A 16-year-old Cleveland boy has been missing for more than a month, and federal investigators are now joining local police in the search for him. Davion Starks was last seen in Cleveland on July 9, according to the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation missing persons database, with the Cleveland Police Department listed as the lead agency on his case.
FOX 8 Cleveland reporter Darcie Loreno is highlighting Starks' disappearance as part of the station's ongoing partnership with kidnapping survivor Amanda Berry, according to FOX 8 News. Anyone with information about Starks is being asked to call 1-866-492-6833, per the station's report. That toll-free line routes tips directly to joint task force operations led by the U.S. Marshals Service Northern District of Ohio, according to WKYC.
Cleveland police can also be reached directly at (216) 623-5262 regarding the case, per the state database. Because Starks was reported missing, his information was entered into the Law Enforcement Automated Data System, which automatically feeds into the federal National Crime Information Center database, ensuring the case is visible to law enforcement agencies statewide and beyond, the Ohio Attorney General's office has explained.
A Federal Task Force Widens Its Net
Starks' case comes as the U.S. Marshals Service Northern District of Ohio has ramped up efforts to find missing children across the state. In late July, the agency launched Operation Meridian, a joint law enforcement initiative built in partnership with FOX 8, Berry, and former Cleveland Browns player Bernie Kosar to locate Ohio's most endangered missing children, according to footage posted to YouTube and reported by EssentiallySports.
Berry, who escaped ten years of captivity in Cleveland in 2013, joined WJW FOX 8 News in February 2017 to host daily Missing with Amanda Berry segments spotlighting local missing youth and adults, as detailed in Hoodline's earlier coverage. The Starks case is the latest in a string of Cleveland-area teen disappearances the station and federal marshals have publicized together in recent weeks, including those of Kanieya Washington, 17, and Emonie Haymon, 16.
Why Investigators Move Quickly on Teen Cases
Federal task forces have a track record in the region. An earlier initiative known as Operation Safety Net safely recovered 57 missing and endangered children between ages 13 and 18, leading to the creation of a permanent missing child task force squad in Northeast Ohio, according to reporting by Upworthy.
Law enforcement assessments from past Cleveland-area missing child recovery operations found that roughly 20% to 25% of endangered missing youth cases were linked to human trafficking or child sex exploitation, per WKYC's reporting, a statistic that helps explain why authorities treat prolonged teenage disappearances as urgent even when many cases end safely.
Statewide Numbers Show Most Cases End Safely
Statewide data suggests most missing-child cases in Ohio do resolve without tragedy. The Ohio Attorney General's 2025 Missing Children Clearinghouse Report, released in May, found that 15,367 children were reported missing across Ohio in 2025, a decrease of 1,037 cases from the 16,404 reported in 2024.
Of those cases, 97.8%, or 15,024 children, were recovered safely by year's end, while six were found deceased, according to the same report. Runaway incidents accounted for the vast majority of cases, 7,656 in total, compared with 22 noncustodial parent abductions and two stranger abductions statewide in 2025.
No additional details about the circumstances of Starks' disappearance have been released. Anyone with information is urged to contact the task force hotline or the Cleveland Police Department directly.
