An 11-year-old boy has been missing from Cleveland's South Collinwood neighborhood since Tuesday, and police say the only lead so far is that he was last seen riding in a red Honda with an unknown license plate. Santana Wade was last seen within the 16400 block of Braddock Avenue, and investigators describe him as standing 5 feet tall and weighing 125 pounds.
Cleveland police asked for the public's help finding Santana, according to WKYC. Anyone with information is asked to call the Cleveland Division of Police's Fifth District at 216-623-5500. The Braddock Avenue address falls within the Fifth District's jurisdiction, which covers Northeast side neighborhoods including South Collinwood, North Collinwood, Glenville, St. Clair-Superior, Forest Hills, and Euclid Green, according to the Cleveland Community Police Commission.
What Ohio Law Requires When a Child Goes Missing
Under Section 2901.30 of the Ohio Revised Code, police departments are barred from imposing any waiting period before accepting or acting on a missing child report, meaning officers must begin investigating immediately once notified. The statute also mandates that case details be entered promptly into national databases, per Ohio law.
If Santana's case is deemed to involve unknown circumstances and a risk of serious physical harm, authorities could escalate the response through Ohio's Endangered Missing Child Alert program. That system, administered by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, is reserved for missing children under 18 whose cases don't meet the stricter abduction criteria required for a statewide AMBER Alert, according to the Ohio AMBER Alert Advisory Committee. The state issued 18 Endangered Missing Child Alerts and four AMBER Alerts in 2025.
A Pattern of Missing Youth Cases Across Cleveland
Santana's disappearance adds to a string of missing-child cases Cleveland police have handled this year. The department is separately still searching for 17-year-old Kanieya Washington, who has been missing since December and remains listed in the Ohio Attorney General's missing child database. Cleveland police have also worked with the U.S. Marshals SPEAR Unit, a Northern Ohio task force created in early 2026 to partner with local departments on missing children, sex offender, and runaway cases.
Earlier this month, that partnership helped locate two missing teenage girls from Toledo at a West Side Cleveland apartment, leading to the arrest of an adult man on active Cuyahoga County custody interference charges, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. It's unclear whether the SPEAR Unit or any additional alert system has been activated in Santana's case.
State Data Shows Most Missing Children Are Recovered
Statewide numbers offer some context, if not certainty, for families waiting on news. The 2025 Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse Report found that 15,367 children were reported missing across Ohio last year, with 97.8 percent, or 15,024 children, safely recovered by year's end, according to the Ohio Attorney General's Office.
A breakdown of that data reported by WTOL 11 showed the vast majority of cases were runaways, with 7,656 children classified that way, while only 22 involved parental abductions and just two were stranger abductions. Stranger abductions remain rare among Ohio's missing child reports, but police have not said what they believe led to Santana's disappearance. For now, investigators are focused on identifying the red Honda he was last seen in and asking anyone with information to contact the Fifth District.
