The president of a Cleveland center that helps find missing children has said that headlines claiming that 1,000 minors are missing in Ohio are misleading and only spreading fear.
The coverage followed data from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's website which noted that 1,072 children had been reported missing in 2023 in the "Cleveland-Akron area."
The statistic includes all open cases in Ohio dating back to 1928 when 4-year-old Melvin Horst went missing in what remains the state's oldest unsolved missing persons case. That context was missing from many of the reports, as well as the fact that most missing minors are returned to their families.
Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy, the president of the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults, told Newsweek that most children are found and returned to their families and that some media outlets are manipulating the statistics to grab public attention. This has, in turn, spawned conspiracy theories about missing children.
Majoy said that over 90 percent of children returned to their families in a short space of time.
Cleveland Police said in a statement that the department is currently investigating a total of 137 missing persons cases—65 juveniles and 67 adults. Fourteen of those minors are habitual runaways, and two others are in the process of being removed from that list, while 16 are considered endangered.
"A recent report released by the Ohio Attorney General's Office is stating [that] over 1,000 children are missing from Ohio. From this, various stories have placed emphasis on the greater Cleveland area along with some undue sensationalism. Some outlets are using keywords such as 'vanished, disappeared, abducted' and 'Cops baffled' only to name a few," he told Newsweek.
Majoy denounced the coverage as "unnecessary sensationalism."
"These headlines and wordsmithing can create such panic and give a misleading account of the truth," Majoy said. "As we have seen, many of these cases are runaway teens. Such does not diminish the concerns of these cases because one child missing is one too many. However, law enforcement actively investigates these cases and dedicates resources to help bring the child home safely.
"A runaway is not immune to the dangers of society [including] gang activity, drugs, prostitution and perhaps leading into human trafficking. However, because they are susceptible to these dangers does not always mean they will be. Again, it does not minimize the importance of their case, but a fair balance needs to be had when it comes to how these are reported."
The police chief said that when children are missing, it is often members of the public who can provide the vital link to the police.
"The public must realize they are law enforcement's biggest asset. They far outnumber the police officers on the streets and can be the eyes and ears when it comes to criminal activity to include missing persons," Majoy said.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more
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