Children are disappearing from northern Ohio in record numbers, with more than 1,000 minors reported missing so far this year

“I told them that I would not do the interview if they were going to use the words, ‘vanished,’ or ‘disappeared,'” said Majoy.

Majoy serves as president of Cleveland Missing, a non-profit center for Cleveland missing children and adults that was co-founded by Gina DeJesus, who survived a decade-long captivity along with Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight.

3News asked Majoy whether there was any truth to the headlines.

“I don’t want to accuse anyone of being untrue, but I think that [they] are being more sensationalized than what is needed,” said Majoy, who fears that the reports are harmful by causing undue panic.

“They’re really kind of putting Cleveland in a bad light, almost the missing children capital of the world or something,” he said. “But you have to understand that in a population of 375,000 people, if you compare that to other cities, the number is not all that skewed as to other cities.”

Majoy said he could not confirm the source and information in some of the news articles, many of which cite the Ohio Attorney General’s Missing Children website and database.

The website lists children in Ohio who are currently reported missing. It’s important to note that the number fluctuates hour by hour, as reporting agencies input new information.

A story that 45 had gone missing across Northeast Ohio in September alone gained national attention — with the implication that the region was a particular hotspot for kids disappearing.

While some stories across the country end up with kids being trafficked or end in tragedy, police and welfare groups say there is an innocent explanation for the vast majority of disappearances.

While it’s accurate to say 1,000 kids have been reported missing in the Cleveland area so far this year, experts say it’s not accurate to suggest that all of those kids vanished — or are still missing.

Nationwide, about 1.5 million kids per year are reported missing after running away from home or being thrown out of the house, Sharin Doherty from the advocate group Child Find of America told The Messenger.

“But those numbers don’t reflect that 90% at least return home within a day.”

She added: “By comparison, stranger abductions, which we see in the headlines, only occur fifty to sixty times a year.”