You may well have seen computer processed photos of “missing “ or “ lost” children at your local supermarket or posted at your local Wal Mart or other big box store. Often children disappear or drop from sight. Sometimes this is a matter of child custody cases where one parent or another has abducted a child against the other spouse’s or the court of law’s wishes or rulings. Other times it is a case of disappearance by choice or misadventure. In these cases “Computer Age Progression “has become a more than useful tool in locating these missing persons. “Computer Age Progression” can erase the changes of time and the aging process to produce images of the people involved as they now appear with the standard passage of time and the aging process. After all the passage of time and the ticking of a clock stops for no one.

Age progression is a combination of both science and art. It enables a trained forensic artist to create from older photographs a portrait with a likeness of what a missing child, adult or other person would like today in the here and now.

When a child has been reported missing it is essential that the investigating police officer or other authorities have a complete and full description of the victim, along with any other important relevant or perhaps even non relevant information. When a child has been missing over an extended period of time, the original photographs of that child or person become outdated. It is important that the investigators and authorities have proper up to date photographs of the child and other people involved in the case of the missing people. This is more than important for simple verification of sightings, for use on flyers and posters. Of course having proper and accurate photographs are of great use in generating new and accurate generation of new leads and clues for the police authorities involved in the case.

It is an obvious fact that if the police are looking for a child or person that has been missing for several years, and if that child has aged more than a year or to , that people would spot the missing child from a photograph that portrays the child at a much younger age. Thus computer age progression can really help in tracking down lost and missing children and people.

What can you do to prepare for such an eventuality if such a tragedy ever occurs within your, your family’s or friend’s circle of acquaintances. First it is a good practice over time to have an album of your child. The photos should be taken on a regular basis and stored in an album or on a computer in a manner that they are readily accessible and catalogued. Along with the photos should be notations – especially of the date of the photo and the age of the child or person at the at time. Next there should be similar photos of the biological parents and. / or brothers or sisters at the same or a similar age of the missing child or person. Again these are not current photos, but rather photos of the victim or victims at the same or similar age of the disappeared person or child. Any photos are of help. The most useful are those in which the relevant person in the photos is in a similar position in the photo or posing in a very similar manner to that of the missing person. These photographs can be in color or even black and white. Any information is of help. Just make sure that you do not smudge or mark on the photographs in any way or manner. Remember that your photos are the raw materials that the computer age progression technical expert artist will work with. Any specific comments or specific detailing information (such as date, place, identifying birth mark) can be noted on a separate piece of paper. The very best photos for the documentation experts to work with are of the “school picture “type or even yearly photos with Santa.

In the end in order to locate missing persons the more photos and specific identification markings that you can provide the greater your chances for the forensic documentation artist to create a good and even more exact likeness.