If I Go Missing... An overview of missing persons data from north carolina in 2021
There have been 14,125 missing persons cases in the year 2021 in the state (NC Center for Missing Persons). The dataset we plan to use, presented by the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, shows us who goes missing. But are these the people who fear going missing? We seek to explain the divide between people who fear and prepare for going missing, and people who go missing every day in the state of North Carolina. The fear of missing persons, particularly missing children, is often said to originate with the May 15, 1979, disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz in lower Manhattan. According to Angela Chen, “His story was key to the ‘missing child’ movement of the 1980s, which led to new laws, frequent political debate, mass-mobilization via milk cartons and billboards, and widespread fear of ‘stranger danger’” (Chen, 2016). The recent rise of true crime media had reawakened fears of “stranger danger,” but in very specific subgroups of the population. In our data physicalization project, we want to highlight the demographic reality of missing persons in the state of North Carolina, while also bringing into the conversation the fear of “going missing” and how this fear pervades societal understandings of missing persons.
For our data physicalization, we have chosen to utilize an “If I Go Missing” folder. This concept was popularized by the hosts of the true-crime podcast “Crime Junkie.” Though there are multiple sources from which If I Go Missing (IIGM) templates can be downloaded or purchased, we have decided to use the template originally provided on Crime Junkie’s website. The website reads, “Help yourself by helping your loved ones in a time of crisis if anything should happen to you. This form will give you a good jump start on all of the things that could be relevant should you go missing” (Crime Junkie, 2023). After being prompted to enter a name and email, you are able to download a 53 page document entitled “If I Go Missing” (linked in References). The document contains two duplicated templates, each containing various headers. These headers include general information, physical appearance, and medical information, as well as relationships, communication account log-ins, and modes of transportation. Some headers are more unusual, including fingerprints, frequently visited locations, and debts owed. We chose to adapt the content of this folder to create our data physicalization because we feel it represents the divide between those who go missing and those who fear going missing.
OUR MAKING PROCESS
Becca and I began our making process by analyzing the original If I Go Missing folder template from Crime Junkie. We compared the template with the data provided by the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, aligning our datasets with the folder headers that seemed relevant. Once the datasets were paired with the folder headers, we brainstormed ways to visualize the data on the pages. We also decided what the folder would be made out of – we planned to laser cut wooden front and back pages, while using cardstock and thick printer paper for the inner pages.
We then divided the inner pages between the two of us. Becca visited the EITM lab to laser cut the front and back pages. The engraving with the laser cutter was molded after the title page of the If I Go Missing folder cover. The If I Go Missing Folder cover and back were designed and created out of laser-engraved wood. This was done to give the folder physical weight to mirror the heavy topic that the project addresses.
The pages within the book were modeled after the layout and design of the Crime Junkie folder itself. Headers or certain pages were selected and paired with the NC Center for Missing Persons data based on certain connections. For example the transportation pages that are used to keep record of a person normal commute routes, bus pass numbers, Uber or Lyft travel was changed to represent the Juvenile rates missing by age. The data was presented in the windows of a school bus, cut out from a Cricut. On the page it was filled out as if the person creating the folder was a child whose transportation was a school bus or their mom's van.
It was decided to take a collage approach to the pages, printing multiple layers and gluing to create the final page. We pulled from the original Crime Junkie template, but also wanted to pull in bright visualizations that connected the data to the topic. I utilized dark colors to represent holes in the data – particularly shown in the Missing Person by Gender page. We also wanted to highlight the local connection, so a page with information from NamUS to create a page for Deborah Key, who has been missing from Carrboro since 1997 was added. Finally, we wanted to introduce a level of interactivity to the physicalization, since the point of an If I Go Missing folder is to fill it out. We chose to do this by adding the Acknowledgement page from the original template, inviting viewers to sign their name.
Becca and I met up after finishing our individual pages to complete the folder. We hole punched our pages and then tied together the physicalization with fabric scraps. We decided to use fabric to give the folder more flexibility, so it would be easier to turn the pages when viewing.
Our data physicalization project reflects a specific population’s challenges and marginalizations. BIPOC individuals go missing at higher rates nationwide, and North Carolina is no exception (NC Center for Missing Persons). However, the paranoia of “going missing” seems to rest widely on white women. This could be due, in part, to the overwhelming amount of media coverage that white women receive when they do, in fact, go missing. “How Much Press Are You Worth?” According to Kyle Pope, author of “How Much Coverage are You Worth,” “The sad fact remains that in the United States, white people, particularly white women, garner much more media coverage when they go missing than any other group, significantly out of proportion to the number of cases” (Pope, 2023). Pope further posits that “media outlets are making judgements – often misguided judgements, not informed by data – about which missing persons cases to cover and which to ignore” (Pope, 2023). The disparity between who goes missing and who fears going missing is impacted by representation in the media. The popularity of IIGM folders has also been proliferated by the media.
Why do people like True Crime? It is a real mystery that viewers can feel involved in, they feel like they helped solve it and participated from the comfort of their own couch (Gray, 2023). There is also the hypothesis that women are the main audience or consumer of the genre because they have more anxiety around the matter and want to be prepared “in case they go missing” (Gray, 2023). Because the audience of true crime is white women, the victims portrayed are often white women, skewing the idea of who often are the ones that actually go missing. With the media also reinforcing the idea that white women are likely to go missing, it is understandable why they feel the need to create the “If I go missing folders.” The problem with this idea is that it perpetuates the assumption there is only one type of person that goes missing, which is not true. There is emphasis placed on only one type of victim, which then leads to disparity in representation of marginalized people going missing has real-life consequences. People get left out of the narratives because they aren’t the “typical” victims, so they are seen as less significant, such as sex workers who are not perceived as innocent (Gary, 2023). Race also factors into the narratives with the “white savior” narrative when victims come from an ethnic background (Earp, 2023). The dehumanization of people occurs when the real violence and victims are monetized, marketed, or meme-ified (Earp, 2023). Tragedy becomes entertainment where people and families cannot opt out because media coverage is in the public domain. “‘True crime isn’t the problem,’ Phillips said. ‘It’s how people approach it, who is telling the story and whose stories are not being told that’s the problem’” (quoted in Gary, 2023).
The purpose of this data visualization is to face the assumptions of who goes missing with the reality that whole stories of people are missing from the overall narrative. The people who actually wind up missing are a much wider group than just the white women who watch true crime and think they are the target group. The missing person folder data visualization will be an interactive product where people can view the missing persons data in NC between the selected years. The data will show that more than the assumed white women go missing each year and the data of missing persons is skewed. Possible courses of action would be to have proper media coverage for all cases. Not all cases have alerts, and not each person gets the same amount of media coverage. If media coverage were to be beyond “noteworthy” cases or the assumed profile of victims, more people could both be found and their stories heard (Jeanis and Powers, 2017). The disparities in data and the assumptions of who goes missing have harmful consequences. It is our job to bring these gaps in data to light and fight to correct them. This is an issue that affects real, living people, so the true crime media should be consumed in an ethical way.
Deborah Key has been missing from Carrboro, North Carolina, since December 1, 1997. She was last seen in the parking lot of a now-defunct bar in Carrboro. Debbie was single and lived with her mother in Chapel Hill. She loved animals and children. She earned most of her money from babysitting jobs around town, and lived a nomadic lifestyle.