PETALING JAYA: “My father’s uncle drove out at 3pm on May 2. He has not come home till now.”
Such a message, which is accompanied by details like car registration number and contact details, is not uncommon on neighbourhood group chats, posted by those looking for missing persons.
These days, most families are quick to resort to social media after lodging a police report.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong, who has dealt with various cases of disappearances, said the media and social media play an important role in the search process.
There is a high success rate of finding a family member through public information, he said.
Overall, he observed that the number of missing persons seeking assistance from his department had decreased in recent years, likely due to people leaving their homes less frequently during the pandemic, as well as the affected families searching for their loved ones themselves through social media.
Chong said the Public Services and Complaints Department had a 100% success rate in assisting in the search for missing persons in the past.
“But it was unfortunate that some of them were found dead,” he said.
He categorised the missing as children, adults and elderly folk.
“Missing adults are the most complicated,” he said.
He said mothers are the most common when it comes to older people going missing.
“Some of them feel that their children don’t care about them, so they choose to leave.
“They feel neglected, so they would go to a friend’s house or, in some cases, they join a tour group to travel somewhere and turn off all communication with their family.
“Or some people would hide out in a cheap hotel for a few days because they don’t want their children to find them.
“You can say they’re missing, but they’re not.”
Another common scenario, he said, are elderly people suffering from Alzheimer’s.
“They would wander off,” he added.
He spoke of incidents where the elderly person with dementia would take a bus to another town, looking for other relatives.
As for the disappearance of adults, he said such cases are more complicated.
“Some of them run away because they owe money to ah long.
“There are some cases where the missing person is found to have committed suicide later,” he added.
Chong said the disappearance of children is the most dangerous.
“In many cases, the parents do not tell the truth,” he said, citing instances about divorced couples who gave different versions after one parent fetched the child from school.
He also said some children who went missing were found begging in neighbouring countries.
“In such cases, we must seek the assistance of international organisations,” he said.
Chong said some missing girls might even have been sold as sex workers in other countries.
He also said some teenagers run away from home after their parents object to the person they are dating.
“These young couples would hide in budget hotels. We would advise the family to sit down with them and talk it out.
“When a young man or woman goes missing, we encourage the family to seek the help of the media,” he added.
He said some hotel housekeepers or receptionists might see the photo of the missing person in the papers and would help keep an eye on the missing person until their family arrives.
“In some cases, the missing person would contact me after the case becomes public, saying that he or she wants people to stop the search.
“The person would say that he/she is unwilling to go home due to parental objection to marriage, or religious issues,” he said.
Based on data from his department, the number of missing person cases has decreased over the last five years.
Federal Territories DAP public complaints bureau chairman Yew Jia Haur said many families would search for their loved ones via social media.
However, he said the disadvantage of doing so through social media is that criminals would target the families.
“Scammers would pretend to have information about the missing person and demand money before disclosing the information,” he added.
