Missing Marietta girl would turn 21 this week

Marietta Middle Schooler Kayla Miller went missing on April 13, 2015. Under normal circumstances, Kayla would be celebrating her 21st birthday this week with family and friends. Instead, the eighth grader, who never arrived at school that fateful morning, remains on the missing and exploited list for children since that day. Miller left home for school around 5:15 a.m. but never arrived. She never returned home and has not been seen or heard from since then.

Investigators told the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that the day Miller went missing, family members called the school and were told she never showed up that day. Law enforcement initially believed Miller was in Marietta or the surrounding area after disappearing, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The group says police are looking for any information concerning Miller’s whereabouts. Per a news release, Miller was 5-foot-11-inches tall and weighed 150 pounds at the time of her disappearance. Forensic artists with the center created an age-progression image of what Miller may have looked like at 19 years old.

Kayla remains missing, but so are a lot of other children, especially those of color. Nearly 40% of missing children in America are Black, even though Black children make up just 14% of the U.S. population. Data shows that missing white children receive far more media coverage than missing black and brown children, despite higher rates of missing children of color. 

News outlets such as USA Today have seen the disparity and have embarked on trying to highlight why racial disparities occur in cases of missing children and how they can be addressed. 

Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation offered her thoughts on this subject saying law enforcement often classifies children of color as runaways without having all the details. Because those kids are considered to have voluntarily left home, Amber alerts aren’t sent out about them and they typically aren’t covered in the news. She has always insisted that runaway cases and abductions be treated with the same sense of urgency as they fall under the same “missing” umbrella, which is defined as a child missing under the age of 18 and their legal guardian doesn’t know where they are.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children no longer distinguishes between runaways and abductions on their posters of missing children.

It remains a mystery as to what happened to Kayla Miller that day on her way to Marietta Middle School. Questions arise as to how her case was handled. Was she treated as a missing person or assumed to have run away because of the color of her skin? 

Miller’s case remains alive and she is still listed as a missing person. Marietta Police ask that anyone with information on Miller or her whereabouts call the Marietta Police Department at 1-770-794-5300 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.