In the summer of 2024, Gwinnett County saw at least 22 unsolved missing persons cases of young people. Of those cases, 16 were confirmed to be of Black or Latino descent. My friend was one of them. I first heard about her case in a conversation with my Mom. The news struck me hard; a knot of dread coiled in my stomach as the reality sank in. I had seen missing persons posters my entire life, watched movies where people vanished without a trace — but I could have never imagined something so terrifying happening to someone I knew so well.
I immediately turned to the internet to learn more about her case, hands trembling slightly as I desperately typed her name into my search engine. But instead of finding more information on her disappearance and how to aid search efforts, I only found more and more names on the county’s Facebook page, many of them belonging to young Black and Latino teens. Just one post for each victim, consisting of their name, age, and a picture if lucky. Nothing more. No updates until they were found, if they were at all.
With each click of my mouse, bringing in repetitive information, I grew increasingly frustrated. Some missing teens were listed in a Fox 5 Atlanta report (although some had misspelled names and others lacked accompanying pictures), but no additional information was provided elsewhere. This appalled and confused me. Why were the big news outlets falling short when we needed them most? Weren’t they supposed to be shining light on these critical issues, keeping the community informed, and spreading awareness? Why were they so silent now?…