For the Lost Blog

I have started a missing persons’ newsletter at Substack. Please share and subscribe; I update every Monday evening.

The lost/injured missing individual presents an interesting dilemma. By “lost/injured missing” I mean those whom there is no doubt they have perished as a result of some accident or disaster. In some cases, it is unlikely a body will be recovered, and in some it is almost impossible.

So are these people still missing? Their whereabouts on one hand are unknown, but what happened to them is not. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with still listing them as missing. While a few deluded family members might see this as hope their loved one is still alive, most know there is no such chance. But this still provides some sort of tangible evidence that they did in fact go missing. And in the unlikely event remains are discovered, they can be identified. There is no harm in saying the person is missing, no more than listing a known murder victim as missing if no remains have been found.