The Why: The 712

According to Namus, in the state of New Jersey alone there are currently 304 open missing persons cases, 399 unidentified persons & 9 unclaimed persons. That's a total of 712 people who have been reported missing, unidentified and unclaimed. And there are many more people who are missing that have gone unreported.

How do these people go unnoticed for so long? Unfortunately, some of them wind up losing touch with their loved ones due to a falling out, a fight with their significant other or just by being someone who likes to wander off from time to time but sometimes it's a case of the family being lied to about the whereabouts of their loved ones and they don't even know that they're actually missing or deceased.

And that's why I wanted to start this blog and Facebook page - to try to help shed a little light on these cases, get the information in front of fresh eyes and hopefully provide some new leads to help bring these people back to their loved ones. Some have been missing for only a few years, while others have been gone for 30, 40, 50 or more years and their family may have had no idea whatever became of them. I'm hoping that by harnessing the power of the internet that we may be able to bring some of these people home.

Interested in helping? This is what you can do to get started:

1) Share new posts on social media with family, friends and other relevant pages and groups - the more exposure a case gets, the greater the chance that someone, somewhere may know or remember something that could help generate a new lead for the detectives.

2) Put your detective hat on - If you think you have any information about any of the cases featured, please contact the police department. If you don't feel comfortable contacting the police right away, feel free to send me a message on Facebook but please don't post the information publicly. You wouldn't want to jeopardize the case in any way.

3) If there's a case that you'd like me to feature, please send me a message on Facebook. I'm looking to feature cases involving people who were found or went missing from New Jersey and also cases where a person may have gone missing elsewhere or was found elsewhere but was from New Jersey.

4) I'm open for suggestions - if you feel there is anything we can do to make the page better let us know :)

Now let's get those detective hats on and start seeing what we can do!