LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- Silver Alerts, Amber Alerts and high-profile missing persons cases draw automatic attention these days. Word spreads fast on social and traditional media, which is crucial in those first few hours of a disappearance.
Unfortunately, many cases turn cold, and when the attention wanes, the state offers a site that is billed as service to the public. But now, for the third time, THV11 found that site is sorely lacking.
Families of missing people know about long, winding roads and they also know about dead ends.
For the family of Pam Golden, missing for 23 years, reminders of those dead ends come every day.
“Every time that you see on the news that they have found human remains it's just like a chill comes over me,” said Rita Hall, Golden’s sister. “You sit by the phone and think oh well they’re fixing to call me or something like that, but then you never hear.”
Frustration is mounting for this family. Changes in investigators and a perceived lack of emphasis on their case is part of the reason why.
“Over the years we've heard from lots of detectives and they're going to do this and they're gonna do that and none of them do anything,” said Hall.
Adding to the frustration is the fact that THV11 joined them in asking why in this age of social media, the state seems behind the times when it comes to spreading the word about their plight.
Brad Cozart is the repository administrator for the Arkansas Crime Information Center. He was unavailable to speak on camera but answered questions about the publically available search site.
In three different instances where 11 News investigators have asked both his agency and attorney general Leslie Rutledge, of the roughly 500 missing persons cases in the state, fewer than 60 are searchable by the public.
Cozart blames local law enforcement officials. All missing persons cases are in the database for police to search and check. They are also tied in with national F.B.I computers. But those local authorities have to notify the ACIC if they want the case information made public.
See the slideshow of those listed on the site here.
“I think many don’t see it as a resource,” said Cozart. “A deputy in Mountain Home, with all of the local papers covering a missing person there, may not see a reason for someone in El Dorado to need to know.”
That’s an added insult to Hall on top of already simmering frustrations with local investigators.
“It doesn't take a rocket scientist to sit down at a computer and type in somebody's name and statistics,” she said. “Even I could do it.”
And private citizens may be outperforming the state’s site. We caught up once again with Joey Kampbell. He is the administrator of the “Missing Persons of Arkansas” Facebook page.
“We get 15 to 20 calls a day and double that many emails,” said Kampbell, who adds his site’s users are troubled by the lack of usability of the state’s search page. “These people will say directly to us 'when we go to that page to find our loved one's picture we can't. We have tried. We've clicked this button, that button. We've done all the different steps and we can't even find their picture that was on there.”
Cozart says plans are in the works to make it more automatic that police-entered information goes to the public site, but that may be years away because of the structure of the databases.
Until then, at least one sister will keep looking for her own clues while waiting for some kind of official word.
“I would like for them to get on television with me and say this is what you promised me,” said Hall.
Attorney General Rutledge told us 14 months ago that she would make improving the state's response to missing persons a priority.
She has been unavailable for the past week but sent a statement emphasizing the importance of training local law enforcement to handle these cases.
She pointed to an upcoming event, the 5th annual Never Forgotten effort. She promised more details on that in the coming days.