ASHLAND— Ashland County had five children reported missing in 2025, according to the Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report released by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
A total of 19,930 people were reported missing in Ohio, 1,412 fewer than in 2024. Of those, 15,367 were missing children, 1,037 fewer than in 2024.
Of the reported missing children, 15,024 or 97.8% were recovered safely by year’s end. Six of the children were found deceased.
Nearby counties include Richland, which had 178 reported; Huron had 27, Lorain had 214, Medina had 24, Wayne had 54, Holmes had five and Knox had 30.
Franklin County reported the most with 2,904.
The Clearinghouse Report stems from a coordinated effort between local law enforcement agencies and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), operated by the U.S. Department of Justice.
NCIC maintains a database of missing person information and criminal information based on information provided by local law enforcement agencies. When a child goes missing, law enforcement agencies create a missing person report and enter data from that report into the NCIC database. Once a child is found, the case is updated in the NCIC database, and the missing person report is closed, according to the news release.
The cumulative yearly data for Ohio is provided by NCIC to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation for the Clearinghouse Report, which is used to raise awareness about Ohio’s missing children.
According to the 2025 report, Ohio last year had:
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Five children reported missing in Ashland in 2025
Reporting by Staff Report / Ashland Times Gazette
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By Staff Report | USA TODAY Network
