Lessons Learned - When Someone Is Missing

As scary as the last 3 days have been I have to tell you that I have learned a lot. Let me share it with you just in case.

If your missing person has an illness for example Alzheimer's disease, there is a Silver Alert. What worked against this particular situation is that he was not 65, he was 63 and therefore was not eligible for this service.

Make sure you have recent photos! Those are very important to have. We even had a photo of the dog. Make sure there is contact information on your dog's collar.

The police make you wait for 24 hours. As an alternative you can contact Equusearch. They know what they are doing and how to organize search parties. They help create and distribute flyers and notify surrounding police departments and alert the media. The media is more likely to listen to their organization rather than just a contact from family or friends.

Many businesses will not allow you to post missing persons flyers in their windows. Wal-Mart only allows the posting of children not missing adults.

Who would help you look for a loved one? Are you a member of a church? What type of community groups do you belong too? What resources do you have to help search?

Homeless shelters will not give you information about who is there but you can send them a photo to identify who the person may be. The emergency rooms are a great place to pass out flyers.

Make sure your cell phones are charged. You will be using them a lot! There are many things that can happen within a 24 hour period. In this case he was missing for 42 hours and traveled on foot over 70 miles.

I'm glad this had a happy ending. I hope that this information will help should you ever find yourself in a missing person situation.