Welcome to Mysteries of the Missing, a podcast and blog about missing person's cases. You can find my podcast, my blog, and my social media pages on my Linktree at: https://linktr.ee/MysteriesoftheMissing.
Keep in mind that I am only reporting the events of what have happened, per my research through various media outlets. I’m not trained in any way in true crime. Instead, I'm a published author who loves to blog. Also, I’m solely a human being that’s trying to do my part to get the message of the story of Ka Fai Wong (as well as the lack of information about missing Asians in the USA) out there so that one day, hopefully, he may be found, and his case may be solved. Join me as I dive into the last day that people saw Ka Fai Wong, and what happened after he was last seen.
Ka Fai Wong, aka Ja Hwei Wong
I have been wanting to report on an Asian male for a while. Why, you may ask? Well, there are tons missing, but unfortunately, there's not much information available for each case. When I did a general search for missing Asian males on the NAMUS website, I discovered that on each missing person's page, the phrase "Few details are available for this case" were in the detail section. This is a horrible misjustice for our Asian citizen and immigrant missing persons. I hope that one day, soon, we can change this. Until then, I want to do my part to report on as many Asian males who have disappeared as I can.
The reason I chose Ka Fai Wong's case is because I felt connected to him somehow. It may sound strange, but I merely looked at his photo and felt like he would've been someone I would have been friends with in college. When I was at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, I was a volunteer in the International Students Office. Can you guess which students I interacted the most with? If you guessed "the Asian students," you would be right. After graduating from SHSU, I went on to teach English for two years in South Korea. It was a natural course of events for me. For whatever reason, I've always felt connected to Asian people. I can remember being as young as six when I befriended my first Asian girl at church. We played together during children's church. In addition, my husband is Filipino American. My connections to Asia and Asians runs deep.
Now, on to our missing person of this week:
Ka Fai Wong was born on June 10, 1992. Hwent missing from San Bernardino, California on December 4, 2019. In 2019, he was twenty seven, and today, he would be thirty years old.
Ka does not have any Facebook page so I could not find information about him this way. The odd thing is that most of what I found about him is all about his disappearance, not his life. In fact, the websites that did contain information about Ka didn't mention any information about who reported him missing or the details surrounding his disappearance.
Details of Disappearance:Wong was last seen in San Bernardino, California on December 4, 2019. He has never been heard from again. He may be driving a white Toyota Sienna with the California license plate number 8JKX021. Few details are available in his case.
Physical Description: Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Height: 5'10" Weight: 156 lbs. Dental X-Rays Available: No Alias: Ja Hwei Wong
If you have any information regarding Ka Fai's disappearance, please contact the San Bernardino Police Department at (909) 384-5742, and reference case number 2019-0151460, or you may contact me at mysteriesofthemissing2023@gmail.com.
Therefore, I would like to dive into a deeper issue: The number of missing Asian men in America and the lack of information about their disappearances.
Let's start with the numbers: In 2022, the numbers of missing people were 313,017 white people, 193,151 black people, 18,928 Hispanic people, and 11,349 Asian people missing in America. If you consider the fact that 11,349 is a number showing both Asian men and women, the number of missing Asian men is a lot less. However, one missing person is too many and 11,349 is way beyond comprehension (as are the numbers for the other ethnic groups, but it seems like the Asian community is being left behind, regardless of their number being the minimum).
According to Pew Research, Chinese people (with Taiwanese, Taiwanese solely, and Chinese except Taiwanese, as confusing as that sounds) make up the majority of Asians in America, followed by Indians then Filipinos.
Black and Missing states that 59% of missing people in 2022 were white, while 39% were minorities. While the number of missing non-white people were less than those that were white in 2022, 39% is still too high. Anything more than 0 is too many.
Black and Missing says we can "level the playing field" by having more diversity in the newsroom, showing more of everyone (not just missing white people), becoming diligent about getting the word out there about missing people (regardless of the color of their skin), and seeing value in black and brown lives.
The Guardian reported on March 6, 2023 that "Missing black and Asian people less likely to be found by police, report finds:" "...the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) launched a police race action plan, aimed at tackling discrimination, addressing unfairness in the way black people are treated, and boosting the number of black officers and staff.
The NPCC’s lead for missing people, deputy chief constable Catherine Hankinson, said: “We recognise that some black, Asian and minority ethnic families have felt that their concerns over a missing family member were taken less seriously.”
The report found that 20% of incidents related to black children went on for longer than 48 hours, compared with 14% for Asian children and 13% for white children.
Black children were also 7% less likely to be found by police compared with white children."
This article mentions mostly black minorities, not just Asian minorities. This is troublesome, too -- we don't see Asian data very much in news outlet's reports. In addition, Asians are often left out of historical Fiction and Non-Fiction texts used in schools, medical reports, and more. If you look at this population across the board, you will find that those of Eastern descent and immigration are often left out in the cold. Yet here they are, they're with us and here to stay, so why aren't we including them?
NAMUS' website lists 373 missing Asian males in America, dating from 2019 to January 16, 2024 (at the time of writing the notes and this blog piece for this episode). That's a lot! Yet most of the files I looked at had little or no information beyond what the person looks like. Some missing person's pages didn't even have a picture. I'm assuming they were not given one by the police or family members who turned the missing person's information in to them, but how is one supposed to help, if we can't get access to the information we need to do so?
Let this be a wake-up call to us all, especially in terms of law enforcement, news reports, and data. May we strive to be better American neighbors to our Asian American and immigrant communities by providing more information in regards to their missing case files and information. I'm not talking about people who just keep to themselves and don't provide much information then go missing: I'm talking about an epidemic of disregard to this population in general. Maybe I'm assuming here, but let the information speak for itself.
Asian Americans are important too. May we not leave them behind.
This has been another episode of Mysteries of the Missing. You can reach out to me at my linktree at https://linktr.ee/MysteriesoftheMissing. Until next time, stay safe.
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Statista.com
Sources: 1. California Attorney General: https://oag.ca.gov/missing/person/ka-fai-wong
2. Charley Project: https://charleyproject.org/case/ka-fai-wong
3. Urban.org - Asian Americans are Falling Through the Cracks in Data: https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/asian-americans-are-falling-through-cracks-data-representation-and-social-services
4. See other sources by clicking the links above.
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