This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Two weeks ago, Kayelyn Louder walked barefoot out of her Murray condominium into a rainy evening — with nothing but the clothes on her back.
No one has seen or heard from the 30-year-old woman since.
In a world of credit cards, the Internet, global-positioning systems and cameras in every purse and pocket, it is hard to imagine people turning invisible in a world of unprecedented visibility. And the average person has unparalleled access to broadcast someone's name and face to a world that is constantly plugged in to receive them.
"In this day and age it is hard to stay below that radar," said Salt Lake City Police Detective Cody Lougy, who until recently worked missing persons cases, and often turned to social media.
It is a net that catches a lot of people before they are gone for long. But when they do seem to walk into thin air, it has empowered their loved ones to take matters into their own hands, beyond fliers taped to store windows and stapled to telephone poles.
But Louder is still missing; as are at least 75 other Utahns, according to the Utah Missing Persons Clearinghouse (which currently features Louder on its home page).
Nationally, people went missing at ever increasing rates throughout the 1990s, spiking in 1997 with about 980,000 new cases, according to the National Crime Information Center.
From there, though, the number of new cases dropped — a plunge that runs parallel to the ever-growing popularity and ubiquitousness of the Internet. As of last year, investigators opened fewer than 628,000 new cases— a 36 percent drop from 1997, despite a more than 14 percent increase in the U.S. population in the same time period. Plus, they are closing just aboutas many cases as they open.
Among other major factors, including improved police training, the Amber Alert emerged in 1996. Then the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System went online in the late 2000s to centralize and link missing persons case information to unidentified remains.
But it's hard to ignore the role and reach of social media: Missing people turn up, thanks to strangers seeing online posts.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday , The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Vice President Bob Lowery chalked up the drop "to a number of reasons, including increased media coverage, public awareness and the use of technologies like cellphones, cameras and Amber Alerts. Social media is also to thank."
As New Mexico news station KOB-4 said earlier this year: Facebook has become the virtual milk carton.
Palo Alto, Calif. Police Lt. Zach Perron, a visiting fellow at the International Association of Police Chief's Center for Social Media, knows anecdotally that online-funneled bulletins have "absolutely" brought people home. As Perron put it, "the more eyes that you have looking at a photo or reading a [news] story… the better chance you've got of finding that person."
Lougy recalls solving a lot of cases very quickly through social media; but once in a while, someone still slips through the World Wide Web. Robin Putnam is an example, the detective said. Two years ago, the California man in his mid 20s was on his way to Colorado when he walked off his train in Salt Lake City and was never seen or heard from again.
Putnam's mother has maintained a Facebook page about him since a few months after he vanished. Long after media turned their attention elsewhere, Cindy Putnam reminds at least 2,900 people who are subscribed to the page with online posts.
"I feel like it's our best hope of maybe finding him is to reach as many people [as we can]," Cindy Putnam said.
She can't concentrate on reading novels these days; but the social media outreach gives her something to do.
It has produced tips, including three out of Boston — all within a couple miles of each other — just last month. Putnam passed that along to friends she has in the East Coast city, who are keeping an eye out for her son.
"It does help me," Cindy Putnam said. "I have total strangers posting fliers all over the country."
Joshua Barnes, one of Louder's friends, hopes a Facebook page he created for her case will help.
Louder has not had contact with her family since Sept. 27, when surveillance footage from her condominium, near 500 East and 5600 South, shows her leaving barefoot in the rain. She left everything behind, including her phone and beloved dog.
When Barnes first heard she was gone, he created the "Find Kayelyn Louder" page that same day to organize people and spread her missing persons flier as far as they could. More than 2,500 people have joined the online group since its creation on Oct. 2.
"There are so many people who want to stay engaged ... [and are] interested in her well being. It makes me feel hopeful," Barnes said.
Barnes finds hope in the page. Whenever he or someone else puts out a call for a search party, people show up even with only a few hours notice.
"It's so awesome," said Barnes, who figures the persistent push across social media has played a role in attracting media attention, as well.
Normally, missing persons cases make local Utah headlines only after law enforcement send out a press release. But in Louder's case, her friends and family spread the hash tag #findkayelyn on Twitter and broadcast her missing persons flier across the Web, leading local news outlets to pick up the story before any such official release.
Louder's disappearance has gone on to make national and international headlines on the likes of CBS, NBC, Headline News, The New York Daily News and The Daily Mail, in London.
"She's out there somewhere, and eventually someone's going to see her," Barnes said. "I feel like it's a big part of our job that, when that happens, that person knows her face."
Investigators fear Louder is suffering from a mental illness that could leave her unable to seek help if she needs it.
Though Murray police spokesman Kenny Bass said that investigators are unaware of any history of mental illness, Louder had begun calling 911 to report emergencies that apparently didn't occur. She could also be seen on surveillance footage talking excitedly to herself about two hours before she walked off into the rain (though Barnes figures she was probably talking to her pug, who was out there with her).
"She never would have literally walked away [like this]," her aunt Laurie Louder said. Kayelyn Louder keeps in touch with her mother on an almost daily basis, and had spoken with her the same day she disappeared. There was nothing odd or unusual during that phone call, Laurie Louder said.
A flier about Louder's disappearance, which has been widely distributed on social media, describes her as white, with brown hair and brown eyes. She is about 5-foot-8, according to the poster.
Anyone with information about Louder or her whereabouts is asked to call the police at 801-840-4000. Anyone with information about Robin Putnam's whereabouts can call the Salt Lake City Police Department at 801-799-3000.
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