Question:
if you heard about a missing person?
?
2013-11-28 02:09:01 UTC
if you heard that someone was missing, but its not someone from your city or town and you want to do a good deed by helping out, would it be okay to post missing person posters around, just in case that person has been seen somewhere and people just not have known that they've been missing.

there's been a missing actor who disappeared back in 2006 in Washington and i live really close to the Washington/Canadian border so i thought it would be okay to put up a couple missing posters around my neighbourhood just in case. i know its a long shot because he went missing in the states, but because i live so close to the border, i thought maybe he happened to come up this way and people might have seen him but didn't know he was missing.

is it a good idea to do it?
Four answers:
Stuart
2013-11-28 04:21:30 UTC
It's good to see you have an interest in helping to solve a case. In this particular case I believe your efforts to put up posters to help would be a waste. As the case is around seven years old, it is unlikely that anyone would remember the person passing through. If they did it's unlikely they would remember enough details for it to be of any real help, but instead cause people to think they remember things about it and lead the police in the wrong direction.



Also, sometimes people disappear on purpose to avoid things they don't like in their own life. This could be the case here but I'm not suggesting that it is. In any event, the police would have formed their own hypothesis on the case and have most likely canvassed the local areas in the past.



If you have a genuine interest in helping out the community with police matters and solving cases, you might like to take the time to write to or visit the local police station and ask if there's any way you can volunteer to help.



In most cases as the nature of their work is highly specialized and often dangerous you will find there is nothing appropriate for you to do to help, but you never know if you don't ask.



Keep up your enthusiasm to be helpful in the community. The world needs more people like you.
?
2013-11-28 18:53:05 UTC
It's good to help out, but 7 years is an awful long time to actually think if you have ever seen the person. Usually they have missing posters in Walmart and sometimes there cold cases. Let the police handle it and let then determine the chances of this person making it all the way to where you are. And if you look them up, you might be able to find updates about the case.
Tin-God
2013-11-28 10:20:15 UTC
let the police handle it

7 years ago is a long time to ask people to think back to
?
2013-11-30 04:22:44 UTC
I think you kidnapped the dude


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