March 16-19, 2017 attendees will gather in Wilmington, North Carolina for the 13th annual National Missing Persons Conference sponsored by CUE Center for Missing Persons. The theme for the conference is “Embracing Dignity & Courage” and is open to all who are interested in the issue of missing persons. The location for the 2017 conference is the Holiday Inn, 5032 Market Street in Wilmington. Registration is now open and easily accessed at the CUE Center for Missing Persons website. 

A Candlelight Vigil honoring all of the missing, victims of crime and their families will be held at the Wilmington Convention Center, 10 Center Drive, at 7:30pm Saturday, March 18 and is open to the public. The moving ceremony also recognizes those who have given their time and talents to missing persons with the Keeper of the Flame awards.

Each year speakers and class instructors are carefully chosen as experts in their fields to offer attendees the best and latest information relative to missing persons, unsolved homicides, and ways for families to cope with the devastation.

Along with families, advocates, and search teams, members of law enforcement are encouraged to attend to take advantage of information provided in classes which will enhance their investigative tools. For the full lineup of events refer to 2017 National Missing Persons Conference Agenda

Speakers/Instructors/Topics

 

Featured speakers for the 2017 conference include Dana Ridenour, retired FBI Special Agent and Author of Behind the Mask, Andy Whipple, Street Outreach Coordinator for Project Lighthouse, Our Homeless Kids, and Megan Madsen, Surviving Human Trafficking.

Classes, which are open for all attendees, include Norma Peterson, Using the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit (EAA) for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence, Thomas Hargrove, The Murder Accountability Project, Peter Cestare, Identifying a Crime Scene and When it Begins, and Patrick Atkinson, The Lost “Runaways, Prostitutes, Gangs and More”

For complete details on how to become a volunteer, or participate in this national missing persons movement, please contact the CUE Center for Missing Persons at (910) 343-1131 or email cuecenter@aol.com.