Investigating the Missing

In the City of Milwaukee, at any given time there are 500 open missing person cases in Officer Jamie Sromalla’s caseload.

Since becoming a police officer seven years ago, Sromalla came into the Sensitive Crime Unit in July of 2024, and ever since than she’s made an effort to help families of missing persons.

“This position is very challenging, but I’m up for that challenge,” said Sromalla. “That’s why I’m here.”

In the last 10 years, 32,711 people have gone missing in the City of Milwaukee, according to the Milwaukee Police Department. About 500 people are activity missing in Milwaukee at any given moment. 

In 2024 through Oct. 15, 2024, 2,466 people were reported missing in the city. Between 2,500 and 3,000 people have been reported missing each year in the past decade. Many are short-term missing cases where people are found quickly, highlighting a crisis of online grooming, group home runaways, and other issues. Stereotypical stranger abductions are exceptionally rare, and those are the ones that tend to be highlighted in the news. 

When a person goes missing, certain guidelines help in investigating these cases. This article will focus on how the Milwaukee Police Department conducts missing person procedures, the different categories, the scenarios detectives run into and the exhaustive efforts made. 

A team of 12 student journalists spent three months investigating 18 open missing people cases, most of them people of color in Milwaukee but several from smaller Wisconsin cities. The students spoke to family members, and detectives and filed open records requests.  These cases highlight the short-staffed police department with a decimated detective bureau and a single detective in charge of all missing person cases at any time. 

Each police department has a policy and procedure file to establish the responsibilities and guidelines for investigating missing persons. These policies aim to ensure that the police department’s response to missing persons reports is thorough. 

Standard procedures divide the process into different categories. According to the Milwaukee Police Department, the standard operating procedure outlines the definitions of an abducted child, Amber alerts, critical missing, Green Alerts, long-term missing, non-critical missing, and Silver Alerts. 

The initial investigation can be outlined in 10 steps: 

1. Conduct a search of the home and grounds they went missing.
2. Conduct a search of the last location where the missing was seen and interview those that last them. 
3. Identify and interview anyone at the scene and treat the location as a possible crime scene. 
4. Identify areas that have been disrupted and have potential for evidence. 
5. Broadcast a description of the missing and the vehicle. 
6. Conduct a search of the neighborhood for additional information and video surveillance. 
7. Decide as to the status of the critical or non-critical missing person and “make the appropriate supervisory notification.” 
8. Search for any past record reports or dispatch calls that were made before the individual’s disappearance, along with acquaintances that they may be with or who may know their location. 
9. Check to see if they are in police custody. 
10. File a report detailing the initial investigation. 

This is slightly different when it comes to missing children. The police instead search for places where the child could be trapped, sleeping or hiding. They conduct interviews with caregivers to create a timeline of events leading up to their disappearance. 

This is the newest version of the policies and guidelines as of 2024. But even with these guidelines, it’s not a guarantee that the police will or can follow them.

On Nov. 22, 2024 student journalists traveled to the Sojourner Family Peace Center. There they met up with the Milwaukee Police Sensitive Crimes Unit Captain Erin Mejia, Sergeant Fawn Schwandt and Officer Jamie Sromalla, the lone detective working on all the long-term missing cases. 

Sromalla presented a PowerPoint that explained to Media Milwaukee reporters that police had hurdles they needed to go through when investigating missing person cases. 

She explained that when a person calls 911 or comes into a district, it’s typically handled first at a district level, and an officer there will try to find the missing first. They do the preliminary investigation, take statements, follow up with family members, etc, until they reach a roadblock. 

That’s where Detective Sromalla comes in. 

“The district is super busy,” said Sromalla. “They handle 911 calls, walk-in complaints, any type of call you think a district would have to handle they are dealing with that on a daily basis.” 

At any given time there are approximately 500 open missing person cases in Detective Sromalla’s caseload, forcing her to step away from long-term missing when urgent critical missing cases need extra attention. 

During the PowerPoint, she presented us with a case study about a woman who went missing from Milwaukee. Detective Sromalla asked reporters to keep details about this part off the record, but the case study demonstrated to student reporters that investigators have to wait for subpoenas, digital footage, and laws that are put in place to protect people’s privacy. 

Detective Sromalla also pointed out that each case is unique and different from the last one. It’s never cut and dry. 

“Every case is different,” said Sromalla. “But it’s not a crime to go missing, so it’s really hard to prove that something other than them packing up their stuff and leaving happened.”

Which is true. People have the right to leave and not contact family and loved ones. In some cases, Detective Sromalla does find a person who was missing and they ask her to not tell their loved ones where they are. 

“People still have an expectation of privacy that we have to respect,” said Sromalla. 

Detective Sromalla makes it clear to the families that this is an aspect that the police need to respect. 

“At first some families are a little frustrated, but eventually they understand,” said Sromalla. “But I do make sure that they know that they [their loved one] is safe and alive which they are very thankful for.” 

Sometimes, these cases are quick to solve, but some cases come to a standstill. This causes families to become frustrated, and sometimes take matters into their own hands. 

Tory Lowe, a radio show host at 107.7fm The Truth, works with families to find their missing loved ones. Families reach out to him and he uses his platform to help them in any way he can. He’s worked on cases like Javeoni Buford, Larry Green, Johnnie Patterson, Carvell Jennings and many others.

His first case of missing persons was of a mother reaching out and asking him to help find her daughter. 

He got the basic details of her case, made a flier and put it on Facebook. At the time he had a pretty substantial following, and the post went viral. A local news station contracted Lowe to report on it. 

He eventually caught wind that she was in the area of 28th and Townsend and started passing out fliers in the area to “shake things up.” Detectives eventually got involved and found her in a wig and hickeys on her neck. 

His method of searching for missing persons is to treat it as if it was urgent. 

“Do a thorough interview with the family and the police department,” said Lowe. “Write it like breaking news. Look at that as breaking news instead of just another missing person.” 

Lowe divides missing within the Black community into eight different versions: 

1. Lowe calls the first one the  “I don’t want to be at home” missing
2. An elderly person leaves a group home with dementia. 
3. Human trafficking. 
4. Grooming. 
5. Murder. 
6. The person just didn’t want to be around anybody and moved to another state. 
7. Mental health issues and disability. 
8. Younger black men with mental health issues. 

Lowe believes that there is a racial element to how police perform missing investigations. 

“If I’m dealing with a white situation, police will come into the house and talk to them,” he said. “When I’m in the Black communities, I ain’t never sat with the police at all.” 

During his years with finding missing persons, he observed that with the White communities, there is more of a male presence. In the Black communities, it’s more women from the force. 

“There was a woman that worked for the Bucks in Greendale,” Lowe said. “Her adopted daughter went missing. They [the police] came out a hundred deep, and I had four lines of 25 going through the communities. We found her in four days.” 

“The Black community doesn’t get that assurance. I think that the least amount of energy I’ll see is that they’ll send a squad into the area.” 

In Kenosha, there is a case that potentially demonstrates this notion. Bobby Curry, a Black man who went missing in Kenosha back in March of 2005, was last seen at a local bar called Erv’s Lounge. He was last seen leaving with two other white males who were never identified. 

In Curry’s case, he was a nomad with a criminal history. The original police detectives on the case assumed that he evading arrest, which shaped the way they viewed the case. They only reconsidered, because years passed without anyone hearing from him, not even his girlfriend, mother or his children. 

Media Milwaukee reporters met up with the current investigator Detective Vincente Correa and Captain James Beller to go over the case, while they couldn’t comment on the details of the case, Detective Vincente did indicate that the original detective’s thought process potentially delayed the investigation. 

However, Detective Correa highlights that the difficulties in this case don’t come from just that. Curry was reported missing three months after he was last seen, meaning that if there was any digital evidence it didn’t exist anymore. Curry also didn’t have a phone, permanent address or vehicle. 

Detective Correa also highlights that since 2005, technology has advanced so much it changed the way investigations are conducted. Social media becoming a larger component, online chats would be scoured and cellphone records would be reviewed. 

As stated above, going missing isn’t a crime, and sometimes a person’s situation – like whether they are an alleged criminal or drug dealer – can shape the way detectives view the case as it adds another set of layers to the mix of possible scenarios. 

Detective Sromalla, however, says that for each of her cases – color isn’t a factor for her. Neither is whether they are drug dealers, mentally ill or they have a troubled past. She says she just wants to provide closure for these families. 

“I try to put myself in their situation if it was my child, my parent, my loved one I would want someone to help me,” said Sromalla. 

In cases like Carvell Jennings, a 59-year-old Black man who went missing in May of 2024, the police files show an exhaustive effort in trying to locate him. During the meeting, Detective Sromalla and her superiors stated that they did apply for a Silver Alert for Jennings, but were denied due to him not being 60 years of age. 

In cases such as Amber Alerts, Green Alerts, and Silver Alerts, the police aren’t in control of whether they are sent out or not. The missing person must meet a set criteria for the alerts to be sent out, if they don’t then they aren’t sent out. 

When it comes to missing persons investigations, there is always more than meets the eye. Hindsight is 20/20 when looking back, but there is no denying that these investigations can get tough especially if certain circumstances create roadblocks. 

“If it were easy, everyone would do it,” said Sromalla. “But you’re helping people on their worse days, and not a lot of people want to do this type of work.” 

To help the police with these investigations please contact them at (414) 935-7405 if you have any information about the following long-term missing person cases featured in this project below: 

• Vanessa L. Blacks-Smith 
• Tarena Hopgood
• Javeoni Bufford
• Larry Green
• Carvell Jennings
• Johnnie Patterson
• Christopher William Harris
• John Lee
• Susan D. Nunez
• Bobby J. Curry
• Leonard D. Foster
• Chandra F. Jennings
• Manuel J. Ordonez
• Lisa Flowers
• Joniah A. Walker

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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.