Earlier this month, a car was dredged up from Lake Shawnee, in Topeka, Kansas. The car had a 1984 Wisconsin sticker on the liscence plate, which had otherwise rusted and deteriorated. It turned out to be a 1976 Olsdmobile. There also turned out to be some human remains in it.
After a certain amount of deliberation, it was determined that the car had, indeed, last been registered in Wisconsin in 1984. The owner turned out to be an 84 year old man, named Leonard Jordan, also the owner of the remains. And, a missing persons' report had been filed for him in September of 1984, when he originally went missing. Not only in his home state, but in Topeka, where Mr. Jordan had family. So......Kansas should have been able to detemine immediately, upon finding the remains, who it was. The only problem is that in 1986, something quite anomolous with reality happened in Kansas. (imagine that!) Based on "information", his info was deleted from missing persons reports, and Kansas is saying that Mr. Jordan's sister told them he had been found. Well.......unless she went diving, there is no possible way!
This is all Topeka is telling us about it:
"According to Blume, Jordan spent much of his time going back and forth from Wisconsin to Topeka, where his family lived. His sister reported him missing. "We were able to locate a missing person report filed with the Topeka Police Department in 1984 for Mr. Jordan. But, although, in 1986, based on information Mr. Jordan was taken out of the system for missing persons." His sister had indicated to TPD her brother was alive and well so the missing person report was rescinded."
This brings me to my question for Kansas: when a person is reported missing, at what point IS the person taken out of "the system"? Does Kansas need proof that the person is found? Or can anyone claiming a connection to the person simply call and say that the person is "alive and well"? Is there a need to verify this information with either a positive ID, if deceased, or an actual conversation accompanied by any identification available if the person is living? Kansas needs to ponder this question and find an answer.
After reading everything I have read about the case of Adam Herrman, the little boy who went missing in 1999 from Towanda but was not reported as missing until 2008,
as per this story, and a missing person who had been reported properly yet still not looked for,
as in Leonard Jordan's case, it is starting to look as if there is a grave problem in the way Kansas handles missing persons cases.
