of the last pictures taken of her in 2018. >> we couldn't wait. we could not wait. >> reporter: phillips is among dozens of black and minority families struggling to get attention on their missing person cases. >> i just miss her. she was doing so good in everything she wanted to do. for her to just come up missing -- >> there are thousands of cases out there of folk who's have gone missing that we don't know about. >> reporter: zach somers, a criminologist specializing in missing persons cases says only a fraction of minority cases receive nonstop news coverage compared to white people. a system issue that late anchor gwen ifill coined missing white woman syndrome. >> they get much more news coverage than folks of different demographics when they go missing. >> reporter: according to fbi data, blacks only make up 13% of the u.s. population. they account for nearly a third