Willard Ralls Jr., 66, and his kids are sitting around their dining room table in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, enjoying a beer and a cigarette, telling stories about their son and brother, Brandon.
There is an unsettling silence as the family opens up about Brandon, who was 16 at the time he disappeared on November 5, 2001. According to Kansas City Police Department records, he was last seen along Longview Road in south Kansas City.
Willard Ralls Jr. remembers his last conversation with his son.
"It seemed like something was troubling him. I kept asking him 'what's wrong?'” Ralls said. “He would not tell me, but he kept looking at his pager like he needed to be somewhere.”
Whenever the father asked a question, Brandon would just shrug in response. He didn’t want his son to feel he was being held hostage.
“I wasn't upset. I was disappointed that he would not open up to me,” said Ralls.
Little did Ralls know that would be the last conversation they would have for more than two decades.
Two years ago, the KCPD reinstated its missing persons unit. In the past, these cases were handled by the KCPD's homicide and cold case detectives. Detectives were spread thin, juggling investigations into missing persons, daily murders and other cold cases.
In April 2023, the department formed an independent unit, with seven detectives who focus solely on missing persons. KCPD’s numbers indicate the department has had increased success solving these cases, but some in the Black community feel the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Ralls said a detective was working closely with the family around the time of Brandon’s disappearance. She’s since retired, but Ralls said their last conversation was frustrating. Insensitive and blunt.
“We won’t know anything until we find bones,” Ralls said he was told by the detective.
Since that call, Ralls said he’s had an uneasy relationship with KCPD.
“I’m going to keep pressing you, KCPD, to help me find out what happened and give me closure of my missing son," he said.
Challenges and improvements
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Brandon's is one of 69 unsolved missing persons cases from Kansas City, Missouri.
The new supervisor of the missing persons unit is Sgt. Dan Thomas, a former homicide detective who has been in the position for about two months. According to Thomas, in 2024 the unit received 1,125 missing persons reports and recovered 1,118 individuals.
Thomas is proud of that record — a success rate of roughly 99%.
“I think that number speaks for itself," he said. "I think that's pretty phenomenal."
Thomas attributes their success to some new practices. They used social media and digital networking much more effectively than they have in the past to reach out and spread the word about their cases.
Thomas said one of the troubling aspects of the job is the high number of juveniles who make up the caseload. Out of that 1,118, 872 were classified as missing or runaway juveniles. Often, Thomas said, they're repeat offenders.
“They get mad at mom or dad, or maybe they're in a home somewhere, or something like a foster home that they're not really happy with,” said Thomas.
Although social media blasts have improved the unit’s record, Thomas worries it can also work against success, especially when investigators are reaching out about the same cases over and over.
“I think over time people will stop paying attention to those,” he said.
Due to their heavy caseload, Thomas said detectives won’t call families unless a new lead or evidence presents itself. He knows they need to figure out a way to better communicate with families.
“We do make sure we return our phone calls. I'm sure we're not always 100% great at that,” he said. “I'm sure there's times we forget and probably need to make sure we follow up on those things.”
A bridge to the community
The Ad Hoc Group Against Crime tries to serve as a bridge between law enforcement and the community. Members take a grassroots approach to preventing and solving crime, including many missing persons cases.
They canvas areas, post on social media and stay in contact with families.
Damon Daniels has been the CEO of the organization for nearly 10 years. He agrees that the missing persons unit needs to boost communication with families who have a missing loved one, especially someone missing for an extended period after which contact with police has decreased.
Daniels said Ad Hoc works closely with police, but agrees they need to improve when, and how often, they communicate with families.
”That unit is still doing a lot,” said Daniels. “Sometimes though, you follow all leads and there isn't anything else. (But) they definitely have to do better at communicating to the public, especially when there's an active investigation or an open case, even if it's going cold.”
The race factor
T’Montez Hurt, a Black man and college student from St. Louis, was last seen February 1, 2024, walking away from the Greyhound bus depot in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Hurt had just been released from a hospital where his grandmother said he was being tested for drugs in his system.
In an interview from St. Louis, Tecona Donald-Sullivan, Hurt's grandmother, said the KCPD has not been at all consistent in its communication with her family.
“They definitely need to communicate more, "she said. “They know that they haven’t found him and if I don’t call, I don’t get a call.”
Donald-Sullivan went on to explain that she believes race has an impact on how aggressively law enforcement pursues missing persons cases. She feels police are not doing all they can to find her grandson, because he is Black.
"I mean it took three months of him missing before police ever even took boots on the ground to look for my grandson,” Donald-Sullivan said.
She said she recalled a white college student who disappeared, and, although it was not KCPD who handled the case, almost immediately a billboard went up and authorities were dredging rivers.
Daniels, with Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, said Donald-Sullivan is not alone in her frustration. He said he often hears similar complaints from Black families in Kansas City.
“I honestly do think that there is a huge difference in terms of how these investigations (of Black individuals) are done,” Daniels said.
As of April 23, 2025, KCPD’s Daily Missing Person/Runaway Juvenile Analysis lists 34 active missing persons cases. Twenty are African American. Twelve are white.
“It's kind of hard to look at data and see, there's twice as many missing people of color, particularly Black folks that are missing versus whites” said Daniels.
KCPD Supervisor Thomas said he doesn't know why there is a disproportionate number of cases in the Black community.
“We don't have any control over who goes missing,” he said. “All I can tell you is that when that phone rings, when an officer gets dispatched and the officers go out there and they respond to the call and they notify us, we put them in the computer, and then we start an investigation on that.”
Back at the Ralls household in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, there are some smiles as the family remembers Brandon. Sister Moriana remembers when her brother would buy her ice cream, out of the kindness of his heart. Brother Will remembers Brandon’s cocky but endearing ego.
“He was the smallest dude around,” he said, “but he talked like he was 7 foot, 380 (pounds).”
After a long drag on his cigarette, the senior Ralls pulls out a picture of Brandon when he was a baby.
He pauses and reiterates something he said over and over in the conversation — that he’s determined to find his son by any means necessary.
“What kind of parent will I be if I give up hope?” he said. “KCPD has not given me hope.”
