Kylen Johnson, founder of the Maryland Missing Persons Network,searches the Internet every day for people reported missing in thestate to add to her Web site, Marylandmissing.com.
When she saw the news of 30-year-old Jaime Romero ofGaithersburg, who went missing April 2, she was perplexed.
"This situation is unique, where he is just an all-around goodguy and there doesn't seem to be an all-around real reason why hemay disappear," said Johnson, who lives in Clarksburg.
Since Romero's disappearance, his family and Montgomery CountyPolice have found no solid information as to his whereabouts.
His sister, Sonia Cornejo, and his father, Agustin Romero,describe him as a good man and a devout Christian who doesn't drink,use drugs or party. His family believes Jaime Romero was abducted,perhaps mistakenly, although police have found no evidence of foulplay.
Cornejo said that although her brother had been depressed forabout four months prior to his disappearance, she does not believethat he would have been able to simply walk away from his life.
"He said no one understood his pain," she said. "No oneunderstood him."
She added that the family believes that Romero would not harmhimself because of his religious beliefs.
Agustin Romero agreed that his son wouldn't leave withoutcontacting his family.
"He would leave a note and a letter and explain. He would say,'Sorry, Mom,' in some detail," he said. "He hadn't done anythinglike that."
Jaime Romero, who lived with his mother and stepfather in the9000 block of Centerway Road, is one of about 200 missing adults nowlisted on Johnson's Web site. That number stays about the same, shesaid.
Often, when adults go missing, they have run away, have a mentaldisorder or are senile, said Johnson, who began monitoring missing-person cases in Maryland about 10 years ago after she discoveredthat a case she had first heard about nearly a decade beforeremained open. In 1991, a young woman between 16 and 25 years oldwas beaten, killed and left on the side of a Frederick Countyhighway. The woman remains unidentified.
Johnson created the Web site about seven years ago to help peoplein the state connect with each other and solve cases.
About one in five of adults older than 20 who went missingnationwide in 2010 was disabled or senile, according to statisticsfrom the FBI's National Crime Information Center database. Last yearin Montgomery County, 349 adults went missing from January toSeptember, and 85 of those cases remain open, according to BlancaKling, a county police spokeswoman.
Police consider Romero's case to be unusual, spokeswoman LucilleBaur said.
Nationally, 89 percent of missing people are found within five toseven days, according to LaDonna Meredith of Let's Bring Them Home,an organization dedicated to locating missing persons.
Romero normally was in contact with his family several times perday. He was about to propose to his girlfriend and planned to getmarried in September, according to his family.
Romero, who runs his own electrical company, Elite ElectricalDesign, out of his home, is a respected and trustworthy businessman,according to Connie Lopez-Parker of Bethesda-based Long & FosterReal Estate. She has been recommending him to clients for fouryears.
After about six months working with Romero, she trusted himenough to leave him the key to her house, Lopez-Parker said, addingthat she thinks of him as a son.
She does not believe that Romero left his family voluntarily andis disappointed his case is not getting more attention, she said.
"When it is a guy - and especially a Latino man - people don'tseem to be as concerned," she said. "They say, 'Who knows what kindof business this kid was into?' But he is so the opposite of that.He was a rising young man in the community."
About 8 percent of adults who were reported missing in the UnitedStates in 2010 were abducted, according to the FBI.
Cornejo said she had received tips about suspicious activity inthe family's neighborhood before her brother disappeared that shehas shared with the detective.
Romero's stepfather reported him missing April 3 after findingRomero's car unlocked with the keys in the ignition. Romero'swallet, which contained about $430 in cash and his credit cards,were on the passenger seat, along with his cellphone, Cornejo said.The family searched the neighborhood and nearby woods and calledpolice when they could not find him, she added.
Baur said police also searched the area with bloodhounds. Sheconfirmed that Romero's personal belongings were in the car butadded that police have not released a list of items found there.
Agustin Romero said he hopes that if someone abducted his sonthat they will realize that his family only wants him home.
"That is all we want - is to get him back," he said.
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