blame on them.

edit: i have no problem blaming those mental institutions tho they can be pretty f'd up
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby sunglasses » Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:00 pm

SandTea wrote:
edit: i have no problem blaming those mental institutions tho they can be pretty f'd up


As I stated to Krinkle, there are stringent privacy laws regarding mental illness and medical concerns. They can't just call the cops and say "Hey, are you looking for some white chick?"

This isn't the first time someone has been dumped in a psych ward and it sadly won't be the last. That is a cultural and procedural issue rather than just blaming the wards. (Please don't call them institutions. Only long term wards are actually institutions. Short term wards are for 7-10 days normally. No more than 3 weeks ideally).

Spoiler: show
Then again, the place I worked almost called the police to report abuse because of an Asian client who has marks on her back. No one knew what cupping was.


As I stated above, had the police known about her psychiatric past they could have put up flyers in ERs which would have led to her getting "found" sooner. They didn't so it did not occur. Hospitals simply do not have the same data available to them that the police do and vice versa. The boyfriend could have also, you know, called various hospitals and told them "Hey my gf is missing and she's had a psychotic break before" but he didn't. While the hospital cannot give out information if someone calls looking for someone they can certainly talk to the patient and say, "Hey, do you know this guy who called? Is this you?"
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby SandTea » Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:11 pm

Do I count as being a lost person....

because i cant find myself?
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edit: holy crap I don't know how but I missed reading your post literally right above me, sunglasses. I am in no way insinuating facilities/wards are full of nurse ratchets. *furiously backtracks* I was more going for criticism of poor policy/untrained employees/lack of funds. I suppose blame would be an incorrect word so, sorry. I know even the untrained guys meant well just couldn't handle some situations and the management couldn't do anything about it.

...Perhaps I've said too much :?
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Re: 5 Strange Realities of Being a Missing Person

Postby sunglasses » Wed Mar 18, 2015 5:10 am

I am all for education. And sometimes my browser shit s the bed and doesn't tell me someone posted while I was typing.
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