One Ohio police chief said ‘it seems like an extraordinary year’ for missing persons
Almost 30 children were reported missing in the Cleveland area over a two-week span at the start of May, which is something a local police chief said he has not seen in his 33-year career.
Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy, who also serves as the board president of the volunteer nonprofit Cleveland Missing, told Fox News Digital that the number of 12- to 17-year-olds reported missing has remained at unprecedented levels throughout the month.
“There’s always peaks and valleys with missing persons, but this year it seems like an extraordinary year,” said Majoy, who heads a police department in a suburb just outside of Cleveland.
“For some reason, in 2023, we’ve seen a lot more than we normally see, which is troubling in part because we don’t know what’s going on with some of these kids, whether they’re being trafficked or whether they’re involved in gang activity or drugs.”
Cleveland police recorded 27 juveniles under the age of 18 were reported missing between May 2 and May 16.
It is more likely a majority of cases are runaways versus abductions, Majoy said, but young teenagers are naive and susceptible to predators, who are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Their disappearances do not make the news unless there is an Amber Alert, and their stories are not being shared on social media.
“It’s a silent crime that happens right under our noses,” he said. “The problem is where are they? Where do they go? They can be in a drug house or farmed to prostitution or caught up in drug trafficking or gangs.”
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