John Lee: Media Coverage and Asian-American Missing Cases

Resting next to the desk belonging to Sgt. Chue Thao of the Appleton Police Department is the photo of a man he vaguely knew but hasn’t seen for nine years. 

“Every day I think about him,” said Thao. “I have four kids. I treat John like all my kids.” 

John Lee, who went missing in Appleton in 2015, is one of three known missing Asian Americans in Wisconsin.  

Wook Kim, a junior history student at UW-Madison, went missing on July 15, 1993, after his driving instructor said to have dropped him off at his apartment on State Street around 1:15 p.m. He was never heard from again. 

James Liedtka was a 28-year-old Army veteran at UW-Stout who disappeared on Nov. 4, 2018, from Water Street in Eau Claire, Wis. 

Of the 96,955 missing person entries in the U.S. in 2023, 12.3% were Asians, according to the FBI. Just 7.3% of the overall U.S. population is Asian. 

The Columbia Journalism Review sampled 3,600 articles from U.S. news organizations including TV, radio, newspapers, and online outlets about missing people in 2021, finding whites were more likely than minorities to receive media coverage. 

“It’s a vicious cycle if newsrooms are not engaging with and covering diverse communities,” said Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, Executive Director of the Asian American Journalists Association. “The biggest thing is that people don’t trust the media in these minority communities.” 

As a result, their stories are less likely to reach a broader audience. 

Lee was last seen on June 21, 2015, near his parents’ home in Appleton, Wis. 

“He’s a little bit shy,” said Thao about Lee’s home life. “He felt like he was pushed to the side and didn’t get a lot of attention, because his other three siblings were doing well, went to college and had their own careers. John felt the pressure from the family, particularly since the parents had wanted him to go to college.” 

The 22-year-old walked out of the home on his own volition that summer evening and headed in the direction of the nearby Lawrence University. Lee was last spotted near the home walking by himself, minutes after his parents saw him leave. 

It wasn’t the first time Lee left the house like this, but on this occasion, he left his vehicle, phone, laptop and anything of note besides the clothes on his back, according to Thao. 

He previously left for a week or month at a time without notifying his parents of his whereabouts but stayed in touch to ensure they knew he was okay.  

He had a history of self-harm and even attempted suicide by overdose a few years prior, Thao said, briefly receiving counseling and psychiatric treatment before returning to his family. 

A day prior, a trespasser stole low-cost items from Lee’s bedroom, yet police said they don’t believe the incident to be linked to his disappearance. His appearance was considered “not suspicious” due to his lack of major drug issues or “enemies,” per Thao. 

In his absence, police employed diving teams to comb the nearby rivers, sonar equipment, and drones to search through tree lines – all as far as Kaukauna and Little Chute. 

The red pin marks Lee’s home – Lawrence University is about two miles north along the Fox River. 

Police also searched through the homes of those he kept in contact with. 

However, the aftermath from the media was different from the police, as the Appleton Post Crescent’s first known story on Lee appeared nearly two months after his disappearance. 

Some of that disparity may have stemmed from a lack of diversity in the newsroom. The Appleton Post-Crescent self-reported that its newsroom had increased to 4% Asian in its most recent diversity report in 2022 after reporting 0% in the previous two years. 

In the more multicultural Milwaukee area, 2.8% of the newsroom in 2022 was reported as Asian, lower than the 3.9% mark overall in the Milwaukee area. 

The four major Appleton-area television stations are owned by media conglomerates – Nexstar, Scripps, Gray and Sinclair. Nexstar self-reported its newsroom as just 2.7% Asian among its employees nationwide, the only of the four to report its race/ethnicity numbers publicly. Scripps failed to report its race/ethnicity numbers despite dedicating a page to their commitment to a diverse and inclusive culture. 

“The more diverse the newsroom,” said Underwood, “the more equitable and diverse the coverage is. That’s not happening yet.” 

Appleton Post-Crescent owner Gannett had just 4% Asians in their newsroom in 2023, according to Digiday. According to the Pew Research Center, 52% of journalists believe they do not have enough racial and ethnic diversity in the newsroom, whereas 32% say they do. 

And aside from representation, not every consumer in the area is treated equally in the eyes of the publishers. 

“It’s the right people who are going to be valuable to your advertisers,” said Dr. Michael Mirer, visiting assistant professor of communications at UW-Milwaukee. “That audience has traditionally been imagined as white, middle-to-upper middle-class people who have disposable income.” 

According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the average 22-year-old white male who goes missing in Wisconsin would garner 45 news stories (local and national), while the average Asian with the same characteristics would receive just 20 stories. Critics noted the disparity in coverage between the white Gabby Petito vs. Korean Lauren Cho, who both went missing under similar circumstances in 2021. 

“There are certain institutions that they’re only talking to when something goes wrong,” said Mirer. “It’s not on the community to trust the media. That’s on the newspapers and the journalists to build trust in communities.” 

Missing persons are often found via media coverage – in late-November a man missing for 25 years was found after his sister saw a photo of her long-lost brother in a USA Today article. However, Thao doesn’t take issue with the lack of media coverage. 

“I do my work, [the media] do their work,” said Thao. “I’m not here to make a judgment about why they pick certain cases.”  

The Appleton Post-Crescent posted about his disappearance on August 20, 2015. Their only coverage of Lee since has been in articles detailing the use of billboards in missing person cases or in a broader post about the missing in the Fox Valley region. 

The lack of coverage is representative of the broader lack of media coverage of Asian American communities. 

Lee, whose relative dearth of media coverage included Facebook posts from his sister, is yet to be found. His family declined an interview request. The Appleton Police Department has continued its search where media has gone quiet. 

“It’s not about race,” said Thao. It’s my duty, my responsibility. I owe it to every resident to do the right thing. At the end of the day, less pain is better than more pain.”

---

This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into missing people’s cases in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available here.