Who will speak if we don?t?
Who will speak so their voices will be heard?
Who will speak if we don?t?
Families and friends of Maryland?s missing people repeated these questions, their faces illuminated by the single candles in their hands.
“Where is she? Is she safe?” said Edgewater resident Toni Brooke, whose sister Leann Faulk has been missing since 1985.
Maryland Missing Persons Network and the Missing and Exploited Children?s Association of Maryland held a circle of hope Thursday night in Annapolis to remember Maryland?s missing people.
Carla Tippie Proudfoot, director of the Maryland State Police Maryland Center for Missing Children, said that every year about 14,000 children in Maryland are reported missing.In 2004, 3,500 adults were reported missing in Maryland, but that is not accurate. Many adults go missing but are not reported.
“Right now there is nobody keeping track of missing adults,” Proudfoot said.
Montgomery County Del. Jean Cryor, R-District 15, who attended the ceremony Thursday said recent legislation she sponsored ? and signed into law this year ? will require police to file reports for all missing people cases.
Advocates for families of those who are missing said Cryor?s legislation is a welcome first step, but more legislation is necessary.
One measure would be to require police departments to compare recent reports of missing people to the National Crime Information Center database, Proudfoot said.
Currently 50,000 unidentified bodies are in this database, many of which could offer clues in the cases of Maryland?s missing, if they were only consulted, she said.
Even if a family member is identified as dead, the identification can bring peace to a family, said John Worden of the Baltimore County Police Counseling Department.
“No body, no crime,” Worden said, “but no body, no closure either.”
Families on Thursday said they would never abandon hope of finding their loved ones.
“We pray constantly for closure and peace,” said Millersville resident Tracy Huntsan, whose aunt Bernadette Stevenson Caruso has been missing since Sept. 27, 1986. “Not a day goes by that we don?t think about her.”
