Category Archives: KlaasKids Foundation

Every Child is a Reason to Give

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On September 7, 2012 a KlaasKids Foundation Search and Rescue (SAR) team located the remains of seventeen-year-old Linnea Lomax  in Sacramento, CA. Our non-profit conducted several searches before we were able to bring Linnea’s case to a close and provide relief for her family. Linnea’s father Craig Lomax said on air during the nationally televised program Dr. Drew On Call, “Marc [Klaas], thank you for saving us potentially years of mystery and not knowing. Marc runs a first class act and KlaasKids doesn`t charge anything. It`s terrible news [learning that your daughter is dead], but it`s better than not knowing for the rest of our lives, which is what we might have been up against.”

 

KlaasKids has been offering SAR services since 1994. In 2003, KlaasKids formalized our search and rescue operation with the goal of providing families with a professional, well trained and focused SAR team who will help them to navigate the murky waters of despair and hopelessness at no cost to the family.

 

We cannot continue our important work without your help. Your generous tax deductible donation to the KlaasKids Foundation allows us to provide desperate families with essential services and resources, hope and support. While KlaasKids does not charge for SAR services, it does require financial support to coordinate our efforts.

 

I was filled with great pride when Craig Lomax said that we gave his family a gift that money could never buy: the peace of mind of knowing that their daughter is now protected from further pain and harm and has been returned to the loving arms of her family. I know this to be true from my own personal experience, but for once I was left speechless. His crystal clear sentiment validated our work, our purpose and our mission.

 

Please join us by including the KlaasKids Foundation in your charitable giving for 2012. In 2012 KlaasKids SAR provided services and assistance in 83 cases of missing and/or trafficked persons. In 23 cases KlaasKids SAR provided search and rescue services. 17 of those cases have been resolved; while 6 cases remain open.

 

In my heart it’s always been about Polly, but in truth it is about every child.

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Sierra LaMar: Anatomy of a Search Day 98

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Genaro Garcia Fernandez & Antolin Garcia Torres

As the seasons change the fresh hope of spring yields to the dog days of summer, yet missing 15-year-old Sierra continues to elude our grasp. Unpicked summer fruit falls from trees, bushes and vines’, spoiling in the unyielding heat of late July, but it is the putrid stench of rotten fruit that commands our attention. A pair of child rapists, a father and his son, resides in the Santa Clara County Jail, protected from other prisoners who jeer, threaten and, given a chance, would possibly slit their throats.

 

The father, Genaro Garcia-Fernandez, crimes spanned a decade, as he lurked within the walls of his home sweet home and serially raped his pre-teen daughter with regularity and certainty. His boy, Antolin Garcia-Torres, preferred a blitzkrieg strike against unsuspecting females. He’d rather prowl for victims in a supermarket parking lot at night or the blustery storm shrouded early morning roads in his hometown of Morgan Hill, CA.

 

He was a good student though. His father’s crimes taught him that it is best to strike in isolation and to leave no witnesses behind. In a rational world, one would hope that the son would atone for generational perversion by coming clean with his God and the authorities. Unfortunately, the psychopath is not rational: his only God is instant self-gratification; and the authorities will only learn the details that advance his needs. Now, it is only a matter of time before the sins of the father establish the foundation for the defense of the son.

Danielle, Marlene, Krystine & Violet

Enough about the dark side: the Sierra search has demonstrated that hope reigns eternal, and that the powers of good can triumph over the power of evil. On Saturday, more than 70-volunteers showed up to search for Sierra. The morning prayer circle gave thanks for the cloudy skies and temperature that hovered in the low sixties. As usual, the search teams left hopeful that this would be the day that the case was resolved. In the meantime, we prepared for the child ID Program, requested by Sierra’s mother Marlene, which was scheduled from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Making Kids Safe

The KlaasKids Print-A-Thon has traveled the country since the mid 90’s. We have fingerprinted and photographed more than 1,000,000 children without charging a family for the service or data basing personal and private information. We provide a suite of child safety tools in hopes of providing families with information they can share to avoid a victimization in the first place. However, if there is an emergency we provide a 9-point plan on what to do in case of an emergency.

 

The weather did not fully cooperate. When the teams returned later in the afternoon, the skies were blue, the sun was beating down and we had fingerprinted and photographed more than 130 children. It is our hope that we have provided young families with a viable path to child safety. Unfortunately, Sierra’s whereabouts remain unknown.

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Sierra LaMar: Anatomy of a Search Day 3

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Today was about routine. People were getting to know each other. They were finding their comfort zone, where they fit in; whether that meant going on a ground search, serving food, or assuming one of the other myriad jobs that require focused attention. As yesterday’s chaos subsided, the Find Sierra Search Center bloomed like a summer rose.

 

Everybody acknowledges that time is the enemy when children are stolen. This can be demonstrated in many ways. Statistically, seventy-four percent of children who are murdered as a result of being abducted are dead within the first three hours. At KlaasKids our tagline is, “A mile a minute…that is how fast your child can disappear.” According to personal research about eighty percent of children who are kidnapped live within 3 to 4 miles of a major Interstate Highway. Each of these examples screams that there is no time to lose. Therefore, if one is going to organize a community based search effort efficiency is the key. Time, energy, and resources cannot be wasted.

 

Think of it as building a corporation from scratch on the turn of personal catastrophe. Your child has just been kidnapped, you are out of your mind with worry, your anxiety level is ramped up to the max, and you have to build a successful business venture without a clue. You have to be an administrative, organizational, media, hygiene, and search and rescue expert. You have to find a location that will provide ample parking, several rooms for numerous tasks, the ability to feed numerous people, plumbing, electricity, and toilets. You need the wherewithal to assign viable search locations for groups of strangers who need to be trained before they can be sent into the field, then you have to convey all of that information to television, print, radio and Internet media. You haven’t eaten in days, sleep comes fitfully, you cannot focus, and you are denying nightmare scenarios every time that you allow your mind to rest. It is impossible to do on your own. I know, because I’ve been there.

 

That is where family, friends, community and the KlaasKids Foundation come in. Hillary Clinton is correct: it does take a village to raise a child. Family will keep you close and watch your back. Friends and neighbors will give you food and comfort. The community should rally behind you with a collective desire to assist. Unfortunately, they do not know how to do that because what has just occurred is beyond anybody’s experience. The possibilities are so damned frightening that nobody even wants to acknowledge, let alone think about them. So, the army is mobilized, waiting, anxious to help, but without direction or leadership.

 

The KlaasKids Foundation and our good friends at the Laura Recovery have played out this scenario numerous times throughout the years. Once we have been invited to assist by either the family or the jurisdictional law enforcement agency we get to work. We know facility, administrative and resource requirements. We have local and national media lists. We beg, borrow or buy support items including office supplies, food, lodging, and staging areas. Our search and rescue director has more than two decades of experience. If we are fortunate local NPO’s like Child Quest International will provide valuable resources. Once we build the infrastructure we try to build trust with the family, community and jurisdictional law enforcement agency. We don’t try to get around the system: we work with the system.
 If, by working together, we can create mutual trust then the sky is the limit. The authorities will share viable search areas. The community will respond in large numbers in numerous ways. The family will know that they are not alone and be able to face their nightmare with the knowledge that every possible thing is being done to recover their missing child. It has happened before, it is happening now, and unfortunately, it will happen in the future. Again and again and again…
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Sierra Lamar: Anatomy of a Search Day 1

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Unable to get away until 10:00 a.m. I fielded 17-phone calls, all related to the disappearance of Sierra LaMar, by the time I arrived at the search center at noon. Located about two miles from Sierra’s Morgan Hill, CA home, Burnett Elementary School was generously provided to the search effort for at least the next several weeks by the local school board.  With access to an auditorium, administrative offices and classrooms that can be used for mapping, food & water storage, debriefing and quiet time, this is as ideal a search center as I have ever seen.
KlaasKids Search and Rescue (SAR) Director Brad Dennis, and Dawn Davis from the Friendswood, TX based Laura Recovery Center were already dispatching volunteers in an effort to have the search center fully operational by 8:00a.m. Tuesday morning (3/17/12) when the first community searches will begin. I attempted to get the attendant volunteer leaders attention for a few moments, but quickly acknowledged the futility of herding cats. The apparent chaos of the moment was but an illusion. Brad and Dawn have been organizing volunteer searches together for more than a decade and don’t waste a move.

Before arriving I stopped at Carl’s Jr. and picked up lunch for the three of us as well as Michelle Le’s brother Michael and LaMar family friend Brian Miller.  For some reason this case has captured the attention of local and national media, so I wasn’t surprised to find a half dozen television microwave trucks dotting the parking lot when I arrived. On the other hand I was surprised that the reporters documented every moment of my lunch delivery. With tax the $6 combo meals came out to $6.66 each and I got some pretty bad indigestion about an hour after eating the burger. Sure hope that Isn’t an omen.

After lunch and the volunteer meet and greet Brad, Michael and I went to scout some search locations. We arrived back at the search center close to 3:00 p.m. with preliminary assignments for at least half a dozen 8-member search teams. Morgan Hill is nestled at the base of the Diablo mountain range. The average elevation of the Diablo range is about 3,000 feet. A summit at over 2,300 feet is considered high, mainly because the range is mostly rolling grassland and plateaus, punctuated by sudden peaks. Canyons usually are 300–400 feet deep and valleys are deeper but gentler. It is not the most inviting topography we have had the challenge of searching, but neither is it the most hostile. Wait! Diablo means devil. Sure hope that isn’t an omen.
At 5:00 p.m., as Sierra’s parents Steve and Marlene met with our search management team, a bunch of Little Leaguers streamed by to play a game on the school’s baseball diamond. Sierra is still missing, but I believe that we are geting o know each other and trust each other. This is always a tryng time because we are all staring into an uncertain future seeing different shades of light at the end of the tunnel.

That damned burger is still having its way with my digestive system. I think that I’ll go watch the kids play baseball for a while. It’s been a long day and I want to do something normal.