When it comes to missing Black girls and women, their stories are often ignored. 

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According to the Black and Missing Foundation, the reason for the disparity in coverage is because children of color are labeled as runaways, the adults are labeled as criminals and there are assumptions that they live in poverty and crime all around them. 

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One of the cases involves a missing Black woman named Marilyn McCown. She had nine siblings and at 19 years old, had a daughter named Peyton. McCown worked in Dayton, Ohio at the Montgomery Education and Pre-Release Center, and expressed a passion for law enforcement. 

“When she first came up missing, it took maybe two to three weeks before [law enforcement] took it serious,” said her sister, Michelle McCown-Luster. “We’ve waited 20 years.” 

On July 22, 2001, the 28-year-old nicknamed “Niqui,” went to her mother’s house in Richmond, Indiana, upset over two Hispanic men stalking her at a laundromat. She was scheduled to marry her fiancé, Bobby Webster in three weeks.  

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“She was very excited to be married. It was her high school sweetheart. They had separated for many years and had got back together,” McCown-Luster said. “It was something she was looking forward to do.” 

Then, McCown headed off to the laundromat and hasn’t been seen since. The search for McCown has been going on for 20 years, but the family was able to get a bench at a local park in her honor after 15 years of trying. 

“We got it on the day that she was supposed to have been married, which was pretty bittersweet, and it meant a lot to us to finally get it, to go through, ‘cause we lost mom last year, and it was something that she wanted very much to honor Niqui,” McCown-Luster said.