Missing Children Issues General News
Started by
Kathylene
, May 17 2007 09:38 AM
79 replies to this topic
#1
Kathylene
Kathylene
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- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:38 AM
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFa...ory?id=1891449
Protect Your Child From Kidnapping
April 26, 2006  Ed Smart and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have joined together to give parents crucial information they need to protect their children.
Nearly 800,000 children are reported missing every year, a nightmare Smart learned firsthand when his daughter Elizabeth was abducted from their home in 2002. She was found eight months later after an intensive police investigation.
"Everyone's doing wonderful," Smart said. "This whole project comes back to what happened that first morning. … Getting a current picture ID out there was critical."
Based on its ordeal, the Smart family has joined the national center's "Power of Parents" campaign, which is designed to help families prepare, protect and empower their children.
The campaign encourages parents to always have an up-to-date photo of their children, taking a new one every six months. A recent survey conducted by Duracell and the center found that only 46 percent of parents or guardians believed that having a recent photo of a child for emergency purposes was important. Additionally, only 49 percent of parents or guardians who have an emergency photo of their child update it every six months.
You can learn more about the program and download a child safety tool kit at www.duracell.com/parents
Click for video: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1891613
Ed Smart said getting images of his daughter, Elizabeth, into the media was crucial to finding her. (ABC News)
Protect Your Child From Kidnapping
April 26, 2006  Ed Smart and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have joined together to give parents crucial information they need to protect their children.
Nearly 800,000 children are reported missing every year, a nightmare Smart learned firsthand when his daughter Elizabeth was abducted from their home in 2002. She was found eight months later after an intensive police investigation.
"Everyone's doing wonderful," Smart said. "This whole project comes back to what happened that first morning. … Getting a current picture ID out there was critical."
Based on its ordeal, the Smart family has joined the national center's "Power of Parents" campaign, which is designed to help families prepare, protect and empower their children.
The campaign encourages parents to always have an up-to-date photo of their children, taking a new one every six months. A recent survey conducted by Duracell and the center found that only 46 percent of parents or guardians believed that having a recent photo of a child for emergency purposes was important. Additionally, only 49 percent of parents or guardians who have an emergency photo of their child update it every six months.
You can learn more about the program and download a child safety tool kit at www.duracell.com/parents
Click for video: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1891613
Ed Smart said getting images of his daughter, Elizabeth, into the media was crucial to finding her. (ABC News)
#2
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:38 AM
By Brent Stewart, The Southern
The device used to make the impression is a lot like a rubber pad. The device is heated and then placed in the patient's mouth. The patient bites down on the device and a permanent impression is then made. The whole procedure takes about 60 seconds and is absolutlely pain free. (CHUCK NOVARA / THE SOUTHERN)
The return of missing teens Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck from their captivity in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Mo., has sent shock waves throughout the country as a reminder of the reality of child abduction.
The fact that it occurred close to Southern Illinois has many area parents wondering what steps can be taken to prepare for such an unthinkable act.
The Dental Group of Carbondale has decided to give parents a little help by offering free dental "toothprints" from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25.
The idea came about fairly quickly after the kidnapping story began to receive media attention.
"I have a daughter and her teacher was having toothprints taken for their class," said Dr. Kwonil Park, DDS, of the Dental Group of Carbondale. "We wanted to open it up to whoever wants it."
"We've done it in the past at fairs and other events, but when the story came out we wanted to do it (at the office)," said Heather Ebers, a dental hygienist with the group.
The toothprint is a very simple procedure that can provide a record for identification.
"All somebody has to do is just bite down on it," Ebers explained. "What it will do is just take prints of the child's teeth."
A tooth impression is as unique to each person as a fingerprint.
Along with the print, it also stores DNA from the child's saliva.
It's usually recommended to have toothprints made three times over the course of childhood: at age 3, after all primary teeth come in; at age 7, when the first permanent molars have erupted; and at age 12, when all permanent teeth are in.
However, Park would recommend that it be done at once a year when the child is younger, because the positions of baby teeth change that often.
After the toothprint is taken, parents can keep it for confidentiality and for easy access in event of an emergency.
Besides providing the DNA sample, the saliva is also a source of human scent that can be used for dog-tracking.
:: TheSouthern.com - The Southern Illinoisan ::
The device used to make the impression is a lot like a rubber pad. The device is heated and then placed in the patient's mouth. The patient bites down on the device and a permanent impression is then made. The whole procedure takes about 60 seconds and is absolutlely pain free. (CHUCK NOVARA / THE SOUTHERN)
The return of missing teens Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck from their captivity in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Mo., has sent shock waves throughout the country as a reminder of the reality of child abduction.
The fact that it occurred close to Southern Illinois has many area parents wondering what steps can be taken to prepare for such an unthinkable act.
The Dental Group of Carbondale has decided to give parents a little help by offering free dental "toothprints" from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25.
The idea came about fairly quickly after the kidnapping story began to receive media attention.
"I have a daughter and her teacher was having toothprints taken for their class," said Dr. Kwonil Park, DDS, of the Dental Group of Carbondale. "We wanted to open it up to whoever wants it."
"We've done it in the past at fairs and other events, but when the story came out we wanted to do it (at the office)," said Heather Ebers, a dental hygienist with the group.
The toothprint is a very simple procedure that can provide a record for identification.
"All somebody has to do is just bite down on it," Ebers explained. "What it will do is just take prints of the child's teeth."
A tooth impression is as unique to each person as a fingerprint.
Along with the print, it also stores DNA from the child's saliva.
It's usually recommended to have toothprints made three times over the course of childhood: at age 3, after all primary teeth come in; at age 7, when the first permanent molars have erupted; and at age 12, when all permanent teeth are in.
However, Park would recommend that it be done at once a year when the child is younger, because the positions of baby teeth change that often.
After the toothprint is taken, parents can keep it for confidentiality and for easy access in event of an emergency.
Besides providing the DNA sample, the saliva is also a source of human scent that can be used for dog-tracking.
:: TheSouthern.com - The Southern Illinoisan ::
#3
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:39 AM
A leading warrior in the hunt for missing kids speaks out on what law enforcement has learned, what families endure and why his phone has been ringing off the hook since Shawn Hornbeck came home.
A WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Andrew Romano
Newsweek
Updated: 8:51 p.m. CT Jan 18, 2007
Jan. 18, 2007 - Last week, Shawn Hornbeck, 15, returned to his family after spending four years in captivity at the Kirkwood, Mo., home of 41-year old Michael Devlin. Hornbeck’s tale may be tragic, but he is hardly alone. Of the hundreds of thousands of children reported missing in the U.S. each year, little more than 100 of them are victims of what's known in law-enforcement circles as "stereotypical kidnappings." In an interview with NEWSWEEK’s Andrew Romano, Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, discussed the stats, the search techniques and why Hornbeck's story proves that there's no such thing as false hope. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: How many children are missing at any given time?
Ernie Allen: There are two ways to answer that. One is, whenever a child is reported to police as missing, it is now federal lawâ€â€it has been since 1990â€â€that the police are required to immediately take a report and enter it in the FBI’s national crime computer. In 2005, there were 834,000 total missing persons reports, adult and children, of which it's roughly estimated, year to year, that 85 percent are kids. So approximately 700,000 children were reported to the police as missing in 2005.
But not all those kids were kidnapped, right?
Right. That police report data doesn't really give you the ability to categorize how the children went missing. In 2000, though, the Justice Department released its latest National Incidents study, which is based on academic survey research rather than police reports. The study estimated that there are about 800,000 children a year reported missing. The largest share of those are runaways. Then comes family abductions, or children taken by family members, typically noncustodial parents. That number is about 200,000 a year. Then there are nonfamily abductions, which are estimated at 58,200 a year and are made up of relatively short-term takings of children, primarily as an element of another offense. So in most of these cases, the child is abducted, victimized in some way and then let go. Many don't even make it into police reports under abduction.
Finally, we have what the researchers called "stereotypical kidnappings." These are the most serious child-abduction cases, cases like Adam Walsh or Elizabeth Smart. Both Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby would qualify. A stereotypical kidnapping is what the average mom or dad in this country thinks of when they think of kidnapping: the taking of a child by a stranger in which the child is murdered, ransomed, taken with the intent to keep, transported a substantial distance or kept a long time. According to researchers, there are about 115 stereotypical kidnappings a year. They don't number in the thousandsâ€â€but there are still two or three a week somewhere in America.
Once a child is kidnapped, what are the chances that he or she will be recovered?
The bad news first. Each year, roughly 40 to 50 of the 115 children who are the victims of stereotypical kidnappings are killed. The good news? That the vast majority of America's missing children come home safely, and that includes non-family-abducted kids. Look at the stats. There are more than 58,000 nonfamily abductions a year, and only 40 to 50 of the kidnapped kids are killed. I don't mean to miminize the murders, but those numbers mean that 99-plus percent of America's abducted children come home safely. This is something we try to pound home to parents: the survival of their kidnapped children depends on the motivation of the kidnapper. And most of these kidnappers aren't child killers.
What's the motivation, then?
Well, frankly, they're sexually motivated. We've been involved in 125,000 of the most serious and extreme cases, and overwhelmingly the motive in those cases is sex.
What else do the offenders have in common?
Besides sexual motivations, the offenders are almost exclusively male. And they tend to be youngâ€â€85 percent are 35 or younger. A lot of people think that offenders are dirty old men. That's simply not true; this is a younger man's behavior. There's an assumption that offenders have diminished mental capacity, but all the research indicates that they're of average mental capacity or higher. And there tends to be what we call "the myth of the stranger." Which is just thatâ€â€a myth. The vast majority of offenders seek legitimate access to their victims and then victimize them, as opposed to snatching kids off the streets. Shawn was riding three blocks away to a friend’s house, and Ben had just gotten off a school bus, but that's not the way it normally happens. A lot of these guys will seek access to children, which fans their ardor and pushes them toward more violent behavior.
How would you describe the typical victim?
Americans tend to worry about very young children, but the typical victim of nonfamily abduction is a preteen or early teenage girl. Two out of three victims of nonfamily abductions are girls. That's not to say boys aren't at risk, too. There are a lot of parents in this country who don't worry as much about boys. They think boys are better able to handle themselves. They're tougher. They're bigger. But the plight of Shawn and Ben shows that this can happen to anyone.
How is an abducted child recovered?
The key variable is time. That's why we place so much emphasis on rapid response. Twenty-five years ago in this country, every police department in the country had a mandatory waiting period. If your child was reported missing, they'd say, "If he doesn't show up in a couple of days, call back and we'll take a report." What we now know is that when children are abducted and murdered, in 74 percent of those cases, the child is dead within the first three hours. So we at the National Center worked very hard, and in 1990 Congress passed a law that outlawed the waiting periods. Now every police department has to take an immediate report. You have to move fast.
What about after the first hours and days have passed? Do the chances of recovery decrease?
People think that if you don't find a child early on, then you're looking for a body. Statiscally speaking, that's true enough: every month, every year the chances get a little smaller. But a case like the one in Missouri provides searching parents with enormous hopeâ€â€and rightfully so. If the intent of the abductor is not to kill the childâ€â€and, as I've said, it is rarely isâ€â€there are a host of scenarios under which he or she could still be alive. Take Elizabeth Smart. She was abducted at knifepoint from her own bed in her own home. She was missing for nine months. I'm not sure anyone could've imagined that, given those circumstances, a lunatic religious fanatic had taken the child as part of his plan to become the new messiah. We all just feared she was dead. But with every offender, there's a different story. And thanks to new technology and new techniques, more and more of these cold cases are being solvedâ€â€and more and more of these children are being found alive. There's hope in every case.
How exactly have new techniques and technologies helped solve child-abduction cases?
The changes over the past 25 years have been revolutionary. Go back to the Adam Walsh case in 1981. Adam was a 6-year-old who slipped away one aisle from his mom in a shopping mall in Hollywood, Fla. About as middle American a scenario as you can possibly find. The child disappeared and quickly became the subject of perhaps the most high-profile child-abduction case since the Lindbergh kidnapping. The Walsh family created their own posters. They were on every television show, every newspaper. But in 1981, you couldn't enter missing-child information, for all intents and purposes, into the FBI's national crime computer. So, two weeks into the investigation, Adam's family sent every police department in Florida a poster of Adam. They discovered, after two weeks of intense publicity, that 80 percent of the police departments in their home state had no idea who Adam was.
What has changed? One, in 1982, Congress passed the Missing Child Act, which made it possible to put missing-child information into the FBI's national crime computer. In 1984, we created a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as a coordinated national response to this problem. In 1990, Congress did away with the waiting periods. Twenty-five years ago, the FBI wouldn't get involved. Now they have a Child Abduction Response Team that goes directly to the scene. We send a retired law-enforcement expert directly to the scene, too. We have the Amber Alert, which treats child emergencies like weather emergencies. And we've got new technology. Twenty-five years ago, we'd get a photo of a missing child through the mail and send it off to a processor. Today, we receive and transfer photos over the Internet. What took days and weeks then now takes minutes. And that could be the difference between life and death.
What do the parents of abducted children go through? How does this change their lives?
In the hours and days and weeks following their child's abduction, they're caught up in a kind of frenzy. They're enormously fearful, obviously, but they're carried forward by adrenaline. They're doing everything they can. They reach out for media. They work in tandem with law enforcement. After a few months, though, that anxiety turns into anger. "Law enforcement is not doing enough. Why haven't they found our child?" And then, at some point, it becomes desperation. I've talked to these families, and they say to me: "Is it time for me to come to grips with reality? Do I need to recognize that my child is probably dead and get on with the rest of my life." In those situations, I try to keep hope alive. I tell them that their child could still be out there. We're not going to close the case. We're not going to stop searching until we find your child or know, with certainty, what happened to them. There's no such thing as false hope. What's the alternative? We have to keep trying.
But isn't it hard to keep interest alive when a child is missing for years?
It's very challenging. The media spotlight dims. The police run out of leads. And the world tends to forget. Everybody forgets except for the parents. It's one of the reasons we use technology to age the photographs of long-term missing children. It's a not-too-subtle way of reminding the public that this child isn't 5 anymoreâ€â€he's now 15. We're trying to motivate average people doing average things to pay attention to what's going on around them and provide that key bit of information that helps us find out where the child is.
The other day, a mother came up to me, still carrying the photographs of her two daughters who were abducted in Mesa, Ariz., in 1974. She still doesn't know where they are. She's now an elderly woman. She said to me, I've heard about your cold-case unit. Will you help? So we're using our cold-case unit to go through the files in Arizona with the investigators, to discuss what they did do, what they didn't do and what they could do now.
John Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted," has said to me many times that the worst part is not knowing. There are so many of these parents out there who, after years and years, still don't know.
Does a story like this help? Does the switchboard at your headquarters light up?
It has a dramatic effect. We have been inundated. Calls to the hotline are up dramatically. People are paying more attention to missing-child photos. We're getting leads on other cases. One of the challenges we typically face is that the public has a hard time believing that missing-child photos work. Ninety-five, 96 percent of Americans say they see the pictures, but just 40 percent say they believe that they could help reunite a family. So many folks just stop paying attention. But look at the Missouri case: the key piece of information that led to the recovery of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby was what one kid saw and reported. His information led police to the truck, then to Mr. Devlin's apartment, then to the boys. We have to use the success story in Missouri to remind America to pay attention. It's as simple as that. Any one of us could save a child's life.
URL: The Hunt for Missing Kids - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com
A WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Andrew Romano
Newsweek
Updated: 8:51 p.m. CT Jan 18, 2007
Jan. 18, 2007 - Last week, Shawn Hornbeck, 15, returned to his family after spending four years in captivity at the Kirkwood, Mo., home of 41-year old Michael Devlin. Hornbeck’s tale may be tragic, but he is hardly alone. Of the hundreds of thousands of children reported missing in the U.S. each year, little more than 100 of them are victims of what's known in law-enforcement circles as "stereotypical kidnappings." In an interview with NEWSWEEK’s Andrew Romano, Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, discussed the stats, the search techniques and why Hornbeck's story proves that there's no such thing as false hope. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: How many children are missing at any given time?
Ernie Allen: There are two ways to answer that. One is, whenever a child is reported to police as missing, it is now federal lawâ€â€it has been since 1990â€â€that the police are required to immediately take a report and enter it in the FBI’s national crime computer. In 2005, there were 834,000 total missing persons reports, adult and children, of which it's roughly estimated, year to year, that 85 percent are kids. So approximately 700,000 children were reported to the police as missing in 2005.
But not all those kids were kidnapped, right?
Right. That police report data doesn't really give you the ability to categorize how the children went missing. In 2000, though, the Justice Department released its latest National Incidents study, which is based on academic survey research rather than police reports. The study estimated that there are about 800,000 children a year reported missing. The largest share of those are runaways. Then comes family abductions, or children taken by family members, typically noncustodial parents. That number is about 200,000 a year. Then there are nonfamily abductions, which are estimated at 58,200 a year and are made up of relatively short-term takings of children, primarily as an element of another offense. So in most of these cases, the child is abducted, victimized in some way and then let go. Many don't even make it into police reports under abduction.
Finally, we have what the researchers called "stereotypical kidnappings." These are the most serious child-abduction cases, cases like Adam Walsh or Elizabeth Smart. Both Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby would qualify. A stereotypical kidnapping is what the average mom or dad in this country thinks of when they think of kidnapping: the taking of a child by a stranger in which the child is murdered, ransomed, taken with the intent to keep, transported a substantial distance or kept a long time. According to researchers, there are about 115 stereotypical kidnappings a year. They don't number in the thousandsâ€â€but there are still two or three a week somewhere in America.
Once a child is kidnapped, what are the chances that he or she will be recovered?
The bad news first. Each year, roughly 40 to 50 of the 115 children who are the victims of stereotypical kidnappings are killed. The good news? That the vast majority of America's missing children come home safely, and that includes non-family-abducted kids. Look at the stats. There are more than 58,000 nonfamily abductions a year, and only 40 to 50 of the kidnapped kids are killed. I don't mean to miminize the murders, but those numbers mean that 99-plus percent of America's abducted children come home safely. This is something we try to pound home to parents: the survival of their kidnapped children depends on the motivation of the kidnapper. And most of these kidnappers aren't child killers.
What's the motivation, then?
Well, frankly, they're sexually motivated. We've been involved in 125,000 of the most serious and extreme cases, and overwhelmingly the motive in those cases is sex.
What else do the offenders have in common?
Besides sexual motivations, the offenders are almost exclusively male. And they tend to be youngâ€â€85 percent are 35 or younger. A lot of people think that offenders are dirty old men. That's simply not true; this is a younger man's behavior. There's an assumption that offenders have diminished mental capacity, but all the research indicates that they're of average mental capacity or higher. And there tends to be what we call "the myth of the stranger." Which is just thatâ€â€a myth. The vast majority of offenders seek legitimate access to their victims and then victimize them, as opposed to snatching kids off the streets. Shawn was riding three blocks away to a friend’s house, and Ben had just gotten off a school bus, but that's not the way it normally happens. A lot of these guys will seek access to children, which fans their ardor and pushes them toward more violent behavior.
How would you describe the typical victim?
Americans tend to worry about very young children, but the typical victim of nonfamily abduction is a preteen or early teenage girl. Two out of three victims of nonfamily abductions are girls. That's not to say boys aren't at risk, too. There are a lot of parents in this country who don't worry as much about boys. They think boys are better able to handle themselves. They're tougher. They're bigger. But the plight of Shawn and Ben shows that this can happen to anyone.
How is an abducted child recovered?
The key variable is time. That's why we place so much emphasis on rapid response. Twenty-five years ago in this country, every police department in the country had a mandatory waiting period. If your child was reported missing, they'd say, "If he doesn't show up in a couple of days, call back and we'll take a report." What we now know is that when children are abducted and murdered, in 74 percent of those cases, the child is dead within the first three hours. So we at the National Center worked very hard, and in 1990 Congress passed a law that outlawed the waiting periods. Now every police department has to take an immediate report. You have to move fast.
What about after the first hours and days have passed? Do the chances of recovery decrease?
People think that if you don't find a child early on, then you're looking for a body. Statiscally speaking, that's true enough: every month, every year the chances get a little smaller. But a case like the one in Missouri provides searching parents with enormous hopeâ€â€and rightfully so. If the intent of the abductor is not to kill the childâ€â€and, as I've said, it is rarely isâ€â€there are a host of scenarios under which he or she could still be alive. Take Elizabeth Smart. She was abducted at knifepoint from her own bed in her own home. She was missing for nine months. I'm not sure anyone could've imagined that, given those circumstances, a lunatic religious fanatic had taken the child as part of his plan to become the new messiah. We all just feared she was dead. But with every offender, there's a different story. And thanks to new technology and new techniques, more and more of these cold cases are being solvedâ€â€and more and more of these children are being found alive. There's hope in every case.
How exactly have new techniques and technologies helped solve child-abduction cases?
The changes over the past 25 years have been revolutionary. Go back to the Adam Walsh case in 1981. Adam was a 6-year-old who slipped away one aisle from his mom in a shopping mall in Hollywood, Fla. About as middle American a scenario as you can possibly find. The child disappeared and quickly became the subject of perhaps the most high-profile child-abduction case since the Lindbergh kidnapping. The Walsh family created their own posters. They were on every television show, every newspaper. But in 1981, you couldn't enter missing-child information, for all intents and purposes, into the FBI's national crime computer. So, two weeks into the investigation, Adam's family sent every police department in Florida a poster of Adam. They discovered, after two weeks of intense publicity, that 80 percent of the police departments in their home state had no idea who Adam was.
What has changed? One, in 1982, Congress passed the Missing Child Act, which made it possible to put missing-child information into the FBI's national crime computer. In 1984, we created a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as a coordinated national response to this problem. In 1990, Congress did away with the waiting periods. Twenty-five years ago, the FBI wouldn't get involved. Now they have a Child Abduction Response Team that goes directly to the scene. We send a retired law-enforcement expert directly to the scene, too. We have the Amber Alert, which treats child emergencies like weather emergencies. And we've got new technology. Twenty-five years ago, we'd get a photo of a missing child through the mail and send it off to a processor. Today, we receive and transfer photos over the Internet. What took days and weeks then now takes minutes. And that could be the difference between life and death.
What do the parents of abducted children go through? How does this change their lives?
In the hours and days and weeks following their child's abduction, they're caught up in a kind of frenzy. They're enormously fearful, obviously, but they're carried forward by adrenaline. They're doing everything they can. They reach out for media. They work in tandem with law enforcement. After a few months, though, that anxiety turns into anger. "Law enforcement is not doing enough. Why haven't they found our child?" And then, at some point, it becomes desperation. I've talked to these families, and they say to me: "Is it time for me to come to grips with reality? Do I need to recognize that my child is probably dead and get on with the rest of my life." In those situations, I try to keep hope alive. I tell them that their child could still be out there. We're not going to close the case. We're not going to stop searching until we find your child or know, with certainty, what happened to them. There's no such thing as false hope. What's the alternative? We have to keep trying.
But isn't it hard to keep interest alive when a child is missing for years?
It's very challenging. The media spotlight dims. The police run out of leads. And the world tends to forget. Everybody forgets except for the parents. It's one of the reasons we use technology to age the photographs of long-term missing children. It's a not-too-subtle way of reminding the public that this child isn't 5 anymoreâ€â€he's now 15. We're trying to motivate average people doing average things to pay attention to what's going on around them and provide that key bit of information that helps us find out where the child is.
The other day, a mother came up to me, still carrying the photographs of her two daughters who were abducted in Mesa, Ariz., in 1974. She still doesn't know where they are. She's now an elderly woman. She said to me, I've heard about your cold-case unit. Will you help? So we're using our cold-case unit to go through the files in Arizona with the investigators, to discuss what they did do, what they didn't do and what they could do now.
John Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted," has said to me many times that the worst part is not knowing. There are so many of these parents out there who, after years and years, still don't know.
Does a story like this help? Does the switchboard at your headquarters light up?
It has a dramatic effect. We have been inundated. Calls to the hotline are up dramatically. People are paying more attention to missing-child photos. We're getting leads on other cases. One of the challenges we typically face is that the public has a hard time believing that missing-child photos work. Ninety-five, 96 percent of Americans say they see the pictures, but just 40 percent say they believe that they could help reunite a family. So many folks just stop paying attention. But look at the Missouri case: the key piece of information that led to the recovery of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby was what one kid saw and reported. His information led police to the truck, then to Mr. Devlin's apartment, then to the boys. We have to use the success story in Missouri to remind America to pay attention. It's as simple as that. Any one of us could save a child's life.
URL: The Hunt for Missing Kids - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com
#4
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:39 AM
By Kim Carollo
Posted: Friday, January 19, 2007 at 4:42 PM
PEKIN -- You've heard it repeated time and time again -- when a child is missing, the first 24 hours are critical in helping find them safe and sound.
That’s the idea behind a program now being used in the heart of Illinois.
Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford Counties are now all using the program called "A Child Is Missing".
It allows police to call citizens to alert them about any details they may know, and do it quickly.
Calls ask for help looking for a child, and give details about that child.
Police want the public to be aware that the calls are legitimate.
They asks homes and businesses in the target area to look around for the child -- and contact police with any information.
The system can make 1,000 calls in a minute, something police say is a huge help in a search.
"We can make a thousand calls in a minute and expand the area -- that's huge for us in law enforcement. Then we have a thousand households potentially with people out there looking and helping be our eyes and ears, which is something that we didn't ever really have before,†said Peoria County sheriff Mike McCoy.
And they also say it's not just for missing children.
"These notifications might include Alzheimer's patients, handicapped persons, those in need of medication, unconscious persons found without identification, to request assistance in looking for predators, or even to warn area residents of a danger,†said Tazewell County sheriff Robert Huston.
Program to help find missing children comes to central Illinois : News : WHOI Online
Posted: Friday, January 19, 2007 at 4:42 PM
PEKIN -- You've heard it repeated time and time again -- when a child is missing, the first 24 hours are critical in helping find them safe and sound.
That’s the idea behind a program now being used in the heart of Illinois.
Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford Counties are now all using the program called "A Child Is Missing".
It allows police to call citizens to alert them about any details they may know, and do it quickly.
Calls ask for help looking for a child, and give details about that child.
Police want the public to be aware that the calls are legitimate.
They asks homes and businesses in the target area to look around for the child -- and contact police with any information.
The system can make 1,000 calls in a minute, something police say is a huge help in a search.
"We can make a thousand calls in a minute and expand the area -- that's huge for us in law enforcement. Then we have a thousand households potentially with people out there looking and helping be our eyes and ears, which is something that we didn't ever really have before,†said Peoria County sheriff Mike McCoy.
And they also say it's not just for missing children.
"These notifications might include Alzheimer's patients, handicapped persons, those in need of medication, unconscious persons found without identification, to request assistance in looking for predators, or even to warn area residents of a danger,†said Tazewell County sheriff Robert Huston.
Program to help find missing children comes to central Illinois : News : WHOI Online
#5
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:40 AM
How many children go missing every year? - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine
800,000 Missing Kids? Really?
Making sense of child abduction statistics.
By Christopher Beam
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007, at 7:06 PM ET
Two boys abducted in Missouri were found in a St. Louis suburb last Friday, in the home of a pizza shop employee. One had been missing for less than a week, the other for more than four years. News reports cited a statistic that 800,000 children disappear every yearâ€â€or about 2,000 a day. Seriously? How reliable are these numbers?
Reliable enough, but easily misinterpeted. Like most crime statistics, abduction numbers are fungible since they depend so much on whether the crime gets reported and how you define abduction. Saying a child is "missing" can mean any number of things; a child who has run away from home counts the same as a kidnapped murder victim. For officials, the total number includes those who fall into several different categories: family abduction, nonfamily abduction, runaways, throwaways (abandoned children), or lost and "otherwise missing" children. Local police departments register missing children with the federal National Criminal Information Center database, specifying what type of abduction it is.
When the categories get conflated, the statistics can become confusing. Take the number 800,000: It's true that 797,500 people under 18 were reported missing in a one-year period, according to a 2002 study. But of those cases, 203,900 were family abductions, 58,200 were nonfamily abductions, and only 115 were "stereotypical kidnappings," defined in one study as "a nonfamily abduction perpetrated by a slight acquaintance or stranger in which a child is detained overnight, transported at least 50 miles, held for ransom or abducted with the intent to keep the child permanently, or killed." Even these categories can be misleading: Overstaying a visit with a noncustodial parent, for example, could qualify as a family abduction. Some individuals get entered into the database multiple times after disappearing on different occasions, resulting in potentially misleading numbers.
But in other ways, the NCIC may understate the figures. Many missing persons aren't reported at allâ€â€a 1997 study estimated that only 5 percent of nonfamily abductions (in which a nonfamily member detains a child using force for more than an hour) get reported to police. Some police departments may not even bother filing a report when a kid runs away from home for a few days. It's also easy to lose track of abduction cases, since some of them get filed away under associated crimes, like homicide or sexual assault.
Until the early '80s, investigating cases of missing children was left entirely up to local officials, who didn't have an alert system in place or a central database to keep records. But after a series of high-profile abductions in the late 1970s and early '80s, like those of 6-year-olds Etan Patz and Adam Walsh (son of America's Most Wanted host John Walsh), Congress passed legislation creating the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an organization that monitors the FBI's database of missing children and collaborates with local law enforcement to get the word out. In recent years, states implemented "Amber laws," named after 9-year-old murder victim Amber Hagerman, setting up an alert system for missing children.
800,000 Missing Kids? Really?
Making sense of child abduction statistics.
By Christopher Beam
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007, at 7:06 PM ET
Two boys abducted in Missouri were found in a St. Louis suburb last Friday, in the home of a pizza shop employee. One had been missing for less than a week, the other for more than four years. News reports cited a statistic that 800,000 children disappear every yearâ€â€or about 2,000 a day. Seriously? How reliable are these numbers?
Reliable enough, but easily misinterpeted. Like most crime statistics, abduction numbers are fungible since they depend so much on whether the crime gets reported and how you define abduction. Saying a child is "missing" can mean any number of things; a child who has run away from home counts the same as a kidnapped murder victim. For officials, the total number includes those who fall into several different categories: family abduction, nonfamily abduction, runaways, throwaways (abandoned children), or lost and "otherwise missing" children. Local police departments register missing children with the federal National Criminal Information Center database, specifying what type of abduction it is.
When the categories get conflated, the statistics can become confusing. Take the number 800,000: It's true that 797,500 people under 18 were reported missing in a one-year period, according to a 2002 study. But of those cases, 203,900 were family abductions, 58,200 were nonfamily abductions, and only 115 were "stereotypical kidnappings," defined in one study as "a nonfamily abduction perpetrated by a slight acquaintance or stranger in which a child is detained overnight, transported at least 50 miles, held for ransom or abducted with the intent to keep the child permanently, or killed." Even these categories can be misleading: Overstaying a visit with a noncustodial parent, for example, could qualify as a family abduction. Some individuals get entered into the database multiple times after disappearing on different occasions, resulting in potentially misleading numbers.
But in other ways, the NCIC may understate the figures. Many missing persons aren't reported at allâ€â€a 1997 study estimated that only 5 percent of nonfamily abductions (in which a nonfamily member detains a child using force for more than an hour) get reported to police. Some police departments may not even bother filing a report when a kid runs away from home for a few days. It's also easy to lose track of abduction cases, since some of them get filed away under associated crimes, like homicide or sexual assault.
Until the early '80s, investigating cases of missing children was left entirely up to local officials, who didn't have an alert system in place or a central database to keep records. But after a series of high-profile abductions in the late 1970s and early '80s, like those of 6-year-olds Etan Patz and Adam Walsh (son of America's Most Wanted host John Walsh), Congress passed legislation creating the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an organization that monitors the FBI's database of missing children and collaborates with local law enforcement to get the word out. In recent years, states implemented "Amber laws," named after 9-year-old murder victim Amber Hagerman, setting up an alert system for missing children.
#6
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:40 AM
Lost and found
Parents' hands tied when children disappear
By Kevin Darr
Sunday, January 28, 2007 7:04 AM CST
With the recent disappearance, and subsequent re-emergence, of a Columbia woman, the scars were ripped right back open.
While Dawn McClenahan, 25, of Columbia was found healthy and safe days later, any time someone disappears, parents are sure to feel a shiver.
After all, many were still recovering from the case of Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck, two boys found recently in a Kirkwood, Mo., man's apartment. Hornbeck had been missing for years after being abducted while riding his bike.
The overriding theme in all of this is what are the parents to do?
Should they watch their children at every turn so they don't leave their sight?
Or should they just trust their children will know what to do if a stranger approaches?
Columbia Police Department Detective Justin Barlow worked on the McClenahan case and has been involved with numerous missing children cases in his time at the CPD.
"I have worked with families on missing children reports, but they always end up where the kid just didn't tell his parents he wasn't going to be home on time and then we found them a little bit later," Barlow said. "I have never been in anything where a child disappeared for a lengthy amount of time."
While the approach of smothering a child by getting involved in everything they do might not seem like the best approach, Barlow cautions parents to keep an attentive eye.
"You can't ever really let your guard down," Barlow said. "You have to know where they are going, who they are talking to on the Internet and their daily life because this is the only 100 percent fool proof way."
Parents shouldn't be fooled into thinking their children are safe either just because they have a cellular telephone. After all, how hard is it for an abductor to simply throw the phone away after taking the child?
"There isn't anything better than talking to your children and knowing what's going on," Barlow said.
Suburban Journals - News
Parents' hands tied when children disappear
By Kevin Darr
Sunday, January 28, 2007 7:04 AM CST
With the recent disappearance, and subsequent re-emergence, of a Columbia woman, the scars were ripped right back open.
While Dawn McClenahan, 25, of Columbia was found healthy and safe days later, any time someone disappears, parents are sure to feel a shiver.
After all, many were still recovering from the case of Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck, two boys found recently in a Kirkwood, Mo., man's apartment. Hornbeck had been missing for years after being abducted while riding his bike.
The overriding theme in all of this is what are the parents to do?
Should they watch their children at every turn so they don't leave their sight?
Or should they just trust their children will know what to do if a stranger approaches?
Columbia Police Department Detective Justin Barlow worked on the McClenahan case and has been involved with numerous missing children cases in his time at the CPD.
"I have worked with families on missing children reports, but they always end up where the kid just didn't tell his parents he wasn't going to be home on time and then we found them a little bit later," Barlow said. "I have never been in anything where a child disappeared for a lengthy amount of time."
While the approach of smothering a child by getting involved in everything they do might not seem like the best approach, Barlow cautions parents to keep an attentive eye.
"You can't ever really let your guard down," Barlow said. "You have to know where they are going, who they are talking to on the Internet and their daily life because this is the only 100 percent fool proof way."
Parents shouldn't be fooled into thinking their children are safe either just because they have a cellular telephone. After all, how hard is it for an abductor to simply throw the phone away after taking the child?
"There isn't anything better than talking to your children and knowing what's going on," Barlow said.
Suburban Journals - News
#7
Kathylene
Kathylene
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- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:41 AM
MySA.com: Metro | State
GPS shoe could help locate missing persons
Web Posted: 02/10/2007 12:42 AM CST
Vicki Buffolino
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
The list of missing persons in the United States grows longer every year, but now a Miami shoe designer is hoping a new sneaker that can track your every step will help curb the trend.
"In a split second, your child can be gone," mother Andrea Barrett said.
That's all it took for Barrett to realize her 8-year-old daughter Nicholay was missing one day while the family was at a city fair.
"She couldn't find us, (and) we couldn't find her," Barrett said.
Eventually Barrett found her daughter but says it was still a scary moment  something to which Issac Daniel can relate.
Five years ago, Daniel's son was reported missing while at a fair in Atlanta.
Daniel said once he found out his son was OK and the anxiety subsided, he realized knowing his son's every step was the key to ensuring his safety.
The thought gave birth to a tennis shoe with a Global Positioning System computer chip.
"It's a peace-of-mind technology," Daniel said.
He said the tough shoe can find anyone who's wearing it anywhere in the world.
"Once you press that button, you activate the device. It sends (a signal) to (a) satellite. In a second or two, it comes back to our monitoring center. We know you are in trouble," Daniel said.
And it had better be real trouble. Once the device is activated and the person is located, law enforcement is contacted.
If it turns out a parent was just trying to find out if their kid was really at the library of if their spouse did indeed go on a business trip, they will be held responsible for the money it cost to dispatch the law enforcers.
"Actually, I think it would be a good idea," Barrett said.
Kate Kohl, the executive director of San Antonio's Heidi Search Center, agrees.
Kohl sees between 150 to 200 missing persons cases each year.
"When a child is abducted, it's a very fast thing, (a) crime of opportunity. So I can see it helping that way, as long as the person has the maturity to know they would need to activate this," she said.
Kohl said the shoe may not work as well with Alzheimer's patients who will not remember how to activate the GPS shoe.
She said the best tool families can use to prevent their loved ones from becoming a listing on a missing persons board is education and supervision.
"It will be interesting to see how this product works and how efficient it is, and how effective it is in locating somebody that's gotten lost," Kohl said.
The GPS shoe is still being tested and is expected to hit some stores next month, and it is expected to cost between $200 and $350.
GPS shoe could help locate missing persons
Web Posted: 02/10/2007 12:42 AM CST
Vicki Buffolino
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
The list of missing persons in the United States grows longer every year, but now a Miami shoe designer is hoping a new sneaker that can track your every step will help curb the trend.
"In a split second, your child can be gone," mother Andrea Barrett said.
That's all it took for Barrett to realize her 8-year-old daughter Nicholay was missing one day while the family was at a city fair.
"She couldn't find us, (and) we couldn't find her," Barrett said.
Eventually Barrett found her daughter but says it was still a scary moment  something to which Issac Daniel can relate.
Five years ago, Daniel's son was reported missing while at a fair in Atlanta.
Daniel said once he found out his son was OK and the anxiety subsided, he realized knowing his son's every step was the key to ensuring his safety.
The thought gave birth to a tennis shoe with a Global Positioning System computer chip.
"It's a peace-of-mind technology," Daniel said.
He said the tough shoe can find anyone who's wearing it anywhere in the world.
"Once you press that button, you activate the device. It sends (a signal) to (a) satellite. In a second or two, it comes back to our monitoring center. We know you are in trouble," Daniel said.
And it had better be real trouble. Once the device is activated and the person is located, law enforcement is contacted.
If it turns out a parent was just trying to find out if their kid was really at the library of if their spouse did indeed go on a business trip, they will be held responsible for the money it cost to dispatch the law enforcers.
"Actually, I think it would be a good idea," Barrett said.
Kate Kohl, the executive director of San Antonio's Heidi Search Center, agrees.
Kohl sees between 150 to 200 missing persons cases each year.
"When a child is abducted, it's a very fast thing, (a) crime of opportunity. So I can see it helping that way, as long as the person has the maturity to know they would need to activate this," she said.
Kohl said the shoe may not work as well with Alzheimer's patients who will not remember how to activate the GPS shoe.
She said the best tool families can use to prevent their loved ones from becoming a listing on a missing persons board is education and supervision.
"It will be interesting to see how this product works and how efficient it is, and how effective it is in locating somebody that's gotten lost," Kohl said.
The GPS shoe is still being tested and is expected to hit some stores next month, and it is expected to cost between $200 and $350.
#8
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:41 AM
U.S. Department of Justice Partners With the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Ad Council to Help Prevent Online Sexual Exploitation @ SYS-CON Media
WASHINGTON, March 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Justice together with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and the Ad Council today announced a new phase of their Online Sexual Exploitation public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to educate teenage girls about the potential dangers of posting and sharing personal information online.
Popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Sconex make it easier for teens to post and share personal information, pictures and videos, which may make them more vulnerable to online predators. Teenage girls are particularly at risk of online sexual exploitation -- a recent study by University of New Hampshire researchers for NCMEC found that of the approximately one in seven youth who received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet, 70 percent were girls.
"The Internet is one of the greatest technological advances of our time, but it also makes it alarmingly easy for sexual predators to find and contact children," stated Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. "As Attorney General and as a father, I am committed to protecting our children from pedophiles who troll the Internet for kids. The Think Before You Post campaign sends a strong reminder to children and their parents to be cautious when posting personal information online because anything you post, anyone can see: family, friends and even not-so-friendly people."
Another study conducted by Cox Communications shows that 61 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds have a personal profile on social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster, or Xanga. In addition, the study found that half of these have posted pictures of themselves online and that one out of five teens reported that it is safe (i.e. "somewhat" or "very safe") to share personal information on a public blog or networking site. Thirty-seven percent of 13- to 17-year-olds said they're "not very concerned" or "not at all concerned" about someone using personal information they've posted online in ways they haven't approved.
"We are very pleased to join with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ad Council on the third year of our campaign entitled Think Before You Post," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "This PSA campaign is targeted to reach teenage girls and deliver the vital message of not posting identity- revealing information or photos of themselves online that could put them at risk for abduction or exploitation."
In another study conducted by the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center for NCMEC, of youth ages 10 to 17 who use the Internet regularly, 34 percent had posted their real name, telephone numbers or home address, and 45 percent had posted their real age. The PSA campaign, created pro bono by Merkley + Partners, includes TV, radio, magazine and Web advertising. The ads encourage girls to "think before you post" personal information that would leave them vulnerable to online predators. The PSAs seek to educate teens that the Internet is not a "private" place, rather it's a public place and social networking profiles and blogs potentially release information that can be easily found by anyone, including ill-intentioned people. All of the PSAs direct audiences to CyberTipline - No Left Nav to get tips to help prevent online sexual exploitation or to report an incident.
Previous work created for the campaign has focused on increasing awareness of parents and guardians about the prevalence of online sexual exploitation, and on preventing girls from forming inappropriate online relationships with adult men in an effort to reduce their risk of sexual exploitation and abduction. The new PSAs will be distributed to television and radio stations nationwide this week and can be viewed on the Ad Council's Web site at Ad Council : Home.
"The popularity, easy accessibility and social acceptance of the Internet, particularly social networking sites, among teenagers can put them in a dangerous situation," said Peggy Conlon, President and CEO of the Ad Council. "It's our hope that this campaign will educate teenage girls and their parents about the potential dangers of offering personal information on the Internet."
"We are very pleased with our continuous partnership with the Ad Council, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the U.S. Department of Justice," said Andy Hirsch, Executive Creative Director/Partner at Merkley + Partners. "Online sexual exploitation is front page news and we're happy that we can continue to lend our services to help educate teens and their families about this potential danger."
Since launching in 2004, the Online Sexual Exploitation campaign has garnered over $150 million in donated media support and NCMEC has seen an increase in reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts. Tracking studies conducted by the Ad Council found that parents and guardians who saw the PSAs were significantly more likely than those who had not to have talked to their children within that past week about chatting online with people who they hadn't met in person (44 percent vs. 35 percent).
Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood
The U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative is a joint effort of federal, state and local law enforcement, along with community leaders, designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Project Safe Childhood Home page.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 419,400 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 125,200 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 107,600 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
The Ad Council
The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshalling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. Having produced literally thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, the Ad Council has effected, and continues to effect, tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action and saving lives. To learn more about the Ad Council and its campaigns, visit Ad Council : Home.
U.S. Department of Justice
CONTACT: U.S. Department of Justice, +1-202-514-2007, or +1-202-514-1888
Web site: United States Department of Justice
Project Safe Childhood Home page
Ad Council : Home
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Published Mar. 23, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Justice together with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and the Ad Council today announced a new phase of their Online Sexual Exploitation public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to educate teenage girls about the potential dangers of posting and sharing personal information online.
Popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Sconex make it easier for teens to post and share personal information, pictures and videos, which may make them more vulnerable to online predators. Teenage girls are particularly at risk of online sexual exploitation -- a recent study by University of New Hampshire researchers for NCMEC found that of the approximately one in seven youth who received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet, 70 percent were girls.
"The Internet is one of the greatest technological advances of our time, but it also makes it alarmingly easy for sexual predators to find and contact children," stated Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. "As Attorney General and as a father, I am committed to protecting our children from pedophiles who troll the Internet for kids. The Think Before You Post campaign sends a strong reminder to children and their parents to be cautious when posting personal information online because anything you post, anyone can see: family, friends and even not-so-friendly people."
Another study conducted by Cox Communications shows that 61 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds have a personal profile on social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster, or Xanga. In addition, the study found that half of these have posted pictures of themselves online and that one out of five teens reported that it is safe (i.e. "somewhat" or "very safe") to share personal information on a public blog or networking site. Thirty-seven percent of 13- to 17-year-olds said they're "not very concerned" or "not at all concerned" about someone using personal information they've posted online in ways they haven't approved.
"We are very pleased to join with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ad Council on the third year of our campaign entitled Think Before You Post," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "This PSA campaign is targeted to reach teenage girls and deliver the vital message of not posting identity- revealing information or photos of themselves online that could put them at risk for abduction or exploitation."
In another study conducted by the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center for NCMEC, of youth ages 10 to 17 who use the Internet regularly, 34 percent had posted their real name, telephone numbers or home address, and 45 percent had posted their real age. The PSA campaign, created pro bono by Merkley + Partners, includes TV, radio, magazine and Web advertising. The ads encourage girls to "think before you post" personal information that would leave them vulnerable to online predators. The PSAs seek to educate teens that the Internet is not a "private" place, rather it's a public place and social networking profiles and blogs potentially release information that can be easily found by anyone, including ill-intentioned people. All of the PSAs direct audiences to CyberTipline - No Left Nav to get tips to help prevent online sexual exploitation or to report an incident.
Previous work created for the campaign has focused on increasing awareness of parents and guardians about the prevalence of online sexual exploitation, and on preventing girls from forming inappropriate online relationships with adult men in an effort to reduce their risk of sexual exploitation and abduction. The new PSAs will be distributed to television and radio stations nationwide this week and can be viewed on the Ad Council's Web site at Ad Council : Home.
"The popularity, easy accessibility and social acceptance of the Internet, particularly social networking sites, among teenagers can put them in a dangerous situation," said Peggy Conlon, President and CEO of the Ad Council. "It's our hope that this campaign will educate teenage girls and their parents about the potential dangers of offering personal information on the Internet."
"We are very pleased with our continuous partnership with the Ad Council, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the U.S. Department of Justice," said Andy Hirsch, Executive Creative Director/Partner at Merkley + Partners. "Online sexual exploitation is front page news and we're happy that we can continue to lend our services to help educate teens and their families about this potential danger."
Since launching in 2004, the Online Sexual Exploitation campaign has garnered over $150 million in donated media support and NCMEC has seen an increase in reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts. Tracking studies conducted by the Ad Council found that parents and guardians who saw the PSAs were significantly more likely than those who had not to have talked to their children within that past week about chatting online with people who they hadn't met in person (44 percent vs. 35 percent).
Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood
The U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative is a joint effort of federal, state and local law enforcement, along with community leaders, designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Project Safe Childhood Home page.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 419,400 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 125,200 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 107,600 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
The Ad Council
The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshalling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. Having produced literally thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, the Ad Council has effected, and continues to effect, tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action and saving lives. To learn more about the Ad Council and its campaigns, visit Ad Council : Home.
U.S. Department of Justice
CONTACT: U.S. Department of Justice, +1-202-514-2007, or +1-202-514-1888
Web site: United States Department of Justice
Project Safe Childhood Home page
Ad Council : Home
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Published Mar. 23, 2007
#9
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:42 AM
Charlotte Observer | 03/24/2007 | Pressure turned up on Web predators
March 24, 2007
PART OF AGGRESSIVE NATIONAL EFFORT TO PROTECT CHILDREN
Pressure turned up on Web predators
Charlotte cases up 45% in '06; U.S. attorney assigns more local help
Federal authorities are taking steps to more aggressively combat a dramatic increase of cases of predators using the Internet to sexually exploit children.
"In the wrong hands, the Internet can be used as a weapon to harm and destroy our children," U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert told reporters Friday at a Charlotte news conference about a nationwide effort to stop the exploitation of children.
Shappert said there was a 45 percent increase from 2005 to 2006 in the number of cases federal prosecutors in Charlotte handled involving exploitation of children over the Internet. In 2005, there were 22 cases. Last year, there were 32.
Shappert said she has assigned a second assistant U.S. attorney to help with the investigation and prosecution of Web crimes against children in Charlotte and the district.
"These are not images of children running through water sprinklers or sitting in bathtubs," Shappert said. "These are images of the rape and torture of young children. They are sordid. They are disgusting. And they are criminal."
A study last year by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that about one in seven children, ages 10 to 17, received a sexual approach over the Internet.
Shappert cited a number of local cases to illustrate the growing danger that predators pose on the Internet:
• A Charlotte man was charged in 2004 with second-degree sexual exploitation of a child in Mecklenburg County. While that case was pending, deputies in Union County caught him in a car trying to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. He was convicted of sexual exploitation in Mecklenburg and taking indecent liberties with a child in Union County. He was placed on probation in both cases. This month, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to a child pornography charge.
• A former Marine and Delta Air Lines pilot from Texas approached an undercover State Bureau of Investigation agent, who was posing as the mother of a young girl, in an Internet chat room known for incest. The man made arrangements with the "mother" to meet her and the daughter in Charlotte to have sex with both. He was arrested after arriving in Charlotte. In his luggage, agents found gifts for the daughter and sexual-performance-enhancing drugs. He has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
• A father in McDowell County had abused his daughter for years and took pictures of the abuse and tried to put the pictures online. His wife learned about it but did nothing to stop it. She also took pictures of him abusing their daughter. They have pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and are awaiting sentencing.
The nationwide initiative to combat the abuse and exploitation of children, called "Project Safe Childhood," also features efforts to teach children about how to be safe while on the Internet.
How to Keep Kids Safe on the Internet
Here are some U.S. Justice Department-sponsored resources on the Internet to help educate parents on how to maintain a safe home-Internet environment.
• NetSmartz.org
• i-SAFE Inc.
• Web Wise Kids - Equipping Today's Youth to Make Wise Choices Online
• The FBI's "Safe Online Surfing" campaign materials and information can be found at FBI-SOS: Safe Online Surfing.
March 24, 2007
PART OF AGGRESSIVE NATIONAL EFFORT TO PROTECT CHILDREN
Pressure turned up on Web predators
Charlotte cases up 45% in '06; U.S. attorney assigns more local help
Federal authorities are taking steps to more aggressively combat a dramatic increase of cases of predators using the Internet to sexually exploit children.
"In the wrong hands, the Internet can be used as a weapon to harm and destroy our children," U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert told reporters Friday at a Charlotte news conference about a nationwide effort to stop the exploitation of children.
Shappert said there was a 45 percent increase from 2005 to 2006 in the number of cases federal prosecutors in Charlotte handled involving exploitation of children over the Internet. In 2005, there were 22 cases. Last year, there were 32.
Shappert said she has assigned a second assistant U.S. attorney to help with the investigation and prosecution of Web crimes against children in Charlotte and the district.
"These are not images of children running through water sprinklers or sitting in bathtubs," Shappert said. "These are images of the rape and torture of young children. They are sordid. They are disgusting. And they are criminal."
A study last year by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that about one in seven children, ages 10 to 17, received a sexual approach over the Internet.
Shappert cited a number of local cases to illustrate the growing danger that predators pose on the Internet:
• A Charlotte man was charged in 2004 with second-degree sexual exploitation of a child in Mecklenburg County. While that case was pending, deputies in Union County caught him in a car trying to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. He was convicted of sexual exploitation in Mecklenburg and taking indecent liberties with a child in Union County. He was placed on probation in both cases. This month, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to a child pornography charge.
• A former Marine and Delta Air Lines pilot from Texas approached an undercover State Bureau of Investigation agent, who was posing as the mother of a young girl, in an Internet chat room known for incest. The man made arrangements with the "mother" to meet her and the daughter in Charlotte to have sex with both. He was arrested after arriving in Charlotte. In his luggage, agents found gifts for the daughter and sexual-performance-enhancing drugs. He has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
• A father in McDowell County had abused his daughter for years and took pictures of the abuse and tried to put the pictures online. His wife learned about it but did nothing to stop it. She also took pictures of him abusing their daughter. They have pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and are awaiting sentencing.
The nationwide initiative to combat the abuse and exploitation of children, called "Project Safe Childhood," also features efforts to teach children about how to be safe while on the Internet.
How to Keep Kids Safe on the Internet
Here are some U.S. Justice Department-sponsored resources on the Internet to help educate parents on how to maintain a safe home-Internet environment.
• NetSmartz.org
• i-SAFE Inc.
• Web Wise Kids - Equipping Today's Youth to Make Wise Choices Online
• The FBI's "Safe Online Surfing" campaign materials and information can be found at FBI-SOS: Safe Online Surfing.
#10
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:42 AM
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to Open New Office in Austin, Texas
Wed Apr 4, 5:40 PM ET
ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) announced today it will open a new regional office in Austin, Texas. Funded entirely through private donations, the new office will provide training for law enforcement, educate the community about child safety, and work to bring home missing children. Mrs.
Laura Bush participated in the announcement, which was held at an event in Austin to thank the volunteers and supporters who made the office possible.
"Every year, 800,000 children are reported missing in our country. 60,000 of these cases are right here in Texas," said Mrs. Bush. "Yet because of the hard work of law enforcement, concerned Americans, and the National Center, most of these cases are resolved. And today, I'm very proud to announce that our capital city will soon be home to a new center for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which will help protect our children."
Two Austin businesswomen and prominent Texans, Diane Allbaugh and Jan Bullock led the effort to create the Texas regional office. Believing that more needed to be done to stop the growing incidence of Texas children being harmed by predators, the women persuaded corporate leaders and others to commit to making the local office a reality. "The people of Texas are not going to stand by and let our children be victimized," said Mrs. Allbaugh. "Texans are pooling their resources to support the Austin office and will do everything possible to keep our children safe."
The Austin office will work with and assist existing government and non-government organizations in prevention and education programs, provide training for law enforcement and prosecutors, with particular emphasis on Internet-related crimes against children, and will establish a staff, including case managers, who will work with and assist state and local law enforcement in difficult cases.
"We have long hoped to have an office in the Southwest," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "We were thrilled when the people of Texas came to us with enough money to open and sustain an office in Austin."
---
Why Texas?
* Of the nation's 603,000 registered sex offenders, 48,280 are in Texas,
second only to California. One-fourth of the registered sex offenders in
the entire U.S. are in California and Texas.
* An estimated 800,000 children are reported missing every year in the
U.S. During 2006, more than 60,000 children were reported missing in
Texas.
* More than 58,000 children are abducted each year by non-family members.
Texas is second only to California in the incidence of non-family
abduction cases.
* In recent years, Texas has experienced a series of tragic cases: Laura
Smither of Friendswood, Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Ashley Estell of
Plano, and others.
* Ten of the top 100 fastest growing counties in the U.S. and eight of the
largest counties in the nation are located in Texas.
* Texas is also a leading state for crimes against children and did not
have a NCMEC presence as do California, Florida and New York.
* NCMEC plays a leading role in international child abductions, the
largest of which involve Mexico. The 1,254 mile Mexican Border poses a
huge "flight" problem for law enforcement in the rescue of children and
the apprehension of criminals. Texas is not only the gateway to Mexico,
but also to Central and South America.
* There is a strong demand for training from NCMEC that would be
convenient to law enforcement in Texas and others in the region.
"Texas has special challenges because of its size and status as a border state. At the same time, in the battle to protect children, Texas has been a leader," said Allen. "Its law enforcement agencies have become national models, including the widely praised Dallas Police Department Sex Offender Apprehension Program (SOAP). We are already working closely with the Texas Missing Children's Clearinghouse, and others, and believe that Texas is the perfect place to base an office. The additional resources we will be able to offer from an Austin office will aid and enhance the work that is currently being done to target offenders and keep children safe."
The problem of missing and exploited children is vast and complex. More than 2,000 children are reported missing every day, and one in five girls and one in ten boys will be sexually victimized before they reach age 18.
The office in Austin, Texas is scheduled to open sometime this summer in space donated by American Bank of Commerce in Austin.
About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
NCMEC is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S.
Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 441,900 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 127,700 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 110,200 children. The headquarters of NCMEC is located in Alexandria, VA. Other offices include Tustin, California; Naples, Florida; Lake Park, Florida; Kansas City, Kansas; Rochester, NY; New York, NY; Utica, NY; and Columbia, SC.
For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at
1-800-THE-LOST or visit its website at National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Contact: NCMEC Communications, +1-703-837-6111
SOURCE National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to Open New Office in Austin, Texas - Yahoo! News
Wed Apr 4, 5:40 PM ET
ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) announced today it will open a new regional office in Austin, Texas. Funded entirely through private donations, the new office will provide training for law enforcement, educate the community about child safety, and work to bring home missing children. Mrs.
Laura Bush participated in the announcement, which was held at an event in Austin to thank the volunteers and supporters who made the office possible.
"Every year, 800,000 children are reported missing in our country. 60,000 of these cases are right here in Texas," said Mrs. Bush. "Yet because of the hard work of law enforcement, concerned Americans, and the National Center, most of these cases are resolved. And today, I'm very proud to announce that our capital city will soon be home to a new center for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which will help protect our children."
Two Austin businesswomen and prominent Texans, Diane Allbaugh and Jan Bullock led the effort to create the Texas regional office. Believing that more needed to be done to stop the growing incidence of Texas children being harmed by predators, the women persuaded corporate leaders and others to commit to making the local office a reality. "The people of Texas are not going to stand by and let our children be victimized," said Mrs. Allbaugh. "Texans are pooling their resources to support the Austin office and will do everything possible to keep our children safe."
The Austin office will work with and assist existing government and non-government organizations in prevention and education programs, provide training for law enforcement and prosecutors, with particular emphasis on Internet-related crimes against children, and will establish a staff, including case managers, who will work with and assist state and local law enforcement in difficult cases.
"We have long hoped to have an office in the Southwest," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "We were thrilled when the people of Texas came to us with enough money to open and sustain an office in Austin."
---
Why Texas?
* Of the nation's 603,000 registered sex offenders, 48,280 are in Texas,
second only to California. One-fourth of the registered sex offenders in
the entire U.S. are in California and Texas.
* An estimated 800,000 children are reported missing every year in the
U.S. During 2006, more than 60,000 children were reported missing in
Texas.
* More than 58,000 children are abducted each year by non-family members.
Texas is second only to California in the incidence of non-family
abduction cases.
* In recent years, Texas has experienced a series of tragic cases: Laura
Smither of Friendswood, Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Ashley Estell of
Plano, and others.
* Ten of the top 100 fastest growing counties in the U.S. and eight of the
largest counties in the nation are located in Texas.
* Texas is also a leading state for crimes against children and did not
have a NCMEC presence as do California, Florida and New York.
* NCMEC plays a leading role in international child abductions, the
largest of which involve Mexico. The 1,254 mile Mexican Border poses a
huge "flight" problem for law enforcement in the rescue of children and
the apprehension of criminals. Texas is not only the gateway to Mexico,
but also to Central and South America.
* There is a strong demand for training from NCMEC that would be
convenient to law enforcement in Texas and others in the region.
"Texas has special challenges because of its size and status as a border state. At the same time, in the battle to protect children, Texas has been a leader," said Allen. "Its law enforcement agencies have become national models, including the widely praised Dallas Police Department Sex Offender Apprehension Program (SOAP). We are already working closely with the Texas Missing Children's Clearinghouse, and others, and believe that Texas is the perfect place to base an office. The additional resources we will be able to offer from an Austin office will aid and enhance the work that is currently being done to target offenders and keep children safe."
The problem of missing and exploited children is vast and complex. More than 2,000 children are reported missing every day, and one in five girls and one in ten boys will be sexually victimized before they reach age 18.
The office in Austin, Texas is scheduled to open sometime this summer in space donated by American Bank of Commerce in Austin.
About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
NCMEC is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S.
Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 441,900 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 127,700 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 110,200 children. The headquarters of NCMEC is located in Alexandria, VA. Other offices include Tustin, California; Naples, Florida; Lake Park, Florida; Kansas City, Kansas; Rochester, NY; New York, NY; Utica, NY; and Columbia, SC.
For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at
1-800-THE-LOST or visit its website at National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Contact: NCMEC Communications, +1-703-837-6111
SOURCE National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to Open New Office in Austin, Texas - Yahoo! News
#11
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:43 AM
Remarks by First Lady Laura Bush at the Announcement of the Texas Regional Office of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Wed Apr 4, 6:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON, April 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following are remarks by First Lady
Laura Bush at the announcement of a new office of the NCMEC in Austin, Texas:
San Jacinto Room
The Four Seasons Hotel
Austin, Texas
1:51 P.M. CDT
MRS. BUSH: Thank you, Rae Leigh, thank you very, very much for that very kind introduction.
I'm so happy to be here today in this room with so many good friends. I want to thank everybody for coming. I want to especially thank Diane Allbaugh for being the one who is really responsible for this, for putting this event together, as well as for doing all the hard work that you've done to make sure a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is here in Austin. Thank you very, very much, Diane. (Applause.)
Joining us also today is Ernie Allen, who is the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He's one of my favorite people. I love to have the chance to talk to him whenever I can, to hear stories, all the different stories -- and many, many stories with very happy endings from the center. Thank you, Ernie, for joining us today. (Applause.)
Jan Bullock, my partner -- my partner when George was governor and Bob Bullock was lieutenant governor -- is also an event chair. Thank you very, very much, Jan. Thank you for your great work. (Applause.)
Anita Perry, I want to recognize you. Thank you for joining us today. Nadine Craddick, the speaker's wife, thank you very much for joining us. And I especially want to thank Nelda and Pete Laney for being with us here as well.
We're going to hear in a minute from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record). Thank you, Senator, for joining us. And Attorney General Greg Abbott. Thank you so much, Greg.
Mayor Will Wynn is with us, and Austin, of course, will be the site of this regional center for Missing and Exploited Children. And, Mayor, thank you for being a part of this, as well.
In the room are a lot of state officials. Many of you I have known forever and I want to thank you all for joining us today, for working on each one of the issues that surround the whole idea of the exploitation of children -- from the judges who are here with us to the state representatives and the state senators. Thank you all so much for being here.
In 1981, as you heard on the video, a six-year-old boy named Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a Florida department store. Soon after Adam disappeared, he was found murdered. Adam's mother and dad, Reve and John Walsh, were devastated -- and they were determined to build a nationwide network that would help other families recover missing sons or daughters. John and Reve's advocacy helped establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And just in case you couldn't tell from the video, this is John Walsh that you know now from TV's "America's Most Wanted."
Today, federal, state and local law enforcement cooperate to pursue kidnappers across state lines. National registries alert parents about convicted sexual predators living in their neighborhoods. And across the United States, there is one hotline number to call immediately to report a missing child. In 1990, 62 percent of children reported missing to the National Center were recovered. Today, that number has climbed to 94 percent. That's really terrific. (Applause.)
I'm proudest of the National Center's heroic response to Hurricane Katrina. With help from the government, from the American Red Cross, and from many individual volunteers -- including a very large number of retired law enforcement from around the United States -- the National Center worked day and night to reunite families that were separated by the hurricanes. Of the more than 5,000 children who were initially reported missing, every single case was resolved. (Applause.)
And congratulations to Ernie Allen and to everyone at the National Center. I visited the National Center while this search was going on for the children who needed to be reunited with their families after the hurricane and met people -- law enforcement, FBI, police chief, Secret Service, retired Secret Service who were all working, manning the computers there, and then a number of these retired law enforcement also went straight to the shelters along the Gulf Coast to work to make sure every family was reunited with their children.
Recently, this January, Madam Chirac in Paris hosted an International Conference on Missing and Exploited Children, which I attended. And I was so proud to be there with Ernie Allen. Our National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has worked with other countries to make sure there is now an International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
At Madam Chirac's conference we talked about what each of our countries can do to improve cooperation between all countries, since all the new technology -- like the Internet -- have made child exploitation an international crisis. Ernie Allen was there and the National Center was working with Interpol and Europol and a number of other groups to make sure the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children can continue to work across borders to make sure children are reunited with their families.
The center's success shows how important a network of individual citizens is to keeping children safe. In fact, the public is the best resource to help recover missing children. Just last month in Lubbock, an anonymous tip from one woman helped return three-day-old Mychael Darthard-Dawodu -- who was kidnapped from the hospital by a woman posing as a nurse -- to her mother.
And through the AMBER Alerts, all Americans who watch TV, or listen to the radio, or see the special highway signs, AMBER Alert highway signs, can help locate missing children. So far, AMBER Alerts have saved more than 300 young lives in the United States-- including Rae Leigh Bradbury's. (Applause.)
When I was in Paris, the French government had just instituted AMBER Alerts and actually called them AMBER Alerts, like ours are. And just in the two weeks -- or the one-and-a-half weeks the AMBER Alerts had been in effect, they had already found two children with the help of an AMBER Alert.
Every year, 850,000 children are reported missing in our country -- 60,000 of these cases are right here in Texas. Yet because of the hard work of law enforcement, concerned Americans, and the National Center, most of these cases are resolved. And today, I'm so happy to announce that Austin will soon be home to a new regional center for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (Applause.)
This center will serve as a regional hub to manage cases throughout the southwest, and they can help resolve the increasing number of cross-border abductions. It'll help U.S. Marshals track non-compliant sex offenders, and coordinate the local efforts of Team Adam: Team Adams are the rapid-response teams, made up of retired law enforcement experts, who go to the scene of a breaking cases to assist local and state investigators.
The center will be the first place for children and families to turn to in time of emergency. After the hurricanes, Congress designated the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as the lead agency for child relocation. Now, the center can use this Texas office to coordinate regional efforts to reunite families in the aftermath of a disaster.
The National Center will also partner with local non-profits, government, and youth-service organizations to help prevent child exploitation and abduction -- especially online. Because of the Internet, predators can now make contact easily with children. Child pornography has become a national and global crisis.
Posting or downloading pornographic images of children is not an exercise in free speech. It's a criminal act of child abuse. Our government is working to end this abuse through the Justice Department's Internet Crimes Against Children task force. With the help of task force members, federal prosecution of child pornography and abuse has increased from 350 cases in 1999 to more than 1,400 cases in 2005.
The new regional center will build on this success by educating parents and children about safe use of the Internet. And it will encourage Texans to use the National Center's CyberTipline, CyberTipline - No Left Nav, which has handled over 465,000 reports of suspicious online encounters since 1998.
This new regional office shows the National Center's commitment to the families of Texas, and it shows Texans' commitment to all of our children. I'm proud that it'll be located here in Austin-- and that so many of our friends, led by Diane Allbaugh, are responsible for getting the center here. This group of people are the ones who made the phone calls, who went door-to- door. They collected donations of money and time from people across the state. They encouraged companies to offer in-kind contributions -- and these companies responded with building materials, and printing services, and audiovisual equipment. This group even got the American Bank of Commerce to provide 2,500 square feet of office space in one of its bank building.
According to Diane, citizens throughout our state -- and I quote -- "also gave tremendous emotional support. I just can't say enough about the people of Texas-- about how generous, how caring, and how motivated they are to do the right thing." Because of Diane's efforts, this new center will help law enforcement, private citizens, and the National Center do the right thing for our children --children like Kevin Brown.
On a Thursday evening last September, two-year-old Kevin Brown was playing outside of his home in Alvarado with his four-year-old brother. When Kevin's brother was attacked by fire ants, he ran into the house, where his dad began treating the bites. In all the confusion, Kevin disappeared. When Kevin's dad discovered his little boy was gone, he called the Johnson County Sheriff's Office to report his missing son. Throughout the evening, the sheriff's office, the FBI, and volunteers searched the area. They used horses, ATVs, K-9 units, and divers -- but they still couldn't find Kevin.
Two National Center Team Adam consultants arrived on the scene to assist the sheriff's office. The next day, they searched county roads and highways, fanning out to cover a three-mile area. The sheriff led the search on horseback; authorities dragged and drained 15-foot-deep ponds. Law enforcement began to fear that Kevin had been abducted.
Three days later, during an air search by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Kevin was found. DPS officers had spent all day Friday flying the area by helicopter. They'd taken over from an Austin DPS crew, who had flown the same area Thursday evening with a thermal-imaging device.
On Sunday morning, even though it was the officers' scheduled day off, they made one more pass over some water tanks near the spot where Kevin had disappeared. And it was a good thing they did: The officers spotted something yellow -- and they soon realized that it was Kevin's tank top. They found Kevin lying face down near one of the tanks.
As the officers rushed toward Kevin, calling his name, the two-year-old lifted his head. This little boy endured three days of severe storms and Texas heat topping 100 degrees. But because of determined efforts of more than 20 agencies -- including U.S.Marshals, local law enforcement, the Salvation Army, a nearby church, and the National Center-- Kevin's life was saved.
Now, with the resources offered by Austin's regional center, the National Center will be able to coordinate more successful rescues -- and protect other vulnerable children like Kevin. Thanks to each of you for your hard work to make this center a reality. And thank you for your commitment to the children of Texas, and to the children of our country.
Thank all you very, very much. (Applause.)
Remarks by First Lady Laura Bush at the Announcement of the Texas Regional Office of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - Yahoo! News
Wed Apr 4, 6:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON, April 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following are remarks by First Lady
Laura Bush at the announcement of a new office of the NCMEC in Austin, Texas:
San Jacinto Room
The Four Seasons Hotel
Austin, Texas
1:51 P.M. CDT
MRS. BUSH: Thank you, Rae Leigh, thank you very, very much for that very kind introduction.
I'm so happy to be here today in this room with so many good friends. I want to thank everybody for coming. I want to especially thank Diane Allbaugh for being the one who is really responsible for this, for putting this event together, as well as for doing all the hard work that you've done to make sure a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is here in Austin. Thank you very, very much, Diane. (Applause.)
Joining us also today is Ernie Allen, who is the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He's one of my favorite people. I love to have the chance to talk to him whenever I can, to hear stories, all the different stories -- and many, many stories with very happy endings from the center. Thank you, Ernie, for joining us today. (Applause.)
Jan Bullock, my partner -- my partner when George was governor and Bob Bullock was lieutenant governor -- is also an event chair. Thank you very, very much, Jan. Thank you for your great work. (Applause.)
Anita Perry, I want to recognize you. Thank you for joining us today. Nadine Craddick, the speaker's wife, thank you very much for joining us. And I especially want to thank Nelda and Pete Laney for being with us here as well.
We're going to hear in a minute from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record). Thank you, Senator, for joining us. And Attorney General Greg Abbott. Thank you so much, Greg.
Mayor Will Wynn is with us, and Austin, of course, will be the site of this regional center for Missing and Exploited Children. And, Mayor, thank you for being a part of this, as well.
In the room are a lot of state officials. Many of you I have known forever and I want to thank you all for joining us today, for working on each one of the issues that surround the whole idea of the exploitation of children -- from the judges who are here with us to the state representatives and the state senators. Thank you all so much for being here.
In 1981, as you heard on the video, a six-year-old boy named Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a Florida department store. Soon after Adam disappeared, he was found murdered. Adam's mother and dad, Reve and John Walsh, were devastated -- and they were determined to build a nationwide network that would help other families recover missing sons or daughters. John and Reve's advocacy helped establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And just in case you couldn't tell from the video, this is John Walsh that you know now from TV's "America's Most Wanted."
Today, federal, state and local law enforcement cooperate to pursue kidnappers across state lines. National registries alert parents about convicted sexual predators living in their neighborhoods. And across the United States, there is one hotline number to call immediately to report a missing child. In 1990, 62 percent of children reported missing to the National Center were recovered. Today, that number has climbed to 94 percent. That's really terrific. (Applause.)
I'm proudest of the National Center's heroic response to Hurricane Katrina. With help from the government, from the American Red Cross, and from many individual volunteers -- including a very large number of retired law enforcement from around the United States -- the National Center worked day and night to reunite families that were separated by the hurricanes. Of the more than 5,000 children who were initially reported missing, every single case was resolved. (Applause.)
And congratulations to Ernie Allen and to everyone at the National Center. I visited the National Center while this search was going on for the children who needed to be reunited with their families after the hurricane and met people -- law enforcement, FBI, police chief, Secret Service, retired Secret Service who were all working, manning the computers there, and then a number of these retired law enforcement also went straight to the shelters along the Gulf Coast to work to make sure every family was reunited with their children.
Recently, this January, Madam Chirac in Paris hosted an International Conference on Missing and Exploited Children, which I attended. And I was so proud to be there with Ernie Allen. Our National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has worked with other countries to make sure there is now an International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
At Madam Chirac's conference we talked about what each of our countries can do to improve cooperation between all countries, since all the new technology -- like the Internet -- have made child exploitation an international crisis. Ernie Allen was there and the National Center was working with Interpol and Europol and a number of other groups to make sure the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children can continue to work across borders to make sure children are reunited with their families.
The center's success shows how important a network of individual citizens is to keeping children safe. In fact, the public is the best resource to help recover missing children. Just last month in Lubbock, an anonymous tip from one woman helped return three-day-old Mychael Darthard-Dawodu -- who was kidnapped from the hospital by a woman posing as a nurse -- to her mother.
And through the AMBER Alerts, all Americans who watch TV, or listen to the radio, or see the special highway signs, AMBER Alert highway signs, can help locate missing children. So far, AMBER Alerts have saved more than 300 young lives in the United States-- including Rae Leigh Bradbury's. (Applause.)
When I was in Paris, the French government had just instituted AMBER Alerts and actually called them AMBER Alerts, like ours are. And just in the two weeks -- or the one-and-a-half weeks the AMBER Alerts had been in effect, they had already found two children with the help of an AMBER Alert.
Every year, 850,000 children are reported missing in our country -- 60,000 of these cases are right here in Texas. Yet because of the hard work of law enforcement, concerned Americans, and the National Center, most of these cases are resolved. And today, I'm so happy to announce that Austin will soon be home to a new regional center for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (Applause.)
This center will serve as a regional hub to manage cases throughout the southwest, and they can help resolve the increasing number of cross-border abductions. It'll help U.S. Marshals track non-compliant sex offenders, and coordinate the local efforts of Team Adam: Team Adams are the rapid-response teams, made up of retired law enforcement experts, who go to the scene of a breaking cases to assist local and state investigators.
The center will be the first place for children and families to turn to in time of emergency. After the hurricanes, Congress designated the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as the lead agency for child relocation. Now, the center can use this Texas office to coordinate regional efforts to reunite families in the aftermath of a disaster.
The National Center will also partner with local non-profits, government, and youth-service organizations to help prevent child exploitation and abduction -- especially online. Because of the Internet, predators can now make contact easily with children. Child pornography has become a national and global crisis.
Posting or downloading pornographic images of children is not an exercise in free speech. It's a criminal act of child abuse. Our government is working to end this abuse through the Justice Department's Internet Crimes Against Children task force. With the help of task force members, federal prosecution of child pornography and abuse has increased from 350 cases in 1999 to more than 1,400 cases in 2005.
The new regional center will build on this success by educating parents and children about safe use of the Internet. And it will encourage Texans to use the National Center's CyberTipline, CyberTipline - No Left Nav, which has handled over 465,000 reports of suspicious online encounters since 1998.
This new regional office shows the National Center's commitment to the families of Texas, and it shows Texans' commitment to all of our children. I'm proud that it'll be located here in Austin-- and that so many of our friends, led by Diane Allbaugh, are responsible for getting the center here. This group of people are the ones who made the phone calls, who went door-to- door. They collected donations of money and time from people across the state. They encouraged companies to offer in-kind contributions -- and these companies responded with building materials, and printing services, and audiovisual equipment. This group even got the American Bank of Commerce to provide 2,500 square feet of office space in one of its bank building.
According to Diane, citizens throughout our state -- and I quote -- "also gave tremendous emotional support. I just can't say enough about the people of Texas-- about how generous, how caring, and how motivated they are to do the right thing." Because of Diane's efforts, this new center will help law enforcement, private citizens, and the National Center do the right thing for our children --children like Kevin Brown.
On a Thursday evening last September, two-year-old Kevin Brown was playing outside of his home in Alvarado with his four-year-old brother. When Kevin's brother was attacked by fire ants, he ran into the house, where his dad began treating the bites. In all the confusion, Kevin disappeared. When Kevin's dad discovered his little boy was gone, he called the Johnson County Sheriff's Office to report his missing son. Throughout the evening, the sheriff's office, the FBI, and volunteers searched the area. They used horses, ATVs, K-9 units, and divers -- but they still couldn't find Kevin.
Two National Center Team Adam consultants arrived on the scene to assist the sheriff's office. The next day, they searched county roads and highways, fanning out to cover a three-mile area. The sheriff led the search on horseback; authorities dragged and drained 15-foot-deep ponds. Law enforcement began to fear that Kevin had been abducted.
Three days later, during an air search by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Kevin was found. DPS officers had spent all day Friday flying the area by helicopter. They'd taken over from an Austin DPS crew, who had flown the same area Thursday evening with a thermal-imaging device.
On Sunday morning, even though it was the officers' scheduled day off, they made one more pass over some water tanks near the spot where Kevin had disappeared. And it was a good thing they did: The officers spotted something yellow -- and they soon realized that it was Kevin's tank top. They found Kevin lying face down near one of the tanks.
As the officers rushed toward Kevin, calling his name, the two-year-old lifted his head. This little boy endured three days of severe storms and Texas heat topping 100 degrees. But because of determined efforts of more than 20 agencies -- including U.S.Marshals, local law enforcement, the Salvation Army, a nearby church, and the National Center-- Kevin's life was saved.
Now, with the resources offered by Austin's regional center, the National Center will be able to coordinate more successful rescues -- and protect other vulnerable children like Kevin. Thanks to each of you for your hard work to make this center a reality. And thank you for your commitment to the children of Texas, and to the children of our country.
Thank all you very, very much. (Applause.)
Remarks by First Lady Laura Bush at the Announcement of the Texas Regional Office of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - Yahoo! News
#12
Kathylene
Kathylene
-
- Guests
Posted 17 May 2007 - 09:43 AM
Apr 7, 2007 4:00 pm US/Eastern
There's A New Device To Locate Missing Kids
Gigi Barnett
Reporting
(WJZ/AP) BALTIMORE Every year in Maryland State Police say they receive abut 14,000 reports of missing children.
Joseph Alexander Kennedy went missing from Hagerstown Maryland when he was four years old and that was nine years ago.
WJZ's Gigi Barnett reports, there is a new tool that could find missing and kidnapped children and its all through your television remote control.
After all these years, Don Wiswell, Joseph'a father is still searching for his son. "There is realistic hope...and we learned that subsequently there are agencies and people out there who's soul purpose seems to be to help."
The new device is called "Missing in Maryland on Demand." Comcast cable teamed up with the Maryland State Police to launch a new "On Demand" video feature that shows viewers names, ages and pictures of missing children, at the touch of a remote control.
Carla Proudfoot, from Maryland Center for Missing Children says, "This is a wonderful resource for families that have a missing child. The more likely people who see a missing child photograph...the more likely that child is to be located."
Investigators believe that many of the children who go missing in Maryland are runaways. Many of their cases are never solved. Police say the positive feature about "Missing in Maryland" On Demand is that viewers can anonymously report tips from the comfort of their living rooms.
"Our goal is for our viewers to go in at any time. If they're in the grocery store or if they're in the park and they see a child that they think they had seen on the news once before. They'll be able to access this content 24 hours a day," added said Noah Kodeck, from Comcast Cable.
And with each missing child there's a phone number attached. A phone call may provide the link Wiswell needs to locate his son.
"It only takes one person...I've seen that child...Make a phone call. Keep realistic hope alive...it takes one person."
The missing people in Maryland feature is now available "On Demand" under the "Get Local" link.
wjz.com - There's A New Device To Locate Missing Kids
There's A New Device To Locate Missing Kids
Gigi Barnett
Reporting
(WJZ/AP) BALTIMORE Every year in Maryland State Police say they receive abut 14,000 reports of missing children.
Joseph Alexander Kennedy went missing from Hagerstown Maryland when he was four years old and that was nine years ago.
WJZ's Gigi Barnett reports, there is a new tool that could find missing and kidnapped children and its all through your television remote control.
After all these years, Don Wiswell, Joseph'a father is still searching for his son. "There is realistic hope...and we learned that subsequently there are agencies and people out there who's soul purpose seems to be to help."
The new device is called "Missing in Maryland on Demand." Comcast cable teamed up with the Maryland State Police to launch a new "On Demand" video feature that shows viewers names, ages and pictures of missing children, at the touch of a remote control.
Carla Proudfoot, from Maryland Center for Missing Children says, "This is a wonderful resource for families that have a missing child. The more likely people who see a missing child photograph...the more likely that child is to be located."
Investigators believe that many of the children who go missing in Maryland are runaways. Many of their cases are never solved. Police say the positive feature about "Missing in Maryland" On Demand is that viewers can anonymously report tips from the comfort of their living rooms.
"Our goal is for our viewers to go in at any time. If they're in the grocery store or if they're in the park and they see a child that they think they had seen on the news once before. They'll be able to access this content 24 hours a day," added said Noah Kodeck, from Comcast Cable.
And with each missing child there's a phone number attached. A phone call may provide the link Wiswell needs to locate his son.
"It only takes one person...I've seen that child...Make a phone call. Keep realistic hope alive...it takes one person."
The missing people in Maryland feature is now available "On Demand" under the "Get Local" link.
wjz.com - There's A New Device To Locate Missing Kids
#13
Kelly
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- Administrators
-
- 7,564 posts
President and Founder
- LocationRenton WA
Posted 20 May 2007 - 11:31 AM
http://news10now.com...105832&SecID=86
CNY Ride for Missing Children
Updated: 5/18/2007 3:58 PM
By: Brad Vivacqua
 Another year, a different course, but the same mission: helping to raise awareness of missing and exploited children. "We wanted to make a difference, and this is a wonderful cause, and this is why we're here. For the awareness of missing children," said participant Mary Beth Napolitano.
"Each rider in the Ride for Missing Children makes a commitment to raise 2,000 posters of a missing child," Ride for Missing Children Chairman Frank Williams said.
Hundreds of bicyclists venture out with a goal of helping missing and exploited children. They were part of the 11th annual Ride for Missing Children. As News 10 Now's Brad Vivacqua tells us, riders say if their efforts can help just one child, their 100-mile trek is worthwhile.
ÂÂ
ÂÂhttp://news10now.com...mages/750.gifIn an emotional opening ceremony, parents like Mika Moulton gave 379 cyclists inspiration before they headed out on a 100-mile voyage.
"By participating in this ride you are giving the parents of missing children hope. The hope that each poster that's displayed, they are that much closer to bringing their children home," said mother Mika Moulton.
This year, the ride made its way through the Mohawk Valley. Riders once again lined up two by two, starting off in the parking lot of the Troop D headquarters. They then picked up the pace and headed east.
"Started five years ago. I've done it every year since. It's very important to ride, and there's so many children out there that need our help. I'm more than happy to go out there and help them," said participant Mary Lynn Paniccia.
The riders' first stop was at the Westmoreland Central School District, where hundreds of kids were ready to greet them.
As kids laughed, yelled, and held up signs, riders said seeing a smile on their faces means the world to them.
"It gives me goosebumps. It really does. Every time you go around these kids, they've got their hands out. You just got to touch them and give them all high fives," said participant Patty Crane.
Riders will either pass or stop at a total of nine schools. The ride concludes at the New Hartford Recreation Center.
Event chairman Frank Williams said the course is changed every three years to involve different schools. This year's field of 379 riders is the largest ever.
CNY Ride for Missing Children
Updated: 5/18/2007 3:58 PM
By: Brad Vivacqua
 Another year, a different course, but the same mission: helping to raise awareness of missing and exploited children. "We wanted to make a difference, and this is a wonderful cause, and this is why we're here. For the awareness of missing children," said participant Mary Beth Napolitano."Each rider in the Ride for Missing Children makes a commitment to raise 2,000 posters of a missing child," Ride for Missing Children Chairman Frank Williams said.
Hundreds of bicyclists venture out with a goal of helping missing and exploited children. They were part of the 11th annual Ride for Missing Children. As News 10 Now's Brad Vivacqua tells us, riders say if their efforts can help just one child, their 100-mile trek is worthwhile.
 ÂÂ
http://news10now.com...mages/750.gifIn an emotional opening ceremony, parents like Mika Moulton gave 379 cyclists inspiration before they headed out on a 100-mile voyage."By participating in this ride you are giving the parents of missing children hope. The hope that each poster that's displayed, they are that much closer to bringing their children home," said mother Mika Moulton.
This year, the ride made its way through the Mohawk Valley. Riders once again lined up two by two, starting off in the parking lot of the Troop D headquarters. They then picked up the pace and headed east.
"Started five years ago. I've done it every year since. It's very important to ride, and there's so many children out there that need our help. I'm more than happy to go out there and help them," said participant Mary Lynn Paniccia.
The riders' first stop was at the Westmoreland Central School District, where hundreds of kids were ready to greet them.
As kids laughed, yelled, and held up signs, riders said seeing a smile on their faces means the world to them.
"It gives me goosebumps. It really does. Every time you go around these kids, they've got their hands out. You just got to touch them and give them all high fives," said participant Patty Crane.
Riders will either pass or stop at a total of nine schools. The ride concludes at the New Hartford Recreation Center.
Event chairman Frank Williams said the course is changed every three years to involve different schools. This year's field of 379 riders is the largest ever.
Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#14
Kelly
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- Administrators
-
- 7,564 posts
President and Founder
- LocationRenton WA
Posted 20 May 2007 - 11:35 AM
http://www.uticaod.c.../705190331/1001
'It's very powerful'
May 19, 2007
By JESSICA RYEN DOYLE and VANESSA EBBELING
NEW HARTFORD  The cyclists who took part in Friday's Ride for Missing Children had prepared themselves for the 100-mile ride along hilly country roads in the Mohawk Valley.
But many found they were most challenged by the emotional journey of encountering the grief of families whose children have gone missing.
A number of riders had lost children or known lost children.
On Bleecker Street in Utica, the group of 380 riders paid silent tribute to fallen police officers, just miles from where Utica Officer Thomas Lindsey was slain a month ago.
And near Mohawk Valley Community College, riders stood with their bikes next to wreaths representing children who are missing.
"We cry all day on and off," said rider Debbie Edwards of Vernon, who like other riders wore a pin bearing a picture of an abducted child on her jersey. "When you think you can't peddle anymore, you look down at the picture, and the residents come out and cheer you on, and it keeps you going."
At the end of the ride, Edwards carried a floral bouquet and a single rose, one from her husband and children, and the other from her parents.
"It's not about a bike ride," said Edwards, of Vernon. "It's just so overwhelming."
Riders and their sponsors contributed funds enabling creation of more than 1,000,000 posters of missing children -- costing 25 cents apiece --to be distributed through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
For nearly 12 hours, riders wound their way through Oneida and Herkimer counties, stopping occasionally at schools for food, and to celebrate with the students who greeted. When tributes occurred to missing children, the group rode silently, using hand signals to communicate.
"It's an emotional roller coaster," said rider Paul Phillips, of Utica, who has participated for 10 years. "You feel the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows."
At the finish line, riders were greeted by parents, and family members of abducted children, who told the painful stories of their losses, and thanked the riders for giving them hope.
"You are heroes; you're my heroes," said Kelly Jolkowski of Nebraska, mother of Jason Jolkowski, missing since 2001. "You keep on riding, and we'll keep on hoping."
6:55 a.m.: 'Bringing children home'
ONEIDA  State trooper Jim Simpson tells the nearly 380 riders gathered at Troop D Headquarters that they will be a part of the biggest team they will ever be on.
Despite the day of exertion ahead, ride chair Frank Williams reminds the crowd that this is not about a bike ride.
"It's about bringing children home," he says. "It's about preventing abduction and exploitation."
Many of the riders have a personal connection to the cause:
•Eight parents of missing children are riding.
•Three riders are here in support of fallen police officers, including those riding in memory of Thomas Lindsey and Joseph Corr.
•Six recovered missing children are here. Two of them are riding.
•One recovered missing child from Syracuse was on Genesee Street to greet the riders.
7:08 a.m.: 'Our love is there for you'
ONEIDA -- The first missing child to be remembered Friday is honored in a ceremony. His name is Christopher, and he has been missing since Aug. 7, 1995.
As four wreaths are placed in front of the crowd, a woman sings a song titled "Bells of Love."
The riders are silent as the song is sung.
"Our love is there for you through the day and through the night, like an everlasting light," is one of the song's lyrics.
7:43 a.m.: A well-orchestrated day
ONEIDA -- The riders make one last run to the bathroom then get on their bikes to start the ride.
It's about 40 degrees, and the sun is starting to peek through the clouds.
The goal for the riders is to travel 14 to 17 mph on the flats. Dick Jordan of New Hartford is the lead rider. He lets Oneida County Deputy Sheriff Jeff Cuda in the truck know how fast to drive.
Along the 100-mile route, the community support is obvious, from the sponsors to the people who stand on the street cheering on the riders.
The riders will travel past about 10 schools, stopping at five of them. Child safety programs will be featured at those schools.
The ride is so well orchestrated, there are predetermined times when the group of riders is to turn onto each road.
9 a.m.: Party in Westmoreland
At Westmoreland Central School, kids are lining the complex with signs.
When the riders stop, they take a bathroom break and eat some breakfast. Some of the offerings are granola bars and fruit and egg sandwiches.
Nick Cuda, 16, of Deerfield, son of Deputy Cuda, said the atmosphere is crazy.
"It's cool when the kids want to slap your hand," he said.
Cuda is riding with friends from Whitesboro Senior High School.
11 a.m.: Jefferson students exuberant
Utica's Jefferson Elementary School's Leadership Club folded 280 missing children posters two weeks ago.
"They got a feel of why this is so important," said Steve Inzer, building coordinator for Peaceful Schools. "The hands-on experience let them see that they can make a difference."
Fourth-grader Trinity Brockington was a part of the welcoming committee. She also is a member of the Leadership Club. She also folded posters.
She said the posters were of a missing boy.
"I was thinking about if we could do more to help him out and help him find his family," she said. "When I see those posters at the store, it makes me want to cry. They don't know where their family is and they could be getting hurt."
11:15 a.m.: Meet the 'Biker Chicks'
Eszter Farago, 35, of New Hartford, is riding for the first time.
"All of my friends were doing it and it gave me inspiration," she said.
Farago, a Hungary native, is part of group that calls itself "Biker Chicks." The 12 women, led by "Mother Hen" Laurie Lennon of Westmoreland, have been taking spinning classes twice a week to prepare.
11:51 a.m.: Silent vigil
The riders pass Marcy Correctional Facility.
Mika Moulton of Palms Springs, Calif., says the facility has a high number of sexual predators and added the inmates should know the impact of what they've done.
Moulton's son, Christopher Meyer, was abducted and murdered in 1995 near their home in Ilinois. As the family van passes the jail, Moulton videotapes the large crowd that has gathered on the front steps for a silent vigil.
"It's very powerful," Moulton said of the ride, "It sends an important message to the kids and to the community. We've got to do whatever it takes."
12:45 p.m.: Ivory Green remembered
Riders stopped at Holland Patent Central School where they stopped to eat lunch at about the halfway mark of their journey.
Students from the school came outside with signs and cheered for the riders. A band, Dinner Dogs, played.
Charmaine Donato, a rider from Deerfield, wore a pin with Ivory Green's picture on it. Green, of Utica, has been missing since March 2004.
Donato said the reason she was involved was simple: "The kids."
5:35 p.m.: Tribute to fallen officers
The riders have just entered Utica and are approaching the Masonic Care Home. There, a silent tribute will be held for police officers killed in the line of duty. The Mohawk Valley has lost two officers since early 2006  New Hartford Officer Joseph Corr and Utica Officer Thomas Lindsey.
About 30 officers from several law-enforcement agencies got out of their cars and lined Bleecker Street, saluting as the riders passed by. Overhead, a helicopter flew back and forth.
5:55 p.m.: Ring of hope
The riders have stopped at Mohawk Valley Community College for a 10-minute break. They are preparing to complete the final leg of the ride.
Along the way, they pass the "Ring of Hope" for children who are still missing. This was organized by the riders themselves.
A ring of wreaths, each representing a missing child, is flanked by a rider and his or her bike.
6:36 p.m.: Coming home
NEW HARTFORD -- Riders pull into the Recreation Center parking lot. The street is thronged with cheering crowds, waving flags and screaming, welcoming them home.
After a 100-mile journey, the riders have reached a place they want all children to be.
Home.
'It's very powerful'
May 19, 2007
By JESSICA RYEN DOYLE and VANESSA EBBELING
NEW HARTFORD  The cyclists who took part in Friday's Ride for Missing Children had prepared themselves for the 100-mile ride along hilly country roads in the Mohawk Valley.
But many found they were most challenged by the emotional journey of encountering the grief of families whose children have gone missing.
A number of riders had lost children or known lost children.
On Bleecker Street in Utica, the group of 380 riders paid silent tribute to fallen police officers, just miles from where Utica Officer Thomas Lindsey was slain a month ago.
And near Mohawk Valley Community College, riders stood with their bikes next to wreaths representing children who are missing.
"We cry all day on and off," said rider Debbie Edwards of Vernon, who like other riders wore a pin bearing a picture of an abducted child on her jersey. "When you think you can't peddle anymore, you look down at the picture, and the residents come out and cheer you on, and it keeps you going."
At the end of the ride, Edwards carried a floral bouquet and a single rose, one from her husband and children, and the other from her parents.
"It's not about a bike ride," said Edwards, of Vernon. "It's just so overwhelming."
Riders and their sponsors contributed funds enabling creation of more than 1,000,000 posters of missing children -- costing 25 cents apiece --to be distributed through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
For nearly 12 hours, riders wound their way through Oneida and Herkimer counties, stopping occasionally at schools for food, and to celebrate with the students who greeted. When tributes occurred to missing children, the group rode silently, using hand signals to communicate.
"It's an emotional roller coaster," said rider Paul Phillips, of Utica, who has participated for 10 years. "You feel the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows."
At the finish line, riders were greeted by parents, and family members of abducted children, who told the painful stories of their losses, and thanked the riders for giving them hope.
"You are heroes; you're my heroes," said Kelly Jolkowski of Nebraska, mother of Jason Jolkowski, missing since 2001. "You keep on riding, and we'll keep on hoping."
6:55 a.m.: 'Bringing children home'
ONEIDA  State trooper Jim Simpson tells the nearly 380 riders gathered at Troop D Headquarters that they will be a part of the biggest team they will ever be on.
Despite the day of exertion ahead, ride chair Frank Williams reminds the crowd that this is not about a bike ride.
"It's about bringing children home," he says. "It's about preventing abduction and exploitation."
Many of the riders have a personal connection to the cause:
•Eight parents of missing children are riding.
•Three riders are here in support of fallen police officers, including those riding in memory of Thomas Lindsey and Joseph Corr.
•Six recovered missing children are here. Two of them are riding.
•One recovered missing child from Syracuse was on Genesee Street to greet the riders.
7:08 a.m.: 'Our love is there for you'
ONEIDA -- The first missing child to be remembered Friday is honored in a ceremony. His name is Christopher, and he has been missing since Aug. 7, 1995.
As four wreaths are placed in front of the crowd, a woman sings a song titled "Bells of Love."
The riders are silent as the song is sung.
"Our love is there for you through the day and through the night, like an everlasting light," is one of the song's lyrics.
7:43 a.m.: A well-orchestrated day
ONEIDA -- The riders make one last run to the bathroom then get on their bikes to start the ride.
It's about 40 degrees, and the sun is starting to peek through the clouds.
The goal for the riders is to travel 14 to 17 mph on the flats. Dick Jordan of New Hartford is the lead rider. He lets Oneida County Deputy Sheriff Jeff Cuda in the truck know how fast to drive.
Along the 100-mile route, the community support is obvious, from the sponsors to the people who stand on the street cheering on the riders.
The riders will travel past about 10 schools, stopping at five of them. Child safety programs will be featured at those schools.
The ride is so well orchestrated, there are predetermined times when the group of riders is to turn onto each road.
9 a.m.: Party in Westmoreland
At Westmoreland Central School, kids are lining the complex with signs.
When the riders stop, they take a bathroom break and eat some breakfast. Some of the offerings are granola bars and fruit and egg sandwiches.
Nick Cuda, 16, of Deerfield, son of Deputy Cuda, said the atmosphere is crazy.
"It's cool when the kids want to slap your hand," he said.
Cuda is riding with friends from Whitesboro Senior High School.
11 a.m.: Jefferson students exuberant
Utica's Jefferson Elementary School's Leadership Club folded 280 missing children posters two weeks ago.
"They got a feel of why this is so important," said Steve Inzer, building coordinator for Peaceful Schools. "The hands-on experience let them see that they can make a difference."
Fourth-grader Trinity Brockington was a part of the welcoming committee. She also is a member of the Leadership Club. She also folded posters.
She said the posters were of a missing boy.
"I was thinking about if we could do more to help him out and help him find his family," she said. "When I see those posters at the store, it makes me want to cry. They don't know where their family is and they could be getting hurt."
11:15 a.m.: Meet the 'Biker Chicks'
Eszter Farago, 35, of New Hartford, is riding for the first time.
"All of my friends were doing it and it gave me inspiration," she said.
Farago, a Hungary native, is part of group that calls itself "Biker Chicks." The 12 women, led by "Mother Hen" Laurie Lennon of Westmoreland, have been taking spinning classes twice a week to prepare.
11:51 a.m.: Silent vigil
The riders pass Marcy Correctional Facility.
Mika Moulton of Palms Springs, Calif., says the facility has a high number of sexual predators and added the inmates should know the impact of what they've done.
Moulton's son, Christopher Meyer, was abducted and murdered in 1995 near their home in Ilinois. As the family van passes the jail, Moulton videotapes the large crowd that has gathered on the front steps for a silent vigil.
"It's very powerful," Moulton said of the ride, "It sends an important message to the kids and to the community. We've got to do whatever it takes."
12:45 p.m.: Ivory Green remembered
Riders stopped at Holland Patent Central School where they stopped to eat lunch at about the halfway mark of their journey.
Students from the school came outside with signs and cheered for the riders. A band, Dinner Dogs, played.
Charmaine Donato, a rider from Deerfield, wore a pin with Ivory Green's picture on it. Green, of Utica, has been missing since March 2004.
Donato said the reason she was involved was simple: "The kids."
5:35 p.m.: Tribute to fallen officers
The riders have just entered Utica and are approaching the Masonic Care Home. There, a silent tribute will be held for police officers killed in the line of duty. The Mohawk Valley has lost two officers since early 2006  New Hartford Officer Joseph Corr and Utica Officer Thomas Lindsey.
About 30 officers from several law-enforcement agencies got out of their cars and lined Bleecker Street, saluting as the riders passed by. Overhead, a helicopter flew back and forth.
5:55 p.m.: Ring of hope
The riders have stopped at Mohawk Valley Community College for a 10-minute break. They are preparing to complete the final leg of the ride.
Along the way, they pass the "Ring of Hope" for children who are still missing. This was organized by the riders themselves.
A ring of wreaths, each representing a missing child, is flanked by a rider and his or her bike.
6:36 p.m.: Coming home
NEW HARTFORD -- Riders pull into the Recreation Center parking lot. The street is thronged with cheering crowds, waving flags and screaming, welcoming them home.
After a 100-mile journey, the riders have reached a place they want all children to be.
Home.
Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#15
Denise
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- Members
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- 5,184 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationMetropolitan St. Louis
Posted 21 May 2007 - 06:30 PM
http://journalism.ab.../b/a/000109.htm
Do Missing Kids Have to be Cute to Make Page One?
Celebrities have quickly ponied up a $3 million reward for information leading to the return of Madeleine McCann, a 4-year-old British girl snatched from a hotel room while her parents were on holiday in Portugal. David Beckham went on TV asking for the girl's return. Even News of the World offered a reward in the case, as British rags scramble to be the biggest and the best on this story. Interestingly, police got their tip about their current man of interest in the case, Robert Murat, from a Sunday Mirror reporter who thought he was acting fishy.
But when you look back at the years of news archives in which some kids got the front page or an hour's worth of Greta van Susteren and other missing children got relegated to a news brief on page A-24, it makes one question why some missing kids are apparently more important, more newsworthy, more time-sensitive than others. Would little Maddy be the subject of such a media blitz and outpouring of support if she weren't so cute?
I went to the UK's Missing Children Web site and scrolled through the cases of kids gone missing within the past year and not yet found. Names included Mohammed Anwar Hossain, Mohammed Jahid ul Haque, Tan Jing Chen, Thao Do, Ying Lee, Lingran and Lingshan Lin, Maya Leila Mahmoud, Minh Anh Nguyen, Elizabeth Ogungbayibi.
One thinks of the kids, besides Maddy, that have made such huge headlines recently: Natalie Hollaway. Jon Benet Ramsey. Elizabeth Smart. Cute blonde kids. Coincidence, or troubling statement about what captures our attention and gets priority down at the newsroom?
Columnist Deborah Orr wrote in The Independent:
"In Britain, in the past five years, 44 children have been listed as missing and unaccounted for, with 11 having disappeared when five or younger, and four under 12 months old. Our population is six times that of Portugal, and it is not possible to say whether the figures are collated in ways that make them compatible. But it is still shocking to know that four babies have gone missing in Britain in the past couple of years without us even being aware of their names."
Therein lies the rub -- we know that quick attention to the Madeleine case is important, because it is the hours after an abduction that are the most crucial in seeing the case conclude on a positive note. But why does this have to be the sole focal point of celebrities, donations, and the all-powerful press?
Tuesday May 15, 2007
Do Missing Kids Have to be Cute to Make Page One?
Celebrities have quickly ponied up a $3 million reward for information leading to the return of Madeleine McCann, a 4-year-old British girl snatched from a hotel room while her parents were on holiday in Portugal. David Beckham went on TV asking for the girl's return. Even News of the World offered a reward in the case, as British rags scramble to be the biggest and the best on this story. Interestingly, police got their tip about their current man of interest in the case, Robert Murat, from a Sunday Mirror reporter who thought he was acting fishy.
But when you look back at the years of news archives in which some kids got the front page or an hour's worth of Greta van Susteren and other missing children got relegated to a news brief on page A-24, it makes one question why some missing kids are apparently more important, more newsworthy, more time-sensitive than others. Would little Maddy be the subject of such a media blitz and outpouring of support if she weren't so cute?
I went to the UK's Missing Children Web site and scrolled through the cases of kids gone missing within the past year and not yet found. Names included Mohammed Anwar Hossain, Mohammed Jahid ul Haque, Tan Jing Chen, Thao Do, Ying Lee, Lingran and Lingshan Lin, Maya Leila Mahmoud, Minh Anh Nguyen, Elizabeth Ogungbayibi.
One thinks of the kids, besides Maddy, that have made such huge headlines recently: Natalie Hollaway. Jon Benet Ramsey. Elizabeth Smart. Cute blonde kids. Coincidence, or troubling statement about what captures our attention and gets priority down at the newsroom?
Columnist Deborah Orr wrote in The Independent:
"In Britain, in the past five years, 44 children have been listed as missing and unaccounted for, with 11 having disappeared when five or younger, and four under 12 months old. Our population is six times that of Portugal, and it is not possible to say whether the figures are collated in ways that make them compatible. But it is still shocking to know that four babies have gone missing in Britain in the past couple of years without us even being aware of their names."
Therein lies the rub -- we know that quick attention to the Madeleine case is important, because it is the hours after an abduction that are the most crucial in seeing the case conclude on a positive note. But why does this have to be the sole focal point of celebrities, donations, and the all-powerful press?
Tuesday May 15, 2007
#16
Denise
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Posted 30 May 2007 - 06:01 PM
http://www.fedwaymir...d=994023&more=0
‘Missing person’ cases add up
May 30 2007
By JACINDA HOWARD
For many, the term “missing person†evokes images of young children being kidnapped and held against their will by reckless and dangerous criminals.
But in Federal Way, these words are more often used to describe teenage runaways.
In any city, there is going to be a runaway population, said Doug Laird, Federal Way police detective. Federal Way is no exception.
As of May 6, a total of 162 missing person cases have been filed this year in Federal Way, according to police data compiled by crime analyst Michelle Landon.
Of those, 133 were juvenile runaway cases, according to the police data. The police department classifies anyone under age 18 as a juvenile.
Although this number is less than 1 percent of the total Federal Way population, police Det. Thaddeus Hodge assures that police take missing person reports seriously.
In Federal Way, any person who cannot be found or is not located where he or she is expected to be is a missing person, Hodge said. Federal Way police do not require the minimum 24 hours for someone to be unaccounted for before they can be reported missing, Laird said. This means juveniles reported absent from their homes, even if only for a few hours, are considered missing.
“Any missing person is significant,†Hodge said.
In Federal Way, a missing person case remains open until that person is found or has returned home, Laird said. The police’s Criminal Investigation Section will periodically check back with the guardians of missing juveniles to update the status of each missing person case, he said.
Juveniles in the police data varied in age, with the youngest being age 11. Most were between ages 12 and 17.
In 1999, juveniles ages 15 to 17 accounted for 68 percent of juvenile missing person cases, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report labeled Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children, found at www.missingkids.com.
Why they leave
Federal Way police follow certain policies whenever a person is reported missing.
In a runaway case, the police attempt to find the juvenile as well as conclude why he or she left home, Hodge said.
Running away is not a criminal offense. However, if police officers find a runaway juvenile, they are allowed to detain and bring the teen home, Laird said.
Reasons for why juveniles leave their homes range in seriousness. In some cases there are problems in the household that cause the juvenile to feel endangered. Social services or other resources may be suggested in these situations, Laird said.
Sometimes juveniles run away because of a disagreement with a guardian, Laird said. Older juveniles are more capable of caring for themselves and more likely to be involved in activities, legal and illegal, that their guardians do not agree with, according to the U.S. Department of Justice report. This may help explain why this population comprises the largest percentage of juvenile runaway cases.
If officers are able to determine why a juvenile may have run away, they will usually attempt to educate the juvenile’s guardian on ways to alleviate the problem that caused the teenager to leave home, Laird said.
The most important thing for Federal Way police is to get the missing person home safe as soon as possible, Hodge said.
On the search
Parents and guardians are the most useful resource in finding missing juveniles, Laird said.
“Realistically most parents know where their kids are hanging out,†Laird said.
If the juvenile is not found at a location familiar to the parents or guardians, police will submit a photograph to the Washington State Patrol clearinghouse for missing children as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, he said.
These organizations have the capability to widely circulate the photo, thus increasing the chance of the juvenile being recognized and returned if he or she leaves Washington state, Laird said.
In addition to submitting a photograph, Federal Way patrol officers will keep a watch out for the juvenile. A young person walking down the street late at night is not ordinary and will catch the attention of most officers, Laird said. They will likely stop and question the juvenile as to where he or she is going, he said.
Returning home
Usually, runaway juveniles return home on their own within 24 hours of their disappearance, Laird said.
Of the juveniles studied in the U.S. Department of Justice report, 58 percent of them returned home within one week.
Of course, this is not always the case. Today, four juveniles reported missing in 2007 remain absent from the Federal Way area, according to the police data.
A 15-year-old teen has been gone since Feb. 15. A 16-year-old juvenile has been absent since April 14, another 15-year-old has been missing since April 28, and a 17-year-old has been unaccounted for since April 30, according to the police data.
‘Missing person’ cases add up
May 30 2007
By JACINDA HOWARD
For many, the term “missing person†evokes images of young children being kidnapped and held against their will by reckless and dangerous criminals.
But in Federal Way, these words are more often used to describe teenage runaways.
In any city, there is going to be a runaway population, said Doug Laird, Federal Way police detective. Federal Way is no exception.
As of May 6, a total of 162 missing person cases have been filed this year in Federal Way, according to police data compiled by crime analyst Michelle Landon.
Of those, 133 were juvenile runaway cases, according to the police data. The police department classifies anyone under age 18 as a juvenile.
Although this number is less than 1 percent of the total Federal Way population, police Det. Thaddeus Hodge assures that police take missing person reports seriously.
In Federal Way, any person who cannot be found or is not located where he or she is expected to be is a missing person, Hodge said. Federal Way police do not require the minimum 24 hours for someone to be unaccounted for before they can be reported missing, Laird said. This means juveniles reported absent from their homes, even if only for a few hours, are considered missing.
“Any missing person is significant,†Hodge said.
In Federal Way, a missing person case remains open until that person is found or has returned home, Laird said. The police’s Criminal Investigation Section will periodically check back with the guardians of missing juveniles to update the status of each missing person case, he said.
Juveniles in the police data varied in age, with the youngest being age 11. Most were between ages 12 and 17.
In 1999, juveniles ages 15 to 17 accounted for 68 percent of juvenile missing person cases, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report labeled Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children, found at www.missingkids.com.
Why they leave
Federal Way police follow certain policies whenever a person is reported missing.
In a runaway case, the police attempt to find the juvenile as well as conclude why he or she left home, Hodge said.
Running away is not a criminal offense. However, if police officers find a runaway juvenile, they are allowed to detain and bring the teen home, Laird said.
Reasons for why juveniles leave their homes range in seriousness. In some cases there are problems in the household that cause the juvenile to feel endangered. Social services or other resources may be suggested in these situations, Laird said.
Sometimes juveniles run away because of a disagreement with a guardian, Laird said. Older juveniles are more capable of caring for themselves and more likely to be involved in activities, legal and illegal, that their guardians do not agree with, according to the U.S. Department of Justice report. This may help explain why this population comprises the largest percentage of juvenile runaway cases.
If officers are able to determine why a juvenile may have run away, they will usually attempt to educate the juvenile’s guardian on ways to alleviate the problem that caused the teenager to leave home, Laird said.
The most important thing for Federal Way police is to get the missing person home safe as soon as possible, Hodge said.
On the search
Parents and guardians are the most useful resource in finding missing juveniles, Laird said.
“Realistically most parents know where their kids are hanging out,†Laird said.
If the juvenile is not found at a location familiar to the parents or guardians, police will submit a photograph to the Washington State Patrol clearinghouse for missing children as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, he said.
These organizations have the capability to widely circulate the photo, thus increasing the chance of the juvenile being recognized and returned if he or she leaves Washington state, Laird said.
In addition to submitting a photograph, Federal Way patrol officers will keep a watch out for the juvenile. A young person walking down the street late at night is not ordinary and will catch the attention of most officers, Laird said. They will likely stop and question the juvenile as to where he or she is going, he said.
Returning home
Usually, runaway juveniles return home on their own within 24 hours of their disappearance, Laird said.
Of the juveniles studied in the U.S. Department of Justice report, 58 percent of them returned home within one week.
Of course, this is not always the case. Today, four juveniles reported missing in 2007 remain absent from the Federal Way area, according to the police data.
A 15-year-old teen has been gone since Feb. 15. A 16-year-old juvenile has been absent since April 14, another 15-year-old has been missing since April 28, and a 17-year-old has been unaccounted for since April 30, according to the police data.
#17
Denise
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Posted 01 June 2007 - 05:06 PM
http://www.wkyc.com/...x?storyid=68910
Ohio:
Specialized license plates could help find missing children
Maureen Kyle
Created: 6/1/2007 5:11:37 PM
Updated:6/1/2007 5:14:21 PM
GEAUGA -- Over three hundred abducted children have been recovered thanks to the National Amber Alert.
To keep the program growing, County Sheriff's Deputies throughout Ohio are asking for your help.
A petition is circulating through each sheriff's department asking people to sign if they think they'd buy an amber alert license plate.
The specialized plate costs extra, but the money goes toward Amber Alert training and community awareness.
Sheriffs will then take the petitions to Columbus to push for the special plates.
The petition is available in every sheriff's department.
Ohio:
Specialized license plates could help find missing children
Maureen Kyle
Created: 6/1/2007 5:11:37 PM
Updated:6/1/2007 5:14:21 PM
GEAUGA -- Over three hundred abducted children have been recovered thanks to the National Amber Alert.
To keep the program growing, County Sheriff's Deputies throughout Ohio are asking for your help.
A petition is circulating through each sheriff's department asking people to sign if they think they'd buy an amber alert license plate.
The specialized plate costs extra, but the money goes toward Amber Alert training and community awareness.
Sheriffs will then take the petitions to Columbus to push for the special plates.
The petition is available in every sheriff's department.
#18
Denise
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Posted 06 June 2007 - 07:30 PM
http://www.wdbj7.com...620415&nav=S6aK
Authorities look at new tool to locate missing people
When a person goes missing, every second counts. A Child is Missing Alert is one more resource used to locate lost children, the elderly, and other endangered people.
Today at Jackson Middle School, 12 different organizations from the region gathered to learn more about the program.
An officer can activate the system with a simple phone call. Authorities provide a description of the missing person.
ACIM uses computer mapping and an advanced phone system to notify local businesses and residents when someone has gone missing.
Authorities look at new tool to locate missing people
When a person goes missing, every second counts. A Child is Missing Alert is one more resource used to locate lost children, the elderly, and other endangered people.
Today at Jackson Middle School, 12 different organizations from the region gathered to learn more about the program.
An officer can activate the system with a simple phone call. Authorities provide a description of the missing person.
ACIM uses computer mapping and an advanced phone system to notify local businesses and residents when someone has gone missing.
#19
Kelly
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President and Founder
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Posted 12 June 2007 - 06:15 AM
http://www.washingto...=sec-artsliving
TV Preview
A Missing Friend, Never Forgotten
By Tim Page
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; Page C07
In August 1976, a 10-year-old boy named Andy Puglisi disappeared after an afternoon of play at a public pool in Lawrence, Mass., and was never seen again. Melanie Perkins, a slightly younger neighbor who had also been out swimming that day, grew up to become a documentary filmmaker and, in 1998, she set out to determine what might have happened to her friend.
The story of her search, as recounted in Perkins's first full-length film, "Have You Seen Andy?," will be presented tonight on Cinemax. As might have been surmised, her conclusion, after more than eight years of investigation, is both grim and simple: Andy was probably murdered before anybody knew he was missing. And yet the film holds one's rapt attention throughout its 79 minutes -- as a distinguished contribution to the true-crime genre, as an evolving portrait of a tightly knit working-class community over the span of 30 years, and as the loving testament of a woman who never allowed herself to forget her ill-fated playmate.ÂÂ
 ÂÂ
There were no Amber Alerts in the 1970s, no pictures of missing children on milk cartons, and there was precious little communication between police departments from town to town, let alone state to state. I remember joining the futile search for a young girl who disappeared from her Tolland, Conn., neighborhood, five miles from where I grew up, in the summer of 1973. The concern for her fate, while intense, was distinctly local, and there was nothing at all along the lines of the national attention that would now be drawn immediately to such a case. As Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, observes in the film: "This was a nation of 50 states that acted like 50 separate countries and 17,000 different police departments."
Perkins also interviewed Andy's mother, father and one of his brothers; several past and present police officers in the Lawrence area; and a man who says he has clear memories of the abduction, but whose testimony was treated as insignificant because he was 4 years old at the time. She makes deft use of documentary footage (a so-called psychic joined the search in the 1980s, garnered a few headlines and some television coverage for himself, and then absconded with some irreplaceable evidentiary material). One of the most moving scenes is set at a reunion party for those who grew up in the neighborhood, where nostalgia and long-standing affection between old friends is shadowed by memories of the loss they shared.
Although Andy Puglisi's body has never been found, a viewer concludes "Have You Seen Andy?" with the sense that Perkins has pretty much figured out what happened to him. There are some ghastly confiscated tape recordings of her principal suspect -- Wayne W. Chapman, a convicted pedophile with a history of rapes in Lawrence -- fantasizing aloud to himself as he follows a school bus. Some silent home movies are equally haunting, as long-ago children squint and grin into the lens of Chapman's camera with guileless curiosity and confidence, and we worry for their safety.
"Have You Seen Andy?" has nothing in common with the sleazy prurience that characterizes such programs as "To Catch a Predator," which entices creeps for the sake of television ratings. Rather, this is a dignified and straightforward exploration of distant tragedy, and all the more excruciating for its plain-spokenness.
Have You Seen Andy? (79 minutes) airs tonight at 7 and June 24 at 6:30 a.m. on Cinemax.
TV Preview
A Missing Friend, Never Forgotten
By Tim Page
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; Page C07
In August 1976, a 10-year-old boy named Andy Puglisi disappeared after an afternoon of play at a public pool in Lawrence, Mass., and was never seen again. Melanie Perkins, a slightly younger neighbor who had also been out swimming that day, grew up to become a documentary filmmaker and, in 1998, she set out to determine what might have happened to her friend.
The story of her search, as recounted in Perkins's first full-length film, "Have You Seen Andy?," will be presented tonight on Cinemax. As might have been surmised, her conclusion, after more than eight years of investigation, is both grim and simple: Andy was probably murdered before anybody knew he was missing. And yet the film holds one's rapt attention throughout its 79 minutes -- as a distinguished contribution to the true-crime genre, as an evolving portrait of a tightly knit working-class community over the span of 30 years, and as the loving testament of a woman who never allowed herself to forget her ill-fated playmate.ÂÂ
 ÂÂ
There were no Amber Alerts in the 1970s, no pictures of missing children on milk cartons, and there was precious little communication between police departments from town to town, let alone state to state. I remember joining the futile search for a young girl who disappeared from her Tolland, Conn., neighborhood, five miles from where I grew up, in the summer of 1973. The concern for her fate, while intense, was distinctly local, and there was nothing at all along the lines of the national attention that would now be drawn immediately to such a case. As Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, observes in the film: "This was a nation of 50 states that acted like 50 separate countries and 17,000 different police departments."
Perkins also interviewed Andy's mother, father and one of his brothers; several past and present police officers in the Lawrence area; and a man who says he has clear memories of the abduction, but whose testimony was treated as insignificant because he was 4 years old at the time. She makes deft use of documentary footage (a so-called psychic joined the search in the 1980s, garnered a few headlines and some television coverage for himself, and then absconded with some irreplaceable evidentiary material). One of the most moving scenes is set at a reunion party for those who grew up in the neighborhood, where nostalgia and long-standing affection between old friends is shadowed by memories of the loss they shared.
Although Andy Puglisi's body has never been found, a viewer concludes "Have You Seen Andy?" with the sense that Perkins has pretty much figured out what happened to him. There are some ghastly confiscated tape recordings of her principal suspect -- Wayne W. Chapman, a convicted pedophile with a history of rapes in Lawrence -- fantasizing aloud to himself as he follows a school bus. Some silent home movies are equally haunting, as long-ago children squint and grin into the lens of Chapman's camera with guileless curiosity and confidence, and we worry for their safety.
"Have You Seen Andy?" has nothing in common with the sleazy prurience that characterizes such programs as "To Catch a Predator," which entices creeps for the sake of television ratings. Rather, this is a dignified and straightforward exploration of distant tragedy, and all the more excruciating for its plain-spokenness.
Have You Seen Andy? (79 minutes) airs tonight at 7 and June 24 at 6:30 a.m. on Cinemax.
Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#20
Denise
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Posted 17 June 2007 - 07:30 AM
http://www.heraldand...news/local2.txt
Children who leave home cause heartache for families and concern for law enforcement
June 17, 2007
Debbie Jones found the piece of paper under her daughter’s bed. It was a note from her 16-year-old, who left for school one day and didn’t return home.
With shaky hands, the 40-year-old Chiloquin woman read: “Remember, I’ll always love you, but I can’t be here right now.â€Â
The letter is one of few clues left by the daughter Jones hasn’t seen since she ran away in November 2005.
“It was hard, but it was good because she said, ‘I’ll always love you,’ †Jones says through tears, remembering the day she found the letter several months after her daughter ran away. “I mean, it was heart wrenching, but it also was peace of mind.â€Â
Cyndi Scott is one of 146 children who were reported as runaways in Klamath County in 2005. Most children returned home in the hours, days, weeks and months after they fled.
But Cyndi didn’t.
She turns 18 this month, and her mother hopes for a reunion on the day Cyndi becomes an adult.
She thinks her strictness was among the reasons her daughter left. Jones knows she’s OK because Cyndi has passed the word through friends to her mother.
Most return
Cyndi’s case isn’t typical, officials say. About 50 percent of runaways return within the first few days, and the remaining percentage come home after the first few months, said Sgt. Ryan Brosterhous of the Klamath Falls Police Department. Nationally, only 3 to 5 percent are never found.
Running away is not a crime.
Most who run flee for one of three reasons: They’re running to somebody or something, they’re running away from an adult’s parenting, or both the child and parents are having issues, said Marilyn Hunnicutt, team outreach liaison at Integral Youth Services. Hunnicutt works immediate crisis intervention with parents and kids who ran away, and teaches ways to prevent children from running again.
Most run more than once, said Klamath County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Monty Holloway. Many cases are teenagers who believe they aren’t getting what they want and see running as a way to flee curfews or other rules.
Others are throwaway children, rejected from their parents and running from a poor home life situation.
‘So serious’
The worry for law enforcement is whether a runaway report that comes through 911 dispatchers or their office could result in a scenario like Cyndi’s †a runaway who never returns.
“That’s why we have to take each case so serious,†Brosterhous said.
Deputies and officers also worry a runaway could be involved in illegal activity, such as prostitution, or be preyed upon by others.
In Klamath County, runaways have been a consistent problem over the years, officials said. In 2006, there were 125 runaways, down from 146 the previous year. In 2004, there were 126. In 2003, there were 161, according to statistics provided by Integral Youth Services.
Still, officials couldn’t point to a single Klamath County case in the past several years†besides Cyndi’s†in which the runaway was never found.
Cyndi’s story
For Jones, Cyndi was an outgoing, friendly blonde-haired teen. She was a talented singer, cheerleader and member of her school’s drama team at Triad School.
Jones remembers a daughter close to her in the younger years†a daughter who would crawl into bed with her, and a daughter who always wanted her mom to brush her hair at night.
But in the months before her disappearance, Cyndi’s vivacious nature dimmed; her demeanor darkened, Jones said.
She had started dating a boy who attended Chiloquin High School. That’s when her grades dropped and she started skipping classes at Chiloquin High, which she had transferred to from Triad.
At first, Jones didn’t think much of it.
“I just thought it was normal teenage rebellion,†she says.
But as communicating with her became difficult, Jones and her husband, Cyndi’s stepfather, tried compromising. They wouldn’t let Cyndi date her boyfriend alone or leave in a car with him because he didn’t have a driver’s license, but they offered to go on group dates with the young couple.
The first run
Their efforts didn’t work.
Mid-October 2005 was the first time Cyndi ran. She got on the school bus, arrived at school and walked out the back door. Jones got a call from school officials and started a panicked search. She knocked on doors, including Cyndi’s boyfriend’s home. His family said they didn’t know the teen’s whereabouts.
Jones says she scoured Chiloquin the next two weeks, and hired a private investigator to search for clues. Jones suspected her daughter was at her boyfriend’s house.
Two weeks after she ran, the boyfriend’s family told Jones her daughter was staying there. And Cyndi returned home.
During the next two weeks, Jones monitored her daughter’s every move, screening calls and keeping in constant contact with the school. Mediation with her daughter was hard because Cyndi was withdrawn, Jones says.
Her daughter fled again Nov. 1. Like the first time, she got on the bus, arrived at school and walked out the back door.
Jones hasn’t heard from her since.
The search
In the six months after she left, Jones sent messages to her daughter’s e-mail account every day, telling her she loved her. She still sends messages at least once a week.
Otherwise, Jones was left with the same search tactics she used the first time: putting up posters and asking neighbors and friends.
Jones says she reached a point where she had to give it up and trust God to protect her child.
“We couldn’t do it anymore,†she says, crying. “It was destroying me.â€Â
Now all she has is photos and Cyndi’s belongings stored in boxes in an outside shed.
She is consoled by the knowledge through word of mouth from acquaintances that Cyndi is safe. And she knows she has a new grandchild†a baby boy born in September 2006.
Her daughter’s in Chiloquin, Jones also believes. But Jones says she doesn’t want to initiate contact for fear of causing her to run again.
“I don’t want to push her away,†she says. “She has to come to me.â€Â
Jones has forgotten about the dispute about her daughter’s boyfriend. She just wants her daughter back.
And she now has the wisdom of losing a child.
“That’s when you find out how strong you are,†Jones says. “And you find out that although it’s not fun, you have to keep living. And I didn’t think I could.â€Â
- By Laura McVicker
Children who leave home cause heartache for families and concern for law enforcement
June 17, 2007
Debbie Jones found the piece of paper under her daughter’s bed. It was a note from her 16-year-old, who left for school one day and didn’t return home.
With shaky hands, the 40-year-old Chiloquin woman read: “Remember, I’ll always love you, but I can’t be here right now.â€Â
The letter is one of few clues left by the daughter Jones hasn’t seen since she ran away in November 2005.
“It was hard, but it was good because she said, ‘I’ll always love you,’ †Jones says through tears, remembering the day she found the letter several months after her daughter ran away. “I mean, it was heart wrenching, but it also was peace of mind.â€Â
Cyndi Scott is one of 146 children who were reported as runaways in Klamath County in 2005. Most children returned home in the hours, days, weeks and months after they fled.
But Cyndi didn’t.
She turns 18 this month, and her mother hopes for a reunion on the day Cyndi becomes an adult.
She thinks her strictness was among the reasons her daughter left. Jones knows she’s OK because Cyndi has passed the word through friends to her mother.
Most return
Cyndi’s case isn’t typical, officials say. About 50 percent of runaways return within the first few days, and the remaining percentage come home after the first few months, said Sgt. Ryan Brosterhous of the Klamath Falls Police Department. Nationally, only 3 to 5 percent are never found.
Running away is not a crime.
Most who run flee for one of three reasons: They’re running to somebody or something, they’re running away from an adult’s parenting, or both the child and parents are having issues, said Marilyn Hunnicutt, team outreach liaison at Integral Youth Services. Hunnicutt works immediate crisis intervention with parents and kids who ran away, and teaches ways to prevent children from running again.
Most run more than once, said Klamath County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Monty Holloway. Many cases are teenagers who believe they aren’t getting what they want and see running as a way to flee curfews or other rules.
Others are throwaway children, rejected from their parents and running from a poor home life situation.
‘So serious’
The worry for law enforcement is whether a runaway report that comes through 911 dispatchers or their office could result in a scenario like Cyndi’s †a runaway who never returns.
“That’s why we have to take each case so serious,†Brosterhous said.
Deputies and officers also worry a runaway could be involved in illegal activity, such as prostitution, or be preyed upon by others.
In Klamath County, runaways have been a consistent problem over the years, officials said. In 2006, there were 125 runaways, down from 146 the previous year. In 2004, there were 126. In 2003, there were 161, according to statistics provided by Integral Youth Services.
Still, officials couldn’t point to a single Klamath County case in the past several years†besides Cyndi’s†in which the runaway was never found.
Cyndi’s story
For Jones, Cyndi was an outgoing, friendly blonde-haired teen. She was a talented singer, cheerleader and member of her school’s drama team at Triad School.
Jones remembers a daughter close to her in the younger years†a daughter who would crawl into bed with her, and a daughter who always wanted her mom to brush her hair at night.
But in the months before her disappearance, Cyndi’s vivacious nature dimmed; her demeanor darkened, Jones said.
She had started dating a boy who attended Chiloquin High School. That’s when her grades dropped and she started skipping classes at Chiloquin High, which she had transferred to from Triad.
At first, Jones didn’t think much of it.
“I just thought it was normal teenage rebellion,†she says.
But as communicating with her became difficult, Jones and her husband, Cyndi’s stepfather, tried compromising. They wouldn’t let Cyndi date her boyfriend alone or leave in a car with him because he didn’t have a driver’s license, but they offered to go on group dates with the young couple.
The first run
Their efforts didn’t work.
Mid-October 2005 was the first time Cyndi ran. She got on the school bus, arrived at school and walked out the back door. Jones got a call from school officials and started a panicked search. She knocked on doors, including Cyndi’s boyfriend’s home. His family said they didn’t know the teen’s whereabouts.
Jones says she scoured Chiloquin the next two weeks, and hired a private investigator to search for clues. Jones suspected her daughter was at her boyfriend’s house.
Two weeks after she ran, the boyfriend’s family told Jones her daughter was staying there. And Cyndi returned home.
During the next two weeks, Jones monitored her daughter’s every move, screening calls and keeping in constant contact with the school. Mediation with her daughter was hard because Cyndi was withdrawn, Jones says.
Her daughter fled again Nov. 1. Like the first time, she got on the bus, arrived at school and walked out the back door.
Jones hasn’t heard from her since.
The search
In the six months after she left, Jones sent messages to her daughter’s e-mail account every day, telling her she loved her. She still sends messages at least once a week.
Otherwise, Jones was left with the same search tactics she used the first time: putting up posters and asking neighbors and friends.
Jones says she reached a point where she had to give it up and trust God to protect her child.
“We couldn’t do it anymore,†she says, crying. “It was destroying me.â€Â
Now all she has is photos and Cyndi’s belongings stored in boxes in an outside shed.
She is consoled by the knowledge through word of mouth from acquaintances that Cyndi is safe. And she knows she has a new grandchild†a baby boy born in September 2006.
Her daughter’s in Chiloquin, Jones also believes. But Jones says she doesn’t want to initiate contact for fear of causing her to run again.
“I don’t want to push her away,†she says. “She has to come to me.â€Â
Jones has forgotten about the dispute about her daughter’s boyfriend. She just wants her daughter back.
And she now has the wisdom of losing a child.
“That’s when you find out how strong you are,†Jones says. “And you find out that although it’s not fun, you have to keep living. And I didn’t think I could.â€Â
- By Laura McVicker
#21
Denise
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- Members
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- 5,184 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationMetropolitan St. Louis
Posted 24 June 2007 - 04:48 PM
http://www.boston.co...rol_1182538234/
What parents can't control
June 24, 2007
It's 8 in the morning and my husband and I are talking about laying stones around the periphery of the garden, big stones, more boulder than brick, in an effort to keep the dirt in and the rabbits out. It's a sensible plan, except for my worry about the little kids who cut through the garden and race down its slope.
"Maybe stones are a bad idea," I say to my husband. "What if the kids fall?"
"Maybe living near a street is a bad idea," he says, meaning you can't protect children from everything.
Right then, as if on cue, the phone rings. "Adam slammed into a wall and has a lump on the side of his head," says my daughter of my grandson. "He tripped and hit his head hard. But he seems OK. Do you think he's OK?"
Adam, who is 3, isn't crying or vomiting. He's running around, as usual. I tell my daughter to watch him but that he's probably fine.
She sighs. She and her husband carpeted their living room to protect Adam. But he got hurt anyway.
It happens.
The job of adults is to protect children. And most of us try. We hold their hands. We tell them what they must never do. We anticipate what could hurt them and control all that we can.
But the elephant in the room is all that we cannot control.
John Bish, 58, had a stroke last week. The Bishes had three children. They lived in West Warren, a small Massachusetts town 20 miles west of Sturbridge, because they believed it was safer than living in a big town or a city. They were living a quiet, happy life enmeshed in a world of family and friends and church and school and basketball games, with absolutely no warning of what was to come, when Molly, 16, vanished.
That was seven years ago. Her body was found three long years later.
The pond where she worked as a lifeguard was just five minutes from their home. It's at the end of a road. It's practically in a neighborhood. "We thought she was safe there," John said.
Molly's mother, Magi, drove her at 10 o'clock every morning. Molly had a night job, too, at a drive-in. That summer she was saving for a car.
John, a gentle man, drove me to the parking lot where Magi last saw their daughter. We walked along the small beach where Molly was a lifeguard, as was her brother before her, then to the cemetery above the beach where authorities believe Molly's predator dragged her and then drove her away. John Bish didn't cry. His wife said he can't cry.
Since Molly's disappearance, the Bishes have worked to prevent another child's abduction. The Molly Bish Foundation provides identification kits -- pictures and fingerprints -- for children. "Tell people to always have a recent picture of their child at hand," Magi said the day I met her. She gave police an old picture of Molly. A new picture wouldn't have changed anything. But this was something she could control.
I watch a young mother. She's in a crowded store squatting on a floor, eye to eye with her twin girls, calm and patient but firm, too, explaining to them what is and isn't appropriate behavior. "Do you understand?" she says. One nods. The other wails.
And the mother turns to the wailer and begins explaining again.
And I think of the Bishes and all they lost when they lost Molly, and of the parents of Kelsey Smith, abducted last month from a mall. And Ethan Patz and Sara Pryor, Polly Klaas and Samantha Runnion, names you don't have to reach for, names you wish you could forget. And how this is what their parents did, too. Every day. For thousands of days.
John Bish is on a respirator. The person who killed his daughter still has not been found.
Life is fragile and incomprehensible. We try to protect people. We try and try and try. But there's no protecting them from everything. The best we can do, the only thing we can do, is love them while we can.
What parents can't control
June 24, 2007
It's 8 in the morning and my husband and I are talking about laying stones around the periphery of the garden, big stones, more boulder than brick, in an effort to keep the dirt in and the rabbits out. It's a sensible plan, except for my worry about the little kids who cut through the garden and race down its slope.
"Maybe stones are a bad idea," I say to my husband. "What if the kids fall?"
"Maybe living near a street is a bad idea," he says, meaning you can't protect children from everything.
Right then, as if on cue, the phone rings. "Adam slammed into a wall and has a lump on the side of his head," says my daughter of my grandson. "He tripped and hit his head hard. But he seems OK. Do you think he's OK?"
Adam, who is 3, isn't crying or vomiting. He's running around, as usual. I tell my daughter to watch him but that he's probably fine.
She sighs. She and her husband carpeted their living room to protect Adam. But he got hurt anyway.
It happens.
The job of adults is to protect children. And most of us try. We hold their hands. We tell them what they must never do. We anticipate what could hurt them and control all that we can.
But the elephant in the room is all that we cannot control.
John Bish, 58, had a stroke last week. The Bishes had three children. They lived in West Warren, a small Massachusetts town 20 miles west of Sturbridge, because they believed it was safer than living in a big town or a city. They were living a quiet, happy life enmeshed in a world of family and friends and church and school and basketball games, with absolutely no warning of what was to come, when Molly, 16, vanished.
That was seven years ago. Her body was found three long years later.
The pond where she worked as a lifeguard was just five minutes from their home. It's at the end of a road. It's practically in a neighborhood. "We thought she was safe there," John said.
Molly's mother, Magi, drove her at 10 o'clock every morning. Molly had a night job, too, at a drive-in. That summer she was saving for a car.
John, a gentle man, drove me to the parking lot where Magi last saw their daughter. We walked along the small beach where Molly was a lifeguard, as was her brother before her, then to the cemetery above the beach where authorities believe Molly's predator dragged her and then drove her away. John Bish didn't cry. His wife said he can't cry.
Since Molly's disappearance, the Bishes have worked to prevent another child's abduction. The Molly Bish Foundation provides identification kits -- pictures and fingerprints -- for children. "Tell people to always have a recent picture of their child at hand," Magi said the day I met her. She gave police an old picture of Molly. A new picture wouldn't have changed anything. But this was something she could control.
I watch a young mother. She's in a crowded store squatting on a floor, eye to eye with her twin girls, calm and patient but firm, too, explaining to them what is and isn't appropriate behavior. "Do you understand?" she says. One nods. The other wails.
And the mother turns to the wailer and begins explaining again.
And I think of the Bishes and all they lost when they lost Molly, and of the parents of Kelsey Smith, abducted last month from a mall. And Ethan Patz and Sara Pryor, Polly Klaas and Samantha Runnion, names you don't have to reach for, names you wish you could forget. And how this is what their parents did, too. Every day. For thousands of days.
John Bish is on a respirator. The person who killed his daughter still has not been found.
Life is fragile and incomprehensible. We try to protect people. We try and try and try. But there's no protecting them from everything. The best we can do, the only thing we can do, is love them while we can.
#22
Kelly
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- Administrators
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- 7,564 posts
President and Founder
- LocationRenton WA
Posted 07 July 2007 - 09:06 AM
http://www.heraldtri.../NEWS/707070474
State urged YMCA to report missing toddler to police
(YMCA caseworkers mishandle missing child case)
By BOB MAHLBURG
In the months after a 2-year-old Florida foster girl was abducted, state officials sent an increasingly impatient string of e-mails to the Sarasota Family YMCA, asking what it had done to find her, records released Friday by the Florida Department of Children and Families show.
DCF officials, the YMCA and a YMCA subcontractor all made serious mistakes in attempting to protect the toddler, who was found 1,000 miles away after being gone for nine months, reviews concluded.
State e-mails to the YMCA show a growing urgency by state officials to push the agency to file a police report and find Courtney Clark.
The e-mails started in October with a list of missing children that included Courtney's name. They escalated to blunt messages demanding more be done by the nonprofit agency, which oversees foster care in five Florida counties, including Sarasota.
A Nov. 6 e-mail listed Courtney's name at the top of a list of children not seen by caseworkers. It asked why a missing child report had not been filed on her and called for a response in two days. By December, the state was making more serious pleas for action.
On Dec. 18, nearly three months after Courtney disappeared, DCF official Kathleen Matthews e-mailed YMCA compliance specialist Trish Adams demanding to know what was being done.
"This child is 2 years old. There is little evidence of a concerted effort ... toward locating and recovering this child," Matthews wrote. "Please provide documentation as to the current efforts to locate and recover the child by Tuesday ..."
Adams sent back a description of steps taken in October and November to contact courts and police in Colorado, a chronology state officials already had reviewed. She added she would be out of the office the next week.
Matthews replied that the response was inadequate and pressed for more action. "It is imperative that a missing person report is taken in order to have the child listed in the national database," she wrote. She sent a similar e-mail again on Dec. 28.
Sarasota Family YMCA President and CEO Carl Weinrich said he was not familiar with the e-mails but said they are indicative of what went wrong at every level in Courtney's case. The state, the YMCA and its subcontractor all are to blame, Weinrich said.
"They got caught up in their own bureaucratic thing," Weinrich said. "Trish could have hollered at someone. Matthews could have hollered to someone in Tallahassee and said these guys aren't getting this thing done. Why wouldn't they come up the line in our management team? That's the frustration with this whole thing. The lack of teamwork and good critical thinking skills."
YMCA caseworkers did contact law enforcement in Colorado, where they believed the girl to be. But Weinrich conceded they did not file a missing child report in Florida until January.
"Obviously in hindsight there's a lot of things all of us could have done to get the child entered quicker," said DCF regional director Nick Cox. "In the future, that's going to happen, and steps have already been taken to make sure that happens."
On Feb. 9, after a DCF investigator called Courtney's family and police officials to try to help find the missing girl, YMCA official Christy Kane questioned why the state launched its own investigation.
"I have some real issues with this e-mail," Kane wrote. "Sounds like she is doing some diligent searches on our clients ... We can certainly send them all to her if she wants to take that over."
YMCA Vice President Lee Johnson said he was not familiar with Kane's e-mail and declined to say if that was an appropriate response.
"I don't know. I wasn't there. I think it's maybe frustration," he said. "Sometimes when you're frustrated, you don't get it right."
The nearly 900 pages of records released Friday provide greater detail of what went wrong with finding Courtney. They also paint a portrait of a young mother and her boyfriend bouncing from motel to motel, feeding junk food to Courtney.
Records show that police found squalid conditions when they caught up with Courtney's mother, Candice Farris, and her boyfriend, Michael Sisk, at an Econo Lodge last month. The stench from the room was immediately noticeable. A disposable diaper hung on the clothes rack as if it had been washed and dried for reuse, reports say.
Farris told a caseworker that she did not have money to feed or take care of herself. Yet Farris had a new laptop computer and printer delivered to the hotel, records show.
A state report blames DCF and the Sarasota YMCA for a series of errors. Among mistakes detailed in the newly released records:
Child welfare caseworkers did not make a missing child report for four months, from October to January. Even after they reported her disappearance, Courtney's name was not put in a computer to alert police around the nation. State rules require reporting any missing child to local police within four hours.
Caseworkers temporarily reunited Courtney with her mother, Candice Farris, in March 2006 even though she did not meet legal requirements, such as providing a stable income, a stable home and avoiding additional arrests.
Though Farris' daughter, Courtney, had been taken from her and put in state custody, caseworkers decided to leave a new baby in Farris' care in March 2006. State rules require caseworkers to immediately report a pending birth or a new baby, and review its safety. The state report notes there is no sign that Sarasota YMCA followed its own rules.
The Sarasota YMCA did not make sure Courtney lived in safe homes. They allowed Courtney to be placed in four foster homes in less than two months, including a Lake County couple approved by Seminole County sheriff's officials, despite "some indicators" that sexual abuse had occurred in that home.
The Sarasota YMCA failed to ask other counties to check on Courtney when she was moved from Pinellas County to Seminole and Lake counties. She had been checked just once at the Lake County home where she was abducted by Farris.
State urged YMCA to report missing toddler to police
(YMCA caseworkers mishandle missing child case)
By BOB MAHLBURG
In the months after a 2-year-old Florida foster girl was abducted, state officials sent an increasingly impatient string of e-mails to the Sarasota Family YMCA, asking what it had done to find her, records released Friday by the Florida Department of Children and Families show.
DCF officials, the YMCA and a YMCA subcontractor all made serious mistakes in attempting to protect the toddler, who was found 1,000 miles away after being gone for nine months, reviews concluded.
State e-mails to the YMCA show a growing urgency by state officials to push the agency to file a police report and find Courtney Clark.
The e-mails started in October with a list of missing children that included Courtney's name. They escalated to blunt messages demanding more be done by the nonprofit agency, which oversees foster care in five Florida counties, including Sarasota.
A Nov. 6 e-mail listed Courtney's name at the top of a list of children not seen by caseworkers. It asked why a missing child report had not been filed on her and called for a response in two days. By December, the state was making more serious pleas for action.
On Dec. 18, nearly three months after Courtney disappeared, DCF official Kathleen Matthews e-mailed YMCA compliance specialist Trish Adams demanding to know what was being done.
"This child is 2 years old. There is little evidence of a concerted effort ... toward locating and recovering this child," Matthews wrote. "Please provide documentation as to the current efforts to locate and recover the child by Tuesday ..."
Adams sent back a description of steps taken in October and November to contact courts and police in Colorado, a chronology state officials already had reviewed. She added she would be out of the office the next week.
Matthews replied that the response was inadequate and pressed for more action. "It is imperative that a missing person report is taken in order to have the child listed in the national database," she wrote. She sent a similar e-mail again on Dec. 28.
Sarasota Family YMCA President and CEO Carl Weinrich said he was not familiar with the e-mails but said they are indicative of what went wrong at every level in Courtney's case. The state, the YMCA and its subcontractor all are to blame, Weinrich said.
"They got caught up in their own bureaucratic thing," Weinrich said. "Trish could have hollered at someone. Matthews could have hollered to someone in Tallahassee and said these guys aren't getting this thing done. Why wouldn't they come up the line in our management team? That's the frustration with this whole thing. The lack of teamwork and good critical thinking skills."
YMCA caseworkers did contact law enforcement in Colorado, where they believed the girl to be. But Weinrich conceded they did not file a missing child report in Florida until January.
"Obviously in hindsight there's a lot of things all of us could have done to get the child entered quicker," said DCF regional director Nick Cox. "In the future, that's going to happen, and steps have already been taken to make sure that happens."
On Feb. 9, after a DCF investigator called Courtney's family and police officials to try to help find the missing girl, YMCA official Christy Kane questioned why the state launched its own investigation.
"I have some real issues with this e-mail," Kane wrote. "Sounds like she is doing some diligent searches on our clients ... We can certainly send them all to her if she wants to take that over."
YMCA Vice President Lee Johnson said he was not familiar with Kane's e-mail and declined to say if that was an appropriate response.
"I don't know. I wasn't there. I think it's maybe frustration," he said. "Sometimes when you're frustrated, you don't get it right."
The nearly 900 pages of records released Friday provide greater detail of what went wrong with finding Courtney. They also paint a portrait of a young mother and her boyfriend bouncing from motel to motel, feeding junk food to Courtney.
Records show that police found squalid conditions when they caught up with Courtney's mother, Candice Farris, and her boyfriend, Michael Sisk, at an Econo Lodge last month. The stench from the room was immediately noticeable. A disposable diaper hung on the clothes rack as if it had been washed and dried for reuse, reports say.
Farris told a caseworker that she did not have money to feed or take care of herself. Yet Farris had a new laptop computer and printer delivered to the hotel, records show.
A state report blames DCF and the Sarasota YMCA for a series of errors. Among mistakes detailed in the newly released records:
Child welfare caseworkers did not make a missing child report for four months, from October to January. Even after they reported her disappearance, Courtney's name was not put in a computer to alert police around the nation. State rules require reporting any missing child to local police within four hours.
Caseworkers temporarily reunited Courtney with her mother, Candice Farris, in March 2006 even though she did not meet legal requirements, such as providing a stable income, a stable home and avoiding additional arrests.
Though Farris' daughter, Courtney, had been taken from her and put in state custody, caseworkers decided to leave a new baby in Farris' care in March 2006. State rules require caseworkers to immediately report a pending birth or a new baby, and review its safety. The state report notes there is no sign that Sarasota YMCA followed its own rules.
The Sarasota YMCA did not make sure Courtney lived in safe homes. They allowed Courtney to be placed in four foster homes in less than two months, including a Lake County couple approved by Seminole County sheriff's officials, despite "some indicators" that sexual abuse had occurred in that home.
The Sarasota YMCA failed to ask other counties to check on Courtney when she was moved from Pinellas County to Seminole and Lake counties. She had been checked just once at the Lake County home where she was abducted by Farris.
Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#23
Kelly
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- Administrators
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- 7,564 posts
President and Founder
- LocationRenton WA
Posted 14 July 2007 - 09:16 AM
http://www.carthagep.../news/04cpd.txt
CPD treats reports of missing kids seriously
By Dennis W. Sowers / Of The Press Staff
Published: Friday, July 13, 2007 2:52 PM CDT
The Carthage Police Department formally addresses between 350-400 missing children cases per year. These cases could involve an investigation, going to court or issuing a warning letter.
In other instances, a missing child is found quickly at the home of a friend or relative or just returns home, maybe a little later than expected.
Either way, the CPD responds as if it were a serious situation.
"We do an immediate search, especially if they’re young children," said Detective LaVerne Williams. "They could be playing with a friend, or wandered off of someone could have picked them up.
"We consider a missing or runaway child an urgent case. With all that’s going on today around the country, you can’t let your guard down.
"Sometimes, we as parents let our guard down thinking Carthage is a safe town. We let them go out alone. It doesn’t take but a few seconds and the child is gone."
If a child is missing, parents need to know who the child’s friends are, what the child is wearing, have a good physical description of the child, know when the last time the child was seen and say whether the child could have been picked up by someone.
My Note: Have a Personal ID Kit ready for EVERY member of the family in case someone were to become missing. The kit is free to download and contains all the pertinent info LE would need to know to help find them faster.
http://projectjason.org/education.shtml#idkit
Williams said the majority who wander away is when a parent or caretaker has turned his/her back. The CPD encourages parents to not let children play alone.
"It doesn’t take but a few seconds and the child is gone," he said.
Fortunately, as of Thursday afternoon, no missing children were reported in Carthage.
All child recoveries when the child is returned home safe are positive events. Sometimes, though, the circumstances when the child is missing raise questions of concern.
"The calls that irritate me are when the child is along a major highway and the parent doesn’t seem too concerned," Williams said. "That’s when we get the children’s division involved."
The repeat offenders, so to speak, also raise concern.
"There’s been time we’ve had two to three times one particular family and they’ve been warned before," Williams said. "If the parent isn’t involved, there are possible charges against the parents."
It’s in everyone’s best interest that the child is safe and protected. Parents ultimately want that for their children and it is makes for a better situation all around.
Williams and the school resource officers that serve the high school, junior high and elementary schools try to educate students and teachers and it’s working.
"We ask kids questions," Williams said. "What would happen if this happened? Should we open the door to strangers? They all know the answers. It’s all because we’ve done projects over the years on safety."
In every missing child case, time is the key. Williams said parents shouldn’t wait two to three hours before reporting a child gone.
"Give a reasonable amount of time, but not an extended period," he said. "I’ve had so many parents wait a day."
CPD treats reports of missing kids seriously
By Dennis W. Sowers / Of The Press Staff
Published: Friday, July 13, 2007 2:52 PM CDT
The Carthage Police Department formally addresses between 350-400 missing children cases per year. These cases could involve an investigation, going to court or issuing a warning letter.
In other instances, a missing child is found quickly at the home of a friend or relative or just returns home, maybe a little later than expected.
Either way, the CPD responds as if it were a serious situation.
"We do an immediate search, especially if they’re young children," said Detective LaVerne Williams. "They could be playing with a friend, or wandered off of someone could have picked them up.
"We consider a missing or runaway child an urgent case. With all that’s going on today around the country, you can’t let your guard down.
"Sometimes, we as parents let our guard down thinking Carthage is a safe town. We let them go out alone. It doesn’t take but a few seconds and the child is gone."
If a child is missing, parents need to know who the child’s friends are, what the child is wearing, have a good physical description of the child, know when the last time the child was seen and say whether the child could have been picked up by someone.
My Note: Have a Personal ID Kit ready for EVERY member of the family in case someone were to become missing. The kit is free to download and contains all the pertinent info LE would need to know to help find them faster.
http://projectjason.org/education.shtml#idkit
Williams said the majority who wander away is when a parent or caretaker has turned his/her back. The CPD encourages parents to not let children play alone.
"It doesn’t take but a few seconds and the child is gone," he said.
Fortunately, as of Thursday afternoon, no missing children were reported in Carthage.
All child recoveries when the child is returned home safe are positive events. Sometimes, though, the circumstances when the child is missing raise questions of concern.
"The calls that irritate me are when the child is along a major highway and the parent doesn’t seem too concerned," Williams said. "That’s when we get the children’s division involved."
The repeat offenders, so to speak, also raise concern.
"There’s been time we’ve had two to three times one particular family and they’ve been warned before," Williams said. "If the parent isn’t involved, there are possible charges against the parents."
It’s in everyone’s best interest that the child is safe and protected. Parents ultimately want that for their children and it is makes for a better situation all around.
Williams and the school resource officers that serve the high school, junior high and elementary schools try to educate students and teachers and it’s working.
"We ask kids questions," Williams said. "What would happen if this happened? Should we open the door to strangers? They all know the answers. It’s all because we’ve done projects over the years on safety."
In every missing child case, time is the key. Williams said parents shouldn’t wait two to three hours before reporting a child gone.
"Give a reasonable amount of time, but not an extended period," he said. "I’ve had so many parents wait a day."
Kelly Murphy, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org
Please help us in our mission as a 501 c 3 nonprofit: http://projectjason....y-campaign.html
If you have seen any of our missing persons, please call the law enforcement agency listed on the post. All missing persons are loved by someone, and their families deserve to find the answers they seek in regards to the disappearance.
#24
Denise
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- Members
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- 5,184 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationMetropolitan St. Louis
Posted 19 July 2007 - 03:53 PM
http://sportsillustr...oundation.0420/
Foundation launches new effort to find missing kids with enhanced photos on race cars
Posted: Thursday Jul 19, 2007 7:12 PM
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A foundation named for a child who was found four years after he vanished while riding his bike announced Thursday a partnership with stock car drivers to feature age-progressed photos of missing children on their cars.
The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation and drivers hope having the photos in such a visible spot could lead to new breaks in unsolved cases.
Stock car driver Christina Lemons, 35, and her teenage son, Dylan, who also drives stock cars, had images of two missing children from eastern Missouri placed on their hoods. Three additional cars will have photos added next year.
Missing children "could be living two doors down from somebody in a different county,'' she said.
The foundation focuses on preventing child abduction and searching for missing children. It formed after Shawn Hornbeck, then 11, disappeared in October 2002 while riding his bicycle near his home in Richwoods, a rural community southwest of St. Louis.
In January, Shawn and 13-year-old Ben Ownby were found by police in the suburban St. Louis apartment of Michael Devlin, four days after Ben went missing from near his rural Franklin County home. Devlin faces dozens of charges, including kidnapping both boys, and remains jailed on $1 million bond.
Shawn, who turned 16 Tuesday, made a rare public appearance at a charity golf tournament Thursday where the initiative was announced. While his family celebrated his birthday privately earlier this week, he was also given a cake and presents at the event.
Shawn has not spoken to the media since shortly after his return to his family.
----
On the Net:
Shawn Hornbeck Foundation: www.shfoundation.org
Foundation launches new effort to find missing kids with enhanced photos on race cars
Posted: Thursday Jul 19, 2007 7:12 PM
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A foundation named for a child who was found four years after he vanished while riding his bike announced Thursday a partnership with stock car drivers to feature age-progressed photos of missing children on their cars.
The Shawn Hornbeck Foundation and drivers hope having the photos in such a visible spot could lead to new breaks in unsolved cases.
Stock car driver Christina Lemons, 35, and her teenage son, Dylan, who also drives stock cars, had images of two missing children from eastern Missouri placed on their hoods. Three additional cars will have photos added next year.
Missing children "could be living two doors down from somebody in a different county,'' she said.
The foundation focuses on preventing child abduction and searching for missing children. It formed after Shawn Hornbeck, then 11, disappeared in October 2002 while riding his bicycle near his home in Richwoods, a rural community southwest of St. Louis.
In January, Shawn and 13-year-old Ben Ownby were found by police in the suburban St. Louis apartment of Michael Devlin, four days after Ben went missing from near his rural Franklin County home. Devlin faces dozens of charges, including kidnapping both boys, and remains jailed on $1 million bond.
Shawn, who turned 16 Tuesday, made a rare public appearance at a charity golf tournament Thursday where the initiative was announced. While his family celebrated his birthday privately earlier this week, he was also given a cake and presents at the event.
Shawn has not spoken to the media since shortly after his return to his family.
----
On the Net:
Shawn Hornbeck Foundation: www.shfoundation.org
#25
Denise
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- Members
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- 5,184 posts
Advanced Member
- LocationMetropolitan St. Louis
Posted 21 July 2007 - 09:15 AM
http://www.kfvs12.co...818353&nav=8H3x
Golf Tournament Highlights Missing Children
By: CJ Cassidy
MADISON, Ill. - What better way to bring attention to missing kids, than through a child who once disappeared himself?
Everyone's focus was on Shawn Hornbeck Thursday, the boy many people call the Miracle of Missouri.
Shawn's parents hope to raise $20,000 to continue their efforts for missing kids.
Talk about pressure, as helicopters hovered overhead, and cameras rolled, a crowd gathered to watch Shawn Hornbeck tee off and begin the first annual "Bring Them Home" golf tournament.
It was also Shawn's first public appearance with the Hornbeck Foundation, the search and rescue team his parents created to help find him four and a half years ago.
When asked how big a role Shawn would play in the foundation, his mother, Pam Akers said, "As big a role as he wants to play. At this point, he wants to take baby steps."
She is more than happy to be at her son's side every step of the way. In fact she's afraid to let go.
Pam herself wasn't able to stay by Shawn at the tournament; instead it was the Madison County, Illinois Sheriff who stood next to him.
After spending four years looking for their kidnapped son, the Akers' precautions are not surprising.
"He's like everything's going to be ok. I'll be fine, Mom. But in my heart and soul, I cannot let him out on his own," Pam said.
With a stock car racing team named in his honor, featuring missing kids on their cars, Shawn's dad has no doubt his son will eventually get used to all the attention.
"He's come to realize when he's travelling with mom and dad media's not going to be far behind. He's ok with that. He's not at the point where he wants to talk to the media," Craig said.
"With Shawn being gone all those years, all kinds of people saw him while he was gone, who's to say one of the girls or guys could be seen could be living a couple of doors down," said Christina Lemons, one of the drivers of the stock cars for Team Hornbeck.
In the meantime, Shawn's parents take pride in the little things they missed out on. He was back home for his recent 16th birthday.
"It was priceless. Nothing could have went wrong that day," Pam said.
That's the kind of happiness the Akers and Shawn hope the fundraiser brings other families with missing kids.
Team Hornbeck is set to start racing next year.
Celebrities at the tournament included Nascar drivers and players from the St. Louis Blues and Rams. Next year, the Akers say they hope to bring in more celebs to support the event.
Golf Tournament Highlights Missing Children
By: CJ Cassidy
MADISON, Ill. - What better way to bring attention to missing kids, than through a child who once disappeared himself?
Everyone's focus was on Shawn Hornbeck Thursday, the boy many people call the Miracle of Missouri.
Shawn's parents hope to raise $20,000 to continue their efforts for missing kids.
Talk about pressure, as helicopters hovered overhead, and cameras rolled, a crowd gathered to watch Shawn Hornbeck tee off and begin the first annual "Bring Them Home" golf tournament.
It was also Shawn's first public appearance with the Hornbeck Foundation, the search and rescue team his parents created to help find him four and a half years ago.
When asked how big a role Shawn would play in the foundation, his mother, Pam Akers said, "As big a role as he wants to play. At this point, he wants to take baby steps."
She is more than happy to be at her son's side every step of the way. In fact she's afraid to let go.
Pam herself wasn't able to stay by Shawn at the tournament; instead it was the Madison County, Illinois Sheriff who stood next to him.
After spending four years looking for their kidnapped son, the Akers' precautions are not surprising.
"He's like everything's going to be ok. I'll be fine, Mom. But in my heart and soul, I cannot let him out on his own," Pam said.
With a stock car racing team named in his honor, featuring missing kids on their cars, Shawn's dad has no doubt his son will eventually get used to all the attention.
"He's come to realize when he's travelling with mom and dad media's not going to be far behind. He's ok with that. He's not at the point where he wants to talk to the media," Craig said.
"With Shawn being gone all those years, all kinds of people saw him while he was gone, who's to say one of the girls or guys could be seen could be living a couple of doors down," said Christina Lemons, one of the drivers of the stock cars for Team Hornbeck.
In the meantime, Shawn's parents take pride in the little things they missed out on. He was back home for his recent 16th birthday.
"It was priceless. Nothing could have went wrong that day," Pam said.
That's the kind of happiness the Akers and Shawn hope the fundraiser brings other families with missing kids.
Team Hornbeck is set to start racing next year.
Celebrities at the tournament included Nascar drivers and players from the St. Louis Blues and Rams. Next year, the Akers say they hope to bring in more celebs to support the event.
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