A 62-year-old Kansas City man has been missing since Friday evening, last spotted around 7:19 p.m. in the 3600 block of Summit Street, and his family says they are worried about his health and well-being. Police describe Charles “Cole” Wimes as Black, with gray hair and brown eyes, standing 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 172 pounds.
The Kansas City Missouri Police Department is asking the public for help locating Wimes, according to the Kansas City Star. Wimes was reported missing Friday evening, and as of the department's public appeal, investigators say they did not have a description of the clothing he was wearing when he disappeared — an unusual gap that leaves few visual details for anyone who might have crossed paths with him near Summit Street.
The block where Wimes was last seen sits in the historic Valentine neighborhood, a Midtown area bounded by Southwest Trafficway and 35th Street known for its early 20th-century single-family homes and apartment buildings, according to Historic Kansas City. Summit Street was associated with an 1889 Washington and Summit cable-car line, per research from UMKC Urban Planning + Design. Anyone with information is asked to contact the KCPD Missing Persons Unit at 816-234-5043.
A Family With Deep Kansas City Roots
Wimes comes from a family with a long history in Kansas City civic life. His father, Charles “Chuck” Wimes, who died in 2013, was a pioneer Black developer, Air Force veteran, and community leader recognized for expanding minority real estate opportunities in the city, according to an obituary published by Legacy.com. That legacy has added another layer of local concern as the family now waits for word on the younger Wimes' whereabouts.
How Missouri Handles Missing Adult Cases
The search comes as KCPD's dedicated Missing Persons Section, reinstated in April 2023 with seven detectives and one sergeant assigned exclusively to missing person and runaway cases, continues to handle a steady stream of adult disappearances across the city. Missouri law does not require any waiting period — no 24, 48, or 72 hours — before a missing adult report can be filed, according to KCPD's own Missing Persons Unit policy, meaning investigators can begin working a case as soon as an absence is reported as unusual.
Because Wimes is 62, his case falls near the threshold for Missouri's Endangered Silver Advisory program, which applies to missing adults 60 or older believed to suffer from dementia or another cognitive impairment when a legal custodian files the report, per Missouri State Highway Patrol guidelines. When those specific age or medical criteria aren't fully met, state agencies can instead issue an Endangered Person Advisory for someone missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances believed to be in peril, the Patrol notes. It is not stated whether either advisory has been activated in Wimes' case. Once a report is filed, state protocol requires local police to immediately enter the person into both the National Crime Information Center database and the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System, alerting law enforcement across state lines.
Part of a Larger Pattern Statewide
Wimes' disappearance adds to a substantial statewide caseload. Missouri State Highway Patrol records show that as of this month, agencies across the state have logged more than 2,000 missing adult reports in 2026 alone, with more than 600 adult cases still open. A 2025 analysis of state missing persons data cited by VOTP News found that Black individuals accounted for nearly half of active missing person cases in Missouri, despite making up roughly 11% of the state's population — a disparity community advocates in Kansas City have repeatedly raised.
Wimes' case is one of several missing-adult investigations KCPD has publicized in the metro area in recent weeks, following searches for 56-year-old Karen Bishop and Darnell Miller in central Kansas City. For now, anyone who may have seen Wimes near Summit Street or who has information about his whereabouts is urged to reach out to investigators as the search continues.
