When you hear about a disabled (or "vulnerable" or "mentally ill" or "off their meds" or "prone to wandering") young adult being a "missing person," be aware that the most likely scenario is that the person has left of their own volition and does not want to be returned to their family of origin.
Now, "most likely" doesn't mean "guaranteed." Stranger kidnappings are very rare, but not nonexistent. More prosaically, the person could be dead, or unconscious in a hospital.
But the most likely scenario is that the person could choose to go back to their family of origin if they wanted to, and they don't want to. The most likely scenario is that they don't want to be under their family's control. And the fact that their family turned this decision into a "missing person" case is further evidence that the decision was an entirely reasonable and rational one.
If you say this, you will be called a horrible monster. You will be told that you're heartless for not caring about a vulnerable person who could be in danger! Or you'll be told, "Okay, maybe this person left of their own volition, but someone should at least check and make sure, just in case" -- which presumes that alerting an escapee's abusive family to their whereabouts is an outcome with no downsides. And if you say that, you'll be told you're cruel and heartless for "assuming with no evidence" that those poor, suffering, heartbroken parents are abusive. But here's an easy tip: Controlling someone's medical choices is inherently abusive. So if they're trying to control the person's medical choices (forced drugging, involuntary commitment, conservatorship, or just using "off their meds" as a reason the person needs to be controlled), then you're not assuming anything with no evidence -- you know for a fact that they're abusive!
To be clear: I said "young adults," but this is also by and large true of runaway minors. Many, many "missing and exploited children" are just young people who made the rational choice to escape their abusive parents and couldn't wait for the magic birthday to do so.
Parents generally have a legal right to reclaim their runaway minor children (to be extremely clear, this is a bad law and I oppose it). But there's a specific way that parents use the pretext of a "missing persons case" to end-run around their adult children's right to leave. If you went to the police station and said "My 20 year old child moved out of my house and won't return my calls," they'd say "Well, she has a right to do that." But if you say, "No, she's VULNERABLE and has SPECIAL NEEDS and is OFF HER MEDS and is in MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS and she TURNED OFF HER PHONE TRACKER," then suddenly you can have a search party out looking for someone who does not want to talk to you, let alone live with you.
As transphobia gets more and more entwined with "parents' rights," infantilization of young adults, pedo panic (including young adults as "children needing to be protected from pedophiles"), neurobigotry/pathologization, and surveillance culture, expect to see a lot more trans-specific iterations of this. People seeking transition will have search parties out looking for them because "My Vulnerable Special Needs Little BOY [24 years old] having a MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS got GROOMED by PREDATORS into being a GIRL and now he's MISSING!"
