While many students check Facebook to view pictures from their most recent parties, others are turning to the social networking site to find their missing friends and family members.
When 24-year-old Tempe man Willie Jigba went missing, his roommate turned to Facebook as a way to advance the search. Jigba’s body was found in Tempe Town Lake Friday morning and was positively identified Tuesday.
Jigba’s roommate created a Facebook group called “Help Find Willie Jigba” soon after the 24-year-old was reported missing on Jan. 15. The group, which had 1,269 members Tuesday, has had more than 500 posts since its creation.
Several search parties for Jigba were organized via the group’s page, as was the candlelight vigil held last Thursday. Friends made wall posts expressing concern about Jigba’s whereabouts and updating information about the progress of the investigation.
National organizations that specialize in searching for missing persons are also jumping on the Facebook bandwagon. On Jan. 12, Facebook announced that it is teaming up with the Amber Alert program in order to give them a larger platform for informing people about missing children. Amber Alert, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, is a program that releases public service announcements concerning missing children in the United States.
The announcement came on the 15th anniversary of the abduction and murder of Amber Hagerman, after whom the program was named.
Anna Johnson, the organization’s intergovernmental affairs specialist, said Facebook has set up 53 Amber Alert fan pages — one for each state in addition to Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. Facebook users can now become a fan of the page in their state and they will receive updates notifying them when an Amber Alert is in progress.
These notifications will include a photo of the missing child, along with a description of the child, the abductor and the vehicle that may have been used in the abduction.
Johnson said this is not the first time Amber Alert has used social media to get the word out about abductions, noting that they have partnered with MySpace in the past. However, she believes that Facebook will help because it reaches a much larger audience.
It’s difficult to say whether a social networking site has ever been the primary reason for resolving a missing person’s case. But Johnson said these sites are incredibly useful in making people aware of missing children.
“Using social media sites helps to get the word out and makes more people aware so that more people can help,” Johnson said.
Even though the Amber Alert system is strictly for missing children under the age of 17, any Facebook user, like Jigba’s roommate, can create a page to search for missing persons.
There are several Facebook pages dedicated to finding missing people and these pages are often used to set up search parties, hold vigils and raise awareness about a missing person.
In fact, the Jigba family first became aware of the 24-year-old’s disappearance after a friend of Jigba messaged his sister-in-law on Facebook, informing her that Jigba was missing.
His sister-in-law, Hedva Jigba, said the Facebook page has been helpful in organizing search parties and making people aware of Jigba’s disappearance. Now that Jigba’s body has been found, friends of the 24-year-old have created an open account that people can donate money to in order to help the family with funeral expenses. The information for this account has been posted on the group wall.
“People from all over the country have been joining the page, people that don’t even know him, and have been donating money to the family,” she said.
Amillia Saunders, a microbiology junior and friend of Jigba, said she thinks Facebook was helpful in the search.
“It helped show that he wasn’t any old guy,” she said. “He had a lot of friends and he was just an awesome kid.”
Reach the reporter at danielle.legler@asu.edu
