Into thin air

In some cases, Roy said, a missing persons report amounts to nothing more than a car breaking down, a friend getting lost or a cellphone running out of battery. But all reports are taken seriously, he said, with no mandatory period of lost contact required to file a report.

It’s critical, he said, that friends and family give detectives—who follow up on cases in their district before the end of the day a report is made—as much information and detail as possible for better chances of recovery. Helpful details include whether the person had debt, relationship problems or mental health issues. Investigators also probe whether the person had been acting differently. The clothes the person was last seen in, the type of car he or she drove, where the person last said he or she was going and any other specific details also help focus the investigation.

“[Detectives] are looking for something that could have triggered the person being missing,” Roy said, adding that a determination on whether a case is considered missing persons or a kidnapping is made on a case-by-case basis.

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