Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
Norman Lamar Prater
Norman, date, approximate 1973; Age-progression to age 55 (date, approximate 2011)
Date Missing 01/14/1973
Missing From
Dallas, Texas
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
White
Date of Birth 06/06/1956 (66)
Age 16 years old
Height and Weight 5'8, 130 pounds
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown or blue eyes. Norman has attached earlobes.
Details of Disappearance Norman was last seen in Dallas, Texas on January 14, 1973. At about midnight, he went to the all-night coffee shop where his mother worked and had a soft drink. He was accompanied by two teenage boys with shoulder-length hair whom his mother didn't recognize, and one older Hispanic man whom she knew by sight.
Norman told his mother he was going home, and he agreed to help her move the next day. He apparently never arrived home and has never been heard from again.
Authorities looked into the possibility that Norman was a victim of the serial killer Dean Corll. Corll, nicknamed the "Candy Man," was responsible for the sexual assault and murder of at least 28 teenage boys and young men in Houston, Texas between 1970 and 1973. Two accomplices, eighteen-year-old David Owen Brooks and seventeen-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley Jr., helped lure victims to his house, and Corll paid them $200 per person each.
Henley shot Corll to death in August 1973, then called the police and confessed to his role in the abductions and murders. Ultimately, 28 bodies were recovered; one has never been identified.
Brooks and Henley were both sentenced to six consecutive of 99 years in prison for their roles in the slayings. Brooks was never released, and died in custody in 2020, at the age of 65. Henley has been eligible for parole since 1983, but he has been repeatedly denied release and remains in prison. His next possible parole date is in 2025.
Norman lived in Houston with his father during the 1970-1971 school year, in the neighborhood where many of Corll's victims came from, and he attended Jackson Junior High School in Houston, which Henley also went to. After Norman moved to Dallas to be with his mother, he continued to visit Houston regularly on weekends.
It hasn't been proven that Norman was one of Corll's victims, and none of the recovered corpses turned out to be his. His remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Dallas Police Department
214-671-4268
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Texas Department of Public Safety
The Doe Network
The Dallas Morning News
The Houston Chronicle
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
