As Time Passes, Hope Fades to Find Missing Females Venika, Dulce, Jashyah Alive – RLS Media
By: Tracey M. Clark & Richard Smith
Massive media attention swarmed the airwaves and social media circuits searching for Ms. Gabby Petito, who was sadly found dead in Florida on October 20 after being reported missing by her family in September while embarking on a cross-country trip with her fiance, Mr. Brian Laundrie.
As time passed in the search for Petito and Laundrie, hopes of finding them alive became faint. After a weekslong search for Laundrie in a vast Florida nature reserve, on October 21, the FBI announced that a comparison of dental records confirmed the human remains found a day earlier were those of Brian Laundrie. 
The countdown to finding a missing person initiates the moment someone concerned for their well-being alerts law enforcement. Working against the clock, FBI officials confirmed that each passing hour decreases the likelihood that the subject will be found alive.
“The first 48 hours are also critical because that’s when investigators have the best chance of following up on leads before witness information fades,” according to NJ law enforcement officials.
In New Jersey, Essex County mother, Ms. Venika Williams, vanished without a trace after leaving her Newark home, headed to Jersey City in December 2017. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the investigation from Newark Police.
On July 22, 2020, after being missing for over two years, crime stoppers offered a reward for information leading to Venika’s whereabouts. Newark Police said -during their handling of the case- that Venika was last seen wearing a black leather coat, blue jeans, red sneakers, and carrying a red purse.
Over in Cumberland County, Dulce Maria Alavez was five years old when she vanished from Bridgeton City Park during a visit with her mother and younger brother on September 16, 2019. The case received national and international media coverage that faded after a couple of months. 
Both Venika and Dulce have been missing for over two years, without a trace.
In the Essex County town of East Orange, some residents expressed concerns, believing that police and city officials potentially “dropped the ball” in their slow release of information on a teenage girl who left her home in mid-October and hasn’t even had a digital or social media footprint for police to follow.
According to a statement released by East Orange city officials to RLS Media’s evening staff on October 29, Jashyah Moore, 14, was last seen on October 14, around 10 p.m. at Poppie’s Deli Store at 520 Central Avenue.
Besides some social media images and unconfirmed reports of her disappearance, Moore was already missing for 15 days before moderate or major news coverage circled the circumstances of the case.
Potentially, because of this delay, there was little chance for a media frenzy for her case. Patty Hartman from the FBI and Katherine Carter from The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed their involvement in this case, but both stated that East Orange Police is the lead agency.
New Jersey State Police officials have not confirmed involvement in Jashyah’s missing case. Thursday, November 4th marked three weeks since she was reported missing to police.
Some NJ police officials explained the process of determining what constitutes a missing person case. 
We’ve learned through police departments that as soon as police get a call reporting that someone is missing, they’ll begin to evaluate whether the case even involves a missing person at all. Law enforcement then chooses how they will allocate resources to missing person cases on a case-by-case basis.
NJ law enforcement officials said in “serious cases” of missing children, in which police have a reason to believe the child has been abducted or is in imminent danger, an Amber Alert may be issued.
Center for Missing & Exploited Children:
In the case of missing children, the United States Department of Justice encourages all to act immediately if they believe that their child is missing by first calling local law enforcement, then calling the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: 800-THE-LOST (800-843-5678). 
According to the agency’s website, they are the nation’s nonprofit clearinghouse and comprehensive reporting center for all issues related to preventing and recovering from child victimization. “NCMEC leads the fight against abduction, abuse, and exploitation – because every child deserves a safe childhood.”
A quick search of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website revealed Dulce’s missing report, but Jashyah’s information could not immediately be found. 
In Venika’s missing person’s case, after over a year of her disappearance, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation, but there have been no reports of the FBI or State Police involvement in her case.
Venika has received less than average national and local media attention, and besides some social media flareups, it appears that no one would know that she’s been missing for nearly four years.
Venika has never been a part of any “pack media reporting.”
Missing adult cases around the nation that resembles Venika’s have raised serious questions about an adult missing person’s registry being started.
Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist and host of The Tamron Hall Show, Tamron Hall hosted John Walsh, a victim’s rights advocate and host of the long-running show America’s Most Wanted, on her episode 39 show “How missing persons cases are handled.”
On the episode, Walsh said he’s been advocating for a national adult registry for years.
“We have so many adults in this country, and I think it’s time for someone in Congress to get going and create a national funded (private sector) to look for missing adults. It’s way overdue for someone in Congress to say enough is enough; we need a center for missing adults in this country,” Walsh said.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLICE BOLO’S
Getting the word out as soon as possible to the public that someone is missing is crucial to finding loved ones and for law enforcement to close cases.
Just before social media became the place to go for local, national and international news on missing persons, authorities would release a BOLO (“be on the lookout”) that would be posted to various neighborhoods.
Now, although many police departments now make it standard practice for those BOLOs to be posted to the law enforcement agency’s social media accounts, family members of the missing have learned to take matters into their own hands by using social media to flood local and regional community pages to get their messages out.
RLS Media has learned that in most cases, the sooner an announcement is made, the more likely the missing person will be safely found. A police agency’s reasons that an individual – especially a child – is a runaway can no longer become a delay for initiating an investigation and search.
New Jersey police officials recommend that when filing the report, give law enforcement a detailed description of the subject’s physical appearance such as their height, weight and age, and any identifying markers such as a tattoo or birthmark.
Be sure to include clear photos of the missing person.
In addition, provide law enforcement with any details that may have contributed to the person’s disappearance, such as whether they are mentally impaired or may have witnessed a crime.
According to some residents who’ve contacted RLS Media for assistance, some police agencies told them that their missing person’s cases must follow the 24 or 48 hour waiting period to report missing people, but that doesn’t exist in real police offices, according to findlaw.com.
As soon as you know an adult or child is missing, report it to the police.