Adults have the legal right to go missing. That single sentence, from the Congressional Research Service, governs almost everything that frustrates these families. Source: Source ↗
Reporting a missing adult to the National Crime Information Center is voluntary for law enforcement; only children and young adults under 21 must be entered. And once an adult is located, police generally cannot tell the family where. Connecticut's state guidance says it plainly: once the person is located, police cannot divulge information about them without the person's consent. Source: Source ↗
For a veteran with post-traumatic stress or a traumatic brain injury, "chose to leave" is a category error dressed up as a legal finding.
Cpl. Corey Adams — Milwaukee, Wisconsin
An Air Force veteran who went missing in 2017, leaving his glasses, phone, money and medications at his parents' home. His family filed a report promptly. Police took eight days to determine he met the criteria for a critical missing person. His body was recovered from a pond in Dineen Park about eighteen days later, roughly a mile from his mother's home.
His case produced the first veteran-specific alert law in the country. The Corey Adams Searchlight Act was signed in Wisconsin on 28 March 2018, adapting the state's existing alert infrastructure for at-risk missing veterans. Source: Source ↗
Spc. Brian Orolin — The Woodlands, Texas
An Army veteran who served overseas and lived with post-traumatic stress and a prior suicide attempt. He vanished from his home on 19 November 2014. His remains were found in Harris County on 26 December 2015 and identified by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences weeks later. Source: Source ↗
Timothy White — Bedford VA Medical Center, Massachusetts
A resident of the Bedford Veterans Quarters, an independent-living facility on VA property. He was reported missing and found dead about five weeks later in an emergency-exit stairwell on VA grounds.
The VA Office of Inspector General report, 20-03465-243, dated 9 September 2021, found that VA police and others did not treat him as an at-risk missing patient, which would have required a stairwell search; that VA police had no clear procedure for searching for non-patients reported missing on VA property; that the police chief improperly ordered patrols of the building stopped, contrary to VA policy and the lease; and that staff wrongly believed the stairwells were not VA space, so they went uncleaned.
The Inspector General concluded that routine patrols and stairwell cleanings likely would have led to Mr. White being found earlier. Seven recommendations followed. Source: Source ↗
If a veteran goes missing from a VA facility, the sequence to follow is at Family Resources