The trendline for cases of missing children and teens is ticking upward in Montgomery County, Maryland, where, as of Friday, 936 had been reported missing this year. Of those cases, 15 remain open, according to police.
Of those 15, nine are related to children who have been missing for less than 30 days. Six cases include young people who’ve been missing more than 30 days. Assistant Police Chief Nicholas Augustine said of those six cases, three involve unaccompanied minors.
“I am sure there are a lot more missing unaccompanied minors out there that have not been reported to us,” Augustine said. “They often leave very quickly, with very little footprint in Montgomery County.”
In 2018, police reported 877 cases of missing children, that number dipping to 585 in 2021. Just last year, it jumped to 854 children reported as missing.
A breakdown of the children reported missing so far this year shows that 52% are female, 46% are Black, 32% are Hispanic, 20% are white and 2% are Asian.
At a meeting of the Montgomery County Council Public Safety Committee, police officials said the reason children and teens leave home ranges from family disputes to romantic relationships and mental health stressors.
When asked whether human trafficking was a factor, Captain Jeff Bunge, director of the police department’s special victims division said, “we don’t have any this year that we’re aware of” that would fall into that category.
Bunge told council members that parents are usually the first to report a missing child. In other cases, he said, police will get a call from schools about a student that left the campus. Some of those cases, said Bunge, will involve a student with a developmental disability that has left the school.
If a missing teen doesn’t have a phone, or avoids using their phone in order to evade detection, it can make it much more difficult to locate them.
“Often times, the first thing that a parent will do to discipline their child, is take their phone from them,” Bunge said, adding while police “aren’t in a position to tell parents how to discipline their children … that puts us at a disadvantage when we try to find a child.”
In one case, Bunge said a 15-year-old went missing for 41 days. And when she was finally found, she indicated she took steps, including avoiding cash withdrawals, that would give away her location.
“I didn’t want to be found,” she told police.
During Monday’s session before the council committee, police were asked about the case of Rashawn Williams, a 31-year-old man who has Down syndrome and who is nonverbal. He was missing for six days before being found in a restricted area of the Glenmont Metro station on the Red Line.
Captain Marc Erme, director of the criminal investigations division for the county police, said that WMATA officials were very cooperative with the effort to find Williams. Erme said Montgomery County police were also in touch with officials in Prince George’s County, which was “also looking at different areas that he was known to visit in the past.”
But, referring to WMATA officials, Erme added, “Generally speaking, it does take some time for them to get videos downloaded” and then sent along to his department.
“I will say, we don’t give up,” Erme said. “And we didn’t give up in this situation.”
Police also explained that while there are AMBER alerts for children and Silver alerts for older adults when they go missing, that’s not controlled at the county level. State Police have jurisdiction over those alerts and there are specific criteria as well. For example, in the case of older adults, they must be over 60, have some form of cognitive impairment and be in a vehicle for a Silver Alert to be broadcast.
Police did say that social media can be a powerful tool in helping locate missing children and adults. In one case, Erme said a security guard in Baltimore recognized a juvenile that was missing from Montgomery County.
Police said the county school system has been helpful in investigations when police work to let missing children and teens know they’re not in trouble, but that the priority is to get them home safely.
Augustine told council members that one thing that’s needed is a comprehensive list of government and nonprofit resources where young people can get help with some of the issues that prompted them to leave home in the first place. He said establishing a non-sworn position on the police force to assist with linking young people to needed services “is something to consider.”
