Last week, I visited my parents' house for dinner. During dinner, we heard a knock on the door. When we answered, a man from a towing company was asking us to move our car so he could tow the neighbor’s car. My parents were skeptical because they hadn’t seen or heard from the young woman who lived in the unit next to them in over two months.
My mother went outside and blankly told the man no. She asked who had told him to tow the car and where he was taking it. The man gave his card and information on the towing company and told her the car was involved in an accident and the owner had asked for it to be towed to the body shop he worked for. My mother was skeptical and had my father send the absent neighbor a message.
She eventually moved the car so he could grab the car and contacted the landlord and let him know someone had come for the car. The landlord had told her the unit would be cleaned out and rented soon since the tenant hadn’t been paying him rent for several months. All of this was news to me. I asked my parents more about it and learned the last time they’d seen her she was getting into a large SUV with a man they had never seen before and several young women dressed in club attire. This was a red flag to me because Louisiana has the fourth highest rates of femicide in the United States. This was also a red flag because I know that new research has started to expose Louisiana’s high rates of human trafficking.
My parents had called and text messaged their neighbor multiple times with no avail. The landlord said he hadn’t heard from the tenant at all. I asked for her full name and tried to look her up on social media and online to see if she had been reported missing.
I found nothing online as far as missing persons' reports and could not find her social media profiles to try and contact her.
This left me with an uneasy feeling in my stomach. When and why would a woman leave town with a man and group of girls for a night out and not come back? Why would she leave her car in the driveway for months? Why hadn’t she been in communication with her landlord and neighbors? Was she simply leaving town and getting out or was there something very wrong?
If you suspect or know that someone is missing you do not have to wait to report. Here's what you can do:
- Try and contact them. Has your coworker, neighbor, classmate or bar regular not been seen or heard from in a questionable amount of time? Try calling, texting and messaging them on social media.
- If you know their close friends, roommates or family members, contact them next and let them know about your concern.
- Contact the police. Write down details such as their physical description, date you last saw them, suspicious behavior or absences, any extra information that could be useful or contribute to your suspicions.
- Follow up with the police. If this is someone at your university, contact campus police immediately and they will help contact local police as well as the person’s family. You can also reach out to the media or online sources. There is a Missing Persons Page on NOLA.com and one on Noladefender.com, missingkids.com for missing and exploited children, nolamissing.tumblr.com, a database through LSU http://www.lsu.edu/faceslab/, call NOPD at 504-821-2222.
- If the person turns up on their own or you hear from the person, inform the police. Also, if they are found -- you may not learn their location unless they give permission for the police to do so.
