Eric Vance’s family has been in turmoil since the 16-year-old went missing in Ohio last month.
His grandmother Roseann Vidovic said she ‘can’t sleep, can’t eat’ as she wonders why Vance disappeared.
He was last seen on Janette Avenue in eastern Cleveland, wearing white socks and black jogging pants.
His family has handed out flyers across the neighborhood and Vidovic told News 5 Cleveland the despair was ‘pure hell’ as she tried not ‘to think the worst’ about the fate of a teen with mental health problems.
Still, Vance’s tragic disappearance is far from an aberration. Since late 2014, at least 43 children — 24 girls and 19 boys — have vanished from East Cleveland, a once-prosperous community left battered by decades of urban decay.
With a population of 13,792, that means 3.1 kids per 1,000 residents have gone missing in just 10 years — a worse rate than in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and other cities in the Buckeye State.
An investigation by The Columbus Dispatch attributed these shocking numbers to the area’s rampant crime, poverty, and a local police force that’s too crooked and understaffed to focus on stray youths.
Among the missing are kids of all ages, such as a nine-year-old girl who vanished five years ago wearing a denim shirt and purple leggings; and a 17-year-old boy last seen in a red and black hoodie in 2014.
In most cases, it’s hard to establish whether the youngsters reported missing ended up dead, or victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation rings — or indeed went back home and officials never learned about it.
Eric Vance went missing from eastern Cleveland in October, leaving his family in agony
Tracy Jones Jr (top left), 17, disappeared from Dayton, Ohio, on November 20: one of many missing kids in the Buckeye State
Roughly 30 percent of the 365,000 US children reported missing each year are the victims of sex trafficking, according to Saved In America, a California nonprofit that focuses on the plight of missing kids.
East Cleveland is a classic American story of Rust Belt decay. It is today marked by abandoned neighborhoods with crumbling properties, boarded windows, broken glass and graffiti scrawled on brickwork.
Art McKoy, a local barbershop owner and racial justice campaigner, says it’s no surprise so many youths disappear from a mostly-black neighborhood of pothole-covered roads that reeks of despair.
‘You can see how a lot of children would go missing in a place like this,’ McKoy told the Dispatch.
‘It’s devastated. People take advantage.’
It’s a far cry from the city’s former grandeur, when oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller and other powerful and influential leaders resided on the bustling section of Euclid Avenue known as ‘Millionaires’ Row.’
As the area’s iron, steel and other industries dried up, East Cleveland’s population collapsed, shedding a staggering 58 percent of residents from 33,000 in 1990 to 13,792 by 2020, Census Bureau data show.
Those working in child protection in East Cleveland say some youths have run away from a local residential behavioral health center for boys, while others have likely become victims of human trafficking.
Many children who go missing hang out at the intersection of Superior Avenue and Euclid Avenue, where they are vulnerable to traffickers, which is worse in Ohio than elsewhere, experts told the Dispatch.
There is also a history of underage sex work at several hotels throughout the city.
The problem is made worse by a local police force that’s been dogged by controversy and incompetence, it is claimed.
At least 43 children have vanished this past decade from East Cleveland, a once-prosperous community battered by urban decay
The Cleveland area has among the worst rates of missing children in Ohio
Parts of East Cleveland are marred by crumbling properties, boarded windows, and broken glass
More than a dozen East Cleveland police officers have faced some 50 criminal charges these past two years, ranging from civil rights violations to assault, dereliction of duty, and tampering with evidence, court records show.
The indictments saw the department lose more than half of its 40 officers.
In June, Mayor Brandon King asked Gov. Mike DeWine for help from the Ohio National Guard.
He deployed additional state troopers to help patrol the city, which has been in a state of fiscal crisis for most of the past 35 years.
Even so, the city does not have enough police officers to search for missing children. They are too busy battling pressing concerns such as gun violence and human trafficking, advocates for missing persons say.
The city’s problems are not just among low ranking officers.
Former police chief Scott Gardner in March pleaded guilty to tax violations. Mayor King was last month indicted for theft in office after he authorized payments from the city to a business he and his family own.
Race may also play a role. Some 37 of East Cleveland’s 43 missing children are black.
Four are white and two have a race listed as ‘unknown,’ according to the state Attorney General’s report.
The Attorney General’s office and East Cleveland police did not answer DailyMail.com’s requests for comment.
East Cleveland is ground zero for a wider problem that stretches across Ohio, where the number of missing persons shot by nearly 18 percent in just three years.
On any given day, some 1,000 Ohioans are listed as missing by the Attorney General’s office.
At least 689 Ohioans — including 366 children — remained missing more than a year after they vanished.
Families with unsolved cases describe living in an agonizing limbo for weeks, months, and even years after a loved one goes missing.
They complain of not knowing whether the child is alive or dead, or whether detectives are actively trying to find them.
The number of missing children in Ohio has been rising steadily since 2021
Maria Gomez-Perez went missing from Georgia in May, and was found outside Cleveland, Ohio, in July
The 12-year-old had been communicating with a Guatemalan man online, who drove to collect her
While they are always tragic stories, some have happier endings than others.
A 12-year-old girl who had disappeared from her Georgia community was found in Dover, Ohio, some 70 miles south of Cleveland, in July, nearly two months after she disappeared from her dad’s home.
Maria Gomez-Perez reportedly communicated online with a Guatemalan man in his thirties, who had driven to Gainesville to collect her by arrangement. He was arrested and indicted for rape and other offenses.
Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon said he was ‘proud’ of how his Georgia community rallied to find the missing girl, while urging parents to keep tabs on whether children are communicating with strangers online.
‘They’re our most vulnerable and our most valuable citizens, and it is our duty to take care of them,’ Couvillon said.
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