When 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze went missing – she was one of 56-kids missing in the Cleveland Area.
Dozens of children remain on the list of more than 140 people listed on Cleveland’s missing person’s database. Among those, seven kids are missing from the 4th district, the same area where Defreeze was found in a vacant house
The online database was put together after the case of Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell who killed 11 women – many of them reported missing – but families’ concerns fell on deaf ears.
Since then, local activist Judi Martin has been pushing for local officials to put more strength behind finding missing persons – including creating the online database.
“The response from most of the police has been better since the Imperial tragedy. It has been, because less families have to call us for help.”
Cleveland police say of the 16,752 missing people reported from 2011 to 2016, more than 99 percent (16,669) were located. While Martin believes there has been an improvement in finding missing children and adults, she also says the response could be better and it starts with communication between families and law enforcement officials.
“But [families] usually know when something is wrong and police need to listen to them. That’s what we’ve found over and over again. Regardless of whatever history a person has, they’re still loved by someone.”
The online database is updated regularly. Police hope it’s used as a tool for community members to look up information and contact detectives if they see or hear anything.