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
Rebecca Abbot Doisy
Doisy, date, approximate 1976; Johnny Wright in 2009
Date Missing 08/05/1976
Missing From
Columbia, Missouri
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/04/1953 (69)
Age 23 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 107 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Cutoff jeans, a floral blouse and sandals.
Associated Vehicle(s) Blue 1972 Toyota
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Red hair, blue eyes. Doisy's nickname is Becky.
Details of Disappearance Doisy was last seen after she left her apartment in the 400 block of Price Avenue in Columbia, Missouri on August 5, 1976. She was accompanied by Johnny Wright at the time of her disappearance.
Doisy worked part time as a server at Ernie's Steakhouse, and her coworkers remember that Wright was a regular at the restaurant and repeatedly asked her to go out with him, until she finally agreed.
A photo of Wright is posted with this summary. He and Doisy were drinking at the Heidelberg, a local tavern, the day of her disappearance. Doisy left her apartment unlocked and her cat unattended inside, and has never been heard from again.
Wright dropped out of sight after Doisy's disappearance, but turned up a few days later in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 32 years old in 1976, and had an arrest record for a dozen crimes including rape, burglary, assault and drug possession. Investigators believe he was responsible for at least four rapes in the Columbia area. He was interviewed by police and given a lie detector test, which he failed.
In November 1985, authorities issued a warrant for Wright's arrest for second-degree murder. They did this on the strength of a statement from Wright's former roommate, Harry Moore, who said Wright had showed him Doisy's body, covered by a blanket and stuffed in the back of Wright's blue 1972 Toyota, and that Wright told him he'd "offed" her.
Her body has never been found. Moore was initially charged as an accessory in Doisy's murder, but the charge was dropped after he gave his statement.
Wright's whereabouts were unknown at the time the warrant was issued and he remained a fugitive until September 2009, when he was arrested in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He was caught after he asked the police to perform a criminal background check on him so he could apply for a job.
In the intervening years between the time he left Missouri and the time of his arrest, Wright lived in Washington state, Texas and Georgia, married and raised a family.
He used the name Errol Rodney Edwards and had a driver's license under that name. In Georgia in 2007, his license was canceled because the name did not match the Social Security number. He eventually got a new license under his real name.
Although his defense argued that the against him was circumstantial and weak, Wright was convicted of Doisy's murder in January 2010 and sentenced to the maximum of 30 years in prison. He died of natural causes in January 2015, still incarcerated.
Doisy graduated from Kirkwood High School. She completed three years of a bachelor's degree in education at the University of Missouri before she decided to drop out and work. Her loved ones describe her as a sensitive, independent woman and a dedicated fiction writer with an active social life and a wide variety of friends.
Foul play is suspected in her disappearance due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Columbia Police Department
573-874-7617
Other
The Columbia Missourian
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Gwinnett Daily Post
The Associated Press
KRCG 13
The Columbia Tribune
The Doe Network
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NamUs
Missouri State Highway Patrol
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
