Six-year-old Isabel Celis was last seen at approximately 11:00 p.m., on Friday, April 20, 2012. She was discovered missing around 8:00 a.m., on Saturday, April 21. Isabel’s parents called 911 as soon as they determined that she was not in the family home. The case has since captured the attention of the nation; however Isabel’s family has made only one public appearance to speak out on behalf of their missing daughter.
I’m a firm believer that families are the best advocates for their missing children. If there is a perception that Isabel’s family is not doing everything that they can to help their young daughter it creates concern within the community. They have to wonder, “If the family is not doing everything that they can, then why should I do everything that I can to recover this child?”
At one point after my daughter was kidnapped a news reporter told me that she could get Polly more attention with fifteen seconds on the evening news than I could generate nailing flyers onto telephone poles for a hundred years. I took that to heart and have rarely turned down an interview since. My advice to Isabel’s parents is to get out there and start fighting for your child.
Get over your fears, realize that you always told her that you would be there when she needed you, and that she’s never needed you more than she needs you right now. Therefore, get out there and give the interviews: create a portrait of Isabel. Tell us what kind of a girl she is. Let us know what she likes and what she doesn’t like. Start sharing more photographs and share video of her. Build her up in the public’s mind so that they become invested in who this little girl is and demand that law enforcement do whatever they need to do to bring her home. Involve yourself in the community of hope that has sprung up around you, is supporting you and is fighting for Isabel’s return. Hug some folks and thank some folks. She deserves nothing less.
One of the most difficult kinds of crimes to solve is the stereotypical stranger abduction, because that scenario is about some goon crawling out from under a rock, stealing your child and then disappearing back under that rock. It’s a big world and these are very small children. Law enforcement is obviously going to investigate that scenario, but the numbers always bring you back to the family. The vast majority of kidnappings in America are non-custodial parental kidnappings. The most vulnerable population of children to that scenario are pre-teen girls. Everything about this case will continue to turn right back onto the family until they eliminate themselves as suspects. The best way to do that is to submit to any questioning, to submit to any polygraphs and to get out there on the airwaves and advocate on behalf of Isabel.
Look at what happens when you don’t do that. Take the case of baby Lisa Irwin, who disappeared from her bed in Kansas City, MO on October 3, 2011. Lisa’s parents did not advocate on her behalf, they did not cooperate with the police. That case has effectively gone cold. It went cold because people thought, “Gee, if the parents aren’t going to be out there fighting for her, why should I be out there fighting for her?
Baby Lisa’s case is going cold. By not cooperating with the authorities and stonewalling the media baby Lisa’s parents have made themselves look guilty. It has allowed law enforcement to pull back their investigation. Instead of hundreds of multijurisdictional officers and agents focused on baby Lisa, now there are several.
We kept our case alive for two months because we never stopped speaking up for and representing Polly. We have a case here in Northern California for a missing teenager named Sierra LaMar that has been active for six weeks now, and there is still an enormous amount of interest in her case. However, in Isabel’s case law enforcement admitted on April 27, that the investigation has already been reduced from 200 to about 50 officers. On April 29, Tucson Police Lt. Fabian Pacheco acknowledged that the case could turn “cold.”
I think that we are looking at very limited options here. If something doesn’t pop soon. If the parents don’t change the way they are handling Isabel’s disappearance, then the case may very well go cold. The unfortunate thing about that is that people are concerned that there may be a monster loose on the streets of Tucson: first because of Isabel’s case; and then because of the more recent case of a man breaking into the home of three young sisters in the wee hours of the morning only miles away from Isabel’s home. If this goes cold and we don’t know who that monster is, then we have a situation where the people of Tucson, AZ are living in a community where the safety of children isn’t even secure in the sanctity of their own homes, and law enforcement does not have the will to resolve this public safety crisis. That creates an atmosphere of fear and the last thing we need in America is more home grown fear.