MISSING PERSONS STATISTICS

People dissapear in Wyoming. But why are the numbers so high?

Published on 01/19/2019 | Author: Charlie Neil

In Rock Springs, Over 300 men and women from a variety of age ranges have been filed as missing persons over the last three years. For a city of our size, that’s twice as high as it should be.

I never thought anything of it. Why would I? People disappearing seems normal to me since all I’ve ever known is the strangeness of Rock Springs. It wasn’t until my own sister, Nat, disappeared that I started paying attention.

She had a state-wide search.

Not everyone is so lucky. Wyoming as a whole has one of the highest missing person rates in the country, this isn’t per-capita, either. It’s easy for data in Wyoming to be skewed given our sparse population, but we lose more people on average than many other states.

Pair that with the fact that we’re the only State in the country that’s had a year after year population decrease, and you get a strange recipe.

It isn’t all strange, though. Most that disappear have histories of mental illness, drug abuse – the standard stuff you look for when someone vanishes. At the same time, though, a lot of them have been people like Nat – no history of anything except for good grades.

Why are so many people just, vanishing, then?

I have a contact in the Rock Springs Police Department, one of the more helpful officers from when we lost my sister. He sends me reports every now and again.

I’ll post any additional research I find here.