The 2024 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report, released by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on May 19, indicates that Knox County had 33 reports of missing children, while Licking County reported 158 cases during the year.
According to the report, statewide figures show that Ohio had 8,413 runaway cases involving children who left home without permission. Abductions by parents without custody accounted for 37 of these cases. Nine incidents involved abducted children. The state issued 13 AMBER Alerts concerning 15 children; fourteen were recovered safely, and one was found deceased.
The report highlights that most missing children were aged between 13 to 17 years old, with a total of 14,681 reports. Children aged between six to twelve accounted for 1,556 missing reports, while there were 167 reports for those up to five years old.
During the year, the clearinghouse documented a total of 21,342 missing persons across all age groups in Ohio. This figure represents a decrease of 1,032 compared to the previous year.
The report states that out of the missing children cases, 8,758 were female and 7,646 were male. By the end of the year, a significant majority—15,834 or approximately 96.5%—were recovered safely. However, open-source data revealed that three children reported missing were found deceased in 2024.
Yost's report outlines tools used in locating missing children which include the AMBER Alert program—a collaborative effort among law enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless communications industry to issue urgent bulletins in child-abduction cases. In addition to AMBER Alerts issued in Ohio in 2024, an Endangered Missing Child Alert is employed when law enforcement cannot determine if abduction occurred but other criteria are met.
