Criteria

  • Every case must be at least a year old — that is, the person must have disappeared at least one year prior to posting. It is acceptable if a person’s disappearance was reported less than one year ago, as long as they vanished before the limit.
  • The missing person must have vanished within the United States or in one of its territories or foreign military bases. Exceptions may be made for U. S. citizens who disappeared abroad, people who disappeared in a foreign country but who are believed to be in the U. S., or otherwise at the administrator’s discretion.
  • Each case must be on file with a law enforcement agency, and there must be contact information (i.e. a phone number) available for that agency.
  • There must be at least one photograph or drawing of the missing individual available.
  • Endangered Missing, Missing, and Non-Family abduction cases will get priority in posting. (See the terms page for my definitions of these.) I also make an effort to post as many runaway and family abduction cases as possible, but at any given time I have a backlog of at least several hundred cases to post, so unfortunately some triage is necessary.
  • Runaway cases are more likely to be posted if they are several years old, if the child was under the age of 14 at the time of his/her disappearance, if the child was a foster child, if the child is traveling with their own child, if the child has a medical condition which may require treatment, or if there is evidence that the child is in particular danger.
  • Family abduction cases are more likely to be posted if they are several years old, if there is evidence that the abductor(s) may be a danger to the child, if the child was a foster child, or if the child has a medical condition which may require treatment.
  • I am reluctant to post runaway and family abduction cases which are not profiled on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)’s website, because it is difficult to ascertain whether or not such cases have been resolved. There are, however, a few such non-NCMEC cases on the Charley Project, and if a request is made I am not likely to refuse it.
  • Adoptees looking for their biological parents, friends or relatives you’ve lost touch with, etc., will not be accepted. There are many other websites for those kinds of listings.
  • Publicly submitted cases are not acceptable. However, if you would like to notify me of a case that, for example, is on a law enforcement website, you may contact me at administrator@charleyproject.org.
  • For a case to be selected for the Charley Project’s missing person of the week feature (see the front page), it must be profiled on the Charley Project, it must not have been added or updated within the last three months, and it must not have been a missing person of the week before. Missing persons of the week are generally changed every Tuesday.