The fact that missing Black people command less media attention than whites has been well documented by academic researchers. Over the past eight months, the case of Gabby Petito, who disappeared on a road trip with her fiance and was later found dead, has once again brought the issue to the forefront of the public consciousness. It played out again in 2005, when Natalee Holloway vanished on a class trip to Aruba. Two years later, Black journalist Gwen Ifill gave the phenomenon a name: “missing white woman syndrome.” She coined the term after the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a pregnant California woman whose husband was later convicted of killing her. It marked the first time the national media paid serious attention to such disparities. Twenty years ago, as police searched for the two girls, some advocates and experts argued that race was a key factor in how authorities and reporters handled their cases. In this photo from 2011, Patterson prays for her daughter’s safe return. Timeline: How the missing child cases of Alexis Patterson and Elizabeth Smart differĪyanna Patterson has never stopped searching for her missing daughter, Alexis, who vanished at the age of 7 in 2002.She was found nine months after her abduction. Nineteen days after she was last seen, the sheriff’s office offered a $10,000 reward.Įlizabeth is white. In Milwaukee, the FBI didn’t join Alexis’ case until three days after she vanished. The day after Elizabeth disappeared, police called in the FBI and offered a $250,000 reward. The law enforcement response also differed. Within hours, Elizabeth’s disappearance was featured on CNN’s “Larry King Live” and Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” It took eight days for Alexis’ story to attract attention outside Milwaukee, with a segment on “America’s Most Wanted.” The next national story on her case aired weeks later.īy the time Elizabeth had been gone two weeks, USA TODAY had published three stories about her disappearance. At the end of the day, she didn’t come home.Ī month later and more than a thousand miles away, Elizabeth Smart, 14, went to sleep in her bedroom in Salt Lake City. On the morning of May 3, 2002, Alexis Patterson’s stepfather walked her to the corner and a crossing guard guided the 7-year-old across the street toward Hi-Mount Community School in Milwaukee. PHOTO BY ANGELA PETERSON/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
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