OHIO — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost recently released the annual Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report, which coincides with National Missing Children’s Day.
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The Clearinghouse Report is the result of coordinated efforts between local law enforcement agencies and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
It lists that 19,930 people were reported missing last year, and 15,367 were children.
97.8 percent were recovered safely by year’s end.
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2025 saw fewer missing children reports than in 2024, according to the report.
Among the approximately 15,367 missing children, 15,024 were found safely, and six children were found dead.
“My heart weighs heavy with every child who goes missing,” Yost said. “I am grateful to Ohio law enforcement for their diligent work to bring these children home.”
The NCIC maintains a database that includes missing person and criminal information, supplied by local law enforcement agencies.
When a child is reported missing, agencies create a report and enter this data into the NCIC database.
Upon a child’s recovery, the case is updated in the NCIC database, and the missing person report is closed, the attorney general’s office said.
The NCIC then provided this information to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) to compile the Clearinghouse Report
The report also broke down the types of missing person cases, noting there were 7,656 runaway cases, 22 abductions by noncustodial parents, and two abductions by strangers.
Four AMBER Alerts were issued in Ohio last year, all of which led to the safe recovery of the four children involved.
Additionally, 18 Endangered Missing Child Alerts were issued, resulting in 17 safe recoveries and one child being found dead.
The attorney general’s office also broke down the number of missing children reports by county. Here’s how many were reported in the Miami Valley
- Auglaize County: 4
- Butler County: 312
- Champaign County: 32
- Clark County: 156
- Clinton County: 8
- Darke County: 14
- Greene County: 96
- Logan County: 12
- Mercer County: 12
- Miami County: 27
- Montgomery County: 2,433
- Preble County: 14
- Shelby County: 103
- Warren County: 79
For a full copy of the 2025 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report, click here.
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