Category Archives: Laura Recovery Center

Sierra LaMar: Anatomy of a Search Day 3

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…

Sierra Lamar: Anatomy of a Search Day 1

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.