One of the most difficult aspects of my job is when I have to handle missing person cases. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of them. Generally, writers enjoy having a variety of cases to write about; however, when it comes to a missing person, the job can be very difficult. I am, in essence, determining the cases that will get media exposure and which ones won't. I wish I could highlight all of them, but I simply do not have the time or space to do so.
Mainstream media outlets will never admit this, but most, if not all, have conditions that must be met before they will write a story about a missing person. They prefer cases that involve attractive, white, middle-class females. They also want cases to have an interesting storyline that will draw in readers, such as Lisa Stebic, Stacy Peterson, Natalie Holloway, etc. During my years covering these types of events, I have covered those and similar cases; however, I also like to bring attention to cases that do not fall into this category. When people are missing, their gender, social status, and looks should have nothing to do with how likely it is that their stories are told. With that same token, the age of the case should have no bearing on whether it receives coverage.
Thankfully, here at Investigation Discovery, I am not limited in the cases I can cover and the producers are very open-minded. We place no higher value on one case over any other. Because of this, I would like to take this opportunity to bring some attention to some cases that have either received little media coverage or have simply slipped from the radar of other media outlets. What follows is a brief description of some cases that readers have brought to my attention in recent weeks. Read over each case carefully, and if you think you may have any information, no matter how minute, please contact me or follow the links within the stories and let us know.
