PETAL — More than three decades after 17-year-old Angela Freeman disappeared in Petal, a new Mississippi law is changing how law enforcement agencies respond when someone is reported missing.
The law, passed as House Bill 377 and effective July 1, prohibits law enforcement agencies from requiring a waiting period before accepting a credible missing person report. It also establishes requirements for investigating missing and unidentified people.
Freeman was last seen at a Pizza Hut in Petal on Sept. 10, 1993. Her case remains unsolved as the 33rd anniversary of her disappearance approaches, illustrating the challenges investigators face as a disappearance stretches from an initial search into a decades-old cold case.
When someone goes missing
The Forrest County Sheriff’s Office begins investigating as soon as it receives a missing person report, according to Jamie Humphrey, major of operations at the sheriff’s office.
“There’s a bad misconception that people have now, especially with the new law, that you must wait so many hours to report someone missing,” he said.
The law also prohibits agencies from requiring a missing person’s next of kin to appear in person before an investigation can begin.
Deputies are dispatched to where the person was last seen and begin determining what may have happened. Humphrey said the circumstances could include a runaway, missed curfew, kidnapping, medical emergency or possible foul play.
Federal law requires law enforcement agencies to enter information about certain missing young people into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center within two hours of receiving a report. Humphrey said the quicker it’s input, the faster that information is available to other law enforcement agencies.
How the search unfolds
Rusty Keyes speaks during an interview about the investigation of missing-person cases. Keyes said the emotional toll can linger for officers, particularly when they are unable to bring someone home. Credit: RHCJC NewsInvestigators look at who is missing, when the person was last seen and what may have led to the disappearance.
“You’ve got to ascertain first what the facts and circumstances centered around that person initially,” said Rusty Keyes, assistant vice president of public safety and chief of police at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Investigators may develop what law enforcement calls a victimology, examining the person’s habits, relationships, frequently visited places and other details that could provide clues.
A physical search can expand beyond law enforcement to include firefighters, emergency medical personnel, volunteers, family members and community organizations. Teams may use drones, horses, four-wheelers, aircraft and infrared technology.
The search for answers can continue after an active search ends. Meaghan Good, founder and administrator of the Charley Project, maintains a public database of cold missing person cases that can include details not found on traditional missing person flyers, such as identifying tattoos.
Good said keeping publicly accessible information can generate attention and potential leads years after a disappearance.
“If the missing person’s case isn’t in the database to begin with, then no one knows how to look,” Good said.
When a case goes cold
As time passes without answers, investigators face new obstacles. Witnesses become difficult to locate and memories fade.
“The older the case is, obviously, you get into situations where witnesses or suspects have died,” Humphrey said.
Humphrey began working on Freeman’s case in 2016 as part of a cold case unit, reviewing previous investigative work and reinterviewing people connected to her disappearance.
That review help investigators uncover new information and prompted new questions previous investigators had not asked, Humphrey said. Multiple agencies have worked on Freeman’s case, and leads continue to be reviewed.
“I can’t tell you how many hundreds of people have been interviewed just from us,” Humphrey said.
Technology can give investigators options that were unavailable when Freeman disappeared. Keyes said investigative genetic genealogy can help in some cold cases when suitable DNA evidence is available, but Humphrey said newer technology does not replace traditional investigative work.
“Use the old stuff, the old ways. That still works,” Humphrey said.
Freeman’s family will mark 33 years since her disappearance with a remembrance ceremony at 6 p.m. Sept. 12 at Hinton Park in Petal.
For investigators and families, an unsolved disappearance can have an impact long after the initial search ends.
“There’s cases that stand out in me that hurt,” Keyes said. “Maybe I didn’t get to bring someone home.”
“When someone has been missing for like decades, the wound never closes,” Good said. “These people, they will be afflicted by this for the rest of their lives until the case is solved and perhaps even afterwards.”
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