Cleveland Victim Wiped From Missing Persons List in 2003

Michelle Knight was the forgotten victim of the Cleveland kidnappings—an adult at the time of her disappearance, her case appears to have received far less attention from the media and police than that of the two then-teen victims. Now, further proof she slipped through the cracks: Knight's name was taken off the FBI's missing persons database by Cleveland police just 15 months after her 2002 disappearance, reports the Plain Dealer.

Her name was removed because cops couldn't reach her mother by phone to confirm she was still missing, which a city spokesperson says was correct protocol. But the paper reports that protocol at the time was actually for an officer to go see for themselves that the person had surfaced. "If a missing person is in the [FBI] system, it instantly legitimizes the case," says the founder of the National Center for Missing Adults. "Had Michelle's mother called us for help, we would have had to say no." Click for more on Knight. (More Cleveland Kidnapping stories.)