Brianne Sweetland
A phone rings at 2 a.m.. The caller on the other end tells his friend his brother hasn’t returned home from an Atlanta Falcons football game, and he is beginning to worry about his safety.
The friend tells the caller that the brother may just be staying out late and to call the police if he still hasn’t returned in the morning.
The Atlanta Police Department is notified the next morning.
A lookout is issued and the missing man’s information is entered into the national system.
The family and friends of the family retrace what may have been the missing man’s steps — to no avail.
A month passes.
The Los Angles Police Department notifies Atlanta the missing man’s truck was located abandoned on the side of the road.
Now police suspect foul play.
The family gets a break when someone uses the man’s social security number.
L.A. police review video tapes at an unemployment office and see the missing man applying for unemployment.
The family is notified and reunited with their lost brother.
But was he really missing?
Gone without a trace
Capt. Brian Childress, a spokesman with the Valdosta Police Department, described this true story as being a perfect example of something police deal with on what can sometimes be a day-to-day basis.
Childress, who was a friend of the family in this case, said the missing man had a mental lapse and left town.
Regardless of the situation, police always classify people as missing even if they have run away or skipped town.
“That story proves to me that our system does work,” Childress said. “But there are still plenty of missing people law enforcement can’t find for one reason or another.”
So how does law enforcement deal with a case where a person has left town willingly or has gone missing?
Childress and Lt. Wanda Edwards, a detective with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, said they treat each case the same.
However, the police have a category called “missing critical. “
If a person is labeled missing critical, police have reason to believe foul play was involved or the person is under the age of 17, has a disability or has a mental illness.
All cases in each department are immediately entered into the Georgia Crime Information
Center and the National Crime Information Center.
Edwards stressed the importance of immediately reporting a missing person.
“They don’t have to wait 48 hours,” she said. “That is our critical time. If they wait 48 hours to report them missing, we have to do a lot of backtracking.”
Edwards said she thinks the public has a misconception about waiting to report a missing person.
“There has never been a waiting period. At least not in the 26 years I have been here,” she said. “I think that is something they got off a 1960s police show.”
As part of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc., the police department has to follow standards in missing person cases, including follow-up work with the agencies involved in the case and having its own policy concerning missing children.
Under its policy, those who have demonstrated a potential for suicide are also classified as missing critical.
The family’s role
Both Childress and Edwards agree the family’s role in the search for the missing individual doesn’t determine the livelihood of the case.
“Cases never go cold,” Childress said, adding that he doesn’t prefer the terminology. “Saying a case has gone cold means they aren’t looking at it.”
Some may refer to the Paula and Brandon Wade case as a cold case.
The mother and son went missing three years ago. They were last seen at their Commons apartment home. Police are constantly revisiting the case, Childress said.
The Wades’ family is also actively involved.
“This is a tough week right now,” said Paula’s father, Regis McGrath, prior to the three-year anniversary. “The longer you go, the load doesn't get any lighter, but it gets further away. Roadblocks take some of the air out of the balloon, but it never goes away.”
Although more people are aware the person is missing, Edwards said families can make it more difficult for law enforcement to do its work when the national media get involved, such as the Leah Deltedesco case.
When Deltedesco, who lives in New Port Richey, Fla., disappeared from the Wild Adventures theme park in Lowndes County last year, her mother called in the media and set up a Web site.
She was later found to have run off with her 21-year-old boyfriend, Peter Kaill Reinschmidt, who was later charged in the case.
Deltedesco stayed at her boyfriend’s apartment while he attended a vigil for his girlfriend’s safe return.
Edwards said she believes media coverage of the case led the couple to prolong the situation, making it difficult for the case to get resolved.
Other families can help law enforcement with various needs, such as the need for DNA in the case of Armetta Woods.
Woods, 85, was last seen April 12 at her home on Knights Lane in southwest Lowndes County.
Woods’ nephew dropped off food from Kentucky Fried Chicken at her residence. When he came back two days later, the food was untouched in the same place he had left it.
Edwards said they are trying to obtain DNA to enter it into a database. Woods is believed to display symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Anyone with any information on the unsolved cases may contact the police department’s anonymous crime tip line at 293-3091 or the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office at 333-5133.
