Far more children go missing in the U.S. than adults, but, according to national statistics, more missing children than missing adults are eventually found or find their way home.
Most credit the 1984 Missing Children’s Assistance Act for improving the national response to reports of missing children. Resources such as the federally funded National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia, are committed to locating missing children.
But the same cannot be said about missing adults.
Few resources are available to family members who may live the rest of their lives not knowing what happened to their missing father, mother, wife, husband or sibling.
The disappearance of a Jerome dairy worker is a case in point.
Luis Rodriguez-Hernandez, foul play at a dairy, July 4, 2005
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Rodriguez-Hernandez left work as usual, but he never made it home. His pickup was later found in Nevada.
His stepdaughter, Melisa Tinajero of Oregon, said he disappeared from his job at the Bettencourt Dairy under suspicious circumstances. Rodriguez-Hernandez left behind his paycheck, his Chevrolet Camaro, a wedding ring and clothing.
A possible eyewitness told Tinajero a man at the dairy shot her stepfather in the back of the head, rolled him up in a carpet and left with his body in Rodriguez-Hernandez’s own truck.
Jerome County Sheriff Lt. Chad Kingsland confirmed the case was first investigated as a possible homicide. An investigator, however, determined it was possible that Rodriguez-Hernandez left the country voluntarily.
“It’s now considered a cold case,” Kingsland said.
A news release at the time said Rodriguez-Hernandez was last seen leaving the dairy at 4:30 p.m. July 4, 2004, in his 1987 blue and white pickup with a toolbox in the bed.
His pickup was later found in the parking lot of a Las Vegas Walmart.
The pickup, Tinajero said, had been wiped clean of fingerprints and everything — including coins he kept in the truck and the tools that were in his toolbox — were gone.
Tinajero’s mother has since passed away.
“At this point, I don’t even care if someone goes to prison for this,” Tinajero said. “Just tell me where his body is so I can have him cremated and put him with my mom.”
Rodriguez-Hernandez would be 57 years old now. He had black hair and brown eyes, stood 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds at the time of his disappearance. Anyone with information should call the Jerome County Sheriff’s Office at 208-595-3300.
Fern Alexandra Baird, a casual hike, Oct. 19, 2020
Fern Alexandra Baird, 63, of Park City, Utah, never returned to her hotel after hiking at the Prairie Creek Trailhead, north of Ketchum.
The hotel called the sheriff’s office that day to report their concerns when she did not return to check out after she’d inquired at the front desk about good hiking locations, Blaine County Sheriff Chief Deputy Will Fruehling said.
Her 2018 Subaru Crosstrek was found at the Prairie Creek parking area where she had signed in at the trailhead, he said.
A full-blown search and rescue effort was launched with search dogs and Idaho National Guard helicopters. The search stretched to four days, paused due to weather and resumed again for two days before it was halted.
Snow and frigid winter temperatures hampered their efforts.
Fruehling said there are four lakes in the area and searchers fanned out and mainly stayed on the trails.
“Once you’re off the trails, it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack,” Fruehling said.
No clothing or signs of Baird were found, except for her vehicle and signature at the trailhead.
“It’s likely something happened to her and she’s still out there,” such as a medical emergency or injury, but investigators always consider other possibilities that include foul play.
“There was no credit card or cell phone activity after she went missing and no activity on her bank account,” he said.
After speaking with Baird’s family and friends they found out that while she liked to hike, she was not one to try to scale mountains.
“We got a good understanding of her mental state and physical abilities. She was not a risk-taker but a casual hiker. She was not the type to go bush-whacking or to take shortcuts. It’s likely that she would have stayed on the trails,” Fruehling said.
It’s not uncommon, he said, for hikers to report speaking with people who have become confused while hiking in the area.
“She very easily could have taken a wrong trail,” he said.
The harsh weather conditions at the time, he said, would cause most people to perish within one to three days.
Baird, with brown hair and eyes, stood 5 feet, 5 inches, and weighed 115 pounds. She was last seen wearing a grey jacket, black pants and carrying a black fanny pack. Anyone with information on her should call the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office at 208-788-5555. Her family has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to her return.
Floyd Dorsey, lost on the mountain, Oct. 21, 1961
Floyd Dorsey, 19, of Paul was hunting on the opening day of deer season near Monument Peak west of Oakley when he got caught in an unexpected blizzard.
Dorsey had shot a deer with a borrowed rifle and had gone to retrieve the animal, wearing a front-zip sweatshirt, his niece, Corinne Bly of Nampa, told the Times-News.
Dorsey wasn’t alone on the hunting trip; his party included school buddies and a few of their parents.
“They didn’t expect snow and it was a blizzard,” Bly said.
According to news reports at the time, he was last seen when he stopped at a camp near Pickett’s Corral, which was about 500 yards from his camp. The people who saw him said he warmed his hands by the fire then continued on in the storm.
A search party found the deer Dorsey shot about 500 yards from his camp.
In the 1990s, Cassia County Sheriff George Warrell searched the area with a dog and recalls the terrain as densely packed with underbrush and very steep with cliffs in the area.
Dorsey’s case was reopened in 1996 or ‘97, Warrell said.
News reports at the time said a Murtaugh man by the name of Pickett told police that he’d given Dorsey a ride down the mountain in the back of his truck, Bly said. Dorsey’s family is searching for the man.
The reports said that Dorsey was walking down the road and the man offered him a ride but there were two other people in the pickup so there was no room for him in the cab. Dorsey wanted out of the truck at the bottom of the hill, she said.
“Pieces of the story just don’t add up,” Bly said.
The family is also searching for an Idaho State trooper with the last name of Thompson, who may have taken the original report.
Warrell said investigators have been able to substantiate neither the story of the man giving Dorsey a ride down the hill nor the name of the ISP officer.
Hundreds of people, many of them from the Paul community, showed up to search for Dorsey that October and a search party went back in the spring. Bly’s family continued to search for him on weekends.
The loss, she said, still affects their family 60 years later.
Bly’s mother, she said, cries for her little brother on his birthday. Her mother recalls him as happy and always willing to lend a hand.
“If we could just find his remains, it would give my mom closure and we could put him in his resting place,” Bly said.
“My mom loved him dearly.”
Dorsey would be 78 years old. He was wearing a red front-zip sweatshirt, blue jeans and boots, and was carrying a rifle, according to family members. Anyone with information about Dorsey — or who may have found a rifle in the Monument Peak area — should call the Cassia County Sheriff’s Office at 208-878-2251.