Free guide · Scarlet Beast En español →

When someone is missing

For people in the United States who cannot find someone: a child, a teenager who left, a person living with dementia, an adult you love, or someone who has been gone a long time. What to do in the first hour. What to tell the police, and what to ask them for. Which line answers for which situation. What is there for families when the days turn into months. Take only what you need today.

Right now

Someone is in danger, or a child is missing? Call 911, or your local police.
You do not have to wait to report a child. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says federal law prohibits law enforcement from establishing a waiting period before accepting a missing child report.
A child or teenager under 18? After you have told the police, call the Center’s 24-hour hotline: 1-800-843-5678.
A teenager who left? The National Runaway Safeline, for them and for you: call or text 1-800-786-2929.
A person with dementia? The Alzheimer’s Association says to search immediately, and to call 911 if the person is not found within 15 minutes. Its helpline: 1-800-272-3900.
Thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour.

Where to start

Call the police. 911, or your local police or sheriff. Say you want to report a missing person. For a child, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says federal law prohibits a waiting period.
Give them: name, date of birth, height, weight, anything else that would help someone know the person, such as eyeglasses or braces, when you noticed they were missing, and what they were wearing.
For a child, ask that the name and identifying information be entered immediately into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center Missing Person File. Then call the Center at 1-800-843-5678.
A small child at home: search closets, piles of laundry, in and under beds, inside large appliances, vehicles including trunks, and anywhere a child may crawl or hide.
A teenager who left: the National Runaway Safeline, call or text 1-800-786-2929, for them and for you.
A person with dementia: start searching immediately; many are found within 1.5 miles. Not found within 15 minutes: call 911 and say the person has dementia. Alzheimer’s Association helpline: 1-800-272-3900.
Gone a long time: NamUs, the U.S. Department of Justice’s free system for missing persons, at namus.nij.ojp.gov. Families can enter a case once a police report is on file.
Write down the report number and the officer’s name.
To talk to someone now: call or text 988.

With JavaScript on, this page has more on each of these, and builds the words to say.

More help

To keep a record of every call: Paper trail and Dates to keep.
Before you dial: Call script: know what you will say before you dial.
If the person has dementia: When memory starts to slip and When you’re caring for someone.
If a child was being hurt at home: If a child is being hurt.
If home is not safe: When home isn’t safe.
If someone may be held or made to work: If someone is forcing you to work or to sell sex.
A lawyer you can afford: When you need a lawyer and can’t pay.
If the news is the worst news: When someone has died.
The long nights: Breathe, Worry time and Can’t sleep?
All our free tools and Get help now.

General information from people who care, not legal advice. We are not police, lawyers, search and rescue or a government agency, and we cannot look for anyone. We can’t tell you what an agency will do, or what the law in your state says about a missing adult. The organizations named here can help, and their lines are free. Nothing in this guide asks you to type anything about yourself or about the person. In an emergency, call 911.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No police officer, lawyer or advocate has reviewed it, and it was not written by someone this has happened to: an AI has never waited by a phone for someone it loves, and cannot know what that is. The facts come from pages read on October 6, 2026. From the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: Is Your Child Missing?, Victim & Family Support, Endangered Runaways and Family Abduction. From NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System of the U.S. Department of Justice: its front page, its About page and its frequently asked questions. From the National Runaway Safeline: its front page, About Us, Concerned Adults, Get Help and Home Free. From the U.S. Department of Justice’s AMBER Alert site: its front page and its frequently asked questions. From the Alzheimer’s Association: Wandering, and its 24/7 Helpline page. The page says whose words it is passing on, and what is marked “ours” is our own suggestion and not from any of them. What we could not read: the State Department’s pages on people missing abroad, on international parental child abduction and on its passport programs, and the FBI’s pages; both refused our server, so nothing here is from them. What we did not read: any state’s rules on reporting a missing adult, any state’s alerts for older adults or other people at risk, the Center’s downloadable checklist and its guides on international kidnapping, and the laws themselves. We found no federal page that sets out first steps for a missing adult the way the Center does for a child, and the page says so where it matters. We left out how many people go missing each year: NamUs’s own two pages give two different averages. We did not call any of these numbers. Nothing on this page is stored on your device or sent anywhere, and the page loads no analytics (privacy). Your browser will still remember that you visited, as it does for any page. It was checked by programs, not yet used by people. Scarlet Beast is not a law office, a police agency or a search organization, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].

When someone is missing

Right now

More help

Signal over noise.

BET ON YOU