540,000 were reported missing last year and nearly 40% involved a person of color. we have some of the others who are missing right now. she was at work on this one. reporter: in chicago. karen phillips is fighting to make sure the world knows her daughter. kiara coles, a mail carrier missing. i believe if she was a different color, we would have different results by you. reporter: this is one of the last pictures taken of her holding an ultrasound in 2018. we could not wait. reporter: phillips is among dozens of black and minority persons struggling to get attention on their missing persons cases. i just miss her. she was doing so good. everything she wanted to do, for her to come up missing like there are thousands of cases of folks gone missing that we
grad student has been identified. he was 25 years old. he wanted to become a speech pathologist. his mother has been critical of law enforcement saying they didn t think there was any urgency in solving this case and it wasn t getting the attention it deserved. she had to organize her own searches for him. police say recent national public exposure may have helped them find jelani s body. missing persons cases are often treated very differently in the public eye, depending upon the race of the missing person. reporter: gene benet ramsey. natalee holloway. murdered or missing white women and children who captured national media attention. the most recent still on the hunt for gabby petito s fiance. gabby petito found dead in wyoming eight days after she was reported missing. in chicago, karen phillips is fighting to make sure the world knows her daughter, kiera coles. a mail carrier missing for almost three years. i believe that if kiara was a
treatment from law enforcement. there s data that suggests that when people of color go missing, especially young adults, teens, adolescents, they re more likely to be classified as runaways. more likely to be considered missing of their own accord by voluntary means. how do we balance the coverage? no one is saying gabby isn t worthev coverage. doesn t have to be gabby or someone else. same spotlight should be getting shown. reporter: today, phillips should be celebrating her daughter s 29th birthday. instead she, made flyers with the message find kiara coles. what can we do other than try to keep her name out there. keep doing interviews and hopefully one day somebody will just call it in and just leave a tip. we grieve every day because we don t know where she is or what s going on. reporter: in wyoming, where petito s remains were discovered this week, more than 700 indigenous people were reported