There isn't one single "longest" missing child, as cases vary globally and by definition (found/unfound), but some of the longest-missing include Marjorie West (disappeared 1938, missing 87+ years), Dennis Martin (disappeared 1969, missing 56+ years), and Australian child Paddy Hildebrand (vanished 1987, missing 37+ years), with many other cases like Etan Patz, Mary Boyle, and Michael Dunahee also spanning decades without resolution.
Two-year-old DeOrr Kunz Jr. vanished from Timber Creek Campground in Idaho on July 10, 2015, while camping with his family. The case remains unsolved despite extensive searches and investigations.
Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person, who at the age of 3 disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May 2007. The Daily Telegraph described her disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".
Despite searches at the time and later DNA testing on unidentified remains decades afterward, Marvin Clark's fate remains unknown. No confirmed evidence has ever explained what happened to him. Nearly a century later, his disappearance is still considered the oldest active missing person case in the United States.
The longest-known active missing person case belongs to Marvin A. Clark, who disappeared in Portland, Oregon, in October 1926, making his disappearance nearly 99 years old as of late 2025/early 2026. While other cases involve very long periods, like Marjorie West (missing since 1938), Clark's case is often cited as the oldest still officially unresolved, with modern efforts using DNA to try and identify remains found decades later.
A woman who went missing 52 years ago has been found alive and well after police released a grainy photograph as part of an appeal, solving one of Britain's longest-running missing person cases. Sheila Fox, now 68, disappeared from Coventry in 1972 when she was 16.
According to data from the 2019 United States Census, people who are Black or African American make up 13.4% of the United States population (QuickFacts). However, nearly 40% of missing persons are people of color (“Statistics,” Black and Missing). Black children make up about 33% of all missing child cases.
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Patricia Kopta, Pittsburgh woman missing for over 30 years, found alive in Puerto Rico: "Total shock"
The longest-missing child case is widely considered to be Marjorie West, who vanished in Pennsylvania in 1938 at age 4 and remains missing, now for over 87 years, with no definitive resolution. Other long-term missing children cases include Dennis Martin (missing since 1969) and Mary Boyle (missing since 1977), highlighting enduring mysteries where children disappeared under perplexing circumstances, with families seeking answers for decades.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., 20-month-old son of the famous aviator and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was kidnapped about 9:00 p.m., on March 1, 1932, from the nursery on the second floor of the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, New Jersey.
Madeleine was 3 years old when she vanished on a trip to Portugal, visiting from the U.K., with her parents and two siblings in 2007. The girl was later discovered to be missing from her bed along with an open window to the room where she had been sleeping. Madeleine has never been found and no body has been located.
Luis Armando Albino was six years old when he was kidnapped by a stranger in 1951. A DNA test his niece took "just for fun" led to his family discovering their long-lost relative more than 70 years later.
The father of a two-year-old girl who vanished in 1981 has revealed how his vow to solve the mystery led him away from thoughts of self-harm. No trace has ever been found of Katrice Lee, who went missing on her birthday near a military base in Germany where her father Richard was stationed.
On May 17, 2017, Ayla was declared dead by the State of Maine.
Dulce was 5 years old when she vanished during a family outing at Bridgeton City Park on Sept. 16, 2019. Her disappearance sparked a massive search effort and drew international media attention. Investigators believe someone took Dulce from the park, but her whereabouts remain unknown.
Murphy's body has not been found, although some of her belongings were found approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Ballarat.
Investigators believe Jennifer Kesse was abducted outside her condo near the Mall at Millenia in Orlando on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006. She has never been seen since.
She has not been seen since, and her whereabouts remain unknown. Brockton, Massachusetts, U.S. Wild Ammonoosuc Road, Haverhill, New Hampshire, U.S. The investigation into Murray's disappearance has been extensive and long‑running.
7 Historical Figures Who Disappeared Without a Trace
The Lost Colony of Roanoke
The disappearance of some 100 settlers from their colony on Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) in the late 1580s remains an unsolved—and still compelling—mystery embedded in American history.
In 2021, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that the United States was the country with most kidnappings, totaling 56,652.
Robbery. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey in 2002, robberies with white victims and black offenders were more than 12 times more common than the opposite.
The targets of hate crime
Of the 11,679 hate crimes reported: 5,866 were on the basis of race. 3,004 against Black people. 797 against Latinx people (the second highest ever recorded).