NOT THE ONLY MISSING PERSON
BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX
You couldn’t pay me a bazillion dollars to be Susan Levy. In case you’ve
been off on a desert island lacking either newspapers or cable, you don’t
know Sharon Levy, mother of the missing Chandra, the intern who disappeared
from the District of Columbia days before her graduation. After ten weeks of
speculation, it was learned that Ms. Levy was involved with Congressman Gary
Condit (D-Ca.). Thousands of police hours have been spent on interviews and
searches. Still, Chandra Levy remains missing.
No, I wouldn’t want to be Susan Levy unless I was the mother of one of
the nation’s other missing persons, one of the ones whose absence has
garnered neither the media attention nor the police resources, one of those
who hasn’t set tongues ablaze because of her involvement with an elected
official. Take the case of Curtis McCoy, who was two-years old when he
disappeared in Newark, New Jersey in 1989. His photo is one of the twenty
that appears on the FBI’s missing persons website, where Chandra Levy leads
the pack. But, the web site also reports that after Curtis disappeared
during a shopping trip, “local law enforcement authorities immediately began
a search for the boy but called it off after several hours.” In contrast,
the Levy investigation has taken place for several weeks. I’m not suggesting
that fewer resources be directed at Chandra Levy, but wondering why so few
are focused on folks like Curtis McCoy.
Of course, the Chandra Levy story, tragic as it is, also has elements of
a hot story during a slow summer of news. When you mix politics, illicit sex
and possible foul play, you’ve concocted a compelling media cocktail. But
the media have missed the opportunity to talk more broadly about the
challenges that face the relatives of missing children and adults, to use the
Chandra Levy story to educate, not just titillate. Since there are as many
as 103,000 missing people in the United States, Chandra Levy’s disappearance
is an opportunity to look at the resources available to families whose loved
ones go mission.
When Kristin Denise Smart went missing from the California Polytechnic
University in 1996, her concerned parents spearheaded efforts for two pieces
of legislation. At the State level, they pressured then-Governor Pete Wilson
to support the Campus Safety Act of 1998. At the National Level,
Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) introduced Kristin’s Bill, legislation that
made up to a million dollars of federal dollars available to help
organizations search for missing adults. President Bill Clinton signed the
legislation in December 2000.
The Phoenix-based Nation’s Missing Children’s Organization and Center for
Missing Adults has a web page (www.nmco.org) that features the photographs
and status reports on dozens of missing adults, including those of both
Kristin Smart and Chandra Levy. While our attention is focused on the plight
of Chandra Levy, it makes sense to broaden the news focus to the plight of
all missing adults and to, perhaps, look at resources like those provided by
the Center for Missing Adults. But the media seems so caught up in the
speculative hysteria of the Levy disappearance that they’ve forgotten that
hundreds of others feel the frustration and pain Susan and Levy feel about
not knowing what has happened to a loved one.
What is it that makes a community galvanize around a missing person or an
unsolved crime? Is it money? Connections? Race or gender? The persistence
of those left behind, those forced to goad police officers into keeping a
case open? Why do some cases rivet our attention, while others merit no more
than a mention? Can the light from a very visible case provide enough
illumination for a more general issue to be addressed? And, in the middle of
all the media speculation, can a few people remember that there are others
missing, others who have grieving parents, others whose lives could benefit
from our attention?
There are riveting stories to be found by scrolling through the FBI
missing person’s page, or looking at the dozens of disappearances listed by
the Nation’s Missing Children’s Organization and Center for Missing Adults.
What happened to Dail Dinwiddie, the South Carolina student who seemingly
disappeared into thin air from her Five Points home? What about Tionda and
Diamond Bradley, two little black girls who disappeared shortly after the 4th
of July in Chicago. Eight-year-old Shy’Kemmia Pate was last seen wearing an
Atlanta Braves jersey before she disappeared from her Unadilla, Georgia home.
And yes, Chandra Levy is missing. Hers is one story, not the only story of
a young woman gone missing.
I don’t begrudge this story the attention it has garnered. Still, the
spotlight on Chandra Levy’s disappearance ought to extend to a focus on the
thousands of missing person stories that scar hearts all over the country.