A New Jersey wine blogger and travel enthusiast disappeared while on a trip in 2019 and hasn't been seen since. Four years after he disappeared, the FBI is asking for the public's help in finding him. Liam Biran, who was born in Marlboro (New Jersey) on January 26, 1987, initially planned to visit his grandparents in Israel in April 2019 (here he visits some vineyards on the border with Lebanon), but then his plans change and he decides to also visit Greece, Italy and from there Paris and then return home on 16 May 2019, as evidenced by the purchase of the plane ticket. On May 5, 2019, Liam Biran is in Athens, as shown by the photos he publishes on his still active Facebook profile. On May 6, 2019 he posted a music video, then nothing more.
On Thursday 9 May 2019, around 9.00, with a flight from Athens, he arrives in Turin and the last telephone contact was with his brother-in-law on the morning of his arrival in Italy. The aspiring sommelier was last seen in the Porta Susa train station (Turin) on 10 May 2019, from where he should reach Paris, where however he never arrived. The popular show “Who has seen it?” deals with him. and thanks to this, on November 1, 2022, a viewer recognizes the tent of the missing American tourist. The parents recognize clothes and an electronic device among the personal effects found in the woods above Saint-Pierre, in Valle d'Aosta. According to what was reconstructed by Today, the man said that when he saw the tent, in that area of Babelon, “there was the smell of dead animals”. But if Liam Biran wanted to go to Paris why did he buy a train ticket from Turin to Valle d'Aosta with his credit card? And why go to the Saint-Pierre forest? Another mystery. During the episode of “Who has seen it?”, a boy from Sarre (Val D'Aosta) claims to have met Biran and to have recognized him with certainty due to the spacing between two teeth. Biran has brown hair and eyes, is approximately 1.70 cm tall and weighs approximately 70 kg. The story of the American wine blogger is but one of the many stories of missing people from Italy, where according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, 24,369 disappearance reports were filed in 2022, an average of 67 per day. Of these, 12,170 people have been found, 175 are deceased and 10,024 are still to be found.
These figures are increasing compared to previous years. In fact, in 2021, there were 19,269 missing persons reports filed, while in 2020 there were 13,527. Most of the missing people are adults (16,000), followed by minors (4,128). However, cases of missing elderly people are less frequent (942). The causes of the disappearances are different. In many cases these are voluntary escapes, especially by minors or people with mental health problems. In other cases, disappearances are due to kidnappings, violence or economic reasons. While according to data from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), 81,133 missing people were reported in the United States in 2022. Of these, 56,248 were minors under 18, while 24,885 were adults. Most missing people in the United States are teenagers, ranging in age from 13 to 17. Cases of people missing in adulthood are more frequent among women than among men. The causes of disappearances in the United States are diverse. In many cases these are voluntary escapes, especially by minors or people with mental health problems. In other cases, disappearances are due to kidnappings, violence or economic reasons. US law enforcement agencies are working to improve their handling of missing persons cases. In particular, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) was created, a database that allows information to be shared between different police forces and to speed up investigations. In the United States, the percentage of missing people who are found alive is approximately 70%. The percentage of missing people who are found dead is around 20%. The remaining 10% of cases remain unsolved. Finally, according to Europol data, 160,351 missing persons were reported to the European police force network Europol in 2022. Of these, 105,831 were minors under 18, while 54,520 were adults. Most of Europe's missing people are teenagers, aged between 13 and 17. Cases of people missing in adulthood are more frequent among women than among men.
