Sounds of the Missing [PODCAST] Posted on December 29, 2024December 30, 2024 by Anna Oleniczak and Caleb Rose About 32,711 people have gone missing in the City of Milwaukee in the last 10 years, according to the Milwaukee Police Department. At any given time, about 500 people are actively missing in Milwaukee. Many are people of color, yet very few make the news. In 2024 through Oct. 15, 2,466 people were reported missing in the city. Each year in the past decade, between 2,500 and 3,300 people have been reported missing each year. Many are short-term missing cases where people are quickly found, 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. 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 with family members and detectives and filed open records requests. In the case of Jennings, Milwaukee police declined to answer specific questions on the case, but they did release the full police file to Media Milwaukee. The cases also highlighted a short-staffed police department with a decimated detective bureau and a single detective in charge of all missing person cases at any one time. The files ran the gamut from exhaustive investigations to others where it appeared little work was done, especially as time went on. The students also tackled the thorny issues lying beneath many of the cases, ranging from mental health of Black men to the city’s crack cocaine epidemic, police empathy, and family dysfunction. They explored the phenomenon that academics have dubbed “missing white woman syndrome” in which people of color are systemically seen as having less news value. In the Sounds of the Missing podcast episodes, nobody had been arrested, and nobody has been accused publicly. Episode One: Our First Lead Produced by Anna Oleniczak Meet Tory Lowe, Milwaukee’s community advocate. He’s a radio host on 101.7 The Truth, and when he’s not broadcasting, he works with families to help find some of Milwaukee’s 500-plus missing people, developing a unique bond of trust with them. Episode Two: Missing Mental Health Produced by Anna Oleniczak and Caleb Rose Many missing people’s cases in Milwaukee have an underlay of mental health concerns. Experts say that more mental health resources are needed in the community, especially for Black men and surrounding the issue of PTSD. Episode Three: Mystery in Appleton Produced by Anna Oleniczak John Lee is one of at least three cases of missing Asian-American men in Wisconsin. Reporter David Go met with Sgt. Chue Thao of the Appleton police force and explored media disparities in coverage of Asian-Americans. Episode Four: The Lost Boy Produced by Anna Oleniczak Elizabeth Harris lost her son Christopher when he was one year old. Today the missing Milwaukee boy would be 28 years old. In a startling development, Milwaukee police now think they may have figured out the lost boy’s identity, at long last. But will they be able to prove it? Episode Five: Where to Next? Produced by Anna Oleniczak The Milwaukee Police Department provided insights into missing person investigations, and the student journalists analyze what comes next.
Episode One: Our First Lead Produced by Anna Oleniczak Meet Tory Lowe, Milwaukee’s community advocate. He’s a radio host on 101.7 The Truth, and when he’s not broadcasting, he works with families to help find some of Milwaukee’s 500-plus missing people, developing a unique bond of trust with them.
Episode Two: Missing Mental Health Produced by Anna Oleniczak and Caleb Rose Many missing people’s cases in Milwaukee have an underlay of mental health concerns. Experts say that more mental health resources are needed in the community, especially for Black men and surrounding the issue of PTSD.
Episode Three: Mystery in Appleton Produced by Anna Oleniczak John Lee is one of at least three cases of missing Asian-American men in Wisconsin. Reporter David Go met with Sgt. Chue Thao of the Appleton police force and explored media disparities in coverage of Asian-Americans.
Episode Four: The Lost Boy Produced by Anna Oleniczak Elizabeth Harris lost her son Christopher when he was one year old. Today the missing Milwaukee boy would be 28 years old. In a startling development, Milwaukee police now think they may have figured out the lost boy’s identity, at long last. But will they be able to prove it?
Episode Five: Where to Next? Produced by Anna Oleniczak The Milwaukee Police Department provided insights into missing person investigations, and the student journalists analyze what comes next.