Description
Book SynopsisThe Long Term Missing empowers families and gives them hope by providing them with the tools they need to become their longterm missing personâs advocate while proactively searching for their loved ones.
Trade ReviewIt’s every parent’s worst nightmare: a missing child. Of course, adults vanish, too. In fact, at any given time, about 100,000 Americans of all ages will go unfound. They may be runaways, or they may be lost or injured. Pettem, author of more than a dozen books, including Someone’s Daughter (2009), uses her own interviews with 22 people (along with background information from newspapers, websites, and TV shows) to explain both famous and not-so-famous abductions. Some victims survive. Who can forget Elizabeth Smart, who, at 14, was taken from her Salt Lake City home and, as she testified, repeatedly raped every day? Other victims die. Polly Klass, kidnapped at knifepoint during a slumber party when she was 12, was strangled. Pettem advises searching parents to be a 'squeaky wheel.' She also encourages them to see if their states offer Missing Persons Day events and to attend to give DNA samples and to update reports. This guidebook should empower families to never give up hope, even as Pettem reminds readers that not everyone wants to be found. * Booklist *
[The Long Term Missing: Hope and Help for Families is] fascinating.... I highly recommend reading Pettem's book. * Faribault County Register *
For so many — including Iowans — [The Long Term Missing: Hope and Help for Families] is the book thousands of families have long wished someone would write. It doesn’t provide just hope, it offers clear and insightful methods for those who want to get involved in finding out what happened to a loved one who went missing long ago. * Iowa Cold Cases *
Pettem's ... book, The Long Term Missing: Hope and Help for Families, [is] a page turner. * Boulder Daily Camera *
This book is critical for all who wishes to research missing people cases.... Highly recommended book. * Defrosting Cold Cases *
The Long Term Missing is the first book to show how families use NamUs to bring their loved-ones home. -- J. Todd Matthews, Director, Case Management and Communications, National Missing & Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Knowledge is power, and in these pages you will find knowledge to empower yourselves. You will be taught how to navigate the unknown territory you have entered. You will recognize what realistically can and should be done in a case. Best of all, you will become your long-term missing person’s advocate, not only to law enforcement but to the rest of the world. And, maybe—hopefully—you will find resolution and answers. -- Stuart Somershoe, Detective, Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit, Phoenix Police Department
Silvia Pettem writes from the heart. Her engaging narrative is packed with real-life stories and is a must-read for family members as they journey from heartache to hope. -- R.H. Walton, EdD, Associate Professor, Criminal Justice Program, Utah State University; author, Cold Case Homicides: Practical Investigative Techniques
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Why Finding the Missing is Important Chapter 2. Categories of Long-term Missing Adults Chapter 3. Children: Helping to Bring Them Home Chapter 4. Proactive Police Chapter 5. Civilian Searchers Chapter 6. Celeste’s Sister Sara: Found Alive in Mexico Chapter 7. NamUs: An Investigative Tool Chapter 8. Become Your Long-term Missing Person’s Advocate Chapter 9. Gather Information, Document, and Do the Research Chapter 10. Pitfalls and Legalities Chapter 11. Retrospect –– Inside a (Previously) Cold Case Chapter 12. Final Words
