DISSAPEARING TEENS:
DISSAPEARING TEENS:
North Dakota Missing Teens, Update and Conspiracy.
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Ashlynn Rath | News | October
North Dakota has become discussed more frequently nationwide due to the increase of teen disappearances. Though the rate of teen disappearances has been increasing, there has been more of an increase in the last three months.
In the span of two weeks in early August, 11 teens disappeared. Some were runaways, the rest unknown. News about these teens has been discussed on TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thankfully, 9 of the 11 were found, but not all returned home. One of the missing teens was found traveling to Ohio with a few older friends. He has yet to return home. His mother hopes for his return soon, according to a post on Instagram.
Still after, more teens continue to disappear. When looking at the Fargo Police Department instagram, five more teens have gone missing. Four of them have been reported as runaways while only one has been reported as a missing person.
Photo from Ashlynn Rath
Photo from Ashlynn Rath
This is the list of all the teens who disappeared in the past 3 months.
This is the list of all the teens who disappeared in the past 3 months.
According to the North Dakota run-away crisis line, about 32 percent of teens run away. The statistics show that more commonly teens run away due to abusive households or bad living conditions. However, the reason as to why the sudden increase is unknown.
Grand Forks, Mandan, Bismarck, and Fargo have been seeing the highest increase in these numbers over the past three months. Most of these teens are Native American, Mexican, or of Color based off of their missing person reports.
People who don't know the full story are speculating online that these teens were kidnapped or taken away because of their ethnicity.
Other people online are also arguing over the fact that the Native American teens are not being found due to the lack of police and the complications of working with the tribes they belong to.
Since all of our officers are working hard, getting statements on the situation at hand has become difficult. Getting answers to these conspiracies has been next to impossible to get.
photo sourced from the North Dakota runaway crisis line.
The photo is showing the statistics on why teens runaway
When interviewing Sargent Mock from the Fargo PD over the phone, he talked about the misconceptions of runaways and abductions, saying that when people don't have the full story, things get misinterpreted.
“We treat runaway teens just like we treat a missing persons case, even if this is a recurring event for this specific individual,” Sargent Mock said.
He later went on to say that their process over in Fargo is the exact same when it comes to these reports. They take information about the missing person, and post it on a police database that all departments have access to so they know who to look for.
The Fargo police also like to turn to the public for assistance by posting information on their instagram and facebook pages. This is what leads to these misconceptions about what happened to these teens.
All that can be done for now is keep eyes and ears open, and hope that these teens are in safe places.
Ashlynn Rath
Ashlynn Rath
Ashlynn Rath is the Assistant Editor-in-Chief and the feature editor for The Courier. She has been on staff for 3 years now and has written many fun articles as well as serious ones. In Ashlynn’s Bio, you can find a new monthly recipe and past articles!
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