As of March 23, 2023 the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) catalogued 22,881 missing person cases in the U.S. There are 689 people reported missing in Tennessee. That’s why 10News decided to highlight those cases in hopes of bringing people home to their loved ones.

10News went through 168 cases from the East Tennessee area. That is 15 more people reported missing since 10News debuted The Vanished series at the beginning of November 2022. At that point in time, there were 153 cases. Information is put in NamUs by local law enforcement agencies. It can also be entered by family members of the missing individual; however, all information is cross-checked by law enforcement.

We found the circumstances behind a person’s disappearance varied from person to person. Some mysteriously walked off and never returned, some intentionally ran away from home, some are on the run from authorities, and others disappeared under unknown circumstances.

No matter how people ended up listed on the database, our intention is for them to be found.

MAPPING THE MISSING

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS) was established by the National Institute of Justice and the National Forensic Science Technology Center in 2009. The system is meant to help solve missing and unidentified person cases by using the public’s help.

There is another missing person database that is only accessible by law enforcement called the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).

Todd Matthews, the former national director of NamUs, said the goal was to get all the missing people on NCIC to be also listed on NamUs. He said missing person cases often need the public’s help to solve. They also need the family’s help to confirm and correct details.

“We have to make sure that family members and friends of the missing person can do a quality check,” Matthews said. “They can look at the height, the weight, the pictures — the families can actually see the profile and make sure it’s an accurate description of that person.”

That’s why Matthews pushed for legal change at the state level. In 2017, he was successful.

The state passed a law requiring law enforcement agencies to enter people into NamUs who have been missing or unidentified for 30 days or more.

The demographic data of missing people in Tennessee paints a unique picture of the missing population. This information is displayed by NamUs, and reported by local law enforcement agencies across the state. Some important demographic information is listed below.

  • Nearly a third of the missing people in Tennessee are under 18 years old. Many news outlets, including WBIR, choose not to report some missing person cases involving minors since some of those cases could involve the child facing abuse at home from parents or caretakers and electing to run away. Some could also involve minors who are almost 18 years old. The decisions are made by editorial teams.
  • Around 55% of missing people in Tennessee are male, 45% are female.
  • Around 60% of missing people in Tennessee are white, 30% are Black, 10% are Hispanic.

For the original web article and more Information please visit: https://www.wbir.com/article/news/special-reports/the-vanished/vanished/51-62ec034e-6168-40ef-ba78-cb6f500ffc74

Here you will find:

  • A map complied by 10News to show the sprawl of East Tennessee’s missing people. This map is updated as of November, 2022. 
  • A county-by-county breakdown of the missing people in East Tennessee as they are reported by NamUs.

https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/about

  • You can also find hyperlinks to the ‘Vanished’ stories we have spotlighted on air.
  • This list will be reviewed and updated on the first Friday of every month based on how it is updated in NamUs (https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Search#/results ). The last time it was updated wasMarch 23.
  • If you want to add or remove a loved one immediately from this ongoing list, please contact 10Listens@wbir.com.