#387: When the Trail Goes Cold, The Story Heats Up

According to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a division within what’s left of the FBI, there were 563,389 missing person records added to the missing persons database in 2023¹.

Impressively, the majority of these cases were solved within the same year but by the end of 2023, 96,955 active missing person cases remained.

These very real statistics have the unfortunate effect of dehumanizing the people who’ve gone missing. They also assuredly create an absolute deluge of true crime podcasters looking for their next story, tasteful or otherwise.